Researcher critical of innovation fluff in municipalities – “Put yourself in the driver’s seat”

Municipalities are keen to innovate to keep up with and influence societal developments. But often the process is abstract and without clear direction. Erica Eneqvist’s thesis provides concrete suggestions on how the work can be organized.

A local technology company has received external funding to test a sustainable technological solution in the field of mobility. For the development project to be implemented, the company needs to involve a societal actor that may need the solution. The company calls the municipality, which is keen to be at the forefront of sustainability and innovation, and therefore agrees to participate in the project.

This is what it can look like when municipalities work on innovation. Researcher Erica Eneqvist, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and the Rise research institute, has been an accompanying researcher in the City of Stockholm for the past six years. She has studied the role of municipalities in the local innovation system. The results are presented in a doctoral thesis.

– I have had very good access to the city and the municipal organization, says Erica Eneqvist.

She says that discussions about innovation in local government often become abstract. Therefore, it is important to define what innovation means for the specific organization, but also to talk about the objectives and to find a clear governance of the innovation work.

– Developing new ways of serving citizens and working innovatively on sustainability challenges in the municipality are two different things with completely different goals. Yet this is woven together in terms of innovation work. It becomes fluffy and unclear.

Critical of subservient role

Erica Eneqvist is critical of the role that municipalities often play in collaborative projects.

– Just being happy that a company wants to work with you is not enough. Local authorities need to be in the driver’s seat – thinking about what they want and their own ambition with experimental projects.

Something that surprised her during her years as an accompanying researcher in the City of Stockholm is the great responsibility for democratic issues that individuals in the municipality take. Many civil servants have a holistic approach, she says, they think a lot about how a project can be connected to the existing city and democratic issues. But other things apply at the organizational level.

– There is no forum to talk about these issues. They are most grateful to be able to participate in various collaborative projects organized by a business actor. I think municipalities should be more confident in working together. They have lots of assets that the business community is interested in,” says Erica Eneqvist.

Power and politics affect innovation efforts

Innovation work in municipalities often takes the form of projects. The problem is that there is then a strong focus on the project and the lessons learned. Particularly in larger municipalities, knowledge is not disseminated.

– Large urban development projects with high sustainability ambitions are an example of this. They test innovative solutions for the future and keep track of what needs to be developed. There is a lot of learning in the project but it is not disseminated in the organization.

But bringing the lessons from one urban development project to another is difficult.

– It falls between the cracks, because no one takes responsibility for the organization’s learning,” says Erica Eneqvist.

Project focus is problematic in municipalities because the missions are broad and there are many values to be achieved at the same time. It is easier in smaller municipalities, where administrations are often in the same building and knowledge is shared between projects. But there is something problematic in general about projection in politically and democratically governed organizations.

– They think that as long as we show that something works, it will scale up. But management needs to be involved here. Moreover, a successful outcome may not suit the political leadership of the municipality. Urban development is highly political, says Erica Eneqvist.

Contact erica.eneqvist@gmail.com

Erica Eneqvist’s four tips for municipalities that want to be in the driver’s seat of local innovation:
– Organize innovation efforts. Both around what you think are the challenges, to formulating them and finally how to implement the results.
– Don’t think that projects scale up by themselves. If something works, you need to pass on the results to those who have power over the decisions.
– Remember that you are a democratic actor. What interests set the agenda for innovation projects? The solutions to urban mobility will look different if it is a vehicle operator, a bicycle operator or an IT company that decides.
– Pay attention to priorities. How do you ensure that the municipality is in the right project based on your own challenges and not on other actors’ objectives?

More about the thesis
Erica Eneqvist works at the research institute Rise and recently completed her PhD at KTH with the thesis Experimental governance: Capacity and legitimacy in local governments, which can be read as a pdf.