Elucidating the changing roles of civil society in urban sustainability transitions

Abstract

Understanding the diversifying role of civil society in Europe’s\ud sustainability pathway is a valid proposition both scientifically\ud and socially. Civil society organisations already play a\ud significant role in the reality of cities, what remains to be\ud explored is the question: what is the role of civil society in the\ud future sustainability of European cities? We first examine the\ud novelty of new forms of civil society organization based on a\ud thorough review of recent case studies of civil society initiatives\ud for sustainable transitions across a diversity of European\ud projects and an extensive literature review. We conceptualize a\ud series of roles that civil society plays and the tensions they\ud entail. We argue that, civil society initiatives can pioneer new\ud social relations and practices therefore be an integral part of\ud urban transformations and can fill the void left by a retreating\ud welfare state, thereby safeguarding and servicing social needs\ud but also backing up such a rolling back of the welfare state. It\ud can act as a hidden innovator—contributing to sustainability\ud but remaining disconnected from the wider society. Assuming\ud each of these roles can have unintended effects, such as being\ud proliferated by political agendas, which endanger its role and\ud social mission, and can be peeled off to serve political agendas\ud resulting in its disempowerment and over-exposure. We\ud conclude with a series of implications for future research on the\ud roles of civil society in urban sustainability transition

Grassroots Initiatives as Sustainability Transition Pioneers: Implications and Lessons for Urban Food Systems

“…Trusted by communities due to the use of locally legitimate communication mechanisms, grassroots initiatives can mediate between citizens and local and state institutions, advocate for more radical and progressive ideas and empower actors to facilitate new courses of action, while also serving as mediums for individual political activity [66]. With their innovative approaches, they question the established systems and power structures therein, amplify irritations and may ultimately delegitimize the status quo [21,22,38,39,61,68,76].…”

“…The scale and ambition implied by current transition narratives means that civil society-and, hence, grassroots initiatives-needs to be involved [41,42,65]. Civil society can be defined as acting autonomous from the state, upon interests and motivations different from winning politicians or gaining economic benefit [66]. Conceivably, its most prominent role lies in altering values and beliefs towards more sustainable ones, contributing to socio-ecological and economic literacy-as well as "futures literacy"-and putting knowledge into action for sustainability [22,37,66].…”

“…Civil society can be defined as acting autonomous from the state, upon interests and motivations different from winning politicians or gaining economic benefit [66]. Conceivably, its most prominent role lies in altering values and beliefs towards more sustainable ones, contributing to socio-ecological and economic literacy-as well as "futures literacy"-and putting knowledge into action for sustainability [22,37,66]. Networks of neighbours, groups and activists generate novel bottom-up solutions for sustainable developments-the plural signalling the multidimensional, contested characteristics of purposeful social changes.…”

“…Local transition initiatives, led by citizens, can provide empirical ground and proof of concept for new market forms and novel economic structures that react to a market need in a socially responsible, value-creating way. Connecting local actors and networks enhances the legitimacy of both process and outcome [22,[36][37][38]51,66]. They build and promote novel forms of social organization and economy as well as alternative systems of provision, such as local food systems, to enable more sustainable forms of production and consumption.…”

“…Their proximity to local contexts, as well as their elasticity and flexibility that is due to operating on the fringes of complex bureaucratic settings, enable grassroots initiatives to foster transformative innovations tailored to local contexts through actions and participation in social and policy processes. The local understanding and knowledge of civil society can synergize new ideas, system dynamics and sustainability [2,24,34,38,51,66,72].…”