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Crises spur reflection and re-evaluation of what matters and what is valued. The impacts of the 2008 global financial crisis, COVID-19 pandemic and climate emergency are reigniting debates about the nature of economic development approaches and what they aim to achieve in urban settings. Addressing a substantive gap in contemporary debates by helping to navigate a burgeoning and diverse field, this paper provides a critical and comparative assessment of five leading agendas that have been positioned as alternative and progressive policy responses to urban economic change: inclusive growth; the wellbeing economy; community wealth building; doughnut economics; and the foundational economy. Taking an international perspective, the paper provides a comparative review of their stated visions, mechanisms for change, and the spatial scales through which they are led and implemented. Our argument is that these alternative approaches to urban economic development are shaping creative, innovative and progressive responses to longstanding urban problems within policy and practice communities but require on-going scrutiny and evaluation to realise their potential to meaningfully achieve transformative change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

City leaders around the world are setting ambitious targets for emissions reductions. Yet the pathway to achieving this remains largely unspecified. Starting with this objective, the paper explores the merits of deploying a mission-oriented framework within the context of a 'wicked problem' by looking at a mid-sized city, Glasgow, which has a target for net zero by 2030. Focusing on themes drawn from one high-emitting sector – transport – the paper points to the real-world policy implications that stem from such a mission-oriented approach to suggest aspects of the approach that may be usefully developed further. The latter hinges on a-priori considerations given to: agency, boundaries and inter-temporality, leading to questions about the nature and scope of wickedness and argues that core issues of wickedness – uncertainty, contestation and complexity – can be amplified in local and multi-layered policy making contexts. Key policy insights Many cities are looking to reduce emissions including establishing net zero targets and a mission-oriented framework – 'concrete targets within a challenge that act as frames and stimuli for innovation' (Mazzucato and Dibb, 2019) – has been a popular framing vehicle. Such a framework reveals challenges inherent in such a 'wicked problem' at urban scales, which are interwoven with regional and national issues, institutions and influences. Exploring these for Glasgow, which hosted COP26, we highlight the policy 'problem' and 'solution' space for mid-sized cities more generally. We highlight three dimensions that reflect the nature of the urban decarbonization challenge: agency – the responsibilities of various actors in delivering change; boundaries – the interactions between actions to reduce emissions alongside wider policy ambitions such as a 'Just Transition' and 'green jobs'; and intertemporal issues – including how ambitions for rapid change might interact with the glacial progress of structural policy change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]