Municipal Governance and Sustainability: The Role of Local Governments in Promoting Transitions

Abstract

This research addresses local governance for building energy efficiency. In order to turn an increasingly proactive environmental policy agenda at subnational levels into practice, local governments experiment with new forms of governance. One important policy area in this regard is building energy use, often addressed through urban development projects. Such initiatives provide important insight into the role that local governments may play in terms of pushing developers from mainstream building practices towards the uptake of more radical energy efficient solutions by enabling socio‐technical translation. The analysis is based on two case studies from Sweden and Denmark, where the local governments have actively sought to challenge mainstream building practices through a combination of different modes of governing. It is shown how this combination of different modes of governing at the local level provides several translation entries for local governments seeking to foster sustainability transitions. The article concludes that more attention should be directed towards translation as part of the practical environmental governing at the local level. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Investigating patterns of local climate governance: How low‐carbon municipalities and intentional communities intervene in social practices

“…If such attractive alternatives become visible, shrinking measures can be legitimized much easily. This would facilitate a “thick translation” of social niche innovations to the mainstream level as proposed by Smedby and Quitzau (). It would be naive, however, to assume that such hybridization would necessarily increase the willingness of “regular” citizens to dramatically change their ways of life toward a more sufficiency‐oriented mode of living, but, on the one hand, it should not be ruled out, and on the other, citizens might be interested in partially changing their practices.…”

“…With the window for reaching the Paris climate goals fast closing (UNFCCC, 2015), awareness is growing that climate policy must go beyond the energy sector and address the very principles of how modern societies organize their patterns of consumption and production. Within this context, the local level has gained more prominence in climate policy and governance in recent years, both in academic and in policy domains (Bulkeley & Betsill, 2013;Lervik & Sutherland, 2017;Smedby & Quitzau, 2016). This is because the municipal, communal and local levels are perceived as privileged arenas for policy experimentation (Castán Broto & Bulkeley, 2013) and social and institutional innovation (Hargreaves, Hielscher, Seyfang, & Smith, 2013;Seyfang & Smith, 2007).…”

Modes of Governing and Policy of Local and Regional Governments Supporting Local Low-Carbon Energy Initiatives; Exploring the Cases of the Dutch Regions of Overijssel and Fryslân

“…Policy innovations with an authoritative character would involve inter alia planning requirements that embed civil ownership in low-carbon energy developments, strategic land-use planning and using land ownership to support LLCEIs' activities, or formulating performance criteria for LLCEIs [147]. Such authoritative mechanisms are not to be employed by threat of sanction [37], but should be interpreted in the sense that they structure the network of LLCEIs and support LLCEIs by making innovative use of conventional instruments.…”

Energy efficiency left behind? Policy assemblages in Sweden’s most climate-smart city

“…This article shows a city in which smart grids are moving forward. Whether smart grids move forward at the expense of energy efficiency, or in tandem with it, depends very much on whether the local government can maintain developers' interest in energy efficiency (Smedby & Quitzau, 2016). Smart grid technologies could erode developers' interest in other aspects of building energy use, in which case energy efficiency could very well be left behind.…”

“…Using formal authority, some cities have created their own building energy codes that are more strict than national codes (Rohracher & Späth, 2014;Smedby, 2016a). In cities where local government controls land use planning, planners have given priority to developers who commit to sustainability ambitions (Smedby & Quitzau, 2016). Some local governments have used collaborative planning processes that promote learning and the formulation of a common vision (Smedby & Neij, 2013), while others have provided technical knowledge to reduce the cost of energy efficient building construction (Quitzau, Jensen, Elle, & Hoffmann, 2013).…”