Transformative planning capacities in the transformative change of mobility systems

Ida Grundel; Kristina  Trygg

doi:10.14512/rur.3074

Authors

Ida Grundel Linköping University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3691-0044
Kristina Trygg Linköping University https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0121-2729

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14512/rur.3074

Keywords:

Transformative planning capacities, Transformative change, Mobility systems

Abstract

There is increasing urgency to tackle the ongoing climate crisis. New innovations, policies, tools and changes in habits related to our transport systems, especially the need to decrease people’s car dependency, are necessary. Recently, the redesign of city planning through urban experimentation to reduce car dependency has become a common planning tool in many cities. This paper addresses how Swedish municipalities are implementing innovations in transport and mobility through urban experimentation and their work with mobility hubs. Importantly, we wanted to understand the ways in which the municipalities are working with urban experiments towards transformative change and how local authorities are increasingly applying experimental governance approaches. Our empirical material builds on interviews and workshops with local officials and planners, and an analysis of policy documents in the municipalities. Our results show that the influence of local conditions and the planning environment matters for how transformative planning is practised. Communication around future visions and goals is an important aspect of implementing new tools for change. The implementation of new innovations in the mobility sector may require new governance models to achieve more consistent planning tools and challenge existing norms and structures.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Ida Grundel, Linköping University

Associate professor, senior lecturer
Kristina Trygg, Linköping University

Associate professor, senior lecturer

References

Agger, A; Sørensen, E. (2018): Managing collaborative innovation in public bureaucracies. In: Planning Theory 17, 1, 53–73. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473095216672500

Albrechts, L. (2010): More of the same is not enough! How could strategic spatial planning be instrumental in dealing with the challenges ahead? In: Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 37, 6, 1115–1127. https://doi.org/10.1068/b36068

Albrechts, L.; Barbanente, A.; Monno, V. (2020): Practicing transformative planning: the territory-landscape plan as a catalyst for change. In: City, Territory and Architecture, 7, 1, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40410-019-0111-2

Anderson, K.; Blanchard, S.D.; Cheah, D.; Levitt, D. (2017): Incorporating Equity and Resiliency in Municipal Transportation Planning: Case Study of Mobility Hubs in Oakland, California. In: Transportation Research Record 2653, 1, 65–74. https://doi.org/10.3141/2653-08

Bäckström, J.; Roberg, C. (2022): Slutrapportering av regeringsuppdrag om att genomföra informations- och kunskapshöjande insatser inom området mobilitet som en tjänst. Linköping.

Blücher, G. (2006): 1900-talet – det kommunala planmonopolets århundrade. In: Blücher, G.; Graninger, G. (eds.): Planering med nya förutsättningar. Ny lagstiftning, nya värderingar. Linköping, 133–156.

Börjesson, M.; Kristoffersson, I. (2018): The Swedish congestion charges: Ten years on. In: Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 107, 35–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2017.11.001

Bulkeley, H.; Betsill, M. (2005): Rethinking Sustainable Cities: Multilevel Governance and the ‘Urban’ Politics of Climate Change. In: Environmental Politics 14, 1, 42–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/0964401042000310178

Bulkeley, H.; Castán Broto, V. (2013): Government by experiment? Global cities and the governing of climate change. In: Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 38, 3, 361–375. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2012.00535.x

Bulkeley, H.; Castán Broto, V. (2014): Urban experiments and climate change: securing zero carbon development in Bangalore. In: Contemporary Social Science 9, 4, 393–414. https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2012.692483

Bulkeley, H.; Marvin, S.; Palgan, Y.V.; McCormick, K.; Breitfuss-Loidl, M.; Mai, L.; von Wirth, T.; Frantzeskaki, N. (2019): Urban living laboratories: Conducting the experimental city? In: European Urban and Regional Studies 26, 4, 317–335. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969776418787222

Bylund, J.; Riegler, J.; Wrangsten, C. (2022): Anticipating experimentation as the ‘the new normal’ through urban living labs 2.0: lessons learnt by JPI Urban Europe. In: Urban Transformations 4, 8, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42854-022-00037-5

Czarnetzki, F.; Siek, F. (2023): Decentralized mobility hubs in urban residential neighborhoods improve the contribution of carsharing to sustainable mobility: findings from a quasi-experimental study. In: Transportation 50, 6, 2193–2225. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-022-10305-9

Eneqvist, E.; Karvonen, A. (2021): Experimental Governance and Urban Planning Futures: Five Strategic Functions for Municipalities in Local Innovation. In: Urban Planning 6, 1, 183–194. https://doi.org/10.17645/up.v6i1.3396

Evans, J.; Karvonen, A. (2014): ‘Give me a Laboratory and I will Lower Your Carbon Footprint!’ – Urban Laboratories and the Governance of Low-Carbon Futures. In: International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 38, 2, 413–430. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12077

Flyvbjerg, B. (2006): Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research. In. Qualitative Inquiry 12, 2, 219–245. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800405284363

Frantzeskaki, N.; Castán Broto, V.; Coenen, L.; Loorbach, D. (2017): Urban Sustainability Transitions. The Dynamics and Opportunities of Sustainability Transitions in Cities. In: Frantzeskaki, N.; Castán Broto, V.; Coenen, L.; Loorbach D. (eds.): Urban Sustainability Transitions. New York, 1–20.

Fuenfschilling, L.; Frantzeskaki, N.; Coenen, L. (2019): Urban experimentation & sustainability transitions. In: European Planning Studies 27, 2, 219–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2018.1532977

Geels, F. W. (2011): The multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions: Responses to seven criticisms. In: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 1, 1, 24–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2011.02.002

Grundel, I.; Trygg, K. (2024): A tale of urban experimentation in three Swedish municipalities. In: European Planning Studies 32, 8, 1778–1795. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2024.2353697

Healey, P. (2009): In Search of the “Strategic” in Spatial Strategy Making. In: Planning Theory and Practice 10, 4, 439–457. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649350903417191

Hodson, M.; Marvin, S. (2010): Can cities shape socio-technical transitions and how would we know if they were? In: Research Policy 39, 4, 477–485. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2010.01.020

Hölscher, K.; Frantzeskaki, N. (2021): Perspectives on urban transformation research: transformations in, of, and by cities. In: Urban Transformations 3, 2, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42854-021-00019-z

Hölscher, K.; Frantzeskaki, N.; Loorbach, D. (2019a): Steering transformations under climate change: capacities for transformative climate governance and the case of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. In: Regional Environmental Change 19, 3, 791–805. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-018-1329-3

Hölscher, K.; Frantzeskaki, N.; McPhearson, T.; Loorbach, D. (2019b): Tales of transforming cities: Transformative climate governance capacities in New York City, U.S. and Rotterdam, Netherlands. In: Journal of Environmental Management 231, 843–857. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.10.043

Jordan, A.J.; Huitema, D.; Hildén, M.; van Asselt, H.; Rayner, T.J.; Schoenefeld, J.J.; Tosun, J.; Forster, J.; Boasson, E.L. (2015): Emergence of polycentric climate governance and its future prospects. In: Nature Climate Change 5, 11, 977–982. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2725

Karvonen, A.; van Heur, B. (2014): Urban laboratories: experiments in reworking cities. In: International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 38, 2, 379–392. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12075

Layton, J.; Latham, A. (2022): Social infrastructure and public life – notes on Finsbury Park, London. In: Urban Geography 43, 5, 755–776. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2021.1934631

Linköpings kommun (2022): Trafikplan för Linköpings innerstad. Linköping.

Loorbach, D. (2010): Transition Management for Sustainable Development: A Prescriptive, Complexity-Based Governance Framework. In: Governance 23, 1, 161–183. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0491.2009.01471.x

Luederitz, C.; Abson, D.J.; Audet, R.; Lang, D.J. (2017): Many pathways toward sustainability: not conflict but co-learning between transition narratives. In. Sustainability Science 12, 3, 393–407. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-016-0414-0

Lukkarinen, J.P.; Nieminen, H.; Lazarevic, D. (2023): Transitions in planning: transformative policy visions of the circular economy and blue bioeconomy meet planning practice. In: European Planning Studies, 31, 1, 55–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2022.2060706

Malmö stad (2021): Mobilitet för Malmö. Mobilitetsåtgärder och utformning av parkering för fastighetsägare. Malmö.

McCormick, K.; Anderberg, S.; Coenen, L.; Neij, L. (2013): Advancing sustainable urban transformation. In: Journal of Cleaner Production 50, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.01.003

Mukhtar-Landgren, D.; Kronsell, A.; Palgan, Y.V.; von Wirth, T. (2019): Municipalities as enablers in urban experimentation. In: Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning 21, 6, 718–733. https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908X.2019.1672525

Mukhtar-Landgren, D.; Paulsson, A. (2021): Governing smart mobility: policy instrumentation, technological utopianism, and the administrative quest for knowledge. In: Administrative Theory and Praxis 43, 2, 135–153. https://doi.org/10.1080/10841806.2020.1782111

Persson, C. (2020): Perform or conform? Looking for the strategic in municipal spatial planning in Sweden. In: European Planning Studies 28, 6, 1183–1199. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2019.1614150

Purkarthofer, E. (2022): Agency in Planning: (Future) Planners as Key Actors in the Strive for Sustainable Urban Development. In: Rocco, R.; Bracken, G.; Newton, C.; Dabrowski, M. (eds.): Teaching, Learning & Researching Spatial Planning. Delft, 84–95.

Roebke, L.; Grillitsch, M.; Coenen, L. (2022): Assessing change agency in urban experiments for sustainability transitions. In: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 45, 214–227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2022.10.007

Tiboni, M.; Rossetti, S.; Vetturi, D.; Torrisi, V.; Botticini, F.; Schaefer, M.D. (2021): Urban Policies and Planning Approaches for a Safer and Climate Friendlier Mobility in Cities: Strategies, Initiatives and Some Analysis. In: Sustainability 13, 4, 1778. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041778

Trygg, K.; Grundel, I. (2025): Strategic spatial planning in the implementation of mobility hubs. In: Journal of Urban Mobility 7, 100105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urbmob.2025.100105

Trygg, K.; Wenander, H. (2022): Strategic spatial planning for sustainable development – Swedish planners’ institutional capacity. In: European Planning Studies 30, 10, 1985–2001. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2021.2001792

Umeå kommun (2020): Lärdomar om servicehubbar 2018–2020. Umeå.

Wallsten, A.; Henriksson, M.; Isaksson, K. (2021): The Role of Local Public Authorities in Steering toward Smart and Sustainable Mobility: Findings from the Stockholm Metropolitan Area. In: Planning Practice and Research 37, 5, 532–546. https://doi.org/10.1080/02697459.2021.1874638

Witzell, J.; Henriksson, M.; Håkansson, M.; Isaksson, K. (2022): Transformative capacity for climate mitigation in strategic transport planning – principles and practices in cross-sectoral collaboration. In. Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning 24, 6, 719–732. https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908X.2022.2037414

Wolfram, M. (2019): Assessing transformative capacity for sustainable urban regeneration: A comparative study of three South Korean cities. In: Ambio: A Journal of the Human Environment 48, 5, 478–493. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-018-1111-2

Wolfram, M.; Frantzeskaki, N.; Maschmeyer, S. (2016): Cities, systems and sustainability: status and perspectives of research on urban transformations. In: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 22, 18–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2017.01.014