What remains? Unveiling traces of institutionalization of socially innovative multi-actor collaboration in urban food governance in Madrid (2015–2023)

Under neoliberal governance paradigms, interactions between state agencies and other urban actors -when they occur- are typically channeled through private-public partnerships and depoliticized “participatory” or “multi-stakeholder” processes. This paper explores various dimensions that enable socially innovative multi-actor collaboration (IMAC), understood as a process of (re)articulation and transformation of networks of actors and collaborative institutional spaces to achieve social innovation. It examines how IMAC may thrive and contribute to transforming hegemonic urban governance models into more democratic and collaborative ones, particularly in contexts of socio-political change. To do so, the paper develops a seven-dimension framework, which combines institutionalist theories from critical political sciences and planning, to provide a nuanced analysis of transformations of and interrelations among actors, institutions and their governance environment. It is applied to investigate transformations in urban food governance in Madrid between 2015 and 2023, a critical case of socially innovative civil-public collaboration in a context of political disruptions and discontinuities. Methodologically, the work combines document analysis, participatory research and interviews. The findings show how different urban actors contribute to and are transformed by IMAC revealing the complexities of their changing and overlapping roles and identities in urban governance. They highlight interdependencies between flexible, evolving, yet stable structures that enable thinking and acting together, fostering IMAC. The study also emphasizes the relevance of hybrid actors like activist-practitioner-(action)researchers, intermediate levels of actor aggregation, and supra-local collaboration networks in consolidating IMAC and ensuring its continuity during political change.