The Politics of Urban Sustainability Transitions
Cities, the world over, are increasingly recognised to be both a principal source of the environmental and social sustainability challenges facing contemporary society and a critical site for addressing these challenges. Socio-technical systems are at the heart of these challenges as they configure central aspects of urban life: from mobility and energy infrastructures to leisure activities and patterns of mobility. This observation has led to substantial interest in how societies might initiate and actively steer radical transitions in these systems in the pursuit of sustainable urban futures.
This book contributes to emerging debates on the politics of urban transitions by examining the intimate interlinkages between knowledge, power and governance. Drawing upon real-world examples of urban governance, the authors explore the strategies, struggles and controversies involved in configuring knowledge and how knowledge constructions influence governance by rendering some concerns and issues visible and valuable, while obscuring others. The book draws attention to how novel ways of conceptualising, knowing and observing socio-technical systems may be harnessed productively in redefining the power relationships underpinning unsustainable practices. Understanding these dynamics can ultimately inform and enable new approaches to support much-needed urban transitions.
This book provides a compelling examination of urban knowledge politics for the twenty-first century that will be of great value to academics, policymakers and practitioners working in the social sciences, urban studies, geography, urban governance or sustainability transitions.
Jens Stissing Jensen is Assistant Professor, Department of Development and Planning, Aalborg University, Denmark.
Matthew Cashmore is Professor in Environmental Planning at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway.
Philipp Spth is Senior Scientist/Research Group Coordinator at the Institute of Environmental Social Sciences and Geography, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Freiburg, Germany.
Routledge Research in Sustainable Urbanism
This series offers a forum for original and innovative research that engages with key debates and concepts in the field. Titles within the series range from empirical investigations to theoretical engagements, offering international perspectives and multidisciplinary dialogues across the social sciences.
Co-Producing Knowledge for Sustainable Cities
Joining Forces for Change
Edited by Merritt Polk
Global Garbage
Urban Imaginaries of Waste, Excess, and Abandonment
Edited by Christoph Lindner and Miriam Meissner
The Experimental City
Edited by James Evans, Andrew Karvonen and Rob Raven
Imagining Sustainability
Creative Urban Environmental Governance in Chicago and Melbourne
Julie L. Cidell
Regenerative Urban Design and Ecosystem Biomimicry
Maibritt Pedersen Zari
The Politics of Urban Sustainability Transitions
Knowledge, Power and Governance
Edited by Jens Stissing Jensen, Matthew Cashmore and Philipp Spth
www.routledge.com/Routledge-Research-in-Sustainable-Urbanism/book-series/RRSU
The Politics of Urban Sustainability Transitions
Knowledge, Power and Governance
Edited by Jens Stissing Jensen, Matthew Cashmore and Philipp Spth
First published 2019
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2019 selection and editorial matter, Jens Stissing Jensen, Matthew Cashmore and Philipp Spth; individual chapters, the contributors
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ISBN: 978-1-138-47965-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-06534-4 (ebk)
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Contents
Wouter Boon is Assistant Professor at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University in the Netherlands. His research focus is on the role of users and bottom-up processes in technological development and innovation.
Vanesa Castn Broto is a professorial fellow at the Sheffield Urban Institute, University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on climate change politics and urban governance, urban sustainability transitions and insurgent planning practices to address climate change.
Matthew Cashmore is Professor in Environmental Planning at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway. Matthew is an environmental social scientist and his research addresses the politics of governance arrangements enacted in response to perceived environmental, climate and sustainability crises.
Matthew Cook is Professor of Innovation at the Open University, United Kingdom. His research interests are in socio-technical innovation in cities and associated sectors such as utilities. Much of his research focuses on the governance and management of innovation to achieve more sustainable futures.
Louise Guibrunet is a post-doctoral fellow at the Research Institute on Ecosystems and Sustainability, National Autonomous University of Mexico. Her research focuses on environmental politics, exploring the environmental justice implications of different environmental governance models and sustainability policies.
Evelien de Hoop is a post-doctoral fellow in science and technology studies (STS) at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Her current research focuses on knowledge politics in the context of urban sustainability experimentation and co-creation.
Ralph Horne is Professor of Geography and Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor, Research in Design and Social Context at RMIT University, Australia. His research interests span low-carbon transitions in housing and households and the spatial, material and contingent social and policy structures at play in the making and shaping of urban environments.
Shivant Jhagroe is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Public Administration at Leiden University, the Netherlands. His research interests include governance and politics, particularly in the fields of (urban) sustainability transitions and digitalisation/big data.
