Strategy has become an important concern and practical tool in urban management and governance, with the literature highlighting implementation as a hallmark of effective strategy. Whilst such a strategy–action link has been well established, other long-term effects have been documented in less detail. The study of Martin Kornberger, Renate Meyer, and Markus Höllerer on Sustainable Sydney 2030 finds that strategy was effective to the extent to which it changed the institutional a priori of what a collective of actors engaged in city-making knows, what it can articulate and how its members relate to each other. They capture this effect as ‘institution nexus’ and theorise their findings with Ludwik Fleck’s concept of ‘thought style’ of a focal ‘thought collective’– notions that also centrally influenced Mary Douglas’ work on ‘how institutions think’.

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