CUSP-GX 5009 Innovative City Governance

This course will introduce you to urban governance and its current innovation trends. Urban governance comprises of the various forces, institutions, and movements that guide economic, politic, social and physical development, the distribution of resources, social interactions, and other aspects of daily life in cities. Public-sector innovation is indispensable to solve the complex urban challenges we are facing and can bring significant improvements in the services that the government has a responsibility to provide, including those delivered by third parties. Following a Discovery-Design-Delivery approach, students will learn the complex nature of cities, different strategies to solve public problems, how urban administration works and how public policies are crafted, how we can promote urban governance innovation, why collaboration is a must and which are the best tactics to promote effective public-private partnerships and networks, how we can support public engagement at all stages of the policymaking cycle, how to promote effective communications using current technology available, ethical issues that may arise when applying analytics to policy problems, how we can connect artificial and collective intelligence, and different approaches to measuring organizational performance. This course will help students to become public entrepreneurs that know how to effectively deliver data and innovation projects into an urban environment.