Challenges for Governance and Planning in Cities and Municipalities

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Urban governance and planning takes place under rapidly changing conditions. Political agendas are changing, as new issues are put forward and existing issues are reinterpreted in light of changing circumstances. At the same time, governing takes place un der changing institutional and societal conditions. New modes of governance develop, and existing modes are transformed. Seen in conjunction, these changes pose a two-sided challenge for urban governments. They not only have to manage a changing political agenda, they also have to find new ways of doing so. As for the changing agenda, climate change is an emerging issue for city governments worldwide. Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions as well as adapting to incipient impacts of global warming are high ly demanding policy aims in several respects, as it involves management of complex and uncertain knowledge, co-ordination across sectors and levels of public government as well as between governments and the private sector and civil society. Public heal th is a long-standing item on the political agendas of cities, yet climate change and rapid urbanization expands and transforms the focus of this policy area. Mounting evidence suggests current and future effects of global climate change on human health. How will different kinds of urbanisation processes affect physical and social environment, and consequently also physical and mental health? Does local climate adaption counteract social differences in health, or does it strengthen social differences in a nd between urban areas? The project aims at reflecting NIBRs compound approach to research on cities and municipalities. This research focuses on cities and towns as governance systems, as physical and socially differentiated systems and as knowledge-int ensive innovation systems. Some of the research is carried out in the context of developing societies in the south and in the east.