This blog is based on an article published in the Journal of Social Policy by David Bokhorst, Meike Bokhorst, and Tijn Croon.
The politics of welfare state change is often examined through ideological divides between left and right, or through policy feedback mechanisms. However, our recent paper, published in the Journal of Social Policy, offers a different perspective by exploring the emergence of larger cities as influential actors in welfare politics. These urban centres are not merely executing policy; they are innovating in response to specific local challenges and establishing new policy norms in the process.
Cities at the Front Line of Welfare State Change
Across Europe, cities occupy the front line of societal change. As knowledge-based and service-oriented economies, urban areas experience inequality, labour shortages, and social exclusion earlier and more intensely than other areas, often exacerbated by housing crises. Fallouts and gaps in national policy provision often manifest as tangible problems at the local level. Moreover, large cities – often governed by progressive coalitions seeking pragmatic solutions – possess both the political will and the institutional tools required to experiment with novel social policy solutions.
The innovative potential of cities is particularly important for understanding welfare transformation from a social investment perspective. This approach typically focuses on ex-ante risk prevention and capacitating services, thereby enhancing both welfare sustainability and equity. The territorial dimension is essential to social investment, because most capacitating services are delivered at the local level.
Amsterdam as a Test Case for Urban Policy Innovation
Our research focuses on Amsterdam as a paradigmatic case to understand how local governments can shape national policy debates from the bottom up. In particular, we examine three policy areas in which Amsterdam has pioneered social investment approaches: teacher shortages, labour market integration, and energy poverty.
In each of these domains, Amsterdam’s role has grown steadily over time. The city has often taken the initiative, serving as a source of inspiration for other municipalities and contributing to national policy change. Local policy innovations can reveal what works in practice – and where national policy assumptions fail to match local realities. For example, Amsterdam put the issue of teacher shortages in disadvantaged neighbourhoods on the agenda and successfully advocated for regional salary differences – something not yet acknowledged at the national level. Whereas municipalities have traditionally only managed the provision and maintenance of school buildings, Amsterdam has over the past decade started to actively shape local education agendas, tackling issues like learning disadvantages and teacher shortages.
Similarly, Amsterdam has experimented with more lenient conditions for social assistance, providing unconditional cash payments and personalised support for reintegration. The city’s experience demonstrated that punitive measures were largely ineffective for individuals with complex needs. This innovative approach inspired other cities to implement similar strategies, ultimately contributing to the elevation of national debates around reforming the Participation Law.
In addressing energy poverty, Amsterdam initially exhibited hesitation towards actively supporting the FIXbrigade initiative – a grassroots programme established by a local community centre to train long-term unemployed individuals and refugees with residence status in delivering cost-effective, small-scale energy-saving upgrades in poorly insulated dwellings, primarily in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. However, the initiative proved to be a powerful example of integrated social investment – simultaneously building skills (stock), facilitating labour market entry (flow), and alleviating energy-related hardship among vulnerable households (buffer). This local innovation has since evolved into a nationwide model with dedicated funding, in part due to Amsterdam’s positive example.
From Delivery Agents to Policy Partners
Amsterdam’s story underscores that cities are far from passive implementers of national policy. Instead, they constitute dynamic political arenas where new ideas are tested, alliances forged, and national policy assumptions challenged. It is important to recognise, however, that such experiments often lack structured channels for learning and scaling.
Our study calls for a reconsideration not only of the role of cities as delivery agents but also as active partners in the formulation of effective social investment states. National governments should foster frameworks that allow cities to experiment, learn, and contribute to policy evolution—transforming local innovation into a foundation for national resilience.
Reference
Bokhorst, David, Meike Bokhorst, and Tijn Croon. 2025. “Cities as Social Investment Frontrunners: The Case of Amsterdam as Innovator and Welfare Stopgap.” Journal of Social Policy: 1–17. doi: 10.1017/S0047279425100925.
About the Authors
David Bokhorst is a Research Associate in the Department of Social and Political Sciences at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy.
Meike Bokhorst is Senior Researcher at the Utrecht School of Governance, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
Tijn Croon is a PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
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