The bureaucratic life of urban climate resilience

Abstract

With this commentary, we invite urban scholars to join us in exploring the bureaucratic life of urban climate resilience. Under this heading, we call for research into the intricate and often unpredictable processes of urban governance, from the formulation of general mitigation and adaptation goals to the implementation of concrete measures on the ground. While previous research on urban governance has focused primarily on political negotiations and alliance-building beforehand and on published plans after they are passed, we propose to put emphasis on the non-linear dynamics inherent in decision-making and implementation processes within city administrations. In this context, this commentary has two objectives: (1) we provide arguments for the need to (re-)focus attention on administrative processes in urban climate resilience and (2) we present a perspective that can be used to effectively study said processes. In contrast to widely used actor-oriented perspectives, our approach draws on insights from actor–network theory and integrates human and non-human actors to be studied. We illustrate our approach through an ethnographic study in the municipality of Augsburg, Germany, which serves to uncover the multiple processes of translation inherent in building urban climate resilience and to provide insights into the ways how bureaucrats shape and mediate the future of contemporary cities.