Urban experimentation as a politics of niches
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4138764 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Federico Savini (0000-0002-4112-6908, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, corresponding author), Luca Bertolini (0000-0003-0777-2620, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 831-848 |
| Publication date | 2019-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environment and Planning A Economy and Space (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0308-518X • E-ISSN: 1472-3409 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0308518x19826085 |
| OpenAlex | W2912097364 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 73 |
| References cited | 43 |
Experimentation has become an increasingly dominant and celebrated practice in urban governance. Used by planners and policy-makers seeking to manage and organize a positive transition to a 'better' world, experiments are generally seen as desirable and even necessary to achieve this goal. The quintessentially political nature of this approach to urban change, however, remains insufficiently addressed in planning and policy literature. This paper argues that experimental agency entails a set of political biases and normative assumptions that deserve to be problematized. Critically building on the analytical insights of evolutionary theory, we develop a critique of experimental action, arguing that experiments express a 'politics of niches' which occur across three processes: the creation, selection and retention of emergent practices within established institutional orders. Using empirical evidence from contemporary practices in Amsterdam, we sketch four trajectories of niches: death, marginalization, assimilation and transformation. We conclude by reflecting on the political implications of experimentation for urban theory and practice
Corporate governance · Economics · Epistemology · Management · Normative · Policy Sciences · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Sketch · Social science · Sociology · Urban politics · Computer Science · Land Use and Ecosystem Services · Law · Public Administration · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance · Urban Planning and Governance
Experimenting with community power
Beyond proximity and price
The role of living labs for cities sustainable transition
Transcending Dilemmas in Urban Policy-Making
Planning cities beyond digital colonization? Insights from the periphery
Experimentation or projectification of urban change? A critical appraisal and three steps forward
From “streets for traffic” to “streets for people”
The long road from urban experimentation to the transformation of urban planning practice
Reflections on the value of trials
Pilot project purgatory? Assessing automated vehicle pilot projects in U.S. cities
Toward post-growth infrastructure
Urban living labs as innovation infrastructure for local urban intervention acceleration and student social learning
Urban Planning by Experiment at Precinct Scale
Expérimentation et légitimation de l’innovation en urbanisme
Lignées de projets, agir expérimental et fabrique urbaine
De quoi l’expérimentation urbaine est-elle le nom
Les controverses des expérimentations urbaines à l’épreuve de l’habitat
The Giant in the Niche
Doing Planning Differently
Realizing the Transformative Potential of Experimentation in Planning
La plateforme numérique de MaaS HVV switch à Hambourg
Grounding social innovation
Climate governance experiments
Before implementation
Exploring local spatial planning as practices of process design in the Stockholm region, Sweden
Transformative thinking and urban living labs in planning practice
The next 30 years
Green, Blue and Smart
From experiments to organizational change
On different lanes
Sustainability transitions as contextual reconfiguration
Maladaptive Planning and the Pro-Innovation Bias
Recovering” the political
Mini-Publics as an innovation in spatial governance
Towards a deeper understanding of up-scaling in socio-technical transitions
Collaborative governance arrangements
Rethinking the governance of urban infrastructural transformations
Urban circularity as a planning challenge
Co-producing smart cities
Urban living labs as cracks, not doors
Dilemmas, Conflicts, and Worldview Diversity
Rethinking the off-grid city
Autonomous vehicle experiments and the city
Mapping the field of urban infrastructuring — A scoping review
Urban robotic experimentation
Strategic planning for degrowth
Planning as an instituting process. Overcoming Agamben’s despair using Esposito’s political ontology
Entre parenthèse enchantée et héritage
The Social Appraisal of Techno-Experiments
City digital twins and the urban laboratory
Fictitious commodification of land to solve rural crises
Urban Living Laboratories and hybrid-bottom-linked governance
Identifying and exploring ‘agency features’ in decision-making processes aimed at urban sustainability transformation
Grassroots circularity in Bologna
Why multi-stakeholder practices don’t work
Perceived importance of inclusive street dimensions
Experimenting to remain the same
Beyond temporary measures
The role of municipalities and their impact on the transitional capacity of city street experiments
Hidden gems
Sustainability transitions to circular cities
Navigating the interplay of cities and artificial intelligence
Designing a New Civic Economy? On the Emergence and Contradictions of Participatory Experimental Urbanism
Reimagining Urban Living Labs
Socio-material governance tensions in nature-based solution experiments
Pilots and Shifting Public Sentiment
Power in urban logistics
Exploring (De)politicization in policy-driven urban sustainability experiments
Une analyse des discours sur le rôle d’une expérimentation dans la production urbaine
Urban Living Lab
They sprout everywhere
The Place of Experimentation in Public Policymaking
Why now? Questioning the confidence in eco-political experimentation in civil society
Darwin's Conjecture
Niche Construction
Post-Structuralist Geography
A critical review of entrepreneurial ecosystems research
The politics of sustainability transitions
Relational concepts of space and place
Can cities shape socio-technical transitions and how would we know if they were?
What is protective space? Reconsidering niches in transitions to sustainability
Getting Londoners on two wheels
An Urban Politics of Climate Change
Dilemmas of planning
An evolutionary theory of institutions and a dynamic approach to reform
The social capital of urban activism
Turning Around Politics
Interrogating urban experiments
Urban streets
Generalising Darwinism to study socio‐cultural change
The Squatters' Movement in Europe
Disruptive politics
The Big Society
Theorizing power in transition studies
Building transitions to post‐capitalist urban commons
The Experimental City
The co‐optation of squatters in Amsterdam and the emergence of a movement meritocracy
How Institutions Evolve
How Local Networks Shape a Global Movement
Smart cities as corporate storytelling
Self-Organization and Urban Development
The Antinomies of the Postpolitical City
Maintaining Climate Change Experiments
Evolutionary Urban Transportation Planning
Urban Laboratories
Institutional Re(turns) and the Strategic - Relational Approach
Evolution in Economic Geography
Collective Action and the Evolution of Social Norms
The 'System' of Automobility
The Theoretical Core of the New Institutionalism
| Unique citing works | 73 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 12,17 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2026 (7) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 68 |