Leading Cities: Leadership and Urban Governance in Denmark

Leading Cities and City Leaders [http://www.c40.org/, http://www.uclg.org/, http://www.iclei.org/, http://www.worldmayorscouncil.org/] have taken up the challenge formulated by the World conomic Forum: “what if cities would rule the world?” (https://agenda.weforum.org/2014/01/cities-ruled-world/), when it comes to governing and managing their cities and when it comes to contribute with solutions for global challenges. Two competing streams seem to struggle for the dominance in the public discourse about how to rule, manage and lead a city – and in what direction. The first stream (social and technical engineering; Smart Cities) is very prominent in the traditional mass media discourse, in PR / PA of tech companies and traditional municipal administrations; whereas the second one (participation; Livable Cities) is mostly enacted in social media, (local) initiatives, movements, (virtual) communities, new forms of urban governance in municipal administration and co-competitive city networks. Both forms seem to struggle for getting voice and power in the discourses, negotiations, struggles, and conflicts in Urban Governance about the question how to manage or lead (in) a city. Talking about “Leading cities” also means to find a way how to become a leading city, i.e. to take the lead, when it comes to solving some of the challenges named in the UN Sustainable Development Goals [http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/]; especially when it comes to “Goal 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”.