Fernandez-Monge, Fernando; Puttick, Ruth; Kattel, Rainer; (2025) Contextualising City Government Capabilities. (UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) Working Paper 2025-04). UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP): London, UK.

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Abstract

City governments increasingly turn to public sector innovation and transformative policy initiatives to address complex challenges under significant constraints. Researchers are exploring the capabilities city governments need to respond to these challenges effectively, but there is still a very limited understanding of how these vary according to context. This study employs qualitative interviews and analysis of policy reports to create comparative case studies of five countries: Australia, Brazil, Finland, India and South Africa. These case studies explore how cities are developing and deploying dynamic capabilities for transformative change across diverse country contexts. It highlights how such capabilities enable city governments to respond to complex and rapidly changing environments, but how these cannot be understood independently of the country context. One of the article's main contributions is identifying key variables to conceptualise context that could help policymakers navigate an increasingly complex and challenging environment when working in or with city governments.

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