IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v50y2013i7p1403-1422.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Intermediary Organisation of Low Carbon Cities: A Comparative Analysis of Transitions in Greater London and Greater Manchester

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Hodson
  • Simon Marvin
  • Harriet Bulkeley

Abstract

Making a low carbon economic future for the UK has been declared a key priority by both the previous Labour government and also the current coalition government. Yet there is a large gap between the symbolic representations of a low carbon future and their material manifestations in low carbon technologies and infrastructure in particular places. This paper addresses this gap through focusing on the organisation of urban low carbon transition activity. There is often significant capacity to act in reconfiguring urban energy systems that remains latent due to a missing organisational context for its co-ordination according to a mutually defined rationale or vision. This paper develops a conceptual framework to demonstrate and understand different modes of urban energy intermediation. Examples are used of intermediary organisation in London and Manchester to understand the strengths and partiality of each mode of intermediation and the necessity to integrate these different aspects of urban intermediary governance.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Hodson & Simon Marvin & Harriet Bulkeley, 2013. "The Intermediary Organisation of Low Carbon Cities: A Comparative Analysis of Transitions in Greater London and Greater Manchester," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(7), pages 1403-1422, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:50:y:2013:i:7:p:1403-1422
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098013480967
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098013480967
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098013480967?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brenner, Neil, 2004. "New State Spaces: Urban Governance and the Rescaling of Statehood," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199270064.
    2. Mike Hodson & Simon Marvin, 2007. "Understanding the Role of the National Exemplar in Constructing ‘Strategic Glurbanization’," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 303-325, June.
    3. Kristine Kern & Harriet Bulkeley, 2009. "Cities, Europeanization and Multi‐level Governance: Governing Climate Change through Transnational Municipal Networks," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 309-332, March.
    4. Harro van Lente & Marko Hekkert & Ruud Smits & Bas van Waveren, 2003. "Roles of Systemic Intermediaries in Transition Processes," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 7(03), pages 247-279.
    5. Kristine Kern & Harriet Bulkeley, 2009. "Cities, Europeanization and Multi-level Governance: Governing Climate Change through Transnational Municipal Networks," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47, pages 309-332, March.
    6. Hodson, Mike & Marvin, Simon, 2010. "Can cities shape socio-technical transitions and how would we know if they were?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 477-485, May.
    7. Michael J. Piore, 2001. "The Emergent Role of Social Intermediaries in the New Economy," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(3), pages 339-350, September.
    8. Geels, Frank, 2005. "Co-evolution of technology and society: The transition in water supply and personal hygiene in the Netherlands (1850–1930)—a case study in multi-level perspective," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 363-397.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kivimaa, Paula & Boon, Wouter & Hyysalo, Sampsa & Klerkx, Laurens, 2019. "Towards a typology of intermediaries in sustainability transitions: A systematic review and a research agenda," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 1062-1075.
    2. Webb, Janette, 2015. "Improvising innovation in UK urban district heating: The convergence of social and environmental agendas in Aberdeen," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 265-272.
    3. Mattes, Jannika & Huber, Andreas & Koehrsen, Jens, 2015. "Energy transitions in small-scale regions – What we can learn from a regional innovation systems perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 255-264.
    4. Lacey-Barnacle, M. & Bird, C.M., 2018. "Intermediating energy justice? The role of intermediaries in the civic energy sector in a time of austerity," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 71-81.
    5. Paula Kivimaa & Wouter Boon & Sampsa Hyysalo & Laurens Klerkx, 2017. "Towards a Typology of Intermediaries in Transitions: a Systematic Review," SPRU Working Paper Series 2017-17, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    6. Mike Hodson & Frank W. Geels & Andy McMeekin, 2017. "Reconfiguring Urban Sustainability Transitions, Analysing Multiplicity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-20, February.
    7. Corsini, Filippo & Certomà, Chiara & Dyer, Mark & Frey, Marco, 2019. "Participatory energy: Research, imaginaries and practices on people' contribute to energy systems in the smart city," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 322-332.
    8. Valid Hasyimi & Hossny Azizalrahman, 2018. "A Strategy-Based Model for Low Carbon Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-13, December.
    9. Castán Broto, Vanesa, 2017. "Urban Governance and the Politics of Climate change," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 1-15.
    10. Marc Wolfram & Niki Frantzeskaki, 2016. "Cities and Systemic Change for Sustainability: Prevailing Epistemologies and an Emerging Research Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-18, February.
    11. Feser, Daniel & Bizer, Kilian & Rudolph-Cleff, Annette & Schulze, Joachim, 2016. "Energy audits in a private firm environment: Energy efficiency consultants' cost calculation for innovative technologies in the housing sector," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 275, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    12. Sanneke Kloppenburg & Robin Smale & Nick Verkade, 2019. "Technologies of Engagement: How Battery Storage Technologies Shape Householder Participation in Energy Transitions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-15, November.
    13. Beau Warbroek & Thomas Hoppe & Frans Coenen & Hans Bressers, 2018. "The Role of Intermediaries in Supporting Local Low-Carbon Energy Initiatives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-28, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Winfried Osthorst, 2020. "Tensions in Urban Transitions. Conceptualizing Conflicts in Local Climate Policy Arrangements," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Kivimaa, Paula & Boon, Wouter & Hyysalo, Sampsa & Klerkx, Laurens, 2019. "Towards a typology of intermediaries in sustainability transitions: A systematic review and a research agenda," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 1062-1075.
    3. Anna Kuokkanen & Mahir Yazar, 2018. "Cities in Sustainability Transitions: Comparing Helsinki and Istanbul," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-18, May.
    4. Naoki FUJIWARA, 2019. "International City Network and Public-Private Cooperation Japanese Public Water Services’ Overseas Expansion," CIRIEC Working Papers 1909, CIRIEC - Université de Liège.
    5. Barbanente, Angela & Grassini, Laura, 2022. "Fostering transitions in landscape policies: A multi-level perspective," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    6. Vincent Wretling & Berit Balfors, 2021. "Building Institutional Capacity to Plan for Climate Neutrality: The Role of Local Co-Operation and Inter-Municipal Networks at the Regional Level," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-19, February.
    7. Antje Otto & Kristine Kern & Wolfgang Haupt & Peter Eckersley & Annegret H. Thieken, 2021. "Ranking local climate policy: assessing the mitigation and adaptation activities of 104 German cities," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 167(1), pages 1-23, July.
    8. Kristine Kern & Janne Irmisch & Colette Odermatt & Wolfgang Haupt & Ingrid Kissling-Näf, 2021. "Cultural Heritage, Sustainable Development, and Climate Policy: Comparing the UNESCO World Heritage Cities of Potsdam and Bern," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-19, August.
    9. Galaz, Victor & Crona, Beatrice & Österblom, Henrik & Olsson, Per & Folke, Carl, 2012. "Polycentric systems and interacting planetary boundaries — Emerging governance of climate change–ocean acidification–marine biodiversity," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 21-32.
    10. Francesch-Huidobro, Maria, 2016. "Climate change and energy policies in Shanghai: A multilevel governance perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 45-56.
    11. Philip Catney & John M Henneberry, 2016. "Public entrepreneurship and the politics of regeneration in multi-level governance," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(7), pages 1324-1343, November.
    12. Marsden, Greg & Stead, Dominic, 2011. "Policy transfer and learning in the field of transport: A review of concepts and evidence," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 492-500, May.
    13. Jennifer S. Bansard & Philipp H. Pattberg & Oscar Widerberg, 2017. "Cities to the rescue? Assessing the performance of transnational municipal networks in global climate governance," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 229-246, April.
    14. Kaveh Rashidi & Anthony Patt, 2018. "Subsistence over symbolism: the role of transnational municipal networks on cities’ climate policy innovation and adoption," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 507-523, April.
    15. Haupt, Wolfgang & Eckersley, Peter & Kern, Kristine, 2021. "Transfer und Skalierung von lokaler Klimapolitik: Konzeptionelle Ansätze, Voraussetzungen und Potenziale," IRS Dialog 1/2021, Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS).
    16. Irmisch, Janne & Haupt, Wolfgang & Eckersley, Peter & Kern, Kristine & Müller, Hannah, 2022. "Klimapolitische Entwicklungspfade deutscher Groß- und Mittelstädte," IRS Dialog 2/2022, Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS).
    17. Michele Acuto & Benjamin Leffel, 2021. "Understanding the global ecosystem of city networks," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(9), pages 1758-1774, July.
    18. David J. Gordon, 2016. "Lament for a network? Cities and networked climate governance in Canada," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(3), pages 529-545, May.
    19. Marsden, G. & Frick, K.T. & May, A.D. & Deakin, E., 2011. "How do cities approach policy innovation and policy learning? A study of 30 policies in Northern Europe and North America," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 501-512, May.
    20. Simmons, Geoff & Giraldo, Jorge Esteban Diez & Truong, Yann & Palmer, Mark, 2018. "Uncovering the link between governance as an innovation process and socio-economic regime transition in cities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 241-251.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:50:y:2013:i:7:p:1403-1422. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.