‘Doing’ system innovations from within the heart of the regime

Abstract

ABSTRACT Urban experiments are no longer exclusively undertaken by alternative networks, dominated by new actors and alliances and located at the fringes of the current system. A second generation of initiatives is emerging, which Is characterized by a leading role for local governments, together with other established players. For experimentation at the fringes of the regime the challenge is to maximally benefit from niche protection while seizing opportunities to influence regime dynamics. Second generation experiments face a different challenge: to benefit from the proximity to the regime while maintaining a protective space for developing ‘deviant’ solutions. I will draw on insights on reflexive governance to develop a framework for understanding this challenge and strategies to meet it. I will use an ongoing project on achieving synergy between energy, water and data infrastructures in Amsterdam as an empirical referent to clarify and sharpen the argument. The framework includes propositions on strategies for this newly emerging types of initiatives, focusing on the processes through which they do or do not work. They may be tested and further developed through case studies. Such work may also contribute to meta-theoretical issue of the relations between institutional, discursive and material factors in driving change.