ABSTRACT
An increasing number of cities are joining forces in Transnational Municipal Networks (TMNs) to cooperate and facilitate action on climate change and urban environmental issues. In this chapter, I explore the governance structures of TMNs in order to enhance our understanding of these emerging institutions, their institutional set-up, and their display and positioning of power. While existing studies of the subject offer an understanding of how TMNs operate across scales, sectors, and actors, we have a limited understanding of the governance tools provided by these networks. I propose a framework that enables a systematic analysis of the governance tools provided by TMNs based on traditional soft and hard distinctions of governance. Through an empirical in-depth study of a particular TMN, 100 Resilient Cities (100RC), I show that we need to broaden our understanding of the governance mechanisms used in transnational city governance. I suggest that key governance tools offered by 100 Resilient Cities are developed from the top-down and framed by the 100RC’s central organisation. However, these tools do allow for local interpretation and application that invite different political actors with different contextual constraints to act together on a changing world.
