Capacities for urban transformations governance and the case of New York City

Katharina Hölscher; Niki Frantzeskaki; Timon McPhearson; Derk Loorbach

doi:10.1016/j.cities.2019.05.037

Capacities for urban transformations governance and the case of New York City

Katharina Hölscher^*
, Niki Frantzeskaki
, Timon McPhearson
, Derk Loorbach

^*Corresponding author for this work

Erasmus University Rotterdam
extern
The New School
Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The narrative of urban sustainability transformations epitomises the hope that urban governance can create the conditions to plan and govern cities in a way that they contribute to local and global sustainability and resilience. So far, urban governance is not delivering: novel governance approaches are emerging in cities worldwide, yet are unable to transform conventional policymaking and planning to allow for innovative, co-beneficial and long-term solutions and actions to emerge and institutionalise. We present a capacities framework for urban transformations governance, starting from the need to fulfil distinct output functions (‘what needs to happen’) for mobilising and influencing urban transformation dynamics. The framework helps to diagnose and inform urban governance for responding to disturbances (stewarding capacity), phasing-out drivers of path-dependency (unlocking capacity), creating and embedding novelties (transformative capacity) and coordinating multi-actor processes (orchestrating capacity). Our case study of climate governance in New York City exemplifies the framework's applicability and explanatory power to identify conditions and activities facilitating transformation (governance), and to reveal gaps and barriers of these vis-à-vis the existing governance regime. Our framework thereby functions as a tool to explore what new forms of urban transformation governance are emerging, how effective these are, and how to strengthen capacities.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	186-199
Number of pages	14
Journal	Cities
Volume	94
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.05.037
Publication status	Published - Nov 2019
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was supported by the EU FP7 project IMPRESSIONS [grant number 603416]; the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, the Netherlands; the Konrad von Moltke Fund, Germany; and the Erasmus Trustfonds, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The authors thank all interviewees for their time and keen interest in our research. TM was supported by Urban Resilience to Extreme Weather-Related Events Sustainability Research Network (URExSRN; US NSF grant no. SES 1444755).

Funding Information:
This research was supported by the EU FP7 project IMPRESSIONS [grant number 603416 ]; the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds , the Netherlands; the Konrad von Moltke Fund , Germany; and the Erasmus Trustfonds , Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The authors thank all interviewees for their time and keen interest in our research. TM was supported by Urban Resilience to Extreme Weather-Related Events Sustainability Research Network (URExSRN; US NSF grant no. SES 1444755 ).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd

Funding

This research was supported by the EU FP7 project IMPRESSIONS [grant number 603416]; the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, the Netherlands; the Konrad von Moltke Fund, Germany; and the Erasmus Trustfonds, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The authors thank all interviewees for their time and keen interest in our research. TM was supported by Urban Resilience to Extreme Weather-Related Events Sustainability Research Network (URExSRN; US NSF grant no. SES 1444755). This research was supported by the EU FP7 project IMPRESSIONS [grant number 603416 ]; the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds , the Netherlands; the Konrad von Moltke Fund , Germany; and the Erasmus Trustfonds , Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The authors thank all interviewees for their time and keen interest in our research. TM was supported by Urban Resilience to Extreme Weather-Related Events Sustainability Research Network (URExSRN; US NSF grant no. SES 1444755 ).

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 13 Climate Action

Keywords

Agency
Capacity
Cities
Climate change
Transformations
Urban
Urban governance

Access to Document

10.1016/j.cities.2019.05.037

Cite this

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title = "Capacities for urban transformations governance and the case of New York City",

abstract = "The narrative of urban sustainability transformations epitomises the hope that urban governance can create the conditions to plan and govern cities in a way that they contribute to local and global sustainability and resilience. So far, urban governance is not delivering: novel governance approaches are emerging in cities worldwide, yet are unable to transform conventional policymaking and planning to allow for innovative, co-beneficial and long-term solutions and actions to emerge and institutionalise. We present a capacities framework for urban transformations governance, starting from the need to fulfil distinct output functions ({\textquoteleft}what needs to happen{\textquoteright}) for mobilising and influencing urban transformation dynamics. The framework helps to diagnose and inform urban governance for responding to disturbances (stewarding capacity), phasing-out drivers of path-dependency (unlocking capacity), creating and embedding novelties (transformative capacity) and coordinating multi-actor processes (orchestrating capacity). Our case study of climate governance in New York City exemplifies the framework's applicability and explanatory power to identify conditions and activities facilitating transformation (governance), and to reveal gaps and barriers of these vis-{\`a}-vis the existing governance regime. Our framework thereby functions as a tool to explore what new forms of urban transformation governance are emerging, how effective these are, and how to strengthen capacities.",

keywords = "Agency, Capacity, Cities, Climate change, Transformations, Urban, Urban governance",

author = "Katharina H{\"o}lscher and Niki Frantzeskaki and Timon McPhearson and Derk Loorbach",

note = "Funding Information: This research was supported by the EU FP7 project IMPRESSIONS [grant number 603416]; the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, the Netherlands; the Konrad von Moltke Fund, Germany; and the Erasmus Trustfonds, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The authors thank all interviewees for their time and keen interest in our research. TM was supported by Urban Resilience to Extreme Weather-Related Events Sustainability Research Network (URExSRN; US NSF grant no. SES 1444755). Funding Information: This research was supported by the EU FP7 project IMPRESSIONS [grant number 603416 ]; the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds , the Netherlands; the Konrad von Moltke Fund , Germany; and the Erasmus Trustfonds , Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The authors thank all interviewees for their time and keen interest in our research. TM was supported by Urban Resilience to Extreme Weather-Related Events Sustainability Research Network (URExSRN; US NSF grant no. SES 1444755 ). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 Elsevier Ltd",

year = "2019",

month = nov,

doi = "10.1016/j.cities.2019.05.037",

language = "English",

volume = "94",

pages = "186--199",

journal = "Cities",

issn = "0264-2751",

publisher = "Elsevier Ltd",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Capacities for urban transformations governance and the case of New York City

AU - Hölscher, Katharina

AU - Frantzeskaki, Niki

AU - McPhearson, Timon

AU - Loorbach, Derk

N1 - Funding Information: This research was supported by the EU FP7 project IMPRESSIONS [grant number 603416]; the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, the Netherlands; the Konrad von Moltke Fund, Germany; and the Erasmus Trustfonds, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The authors thank all interviewees for their time and keen interest in our research. TM was supported by Urban Resilience to Extreme Weather-Related Events Sustainability Research Network (URExSRN; US NSF grant no. SES 1444755). Funding Information: This research was supported by the EU FP7 project IMPRESSIONS [grant number 603416 ]; the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds , the Netherlands; the Konrad von Moltke Fund , Germany; and the Erasmus Trustfonds , Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The authors thank all interviewees for their time and keen interest in our research. TM was supported by Urban Resilience to Extreme Weather-Related Events Sustainability Research Network (URExSRN; US NSF grant no. SES 1444755 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2019 Elsevier Ltd

PY - 2019/11

Y1 - 2019/11

N2 - The narrative of urban sustainability transformations epitomises the hope that urban governance can create the conditions to plan and govern cities in a way that they contribute to local and global sustainability and resilience. So far, urban governance is not delivering: novel governance approaches are emerging in cities worldwide, yet are unable to transform conventional policymaking and planning to allow for innovative, co-beneficial and long-term solutions and actions to emerge and institutionalise. We present a capacities framework for urban transformations governance, starting from the need to fulfil distinct output functions (‘what needs to happen’) for mobilising and influencing urban transformation dynamics. The framework helps to diagnose and inform urban governance for responding to disturbances (stewarding capacity), phasing-out drivers of path-dependency (unlocking capacity), creating and embedding novelties (transformative capacity) and coordinating multi-actor processes (orchestrating capacity). Our case study of climate governance in New York City exemplifies the framework's applicability and explanatory power to identify conditions and activities facilitating transformation (governance), and to reveal gaps and barriers of these vis-à-vis the existing governance regime. Our framework thereby functions as a tool to explore what new forms of urban transformation governance are emerging, how effective these are, and how to strengthen capacities.

AB - The narrative of urban sustainability transformations epitomises the hope that urban governance can create the conditions to plan and govern cities in a way that they contribute to local and global sustainability and resilience. So far, urban governance is not delivering: novel governance approaches are emerging in cities worldwide, yet are unable to transform conventional policymaking and planning to allow for innovative, co-beneficial and long-term solutions and actions to emerge and institutionalise. We present a capacities framework for urban transformations governance, starting from the need to fulfil distinct output functions (‘what needs to happen’) for mobilising and influencing urban transformation dynamics. The framework helps to diagnose and inform urban governance for responding to disturbances (stewarding capacity), phasing-out drivers of path-dependency (unlocking capacity), creating and embedding novelties (transformative capacity) and coordinating multi-actor processes (orchestrating capacity). Our case study of climate governance in New York City exemplifies the framework's applicability and explanatory power to identify conditions and activities facilitating transformation (governance), and to reveal gaps and barriers of these vis-à-vis the existing governance regime. Our framework thereby functions as a tool to explore what new forms of urban transformation governance are emerging, how effective these are, and how to strengthen capacities.

KW - Agency

KW - Capacity

KW - Cities

KW - Climate change

KW - Transformations

KW - Urban

KW - Urban governance

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85067196832

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DO - 10.1016/j.cities.2019.05.037

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85067196832

SN - 0264-2751

VL - 94

SP - 186

EP - 199

JO - Cities

JF - Cities

ER -

Capacities for urban transformations governance and the case of New York City

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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