Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2pzkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-08T04:18:13.637Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

23 - Urban Experimentation and the Role of Senses of Place

An Illustrative Case from Rotterdam, the Netherlands

from Part VII - Design and Planning Strategies for Changing Senses of Place

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 July 2021

Christopher M. Raymond
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki, Finland
Lynne C. Manzo
Affiliation:
University of Washington, Seattle
Daniel R. Williams
Affiliation:
USDA Forest Service, Colorado
Andrés Di Masso
Affiliation:
Universitat de Barcelona
Timo von Wirth
Affiliation:
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
Get access

Summary

We unpack the role of sense of place in relation to urban experimentation. We conceptualise urban experimentation as a governance approach to foster and activate innovation capacities of communities and places for climate adaptation and institutional trialling of novel approaches. We focus on an urban living laboratory (ULL) as one specific type of urban experiment that has received increasing attention in European cities recently, and use experimentation in ULL as an example to reconsider a dynamic and pluralistic understanding of place. We find that our case study, BlueCity Lab in Rotterdam, NL provides a space where new place-related narratives of change, novel practices and relations emerge, while being embedded within wider, translocal networks of practice. Backed by these insights, we contend that a translocal, pluralised and dynamic concept of place promises to be a valuable lens in order to understand the impacts, manifestations and appropriate responses to global challenges in everyday life.

Type
Chapter
Information
Changing Senses of Place
Navigating Global Challenges
, pp. 301 - 312
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agnew, J. (1989) ‘The devaluation of place in social science’, in Agnew, J. A. and Duncan, J. S. (eds), The Power of Place, London, Routledge, pp. 929. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315848617Google Scholar
BlueCity (2020) ‘About BlueCity’ [Online]. Available at www.bluecity.nl/about-bluecity/ (accessed 6 June 2020).Google Scholar
Brickell, K. and Datta, A. (2011) ‘Introduction: translocal geographies’, in Brickell, K. and Datta, A. (eds). Translocal Geographies, Farnham, Ashgate, pp. 322.Google Scholar
Bulkeley, H. and Castán Broto, V. (2013) ‘Government by experiment? Global cities and the governing of climate change’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 361375. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2012.00535.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bulkeley, H., Marvin, S., Palgan, Y. V., et al. (2019) ‘Urban living laboratories: conducting the experimental city?European Urban and Regional Studies, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 317335. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969776418787222CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, D., Murphy, C. and Lorenzoni, I. (2018) ‘Place attachment, disruption and transformative adaptation’, Journal of Environmental Psychology, vol. 55, pp. 8189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2017.12.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cloutier, G., Papin, M. and Bizier, C. (2018) ‘Do-it-yourself (DIY) adaptation: civic initiatives as drivers to address climate change at the urban scale’, Cities, vol. 74, pp. 284291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2017.12.018CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dicker, H. (2019) ‘What do you do with a derelict Center Parcs? Map out a waste-free world’ [Online]. Available at www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/14/center-parcs-waste-free-bluecity-rotterdam-circular-economy (accessed 6 June 2020).Google Scholar
Di Masso, A., Williams, D. R., Raymond, C. M., et al. (2019) ‘Between fixities and flows: navigating place attachments in an increasingly mobile world’, Journal of Environmental Psychology, vol. 61, pp. 125133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.01.006Google Scholar
Eshuis, J. and Gerrits, L. (2019) ‘The limited transformational power of adaptive governance: a study of institutionalization and materialization of adaptive governance’, Public Management Review. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2019.1679232Google Scholar
Evans, J., Karvonen, A. and Raven, R. (2016) ‘The experimental city: new modes and prospects of urban transformation’, in Evans, J., Karvonen, A. and Raven, R. (eds), The Experimental City, London, Routledge, pp. 112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frantzeskaki, N., Castán Broto, V., Coenen, L. and Loorbach, D. (2017) ‘Urban sustainability transitions: the dynamics and opportunities of sustainability transitions in cities’, in Frantzeskaki, N., Castàn Broto, V., Coenen, L. and Loorbach, D. (eds), Urban Sustainability Transitions, New York, Routledge, pp. 122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frantzeskaki, N., van Steenbergen, F. and Stedman, R. C. (2018) ‘Sense of place and experimentation in urban sustainability transitions: the Resilience Lab in Carnisse, Rotterdam, the Netherlands’, Sustainability Science, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 10451059. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0562-5CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fruitleather (2020) ‘About Fruitleather’ [Online]. Available at https://fruitleather.nl/about-us/ (accessed 6 June 2020).Google Scholar
Greer, R., von Wirth, T. and Loorbach, D. (2020) ‘The diffusion of circular services: transforming the Dutch catering sector’, Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 267, art. 121906. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121906Google Scholar
Hansen, T. and Coenen, L. (2015) ‘The geography of sustainability transitions: review, synthesis and reflections on an emergent research field’, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, vol. 17, pp. 92109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2014.11.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayden, D. (1994) ‘The power of place: claiming urban landscapes as people’s history’, Journal of Urban History, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 466485. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.10.043CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hölscher, K., Frantzeskaki, N., McPhearson, T. and Loorbach, D. (2019) ‘Tales of transforming cities: transformative climate governance capacities in New York City, US and Rotterdam, Netherlands’, Journal of Environmental Management, vol. 231, pp. 843857. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.10.043Google Scholar
Loorbach, D., Wittmayer, J., Avelino, F., von Wirth, T. and Frantzeskaki, N. (2020) ‘Transformative innovation and translocal diffusion’, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, vol. 35, pp. 251260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2020.01.009Google Scholar
Masterson, V. A., Enqvist, J. P., Stedman, R. C. and Tengö, M. (2019) ‘Sense of place in social-ecological systems: from theory to empirics’, Sustainability Science, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 555564. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-019-00695-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCormick, K. (2018) ‘About the GUST project’ [Online]. Available at www.urbanlivinglabs.net/p/about.html (accessed 6 June 2020).Google Scholar
McFarlane, C. (2011) Learning the City: Knowledge and Translocal Assemblage, Chichester, Wiley Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mukhtar-Landgren, D., Kronsell, A., Voytenko Palgan, Y. and von Wirth, T. (2019) ‘Municipalities as enablers in urban experimentation’, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning. https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908X.2019.1672525CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, A., Enqvist, J. P. and Tengö, M. (2019) ‘Place-making to transform urban social-ecological systems: insights from the stewardship of urban lakes in Bangalore, India’, Sustainability Science, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 607623. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-019-00664-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naumann, S., Davis, M., Moore, M. and McCormick, K. (2018) ‘Utilizing urban living laboratories for social innovation’, in Elmqvist, T., Bai, X., Frantzeskaki, N., et al. (eds), Urban Planet: Knowledge Towards Sustainable Cities, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 197217. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316647554.012Google Scholar
Porst, L., and Sakdapolrak, P. (2017). ‘How scale matters in translocality: uses and potentials of scale in translocal research’, Erdkunde, 71, pp. 111126.Google Scholar
Puerari, E., de Koning, J., von Wirth, T., et al. (2018). ‘Co-creation dynamics in urban living labs’, Sustainability, vol. 10, no. 6, art. 1893. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10061893CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raven, R., Schot, J. and Berkhout, F. (2012) ‘Space and scale in socio-technical transitions’, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, vol. 4, pp. 6378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2012.08.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rotterzwam (2020) ‘Rotterzwam home’ [Online]. Available at www.rotterzwam.nl (accessed 6 June 2020).Google Scholar
Steen, K. and van Bueren, E. (2017) ‘The defining characteristics of urban living labs’, Technology Innovation Management Review, vol. 7, no. 7. http://doi.org/10.22215/timreview/1088CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torrens, J., Johnstone, P. and Schot, J. (2018) ‘Unpacking the formation of favourable environments for urban experimentation: the case of the Bristol Energy Scene’, Sustainability, vol. 10, no. 3, art. 879. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10030879Google Scholar
Truffer, B., Murphy, J. T. and Raven, R. (2015) ‘The geography of sustainability transitions: contours of an emerging theme’, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, vol. 17, pp. 6372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2015.07.004Google Scholar
von Wirth, T., Fuenfschilling, L., Frantzeskaki, N. and Coenen, L. (2019) ‘Impacts of urban living labs on sustainability transitions: mechanisms and strategies for systemic change through experimentation’, European Planning Studies, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 229257. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2018.1504895CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voytenko, Y., McCormick, K., Evans, J. and Schliwa, G. (2016) ‘Urban living labs for sustainability and low carbon cities in Europe: towards a research agenda’, Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 123, pp. 4554. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.08.053CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warf, B. and Arias, S. (2008) ‘Introduction: the reinsertion of space in the humanities and social sciences’, in Warf, B. and Arias, S. (eds), The Spatial Turn, Abingdon, Routledge, pp. 1726.Google Scholar
Williams, D. R. (2014) ‘Making sense of “place”: reflections on pluralism and positionality in place research’, Landscape and Urban Planning, vol. 131, pp. 7482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2014.08.002Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×