Scaling Drivers & Barriers
- Government support:
- Urban orchestrator solutions are often initiated by a public body, such as a municipality, which aims to ensure their future success.
- A clear vision and dedication to urban orchestration projects can be a crucial driver for their success.
- Setting up a governance structure:
- Gathering the relevant partners and being able to drive the city's departments is challenging.
- The logic behind setting up a PCED relies less on the core business of a city (exploiting public services) and more on a logic of exploitation, which is highly uncertain in its pathways and results.
- Strong governance leadership is crucial (e.g., the chair of the SPL Lyon Confluence is the Mayor of Lyon), as well as daily intelligence in the operational relations with the city’s departments.
- Establishing public-private partnerships:
- Finding pathways to build sustainable business models and financing schemes is challenging.
- Examples include the ElectriCITY project or the Lyon Energy Council.
- Dealing with citizens and civic organizations (NGOs):
- Findings of other SCC projects show many excellent practices, ranging from information co-creation to innovation labs.
- Challenges often stem from the flawed reasoning that citizens must change for the greater good or a grand idea.
- The real challenge for cities is to accept that citizens can act and take ownership by developing and implementing ground-breaking projects in a more distributed governance approach.
This section outlines the factors that drive or hinder the scaling of urban developer/orchestrator solutions within SP6, offering insights into how to maximize the benefits and overcome challenges in sustainable urban development.