Local and regional governments across Europe are involved in many of the crucial and complex societal challenges of our time, and their responses necessarily involve them in looking to change established administrative and political traditions. They are increasingly expected to deliver effective and legitimate public governance in response to issues such as climate change, demographic change, digital transformations and increasing social inequalities. The pressures to respond to these issues are placing a premium on finding innovative policy responses in terms of public service delivery, institutional design, democratic engagement and intergovernmental relations.
The EGPA Study Group on Local and Regional Government invites paper submissions on these issues relating to innovation and the tensions between innovation and the traditional, established practices across, and within, levels of government. We welcome contributions that explore questions relating to how particular innovations emerge, the challenges they pose to traditional assumptions about government, how local communities are governed within inter-governmental contexts, and the shifting relationships between citizens, institutions, territories and notions of ‘place.’
Our aim is to develop a rich, critical, and interdisciplinary dialogue on the drivers, barriers, and consequences of innovation in local and regional government, drawing on comparative perspectives and diverse methodological approaches. Innovations in local and regional government are no longer confined to discrete projects or technological upgrades. They involve:
These developments raise pressing questions relating to capacity, legitimacy, equity, and accountability within local and intergovernmental contexts. They also pose questions over the uneven geography of innovation – why do some places innovate more effectively than others, and how territorial context shapes innovations.