Can low carbon city experiments transform the development regime?

The paper explores the ability of urban transition experiments to transform the development regime in which they are embedded. Using three European case studies – BedZed, Vauban and Hammarby – it investigates the processes of broadening and scalingupwithin cities, nations and across cities globally; and finds that transition experiments do influence the development regime inwhich they are embedded. The impact of experiments on the development regime does vary significantly with scale. The innovative components, which are assembled in experiments (cultural, structural and practices) also seem to have differing propensity to influence the development regime at different scales. Thus, cultural innovations have a greater propensity to influence the development regime across all scales, whilst the structural and practice innovations tend to influence the development regime locally and nationally. The case studies also demonstrated the significance of context (historical and geographical) in shaping experiments and influencing the transformation process. This finding suggests that the importance of broadening in the transformation process has been overstated. The experiments show that broadening across national boundaries and for prolonged periods, can result in expanding niche-regimes which become increasingly diverse. But it does not result in transformation. ã 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Low carbon city experiments Since the Kyoto Protocol was ratified in Europe in 2002, cities across the region have introduced local carbon dioxide reduction targets and climate action plans. This has led to a proliferation of lowcarbon experiments inmany European cities. These experiments provide a snapshot of how low carbon cities could evolve in the coming decades. They test a range of new technical, regulatory and institutional configurations as well as social practices which are integral to delivering this goal. This paper explores the contribution transition experiments make towards a low carbon transformation. We draw on transition theories to explore the role of experiments in the transformation process. Transition experiments” are small-scale experimentswith a high potential to contribute to transitions, in this case to a lowcarbon transition (Kemp&Van den Bosch, 2006; Loorbach, 2007; Raven, Van den Bosch, &Weterings, 2008; Rotmans, 2005). Thus, a transition experiment is a specific kind of innovation project. Experiments are viewed as socio-technical systems – comprised of three elements culture, structure and practices 1 – which address a societal challenge and aim to contribute to a socio-technical transition (Doci, Vasileiadou