Cities are ascribed a double role in systemic change towards sustainability. They are seen as both seedbeds for innovation - “from local experimentation to urban transformation?” (Moloney & Horne 2015) – and as regimes of the incumbent actors of unsustainability (Wolfram & Frantzeskaki 2016, 5). This leads to a call for developing new forms of urban governance to initiate, accelerate and navigate sustainability transitions (ibid. 12).
In an attempt to foster such new modes of governing, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research launched the initiative “The City of the Future” that allows to test the model of transition management or transition governance (TG) as developed by Dutch scholars (Kemp et al. 2001; Kemp et al. 2007; Loorbach 2010; Loorbach & Rotmans 2010, 239; Rotmans & Loorbach 2010, 140-160). TG is a prescriptive, normative approach that endorses a sustainable and equitable future. It builds on a cycle with four components, which follow an iterative process: strategic, tactical, operational and reflexive governance activities. During the strategic phase, the problem should be defined and structured and a transition arena developed as a network of frontrunners on sustainability. In the tactical phase, a transition agenda should be developed, outlining possible transition pathways. During the operational phase, transition experiments should be implemented and lessons drawn during the reflective phase.
This raises the question of what can be learnt from participatory transition governance for initiating, steering and stabilising an urban transition towards sustainability. What are the enabling factors and potential obstacles in promoting participatory transition governance in a community? And how can the approach of TG be refined and expanded by defining new policy instruments and institutional arrangements?
This is an exploratory case study of “The City of the Future – Dresden 2030+”. This citizen participation process seeks to build on and refine the approach of transition governance by developing a more pronounced form of participatory transition governance. Funded by the federal ministry, it began in 2015 and is intended to be supported by the federal ministry up to 2019. It is a participatory process to envision a sustainable future for the city of Dresden (Germany) until 2030 and beyond (phase I), develop concepts for individual real world laboratories (phase II) and implement those (phase III). This is accompanied by evaluation and reflection to harvest the lessons learnt. It is facilitated by the local government and local scientific partners and encourages the engagement of civil society, local businesses, local government and administration, as well as scientists.
It reveals the different logics – the ways of doing (practices), the ways of thinking (culture) and the ways of organising (structure) (Frantzeskaki & De Haan 2009) – of the local government and TG. While local government focuses on controlling and planning, TG emphasises the empowerment of citizens and an open process. While the local government strives for certainty and accountability, TG endorses ambiguity and uncertainty and encourages reflection (Wittmayer et al. 2016). The case study seeks to explore the processes of translation and mediation between these two.
9c. Public participation, role of stakeholders
