Speaker
Description
A significant challenge for advancing a post-growth society is transitioning from theoretical visions to actionable frameworks that prioritise wellbeing for both people and the planet while actively challenging entrenched growth paradigms. Current efforts are often criticised as insufficient to address the urgency of climate change and the widening social inequalities within and between urban areas. Transport, housing, and food systems remain among the most greenhouse gas (GHG) intensive sectors sustaining urban life (Calafati et al., 2021). Fundamental questioning of how they can be transformed into sustainable systems for current and future generations is thus imperative.
The inadequacy of current sustainability actions is partly due to siloed policymaking. Governments often operate in distinct administrative units, addressing separate policy areas, which limits holistic solutions to complex, interdependent challenges. Addressing these "wicked problems" with their inherent complexity and uncertainty, demands integrated approaches that leverage nexuses between systems and domains for impactful transformative change that leverage multi-system interactions (MSI) (Andersen et al., 2023). In this context, Transformative Social Innovations (TSI) (Avelino et al., 2019) provide a useful lens. TSI disrupt, challenge, or replace dominant institutions by introducing new ways of doing, organising, framing, and knowing to address social needs within specific socio-material contexts.
This paper links debates in transition studies on MSI and TSI to explore whether these innovations can resolve the tensions inherent in moving from single-system to cross-system transformations in urban areas and which governance mechanisms can support such transformations. Using examples of retrofitting in urban renewal, active mobility interventions, and cooperative food provisioning, the paper investigates whether these initiatives can fundamentally challenge growth paradigms through multi-system interactions. Drawing on a comprehensive screening process and co-creative workshops with transition intermediaries in Vienna, Austria, I identify mechanisms that facilitate multi-system interactions across scales, actively addressing the trade-offs and contradictions that arise during cross-domain negotiations.
I apply the Three-Horizon methodology (3HM) (Sharpe et al. 2016) to analyse these dynamics, outlining three horizons for post-growth transformations: Horizon 1 (H1) representing the "business as usual" state, where existing systems rely on stable, incremental change that reinforces dominant patterns, Horizon 3 (H3) representing the long-term successor to current systems and embodying transformative solutions to meet future challenges; and Horizon 2 (H2) as the transitional zone charaterised by experimentation and innovation in response to shifting conditions. This methodology enables managing uncertainty while fostering agency in transformative processes. It provides a structure for working with complexity, distinguishing incremental from transformative change, making power dynamics explicit, and encouraging dialogue among diverse actors. The methodology helps illuminate pathways to destabilise entrenched systems, unlock institutional lock-ins, and discontinue unsustainable practices, all critical to advancing post-growth urban planning.
This research contributes to operationalising post-growth paradigms by integrating TSIs and multi-system interaction frameworks. It highlights conditions that enable cross-system transformations and aligns ecological and social wellbeing within urban contexts. Through its focus on Vienna’s initiatives and the 3HM process, this study provides actionable insights into policymaking for post-growth urban planning that transcends siloed approaches and challenges dominant socio-technical regimes.
References
Andersen AD and Geels FW (2023) Multi-system dynamics and the speed of net-zero transitions: Identifying causal processes related to technologies, actors, and institutions. Energy Research & Social Science 102, 103178.
Avelino F, Wittmayer JM, Pel B, et al. (2019) Transformative social innovation and (dis)empowerment. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 145, pp. 195–206.
Calafati L, Froud J, Haslam C, Johal S, Williams K (2021) Meeting social needs on a damaged planet. Working Paper No. 8. Available at foundationaleconomy.com.
| Keywords | Post-growth-planning; Transformative-Social-Innovation (TSI); multi-system-interactions (MSI); Three-Horizon-methodology (3HM) |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
