The rising stars of social innovations: How do local governments facilitate citizen initiatives to thrive? The case of waste management in Brussels and Hong Kong

Waste management is an important issue in cities. The achievement of a zero-waste future relies on the collective actions individual households. Indeed, citizens are initiating social innovations waste their communities. However, citizen initiatives (CIs) encounter strategic and operational barriers process innovation. They often seek support from local governments to overcome these barriers. These need “facilitative” government that responsive enables thrive without too much interference them. Yet, there lack conceptual empirical understanding such new facilitative role governments. Furthermore, we do not know whether how this differs between different types CIs policy contexts. Based 24 in-depth interviews with officials, study explores various practices offered by Brussels Hong Kong governments, explains patterns CIs, clarifies divergence contexts influences what, why, can facilitate CIs. This finds common include financial administrative assistance, but certain requiring other actors remain unresolved. Local review provide more effective as agents sustainable urban development at community level.