Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISIMaking green transitions more democratic and democraties greener: Paving the way for innovative public administrations in European Cities (GreenDEMO)
GreenDEMO sets out to study the new and innovative role of public administrations in coping with societal challenges, particularly in supporting democratic processes of societal change to reach green sustainability goals. The project aims to contribute to 'greener' democracies in Europe and to more democratic sustainability transition processes. GreenDEMO more particularly proposes to design, prototype, test and replicate organisational innovation in city administration in order to enable, stabilise and enhance capacities of public administration to act for climate neutrality and democratic stability.
City administrations need to collaborate with stakeholders to set up local green deals. This is critical given that trust in public institutions is weakening (crisis of democracies). Moreover, even in a less challenging political climate, establishing effective political interventions in support of ambitious climate and green sustainability goals is a complex issue. Thus, there is a double pressure on democracies to secure effectiveness and democratic legitimacy. Current studies suggest that this requires public administration to build up "transformative capacities".
One lever to build such capacities is organisational innovation, e.g. new structures or processes, or practices. Demo Cities (Mannheim, Bristol, Aalborg) commit to such organisational innovation and will work on demonstrators, while Fellow Cities (Glasgow, Aarhus, Bamberg, Schaerbeek, Poznan) will work on replication activities and roadmaps for their own organisational change process. We assume that cities, which prove to be able to innovate their approaches and work together with their stakeholders, will be in a better position to implement (effective) local green deals. This, in turn, is expected to increase trust in public bodies and hence might be an important mechanism to strengthen democracies.