A multi-actor perspective on urban sustainability transitions

One could argue that an understanding of multi-actor power relations is particularly relevant for the urban context and for experimentation. Experimenting cities take full advantage of socially embedded relations, geographical proximity as well as multi-scalar and multi-domain interactions to develop alternative ideas, practices and social relations which address current unsustainabilities. The Multi-Actor Perspective (MLP) scheme distinguishes between actor categories along three axes, namely informal–formal, for profit–non-profit and public–private. This Welfare Mix scheme provides a richer alternative for the common distinction between 'market', 'state' and 'civil society', which is often used in transition studies, sometimes also including science as a separate category. This chapter argues that the broad category of 'civil society' is problematic in the sense that it includes both formal entities such as trade unions or informal entities such as families, which all get generalised for civil society as a whole.