Sustainability transitions as contextual reconfiguration: Governance innovation through local experimentation

Abstract

In a context of complex and unprecedented challenges, innovations in governance are called for to embrace uncertainty and contingency. As a novel form of governance urban experimentation is intended to foster innovation and promote societal change. Building on the concepts of reconfiguration and multiplicity, scholars direct attention towards the multidimensional, hybrid and recursive nature of transformative change. The article provides an empirical exploration of local experimentation and contextual reconfiguration, illustrating how experimentation is mediated by and transforms local governance settings. It builds on “Dresden – City of the Future: Empowering Citizens, Transforming Cities!“, a transdisciplinary research project that aims to facilitate the co-creation of knowledge by researchers and practitioners, and advance the governance of local sustainability transitions. The exploratory study sheds light on processes of re-alignment between old and new forms of governance, illustrating the shift from hierarchy to co-creation, and from planning and accountability to experimentation and exploration.