Building institutional capacity for social value – reflections from the ‘Back to the Neighbourhood’-project in the Netherlands

Abstract

While most studies on institutional capacities for social value in planning practice stem from public perspectives, contemporary European urban transformations often involve both public, private and civic actors. This paper presents a Dutch market-led practitioner’s research project of four ex post evaluations on social sustainability in newly realized urban neighbourhoods, in which the author actively participated. From a collaborative governance perspective, the paper reflects on the project’s contribution to building institutional capacity for social value in urban development practice. Preliminary findings reveal how the market holds specific—perhaps hidden—capacities in terms of mobilization, communication skills, shared knowledge production and development of relational networks, yet tends to hold on to a limited perspective on social sustainability and to make a more incidental than structural impact.