Abstract
Challenges like climate change and peak oil are calling for a greater transformational process of urban regions. The vision of a regenerative and energy-efficient city with a high quality of life promotes an attractive future perception. The implementation requires changing urban metabolism from linear to circular. Promoting regional transformation encompasses creating new governance structures and realizing comprehensive measures. Acting on a municipal level, participation of society is as crucial as the active involvement of local actors and pioneers of vision. Changes of societal, political and economic framework conditions are strongly linked to an increase of individual awareness, activation of available resources and social learning processes. The paper outlines local transition processes of implementing this vision in four case study cities—Dobrich (Bulgaria), Modena (Italy), Munich (Germany) and Odense (Denmark). The research focused on identifying local actors and governance structures as well as strategies for communication and participation in municipal authorities.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Davoudi, S. (2012). Resilience: A bridging concept or a Dead end? Planning Theory & Practice, 13(2), 299–307.
Davoudi, S., Brooks, E., & Mehmood, A. (2013). Evolutionary resilience and strategies for climate adaptation. Planning, Practice & Research, 28(3), 307–322.
Frantzeskaki, N., Loorbach, D., & Meadowcroft, J. (2012). Governing societal transitions to sustainability. International Journal on Sustainable Development, 15(1/2), 19–36.
Folke, C., Carpenter, S. R., Walker, B., Scheffer, M., Chapin, T., & Rockstöm, J. (2010). Resilience thinking: Integrating resilience, adaptability and transformability. Ecology and Society, 15(4), 20. http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss4/art20/. Accessed December 8, 2015.
Galderisi, A. (2014). Urban resilience: A framework for empowering cities in face of heterogeneous risk factors. ITU AZ, 11(1), 36–57.
Geels, F. W. (2002). Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: A multi-level perspective and a case-study. Research Policy, 31(8), 1257–1274.
Geels, F., & Kemp, R. (2005). Transitions, transformations and reproduction: Dynamics in socio-technical systems. In DRUID Tenth Anniversary Summer Conference on “Dynamics of Industry and Innovation: Organizations, Networks and Systems”, June 27–29. Kopenhagen, Denmark. http://www2.druid.dk/conferences/viewabstract.php?id=2633&cf=18. Accessed January 15, 2013.
Geels, F. W., & Schot, J. (2007). Typology of sociotechnical transition pathways. Research Policy, 36(3), 399–417.
Girardet, H., & Mendonca, M. (2009). A renewable world. Energy, ecology, equality. A report for the world future council. Foxhole, Dartington, Totnes, Devon: Green Books Ltd.
Golubiewski, N. (2012). Is there a metabolism of an urban ecosystem? An ecological critique. Ambio A Jounal of Human Environment, 41(7), 751–764.
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). (2014). Summary for policymakers. In Climate Change 2014, Mitigation of Climate change, Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Kemp, R., Schot, J., & Hoogma, R. (1998). Regime shifts to sustainability through processes of Niche formation: The approach of strategic Niche management. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 10(2), 175–195.
Kennedy, C., Pincetl, S., & Bunje, P. (2010). The study of urban metabolism and its applications to urban planning and design. Environmental Pollution, 159, 1965–1973.
Loorbach, D. (2007). Transition management: New mode of governance for sustainable development. Rotterdam: Erasmus University. http://hdl.handle.net/1765/10200. Accessed January 31, 2013.
Loorbach, D. (2010). Transition management for sustainable development: A prescriptive, complexity-based governance framework. Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions, 23(1), 161–183.
Loorbach, D., & Rotmans, J. (2006). Managing transitions for sustainable development. In: X. Olsthoorn & A. J. Wieczorek (Eds.), Understanding industrial transformation (p. 187–206). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. http://libra.msra.cn/Publication/4163042/managing-transitions-for-sustainable-development. Accessed January 31, 2013.
Loorbach, D., & Rotmans, J. (2010). The practice of transition management: Examples and lessons from four distinct cases. Futures, 42(3), 237–246.
Mayring, P. (1993). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse, Grundlagen und Techniken, 4. erweiterte Auflage 1993. Weinheim: Deutscher Studien Verlag.
Mayring, P. (2004). Qualitative Content Analysis. In U. Flick, E. von Kardoff, & I. Steinke (Eds.), A companion to qualitative research (pp. 266–269). London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Meadowcroft, J. (2009). What about the politics? Sustainable development, transition management, and long term energy transitions. Policy Sciences, 42(4), 323–340.
Newman, P. W. G. (1999). Sustainability and cities: Extending the metabolism model. Landscape and Planning, 44(4), 219–226.
Rotmans, J., Kemp, R., & Asselt, M. van (2001). More evolution than revolution: transition management in public policy. Foresight, 3(1), 15–31.
Rotmans, J., & Loorbach, D. A. (2009). Complexity and transition management. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 13(2), 184–196.
Safarzynska, K., Frenken, K., & van den Bergh, J. C. J. M. (2012). Evolutionary theorizing and modelling of sustainability transitions. Research Policy, 41(6), 1011–1024.
Sikdar, S. K. (2009). Quo vadis energy sustainability? Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 11(4), 367–369.
Smith, A., & Stirling, A. (2010). The politics of social-ecological resilience and sustainable socio-technical transitions. Ecology and Society, 15(1), 11. http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss1/art11/. Accessed December 8, 2015.
Swyngedouw, E. (2006). Metabolic urbanization. The making of cyborg cities. In N. Heynen, M. Kaika, & E. Swyngedouw (Eds.), In the nature of cities. Urban political ecology and the politics of urban metabolism (pp. 21–40). London and New York: Routledge.
Walker, B., Holling, C. S., Carpenter, S. R., & Kinzig, A. (2004). Resilience, adaptability and transformability in social-ecological systems. Ecology and Society, 9(2), 5. http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss2/art5/. Accessed December 8, 2015.
Walker, B., Gunderson, L., Kinzig, A., Folke, C., Carpenter, S., & Schultz, L. (2006). A handful of heuristics and some propositions for understanding resilience in social-ecological systems. Ecology and Society, 11(1), 13. http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss1/art13/. Accessed December 8, 2015.
WBGU (German Advisory Council on Global Change). (2012). World in transition, a societal contract for sustainability. Berlin.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Klindworth, K., Djurasovic, A., Knieling, J., Säwert, K. (2017). From Linear to Circular—Challenges for Changing Urban Metabolism?! An Analysis of Local Energy Transition Activities in Four European Cities. In: Deppisch, S. (eds) Urban Regions Now & Tomorrow. Studien zur Resilienzforschung. Springer, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-16759-2_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-16759-2_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Wiesbaden
Print ISBN: 978-3-658-16758-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-658-16759-2
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)