Institutional capacity development within the national urban policy formation process – Participants’ views

Abstract

In 2019, Serbia adopted its first national urban policy. This document was established through a communicative process during 2018–2019, formally encouraging urban governance as a practical innovation in Serbia’s planning doctrine. The main aim of this research is to explore institutional capacity development within a live setting of the policy formation process. The participants of this process are the primary subjects of the research. Data was collected through participatory events in four instances during the process. The concept of institutional capacity development is used in this paper as a basic framework to assess knowledge, relational and mobilisation capacity for urban governance. The main contribution of this paper is providing an understanding of the challenges and potentials for establishing urban governance practices in a post-socialist country planning context. Findings indicate an increase in the participants’ knowledge and understanding of governance instruments such that coordination and cooperation are continually unfolding. The identified challenges relate to the mobilisation capacity and fragility of institutions and resistance to change, while a need to deal with complexity and uncertainty remains present.

To what extent can collaborative platforms in urban planning education enhance transformative learning outside of academia?

“…In recent years, the influence of the EU accession process has held a prominent role in introducing innovations into the planning system at all levels of decision making in Serbia. Although considered a novelty in the context, the concept of urban governance and integrated urban development planning has become pervasive in education, practice and research (Čolić et al , 2021). In the local context the concept of CI is also seen as a novelty.…”

“…The main criticism has been that power hierarchies are not being addressed, and that public planners are reluctant to recognize the importance of including diverse types of knowledge and sharing learning experiences to find adequate solutions to the increasingly complex urban reality. This is especially true in countries in transition, where planning practices are often ingrained and more collaborative formats have difficulty finding their way into the planning system (Čolić et al , 2021).…”