Mundane innovations in experimental climate urban governance: Examples from rapidly urbanizing areas

Calls for urgent responses to both challenges of climate change and the global biodiversity crisis demand transformative action and a just transition, assuming the centrality of experimental governance to facilitate impactful responses. Professor Castán Broto’s lecture will address these challenges by exploring a number of questions: How do these mundane innovations interact with different forms of experimental governance? For example, is experimental governance a result of these mundane innovations, or is it, on the contrary, an external imposition that reduces their potential? Moreover, to what extent does international policy match the requirements to deliver place-based action and take advantage of mundane innovations? Do mundane innovations support efforts towards a just transition?

To answer these questions, Professor Castán Broto will present insights from the ERC-funded project LO-ACT, Low Carbon Action in Ordinary Cities. The presentation will focus on the combined insights of an analysis of existing policy narratives of climate change action in urban areas and the actual projects that take place on the ground. The analysis shows the potential of mundane innovations to create locally adapted forms of experimental governance but also shows that mundane innovations are either ignored or misunderstood in climate change policy.