ARTS (Accelerating and Rescaling Transitions to Sustainability)

From Urban Arena Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

ARTS was a research project to understand how transition initiatives can accelerate sustainability transitions in the five European city-regions of Brighton, Budapest, Dresden, Genk, and Stockholm.

General introduction

Accelerating and Rescaling Transitions to Sustainability (ARTS) project contributed to the ongoing academic debates by unpacking the dynamics of governance for transitions to sustainability with an explicit urban focus. It was a three-year-long research project (2013-2016) funded by the European Commission through the FP7 programme. The ARTS research project was awarded a Research Excellence award from European Commission as a result of a rigorous policy and science impact evaluation in 2016 that was the concluding year of the project. The research in the ARTS project responds to two societal challenges: First, it supports governance in city-regions by revealing how transition initiatives source, mobilize and instrumentalise resources to realize and scale sustainable solutions. Second, it contributes to the understanding of transformative and societal governance processes that play out in making European city-regions more sustainable and socially inclusive through the scaling of transition initiatives. It created a multitude of dialogue spaces for knowledge sharing and knowledge co-production including scientists, communities and local governments.


The research resulted in a number of conceptual innovations for the field of sustainability transitions as well as for urban policy and planning. The newly conceptualised acceleration mechanisms capturing the complex dynamics produced by local change agents (transition initiatives) of spreading new ways of doing, thinking and/or organizing to a larger number of people in the city-region, exploiting synergies between (multiple and diverse) agents in the city-region, and exerting capacity to navigate complex governance structures and patterns for strengthening new ways of doing, thinking and / or organising in the city-region. The synergistic effect of the mechanisms brings about acceleration of sustainability transitions in the city-regions. The conceptualised acceleration mechanisms include:

- Upscaling is the growth of members, supporters or users of a single transition initiative in order to spread these new ways of thinking, organizing and practicing. - Replicating is the take up of new ways of doing, organizing and thinking of one transition initiative by another transition initiative or different actors in order to spread out these new ways. - Partnering is the pooling and/or complementing of resources, competences, and capacities in order to exploit synergies between these new ways. - Instrumentalising is tapping into and capitalizing on opportunities provided by the multi-level governance context of the city-region in order to exploit synergies between these multi-level dynamics. - Embedding is the alignment of old and new ways of doing, organizing and thinking in order to integrate them into city-regional governance patterns.

Another theoretical and policy impact achievement of ARTS project is the evidence that local sustainability initiatives are change agents and change makers and are important to consider when planning, regenerating and governing cities towards sustainability, resilience and justice.

Main insights on/for sustainable just cities

ARTS (Accelerating and Rescaling Transitions to Sustainability) was an EU-funded research project which aimed to benefit theory, policy and practice related to accelerating sustainability transitions. This document is addressed in particular to policy makers at all levels interested in understanding and supporting urban sustainability transitions. By providing a quick summary of key points and pointing to related examples or dedicated reports, it should serve as a reference guide to the variety of policy-relevant knowledge produced by the project and related initiatives.

1. Understanding key mechanisms and actors of urban sustainability transitions is a first step towards their acceleration.

2. Public sector needs agile structures in order to create an enabling environment for new ideas, practices and institutions to flourish.

3. Research design and funding mechanisms should encourage collaboration with, and not exploitation of, civil society initiatives.

4. Artists and culture practitioners play an important role in accelerating sustainability transitions but need the right space to act.

5. Agent-based models can support local reflection process to accelerate sustainability transitions if part of a collective, playful experience.

6. Scaling urban social innovation is a complex process that cannot be reduced to analyzing the growth or spread of single initiatives.

We here elaborate in every one of these key messages:

1.Understanding key mechanisms and actors of urban sustainability transitions is a first step towards their acceleration

Support instead of control Transitions are radical innovations in structures, mindsets and practices that involve actors from different sectors, domains and scale levels. Transitions cannot be planned nor controlled but they can be initiated, supported and accelerated. Sustainability transitions in the urban context can be understood as long-term processes of fundamental change in how various goods or services, including e.g. food, energy and mobility, are produced, delivered and consumed. Existing governance models, characterized by domain focus and fragmentation, are unable to effectively deal with such complex issues. To start, foster and implement transitions, creative and innovative solutions are needed that rarely flourish in top-down administrative structures.

Destination instead of driver Transition initiatives vary in terms of domains, spatial and cultural contexts, as well as the type of actors that drive them. Often hybrid in nature, they bring new ways of thinking, new ways of doing things, as well as new forms of (self-) organisation. Driven by people that live or work in the city-region, these initiatives aim to transform the way that our basic needs are defined and met. Transition initiatives offer interesting starting points for sustainable development of the city-region since they aim to, or often have already implemented, alternative practices that contribute to environmental sustainability. Consequently, they can accelerate transitions to sustainability by acting as a driving force to transform practices, perceptions and expectations as well as ways of organisation towards more sustainable ones.


For examples of transformative impact of transition initiatives see the series of ARTS factsheets covering domains such as biodiversity and ecosystem services, urban living and built environment, resource efficiency, energy use and supply and transport and mobility.

2.Public sector needs agile structures in order to create an enabling environment for new ideas, practices and institutions to flourish

Solutions instead of silos Public sector organizations at all levels lack the capacity to connect across domains, like e.g. food, education and biodiversity, due to compartmentalization and departmental siloing. This makes public sector structures ill-equipped to respond to outside ideas or initiatives, especially those with an integrated approach. When individual change agents or transition initiatives struggle to find the right people to talk to, this may not only slow the given initiative’s momentum and hinder the acceleration process but also breed frustration and reinforce negative stereotypes of rigid and uncooperative public sector. Solutions range from including collaboration as part of civil servants’ job descriptions to the establishment of new intermediary structures, such as e.g. contact points for local transition initiatives.

Experiments instead of meetings Public sector organizations need the capacity and institutional space to try out new ideas or practices, in cooperation with the urban change agents. Most transition initiatives are composed of doers, people with a strong desire to act who get quickly discouraged by lengthy discussions. The ability to quickly respond to emerging ideas, using even small-scale experiments as learning tools, is crucial to building mutually respectful relationships and harnessing the full potential of multi-stakeholder collaboration. Prototyping and experimenting with new practices or processes is not only a great learning opportunity but also a risk reduction mechanism, preparing the ground for large scale changes.

For an example of how transition initiatives can generate transformative social impact and at the same time challenge existing local government structures, go to Transition Read #2 “Nature-based solutions” or the work of Frantzeskaki et al 2017 listed in the publications that describes governance implication of socio-spatial interventions with a transformative impact on the relationship between people and nature.


3.Research design and funding mechanisms should encourage collaboration with, and not exploitation of, civil society initiatives

Research with instead of research on There are many types of knowledge and academic is just one of them. Incorporating civil society actors in research design helps to generate knowledge that is relevant to local context and encourages knowledge coproduction. Civil society initiatives are holding knowledge on systemic conditions and social needs that can be valuable in city making processes. Researchers should take into account the needs and interests of civil society initiatives, instead of treating them merely as information dispensers. This can be made easier by encouraging early involvement of civil society actors (e.g. as project partners) and offering greater flexibility in adapting research design to their needs (e.g. by applying a two-step selection procedure or including their input in the review process).

Further reading on: Frantzeskaki and Rok 2017 in publications

Give and take instead of take and run Too often the researchers’ demands put pressure on already limited resources that civil society groups have at their disposal, offering little in return. This is especially the case for initiatives that become so successful everyone wants to talk to them. Researchers could not only make it easier for them, e.g. by attending one of the public meetings or talking on the phone instead of sending questionnaires, but also reciprocate, e.g. by offering their time or skills. This should be reflected in the project proposal and evaluated accordingly, allowing necessary resources for this fair exchange.

For more on the different roles civil society can play in accelerating sustainability transitions in European cities go to publication Frantzeskaki et al 2016 in the publication list, that brings together reflections coming from a number of EU-funded research projects related to this topic, most notably ARTS (Accelerating and Rescaling Transitions to Sustainability) and GLAMURS (Green Lifestyles, Alternative Models and Up-scaling Regional Sustainability).

4. Artists and culture practitioners play an important role in accelerating sustainability transitions but need the right space to act

New allies instead of usual suspects Art and the creative process have their unique roles in the way emotions, social tensions, symbols and stereotypes have been imprinted throughout history. Art is a way to express, imprint and impress, and engage hearts and imaginations about the present and the future. Working with people who think, process information, and express themselves differently not only creates opportunities to share information about sustainability with a more diverse audience, but the process itself reveals different approaches, methods and responses to sustainability issues. However, the cooperation needs to go beyond the instrumental use of arts and culture as merely communication measures but create space for genuine dialogue.

Collaboration instead of exploitation In order to allow genuine co-creation of ways forward to happen, a significant amount of time and resources needs to be invested in setting up the partnership with artists and culture practitioners. The framework of collaboration should be designed collectively to promote ownership and respect the needs of all partners, including fair compensation for their work. This is particularly important when working with artists, whose work is habitually undervalued, and transition initiatives, where burnout and attrition are constant challenges because they rely primarily on volunteer labor.


5.Agent-based models can support local reflection process to accelerate sustainability transitions if part of a collective, playful experience

Experiencing instead of analyzing system dynamics A local reflection process around accelerating sustainability transitions, like the one introduced in the 5 ARTS cities, benefits from participants gaining an understanding of systems thinking. Using an agent-based model to simulate the impact of different choices made by transition initiatives operating within the city-region system, the ARTS gaming workshops gave participants an opportunity to experience possible interdependencies between different actors or elements relevant for the regional context. The workshops brought key actors together in an attractive, informal setting, providing space for interaction and building trust by focusing on fictitious challenges and therefore temporarily suspending potential conflicts.

Questioning assumptions instead of delivering answers The main issue when it comes to working with models is always to manage the expectations. Those who expect plug and play oracle that gives clear yes or no answers will inevitably be disappointed. The beauty of models lies in their ability to force a user to question his or her assumptions, to keep asking “what if” and to acknowledge that the right answer changes depending on the parameters set. All these qualities become even more valuable when experienced collectively, in a playful and informal setting. The participants have an opportunity to verify existing assumptions (e.g. that growing number of members translates to stronger impact of a given initiative) and test strategies, asking new questions and reflecting upon themselves as a community.

To find out more about the ARTS game, read Valkering et al 2017 in Sustainability in the publication list.

6.Scaling urban social innovation is a complex process that cannot be reduced to analyzing the growth or spread of single initiatives

Listening to initiatives instead of pushing growth Scaling up transition initiatives as a form of social innovation is not a commonly shared objective of transition initiatives. It is often an unintended effect of their intentions and actions and, from a perspective of a single initiative, comes with the risks of compromising their values, restricting their capacity to act or overstretching already limited resources. Recognizing and voicing that there are limits to growth is a first step in thinking how to enable scaling without wearing off the urban change agents that drive transitions in cities.

Accelerating system change instead of growing champions The ARTS project identified five acceleration mechanisms focusing on the interaction patterns among the transition initiatives and between transition initiatives and a broader governance context: upscaling, replicating, partnering, embedding and instrumentalising. The acceleration of sustainability transitions was addressed on a system level, looking at developments on the city-region scale and not just the growth of single initiatives. The shift towards systems thinking, recognizing the importance of interdependencies and moving away from showcasing individual success stories, is an important step in understanding sustainability transitions and the potential strategies for their acceleration.

To find out more about the many facets of urban social innovation, especially in the context of low-carbon transitions and sustainable local economies, read the publications of: Lam et al 2020, Borgstrom 2019, Gorissen et al 2017, Ehnert et al 2017, Frantzeskaki et al 2017, and more in the publications list.

The book of Gorrisen and Meyers 2018 is written for the everyday practitioner and city maker, translating scientific results and theory for everyday policy maker and urban planner. (see publication list)


ENGAGING STAKEHOLDERS IN A DIALOGUE AROUND URBAN SUSTAINABILITY TRANSITIONS

      • LEARNING FROM THE ARTS EXPERIENCE

ARTS (Accelerating and Rescaling Transitions to Sustainability) was an EU-funded research project which aimed to benefit theory, policy and practice related to accelerating sustainability transitions. Running from 2013 to 2016, the ARTS project has (co-)organized a number of events and was represented in many more, collecting valuable experience of how urban sustainability transitions are understood and experienced in different settings, by very different groups of people. This document focuses on lessons learned from organizing and participating in international meetings . Its aim is to support and inspire others looking to engage with different stakeholder groups on a transnational level to address sustainability transitions, a topic that is universally relevant and yet unbelievably complex.

1. Don’t come waving the project flag

2. Remember who is getting paid to be in the room

3. Work with the place and the community

4. How to engage with the community of communities?

The events on the basis of which these conclusions were formulated can be broadly divided into the following categories: • Conferences (co-)organized by the ARTS project (2 editions of Informed Cities Fora), • Workshops (co-)organized by the ARTS project, either as self-standing events or as part of larger events (5 ARTS Transition Talks, e.g. sessions as part of 7th European Sustainable Cities and Towns Conference or the European Green Week), • Presentations and trainings delivered by the ARTS team members and inspired by the project activities (e.g. contribution to DG Research event on Innovating cities as part of the Habitat III conference or trainings for the Actors of Urban Change programme). While some of those formats came with specific limitations, especially when not organized as self-standing events, most points mentioned below remain valid regardless of the type and size of the event. Taken together, these events have addressed all relevant stakeholder groups, including some unusual suspects. The representatives of following groups have been addressed by the ARTS project: • researchers dealing with urban issues, representing multiple perspectives and disciplines, • policy makers and public sector representatives at all levels, from international to neighborhood level, with a focus on local governments, • representatives of transition initiatives, with a focus on community-led environmental initiatives, • artists and cultural practitioners, with an interest in sustainability transitions, • business community representatives, with a focus on social entrepreneurs and green businesses, • funders, from EU level to private foundations, • media and general public. For an overview of ARTS events, their conclusions and other materials produced, see Transition Talk summaries at http://acceleratingtransitions.eu/publications and the Informed Cities Forum outcomes at http://informed-cities.iclei-europe.org.

The following part will outline three main takeaways based on the ARTS experience and one challenge to be considered in the future.


1.Don’t come waving the project flag Most EU-funded projects have a lifetime of three years and an acronym that says little about their topic. Considering how many initiatives and projects are competing for attention on the European level, it might be a waste of time and resources to invest in building such a short-lived brand. The project-based way of working is only familiar to a relatively narrow group of people and can be confusing for other stakeholders. Instead, it helps to follow a three-fold engagement strategy: • focus on a theme the project addresses and gain access to spaces where this theme is being discussed, • invest in existing networks and platforms that will be able to hold the knowledge beyond the project lifetime, • build personal relationships with change agents across sectors instead of relying on institutional connections only. In the case of ARTS project, this future-oriented perspective led to most events being co-organised with other initiatives or held as part of other, bigger events. This allows not only for more efficient use of resources but also more efficient use of stakeholders’ time. It is important that the design and reporting requirements of funding programmes are developed with these considerations in mind, instead of pushing for a strong visibility of individual projects.


2.Remember who is getting paid to be in the room Talking about sustainability transitions requires reaching out beyond the usual suspects. For many representatives of transition initiatives, participating in the ARTS activities – especially those going beyond local context, often involving international travel – is an extra task, coming in addition to their gainful employment and voluntary work as part of the initiative. This puts them in a different position than those, for instance researchers or public sector representatives, for whom participating in such activities represents a part of their job. Successful engagement with a broad range of stakeholders is only possible if this difference is taken with the seriousness it deserves. This should include, among others: • acknowledgement that some participants are dedicating their private time to be part of the dialogue, taking it away from their work, civic engagement or family, • efforts to facilitate the participation of those with limited resources, e.g. by adjusting the time and location of the event, offering reimbursement of costs and compensation of time when possible, supporting sharing between participants and other forms of support, as appropriate, • ensuring there is enough space for contributions by all interested participants to avoid the situation when people who put a lot of effort in coming to the dialogue have no opportunity to voice their opinions or share their experiences. In the case of ARTS project, this acknowledgement led to offering travel reimbursement to all representatives of transition initiatives, even if they were not invited as speakers. All events were also organized with a focus on interaction and mutual learning, not just one-way transmission of knowledge. It is important that those extra efforts and costs related to engagement of a wider group of stakeholders are reflected when designing and evaluating new calls for projects.


3.Work with the place and the community There is no better way to learn than by experience. This holds particularly true for urban sustainability transitions, especially when the people involved in the dialogue come from different backgrounds and therefore may not be able to communicate so easily on an abstract level. Experience of a concrete place, with its history, challenges and people, offers a unique opportunity for learning and dialogue, in a way that cannot be replicated in a bland conference room. However, the place should not be seen in isolation from the community that keeps it alive. How to make sure that your event is place-based in a way that benefits both the participants and the community? • find ways for participants to experience the place, ideally with local community representatives and activists as their guides, so that both can learn from each other, • when looking for service providers (e.g. catering, venue rental, entertainment), start with local transition initiatives to make them part of the event and support their development, • make sure that the programme of the event includes people telling their own stories and not just others reporting on the stories they collected. The Informed Cities Fora that the ARTS project organized in Rotterdam (NL) and Dresden (DE) were excellent examples of events anchored in a certain place and community, with field workshops organized by local transition initiatives, many initiatives involved as service providers and lots of space given to practitioners and change agents from across sectors. Organising events in such a way can be more time-consuming and sometimes more costly but the benefits for participants and local community are much greater.

4.How to engage with the community of communities? The complexity of urban sustainability transitions requires reaching out to various groups of stakeholders, bridging existing communities and networks. This process can be very time-consuming and at times frustrating, for both participants and facilitators. Used to talking to people who speak the same language, have similar ways of working or share similar concerns, people fear leaving their comfort zones and trying to find a common ground with those outside the bubble. In the ARTS project we have invested a lot of time and effort in bringing together different groups of stakeholders and creating a safe space for them to work together. The question remains of how to turn those temporary connections into lasting partnerships? How to build more inclusive and diverse networks that enable these partnerships to flourish, while respecting the need for different groups (such as e.g. academic community) to have their own spaces? This is made even more difficult by the hyperlocal nature of the engagement we were looking for. The focus on face-to-face meetings carries obvious limitations, related e.g. to the resources needed to organize events, time investment required from the participants and the difficulty to maintain relationship between and beyond the events. This challenge can be addressed with the help of ICT tools, such as online networking platforms, but these again are often sector-based and therefore not helpful in building an inclusive and diverse hyperlocal space. It remains to be seen how this challenge can be addressed in the future but some seeds of the solutions can already be observed, e.g. with the establishment of ECOLISE, a meta-network of community-led initiatives on climate change and sustainability or the EU-wide online networking platform for social innovation projects and organisations.

Link to other Wiki-pages

Further reading

Links


Publications


Lam., D.P.M., Martin-Lopez, B., Bennett, E.M., Frantzeskaki, N., Milcu-Horcea, A.I., Wiek, A., and Lang, D.J., (2020), Scaling the impact of local initiatives in sustainability transformations: an amplifying typology, Urban Transformations, 2:3, https://doi.org/10.1186/s42854-020-00007-9.

Loorbach, D., Wittmayer, J., Avelino, F., von Wirth, T., Frantzeskaki, N., (2020), Tranformational innovation and translocal diffusion, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 35, 251-260, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2020.01.009

Elmqvist, T., Andersson, E., Frantzeskaki, N., McPhearson, T., Folke, C., Olsson, P., Gaffney, O., and Takeuchi, K., (2019), Sustainability, resilience and transformation in the urban century, Nature Sustainability, Nature Sustainability, 2, 267–273 -- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0250-1, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0250-1

Elmqvist, T., Andersson, E., Frantzeskaki, N., McPhearson, T., Folke, C., Olsson, P., Gaffney, O., and Takeuchi, K., (2019), Sustainability, resilience and transformation in the urban century, Nature Sustainability, Nature Sustainability, 2, 267–273 -- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0250-1, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0250-1

Borgström, S. Balancing diversity and connectivity in multi-level governance settings for urban transformative capacity. Ambio 48, 463–477 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-018-01142-1

Frantzeskaki, N., and Rok, A. (2018), Co-producing urban sustainability transitions knowledge with community, policy and science, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 29, 47-51, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2018.08.00124

Ehnert, F., Frantzeskaki, N., Barnes, J., Borgstrom, S., Gorissen, L., Kern, F., Strenchock, L., and Egermann, M., (2018), The acceleration of urban sustainability transitions: a comparison of Brighton, Budapest, Dresden, Genk and Stockholm, Sustainability, 2018.

Valkering, P., Yucel, G., Gebetsroither-Geringer, E., Markvica, K., Meynaerts, E., and Frantzeskaki, N., (2017), Accelerating transition dynamics in city-regions: a qualitative modeling perspective, Sustainability, 9, 1254; doi:10.3390/su9071254

Ehnert, F., Kern, F., Borgstrom, S., Gorissen, L., Maschmeyer, S., Egermann, M., (2018), Urban sustainability transitions in a context of multi-level governance: A comparison of four European states, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 101-116, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2017.05.002

Frantzeskaki, N., Dumitru, A., Anguelovski, I., Avelino, F., Bach, M., Best, B., Binder, C., Barnes, J., Carrus, J., Egermann, M., Haxeltine, A., Moore, M.L., Mira, R.G., Loorbach, D., Uzzell, D., Omman, I., Olsson, P., Silvestri, G., Stedman, R., Wittmayer, J., Durrant, R., and Rauschmeyer, F., (2016), Elucidating the changing roles of civil society in urban sustainability transitions, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 22, 41-50.

Frantzeskaki, N., Haase, D., Fragkias, M., and Elmqvist, T., (2016), Urban transitions to sustainability and resilience, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 22, iv-viii.

Wolfram, M., Frantzeskaki, N., and Maschmeyer, S., (2016), Cities, Systems and sustainability: status and perspective of research on urban transformations, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 22, 18-25.

Christopher Luederitz, Niko Schäpke, Arnim Wiek, Daniel J Lang, Matthias Bergmann, Joannette J Bos, Sarah Burch, Anna Davies, James Evans, Ariane König, Megan A Farrelly, Nigel Forrest, Niki Frantzeskaki, Robert B Gibson, Braden Kay, Derk Loorbach, Kes McCormick, Oliver Parodi, Felix Rauschmayer, Uwe Schneidewind, Michael Stauffacher, Franziska Stelzer, Gregory Trencher, Johannes Venjakob, Philip J Vergragt, Henrik von Wehrden, Frances R Westley, (2017), Learning through evaluation – A tentative evaluation scheme for sustainability transition experiments, Journal of Cleaner Production, 169, 61-76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.005

Christopher Luederitz, Niko Schäpke, Arnim Wiek, Daniel J Lang, Matthias Bergmann, Joannette J Bos, Sarah Burch, Anna Davies, James Evans, Ariane König, Megan A Farrelly, Nigel Forrest, Niki Frantzeskaki, Robert B Gibson, Braden Kay, Derk Loorbach, Kes McCormick, Oliver Parodi, Felix Rauschmayer, Uwe Schneidewind, Michael Stauffacher, Franziska Stelzer, Gregory Trencher, Johannes Venjakob, Philip J Vergragt, Henrik von Wehrden, Frances R Westley, (2017), Learning through evaluation – A tentative evaluation scheme for sustainability transition experiments, Journal of Cleaner Production, 169, 61-76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.005

Haase, D., Kabisch, S., Haase, A., Andersson, E., Banzhaf, E., Baro, F., Brenck, M., Fischer, L.K., Frantzeskaki, N., Kabisch, N., Krellenberg, K., Kremer, P., Kronenberg, J., Larondelle, N., Mathey, J., Pauleit, S., Ring, I., Rink, D., Schwarz, N., and Wolf, M., (2017), Greening cities - To be socially inclusive? About the alleged paradox of society and ecology in cities, Habitat International, 64, 41-48, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2017.04.005

Elmqvist, T., Bai. X., Frantzeskaki, N., Griffith, C., Maddox, D., McPhearson, T., Parnell, S., Romero-Lankao, P., Simon, D., Watkins, M (Eds). 2017. Urban Planet. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9781107196933 (BOOK).

Frantzeskaki, N., Castan-Broto, V., Coenen, L., and Loorbach, D., (Eds) (2017), Urban sustainability transitions, Routledge: New York, ISBN 978-0-415-78418-4 (BOOK).

Gorissen, L., and Meyers, E., (Eds), (2017), The city of the future - How urban change makers scale positive change, Loonoo Publishing. (ARTS book)

Frantzeskaki, N., Borgstrom, S., Gorissen, L., Egermann, M., and Ehnert, F., (2017), Nature-based solutions accelerating urban sustainability transitions in cities, in Kabisch, N., Korn, H., Stadler. J., and Bonn, A., (Eds), Nature‐based Solutions to Climate Change Adaptation in Urban Areas ‐ Linkages between Science, Policy and Practice, SPRINGER, ISBN: 978-3-319-53750-4, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-56091-5. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-319-56091-5

References