Currently, Dutch cities are facing persistent societal problems as well as changing circumstances, due to the financial crisis and changing national policies. This special issue seeks to take analysis beyond a sense of mere crisis and investigates contemporary urban initiatives in order to discern what innovative modes of governance they offer.

This article investigates whether the local practices growing under the Wet Maatschappelijke Ondersteuning (Wmo; Law for social participation) can be viewed as examples of ‘transformation of the welfare state’-in-action. The article argues that indeed, a number of Dutch cities is trying to create a shift in the balance of responsibilities of citizens, social networks, civil society and government that can be judged an operationalization of the more abstract recommendations of many ‘welfare state reformers’. It remains to be seen however, whether these attempts will actually result in change. There are both practical problems and fundamental questions to be tackled. The question whether the transformation wished for by many from a political perspective, is actually feasible (given the political and societal constraints) should be addressed firmly by both local and national actors.As it goes, the opposite is the case: the question of the feasibility of the Wmo seems to have vanished in the void between parliament and municipalities.

The Dutch government is preparing a major new law on social security. Among other things, this law fundamentally addresses the current system of job provision for disabled workers. The article describes the proposed system change from the Schumpeterian perspective of creative destruction. The national government effectively tears up the current system but fails to offer a workable and effective alternative. The creative part of the process is left to the municipalities. The municipalities have to develop strategies for integrating disabled workers in the labour market, acknowledging the fact that demand for these workers is very low. The author presents two of those strategies that might effectively integrate disabled workers in the economy and society.

In 2010 and 2011 a committee of experts inspected if and how forty of the most deprived areas in Dutch cities have benefitted from the major national neighbourhood policy program launched by the previous government in 2007. The aim of the program was to restore living conditions in those areas within the next ten years, by investments in the physical, social and economic field, thus trying to improve the living conditions and chances (social mobility) of the neighbourhood citizens. According to the Committee, the forty neighbourhoods have proved to be laboratories for institutional change. There is growing confidence among local parties that with less disintegrated bureaucracy and more possibilities for citizen initiatives, interventions can be organised which are more effective and cheaper. Realising the objectives of the neighbourhood approach demands continuous involvement, effective organization, creative solutions and intensive contact between professionals and citizens. Government organizations and institutions need to relinquish control and facilitate and support the problem solving abilities of the professionals and citizens, who live and work in these neighbourhoods day in day out. In the most problematic neighbourhoods of Dutch cities, the seeds of the new welfare state are being planted.

This article presents an empirically grounded typology of labour migration patterns among migrants from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and analyses the ways in which large cities and small towns cope with the diverse inflows of new EU citizens in their municipalities. Our analysis is based on a survey (N=654) among labour migrants from Poland, Bulgaria and Romania in 11 municipalities in the Netherlands, including Rotterdam and The Hague. Next, we make use of the results of six discussion meetings with local stakeholders and housing and labour recruitment agencies. The inflow of new EU citizens shows the local limits of urban governance. In order to cope with the negative aspects of the new labour migration Dutch cities try to influence national and European policy agenda's and develop local programs that counteract the shadow sides of the new labour migration.

Real estate vacancies, undeveloped land within cities and exhausted financial resources of governments are currently high on the agendas of urban decision makers. The financial-economic crisis is often blamed for this. In the Netherlands, overoptimistic development strategies from market players and city governments also contributed to this problem of oversupply, in their pursuit for profit, people and jobs. Research has shown the existence of two coordination dilemmas; at the local and regional level. What solutions to these dilemmas are possible? This article argues that recognition of the problem by local parties is a first and necessary step to be taken. Evidence shows this is difficult due to conflicting interests. Step two will be to decide for the feasible projects within the local development arena partners. Regional coordination is needed to determine conditions that the assumption underlying these projects should be based on. Only after this third step regional cooperation to prevent future tragedies development will be possible.

Sustainability, the question of how our system of prosperity could be maintained, is one of the main issues of the coming decades. To combine economic growth and a pleasant environment, society needs to scale back its resource use and the ensuing pressures on the environment, by a factor of five. The challenge is to do more with less; something for which there is no instant solution. The city is the place where this change will begin, not by ‘big’ government with ‘big’ plans, but by the energetic society. Citizens and the business community are motivated by their wish for a clean economy and a pleasant living environment. The rise of the information society has increased their ability to exchange knowledge and ideas, releasing creativity and creating new solutions. If city governments are to tap into the strength of society, they must embrace the initiatives and join citizens and business in the empowered deliberative search for sustainable solutions. The goal of a clean economy is within reach, but it demands comprehensive physical and cultural change, in which local initiatives may lead the cultural change towards a broad vision of a strong, sustainable society. A large role for government remains, but high quality, low carbon cities may be the winners of the future.

Urban government is expected to contribute to the solution of major urban problems. At the same time, urban government is riddled with problems itself, often denoted in terms of governing and democratic deficits. In this article, options for governance reform in the urban realm are being explored along five lines, following up on recent research in the Netherlands and abroad. Both more aggregative arrangements (electronic ‘straw polls’, knowledge polls, prediction markets, ‘dot gov’ competitions for ‘best solutions’) and more collaborative arrangements (electronic co-creation, wiki governance, vital coalitions, urban regimes) are being assessed. The conclusions is that there are good arguments for, at least, more experimentation along these lines - not only from a functionalistic, but also from a democratic and social-psychological point of view.

The problems discussed in the articles of this special issue are not merely wicked in the sense of involving normative dissensus and factual uncertainty. They also are systemic: they reflect institutional inertia, discursive inertia and the disruptive impact of sociological trends (individualization, Europeanization etc.) on incumbent practices and institutions. This systemic character tends to makes them persistent: while fundamental change is unavoidable, such change is likely to be bothered by the very institutional and discursive inertia it seeks to address. Reflecting, from a public policy studies point of view, on previous articles we deduce four principles from urban practices to deal with these challenges: 1) reduce dissent and uncertainty where possible; 2) acknowledge normative diversity by promoting context-specific solutions; 3) organize policies around societal/market initiatives that have emerged in a context and 4) define institutional changes that may further promote and simplify such policies and seize opportunities for structural change.

Deliberative democracy is a topic of fierce debate in political philosophy, democratic theory and other disciplines. Over the last two decades, the notion of deliberation - or dialogue - as a key democratic asset has also pervaded practices and empirical studies of public policy and governance. Although avid advocates and critics of deliberative governing and policy making may be found, the majority of scholars and professionals in this field take on a pragmatic, agnostic stance, and a public debate between them remains largely absent. Thus, deliberation is hardly contested or questioned, while in practice, it regularly leads to failure and disappointment. The article introduces and transcribes a dialogue on the failing of deliberation that was performed at a symposium on ‘Contested democracy’ by The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) (Jan. 2011, The Hague). An optimist and a cynic deliberate the role of deliberation, accompanied by a chorus of administration scientists.

This paper reviews developments in political-administrative relations in Dutch central government from 2002-2012. It highlights the strengths/weaknesses of Dutch structures and processes in managing the interface between ministers and the public service. It signals a number of key trends in the political context of executive government that are going to put pressure on the status quo, and examines the much more centralised and politically orchestrated Australian system for pointers towards possible ways in which these contextual changes are going to be.