Experimentation Within the Urban Ecosystem: The Case for Cross-Sector Support

Abstract

Urban experimentation has been identified as a key element of innovative approaches to urban sustainability and emerging practices of entrepreneurial municipalism whereby the public, private, and third sectors cooperate to address wicked problems—biophysical environmental deterioration and social inequality—brought about by neoliberalism. In contrast to vast, pan-state, top-down international programs, urban experimentation exploits interstitial niches to build relationships across sectors for mutual gain. These experiments can potentially scale up or across to shift broader ecosystem dynamics. Our article investigates the cross-sector support provided to “understorey”—a community, events, coworking and collaboration space in Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand—and identifies crucial areas of cross-sector reliance and cross-sector responsibility. We conclude that this sort of experimentation both benefits from and is strengthened by the support of the public, private, and third sectors.