Transitioning from Social Innovation to Public Policy: Can Bangladesh Integrate Urban Rooftop Farming Policies into Governance by Examining Global Practices?

The concept of green cities promotes efficient utilisation of resources, with urban rooftop farms (URFs) being a key initiative involving a series of actions and decisions between stakeholders and the state. The new public governance discourse (NPGD) emphasises this interplay between the state, the market, and civil society to strengthen collaboration and network-driven social innovation and requires a comprehensive understanding of human/stakeholder behaviour. In this study, we explore the connection between organisational rational choice in URF policy development and social innovation. Through a review of the existing literature on URF policies and a case study of Dhaka, Bangladesh, we investigate the development of a comprehensive policy via participation and collaboration, considering the popularity of URFs and the absence of governing mechanisms in Dhaka. The results suggest that, despite the rising popularity of URFs in Dhaka, existing policies and strategies lack clarity. The review findings suggest that a participatory and co-productive approach is optimal for URF policy formulation. This would require active engagement from community members, local governments, and non-governmental organisations and gaining an enhanced understanding of stakeholder dynamics by testing stakeholder salience and co-production theories for successful URF governance.