Neighbourhoods are increasingly positioned as an effective scale for tackling technological, social, and ecological challenges. Yet despite decades of research and policy attention, urban development has struggled to deliver neighbourhoods capable of meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century. Mission-oriented approaches highlight the role of transition intermediaries in bridging capability deficits within public organisations, but little is known about the practices through which they design, adapt, and negotiate missions at the neighbourhood scale. This study addresses this gap by examining the practices of systemic, niche, and process intermediaries. Using a grounded theory methodology, it draws on 15 semi-structured interviews: four with stakeholders from mission-oriented neighbourhood initiatives in the UK, Belgium, Canada, and Australia, and 11 with wider expert practitioners, alongside supporting document analysis.
The findings identify an emerging typology of four dimensions of practice – dynamic stewardship, shaping, sensemaking, and framing – articulated through nine interrelated routines that reconfigure the socio-spatial dimensions of neighbourhoods. These practices foster civic capacity, embed experimentation in everyday infrastructures, curate reflexive forms of evidence, and construct narratives that mobilise collective purpose, while also facing tensions around participation, data, and narrative capture. By grounding mission-oriented innovation in the socio-spatial realities of neighbourhoods, the study extends scholarship on intermediaries and public sector innovation. It shows how intermediary practices compensate for, but remain constrained by capability deficits, underscoring the need for institutional reform if mission neighbourhoods are to achieve systemic transformation.
https://library.sacredheart.edu/c.php?g=29803&p=185914
With thanks to the thoughtful supervision, collaboration and patience of Rainer Kattel and Kwame Baafi; as well as my IIPP colleagues whose guidance and friendship have been invaluable; Mark, Steph and Emma for believing in me (even at my puffiest); Vicki, Mike and Lauren for inspiring me with their overwhelming talent and leadership; and my friends, of which there are simply too many to credit, who have helped me believe in myself, stay the path and thoroughly enjoy this experience every single day.