While in the global South such informal governance practices would be taken as evidence of corruption, collusion or a failure of the rule of law, in the Netherlands we see such practices framed as positive innovations that other countries would do well to emulate. Specifically, we focus on the strategic, uncodified and non-transparent deviation from legal procedure in order to achieve compliance and/or effectiveness.

This paper has now been published open access in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.