Speaker
Description
Institutions enable organised and collective efforts to address common concerns and achieve social goals (Dovers, 2001). Institutional innovations can occur at various scales when the context in which people and decision-makers operate changes and impose new constraints on them. Climate Change and environmental challenges are today the main drivers of institutional change at all levels (Hamdouch & Zuindeau, 2010). The impact and struggle of urban policies on these changes create new forms of urban management, and policies are constantly discussed and updated (Rotmans et al., 2000). Institutional capacity adequacy is a necessary condition not only for crisis management but also for all stages of urban development today, with institutional capability and governance being substantial factors in the development of cities. For relevant institutions, cross-sectoral integrated thinking, flexibility of resources, clarity and transparency constitute strong institutionalised capacity (OECD, 2016). Integrated, comprehensive and flexible management of social, cultural, demographic and environmental changes cannot be possible without updating management patterns and policies. Policy actors have different political and technical capacities to select and reorganise new instruments within existing institutional arrangements (Mukherjee et al., 2021). Changing political and structural conditions can lead to different policy effects of the same institutional arrangements. The design of policies and their provisions under specific circumstances significantly impacts the patterns, processes, and outcomes of incremental and endogenous policy change in the actual policymaking (Ahn, 2024). Economic developments and production processes in the world are usually reflected in urban areas, and related environmental, social and institutional processes accelerate the change in urban areas. Ensuring urban economic sustainability and developing efficient interventions for all developments are at the centre of urban policies. This can only be achieved through institutionalisation. Institutionalisation ensures effective use of resources by providing a transparent and systematic control cycle. It can be achieved and sustained by developing institutional capacities, fostering collaborations, creating and utilizing new funding sources, and adopting flexible management models. This study aims to emphasise the importance of institutionalisation in contemporary urban policies and related implementation tools. In the case of Turkey, in addition to the institutions and legal regulations responsible for making urban policies, institutionalisation and institutional transformation efforts are discussed through institutional capacities, funding sources, collaborations and awareness. Within the purpose of the study, the main questions are: Are the capacities of local governments, which have endeavoured to update their policies and institutions as a reflection of urban politics in recent years, sufficient to create the order they envisage, make and implement policies? Which implementation and legal tools are used in urban development to reflect policies on the city? Central and local institutions within the legal hierarchy in urban practices are examined concerning the subject. The institutional change efforts of local governments have been evaluated through interviews with urban planning agencies, most of which have been established in the last few months, and municipal unions and their approaches and policies have been put forward about urban politics and institutionalisation. It can be said that organisations with strong institutional capacity are capable of carrying out the most effective and innovative practices. Individual skills seem to be effective in this regard. Collaboration and institutionalisation awareness are open to discussion. It is a necessity for policymakers to update their agendas, understand the developments, and work towards developing innovative policies by overcoming legal constraints. Local governments' efforts for urban policymaking should updated on the axis of institutionalisation, away from the shadow of populist urban politics. Efficient institutional capacity includes human and intellectual capital, awareness, collaborations, innovative, flexible and horizontal management models.
References
Ahn, B. (2024) ‘What changes over time? Planning history and institutional change from a policy design perspective’, European Planning Studies, 32(12), pp. 2535–2554.
Dovers, S. (2001) Institutions for sustainability. TELA: Environment, Economy and Society, 4(7), p. 32.
Hamdouch, A. and Zuindeau, B. (2010) ‘Sustainable development, 20 years on: methodological innovations, practices and open issues’, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 53(4), pp. 427–438.
Mukherjee, I., Coban, M. K. and Bali, A. S. (2021) ‘Policy Capacities and Effective Policy Design: A Review’, Policy Sciences, 54(2), pp. 243–268.
OECD (2016) Resilient Cities. Available at: https://www.oecd.org/cfe/regionaldevelopment/resilient-cities.htm(Accessed: 2 September 2023).
Rotmans, J., Asselt, M. and Vellinga, P. (2000) ‘An Integrated Planning Tool for Sustainable Cities’, Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 20, pp. 265–276
| Keywords | urban policymaking; institutionalisation; institutional capacity; Turkey |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
