NETWORK GOVERNANCE AND LOW-CARBON TRANSITIONS IN EUROPEAN CITIES By TIMEA NOCHTA A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Institute of Local Government Studies School of Government and Society College of Social Sciences University of Birmingham January 2018 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT The thesis investigates the role of governance networks in advancing sustainable energy transitions in the cities of Europe. By doing so, it aims to provide insights about the practical applicability of the Transition Management framework in different urban settings. Exploring this issue is timely as well as important due to parallel processes of the rising profile of cities in transition governance; and the perceived need in city authorities to develop new governance mechanisms to support low-carbon transitions on the urban scale. The main contribution to knowledge is the empirical evidence provided for the context-dependency of the connections between technological change required for urban low-carbon energy transitions and organisational change in local governance arrangements. The findings’ consequence for theory is that the implicit assumptions built into Transition Management about the functioning of collaborative governance networks limit its applicability in different cities. The evidence collected through the study also highlights problems with scaling down the Multi-Level Perspective to the urban scale. The findings are derived from a comparative study of three cities from across Europe with diverse characteristics in terms of historical sustainability agenda development, locally relevant rationales for transitions, and patterns of organisational fragmentation and power-distribution in local governance arrangements. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A few years ago, I could have not imagined writing another thesis after going through over six years of higher education to receive my architecture degree. I am now convinced that embarking on this journey has been the best decision I’ve made in my life so far. And there are many people without whose support this period would have not been as productive and enjoyable as it ended up being. First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisors: Prof. Chris Skelcher and Prof. Peter Braithwaite, who trusted me with the opportunity to work on this project. Their insightful comments, encouragement and advice were essential to get me through the various ups and downs of the research. I could not have imagined having better advisors and mentors for my PhD. Furthermore, I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Prof. Vivien Lowndes for the comments and suggestions she provided me with on the yearly reviews, and to Dr Catherine Durose and Dr Louise Reardon for helping me to prepare for the viva. I am most grateful for the support of the colleagues at Climate KIC, including Dr. Jon Bloomfield, Prof. Fred Steward, and (soon to be Dr) Nanja Nagorny-Koring; as well as the Transition Cities colleagues helping my fieldwork in Birmingham, Budapest and Frankfurt. I would also like to acknowledge the funding and support from Climate-KIC in carrying out this research. Climate-KIC is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union. A special thank you goes to my parents, Magdolna and Mihály Nochta. Not only because they supported me emotionally and financially over the last thirty years whenever ii I needed it, but also because they brought me up in the spirit that hard work always pays off. ‘Kifogás nincs, csak nyafogás’, as they always used to say; ‘No whining. No complaining. No excuses.’ Nektek dedikálom ezt a disszertációt. Köszönöm! Many of my friends and colleagues deserve to be mentioned here. First of all, Zsófi Boda. Thank you for being my friend for almost twenty years and for setting the bar so high - from Székesfehérvár to Oxford, Birmingham and Cambridge :). Moving on to the amazing group of people from the 10th floor PhD office… I would like to express my immense gratitude to the regular members of the ‘Muirhead Coffee Club’: John Evemy, Sam Warner, Mattias Hjort and Bruno Dalponte, who were always there when I needed help, a hug, caffeine, or just someone to talk to. I am also hugely appreciative to the people who sacrificed their free time to proofread my chapters: John, Sam, Darcy Luke, Elio di Muccio, Gavin Hall and Chris Featherstone. I owe you one guys! And last but not least, I must include my friends at the university who have been the best company both at the office and in the pub: Maren Rohe, Martin Locret, Eva Fringi, Conor McKenna, Frida Estrella, Kate Schenk, Melany Cruz, Max Lempriere, Adry Algarin, Samara Guimaraes, Ahmad Barakat, Cherry Miller, Manu Padda and Abena Dadze-Arthur. Cheers! iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures List of Tables List of Abbreviations CHAPTER 1. ............................................................................................................................. 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Research objective ................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Previous research: The Pioneer Cities and Transition Cities projects ............. 2 1.3 Research Questions .............................................................................................. 8 1.4 Thesis outline ...................................................................................................... 11 1.5 Research outputs and dissemination ................................................................. 13 PART I. THEORY CHAPTER 2. ........................................................................................................................ 167 GOVERNING SUSTAINABILITY TRANSITIONS .................................................. 17 2.1 Objectives and structure of the chapter ............................................................ 17 2.2 Sustainable development, climate change and low-carbon transitions ......... 18 2.2.1 The concepts of ‘sustainability’ and ‘sustainable development’ .... 18 2.2.2 Climate change in the context of sustainable development ............ 20 2.2.3 Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions via low-carbon transitions .. 22 2.3 Researching transitions: the socio-technical perspective................................ 23 2.3.1 Socio-technical transitions towards sustainability .......................... 23 2.3.2 The Multi-Level Perspective on sustainability transitions ............. 26 2.3.3 Main debates and criticisms of the MLP ........................................ 29 2.4 Governing transitions ......................................................................................... 32 2.4.1 The Multi-Level Perspective and the governance of transitions .... 32 2.4.2 The Transition Management (TM) framework ............................... 35 2.4.3 Critical review of the TM approach ................................................ 40 2.5 Conclusions: governing low-carbon transitions in theory and in practice .... 44 CHAPTER 3. .......................................................................................................................... 47 THE NETWORK PERSPECTIVE ON GOVERNANCE ......................................... 47 3.1 Objectives and structure of the chapter ............................................................ 47 3.2 The network governance concept and its origins ............................................ 48 3.2.1 Public sector reforms: from hierarchies and markets to networks .. 48 iv 3.2.2 Origins of the network concept ....................................................... 52 3.2.3 Key concepts and definitions .......................................................... 55 3.3 Describing governance networks ...................................................................... 55 3.3.1 Introduction: relevant theoretical approaches ................................. 55 3.3.2 Emergence of networks and definitions .......................................... 58 3.3.3 Network formation .......................................................................... 61 3.3.4 Sustaining networks: the network governance process .................. 63 3.3.5 Summary and conclusions .............................................................. 65 3.4 Governing within and through networks: network management and meta- governance .................................................................................................................. 68 3.4.1 Governing governance: options to steer network processes ........... 68 3.4.2 Intermediation ................................................................................. 68 3.4.3 Network management ..................................................................... 69 3.4.4 Meta-governance ...........................................................................