Abstract
Cities can set in motion sustainability transitions through experimentation and innovation. To invest in and mainstream solutions that contribute to urban transformation agendas, urban planners needs to understand which innovations have transformational potential as well as how these innovations can accelerate sustainability transitions. In order to explore this, existing frameworks of transformative capacity provide the guidance, but they are generic, abstract, and challenging to apply for urban planning. As part of our effort to develop a more operational version of the transformative capacity framework by Wolfram (2016), we conducted a systematic scoping review of the academic literature to determine the characteristics of people-based and nature-based low-carbon innovations that constitutes their transformative capacity. After reviewing 65 records, we identified dimensions indicating each of the transformative capacity components through analysis and synthesis. Besides contributing to the science–policy interface through a knowledge synthesis on low-carbon people-based and nature-based innovations, this paper examines bridging frameworks to inform urban planners in developing practical solutions and actionable elements for low-carbon urban futures.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge funding from the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living which supported the rapid review upon which this scoping review was based. The authors also acknowledge the inspiring discussions in 2019 and 2020 with Maree Grenfell and Martin Hartigan from the City of Melbourne, Australia about low-carbon innovations and how to better plan for them. We would also like to thank Professor Peter Newton for his reflective comments, support, and inputs during the preparation of the research proposal and then the project that supported this research.
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FS: Conceptualization; Methodology; Investigation; Data curation; Writing original draft; Visualization; Project administration. MPP: Conceptualization; Investigation; Data curation; Writing original draft. NF: Conceptualization; Methodology; Validation; Data curation; Writing original draft; Writing and editing; Supervision; Project administration; Funding acquisition.
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Shahani, F., Pineda-Pinto, M. & Frantzeskaki, N. Transformative low-carbon urban innovations: Operationalizing transformative capacity for urban planning. Ambio 51, 1179–1198 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01653-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01653-4