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‘All cities are equal, but some are more equal than others’. Policy mobility and asymmetric relations in inter-urban networks for sustainability

‘All cities are equal, but some are more equal than others’. Policy mobility and asymmetric... INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 2018, VOL. 10, NO. 2, 139–153 https://doi.org/10.1080/19463138.2018.1487444 ARTICLE ‘All cities are equal, but some are more equal than others’. Policy mobility and asymmetric relations in inter-urban networks for sustainability Elisabetta Mocca School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY Received 30 October 2017 Knowledge sharing is deemed an important function of transnational municipal Accepted 7 June 2018 networks. However, in the literature on these organisations, a critical discussion of the implications of this process is scant. This article unpacks the mechanisms KEYWORDS regulating learning, and examines the cognitive and relational dynamics of knowl- Transnational municipalism; edge exchange within socio-ecological urban networks. By analysing the experience urban policy mobilities; local of a small group of European post-industrial second cities in socio-ecological urban governments; urban networks, this article shows that network members exchange ideas and practices to sustainability; Europe tackle urban regeneration issues. The data suggest that, despite touted as a peer-to- peer practice, knowledge sharing reinforces asymmetrical relationships among net- work members, enabling the ‘soft domination’ of more advanced cities over less successful ones. and its implications. Extant literature on the topic Introduction under study has provided limited empirical evidence A large corpus of research in political geography, on the cognitive and relational aspects of knowledge public administration and political science has inves- exchange and policy learning, glossing over the tigated the process of policy learning and policy power dynamics among the agents involved in mobility among local governments (see inter alia, these processes. In the attempt to enrich this thread Bulkeley 2006; Kennedy 2016; McCann 2011; of research, the study here reported analyses of the McCann and Ward 2013; Peck and Theodore, 2010; policy learning process occurring among European Temenos, and McCann, 2012). Among these, policy cities engaged in inter-urban networks for sustain- learning occurring in networks of municipalities, ability – named socio-ecological urban networks often referred as transnational municipal networks (SEUNs) (Mocca 2017a, 2017b) – a field characterised (see the work of Bulkeley and Bulkeley and collea- by intense networking among municipalities gues), has also drawn some scholarly attention, in (Labaeye and Sauer 2013), by paying attention to particular to the process of exchange of knowledge, the inter-agent relations. SEUNs are inter-urban orga- experiences, best practices and information (see for nisations promoting urban sustainability, broadly instance, Le Galès, 2002; Bulkeley et al. 2003; Kübler understood in its environmental, social and eco- and Piliutyte 2007; Lee and Van de Meene, 2012). nomic dimensions, such as Eurocities, Energy Cities However, in the scholarship on transnational munici- and ICLEI (Mocca 2017a). Therefore, this article pro- pal networks, beyond the recognition of these orga- poses to answer two main questions: what type of nisations as spaces where cities exchange knowledge knowledge is exchanged in SEUNs? And how does the and learn from their peers, there is little critical dis- learning process work in these networks? In order to cussion about policy learning among member-cities provide a fine-grained analysis, this latter question CONTACT Elisabetta Mocca Elisabetta.Mocca@ed.ac.uk School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group 140 E. MOCCA can be broken down in two sub-questions: which municipalities engaged at international level. These cities learn? And which ones teach? two literatures are strongly intertwined, in that transna- To address these questions, the type of knowl- tional municipalism facilitates policy mobility (Saunier edge shared and the role played by the agents 2002;Clarke 2009). involved in the learning process will be examined. To unravel the cognitive and relational dynamics For this purpose, this article engages with the trans- playing out in SEUNs, it is necessary to distinguish national municipalism and the policy mobility litera- the different learning processes occurring in inter- tures and provides evidence through a qualitative municipal networks: knowledge sharing, policy learn- analysis of a pool of European post-industrial second ing and policy transfer. These three processes are cities – Birmingham, Cremona, Hamburg, Lille, outlined in the following sub-section. Malmö, Manchester and Torino – engaged in SEUNs based in Europe. The empirical analysis helped to tease out the learning process within SEUNs and to Seuns and peer learning map the ‘municipal connections’ (Saunier 2002) As a sizeable number of studies suggests, knowl- engendered by policy learning. edge sharing is an integral part of city networking. The findings reveal that SEUNs are arenas Information is used with different purposes within where to share and learn praxes on urban regen- networks, such as exerting political influence onto eration. Further, the data indicate that the nation-states, or aimed at ‘norm diffusion, consensus exchange of policy knowledge in such networks building or changing practice’ (Andonova et al. 2009, is not equal and reciprocal, but is dominated by pp. 63–64). successful cities, which set the policy trends that A second process occurring in inter-urban net- other cities seek to emulate. As a result, the ele- works is policy learning. This is determined by vation of some cities to the status of urban mod- changes in beliefs or attitudes engendered by pre- els confers them a certain political pre-eminence vious knowledge and the willingness to achieve spe- within networks. Finally, the data suggest that the cific goals (Sabatier 1988). Some authors argue that process of policy learning reinforces asymmetrical the knowledge exchanged in inter-urban networks relationships among network members, enabling does not automatically lead to policy learning (Betsill the ‘soft domination’ of the most advanced cities and Bulkeley 2004). Nonetheless, by sharing knowl- over the least successful ones. Since policy learn- edge about a common concern, local policy-makers ing in transnational municipal networks is not inevitably learn from each other’s experience. If regulated by coercion, such domination can be understood as ‘the general increase in knowledge thought as the hegemony of some policy models about policies’ (Bennett and Howlett, 1992, pp. and discourses over others. 288–289), knowledge exchange, which in transna- The article begins with a discussion of the trans- tional municipal networks is mainly about policies national municipalism and the policy mobility litera- and practices, then fosters policy learning. tures to set out the theoretical framework, followed Furthermore, in established SEUNs, member-cities by the presentation of the method and the findings. tend to develop durable and personal connections The discussion of the findings and concluding (Mocca 2017b), thus making policy circulation and, remarks are provided in the final section. possibly, policy transfer – or ‘policy mobility’,as defined by some authors (Clarke 2009, 2012a, 2012b; Transnational municipalism and policy mobility McCann 2011, 2013; McCann and Ward 2013) – more likely to occur. Policy transfer takes place whenever To approach theoretically the questions laid out above, this article, taking the cue from Clarke (2012a, 2012b)), “knowledge about policies, administrative arrange- draws on insights from the transnational municipalism ments, institutions etc. in one time and/or place is used in the development of policies, administrative literature and the contributions on policy mobilities. arrangements and institutions in another time and/or While the first enables an examination of the structure, place” (Dolowitz and Marsh 1996, p. 344). functions and activities of transnational municipal net- works, the latter lends theoretical support to a critical It is argued that transnational municipal networks are analysis of policy learning processes among primarily agents of ‘policy innovation and influence’ INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 141 and ‘policy learning’, while only marginally fostering concrete policy interventions and financial invest- policy transfer (Bulkeley et al. 2003, p. 248). This claim ments, the ‘exceptionalism’ of some urban models may hold true if policy transfer is thought as a copy- is also discursively constructed through the use of and-paste process, whereby a policy solution in one ‘rhetorical devices’, such as ‘superlatives’ and ‘firsts’ city is replicated as it is in another. However, in (Beauregard, 2003, p. 184), urban ‘stereotypes, arche- addition to ‘copying’ a model, Dolowitz and Marsh types and prototypes’ (Brenner 2003) and ‘inter-refer- (1996, p. 351) identify other modalities of policy encing’ mechanisms (Ong, 2011). Saunier (2002,p. transfer, namely ‘emulation’, ‘hybridization’ and 520) points out that transnational municipalism pro- ‘synthesis’– which entails blending different experi- vides cities with examples of policy innovations to be ences to create innovative solutions – and ‘inspira- used as ‘a rhetorical armoury’ in discourses to change tion’. In this respect, the policy mobilities literature or improve urban conditions. Furthermore, the assumes that policies are not transferred tout court, author observes that, historically, municipal examples but adjusted ‘on the move’ (McCann 2011; Peck and were implemented through various processes, Theodore, 2010). Hence, imported policies are not including ‘imitation, reappropriation or adaptation’ reproduced as they were originally formulated, but (Saunier 2002, p. 519). In particular, the imitation of they are shaped by institutional and political prac- examples that worked elsewhere is a significant tices, norms and ideas of the hosting municipality mechanism of policy mobility. Emulation is guided (McCann 2011). McCann and Ward (2013,p.8) by the ‘desire for conformity’ of those governments describe this adaptive process as an ‘assemblage’ of that ‘do not want to be left behind’, or aimed at ‘fixed and mobile pieces of expertise, regulation, obtaining ‘credibility’ at international level – what institutional capacities [. . .] from close by and far Meseguer, 2005 in Happaerts and Van Den Brande, away’. Such ‘pieces’ travelling within policy circles 2011, p.531 defines as ‘symbolic imitation’ include not only ‘policy goals, concepts, [. . .] ideas’, (Happaerts and Van Den Brande 2011, p. 531). ‘program structure, design, and techniques’, but also Emulation can also constitute a policy-making strat- ‘policy labels’ (Mossberger 2000; in Wolman and egy for those localities with few policy options avail- Page 2002, p. 480) – i.e. tags defining policies based able and unclear objectives (Chien 2008). In the on broad concepts (Wolman and Page 2002, p. 480). specific case of inter-urban networks for sustainabil- Therefore, discourses to frame policies and ‘“hot” ity, the engagement in such organisations may pro- policy ideas’ (McCann 2011, p. 109) also travel across vide member-cities with the opportunity to imitate municipalities. A significant example of a mobile dis- or be inspired by ‘travelling ecomodels’ (Blok 2012,p. course is urban sustainability. Political discourses are 2333). Hence, we would expect that in SEUNs, cities replete with references to sustainability, which has recognised as sustainability exemplars dominate the become the ultimate objective that policy-makers of policy learning process. different political colours aim to achieve. Therefore, the political interest for urban ‘sustainability fixes’ Policy circulation: a peer-to-peer practice? responds to the need of coupling environmental quality with economic growth (Temenos and Through the praise of specific urban interventions, McCann, 2012). policy circulation engenders ‘an uneven landscape of The idea of policy ‘assemblage’ (McCann and “teacher” and “learner” cities’ (McCann 2013, p. 10), Ward 2013) suggests a pick-and-mix policy-making primarily produced by municipalities’ resource avail- style that results in innovative policy solutions, thus ability (McCann 2011). More precisely, the external averting the prospect of policy convergence. activity, or the ‘“extrospective” orientation’,of ‘con- Nonetheless, some policy models or cities are cited sumers of policy boosterism’ is driven by public more often as good examples – as McCann (2011) spending cuts and the need to find effective policy observes. In more detail, exemplar policies or cities solutions (McCann 2013, p. 9). Such lopsided are ‘relationally produced’, inasmuch as they acquire exchange of policy knowledge may engender what the status of models only if they are recognised as Robinson (2006) defines as ‘imitative urbanism’, such by external ‘disciples and admirers’ (McCann whereby policies travel unevenly from the top to 2013, p. 10). Although the achievement of the the bottom of urban hierarchies (Clarke 2012a). As a model city status requires political commitment, result, policy mobilities may bring about ‘new forms 142 E. MOCCA of uneven spatial development’ (Peck and Theodore, networks’ actions and goals than their counterparts 2010, p. 170). Following this line of reasoning, it can in the Global South. On a more critical stand, Leitner be argued that the exchange of knowledge and best and Sheppard (2002, p. 512) note that ‘unequal practices within SEUNs conceals asymmetric inter- power relations’ are likely to develop within net- member relationships. Although sounding like a tru- works: the different economic background of cities ism, the act of learning hinges on an imbalanced affects their capacity to negotiate, so that the advan- relationship between the teacher – i.e. the holder of tages of network involvement are not equally spread the knowledge – and the learner, which needs that among members at the expenses of deprived local- type of knowledge. The fact that knowledge ities. Even further, the authors claim that, while exchange is an important motivation for cities to described as ‘non-hierarchical’, ‘flexible’, ‘self-organis- engage in transnational municipal networks (Kübler ing’ and ‘collaborative’, networks ‘exhibit tendencies and Piliutyte 2007; Mocca 2017b) suggests that a towards hierarchy, inequality, imitation, and exclu- certain kind of knowledge about urban policy and sion’ (Leitner and Sheppard, 2002, p. 514). practices can only be retrieved in networks, or it can Such imbalances within networks are also evident be retrieved in another way (for instance, through in the different patterns of sub-national mobilisation, research conducted by local government staff in with some localities assuming a ‘pro-active’ role, each city), but at a higher cost. As a result, the while others tend to be ‘reactive’ (Goldsmith 1993, possession of a sought-after policy knowledge con- p. 693). Similarly, Kern and Alber (2008, p. 14) report fers a certain supremacy to the teacher, while putting the presence of ‘pioneers and laggards’ in inter- the learner in a subordinated position. It may be urban networks, whose differences are addressed counter-argued that the roles of ‘borrowers’ and ‘by setting tiered standards that attract members ‘learners’ are not fixed, but inter-changeable with differing levels of performance and ambition’. (Dolowitz and Marsh, 2000, p. 10). However, as Kern and Bulkeley (2009, pp. 326, 329) describe three Stone (2004, p. 549) observes, learning is ‘uneven ‘green’ inter-urban networks – namely, Climate and imperfect’ in policy networks, insofar as ‘[c]ertain Alliance, Cities for Climate Protection and Energie- actors may have a greater capacity for learning Cités – as ‘networks of pioneers for pioneers’, which whereas others may adopt lessons for symbolic pur- are those cities that have been actively engaged in poses or as a strategic device to secure political networks since their outset. Furthermore, Keiner and support rather than as a result of improved Kim (2007, p. 1393) distinguish the presence in inter- understanding’. urban networks for sustainability of a ‘giving end’, i.e. Being spaces for knowledge exchange, as well as ‘the forerunner cities’ that have a leading role, and a vectors of policy mobilities, inter-municipal networks ‘receiving end’, which exploits what networks offer. may reinforce such uneven relations among mem- The discussion laid out above suggests that inter- bers. Empirical evidence has shown that policy learn- urban networks facilitate the exchange of practical ing in transnational municipal networks is more likely information and discourses. At the same time, the to occur when cities have a common language and, learning process appears to be led by exemplary at least in Europe and North America, are located in cities. Drawing on these premises, the following sec- the same region, suggesting that the linkages among tions present and discuss the findings of a multiple network members are regulated by the ‘homophily case study analysis involving seven European SEUN principle’, in that connections are more likely to members. develop between agents sharing similar characteris- tics (Lee and Van de Meene, 2012). Likewise, Gerber Method et al. (2013) demonstrated that cities with a similar political and social context are more likely to coop- To understand what type of knowledge is exchanged erate in a network and support common policies. The among SEUN-members and how the learning process flip side of homophily is that it may also lead to the works in SEUNs, a small-N qualitative analysis was marginalisation of those members with different performed on a pool of seven European cities characteristics. In this respect, Bouteliger (2013) engaged in SEUNs: Birmingham, Cremona, found that cities from the Global North tend to Hamburg, Lille, Malmö, Manchester and Torino. This exert more influence over transnational municipal methodological approach was adopted as it enables INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 143 to undertake an intense cross-case analysis to shed useful to the analysis, are less articulate than those light on the recurrent attitudes, relations and causal obtained through the interviews. factors underlying the phenomenon under study. The interview transcripts and the questionnaires The case selection process relied on the data and were then examined by undertaking a thematic ana- findings of a research on the same subject, which quan- lysis, aimed at capturing the policy learning dynamics titatively explored the urban-level factors determining occurring within SEUNs. The data were grouped in 2,3 SEUN membership (Mocca 2017a). Using as selection three main thematic clusters reflecting the research criteria the dependent variables found as statistically questions: (1) the knowledge, experience and infor- significant by the abovementioned study, the sample mation shared among SEUN-members, paying parti- for the qualitative study included: post-industrial (or cular attention to the sustainability dimension; (2) ‘modern’) cities; cities mainly ruled by centre-left or the modes of learning occurring among the mem- left-wing governments in the timespan 1985–2013 ; bers and (3) the inter-city relations emerging in the cities endowed of some administrative competencies learning process. The data were analysed separately (such as provinces or regional capitals) or territorial for each respondent. However, city-level aggregate influence and ‘cooperative’ cities,i.e.members at least data were employed to examine the spatial implica- of a non-sustainability network (Mocca 2017a). tions of the learning dynamics. In the next section, Once the small-N sample of cases was drawn, the findings of the small-N analysis are presented. semi-structured interviews were conducted. For this aim, 15 respondents, comprising both elected and Findings non-elected officials in charge of European and/or International Relations or environmental policy that The analysis highlighted three main aspects of policy were engaged in SEUNs, were recruited (Figure 1). learning within SEUNs. First, the conceptualisation of The data collection techniques employed included the networks as ‘learning environment[s]’ (Mocca mainly semi-structured in person interviews, replaced 2017b, p. 10), where members can learn practices by telephone interviews or questionnaires when the implemented in other European cities, especially in 7,8 respondents could not be interviewed face-to-face. the realm of urban regeneration. Second, the possi- The questions asked during the interviews, both face- bility to emulate exemplary cities, which have distin- to-face and telephonic, were reproduced as open- guished themselves for their innovative urban ended questions in the questionnaire, to ensure policies. Third, the unevenness of the learning pro- that the different data collection techniques would cess, driven by cutting-edge cities. In the following have generated consistent answers. It should be sections, these themes are examined. acknowledged that the use of the questionnaire hin- dered the possibility to further investigate the The networks as ‘learning environments’ respondents’ answers, for instant by prompting them or by asking follow-up questions. As a result, The participants stressed how SEUN membership the answers collected with questionnaires, while still enabled them to pool knowledge, solutions and experiences with peers from other cities. The Figure 1. Respondents. Source: Adaptation of Mocca (2017b). 144 E. MOCCA network is thus conceived as a ‘learning environ- Respondent 1 from Malmö observed. The inspirational ment’, that is an arena where knowledge about scope of SEUNs was also highlighted by the members’ approaches, instruments and interventions Respondent 1 from Birmingham, who argued that are shared (Mocca 2017b, p. 10) and where members the international engagement of cities can easily find a repertoire of solutions for their “is about being inspired by ideas, [. . .] new ways of problems, as stated by some Respondents. thinking of a problem or an issue and about taking Being exposed to other cities’ experiences, SEUN aspects of a policy or project and using that in project members are inspired to implement innovative local development in your own city, sensitive to national legal frameworks and maybe how you work with local policies. In this respect, emblematic is the statement partners.” made by the Respondent 3 from Lille, for whom within networks ‘you get a lot of new ideas that As the evidence suggests, knowledge exchange you would not get if you do not participate and results in policy learning, in that network members you do not make the mistakes you would make’. have the opportunity to get acquainted with the Further, the network provides the information and policies and initiatives implemented by other cities. the stimulus to experiment with local policy-making, However, as the findings indicate, the transferability or for some, simply to ‘upgrade’ and improve policies of the best examples should not be overestimated: as (Respondent 1 from Malmö), or to get further experi- some Respondents stated, policy transfer may not be ence (Respondent from Hamburg). In other words, feasible due to local problems – especially of finan- the exchange of ideas through the networks results cial nature. In more detail, as highlighted by the in an innovation push. Respondent 1 from Lille, the exchange of ideas As some participants suggested, policy innovation does not necessarily lead to their translation into can be described as a two-way flow, whereby there is policies, since local authorities might lack the an ‘incremental continuum between innovation and means to implement those ideas. Likewise, the learning’ (Respondent 1 from Torino): the particular Respondent from Cremona argued that the networks experience of each city feeds into the process of policy give the opportunity to learn from other cities inno- diffusion generating further policy innovation. For vative praxes, although, for various reasons, these instance, the Respondent 1 from Torino argued that, are not easily applied at local level. in the field of neighbourhood regeneration, intercul- Given the focus on urban sustainability of the tural and integration policies, Torino has been consid- networks included in this study, in the next section ered as one of the most innovative European cities. This policy learning in this field will be discussed. boils down to the fact that on these issues the council “ha[s] learnt and tried to implement policies producing innovation. We have not done this by ourselves [. . .]; we Learning urban sustainability have tried, through the work with other cities, to imple- The evidence indicates that the process of policy ment local actions taking into account approaches developed by others. This is the most meaningful learning occurring within SEUNs supports network value of the participation in networks: you get to see members’ endeavour to regenerate their cities. This things from a different perspective, but you have to issue is particularly important for the cities analysed, adapt the different experiences to the local level” as they experienced the problems associated to dein- (Respondent 1 from Torino). dustrialisation, including the reuse of industrial areas, Similarly, the Respondent 4 from Manchester sug- unemployment and the economic restructuring. To gested that the exchange of ideas with other cities deal with the upshots of the post-industrial transi- informed rather than totally shaped the policies of the tion, cities search for inspiration on how to redevelop local authority. In the same vein, for the Respondent their localities and SEUNs have been an important from Hamburg, regional or local policy is the result of source of information in this regard. As the adapting international experience to regional/local Respondent 2 from Birmingham stated, network demands. These statements suggest that the policy engagement ‘is [. . .] about a wider regeneration solutions shared within SEUNs are not slavishly cop- agenda. And learning from partner cities is crucial ied, but are adjusted to the local context. Knowledge to that’. The Respondent 1 from Manchester, talking exchange is thus about finding ‘inspiration’,as the about Eurocities, said that it ‘is a great network for INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 145 “sustainable city development means that you need to learning from other cities and sharing what you have, do more than business as usual. [. . .] You need to be your areas of specialty. For example, in the 1990s we innovative and find new solutions and ideas and so on. learnt a lot from other cities about regeneration and So, the networks have quite a lot, because you get lot of how to turn your city around’. In the same vein, the contacts with other cities.” Respondent 1 from Torino argued that the city’s experience on urban regeneration has been used as Similarly, the Respondent 1 from Torino expressed an example of good practice by other Italian cities the opinion that, for the city, sustainable urban and to some extent, by some European peers, espe- development is about increasing the urban quality, cially by cities in the Southern area of the Continent. that is quality of the public spaces, sustainable mobi- The relatively recent interest of local govern- lity, improvement of environmental conditions, and ments in urban sustainability may be – at least social sustainability, avoiding that ‘multi-speed cities’ partly – explained by local authorities’ necessity co-exist within the urban fabric. to undertake urban regeneration. To this end, the The respondents’ answers revealed how their idea of urban sustainability serves as a blueprint personal visions underlie their conceptualisation of for regenerating cities: the promise of economic urban sustainable development. For this reasons, growth coupled with social fairness and low envir- the research participants were asked whether they onmental impact aptly works as an ethical frame to considered sustainable development as a political guide regeneration plans. The discourse behind the concept – i.e. encompassing specific value-sets and idea of sustainable development assumes different worldviews. As most of the respondents stated, sus- connotations. Most of the respondents mentioned tainable development is indeed a political concept, the need to change the current economic model, since it proposes significant changes at urban and but the extent of such change varies. A more individual level. Furthermore, as the Respondent 3 radical vision emerged in interviews with two from Manchester observed, whereas sustainable respondents from Lille (Respondents 1 and 3), for developmentisaconceptsweepingacrossthe whom sustainable development entailed the tran- whole political spectrum, there might be a left- sition towards an alternative economic and social and right-wing reading. For instance, the model. The two British cities displayed a more Respondent 2 from Birmingham noted that the left practical and less idealistic perspective: the respon- may emphasise the social justice agenda, while the dents from both cities reckoned the need to right may pay more attention to the economic change the approach to the economy, but in a aspects. Additionally, according to the Respondent more eco-compatible way. Significant was the 1 from Birmingham, different parties manifest a dif- view expressed by the Respondent 2 from ferent degree of interest on sustainable develop- Birmingham, who observed how, while ‘the limit ment, for example introducing a cabinet member to growth’ report identified the economic growth working on sustainability matters. By way of con- as a disaster, trast, the Respondent 2 from Malmö and the Respondent 2 from Manchester argued that cities “sustainable development was a [. . .] very successful committed to sustainability are governed by coun- way of short-circuiting that kind of quite negative cils of various political leaning. Nonetheless, the debate between growth on the one side and the envir- Respondent 2 from Malmö conceded that these onment on the other, and demonstrated that was pos- may have a ‘different way of implementing’ sustain- sible to bring the two things together”. able development. According to the Respondent 4 from Manchester, sus- Given the wide engagement of European cities in tainable economic growth is a goal that, although SEUNs, the importance of sustainable development involving physical development, it is also about chan- for municipal administrations was investigated and a ging and adapting the existing situation, ‘making a set of reasons for local governments’ interest in sus- more attractive and better city for the uses people tainable development emerged from the analysis. want today’. Malmö stood in an intermediate position, Principally, the drawbacks of the de-industrialisation supporting the need to change lifestyle, while creat- process. For most of the participants, the interest of ing a more environmental-friendly economy. In this cities in sustainability was motivated by the willing- respect, the Respondent 2 from Malmö argued that: ness to recover from the problems engendered by 146 E. MOCCA deindustrialisation, such as unemployment, soil and have been regarded with interest by other air pollution, and economic instability. Similarly, for European counterparts. Networks offer what the the Respondent from Cremona, sustainable develop- Respondent 2 from Lille defined as ‘the virtue of ment addresses urban environmental problems imitating’– i.e. the possibility of emulating other affecting industrialised cities. According to the cities (Mocca 2017b, p. 10). At the same time, mem- Respondent 1 from Lille, sustainable development ber-cities strive to become themselves successful offers opportunities for economic recovery. examples of urban renewal. The data indicate that Additionally, for some respondents, sustainable members look up at those fellow cities that have development is about quality of life for citizens: this effectively solved local problems, especially those means improvements in liveability and attractiveness caused by de-industrialisation. As the Respondent 1 of cities. However, the Respondent 2 from Malmö from Manchester observed, cities are inspired from argued that, to do so, it is necessary to improve those peers they ‘admire’ and ‘can learn from’. The environmental quality, the participation of citizens latter are those cities that distinguished themselves and the economic situation, the latter being ‘part of by following innovative development trajectories daily life’, which allows people to ‘live and thrive’. and thus, become the ‘trend-setters’. By way of con- Improvements in quality of life may have a two-fold trast, those cities where the transformation is still in advantage: by making cities liveable and healthy fieri become the ‘followers’, aspiring to achieve the places, one meets the sustainability agenda; at the objective of urban regeneration. same time, cities present ‘an extremely attractive As the Respondent 2 from Lille suggested, gather- inward investment case’, as the Respondent 2 from ing information about successful examples imple- Birmingham pointed out. For some participants, sus- mented in other cities provide the legitimacy to tainable development is important in that it couples reinforce their objectives in their cities. More pre- economic growth with environmental and social con- cisely, the ‘foreign’ examples are used by individual cerns, and the future development of cities should be network members as reference cases to show to their built within the sustainability framework. local government that a specific policy can be imple- The sustainability discourse is thus instrumental to mented. However, the selection of the examples has policy innovation: the challenge posed by sustainability to be carefully done: the ‘model-city’ has to be a implies the development of innovative solutions to successful example of policy implementation, but – achieve economic growth, while ensuring at the same as the Respondent 2 from Lille argued – it cannot be time social equality and environmental quality. culturally too distant, otherwise, it might be met with Sustainable mobility plans, measures to reduce carbon resistance from the colleagues in the council and emissions, natural capital management, green procure- from national policy-makers, which may consider ment, etc. represent important policy instruments that the example ‘too forward’; therefore, it is necessary local authorities have been increasingly using in their to provide both national and international examples. territories. Therefore, the importance of sustainable In most of the interviews, it emerged that respon- development for cities is that it can be used as a guiding dents look at those cities with which they share principle to undertake urban regeneration. In this sense, significant similarities, especially a common eco- policy learning in the realm of sustainability is the vector nomic background characterised by the post-indus- of urban restructuring. Since urban regeneration is trial transition. For example, the Respondent 2 from undertaken at different speeds, front-runner cities tend Birmingham observed that, for Birmingham, the to lead the learning process, as will be discussed in the post-industrial crisis in the late 20th century played next section. a significant role in the city’s engagement in Eurocities, making the city realise that it was neces- sary ‘to engage with other cities that [were] experi- The ‘virtue of imitating’ encing similar problems’. Therefore, the need to While mutually influencing each other, some SEUN reinvent the urban identity in a period when tradi- members appear to carry more clout than others. The tional industries were dismantled pushed cities to overwhelming majority of the respondents indicated develop inter-urban linkages. Similarly, the that specific projects, patterns of urban regeneration Respondent 1 from Manchester stated that or governance models implemented in their cities Manchester was a very different city in the 1980s INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 147 and 1990s, when industrialisation had come to a of urban policy (e.g. sustainable mobility, employment standstill. For this Respondent, the problem was policy, knowledge society, etc.). These cities, which how to transform the city and ‘how to find a new represent the urban models at which the respondents vision’ for it. To this end, Manchester ‘learnt a lot look, are mainly concentrated in the Northern-conti- from cities like Barcelona [and] Lyon at that time’ nental Europe, with some centres in South-West (Respondent 1 from Manchester). It follows that cities Europe. Specifically, most of the participants named learn from those places with which they have a at least one German city (or region) that has somehow ‘commonality’ (Respondent 2 from Birmingham). In influenced them, followed by French cities, particularly this respect, the Respondent 2 from Birmingham Lyon, and former industrial English cities. Moreover, argued that ‘there’s massive scope there for informa- the Respondents indicated as influential examples tion exchange, for learning from each other, and some Northern European cities (Helsinki and Tampere becoming stronger because of that knowledge of in Finland; Stockholm and Malmö in Sweden) and a what’s going on in comparable places’. Such ‘com- few cities in Southern Europe, particularly in Spain, parability aspect’ was also indicated by the such as Barcelona, Figueres and Victoria Gasteiz. It Respondent 2 from Malmö, who stated that, by com- can be noted that no cities in the member-states of paring each other, network members can understand the former Eastern bloc and only a few in the Southern their strong points and flaws. European region were mentioned. This may suggest Theemphasisplacedbysomeparticipantsonthe how northern and continental metropolitan areas are similarities with other European cities suggests that regarded as the leaders in the process of post-indus- nationality is not perceived as a discriminatory factor. trial urban regeneration and are significantly influen- Actually, the ‘comparable places’ are often located out- cing the European urban development model side the national boundaries. Emblematic is the opinion (Figure 2). On closer examination, these findings hint of the Respondent 2 from Birmingham, for whom, at the existence of a cluster of European cities that set underpinning the city’s engagement in European net- the trends in urban policy followed by other local works, there was ‘the recognition that Birmingham has authorities. lotmoreincommonwithFrankfurt andLyonthanithas Although member-cities look up at inspirational in common with Cornwall. So, you needed that urban examples, it cannot be concluded that the trajec- European perspective’. Likewise, the Respondent 1 tory of European urban development will end up produ- from Torino stated that, for what concerns the issue of cing homogeneous cities. As the Respondent 1 from urban sustainability and reconversion of de-industria- Manchester argued: ‘there are common themes across lised land, the city has ‘more commonalities with the the cities, but we’re all individual in how we approach German cities in the Ruhr region or with the former them’. Therefore, SEUN members search for new ideas to textile manufacturing centres in the North of England solve specific problems in their localities; but the transfer than with Siena, for example’. Additionally, the of policies or initiatives from one city to another is Respondent 4 from Manchester claimed that neither simple nor immediate. Ultimately, it is necessary ‘[Manchester] probably ha[s] much more in common to adapt one policy solution to the specific social, eco- as a lot of European cities than just those in the UK’. nomic and cultural characteristics of the urban context. The emulative dynamic between trend-setters and followers raises a question about the parts involved Discussion in the learning process: which cities learn and which ones teach? In what follows, the learning process is Policy learning in SEUNs has been examined in the examined to answer this question. previous sections through a qualitative analysis focusing on the experience of a pool of SEUN mem- bers. The findings suggest that SEUNs facilitate the The unevenness of the learning process circulation of specific ideas, approaches and practices Mostly unprompted, the respondents – except for among members. In particular, the findings indicate those from Cremona and Hamburg – indicated some that the exchange of information and knowledge cities or specific European geographical regions – both among member-cities results in policy learning. As included and not included in the study – as compar- exemplified in Figure 3 below, there are two possible able places or as successful examples in some sectors outcomes of policy learning. The first one is policy 148 E. MOCCA Figure 2. Urban influence in the EU. upgrade, which indicates a situation where an exist- process requiring the transformation and adaption ing policy or measure is improved as a result of – or deterritorialization and reterritorialization policy learning. Policy upgrade occurs where a (Clarke 2012b) – of the imported policy to the speci- given policy is already in place, but, thanks to the ficities of the hosting urban context. exchange of information and the learning of innova- As the data show, knowledge exchange and the tive examples, there is a general improvement. The consequential policy learning do not always end up second possible outcome is policy emulation, with the migration of policy solutions. Policy learning whereby a policy or a specific measure developed may simply improve existing policies or may not in one place is imitated in another. However, the even produce any effects. This occurs when a local imitation of a policy solution should not be intended authority does not have the resources to implement as its mere reproduction in another city, but a the transferred idea, or when local actors engaged in INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 149 Figure 3. The outcomes of knowledge exchange. networks fail to persuade their council to import a that ‘municipalities continued to play the leading policy solution. The migration of ideas or solutions role in forging new policy networks in regenerating may ultimately yield policy innovation, whenever the cities, through a process of transnational municipal- imported knowledge feeds in a new policy. As the ism’. What is more, urban regeneration is important evidence suggests, local policy innovation is the for local political elites in that any improvement in result of incremental changes, rather than of sudden terms of quality of life may result in an electoral radical transformations. The tenet of policy mobility payoff. literature, for which ‘policies change as they move’ The findings indicate that SEUN engagement (Clarke 2012b, p. 31), seems to regulate the policy leads to two phenomena: comparability and emula- learning outcomes of SEUN engagement. tion. On the one hand, network members compare As a result of knowledge and information themselves with each other, especially with those exchange, cities have the opportunity to know cities sharing a common economic background and how other cities have dealt with common urban similar urban development objectives; in so doing, issues. The network-members that have solved a they can recognise their successes and pinpoint vexing socio-economic or environmental problem areas of improvement. On the other hand, mem- or have improved some aspects of the urban gov- ber-cities find inspiration from trend-setters, which ernance, then become examples to reproduce in furnish policy models to be adapted to various local other cities. As also emerged elsewhere, network contexts. A striking finding was that the majority of members use the experience of other cities as a the trend-setters indicated by the respondents are reference case to support policy changes at local mainly located in Northern-continental Europe. level (Mocca 2017b). Similarly, Betsill and Bulkeley Interestingly, the map illustrated in Figure 2 above (2004, p. 486) found that the Climate Change suggests that the geographical location of the influ- Protection programme provided municipalities with ential cities broadly recalls the area identified by ‘legitimacy and authority’. As Kennedy (2016) Brunet (1989) as the European backbone (‘dorsale’), observes, referring to international good urban famously named ‘blue banana’,which stretches examples is a persuasive tactics to make the case from Northern England to Northern Italy. As for a specific policy. Metaxas and Tsavdaridou (2013,p. 16) state,this The need for municipalities to find new ideas to area ‘was different from the rest of the European improve the local economic performance, as well as locations based on demographic, economic level, as the social and environmental situation in their terri- well as in a cultural and in infrastructure level’.In tories responds to the urban regeneration objectives thelate1980s-early 1990s, thecitiesinthe central of economic restructuring, physical requalification area had an economic advantage due to the devel- and social renewal. In this sense, European urban opment of advanced production, while marginal networking fits into a wider plan to boost local cities, such as ‘Dublin, Lisbon, Seville, Palermo, development (Mocca 2017a). This claim is supported Cagliari, Athens and Thessaloniki’, did not have by Ewen’s historical analysis of Birmingham’s interna- these resources at their disposal (Hall, 1992;cited tional engagement (2008, p. 103), where it is argued in Lever 1993,p.936). 150 E. MOCCA To some extent, the findings indicate a parallelism European urban map. Drawing again a comparison between the relations among network members and between the geography of economic development the European urban economic geography. Although and the location of the influential member-cities, the small sample cannot allow for a broad general- then it can be argued that the networks do not isation, the data suggest that the relationships reflect a ‘polycentric Europe’. From an economic per- among network members reproduce the long-lasting spective, this model indicates an urban system where pattern of the European urban development: the inter-urban competition is ‘complemented by an ele- poles of economic growth – located in the core of ment of cooperation and mutual help among regions continental Europe with few centres in the North and and cities’– defined as ‘European grape’ (Kunzmann South-West – seem to assume the role of trend-set- and Wegener 1991, p. 291). Conversely, the findings ters. The argument about this overlapping between seem to suggest that within SEUNs there are not inter-member relations and urban development several influential cities scattered across Europe. To paths is also reinforced by the silence of the respon- some extent, the presence of trend-setters and fol- dents about Eastern European cities. In effect, no lowers suggests a multi-speed model of network cities from Eastern European countries were indi- membership, whereby a number of more economic- cated by the interviewees, either as noteworthy ally and socially advanced – and hence more influen- examples of urban policies, or as project partners tial – cities are more tightly connected in with which they have shared experience and infor- collaborative relations, constituting the core of the mation. This finding can be partly explained by the urban Europe. recent interests of Eastern European local authorities in networks. While 10 years ago Keiner and Kim Conclusions (2007) found that most of the big cities in Eastern Europe were not members of any transnational net- In tune with previous research on the topic, this works for sustainable development, to date the pre- article has shown how the sharing of knowledge sence of several Eastern European cities – not only and experiences among cities is a crucial aspect of capitals – in SEUNs is increasing. Nevertheless, the inter-urban networking. The main purpose for acquir- data show that inter-member relations reproduce not ing information from other European peers is to find only the long-standing North-South divide – albeit inspiration on how to tackle urban problems, with less marked than it was during the Fordist period – the ultimate aim to achieve urban regeneration. but also a stark difference between Western and Here, the urban sustainability discourse, with its Eastern European cities. This finding is in contrast emphasis on the quality of the urban space, has with some previous research: for the case of superseded the conceptualisation of cities as mere Eurocities, Kübler and Piliutyte (2007) argue that sites of production proper of industrialism. more disadvantaged cities and those from recent The findings of the study reported in this article indi- member-states, unlike well-off European capitals, cate that policy learning, fostered by knowledge sharing, are more attracted by the possibility offered by leads to the mobility of practices through the emulation inter-urban networks to take part in European of successful urban models. The exchange of knowledge projects. and experience is more intense between comparable A final observation on the geography of inter- places, which share commonalities in terms of socio- member relations should be made on the concept economic characteristics of the territory and their vision of polycentrism. Transnational municipal networks for the future. This comparability aspect – which McCann are described as ‘polycentric’, insofar as decision- (2011) defines ‘commensurability’– hasalwaysbeena making rests with a plurality of centres (Bulkeley salient element of transnational municipalism. The latter et al. 2003; Kern and Bulkeley 2009). The decision- rests on the idea underpinning ‘municipal connections’ making polycentrism does not appear to match an that all cities across Europe (and beyond) share common equal distribution of the influence among network beliefs and norms: an example is the competition among members. The presence of trend-setters mainly localities to resemble the ‘ideal “modern” city’,which located in the old European backbone of economic spanned across the late years of 19th Century to the development suggests that cities outside this area 1940s (Saunier 2002, p. 522). In a similar fashion, con- are struggling to position themselves on the temporary transnational municipalism promotes the INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 151 9. For an extensive account of the methodology see new urban ‘archetype of the “modern city”’, where sus- Mocca (2017a, 2017b)). tainability and innovation are crucial aspects (Mocca 10. The respondent did not indicate for what reasons the 2017a, p. 694). In particular, the findings show that the practices learnt from other cities are then not devel- exchange of policy knowledge in SEUNs is not equal and oped by the local government. reciprocal, but is dominated by those cities that have 11. See on this point also Mocca (2017a). 12. City in Italy. been able to craft a new post-industrial identity. In this 13. The data were aggregated for each city to examine the respect, the data hint at a European urban development spatial implications of policy learning. path led – more or less intentionally – by northern-con- 14. For example, some cities in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, tinental cities to which the more struggling peers in the and Poland, as well as Bratislava, Budapest, Ljubljana, peripheral areas seek to align.Therefore,thisarticle has Riga, Tallinn, Timisoara, Vilnius and Zagreb are full members of Eurocities. A few Eastern European cities shown that ‘imitative urbanism’ (Robinson, 2006)does are also members of Iclei Europe; additionally, not only play out in Global North-South partnerships – as Budapest and Tallinn are members of Polis. suggested for instance by Bouteliger (2013) – but also shapes the urban development patterns within Europe. It has to be noted that the small sample and the Notes on contributor inclusion of European post-industrial second cities Elisabetta Mocca is Research Fellow at the School of Social and limits the generalisability of the research findings. Political Science, University of Edinburgh. Notwithstanding, the focus on a limited number of cases permitted to study in-depth the relational dynamics and spatial implications of policy learning within SEUNs. As such, this article has sought to Disclosure statement contribute to the scholarship on policy mobility and No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. transnational municipalism, by trying to disentangle the ‘messy, unmappable complexity of policy flows’ (Robinson, 2011, p. 1092). References Notes Andonova LB, Betsill MM, Bulkeley H. 2009. Transnational cli- mate governance. Global Environm Politics. 9(2):52–73. 1. Andonova et al. (2009); Bulkeley and Betsill (2003); Beauregard R.A. 2003. City of superlatives. 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‘All cities are equal, but some are more equal than others’. Policy mobility and asymmetric relations in inter-urban networks for sustainability

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 2018, VOL. 10, NO. 2, 139–153 https://doi.org/10.1080/19463138.2018.1487444 ARTICLE ‘All cities are equal, but some are more equal than others’. Policy mobility and asymmetric relations in inter-urban networks for sustainability Elisabetta Mocca School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY Received 30 October 2017 Knowledge sharing is deemed an important function of transnational municipal Accepted 7 June 2018 networks. However, in the literature on these organisations, a critical discussion of the implications of this process is scant. This article unpacks the mechanisms KEYWORDS regulating learning, and examines the cognitive and relational dynamics of knowl- Transnational municipalism; edge exchange within socio-ecological urban networks. By analysing the experience urban policy mobilities; local of a small group of European post-industrial second cities in socio-ecological urban governments; urban networks, this article shows that network members exchange ideas and practices to sustainability; Europe tackle urban regeneration issues. The data suggest that, despite touted as a peer-to- peer practice, knowledge sharing reinforces asymmetrical relationships among net- work members, enabling the ‘soft domination’ of more advanced cities over less successful ones. and its implications. Extant literature on the topic Introduction under study has provided limited empirical evidence A large corpus of research in political geography, on the cognitive and relational aspects of knowledge public administration and political science has inves- exchange and policy learning, glossing over the tigated the process of policy learning and policy power dynamics among the agents involved in mobility among local governments (see inter alia, these processes. In the attempt to enrich this thread Bulkeley 2006; Kennedy 2016; McCann 2011; of research, the study here reported analyses of the McCann and Ward 2013; Peck and Theodore, 2010; policy learning process occurring among European Temenos, and McCann, 2012). Among these, policy cities engaged in inter-urban networks for sustain- learning occurring in networks of municipalities, ability – named socio-ecological urban networks often referred as transnational municipal networks (SEUNs) (Mocca 2017a, 2017b) – a field characterised (see the work of Bulkeley and Bulkeley and collea- by intense networking among municipalities gues), has also drawn some scholarly attention, in (Labaeye and Sauer 2013), by paying attention to particular to the process of exchange of knowledge, the inter-agent relations. SEUNs are inter-urban orga- experiences, best practices and information (see for nisations promoting urban sustainability, broadly instance, Le Galès, 2002; Bulkeley et al. 2003; Kübler understood in its environmental, social and eco- and Piliutyte 2007; Lee and Van de Meene, 2012). nomic dimensions, such as Eurocities, Energy Cities However, in the scholarship on transnational munici- and ICLEI (Mocca 2017a). Therefore, this article pro- pal networks, beyond the recognition of these orga- poses to answer two main questions: what type of nisations as spaces where cities exchange knowledge knowledge is exchanged in SEUNs? And how does the and learn from their peers, there is little critical dis- learning process work in these networks? In order to cussion about policy learning among member-cities provide a fine-grained analysis, this latter question CONTACT Elisabetta Mocca Elisabetta.Mocca@ed.ac.uk School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group 140 E. MOCCA can be broken down in two sub-questions: which municipalities engaged at international level. These cities learn? And which ones teach? two literatures are strongly intertwined, in that transna- To address these questions, the type of knowl- tional municipalism facilitates policy mobility (Saunier edge shared and the role played by the agents 2002;Clarke 2009). involved in the learning process will be examined. To unravel the cognitive and relational dynamics For this purpose, this article engages with the trans- playing out in SEUNs, it is necessary to distinguish national municipalism and the policy mobility litera- the different learning processes occurring in inter- tures and provides evidence through a qualitative municipal networks: knowledge sharing, policy learn- analysis of a pool of European post-industrial second ing and policy transfer. These three processes are cities – Birmingham, Cremona, Hamburg, Lille, outlined in the following sub-section. Malmö, Manchester and Torino – engaged in SEUNs based in Europe. The empirical analysis helped to tease out the learning process within SEUNs and to Seuns and peer learning map the ‘municipal connections’ (Saunier 2002) As a sizeable number of studies suggests, knowl- engendered by policy learning. edge sharing is an integral part of city networking. The findings reveal that SEUNs are arenas Information is used with different purposes within where to share and learn praxes on urban regen- networks, such as exerting political influence onto eration. Further, the data indicate that the nation-states, or aimed at ‘norm diffusion, consensus exchange of policy knowledge in such networks building or changing practice’ (Andonova et al. 2009, is not equal and reciprocal, but is dominated by pp. 63–64). successful cities, which set the policy trends that A second process occurring in inter-urban net- other cities seek to emulate. As a result, the ele- works is policy learning. This is determined by vation of some cities to the status of urban mod- changes in beliefs or attitudes engendered by pre- els confers them a certain political pre-eminence vious knowledge and the willingness to achieve spe- within networks. Finally, the data suggest that the cific goals (Sabatier 1988). Some authors argue that process of policy learning reinforces asymmetrical the knowledge exchanged in inter-urban networks relationships among network members, enabling does not automatically lead to policy learning (Betsill the ‘soft domination’ of the most advanced cities and Bulkeley 2004). Nonetheless, by sharing knowl- over the least successful ones. Since policy learn- edge about a common concern, local policy-makers ing in transnational municipal networks is not inevitably learn from each other’s experience. If regulated by coercion, such domination can be understood as ‘the general increase in knowledge thought as the hegemony of some policy models about policies’ (Bennett and Howlett, 1992, pp. and discourses over others. 288–289), knowledge exchange, which in transna- The article begins with a discussion of the trans- tional municipal networks is mainly about policies national municipalism and the policy mobility litera- and practices, then fosters policy learning. tures to set out the theoretical framework, followed Furthermore, in established SEUNs, member-cities by the presentation of the method and the findings. tend to develop durable and personal connections The discussion of the findings and concluding (Mocca 2017b), thus making policy circulation and, remarks are provided in the final section. possibly, policy transfer – or ‘policy mobility’,as defined by some authors (Clarke 2009, 2012a, 2012b; Transnational municipalism and policy mobility McCann 2011, 2013; McCann and Ward 2013) – more likely to occur. Policy transfer takes place whenever To approach theoretically the questions laid out above, this article, taking the cue from Clarke (2012a, 2012b)), “knowledge about policies, administrative arrange- draws on insights from the transnational municipalism ments, institutions etc. in one time and/or place is used in the development of policies, administrative literature and the contributions on policy mobilities. arrangements and institutions in another time and/or While the first enables an examination of the structure, place” (Dolowitz and Marsh 1996, p. 344). functions and activities of transnational municipal net- works, the latter lends theoretical support to a critical It is argued that transnational municipal networks are analysis of policy learning processes among primarily agents of ‘policy innovation and influence’ INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 141 and ‘policy learning’, while only marginally fostering concrete policy interventions and financial invest- policy transfer (Bulkeley et al. 2003, p. 248). This claim ments, the ‘exceptionalism’ of some urban models may hold true if policy transfer is thought as a copy- is also discursively constructed through the use of and-paste process, whereby a policy solution in one ‘rhetorical devices’, such as ‘superlatives’ and ‘firsts’ city is replicated as it is in another. However, in (Beauregard, 2003, p. 184), urban ‘stereotypes, arche- addition to ‘copying’ a model, Dolowitz and Marsh types and prototypes’ (Brenner 2003) and ‘inter-refer- (1996, p. 351) identify other modalities of policy encing’ mechanisms (Ong, 2011). Saunier (2002,p. transfer, namely ‘emulation’, ‘hybridization’ and 520) points out that transnational municipalism pro- ‘synthesis’– which entails blending different experi- vides cities with examples of policy innovations to be ences to create innovative solutions – and ‘inspira- used as ‘a rhetorical armoury’ in discourses to change tion’. In this respect, the policy mobilities literature or improve urban conditions. Furthermore, the assumes that policies are not transferred tout court, author observes that, historically, municipal examples but adjusted ‘on the move’ (McCann 2011; Peck and were implemented through various processes, Theodore, 2010). Hence, imported policies are not including ‘imitation, reappropriation or adaptation’ reproduced as they were originally formulated, but (Saunier 2002, p. 519). In particular, the imitation of they are shaped by institutional and political prac- examples that worked elsewhere is a significant tices, norms and ideas of the hosting municipality mechanism of policy mobility. Emulation is guided (McCann 2011). McCann and Ward (2013,p.8) by the ‘desire for conformity’ of those governments describe this adaptive process as an ‘assemblage’ of that ‘do not want to be left behind’, or aimed at ‘fixed and mobile pieces of expertise, regulation, obtaining ‘credibility’ at international level – what institutional capacities [. . .] from close by and far Meseguer, 2005 in Happaerts and Van Den Brande, away’. Such ‘pieces’ travelling within policy circles 2011, p.531 defines as ‘symbolic imitation’ include not only ‘policy goals, concepts, [. . .] ideas’, (Happaerts and Van Den Brande 2011, p. 531). ‘program structure, design, and techniques’, but also Emulation can also constitute a policy-making strat- ‘policy labels’ (Mossberger 2000; in Wolman and egy for those localities with few policy options avail- Page 2002, p. 480) – i.e. tags defining policies based able and unclear objectives (Chien 2008). In the on broad concepts (Wolman and Page 2002, p. 480). specific case of inter-urban networks for sustainabil- Therefore, discourses to frame policies and ‘“hot” ity, the engagement in such organisations may pro- policy ideas’ (McCann 2011, p. 109) also travel across vide member-cities with the opportunity to imitate municipalities. A significant example of a mobile dis- or be inspired by ‘travelling ecomodels’ (Blok 2012,p. course is urban sustainability. Political discourses are 2333). Hence, we would expect that in SEUNs, cities replete with references to sustainability, which has recognised as sustainability exemplars dominate the become the ultimate objective that policy-makers of policy learning process. different political colours aim to achieve. Therefore, the political interest for urban ‘sustainability fixes’ Policy circulation: a peer-to-peer practice? responds to the need of coupling environmental quality with economic growth (Temenos and Through the praise of specific urban interventions, McCann, 2012). policy circulation engenders ‘an uneven landscape of The idea of policy ‘assemblage’ (McCann and “teacher” and “learner” cities’ (McCann 2013, p. 10), Ward 2013) suggests a pick-and-mix policy-making primarily produced by municipalities’ resource avail- style that results in innovative policy solutions, thus ability (McCann 2011). More precisely, the external averting the prospect of policy convergence. activity, or the ‘“extrospective” orientation’,of ‘con- Nonetheless, some policy models or cities are cited sumers of policy boosterism’ is driven by public more often as good examples – as McCann (2011) spending cuts and the need to find effective policy observes. In more detail, exemplar policies or cities solutions (McCann 2013, p. 9). Such lopsided are ‘relationally produced’, inasmuch as they acquire exchange of policy knowledge may engender what the status of models only if they are recognised as Robinson (2006) defines as ‘imitative urbanism’, such by external ‘disciples and admirers’ (McCann whereby policies travel unevenly from the top to 2013, p. 10). Although the achievement of the the bottom of urban hierarchies (Clarke 2012a). As a model city status requires political commitment, result, policy mobilities may bring about ‘new forms 142 E. MOCCA of uneven spatial development’ (Peck and Theodore, networks’ actions and goals than their counterparts 2010, p. 170). Following this line of reasoning, it can in the Global South. On a more critical stand, Leitner be argued that the exchange of knowledge and best and Sheppard (2002, p. 512) note that ‘unequal practices within SEUNs conceals asymmetric inter- power relations’ are likely to develop within net- member relationships. Although sounding like a tru- works: the different economic background of cities ism, the act of learning hinges on an imbalanced affects their capacity to negotiate, so that the advan- relationship between the teacher – i.e. the holder of tages of network involvement are not equally spread the knowledge – and the learner, which needs that among members at the expenses of deprived local- type of knowledge. The fact that knowledge ities. Even further, the authors claim that, while exchange is an important motivation for cities to described as ‘non-hierarchical’, ‘flexible’, ‘self-organis- engage in transnational municipal networks (Kübler ing’ and ‘collaborative’, networks ‘exhibit tendencies and Piliutyte 2007; Mocca 2017b) suggests that a towards hierarchy, inequality, imitation, and exclu- certain kind of knowledge about urban policy and sion’ (Leitner and Sheppard, 2002, p. 514). practices can only be retrieved in networks, or it can Such imbalances within networks are also evident be retrieved in another way (for instance, through in the different patterns of sub-national mobilisation, research conducted by local government staff in with some localities assuming a ‘pro-active’ role, each city), but at a higher cost. As a result, the while others tend to be ‘reactive’ (Goldsmith 1993, possession of a sought-after policy knowledge con- p. 693). Similarly, Kern and Alber (2008, p. 14) report fers a certain supremacy to the teacher, while putting the presence of ‘pioneers and laggards’ in inter- the learner in a subordinated position. It may be urban networks, whose differences are addressed counter-argued that the roles of ‘borrowers’ and ‘by setting tiered standards that attract members ‘learners’ are not fixed, but inter-changeable with differing levels of performance and ambition’. (Dolowitz and Marsh, 2000, p. 10). However, as Kern and Bulkeley (2009, pp. 326, 329) describe three Stone (2004, p. 549) observes, learning is ‘uneven ‘green’ inter-urban networks – namely, Climate and imperfect’ in policy networks, insofar as ‘[c]ertain Alliance, Cities for Climate Protection and Energie- actors may have a greater capacity for learning Cités – as ‘networks of pioneers for pioneers’, which whereas others may adopt lessons for symbolic pur- are those cities that have been actively engaged in poses or as a strategic device to secure political networks since their outset. Furthermore, Keiner and support rather than as a result of improved Kim (2007, p. 1393) distinguish the presence in inter- understanding’. urban networks for sustainability of a ‘giving end’, i.e. Being spaces for knowledge exchange, as well as ‘the forerunner cities’ that have a leading role, and a vectors of policy mobilities, inter-municipal networks ‘receiving end’, which exploits what networks offer. may reinforce such uneven relations among mem- The discussion laid out above suggests that inter- bers. Empirical evidence has shown that policy learn- urban networks facilitate the exchange of practical ing in transnational municipal networks is more likely information and discourses. At the same time, the to occur when cities have a common language and, learning process appears to be led by exemplary at least in Europe and North America, are located in cities. Drawing on these premises, the following sec- the same region, suggesting that the linkages among tions present and discuss the findings of a multiple network members are regulated by the ‘homophily case study analysis involving seven European SEUN principle’, in that connections are more likely to members. develop between agents sharing similar characteris- tics (Lee and Van de Meene, 2012). Likewise, Gerber Method et al. (2013) demonstrated that cities with a similar political and social context are more likely to coop- To understand what type of knowledge is exchanged erate in a network and support common policies. The among SEUN-members and how the learning process flip side of homophily is that it may also lead to the works in SEUNs, a small-N qualitative analysis was marginalisation of those members with different performed on a pool of seven European cities characteristics. In this respect, Bouteliger (2013) engaged in SEUNs: Birmingham, Cremona, found that cities from the Global North tend to Hamburg, Lille, Malmö, Manchester and Torino. This exert more influence over transnational municipal methodological approach was adopted as it enables INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 143 to undertake an intense cross-case analysis to shed useful to the analysis, are less articulate than those light on the recurrent attitudes, relations and causal obtained through the interviews. factors underlying the phenomenon under study. The interview transcripts and the questionnaires The case selection process relied on the data and were then examined by undertaking a thematic ana- findings of a research on the same subject, which quan- lysis, aimed at capturing the policy learning dynamics titatively explored the urban-level factors determining occurring within SEUNs. The data were grouped in 2,3 SEUN membership (Mocca 2017a). Using as selection three main thematic clusters reflecting the research criteria the dependent variables found as statistically questions: (1) the knowledge, experience and infor- significant by the abovementioned study, the sample mation shared among SEUN-members, paying parti- for the qualitative study included: post-industrial (or cular attention to the sustainability dimension; (2) ‘modern’) cities; cities mainly ruled by centre-left or the modes of learning occurring among the mem- left-wing governments in the timespan 1985–2013 ; bers and (3) the inter-city relations emerging in the cities endowed of some administrative competencies learning process. The data were analysed separately (such as provinces or regional capitals) or territorial for each respondent. However, city-level aggregate influence and ‘cooperative’ cities,i.e.members at least data were employed to examine the spatial implica- of a non-sustainability network (Mocca 2017a). tions of the learning dynamics. In the next section, Once the small-N sample of cases was drawn, the findings of the small-N analysis are presented. semi-structured interviews were conducted. For this aim, 15 respondents, comprising both elected and Findings non-elected officials in charge of European and/or International Relations or environmental policy that The analysis highlighted three main aspects of policy were engaged in SEUNs, were recruited (Figure 1). learning within SEUNs. First, the conceptualisation of The data collection techniques employed included the networks as ‘learning environment[s]’ (Mocca mainly semi-structured in person interviews, replaced 2017b, p. 10), where members can learn practices by telephone interviews or questionnaires when the implemented in other European cities, especially in 7,8 respondents could not be interviewed face-to-face. the realm of urban regeneration. Second, the possi- The questions asked during the interviews, both face- bility to emulate exemplary cities, which have distin- to-face and telephonic, were reproduced as open- guished themselves for their innovative urban ended questions in the questionnaire, to ensure policies. Third, the unevenness of the learning pro- that the different data collection techniques would cess, driven by cutting-edge cities. In the following have generated consistent answers. It should be sections, these themes are examined. acknowledged that the use of the questionnaire hin- dered the possibility to further investigate the The networks as ‘learning environments’ respondents’ answers, for instant by prompting them or by asking follow-up questions. As a result, The participants stressed how SEUN membership the answers collected with questionnaires, while still enabled them to pool knowledge, solutions and experiences with peers from other cities. The Figure 1. Respondents. Source: Adaptation of Mocca (2017b). 144 E. MOCCA network is thus conceived as a ‘learning environ- Respondent 1 from Malmö observed. The inspirational ment’, that is an arena where knowledge about scope of SEUNs was also highlighted by the members’ approaches, instruments and interventions Respondent 1 from Birmingham, who argued that are shared (Mocca 2017b, p. 10) and where members the international engagement of cities can easily find a repertoire of solutions for their “is about being inspired by ideas, [. . .] new ways of problems, as stated by some Respondents. thinking of a problem or an issue and about taking Being exposed to other cities’ experiences, SEUN aspects of a policy or project and using that in project members are inspired to implement innovative local development in your own city, sensitive to national legal frameworks and maybe how you work with local policies. In this respect, emblematic is the statement partners.” made by the Respondent 3 from Lille, for whom within networks ‘you get a lot of new ideas that As the evidence suggests, knowledge exchange you would not get if you do not participate and results in policy learning, in that network members you do not make the mistakes you would make’. have the opportunity to get acquainted with the Further, the network provides the information and policies and initiatives implemented by other cities. the stimulus to experiment with local policy-making, However, as the findings indicate, the transferability or for some, simply to ‘upgrade’ and improve policies of the best examples should not be overestimated: as (Respondent 1 from Malmö), or to get further experi- some Respondents stated, policy transfer may not be ence (Respondent from Hamburg). In other words, feasible due to local problems – especially of finan- the exchange of ideas through the networks results cial nature. In more detail, as highlighted by the in an innovation push. Respondent 1 from Lille, the exchange of ideas As some participants suggested, policy innovation does not necessarily lead to their translation into can be described as a two-way flow, whereby there is policies, since local authorities might lack the an ‘incremental continuum between innovation and means to implement those ideas. Likewise, the learning’ (Respondent 1 from Torino): the particular Respondent from Cremona argued that the networks experience of each city feeds into the process of policy give the opportunity to learn from other cities inno- diffusion generating further policy innovation. For vative praxes, although, for various reasons, these instance, the Respondent 1 from Torino argued that, are not easily applied at local level. in the field of neighbourhood regeneration, intercul- Given the focus on urban sustainability of the tural and integration policies, Torino has been consid- networks included in this study, in the next section ered as one of the most innovative European cities. This policy learning in this field will be discussed. boils down to the fact that on these issues the council “ha[s] learnt and tried to implement policies producing innovation. We have not done this by ourselves [. . .]; we Learning urban sustainability have tried, through the work with other cities, to imple- The evidence indicates that the process of policy ment local actions taking into account approaches developed by others. This is the most meaningful learning occurring within SEUNs supports network value of the participation in networks: you get to see members’ endeavour to regenerate their cities. This things from a different perspective, but you have to issue is particularly important for the cities analysed, adapt the different experiences to the local level” as they experienced the problems associated to dein- (Respondent 1 from Torino). dustrialisation, including the reuse of industrial areas, Similarly, the Respondent 4 from Manchester sug- unemployment and the economic restructuring. To gested that the exchange of ideas with other cities deal with the upshots of the post-industrial transi- informed rather than totally shaped the policies of the tion, cities search for inspiration on how to redevelop local authority. In the same vein, for the Respondent their localities and SEUNs have been an important from Hamburg, regional or local policy is the result of source of information in this regard. As the adapting international experience to regional/local Respondent 2 from Birmingham stated, network demands. These statements suggest that the policy engagement ‘is [. . .] about a wider regeneration solutions shared within SEUNs are not slavishly cop- agenda. And learning from partner cities is crucial ied, but are adjusted to the local context. Knowledge to that’. The Respondent 1 from Manchester, talking exchange is thus about finding ‘inspiration’,as the about Eurocities, said that it ‘is a great network for INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 145 “sustainable city development means that you need to learning from other cities and sharing what you have, do more than business as usual. [. . .] You need to be your areas of specialty. For example, in the 1990s we innovative and find new solutions and ideas and so on. learnt a lot from other cities about regeneration and So, the networks have quite a lot, because you get lot of how to turn your city around’. In the same vein, the contacts with other cities.” Respondent 1 from Torino argued that the city’s experience on urban regeneration has been used as Similarly, the Respondent 1 from Torino expressed an example of good practice by other Italian cities the opinion that, for the city, sustainable urban and to some extent, by some European peers, espe- development is about increasing the urban quality, cially by cities in the Southern area of the Continent. that is quality of the public spaces, sustainable mobi- The relatively recent interest of local govern- lity, improvement of environmental conditions, and ments in urban sustainability may be – at least social sustainability, avoiding that ‘multi-speed cities’ partly – explained by local authorities’ necessity co-exist within the urban fabric. to undertake urban regeneration. To this end, the The respondents’ answers revealed how their idea of urban sustainability serves as a blueprint personal visions underlie their conceptualisation of for regenerating cities: the promise of economic urban sustainable development. For this reasons, growth coupled with social fairness and low envir- the research participants were asked whether they onmental impact aptly works as an ethical frame to considered sustainable development as a political guide regeneration plans. The discourse behind the concept – i.e. encompassing specific value-sets and idea of sustainable development assumes different worldviews. As most of the respondents stated, sus- connotations. Most of the respondents mentioned tainable development is indeed a political concept, the need to change the current economic model, since it proposes significant changes at urban and but the extent of such change varies. A more individual level. Furthermore, as the Respondent 3 radical vision emerged in interviews with two from Manchester observed, whereas sustainable respondents from Lille (Respondents 1 and 3), for developmentisaconceptsweepingacrossthe whom sustainable development entailed the tran- whole political spectrum, there might be a left- sition towards an alternative economic and social and right-wing reading. For instance, the model. The two British cities displayed a more Respondent 2 from Birmingham noted that the left practical and less idealistic perspective: the respon- may emphasise the social justice agenda, while the dents from both cities reckoned the need to right may pay more attention to the economic change the approach to the economy, but in a aspects. Additionally, according to the Respondent more eco-compatible way. Significant was the 1 from Birmingham, different parties manifest a dif- view expressed by the Respondent 2 from ferent degree of interest on sustainable develop- Birmingham, who observed how, while ‘the limit ment, for example introducing a cabinet member to growth’ report identified the economic growth working on sustainability matters. By way of con- as a disaster, trast, the Respondent 2 from Malmö and the Respondent 2 from Manchester argued that cities “sustainable development was a [. . .] very successful committed to sustainability are governed by coun- way of short-circuiting that kind of quite negative cils of various political leaning. Nonetheless, the debate between growth on the one side and the envir- Respondent 2 from Malmö conceded that these onment on the other, and demonstrated that was pos- may have a ‘different way of implementing’ sustain- sible to bring the two things together”. able development. According to the Respondent 4 from Manchester, sus- Given the wide engagement of European cities in tainable economic growth is a goal that, although SEUNs, the importance of sustainable development involving physical development, it is also about chan- for municipal administrations was investigated and a ging and adapting the existing situation, ‘making a set of reasons for local governments’ interest in sus- more attractive and better city for the uses people tainable development emerged from the analysis. want today’. Malmö stood in an intermediate position, Principally, the drawbacks of the de-industrialisation supporting the need to change lifestyle, while creat- process. For most of the participants, the interest of ing a more environmental-friendly economy. In this cities in sustainability was motivated by the willing- respect, the Respondent 2 from Malmö argued that: ness to recover from the problems engendered by 146 E. MOCCA deindustrialisation, such as unemployment, soil and have been regarded with interest by other air pollution, and economic instability. Similarly, for European counterparts. Networks offer what the the Respondent from Cremona, sustainable develop- Respondent 2 from Lille defined as ‘the virtue of ment addresses urban environmental problems imitating’– i.e. the possibility of emulating other affecting industrialised cities. According to the cities (Mocca 2017b, p. 10). At the same time, mem- Respondent 1 from Lille, sustainable development ber-cities strive to become themselves successful offers opportunities for economic recovery. examples of urban renewal. The data indicate that Additionally, for some respondents, sustainable members look up at those fellow cities that have development is about quality of life for citizens: this effectively solved local problems, especially those means improvements in liveability and attractiveness caused by de-industrialisation. As the Respondent 1 of cities. However, the Respondent 2 from Malmö from Manchester observed, cities are inspired from argued that, to do so, it is necessary to improve those peers they ‘admire’ and ‘can learn from’. The environmental quality, the participation of citizens latter are those cities that distinguished themselves and the economic situation, the latter being ‘part of by following innovative development trajectories daily life’, which allows people to ‘live and thrive’. and thus, become the ‘trend-setters’. By way of con- Improvements in quality of life may have a two-fold trast, those cities where the transformation is still in advantage: by making cities liveable and healthy fieri become the ‘followers’, aspiring to achieve the places, one meets the sustainability agenda; at the objective of urban regeneration. same time, cities present ‘an extremely attractive As the Respondent 2 from Lille suggested, gather- inward investment case’, as the Respondent 2 from ing information about successful examples imple- Birmingham pointed out. For some participants, sus- mented in other cities provide the legitimacy to tainable development is important in that it couples reinforce their objectives in their cities. More pre- economic growth with environmental and social con- cisely, the ‘foreign’ examples are used by individual cerns, and the future development of cities should be network members as reference cases to show to their built within the sustainability framework. local government that a specific policy can be imple- The sustainability discourse is thus instrumental to mented. However, the selection of the examples has policy innovation: the challenge posed by sustainability to be carefully done: the ‘model-city’ has to be a implies the development of innovative solutions to successful example of policy implementation, but – achieve economic growth, while ensuring at the same as the Respondent 2 from Lille argued – it cannot be time social equality and environmental quality. culturally too distant, otherwise, it might be met with Sustainable mobility plans, measures to reduce carbon resistance from the colleagues in the council and emissions, natural capital management, green procure- from national policy-makers, which may consider ment, etc. represent important policy instruments that the example ‘too forward’; therefore, it is necessary local authorities have been increasingly using in their to provide both national and international examples. territories. Therefore, the importance of sustainable In most of the interviews, it emerged that respon- development for cities is that it can be used as a guiding dents look at those cities with which they share principle to undertake urban regeneration. In this sense, significant similarities, especially a common eco- policy learning in the realm of sustainability is the vector nomic background characterised by the post-indus- of urban restructuring. Since urban regeneration is trial transition. For example, the Respondent 2 from undertaken at different speeds, front-runner cities tend Birmingham observed that, for Birmingham, the to lead the learning process, as will be discussed in the post-industrial crisis in the late 20th century played next section. a significant role in the city’s engagement in Eurocities, making the city realise that it was neces- sary ‘to engage with other cities that [were] experi- The ‘virtue of imitating’ encing similar problems’. Therefore, the need to While mutually influencing each other, some SEUN reinvent the urban identity in a period when tradi- members appear to carry more clout than others. The tional industries were dismantled pushed cities to overwhelming majority of the respondents indicated develop inter-urban linkages. Similarly, the that specific projects, patterns of urban regeneration Respondent 1 from Manchester stated that or governance models implemented in their cities Manchester was a very different city in the 1980s INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 147 and 1990s, when industrialisation had come to a of urban policy (e.g. sustainable mobility, employment standstill. For this Respondent, the problem was policy, knowledge society, etc.). These cities, which how to transform the city and ‘how to find a new represent the urban models at which the respondents vision’ for it. To this end, Manchester ‘learnt a lot look, are mainly concentrated in the Northern-conti- from cities like Barcelona [and] Lyon at that time’ nental Europe, with some centres in South-West (Respondent 1 from Manchester). It follows that cities Europe. Specifically, most of the participants named learn from those places with which they have a at least one German city (or region) that has somehow ‘commonality’ (Respondent 2 from Birmingham). In influenced them, followed by French cities, particularly this respect, the Respondent 2 from Birmingham Lyon, and former industrial English cities. Moreover, argued that ‘there’s massive scope there for informa- the Respondents indicated as influential examples tion exchange, for learning from each other, and some Northern European cities (Helsinki and Tampere becoming stronger because of that knowledge of in Finland; Stockholm and Malmö in Sweden) and a what’s going on in comparable places’. Such ‘com- few cities in Southern Europe, particularly in Spain, parability aspect’ was also indicated by the such as Barcelona, Figueres and Victoria Gasteiz. It Respondent 2 from Malmö, who stated that, by com- can be noted that no cities in the member-states of paring each other, network members can understand the former Eastern bloc and only a few in the Southern their strong points and flaws. European region were mentioned. This may suggest Theemphasisplacedbysomeparticipantsonthe how northern and continental metropolitan areas are similarities with other European cities suggests that regarded as the leaders in the process of post-indus- nationality is not perceived as a discriminatory factor. trial urban regeneration and are significantly influen- Actually, the ‘comparable places’ are often located out- cing the European urban development model side the national boundaries. Emblematic is the opinion (Figure 2). On closer examination, these findings hint of the Respondent 2 from Birmingham, for whom, at the existence of a cluster of European cities that set underpinning the city’s engagement in European net- the trends in urban policy followed by other local works, there was ‘the recognition that Birmingham has authorities. lotmoreincommonwithFrankfurt andLyonthanithas Although member-cities look up at inspirational in common with Cornwall. So, you needed that urban examples, it cannot be concluded that the trajec- European perspective’. Likewise, the Respondent 1 tory of European urban development will end up produ- from Torino stated that, for what concerns the issue of cing homogeneous cities. As the Respondent 1 from urban sustainability and reconversion of de-industria- Manchester argued: ‘there are common themes across lised land, the city has ‘more commonalities with the the cities, but we’re all individual in how we approach German cities in the Ruhr region or with the former them’. Therefore, SEUN members search for new ideas to textile manufacturing centres in the North of England solve specific problems in their localities; but the transfer than with Siena, for example’. Additionally, the of policies or initiatives from one city to another is Respondent 4 from Manchester claimed that neither simple nor immediate. Ultimately, it is necessary ‘[Manchester] probably ha[s] much more in common to adapt one policy solution to the specific social, eco- as a lot of European cities than just those in the UK’. nomic and cultural characteristics of the urban context. The emulative dynamic between trend-setters and followers raises a question about the parts involved Discussion in the learning process: which cities learn and which ones teach? In what follows, the learning process is Policy learning in SEUNs has been examined in the examined to answer this question. previous sections through a qualitative analysis focusing on the experience of a pool of SEUN mem- bers. The findings suggest that SEUNs facilitate the The unevenness of the learning process circulation of specific ideas, approaches and practices Mostly unprompted, the respondents – except for among members. In particular, the findings indicate those from Cremona and Hamburg – indicated some that the exchange of information and knowledge cities or specific European geographical regions – both among member-cities results in policy learning. As included and not included in the study – as compar- exemplified in Figure 3 below, there are two possible able places or as successful examples in some sectors outcomes of policy learning. The first one is policy 148 E. MOCCA Figure 2. Urban influence in the EU. upgrade, which indicates a situation where an exist- process requiring the transformation and adaption ing policy or measure is improved as a result of – or deterritorialization and reterritorialization policy learning. Policy upgrade occurs where a (Clarke 2012b) – of the imported policy to the speci- given policy is already in place, but, thanks to the ficities of the hosting urban context. exchange of information and the learning of innova- As the data show, knowledge exchange and the tive examples, there is a general improvement. The consequential policy learning do not always end up second possible outcome is policy emulation, with the migration of policy solutions. Policy learning whereby a policy or a specific measure developed may simply improve existing policies or may not in one place is imitated in another. However, the even produce any effects. This occurs when a local imitation of a policy solution should not be intended authority does not have the resources to implement as its mere reproduction in another city, but a the transferred idea, or when local actors engaged in INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 149 Figure 3. The outcomes of knowledge exchange. networks fail to persuade their council to import a that ‘municipalities continued to play the leading policy solution. The migration of ideas or solutions role in forging new policy networks in regenerating may ultimately yield policy innovation, whenever the cities, through a process of transnational municipal- imported knowledge feeds in a new policy. As the ism’. What is more, urban regeneration is important evidence suggests, local policy innovation is the for local political elites in that any improvement in result of incremental changes, rather than of sudden terms of quality of life may result in an electoral radical transformations. The tenet of policy mobility payoff. literature, for which ‘policies change as they move’ The findings indicate that SEUN engagement (Clarke 2012b, p. 31), seems to regulate the policy leads to two phenomena: comparability and emula- learning outcomes of SEUN engagement. tion. On the one hand, network members compare As a result of knowledge and information themselves with each other, especially with those exchange, cities have the opportunity to know cities sharing a common economic background and how other cities have dealt with common urban similar urban development objectives; in so doing, issues. The network-members that have solved a they can recognise their successes and pinpoint vexing socio-economic or environmental problem areas of improvement. On the other hand, mem- or have improved some aspects of the urban gov- ber-cities find inspiration from trend-setters, which ernance, then become examples to reproduce in furnish policy models to be adapted to various local other cities. As also emerged elsewhere, network contexts. A striking finding was that the majority of members use the experience of other cities as a the trend-setters indicated by the respondents are reference case to support policy changes at local mainly located in Northern-continental Europe. level (Mocca 2017b). Similarly, Betsill and Bulkeley Interestingly, the map illustrated in Figure 2 above (2004, p. 486) found that the Climate Change suggests that the geographical location of the influ- Protection programme provided municipalities with ential cities broadly recalls the area identified by ‘legitimacy and authority’. As Kennedy (2016) Brunet (1989) as the European backbone (‘dorsale’), observes, referring to international good urban famously named ‘blue banana’,which stretches examples is a persuasive tactics to make the case from Northern England to Northern Italy. As for a specific policy. Metaxas and Tsavdaridou (2013,p. 16) state,this The need for municipalities to find new ideas to area ‘was different from the rest of the European improve the local economic performance, as well as locations based on demographic, economic level, as the social and environmental situation in their terri- well as in a cultural and in infrastructure level’.In tories responds to the urban regeneration objectives thelate1980s-early 1990s, thecitiesinthe central of economic restructuring, physical requalification area had an economic advantage due to the devel- and social renewal. In this sense, European urban opment of advanced production, while marginal networking fits into a wider plan to boost local cities, such as ‘Dublin, Lisbon, Seville, Palermo, development (Mocca 2017a). This claim is supported Cagliari, Athens and Thessaloniki’, did not have by Ewen’s historical analysis of Birmingham’s interna- these resources at their disposal (Hall, 1992;cited tional engagement (2008, p. 103), where it is argued in Lever 1993,p.936). 150 E. MOCCA To some extent, the findings indicate a parallelism European urban map. Drawing again a comparison between the relations among network members and between the geography of economic development the European urban economic geography. Although and the location of the influential member-cities, the small sample cannot allow for a broad general- then it can be argued that the networks do not isation, the data suggest that the relationships reflect a ‘polycentric Europe’. From an economic per- among network members reproduce the long-lasting spective, this model indicates an urban system where pattern of the European urban development: the inter-urban competition is ‘complemented by an ele- poles of economic growth – located in the core of ment of cooperation and mutual help among regions continental Europe with few centres in the North and and cities’– defined as ‘European grape’ (Kunzmann South-West – seem to assume the role of trend-set- and Wegener 1991, p. 291). Conversely, the findings ters. The argument about this overlapping between seem to suggest that within SEUNs there are not inter-member relations and urban development several influential cities scattered across Europe. To paths is also reinforced by the silence of the respon- some extent, the presence of trend-setters and fol- dents about Eastern European cities. In effect, no lowers suggests a multi-speed model of network cities from Eastern European countries were indi- membership, whereby a number of more economic- cated by the interviewees, either as noteworthy ally and socially advanced – and hence more influen- examples of urban policies, or as project partners tial – cities are more tightly connected in with which they have shared experience and infor- collaborative relations, constituting the core of the mation. This finding can be partly explained by the urban Europe. recent interests of Eastern European local authorities in networks. While 10 years ago Keiner and Kim Conclusions (2007) found that most of the big cities in Eastern Europe were not members of any transnational net- In tune with previous research on the topic, this works for sustainable development, to date the pre- article has shown how the sharing of knowledge sence of several Eastern European cities – not only and experiences among cities is a crucial aspect of capitals – in SEUNs is increasing. Nevertheless, the inter-urban networking. The main purpose for acquir- data show that inter-member relations reproduce not ing information from other European peers is to find only the long-standing North-South divide – albeit inspiration on how to tackle urban problems, with less marked than it was during the Fordist period – the ultimate aim to achieve urban regeneration. but also a stark difference between Western and Here, the urban sustainability discourse, with its Eastern European cities. This finding is in contrast emphasis on the quality of the urban space, has with some previous research: for the case of superseded the conceptualisation of cities as mere Eurocities, Kübler and Piliutyte (2007) argue that sites of production proper of industrialism. more disadvantaged cities and those from recent The findings of the study reported in this article indi- member-states, unlike well-off European capitals, cate that policy learning, fostered by knowledge sharing, are more attracted by the possibility offered by leads to the mobility of practices through the emulation inter-urban networks to take part in European of successful urban models. The exchange of knowledge projects. and experience is more intense between comparable A final observation on the geography of inter- places, which share commonalities in terms of socio- member relations should be made on the concept economic characteristics of the territory and their vision of polycentrism. Transnational municipal networks for the future. This comparability aspect – which McCann are described as ‘polycentric’, insofar as decision- (2011) defines ‘commensurability’– hasalwaysbeena making rests with a plurality of centres (Bulkeley salient element of transnational municipalism. The latter et al. 2003; Kern and Bulkeley 2009). The decision- rests on the idea underpinning ‘municipal connections’ making polycentrism does not appear to match an that all cities across Europe (and beyond) share common equal distribution of the influence among network beliefs and norms: an example is the competition among members. The presence of trend-setters mainly localities to resemble the ‘ideal “modern” city’,which located in the old European backbone of economic spanned across the late years of 19th Century to the development suggests that cities outside this area 1940s (Saunier 2002, p. 522). In a similar fashion, con- are struggling to position themselves on the temporary transnational municipalism promotes the INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 151 9. For an extensive account of the methodology see new urban ‘archetype of the “modern city”’, where sus- Mocca (2017a, 2017b)). tainability and innovation are crucial aspects (Mocca 10. The respondent did not indicate for what reasons the 2017a, p. 694). In particular, the findings show that the practices learnt from other cities are then not devel- exchange of policy knowledge in SEUNs is not equal and oped by the local government. reciprocal, but is dominated by those cities that have 11. See on this point also Mocca (2017a). 12. City in Italy. been able to craft a new post-industrial identity. In this 13. The data were aggregated for each city to examine the respect, the data hint at a European urban development spatial implications of policy learning. path led – more or less intentionally – by northern-con- 14. For example, some cities in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, tinental cities to which the more struggling peers in the and Poland, as well as Bratislava, Budapest, Ljubljana, peripheral areas seek to align.Therefore,thisarticle has Riga, Tallinn, Timisoara, Vilnius and Zagreb are full members of Eurocities. A few Eastern European cities shown that ‘imitative urbanism’ (Robinson, 2006)does are also members of Iclei Europe; additionally, not only play out in Global North-South partnerships – as Budapest and Tallinn are members of Polis. suggested for instance by Bouteliger (2013) – but also shapes the urban development patterns within Europe. It has to be noted that the small sample and the Notes on contributor inclusion of European post-industrial second cities Elisabetta Mocca is Research Fellow at the School of Social and limits the generalisability of the research findings. Political Science, University of Edinburgh. Notwithstanding, the focus on a limited number of cases permitted to study in-depth the relational dynamics and spatial implications of policy learning within SEUNs. As such, this article has sought to Disclosure statement contribute to the scholarship on policy mobility and No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. transnational municipalism, by trying to disentangle the ‘messy, unmappable complexity of policy flows’ (Robinson, 2011, p. 1092). References Notes Andonova LB, Betsill MM, Bulkeley H. 2009. Transnational cli- mate governance. Global Environm Politics. 9(2):52–73. 1. Andonova et al. (2009); Bulkeley and Betsill (2003); Beauregard R.A. 2003. City of superlatives. 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Journal

International Journal of Urban Sustainable DevelopmentTaylor & Francis

Published: May 4, 2018

Keywords: Transnational municipalism; urban policy mobilities; local governments; urban sustainability; Europe

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