IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/urbpla/v6y2021i1p171-182.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Cities Learn: From Experimentation to Transformation

Author

Listed:
  • James Evans

    (Department of Geography, University of Manchester, UK)

  • Tomáš Vácha

    (University Centre for Energy Efficient Buildings, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic)

  • Henk Kok

    (Sector Strategy/Team Europe, Eindhoven Town Hall, The Netherlands)

  • Kelly Watson

    (Manchester Urban Institute, University of Manchester, UK)

Abstract

Cities must change rapidly to address a range of sustainability challenges. While urban experimentation has prospered as a framework for innovation, it has struggled to stimulate broader transformation. We offer a novel contribution to this debate by focusing on what municipalities learn from experimentation and how this drives organisational change. The practicalities of how municipalities learn and change has received relatively little attention, despite the recognised importance of learning within the literature on urban experiments and the central role of municipalities in enabling urban transformation. We address this research gap, drawing on four years of in-depth research coproduced with European municipal project coordinators responsible for designing and implementing the largest urban research and innovation projects ever undertaken. This cohort of professionals plays a critical role in urban experimentation and transformation, funnelling billions of Euros into trials of new solutions to urban challenges and coordinating large public-private partnerships to deliver them. For our respondents, learning how to experiment more effectively and embedding these lessons into their organisations was the most important outcome of these projects. We develop the novel concept of process learning to capture the importance of experimentation in driving organisational change. Process learning is significant because it offers a new way to understand the relationship between experimentation and urban transformation and should form the focus of innovation projects that seek to prompt broader urban transformation, rather than technical performance. We conclude by identifying implications for urban planning and innovation funding.

Suggested Citation

  • James Evans & Tomáš Vácha & Henk Kok & Kelly Watson, 2021. "How Cities Learn: From Experimentation to Transformation," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(1), pages 171-182.
  • Handle: RePEc:cog:urbpla:v6:y:2021:i:1:p:171-182
    DOI: 10.17645/up.v6i1.3545
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/3545
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/up.v6i1.3545?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Smith, Adrian & Raven, Rob, 2012. "What is protective space? Reconsidering niches in transitions to sustainability," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 1025-1036.
    2. Andrew Karvonen & Matthew Cook & Håvard Haarstad, 2020. "Urban Planning and the Smart City: Projects, Practices and Politics," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 65-68.
    3. Annica Kronsell & Dalia Mukhtar-Landgren, 2018. "Experimental governance: the role of municipalities in urban living labs," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(5), pages 988-1007, May.
    4. Andrew Karvonen & Matthew Cook & Håvard Haarstad, 2020. "Urban Planning and the Smart City: Projects, Practices and Politics," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 65-68.
    5. Henning Kroll, 2015. "Efforts to Implement Smart Specialization in Practice--Leading Unlike Horses to the Water," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(10), pages 2079-2098, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christian Scholl & Joop de Kraker, 2021. "Urban Planning by Experiment: Practices, Outcomes, and Impacts," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(1), pages 156-160.
    2. Margarita Vološina & Evija Taurene & Pēteris Šķiņķis, 2023. "Towards Liveability in Historic Centres: Challenges and Enablers of Transformation in Two Latvian Towns," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 52-66.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. James Evans & Tomáš Vácha & Henk Kok & Kelly Watson, 2021. "How Cities Learn: From Experimentation to Transformation," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(1), pages 171-182.
    2. Wang, Shengnan & Bai, Xuemei & van der Heijden, Jeroen & Tong, Xin, 2024. "The evolving roles of actors in sustainability experiments: Evidence from community waste management in a Chinese city," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    3. Shir Gravitz-Sela & Dalit Shach-Pinsly & Ori Bryt & Pnina Plaut, 2025. "Leveraging City Cameras for Human Behavior Analysis in Urban Parks: A Smart City Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-30, January.
    4. Fredrik Envall, 2023. "Situated dynamics of environmental governance in Swedish smart energy experimentation: Tentativeness, demonstration, upscaling," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 41(5), pages 922-940, August.
    5. Ruhrort, Lisa, 2020. "Reassessing the Role of Shared Mobility Services in a Transport Transition: Can They Contribute the Rise of an Alternative Socio-Technical Regime of Mobility?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 12(19), pages 1-1.
    6. Marianne Ryghaug & Michael Ornetzeder & Tomas Moe Skjølsvold & William Throndsen, 2019. "The Role of Experiments and Demonstration Projects in Efforts of Upscaling: An Analysis of Two Projects Attempting to Reconfigure Production and Consumption in Energy and Mobility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-15, October.
    7. Esparza Masana, Ricard & Fernández, Tatiana, 2019. "Monitoring S3: Key dimensions and implications," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    8. Adams, Clare & Frantzeskaki, Niki & Moglia, Magnus, 2023. "Mainstreaming nature-based solutions in cities: A systematic literature review and a proposal for facilitating urban transitions," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    9. Geels, Frank W. & Kern, Florian & Fuchs, Gerhard & Hinderer, Nele & Kungl, Gregor & Mylan, Josephine & Neukirch, Mario & Wassermann, Sandra, 2016. "The enactment of socio-technical transition pathways: A reformulated typology and a comparative multi-level analysis of the German and UK low-carbon electricity transitions (1990–2014)," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 896-913.
    10. David Gibbs & Kirstie O'Neill, 2014. "Rethinking Sociotechnical Transitions and Green Entrepreneurship: The Potential for Transformative Change in the Green Building Sector," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(5), pages 1088-1107, May.
    11. Suarsana, Laura & Schneider, Tina & Warsewa, Günter, 2023. "Do regional innovation strategies meet societal challenges? A comparative analysis across regions in Belgium, Germany, Netherlands and Finland," Schriftenreihe Institut Arbeit und Wirtschaft 40/2023, Institut Arbeit und Wirtschaft (IAW), Universität Bremen und Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen.
    12. Geels, Frank W. & Ayoub, Martina, 2023. "A socio-technical transition perspective on positive tipping points in climate change mitigation: Analysing seven interacting feedback loops in offshore wind and electric vehicles acceleration," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    13. Jayaraj, Nikhil & Klarin, Anton & Ananthram, Subramaniam, 2024. "The transition towards solar energy storage: a multi-level perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    14. Javier Barbero & Olga Diukanova & Carlo Gianelle & Simone Salotti & Artur Santoalha, 2022. "Economic modelling to evaluate Smart Specialisation: an analysis of research and innovation targets in Southern Europe," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(9), pages 1496-1509, September.
    15. Jakob Eder & Michaela Trippl, 2019. "Innovation in the periphery: compensation and exploitation strategies," PEGIS geo-disc-2019_07, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    16. Korneliusz Pylak & Piotr Oleszczuk & Przemysław Kowalik, 2021. "Typology of Smart Specializations Across European Regions," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 1), pages 503-512.
    17. Benjamin C. Wilde & Eva Lieberherr & Andrew E. Okem & Johan Six, 2019. "Nitrified Human Urine as a Sustainable and Socially Acceptable Fertilizer: An Analysis of Consumer Acceptance in Msunduzi, South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-13, April.
    18. Kriechbaum, Michael & Posch, Alfred & Hauswiesner, Angelika, 2021. "Hype cycles during socio-technical transitions: The dynamics of collective expectations about renewable energy in Germany," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    19. Lina Berglund-Snodgrass & Dalia Mukhtar-Landgren, 2020. "Conceptualizing Testbed Planning: Urban Planning in the Intersection between Experimental and Public Sector Logics," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 96-106.
    20. Gruber, Mario, 2020. "An evolutionary perspective on adoption-diffusion theory," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 535-541.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:urbpla:v6:y:2021:i:1:p:171-182. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.