Conference Agenda

One of the main challenges of the climate crisis is translating this issue into locally actionable plans. The Multi-Level Governance (MLG) concept addresses this scale mismatch and was adopted as the preferred governance system for sustainability and climate change as early as the 1992 UN Summit for Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro. Various mechanisms have been proposed to address the scale mismatch within the MLG framework, including Regional Climate Assemblies (RCAs). This study examines RCAs initiated in Israel between 2021 and 2022 by a national coalition of climate-oriented NGOs, which planned 14 assemblies in collaboration with local municipalities. Our research explores how the climate crisis is interpreted locally, the strategies employed for translating this global issue into specific local actions, and the role of RCAs in this process. The methodology involved analyzing RCA documents and direct observation of the assemblies. Additionally, 38 in-depth interviews with diverse stakeholders were conducted, employing a grounded theory approach to identify key themes.

Findings reveal significant variation among Israeli RCAs concerning issues, tools, and participants. Examining the motivations behind the design of the assemblies reveals a common challenge for all assembly organizers and partners: distance is identified as a problem while being relevant is the goal. Making connections is the process that affected the design of the RCAs as a tool to overcome distances between actors and between the topics and the local actors.

It guided the local partners in choosing subjects that are relevant to locals, framing them as part of the global crisis, and initiating activities that have the potential to mobilize local actors such as elected politicians, local NGOs, and professionals in the local government. In addition, RCAs enabled local actors to be part of a more significant endeavor that scales up their local activities, summing small-scale effort into a more significant act.

Moreover, RCAs were found to have the potential to accommodate not only the vertical challenges of MLG, which involve different levels of governance but also the horizontal complexities by facilitating cooperation among multiple local actors. The Israeli RCAs, which the data have shown span seven to thirty organizing actors, demonstrate how local networks can be expanded and strengthened when locality and localization are central aspects of the assembly design.

The Israeli experience with RCAs was an experimental, ad hoc initiative that emerged as a practical solution to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and its limitations on public crowding. While the RCAs represented a civil society initiative rather than a governmental one, they still mobilized multiple actors, including local government entities. They highlighted environmental issues that were often not prioritized on the local agenda. RCAs seem to be a vehicle with the potential to facilitate a local connection to the global challenge of climate change.

The localisation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in territorial governance has received increasing attention from scholars, with the aim of better understanding success cases. Metropolitan areas are seen as the most appropriate level of government to implement effective sustainable development policies, also because of their ability to respond to citizens' demands, design multi-level policy interventions, coordinate public and private actors, and manage trade-offs with higher levels of government.

This multi-level urban governance involves higher levels of complexity and interdependence and calls into question stakeholder arenas capable of promoting and co-producing integrated sustainable development projects tailored to the needs of territories.

Knowledge and expertise therefore play a strategic role in helping decision-makers understand sustainability issues and provide tools for evidence-based policy-making. This paper examines the role that actors with scientific, technical and professional expertise have played in formulating sustainable development projects in three major European metropolitan areas: Barcelona, Milan and Lyon.

Through three comparative case studies, the analysis reconstructs the processes of localising the sustainable development agenda by looking at how the local agenda is framed, how different public and private actors are involved, and how experts have contributed to the process. Particular attention is paid to the intuitional legacies and the interaction between sub-national levels of government in terms of competition or cooperation.

The selection of cases follows a similar system design, as all three cases belong to the pattern of industrial and innovative smart cities, also known as moral capitals, as opposed to the capitals of the states to which they belong.

The analysis of the cases therefore looks for variability in styles and strategies in search of emerging patterns of knowledge regimes that have enabled successful policies to be formulated in metropolitan contexts.

This paper analyses interventions by the UK Secretary of State in four English local government authorities that were alleged to have governance or financial failings. Between May 2010 and June 2024, there were 12 such interventions. Four of them occurred between 2014 and 2021: London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, Northamptonshire County Council, and Liverpool City Council. These four councils experienced relatively prolonged interventions, ranging from 27 to 43 months.

All four councils were required to develop strategic improvement plans and underwent leadership and CEO changes and they improved governance processes and organizational culture.

Theoretical Frameworks

Two theoretical frameworks primarily guide this analysis: the Strategic State Model and Adaptive Leadership. Strategic states are characterised by robust strategic planning, effective intergovernmental coordination, strong evaluation mechanisms, and active public engagement. These features shape prevailing assumptions about what makes local government interventions effective. This paper argues that strategic planning must be at the heart of efforts to improve failing councils, with interventions designed to strengthen governance capacity. Crucially, coordination between central and local governments requires cohesive leadership across departments. Transparent evaluation frameworks should inform decision-making and provide clear criteria for ending interventions. Given that public trust is often eroded in such contexts, transparency and meaningful citizen involvement are essential to rebuilding legitimacy. Drawing on four case studies, the paper shows how each intervention aimed to transform organisational culture. These efforts reflect Ron Heifetz’s model of adaptive leadership, which enables public bodies to tackle complex challenges without overwhelming stakeholders—ultimately supporting sustainable, long-term improvement.

The Cross-Case Analysis

The cross-case analysis will test whether the duration of intervention was linked to factors including strategic state factors (strategic planning, cooperation/coordination, evaluation, and support from society and citizens) and leadership factors (especially adaptive leadership).

Theory into practice

The final part of the paper will attempt to draw pertinent practical lessons. These will relate to rebuilding strategic and governance capabilities of the local council, the timing of leadership and CEO changes, tools for cultural change, restoring public confidence in the local council, and specific design principles for the intervention process (such as when should commissioners use a more command-and-control approach and when they should use a partnership or supportive approach).

References

Heifetz, R.A. (1994) Leadership without easy answers. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Heifetz, R., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009) The practice of adaptive leadership. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.

Context

The European demographic trends for the upcoming decades show a clear aging pattern. In the EU-27, the proportion of people aged 65 or older is expected to rise from 20% to 29% by 2050. Among this group, the population aged 85 or older—those most vulnerable to multimorbidity and frailty—is projected to more than double, from 12.5 million in 2019 to 26.8 million by 2050 (+113.9%) (Eurostat, 2020). In parallel, as of 2023, the largest share of households in Europe consists of a single adult without children (35.2%) (Eurostat, 2024). Increases in life expectancy beyond age 65 are evident in all developed economies (Paolucci et al., 2011), accompanied by looser family ties and more two-worker households (Elliott et al., 2015).

Problem

Elderly care services cover a broad spectrum, from intensive long-term care to programs promoting active aging (e.g., gym programs, counseling). These services straddle health and social policies, involve public sector organizations (PSOs) closest to the community (municipalities, municipal mergers, and regions) in the planning and financing, and are often provided by diverse actors: PSOs, Non-Profit Organizations, Social Enterprises, for-profit organizations, home assistants, volunteers, and informal caregivers (Kehl & Smith, 2018; Ng et al., 2020; Vos & Voets, 2022).

While this network fosters co-production and holds valuable knowledge, it can also result in fragmented and overlapping services (Walsh et al., 2019), inefficiencies in public spending and low accessibility. Users must interact with multiple stakeholders, receiving fragmented information that is not always cohesive or easily accessible.

Analytical framework

The New Public Governance paradigm, which emphasizes a value-centered, pluralistic approach to public service administration, based on inter-organizational relationships, networks, and collaborative partnerships (Shulz, 2025) and encourages individual and collective actors to interact in autonomous arenas facilitated and regulated by public authorities (Ansell & Torfing, 2022), represents a relevant lens to look at the above challenge.

The Public Service Logic, which focuses on the distinctiveness of the service experience, the systemic nature of public service delivery, and the role of consumers as co-producers and evaluators of their experiences experience (Osborne et al., 2013), and suggests that public resources and processes should support service users in achieving their goals in ways that are valuable to them (Grönroos, 2019), provides further relevant insights.

Aim and Results

Given the challenges and analytical frameworks above, this contribution analyses and systematizes existing studies on the governance of public services for the elderly. It addresses the following research questions: how can governance facilitate services that are user-centric, meaning: accessible and relevant, and financially efficient from a public financing standpoint? What is the role of local and regional public organizations in the network? How are service priorities determined within the network?

Adopting a systemic perspective, the goal is to identify key dimensions necessary for achieving governance systems that prioritize elderly users’ needs. Furthermore, the study aims to highlight research gaps that should be addressed in future research agendas.