Policy mobilities as informal processes: evidence from “creative city” policy-making in Gdańsk and Stockholm

Abstract

This paper emphasizes the role of informal and ad hoc processes in policy-mobility by analyzing “creative city” policy in two relatively marginalized and neglected urban contexts– Gdańsk (Poland) and Stockholm (Sweden). The paper extends studies of “creative city” policy to diversify understandings of policy mobilities as a “social condition” in which territorial and relational aspects are combined as cities “arrive at” mobile policy, to contribute to provincializing urban theory and comparative urban analyses. Extending recent literature emphasizing the role of formal “informational infrastructures” in understanding policy mobilities this paper develops new insights into: the ways in which informal and ad hoc processes co-exist with and are important for the operation of formal processes; what the learning process in cities actually looks like in different contexts; and the role of individuals in policy-making as a social condition. The Conclusion draws out the wider implications of these points for understanding policy mobilities.