Municipalities as enablers in urban experimentation

Abstract

In the light of increasing urban challenges, municipalities are developing and advancing new forms of governing. One such example is 'urban experimentation', a process where city-based innovation processes are initiated to test solutions thatif deemed successfulare intended to be scaled up with the ambition to leverage a broader urban sustainability transition. Research on experimental governance has shown that municipalities can play various roles in these processes, including the role as enabler. The article contributes to the literature on the roles of public actors in urban experimentation on sustainability challenges by advancing understanding of the less studied 'enabler' role. We probe the politics of enabling by focusing on the policy instruments employed by municipalities. Our aim is to provide deeper insights into the everyday work of urban administrations when they act in the 'enabler' role. One particular approach of urban experimentation is Urban Living Labs (ULL), and this paper analyses ULL that address sustainability challenges. Along the four dimensions of nodality, authority, treasury, and organisation, we identify the politics of enabling in four ULL examples from Sweden and the Netherlands.

Experimentation or projectification of urban change? A critical appraisal and three steps forward

“…Multiplicity also seems unavoidable; even attempts to increase the coherence of experimentation by formalising a method or approach—as with urban living labs—generate diverse configurations adapted to institutionally and politically specific settings (Bulkeley et al, 2019 ; Raven et al, 2017 ). Even when local governments adopt a proactive stance (Mukhtar-Landgren et al, 2019 ), they can pursue multiple pathways in parallel. Effectively, some expressions of experimentation may be valuable in part because they hold these dilemmas open for negotiation and contestation.…”

The Role of Government Initiated Urban Planning Experiments in Transition Processes and Their Contribution to Change at the Regime Level

“…Urban experiments have taken on many forms, but in essence, they are about learning how change is created in a controlled environment [31], the controlled environment can provide the needed safe space for experimentation. Urban experiments are thus understood as a niche, a safe setting that nurtures radical innovation [32], and one that is embedded in the local city scale and leads to real outcomes on the local level [5,9,13]. Searching for ways to share the knowledge and the learning experience beyond the experiments' immediate boundaries is challenging, creating an impact at the regime level even more.…”

“…Until now, more profound research on the role of governments in enabling change through urban experiments is somewhat limited. Mukhtar-Landgren et al [13] have looked into the role of municipalities and local government. This article unpacks the role of institutions at the national and regional level and the impact of political involvement in urban experimentation.…”

Assessing Sustainability Behavior and Environmental Performance of Urban Systems: A Systematic Review

“…The urban expansion has resulted in the constitution of built-in areas and furthered the economic development [17][18][19][20][21], while affecting the environment. The coherent utilization of urban landscape is a difficult task for governments to attain sustainable and robust growth.…”