BOOK TIP | Innovation for sustainable attractive cities

As we speak, municipalities across the country are working on innovation to create sustainable and attractive cities. But do bureaucracy and innovation really go together? In the research anthology Innovation Platforms for Sustainable Attractive Cities , eight researchers describe the challenges and opportunities in the work, and present the conditions for managing, leading and organizing for innovation.

Each chapter is based on a specific innovation platform and city, but the conclusions are general. Based on the City of Stockholm’s innovation work, Erica Eneqvist’s chapter tells us all about the challenges that municipalities face in collaboration with other actors when governance is of a more informal nature (see ESBRI article on Eneqvist’s research). Often the process is abstract and without clear direction. But there is a lot that municipalities can do to steer the work.

In another chapter, Magnus Johansson examines how a municipality initiates and organizes processes to increase the organization’s ability to work innovatively. Usually, experiences and ideas are taken from other municipalities and cities to change established perceptions. With the aim of making the new things routine.

Chelsey Jo Huisman and Anna Bengtson, who acted as co-researchers in Kiruna, describe how innovation logic can coexist with bureaucratic logic (see ESBRI article on Huisman’s research). They argue that individuals working in municipalities should be prepared for the fact that this approach makes them more creative. And that they will think, act and relate to innovation in a completely different way than before.

The book is aimed at anyone working on innovation projects and other transition initiatives.

Read also:
Innovation in municipalities – how it works
Researcher critical of innovation fluff in municipalities – “Put yourself in the driver’s seat”