Local Governance Platforms: Roles and Relations of City Governments, Citizens, and Businesses

• Author: Kaisu Sahamies,Arto Haveri,Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00953997211072531
• Published date: 01 October 2022
• Date: 01 October 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997211072531

Administration & Society

2022, Vol. 54(9) 1710 –1735

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/00953997211072531

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Article

Local Governance

Platforms: Roles and

Relations of City

Governments, Citizens,

and Businesses

Kaisu Sahamies1, Arto Haveri1,

and Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko1

Abstract

This article analyses the dynamics of local platform governance with special

regard to the roles and relations of city governments, citizens, and local

businesses. We approach the subject through five Finnish platforms in which

city governments are actively involved. This multiple case study shows

that city governments tend to adopt a facilitative and enabling role on the

platforms. They seek to create value by utilizing skills, knowledge, and

resources of local communities in different kinds of co-creation processes.

Local platform governance brings added value to innovation and urban

vitality by utilizing multiple roles of citizens, businesses, and other local

stakeholders.

Keywords

platform governance, city government, citizen participation, local community,

platform

1Tampere University, Finland

Corresponding Author:

Kaisu Sahamies, Tampere University, Tampere 33014, Finland.

Email: kaisu.sahamies@tuni.fi

1072531AAS0010.1177/00953997211072531Administration & SocietySahamies et al.

research-article2022

Sahamies et al. 1711

Introduction

Finding innovative solutions to complex urban problems requires as a rule

interdisciplinary and intersectoral cooperation, involving not only public sec-

tor actors but also companies and local civil society. During the last decade,

platforms emerged as a novel organizational solution for utilizing citizens’

ideas, supporting participation, increasing co-creation, and democratizing

innovation. Platform refers to a socio-technical space that provides context

and architecture for bringing different groups and organizations together to

identify shared interests, find new opportunities for cooperation, and to cre-

ate and exchange value in new ways (Hodson et al., 2021, p. 3; Sotarauta &

Suvinen, 2019). Beside actors, platforms bring together various kinds of

resources and provide tools for processing and organizing them (Thomas

et al., 2014, p. 202). As such, platforms operate as focal points for ecosystems

of constantly evolving constellations of actors (Thomas et al., 2014), which

increase their ability to adopt to their environments (Ciborra, 1996).

Platforms gained prominence first in technology development and busi-

ness and started to expand to new application areas in the 1990s and the fol-

lowing decade. At that time platforms emerged also in public governance

(Ansell & Gash, 2018, p. 16). Platforms have become particularly popular in

local governance, especially in promoting innovation (Borghys et al., 2020;

Sotarauta & Suvinen, 2019, p. 1753). There is, however, limited research on

the use and impact of platforms in public governance (Ansell & Gash, 2018;

Yu et al., 2019). Some researchers have discussed the role of public sector

actors in platform governance (Bollier, 2016; Brown et al., 2017; Desouza &

Bhagwatwar, 2014; Falco & Kleinhans, 2018; Haveri & Anttiroiko, 2021;

Janowski et al., 2018; Janssen & Estevez, 2013; Millard, 2018; O’Reilly,

2011). However, most of the research has focused on certain types of plat-

forms, such as open data or participatory platforms, whereas multiple case

studies investigating how different kinds of urban platforms are affecting the

roles and relations of city governments and local communities at large are

missing from the literature.

Our aim in this article is to shed light on the dynamics of local platform

governance as the utilization of various types of platforms shape the roles and

relations of city governments, citizens, and other community actors, such as

local businesses. To be more precise, we will address the following two

research questions: (1) What kind of roles the public, private, and non-profit

actors play in local platforms sponsored by city governments? (2) How do

different types of platforms shape the relations between actors in urban gov-

ernance? The research questions are approached through five Finnish cases

of local platform governance in which city governments are actively involved.