Recasting Urban Governance through Leeds City Lab: Developing Alternatives to Neoliberal Urban Austerity in Co-production Laboratories

摘要

This paper reports on a research project, Leeds City Lab, that brought together partner organisations to explore the meanings and practices of co-production urban labs in the context of urban change. Our intention is to offer a response to the crisis in urban governance by bringing together growing academic and practitioner debates on co-production and urban laboratories. We do so to explore radically different institutional personae that can respond to deficits in contemporary urban governance, especially relating to participation and disenfranchisement, and ultimately unlock improved ways of designing, managing and living in cities. Our analysis identified four key findings which elaborate on the ways in which co-production labs can recast urban governance to more progressive ends: moving beyond traditional organisational identities and working practices; embracing grey spaces of new civic interfaces; foregrounding emotions and power; and a commitment to durable solutions. Ultimately, what we point towards is that urban governance can be more effectively enacted in co-production labs that bring together universities, the public, private and civil society sectors based on equality, trust and openness. These spaces have the potential to unlock a city’s knowledge, resources and assets to unpack challenges and build capacity that can deliver improved city-wide solutions.