Urban experimentation in support of Sweden's sustainability transition : a case study of Brunnshög in Lund

Sammanfattning: The number of people living in urban areas has increased significantly over the past few decades. As such, cities have become centers for population and economic growth. These two factors, however, are also the most significant drivers of fossil fuel related CO2 emissions. Additionally, urban services contribute to dominant socio-technical systems that are inherently unsustainable, path dependent, and locked-in. Such systems are typically categorized by incremental change, which is not sufficient to address sustainability challenges. Thus, some cities have focused on becoming loci for urban experimentation aimed at revealing sustainable system alternatives that may induce more radical change. In this sense, cities are not only major contributors to climate change, but important areas for sustainability transitions. Sweden has experienced high rates of urbanization and also strives for sustainable development. Therefore, I have chosen to explore urban experimentation for sustainability within this country by analyzing the developing district of Brunnshög, located in Lund. In this study, I explore how an urban experiment may attempt to challenge dominant socio-technical systems in Lund and how successful these approaches may be at contributing to the larger transition towards sustainability. The multi-level perspective is used to investigate the extent to which Brunnshög’s niche-innovations may contribute to the evolution of a specific transition pathway within the city. This case study reveals that niche-innovations being developed within Brunnshög primarily target four socio-technical systems within the dominant regime: transportation, energy and heating, waste management, and food production. Additionally, landscape pressure is exerted by a national, eco-modern focus on sustainability, as well as growing global awareness that radical action must be taken to sufficiently mitigate climate change. The analysis reveals that Brunnshög, as an urban experiment, is contributing to the current transformation transition path evident within Lund. However, there is potential for this path of transformation to shift to one of reconfiguration. Urban experiments, like Brunnshög, are necessary for providing the protected space needed for this to happen. Brunnshög’s unfolding development must be followed over the next couple decades to decisively determine how its niche-innovations impact Lund’s transition towards sustainability.