The influence of cities on EU urban sustainable development policy

Abstract

This study analyses the effectiveness of local policy networks in their efforts to influence EU urban sustainable development policy. This research conducts a comparative case study between the local policy networks of two Dutch cities: the City of Eindhoven and the City of Utrecht. The cases are analysed using five factors drawn from the theoretical frameworks of Jeffery (2000) and Provan and Kenis (2008) that can be used to determine the effectiveness of networks. The findings show that the cases are similar on their internal administrative adaptation and coalition-building strategies, but differ on the other three factors: number of participants, level of trust, and level of goal consensus. The results for Eindhoven and its local policy network BrabantStad show that the network functions less effective than the G4 network of Utrecht. BrabantStad has a higher number of participants in the network, which increases the complexity of the network and negatively affects the level of trust and goal consensus amongst the network participants.