Partnerships in experimental urban climate governance: Insights from Seoul

Since the early 2000s, there has been a trend in urban climate governance experimentation in which cities, and particularly city governments, trial novel governance interventions, processes and instruments, with the aim of learning from their development and implementation. The literature is particularly vocal about the relevance of including local actors and organisations in such experiments. High hopes are expressed about partnerships in experimental urban climate governance that bring city governments together with local businesses and citizens. Seeking to understand whether these high hopes materialise in real-world settings, this chapter analyses four experiments in which the Seoul Municipal Government has partnered with local stakeholders to explore innovative governance instruments.