Methodology and process tools for municipal cliamte and energy transitions

Important results from the project

Based on a case study of 40 years of development work at Lindholmen, we have analyzed how public ambitions in the area have often drifted towards ”dilution”, ”blandness” or “lock-in” - which has undermined the effect of the transformative ambitions. We draw conclusions about what the underlying factors have been and formulate a methodology for how public actors should be able to increase the effectiveness of this kind of transformative ambitions. We exceeded expected results.

Expected long term effects

We develop an integrated theory of why public transformative ambitions often fail, which challenges established change practices, established theoretical models and points towards new areas of research. We also develop a practical methodology on how public transformative ambitions can be pursued in new ways and clarify the new institutional capacity this requires, as well as how it can be built. We hope and believe that this can influence both practical application and theoretical research.

Approach and implementation

The project has followed a “research by design” logic. Our inter- and trans-disciplinary team has worked in an integrated manner. The development of observations, theorising, synthesis and design of methodology has thus not taken place linearly but in an iterative process (See “The Theoretical and Empirical Support for the Methodology”). The core group of the team has taken on a significant synthesizing role. The project has been going well, but has also been intellectually demanding.