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The future of urban experimentation through ten critical lessons from decades of practice

Raven, Rob ; von Wirth, Timo ; Bai, Xuemei ; Bulkeley, Harriet ; Farrelly, Megan ; Mccormick, Kes LU orcid ; Novalia, Wikke ; Voytenko Palgan, Yuliya LU and Wieczorek, Anna (2026) In Nature Cities
Abstract
Since the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the signing of the Paris Agreement, the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals, and the New Urban Agenda, there has been a major growth of urban involvement in addressing sustainability challenges. This has sparked a thriving era for city governments around the world to engage with urban experimentation that aims to enable transformations towards low-carbon and more resilient, just and sustainable cities. Reflecting on insights from eight databases covering close to two thousand urban experiments, here we provide ten critical lessons about urban experimentation across three themes: key processes, politics and governance, and impact. We end with a call to action to empower and embed urban... (More)
Since the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the signing of the Paris Agreement, the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals, and the New Urban Agenda, there has been a major growth of urban involvement in addressing sustainability challenges. This has sparked a thriving era for city governments around the world to engage with urban experimentation that aims to enable transformations towards low-carbon and more resilient, just and sustainable cities. Reflecting on insights from eight databases covering close to two thousand urban experiments, here we provide ten critical lessons about urban experimentation across three themes: key processes, politics and governance, and impact. We end with a call to action to empower and embed urban experimentation as an enduring governance practice, to develop whole-of-systems approaches across sectors, places and policy silos, and to design relational and institutional infrastructures that ensure continuous and reflexive approaches to the monitoring and evaluation of urban experimentation. (Less)
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
epub
subject
keywords
urban experimentation, governance, cities, sustainability, lessons
in
Nature Cities
publisher
Springer Nature
ISSN
2731-9997
DOI
10.1038/s44284-026-00398-z
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
68894e8f-5fa1-47a1-bf62-1046244a916f
date added to LUP
2026-02-15 13:54:59
date last changed
2026-02-16 08:07:10
@article{68894e8f-5fa1-47a1-bf62-1046244a916f,
  abstract     = {{Since the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the signing of the Paris Agreement, the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals, and the New Urban Agenda, there has been a major growth of urban involvement in addressing sustainability challenges. This has sparked a thriving era for city governments around the world to engage with urban experimentation that aims to enable transformations towards low-carbon and more resilient, just and sustainable cities. Reflecting on insights from eight databases covering close to two thousand urban experiments, here we provide ten critical lessons about urban experimentation across three themes: key processes, politics and governance, and impact. We end with a call to action to empower and embed urban experimentation as an enduring governance practice, to develop whole-of-systems approaches across sectors, places and policy silos, and to design relational and institutional infrastructures that ensure continuous and reflexive approaches to the monitoring and evaluation of urban experimentation.}},
  author       = {{Raven, Rob and von Wirth, Timo and Bai, Xuemei and Bulkeley, Harriet and Farrelly, Megan and Mccormick, Kes and Novalia, Wikke and Voytenko Palgan, Yuliya and Wieczorek, Anna}},
  issn         = {{2731-9997}},
  keywords     = {{urban experimentation; governance; cities; sustainability; lessons}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{02}},
  publisher    = {{Springer Nature}},
  series       = {{Nature Cities}},
  title        = {{The future of urban experimentation through ten critical lessons from decades of practice}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s44284-026-00398-z}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s44284-026-00398-z}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}