Hybrid Governance in European Cities—Neighbourhood, Migration and Democracy

How are responses to urban policy challenges affected by new ideas about governance? How can we explain the governance transformations that result? And what are the consequences for democracy? This wide-ranging study of three European cities – Birmingham, Copenhagen and Rotterdam - shows how hybrid forms of governance emerge from the tensions between new visions and past legacies, and existing institutional arrangements and powerful actors. Hybrid governance includes public-private partnerships, stakeholders boards, and multi-actor forums operating at arm's length to institutions of representative democracy. Offering detailed studies of migration and neighbourhood policy, as well as a novel Q methodology analysis of public administrators' views on democracy, the book explores how actors generate new practices, shows how these develop, and evaluates the democratic implications. The book concludes that hybrid governance is both widespread and diverse, is spatially and policy specific and that actors – public managers, politicians and the public – contribute to hybrid designs in ways that promote and challenge democratic conventions.

Chris Skelcher is Professor of Public Governance, INLOGOV, University of Birmingham; Helen Sullivan is Professor and Director of the Centre for Public Policy, University of Melbourne; Stephen Jeffares is Roberts Research Fellow, INLOGOV, University of Birmingham.

Stephen Jeffares is RCUK Roberts Fellow at the Institute of Local Government Studies (INLOGOV), University of Birmingham. He is interested in collaboration in local government, policy change and policy termination. Stephen's research applies social data analysis and Q methodology to map discussion and debate surrounding the contemporary public policies.

Professor Helen Sullivan is Director of the Centre for Public Policy at the University of Melbourne. Her research and writing explores public policy practice in complex governance contexts, with a particular focus on the role of collaboration. Previous books include 'Working across boundaries' with Chris Skelcher (2002).