Urban climate experiments: Governance tensions and opportunities for justice

Abstract

Urban climate experiments are considered as key vehicles for testing and materialising alternative futures. Yet, the capacity of experiments to be transformative and to go in the direction of greater justice is far from evident. While the debate on experimental governance hints at transformative challenges of urban experiments, scope of this paper is to make such challenges explicit, observing how they can constrain but also enable experiments in contributing to more socio-ecologically just change. To achieve that, this paper frames transformative challenges of urban experiments as critical governance tensions. The concept of tension illuminates the dialectics between limits to transformative action on the one hand, and opportunities to enhance scopes of action on the other. By analysing and connecting among each other key strands of debate on experimental governance, the paper identifies three main types of tensions characterising the governance of urban climate experiments, that is, socio-material, organisational and institutional (governance tensions). The analysis of the tensions is further developed by embedding a socio-ecological justice lens. Indeed, drawing insights from literature on urban climate justice, the paper shows how key dimensions of justice – namely distributive, procedural, recognition and restorative justice – run transversal to the three types of tensions. As a result, by experiencing and learning from governance tensions urban climate experiments can envision opportunities to better embed justice in their governing practices.