This working paper is part of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose’s (UCL IIPP) publication series.

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Contextualising City Government Capabilities | UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) Working Paper (WP 2025-04)

Authors: 

  • Fernando Fernandez-Monge | Research Fellow and PhD candidate | UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
  • Ruth Puttick | Senior Research Fellow | UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
  • Rainer Kattel | Deputy Director and Professor of Innovation and Public Governance | UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
     

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.
 

Reference:

Fernandez-Monge, F., Puttick, R., and Kattel, R. (2025). Contextualising city government capabilities. UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, Working Paper Series (IIPP WP 2025-04). 

 

This working paper is part of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose’s (UCL IIPP) publication series.

Explore more working papers and policy reports here.