Why are designs for urban governance so often incomplete? A conceptual framework for explaining and harnessing institutional incompleteness

Catherine Durose and Vivien Lowndes

Environment and Planning C, 2021, vol. 39, issue 8, 1773-1790

Abstract: This article asks why institutional designs for urban governance are so often incomplete and what a critical perspective on incompleteness may offer. We develop a novel conceptual framework distinguishing between incompleteness as description (a deficit to be ‘designed-out’), action (‘good enough’ design to be worked with and around), and prescription (an asset to be ‘designed-in’). An extended worked example of city regional devolution in England illuminates the three types of incompleteness in practice, whilst also identifying hybrid forms and cross-cutting considerations of power, time and space. Perceiving institutional incompleteness as a design logic in its own right, held in tension with completeness, could help augment institutional design repertoires and even enhance democratic values.

Keywords: Institutional design; incompleteness; urban governance; city regional devolution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirc:v:39:y:2021:i:8:p:1773-1790

DOI: 10.1177/2399654421990673

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