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Assessing Change Agency in Urban Experiments for Sustainability Transitions

Röbke, Lukas LU (2021) SGEM08 20211
Department of Human Geography
Abstract (Swedish)
This thesis adresses a lack engagement with the role of agency in the literature on urban sustainability transitions and urban experiments. By introducing the trinity of change agency framework from economic geography a hypothesis of how agentic processes can be conceptualized for urban sustainability transitions is developed. The framework allows to adress the shortcomings of the existing literature which fails to adress why UST take place in specific locations and tend to prescribe specific roles to actors based on their position in socio-technical systems. The hypothesis is tested in a case study of the ElectriCity project in Gothenburg, Sweden, an urban experiment aimed at developing and testing the use of electric busses in order to... (More)
This thesis adresses a lack engagement with the role of agency in the literature on urban sustainability transitions and urban experiments. By introducing the trinity of change agency framework from economic geography a hypothesis of how agentic processes can be conceptualized for urban sustainability transitions is developed. The framework allows to adress the shortcomings of the existing literature which fails to adress why UST take place in specific locations and tend to prescribe specific roles to actors based on their position in socio-technical systems. The hypothesis is tested in a case study of the ElectriCity project in Gothenburg, Sweden, an urban experiment aimed at developing and testing the use of electric busses in order to induce change in the city’s transport system. The case study reveals that processes in urban experiments can be well explained by a combination of place-based leadership, institutional and innovative entrepreneurship. However, actors take ambiguous roles, implying that they can not be pre-ascribed specific types of agency. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Röbke, Lukas LU
supervisor
organization
course
SGEM08 20211
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Change Agency, Urban Sustainability Transitions, Urban Experiments, Gothenburg
language
English
id
9048965
date added to LUP
2021-06-04 09:24:49
date last changed
2021-06-04 09:24:49
@misc{9048965,
  abstract     = {{This thesis adresses a lack engagement with the role of agency in the literature on urban sustainability transitions and urban experiments. By introducing the trinity of change agency framework from economic geography a hypothesis of how agentic processes can be conceptualized for urban sustainability transitions is developed. The framework allows to adress the shortcomings of the existing literature which fails to adress why UST take place in specific locations and tend to prescribe specific roles to actors based on their position in socio-technical systems. The hypothesis is tested in a case study of the ElectriCity project in Gothenburg, Sweden, an urban experiment aimed at developing and testing the use of electric busses in order to induce change in the city’s transport system. The case study reveals that processes in urban experiments can be well explained by a combination of place-based leadership, institutional and innovative entrepreneurship. However, actors take ambiguous roles, implying that they can not be pre-ascribed specific types of agency.}},
  author       = {{Röbke, Lukas}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Assessing Change Agency in Urban Experiments for Sustainability Transitions}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}