Industrial and Urban Symbiosis (IUS) involves multi-party resource management collaborations, that are often geographically concentrated and cross-sectoral and that meet societal and industrial needs more sustainably. Regional Institutional Capacity for Industrial and Urban Symbiosis (RICIUS) refers to the collective capacity of relevant actors (firms, government bodies, knowledge institutions, and others) to engage in collaborative action for IUS. RICIUS is regarded to have a key impact on IUS developments. Its enhancement allows the local/regional actors to work with, and benefit from, the concept continually, as opposed to other approaches where developments are dependent on external, and often limited, support. Relatedly, our aim is to improve knowledge on the state and development dynamics of RICIUS, and on effective means of fostering these, and thereby contribute to the scaling up of IUS activities and their sustainability benefits. Earlier work by Boons and Spekkink studied RICIUS primarily retrospectively, using event sequence analyses methods. In contrast, our findings are acquired through two action research projects conducted between 2013 and 2017 in Malmö, Sweden. Thus, our main focus has been on interventions that were purposefully developed, and tested, to enhance RICIUS, the impacts of which we were able to capture more or less in real time. We also captured the impacts of other activities and events that were not explicitly designed, but nevertheless affected RICIUS in the context. As we started our work with a clear view of the reference state of RICIUS, we were also able to monitor the impacts of relevant activities more precisely. RICIUS is recognised to evolve along the dimensions of relational- and knowledge-resources and the mobilisation-capacity within the regional economic system. Relatedly, benefiting from approaches used in relevant studies, we developed set of quantitative and qualitative indicators to asses and monitor changes in these dimensions. Using these indicators and the data we collected–through direct observations, regular interviews with multiple stakeholders, and document reviews–we identified changes that took place and their contributing events. Our findings show that employed interventions have significantly improved the RICIUS in Malmö. This is manifested, among others, by: increased number and diversity of participating actors; growing number of symbiotic opportunities recognised; formulation of a common development vision, and; the formation of a new municipal entity–called "symbiosis function"– dedicated to systemically identifying and supporting new symbiotic opportunities. As tangible outcomes, new symbiotic exchanges became operational and some are under planning, and new and more complex projects are initiated. Our conclusions summarise the changes in RICIUS realised in Malmö and reflect upon their implications. They also highlight the strengths and shortcomings of the interventions we used and reflect upon how these and other techniques can be used in Malmö and in other contexts to (further) support RICIUS and advance IUS.
Keywords: Industrial and urban symbiosis, regional institutional capacity, facilitation of industrial and urban symbiosis developments
5g. Special Track - Industrial symbiosis, networking and cooperation as part of industrial
