Transitions in the Smart City neighbourhood : Slim Wonen in Gaasperdam as a case for transition management and network governance in Smart Cities

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Transitions in the Smart City neighbourhood

Slim Wonen in Gaasperdam as a case for transition management and network

governance in Smart Cities.

Msc. thesis Political Science: Bestuur & Beleid

Eliza Marx

University of Amsterdam Student Number: 10674594 January 2016

Supervisor: dr. Robin Pistorius Second reader: prof. dr. John Grin Word count: 20,315

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Ch. 1 Introduction: research question and

relevance of the thesis

1.1 Research question and layout of the thesis

In this thesis sustainable development in an urban context is the main theme. To specify the urban context, the research of the thesis will focus on the concept Smart Cities. Smart Cities offer an approach to make sustainable development1_{happen in cities or more specifically in}

neighbourhoods. The decision to focus on Smart Cities is based twofold. The first reason is that this thesis is written in the context of an assignment from the Smart City initiative Amsterdam Smart City (ASC), which is why the Smart City approach is the starting point of this research. The second reason is that even though Smart City initiatives are part of a trend that entails putting city governance at the centre of sustainable development, the literature about Smart Cities offers no coherent governance approach to sustainable development in cities or neighbourhoods. This thesis therefore proposes a governance framework for achieving sustainable development within the context of Smart Cities.

Next to Smart Cities, the framework is based on two other main concepts: transition management and network governance. Transition management is chosen because it proposes a governance framework for achieving transitions, especially transitions towards sustainable development. The concept of network governance is chosen because it offers insights in how to organize the collaboration in the network of actors that are needed to achieve transitions in Smart Cities. Moreover in this thesis it is argued that in order to achieve sustainable transitions in Smart Cities besides technological innovations, social innovations in respect to the mode of governance are needed, which are presented by the two respective concepts. Transition management proposes a multi-level perspective in which both technological and social innovations play an important role. Network governance can analyse the way in which social innovations can best be achieved by facilitating interactions.

In this thesis an overlap between Smart City, transition management and network governance is proposed. The overlap is proposed in order to pinpoint how the three concepts relate to each other and thus offer an appropriate framework to base a governance approach on, for achieving sustainable development in Smart Cities.

The thesis aims at proposing a framework as to initiate to fill the ‘gap’ in the literature about governance in Smart Cities aimed at sustainable development. In order to test the overlap of the

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concepts from the proposed framework, a case from within the organization Amsterdam Smart City will be presented. This case is a project called Slim Wonen in Gaasperdam (Smart Living in Gaasperdam), which is a neighbourhood-oriented project to regenerate the area as to make it a more sustainable neighbourhood.

Together with the chosen theoretical framework and the case study, this thesis will answer the following research question:

How can network governance as executed in Slim Wonen in Gaasperdam serve as a tool to contribute to thinking about transition management within Smart Cities?

In order to answer the main research question, two sub-questions will be answered. As to make a case for the chosen theoretical framework and the interwovenness between the concepts, in chapter three the following theoretical research question will be answered:

How and why are Smart City, transition management and network governance overlapping with each other?

The subsequent research question that will be answered is: Why is the project Slim Wonen in

Gaasperdam a suitable case for testing the theoretical framework against and how did the project come about?

This question will be answered in chapter four in order to understand the link between the theoretical framework and the empirical findings that helps answering the main research question.

In chapter two the research design will be elaborated on. In chapter six the main research question will be answered.

The introduction will put the research question into the context of several developments and argue for both the societal and theoretical relevance of the research question. First the idea of cities as an important hub for sustainable development will be argued. Then bottom-up

initiatives towards low-carbon transitions in the Netherlands will be discussed. Subsequently the concept of Smart Cities will be introduced and how the two previous understandings of

decentralized and bottom-up approaches are intertwined with Smart Cities. Furthermore, the need for both social and technological innovations in Smart Cities will be argued for. Lastly the relevance of the research question will be elaborated on. The relevance of the research question comes partly from the societal aspect of how to best organize Smart Cities and from the

theoretical aspect as to why there is an overlap between the concepts Smart Cities, transition management and network governance.

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1.2 Cities as the main driver of transitions towards sustainable

development

To gain a better understanding of why cities are taking action against climate change, two arguments will be presented in order to introduce the idea that advocates the power of cities in comparison to national governments.

Former mayor of New York City Bloomberg published an essay in Foreign Affairs in the

September/October 2015 issue arguing that cities are key in fighting climate change. His line of thought for coming to this conclusion is that cities account for the most part of the CO2 emissions worldwide, while at the same time ever more people will be living in cities. He then continues by describing cities as more resilient and more open for policy innovation as compared by nation states. Cities, it is argued, have the power to invest in how people live, and can thereby influence a variety of issues more directly than other government levels. That is why, according to Bloomberg, “In fact, climate change may be the first global problem where success will depend on how municipal services such as energy, water, and transportation are delivered to citizens” (2015). Municipalities - also in cooperation with other parties - have the ability to invest in the infrastructure while at the same time adapt these infrastructures to the specific needs of a city by applying innovative solutions, according to Bloomberg. Hence, cities are more effective in implementing sustainability issues than national governments that are centrally organized because they are not as capable to adapt policies to local circumstances.

In the book If Mayors Ruled the World (2013) the political theorist Benjamin Barber makes use of a similar line of thought. He even goes so far as to argue that cities can save the world. This bold statement comes from his argument that the level of government that a city has, is the most suitable to tackle the most serious issues of today’s world. These issues span from

immigration to cultural exchange and climate change and cities are best capable to take practical measures, Barber argues. Moreover, cities are better in cooperating with each other than states are. Barber names a list of city cooperation networks across the globe as a proof of this

development where cities work together regardless of national interests (2013: 6-7). The development of Smart Cities can be seen as one of these networks where cities work together and exchange ideas on urban development. In this sense, Smart Cities fit into the development described by both Bloomberg and Barber.

However, not only cities themselves are willing to put the power in their own hands when it comes to climate change, also the inhabitants and organizations within cities are taking

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action. This bottom-up involvement with sustainable development will be discussed in the next section, with a focus on the current situation in The Netherlands and especially Amsterdam.

1.3 Bottom-up and decentralised approaches towards sustainable

development

Bottom-up initiatives towards sustainable development come in different forms. We will discuss how private parties and citizens are taking action towards a low carbon society and how the government is dealing with these initiatives, in order to put the development of Amsterdam Smart City in a broader context. To this end, the Dutch national Energieakoord will be discussed and as well as two policy documents of the municipality of Amsterdam.

As an example of how decentralised approaches are discussed on a national level in The Netherlands, the Energieakkoord voor duurzame groei (Energy agreement towards sustainable growth) will be addressed. It was published in 2013 in The Netherlands and was the result of negotiations between national government, scientists, private companies and NGO’s. It consists of a plan to make the energy supply system of The Netherlands completely climate neutral by 2050. Also within the agreement there is explicit attention for decentralised energy alternatives. At the time of writing of the Energieakkoord, there were already hundreds of local energy

initiatives in place, created either by inhabitants, private parties or a combination of both in The Netherlands (2013: 81). The agreement pleads for a reform of national rules and regulations in order to take away barriers for the implementation of decentralised energy solutions.

The discussion about how to organise decentralised and bottom-up initiatives that work towards sustainability is also taking place within the city of Amsterdam. To illustrate this, we will discuss two policy documents of the municipality. The first is Agenda Duurzaamheid (Sustainability Agenda) published in 2015. The document states that the goals of the municipality are a

reduction of energy use of 20% per inhabitant in 2020 compared to 2013 as well as an increased use of clean energy of 20% per inhabitant in 2020 compared to 2013, among other sustainability efforts. In order to reach these percentages, one of the five pillars of the municipality’s

‘integrated approach’ is collaboration with other parties. ASC is mentioned as one of these parties (2015: 47) alongside several other local initiatives that target sustainability issues. as partners to reach the goals set by the municipality. Hence the document shows that the municipality is making efforts towards sustainability in a collaborative fashion.

Another policy document from the municipality is completely dedicated to bottom-up efforts within Amsterdam: Ruimte voor Maatschappelijk Initiatief (Room for Social Initiative) (2015). In the report is written that because it often is no longer self-evident that public authorities take

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the initiative to solve societal issues, and that at the same time other parties are better capable at solving these issues (2015: 1). Hence the municipality is employing a new way of working as of 2014 called gebiedsgericht werken (area specific working), in which certain public servants are no longer responsible for a certain subject within an area, like housing, but become responsible for the area as a whole. Part of this new way of working is that the financing of societal initiatives set up by inhabitants, entrepreneurs and civil society organizations are now an integral part of the municipal budget (2015: 2). Among the initiatives that the report discusses are also initiatives focused on sustainable development such as energy cooperatives. The document offers a model of how Amsterdam is dealing with bottom-up solutions for reaching sustainability and shows that the attitude towards citizens has changed because of the new area specific way of working.

Adding to these examples of the national and municipal government, from the interviews conducted for this thesis it became clear that several respondents from the private sector are recently looking for ways to incorporate the decentralising developments within infrastructure as well. They are actively attempting to involve their customers in their workflow as to decide where to invest in (Respondent 5, 6, 7, 10 and 11, interview 2015). These parties see the value of decentralised solutions such as energy cooperatives and want to invest in these by involving the end-users. The introduction to developments of decentralised governance, involving a manifold of actors like private parties and citizens and the emphasis on cities from the previous paragraph towards sustainable development, form a build-up towards the origins of the Smart City concept. Smart Cities namely aim to work towards making a city more liveable by focusing on a

decentralised mode of governance, involving divergent actors in projects while making sustainable development a goal of a significant part of their projects.

In order to gain a deeper understanding of Amsterdam Smart City and of the main case study of this thesis in particular, the origins and meaning of the concept Smart City will be introduced.

1.4 Smart cities as an answer to organizing decentralised

sustainable urban development

The concept of Smart Cities offers insights into how urban planning should be governed, which will be explained in this paragraph. Furthermore, Smart Cities refer to city governance related to specific subjects that will be elaborated on in paragraph 1.4.2. In paragraph 1.4.3 Smart City projects in the Netherlands will be mentioned and in paragraph 1.4.4 developments that led to a wide use of the Smart City concept in city governance will be mentioned.

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1.4.1 Smart cities: an introduction

Numerous cities across the world call themselves Smart Cities or are involved in projects that receive the stamp of ‘smart’. In this paragraph the concept will be further elaborated on in terms of what it means to urban planning and the developments that led to the realization of Smart Cities as key transition entities to realize sustainable development goals. Smart cities can be seen as a concept in which two main phenomena coincide: the effort to make cities more liveable by making them more inclusive and sustainable by way of cutting CO2 emissions on the one hand and the rise of new (internet) technologies such as internet of things2_{on the other hand}

(Komninos, 2011: 175). But why is this smart exactly?

To start with, the word smart implies that there is also a ‘dumb’ approach to urban planning. The political scientist and urban planner Maarten Hajer juxtaposes smart urban

planning against urban planning solely focused on top-down policies: “ (...) we are now too smart for thinking in terms of blueprints and linearity” (Hajer in Hajer & Dassen (eds), 2014: 40). In his terms, being smart about urban planning means moving away from the modernist dogmas of top-down governance and grand schemes. In connection to this Hajer (2014) paraphrases the work of anthropologist Scott (1998) who described states as ‘overconfident’, because they try to solve all kinds of problems “ (...) by applying scientific insights and the latest technology” (2014: 37). Hajer states that the overconfidence in technology is not the answer, because “Cities illustrate how the technological and social aspects are interlinked in complicated ways” (idem: 36). Technology, such as renewable energy, always is embedded in a context of the social world and will not function within itself. Hence, according to Hajer, to reach a sustainable ‘metabolism’ of the city social innovation is equally important as technological innovation (2014: 37). In conclusion, Hajer’s argumentation entails that being smart about cities means that not only technological innovation is encouraged but that social innovation is key as well to reach sustainable cities. Hence for achieving sustainable transitions in Smart Cities, this thesis argues that social innovations are needed which can be accomplished by a governance mode based on transition management and network governance. However, when looking at the origins of the Smart City concept, it becomes clear that the concept came about as a strategy to deal with technological innovations. Hence in order to accomplish transitions, it is important that social innovations become incorporated as to make Smart Cities a relevant governance approach to achieve sustainable transitions.

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1.4.2 Origins of the concept Smart Cities: from ICT applications towards making the city more sustainable

However, when talking about Smart Cities, the first keywords that come to mind are mostly in the field of innovation and technology and not social innovation (Vanolo, 2014: 884, Komninos, 2011, Deakin & Allwinkle, 2007). The question that arises is: what entails a Smart City and how has it become a popular governance concept recently? To answer that question, an introduction to the origins of the concept Smart Cities will be given. The concept ‘smart’ in relation to urban planning took flight in the United States in the mid-nineties. In 1996 and 1997 conferences were organized in California (US) about Cities of the Future by local governments and economic councils3_{. The result of these conferences was the establishment of “The World Foundation of}

Smart Communities” in San Diego: The foundation was created in 1997 to help communities worldwide better understand the important role of technology, economic development and importantly, creativity and innovation to success and survival in the new global economy (www.smartcommunities.org, consulted 10-11-2015). The Foundation published several

guidebooks on how communities can deal with developments in the digital age. Furthermore, the state of California launched a Smart Communities program, in order to use information

technologies for economical development in a more structural way (Eger, 2003: 7). This

paragraph shows that the origins of the concept Smart City are to be found in the search of cities for ways of using newly developed ICT infrastructures.

Coming from North-America, the Smart Cities concept has landed in Europe and Asia as well. For example, the European Commission (EC) has initiated The European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities in 20124_{which made subsidies for Smart City}

projects available (Vanolo, 2014: 888). Furthermore the national government of India announced in 2015 that 100 Indian cities will be set up as Smart Cities5_{. In these examples not only the}

importance of ICT infrastructures is stressed, but also the liveability of cities in terms of sustainable development by decreasing waste and low carbon transitions. The aim of the European Partnership namely is to invest in the cities’ infrastructures in order to reduce energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, bad air quality and congestions of roads. The same goes for the Indian Smart City initiative in which more efficient use of resources is a focal point. Hence, these examples imply that the aims of the Smart City use in city governance have broadened over time from focussing on governing ICT transitions to governing energy

3_{Smart Communities Past Events}_{http://www.smartcommunities.org/events_past.htm}_{Retrieved 10-11-2015.} 4_{The European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities}

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transitions. This thesis focuses on the energy transition component of Smart Cities. However, it is important to note that the concept Smart Cities refers to different goals in urban planning which can be contradictory. The contradiction and the tensions to which it can lead will be elaborated on in paragraph 3.8. In the next paragraph the use of the concept Smart City in the Netherlands in the context of sustainable development will be elaborated on.

1.4.3. Smart Cities in The Netherlands: implementation of sustainable development in the built environment

In The Netherlands several Smart City initiatives are to be found. In 2015 the Dutch ministry of Environment and Infrastructure conducted an explorative study on the subject. In this study several Smart Cities initiatives within the Netherlands are listed such as Almere Smart Society and Living Labs Smart Lightning in Eindhoven. According to the study, Smart Cities in The Netherlands focus on the existing built environment by applying new technological possibilities for improving accessibility, liveability, sustainability, safety and health (2015: 9). This is a different approach than for example the Smart City Songdo6_{in South Korea which has been}

build completely anew. In The Netherlands Smart City applies to already existing urban contexts in which new technologies need to function, hence the (social) context of a city should be taken into account. The study furthermore elaborates on sustainable transitions as a key goal for Smart Cities by focussing on reducing energy use and implementing a circular economy (2015: 13). Transitions are to be achieved by new ‘smart’ connections within existing chains of

infrastructures such as the chains behind the delivery of water and energy (2015: 14). ASC is the most important hub for Smart City development in The Netherlands. In chapter four the origins of ASC will be elaborated on. Next to ASC being active on making Amsterdam a Smart City, the municipality of Amsterdam has a ‘Chief Technology Officer’ (CTO)7_{in office as of 2014. The CTO office’s aim is to facilitate innovation in Amsterdam and}

is therefore closely tied to ASC.

In conclusion, the Smart City concept has gained a lot of attention from several cities because of the rise of new technologies on the one hand, and the idea that cities should take the lead in making cities more liveable by investing in sustainability. In the next paragraph a number of developments that led to a Smart City discourse in the field of policy and in the literature will be elaborated on.

6_{Songdo, South Korea: the World’s First Smart City}

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/dec/22/songdo-south-korea-world-first-smart-city-in-pictures retrieved 08-01-2015.

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The position of CTO is normally to be found in the context of start-ups. Now the municipality has its own CTO office to advise the municipality on (technological) innovation and to connect stakeholders.

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1.4.4 Developments that led to a smart city discourse in the context of ‘green’ transitions

It is striking how many of these Smart City projects have been established in the last few years. The amount of Smart City rankings and benchmarks is numerous (Citie, 2015; Ricart &

Berronne, 2014; Manville et al, 2014), which shows that cities attach importance to competing with other cities on the level of ‘smartness’. How did this Smart City competition come about? Four main developments from the literature on Smart Cities will be introduced in this paragraph.

● ‘Green’ city branding

Brand (2007: 618) argues that the branding of a city as being ‘green’ makes a city more competitive for attracting business and tourists. Therefore, investing in sustainability can be seen as not only for the inhabitants of a city in the sense of making the city more liveable by for example accomplishing cleaner air. It also fits in a broader aim of economical development in the city.

● Trend in urban policy: Smart Growth

Vanolo argues that the Smart City vision is indebted to the Smart Growth movement within the ‘new urbanism’ framework originating in the U.S. in the 1980s (2014: 887). Smart Growth refers according to Vanolo to “ (...) a planning strategy aimed at making cities more compact, less greedy and less soil-consuming” (idem). Hence Smart Growth is about urban development in a more sustainable way.

● Developments in ICT solutions

ICT is seen as an important component for Smart Cities because it enables innovations such as the use of big data for e-governance and the use of sensors in the internet of things. Furthermore, the increase of ICT utilizations is seen as a driver for economic development in highly developed economies (Hollands, 2008: 307).

● Emphasis on public-private partnerships in urban development

Businesses invest in urban development for example through public-private partnerships (Hollands, 2008: 308). Urban development is seen as an area in which new business cases can be explored and where the municipality is not the most important actor anymore. For example, in the study by the Dutch ministry of Environment and Infrastructure (2015), the six most influential Dutch people in Smart Cities are listed. Next government officials, also persons from the companies IBM8_{and Tygron}9_{are on the list.}

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In conclusion the previous paragraphs from the introduction have summed up several developments that coincide within the concept Smart City as a possible answer to these developments. Firstly, cities are seen as an important context for sustainable development to flourish. Then, when speaking about sustainable development policies the Netherlands the collaboration with government, private parties, civil organisations and citizens is stressed. This emphasis on collaboration is also to be found in Smart Cities, which will be elaborated on in the next chapter. Lastly, cities are looking to invest in infrastructures as to attract businesses and brand the city as green in order to draw tourists and new inhabitants as well. Hence these developments demonstrate that the Smart City concept is creating a great deal of buzz in cities and that it creates willingness to invest in Smart City projects.

However how collaboration towards an actual Smart City comes about remains indistinct, since there is no coherent ‘Smart City approach’. As we will see in the next chapter, having no coherent approach is also inherent to the city level policy. This thesis aims to offer learnings from the literature and a case study as to discern whether there can be given

recommendations for Smart City projects that aim to achieve sustainable transitions after all. In the next paragraph the social relevance of the specific angle on innovation in Smart Cities from this thesis for coming to recommendations will be elaborated on.

1.5 Relevance of the thesis

1.5.1 Social relevance

Smart Cities recently have come about as a framework for dealing with urban planning. Every city that is involved with the Smart City idea has a different approach to it. Some cities focus completely on the initiative of the municipality, while others actively search for collaboration with private parties. Some cities, like Amsterdam, create a specific platform dedicated solely to Smart City projects and other only refer to a certain project as ‘smart’ (Slot, 2016). Nevertheless, even with these different approaches at hand, cities and other stakeholders want to achieve results. For example, even though ASC has been in existence since 2009, it is sometimes hard to explain what the exact results are. The falling behind of concrete results can discourage actors to take part in the process. Furthermore, the aim of ASC is to work on urban innovation in pilot projects and subsequently to use the learned lessons for scaling up the project or to apply them in other contexts, such as other neighbourhoods. From interviews conducted for this thesis it became clear that there is a missing link between the pilot projects, the possibility for scaling up and the embedding of a way to learn from the process. Also in terms of the case at hand, the

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learnings could be applied to other neighbourhood regeneration projects that share the same aims of sustainability and cooperation as Slim Wonen in Gaasperdam. Hence, the conclusions from this study can help to optimize the process of ASC and to apply the learnings in

forthcoming urban regeneration projects to accelerate (energy) transitions in the city.

1.5.2 Scientific relevance

In this thesis an overlap between three concepts is proposed, namely Smart City, network governance and transition management. Although there is already literature about network governance and transition management, as well as about working in networks in Smart Cities, there is a gap when it comes to a framework in which all three are embedded. Smart Cities namely aim at making transitions happen by working in networks. Thus combining the three concepts can offer a valuable framework for a Smart City approach. Furthermore, the analysis of the case study contributes to empirical material to test the theoretical framework on network governance and transition management.

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Ch. 2 Method and choice of case study

2.1 The case study: Slim Wonen in Gaasperdam

In this paragraph a justification is given for the choice of the case study. It is chosen for two main reasons, namely a circumstantial one and a scientific one.

This thesis studies academic literature concerning the concepts Smart City, transition management and network governance. The theoretical framework that is the result of the

analysis of the literature is tested against and used to analyse a specific case study. The case study is a project initiated by Amsterdam Smart City that aims at making the neighbourhood

Gaasperdam in Amsterdam more ‘smart’, which in this case means more sustainable. The project is called Slim Wonen in Gaasperdam. The choice for this specific case study is twofold. The first reason is that the research about the case study is part of an assignment in the form of a research internship at ASC. The goal of the internship is to discern the learned lessons of Slim Wonen, as the aim of ASC is to be involved in more similar projects and is in need of a framework for how to start up projects to make neighbourhoods more sustainable. The second reason is that Slim Wonen offers a unique case to test the theoretical framework. The elements of the three main concepts on which the argumentation of this thesis is build come together in this case. This is the case because Slim Wonen is initiated under the banner of a Smart City project. It aims at achieving transitions on a neighbourhood level and it is set up by the efforts of several parties in a network. The exact connection of the case study to the theoretical framework will be

elaborated on in paragraph 4.2. The next paragraph will explain why it has been chosen to research a case study by means of qualitative research.

2.2 Research subject

The research subject is the project Slim Wonen as it was executed from roughly the beginning of 2014 up until now. The reason to do research on a case study is that it gives the opportunity to understand the dynamics within a single setting (Eisenhardt, 1989: 534). By researching a case study we can come to understand how and why certain phenomena come about in a specific context. From this type of research we can then distil new hypotheses that can add to the existing literature (Gerring, 2007: 39). This is also the main goal of the research question: theory formation on the basis of the three main concepts by means of studying Slim Wonen in

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this thesis on a single case, is because this particular case is revelatory case. A revelatory case means the case reveals material on a phenomenon previously not yet accounted for in the literature (Yin, 2014: 52). Slim Wonen signifies a revelatory case because it entails a governance structure in which private parties, the municipality and representatives of inhabitants quite literally sit around the table to work together to make investments for a sustainable

neighbourhood possible. This kind of governance approach on a neighbourhood level has not been studied before in the context of Smart Cities, sustainability and network governance. Hence the study of the revelatory case can produce significant insights into the workings of a Smart City approach.

2.3 Data Collection

To research the case study several sources have been consulted which can be divided into three groups of sources: interviews, documentation and observations. The first and most important source of these three are the interviews. Twelve interviews were conducted with thirteen persons in total. Most of these persons are or were directly involved in the project in the position of stakeholder of their respective organizations. The selection criteria for these respondents were to obtain an interview with at least one person from every party that is involved in Slim Wonen. Others were interviewed to offer background information on working on neighbourhood oriented projects because they had experience with similar projects in other locations. For the complete list of respondents see table 1. An interview guide, which can be found in the

appendix, structured the interviews. In this guide several topics related to the research question are listed. The use of an interview guide was chosen instead of the use of beforehand formulated questions, because an interview guide allows room for the respondent to touch on subjects that otherwise might not have been covered by the researcher’s questions (Bryman, 2012: 471). Furthermore the use of a topic list makes sure that all relevant subjects are discussed in order to answer the research question. The second source that is used for the writing of this thesis is documentation. Desk research was done to find information about ASC, Slim Wonen and the municipality to research their respective official points of view regarding sustainability and working in networks. Lastly the author of this thesis attended two meetings in which the participants of Slim Wonen gathered to discuss the project. The observing of the meetings was of added value for the research question as to discover what the relationships between the participants are like. In the next paragraph it will be explained how the data recovered from the three resources will be analysed on the basis of the theoretical framework.

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Respondent # Organization Position

1 Stadsdeel Zuid-Oost Area manager Gaasperdam and contact

person for the local government 2 Citizen initiative Wij Krijgen

Kippen

Organisation of citizen participation within the project

3 Citizen initiative Wij Krijgen Kippen

Inhabitant of the area and responsible for the organisation of citizen

participation within the project 4 Amsterdam Smart City Involved in the startup of the project

5 Alliander Experience with starting up

neighborhood projects for low-carbon transitions

6 Waternet Two persons responsible for the water

management component of the project

7 Amsterdam Smart City Contact person for Amsterdam Smart

City

8 Reggefiber Responsible for the glass fibre

component of the project

9 Alliander Experience with starting up

neighborhood projects for low-carbon transitions

10 Afval Energie Bedrijf Responsible for the waste component of the project

11 Liander Responsible for the energy component

of the project

Table 1 List of selected respondents

2.4 Data analysis

The data will be analysed by means of the strategy of analytic induction, which is an iterative research strategy (Bryman, 2012: 566). This strategy starts with formulating a research question, which is formulated in the introduction. Then a hypothetical explanation of the research question is elaborated on in chapter three. Subsequently an examination of the case is to be found in chapter four. Lastly, in chapter five it will be analysed whether the case confirms the hypothetical explanation from the theoretical framework.

From the interviews that were conducted two main evaluation points of Slim Wonen will be explored. Firstly the reasons for committing to the project as to understand whether the main aim, as interpreted by the respondents, was to achieve sustainable transitions in Gaasperdam.

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Then the reasons as reported by the respondents about why there were barriers to achieve transitions will be mentioned. These reasons will reveal whether the barriers are to be found in the way the network was facilitated or whether network governance did not play a role in

achieving transitions. This exploration of the case will give input for testing the framework from chapter three. The framework consisting of three main concepts, Smart Cities, transition

management and network governance, will be used as an analytical tool to test the case by the following operational six elements. These elements will be further elaborated on in chapter three.

● Participation of stakeholders from government, research institutions, citizens and private parties in the project.

● Experimentalist governance approach. This means doing a project on a small scale with the intention to learn from it and to scale it up later on.

● Multi level perspective from transition management. This means whether its participants see the project as a niche project that can be part of as systemic change in the future.

● Prescriptive transition management model. This model describes steps to come to transitions from which the most important are starting with frontrunners and offering room for them to establish a vision, and then allow for participating organizations to implement that vision as well and then start experimenting.

● Facilitating interactions in the network. When a network of participants is willing to work together, the process of collaboration needs to be facilitated.

● Inclusive network. To come to transitions, the network of participants should be open to every party willing to participate.

These operationalisations are a means to test the proposed overlap from the theoretical

framework. In the analysis chapter it will be examined whether the proposed overlap exists in the case study and which barriers there are to be found in the case to coming to transitions.

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Ch. 3 Theoretical framework: the argument for

transition management and network

governance to achieve sustainable

development in Smart Cities

As argued in the introduction, in this thesis an overlap will be proposed between three

theoretical concepts in order to answer the research question How and why are Smart City, transition

management and network governance overlapping with each other? These concepts are smart city, transition

management and network governance. The overlap between these specific concepts will be used because on the one hand transition management and network governance offer analytical tools that fit to the process of Smart Cities, as will be argued in this chapter. These tools present governance strategies such as giving room to frontrunners in innovation and facilitating

interactions between actors. On the other hand, the overlap between the concepts can be used to answer the main research question of how network governance can accelerate the transition process in Smart Cities and to make concrete recommendations for social innovations within Smart City projects on the basis of the empirical research of the case study.

Figure 1 overlap of the concepts

The Smart City concept forms the main reason of the argument because it is forms the motive for writing this thesis. It overlaps with transition management because it shares the aim of low-carbon transitions and shares the same vision on innovation based on small scale experiments

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that can be scaled-up, which will be outlined in paragraph 3.2. Subsequently Smart City overlaps with network governance because working in networks with many kinds of actors, as opposed to top-down governance, is at the heart of the Smart City ‘method’. I will elaborate on this overlap in paragraph 3.5. Lastly, transition management and network governance overlap because transition management proposes a governance vision that entails collaboration between actors that normally would not join forces, so a thorough guidance of the process is needed. This will be explored in more detail in paragraph 3.6.

Schematically, I will propose that the concepts overlap as following (fig. 1). Every overlap of the framework will be presented by means of this schematic overview.

To put the developments concerning new governance forms towards sustainable urban development from the introduction in perspective, I will first give a short overview of the literature concerning Smart Cities in the context of their sustainable development opportunities. Then in order to analyse the concept of smart cities and later on the case study as well, I will introduce the two main concepts of the thesis: transition management and network governance. By doing this I will answer the following theoretical question: How and why are Smart City, transition

management and network governance overlapping with each other? I will argue that network governance is

an appropriate management tool to make transitions towards sustainability happen, especially in Smart City projects. This is because smart city projects are centered on experiments of urban development, in which a setting of collaboration and trust is needed. Furthermore, smart city projects encompass a manifold of different (policy) domains hence actors from diverse contexts need to work together.

3.1. Smart Governance for sustainability: participation and

experimentation

Adding to the discussed substance of smart cities in the introduction, we will delve deeper into process oriented components of how Smart Cities are to be governed, because as Brand (2007: 628) notes “ (...) it is the political effect of governmentality, not the manifest aim of sustainable development, which matters”. Hence the aim of Smart Cities to achieve sustainable development should be in line with the governance approach that is practiced. Moreover, focusing on on the process oriented components will help to answer my research question: How can network governance as executed in Gaasperdam serve as a tool to contribute to thinking about transition management within smart cities? The research question implies a process oriented approach for achieving transitions,

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approach to governance is and why the proposed concepts from the research question are fitting to this approach by focusing on two main Smart City governance components: experiments and participation. Furthermore a definition of Smart Cities in the context of sustainable development will be given.

The way Smart City governance should be organized is the main subject on most of the literature about the concept (Rodriguez Bolivar, 2015; Taylor Buck & While, 2015; Evans & Karvoren, 2014; Evans, 2011; Krueger, 2007; Hollands, 2008). The aims of Smart Cities such as low carbon transitions do not come about easily, especially when partnerships with various actors are needed. Hence Smart Cities need to apply governance strategies to make partnerships and implementation happen. One of the governance approaches often used in Smart Cities is experimentalist governance (Evans & Karvonen, 2014). In Smart City discourse used for Smart City initiatives the city is often even referred to as a laboratory or ‘urban living lab’10_{. This}

experimentalist fashion of governance is about making learning as one of the main goals to be able to apply learned lessons in other contexts as well: “(...) what differentiates the urban laboratory from existing forms of governance: its explicit and formalized emphasis on recursive learning” (Evans & Karvonen, 2014: 424). Next to a continuing learning process, urban living laboratories offer an approach to bring the bottom-up initiatives as described in the introduction of this thesis, in a joint effort with top-down governance. Living labs facilitate relationships between end-users, businesses, government and research institutes in a real-life environment (Baccarne et al, 2015: 4).

Thus for urban living labs to flourish, participation from these actors is key. Hence the second concept that describes the Smart City approach is ‘quadruple helix’. This is a term from the field of innovation studies and stands for the involvement of four groups of stakeholders in a process of innovation: government, private sector, research institutions and citizens (Waart et al, 2015). The idea behind it is that the development towards a Smart City is the outcome of the combination between “ (...) government policies, academic leadership qualities and corporate strategies” and the “public reality” (Waart et al, 2015: .4). ASC for example aims to employ this concept by working with the founding partners that consist of stakeholders from government, business, and research and by involving citizens in the designated urban labs (Dameri, 2014: 61). The involvement of citizens is in this respect important because they are the end-users of Smart City policies, hence important for the implementation of urban development policies. But just as importantly because the (local) government is involved in Smart City projects and this actor

10_{Living Labs: enabling continuous innovation in Smart Cities.}

http://smartcities.ieee.org/articles-publications/ieee-xplore-readings-on-smart-cities/march-2015.html Or the three living labs of ASC http://amsterdamsmartcity.com/projects/living-labs?lang=en

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needs to ensure the democratic process of urban development. This point will be further elaborated on in paragraph 3.8.

In conclusion, next to an experimentalist governance approach through urban labs the Smart City approach entails the participation of actors from the quadruple helix concept. The involvement of these actors requires a governance approach in which participation is actually possible.

To merge all of the different aspects that the concept Smart City entails, this thesis presents the definition as formulated by Caragliu et al (2009). In this definition both the substantive

components about infrastructure and resource management and the process related components about participatory governance are implemented:

“We believe a city to be smart when investments in human and social capital and traditional (transport) and modern (ICT) communication infrastructure fuel sustainable economic growth and a high quality of life, with a wise management of natural resources, through participatory governance” 2009: 50).

This definition is chosen because it fits best to answering the research question, as the aims of transitions and network governance are mentioned by sustainable economic growth, natural resource management and participatory governance. In this thesis sustainable development and network governance are seen as important components for Smart City governance. In the next paragraph the overlap between transition management and the Smart City approach will be further explored. Derived from the Smart City definition used in this thesis, the aim of Smart Cities is developing sustainable city environments and a high quality of life. Thus the governance of Smart Cities should be designed in such a way that these goals can be reached. In the next section I will elaborate on transition management and its argument for systemic changes and the prescriptive model for making (energy) transitions happen as a method for reaching the Smart City goals.

3.2 The first overlap: Smart City & transition management

In the next paragraphs the overlap between Smart City and transition management will be elaborated on, as depicted by figure 2. It will be argued that the systemic approach to sustainable development as proposed by transition management is a fitting way to analyse the Smart City

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Figure 2 Overlap of Smart City and transition management

3.2.1 Transition management for systemic changes

The Smart City discourse aims at improving life in the city in a sustainable way. The

improvement of urban life requires that a lot of different actors need to act in order for change to happen. These actors need to collaborate and collaboration in this context comes with many challenges because innovation within the city calls for changes in behaviour of all these actors, which is difficult to establish. In order to better understand in what way Smart Cities can come to actual improvements this thesis will argue that a change from the system perspective is needed, as proposed by the theory of transition management. This paragraph introduces the multi-level perspective on transitions as to understand how transitions can take place through different levels in Smart Cities.

Transition management came about in recent years in both science and policy as a way of steering towards sustainable development. Transition management can offer a better

understanding of the smart city concept because it show how systemic changes can come about by focusing first on smaller innovations in niches. This is what Smart Cities aspire to do as well, by way of experimenting and pilot projects. Systemic changes are, according to Geels, “(...) a change from one socio-technical system to another” (2004: 19). Hence systemic change is both about technological aspects as well as social aspects. This dualistic view is also reflected in the theories about Smart Cities and their role in sustainable transitions.

Geels conceptualizes systemic changes in a multi-level perspective, taking in elements from ia sociology and science and technology studies. The multi-level perspective offers an interpretation of how systemic changes come about that can be used to analyse whether these systemic changes

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also can occur by way of the Smart City approach. The multi-level perspective will be shortly introduced here. The first level is the social-technical regime in which the broad rules related to technology are constructed by a wide range of actors such as engineers, policymakers, societal groups etc. (idem, p. 33). In this level of the regime, change occurs but only incrementally. For the next level the metaphor of the landscape is used, in order to refer to the material aspects embedded in all kinds of infrastructures. At the same time the socio-technical landscape is influenced by social dimensions like values, political coalitions, environmental problems and migration (idem, p. 34). According to Geels, changes in the landscape are even more difficult to establish by the respective actors than in the regime level. The last level Geels describes is the technological niche in which radical innovations can be generated “because these niches are protected from normal market selection” (2004: 35). The multi-level perspective thus offers a way to connect innovations on a small scale to systemic change on a higher level. Smart Cities aim at working on small-scale projects initially as to scale them up later in order to create systemic changes. Hence the multi-level perspective is a fitting way to describe the Smart City approach.

3.2.2 Transition management as a prescriptive model for sustainable development in Smart Cities

As noted in paragraph 3.2 transition theory encompasses both complex systems as well as individual experiments in niches, while taking into account technological as well as social processes. How this theory can be put into practice, is explained by a prescriptive model of transition management by Loorbach (2010). He emphasizes that content and process within transition management cannot be seen apart from each other, hence only facilitating the process is not enough to come to change (2010: 167). Loorbach’s prescriptive model contributes to a fitting Smart City approach because it offers practical governance recommendations for establishing systemic changes.

Loorbach (2010) conceptualizes the prescriptive model as the transition management cycle, which contains four key governance activities related to the systemic and the experimental levels. The cycle starts with a transition arena in which frontrunners come together on a certain issue to establish a vision. Then follows the transition agenda where scenarios are made and partners can join if they can translate the agenda into their own organizations. The subsequent step in the cycle is the operationalisation of the scenarios through experiments and later on the upscaling of these experiments. The final part of the cycle is the reflexive one, as to evaluate and monitor the transition itself as well as the transition management process.

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transitions in Smart Cities. As explained in paragraph 3.1, Smart Cities aims to establish transitions by means of participation and experimentation. Transition management can add to the Smart City governance approach because of the multi-level perspective on how innovation in sustainable development comes about, namely from the niche level to the landscape model. The multi-level perspective is filled in in a more practical sense by the prescriptive model that aims at first establishing a vision of frontrunners before letting all kinds of partners participate. When this vision is incorporated later on by a wider group of organizations that are willing to work together, the experimental phase within a Smart City can start. Finally the experiment can be scaled-up while at the same time the process is being monitored.

According to the researcher and one of the most well-known advocates of transition management Rotmans (Avelino & Rotmans, 2009), transitions studies refer “ (...) to a specific research field that looks at societal systems as complex adaptive systems and studies these in terms of non-linear and long-term processes of change from an interdisciplinary and integrative perspective. The primary object concerns societal systems at the level of sectors or regions” (2009: 544). Social actors are reflexive and influence the governance process continuously. Transition management calls for a new governance model that is reflexive and adaptive itself as well “(...) by organizing a joint searching and learning process, focused on long-term sustainable solutions” (idem: 546).

To get a better understanding of how this governance model could look like, I will present the concept of network management. This concept can add to the governance perspective of Smart Cities and transition management because it argues for facilitating interactions between and inclusion of stakeholders in networks, and these networks can create room for generating innovations towards sustainable development. The analysis of network governance in the coming paragraphs helps answering the research question of how network governance can accelerate sustainable transitions in the case study. Smart Cities work in complex networks of various actors as is noted in paragraph 3.2. Thus it is of importance to offer a governance approach that is suitable to working in networks to reach transitions. Furthermore, to answer the question of how the network governance is executed in the case study, an analysis of network governance will be presented in the next section by presenting the second overlap of the proposed framework.

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3.4 Overlap 2: Network governance and transition management

The following paragraphs explain the argument of why network governance is an appropriate governance approach for achieving sustainable transitions in relation to transition management. Hence the overlap as depicted in figure 3 will be presented.

Figure 3 Overlap between transition management and network governance

3.4.1 Network governance as a method for transition management for achieving sustainable development

Network governance is a fitting concept for analysing processes within Smart Cities because it is about enabling complex networks of actors to cooperate. This will be explained in this section as well as why there is a link to transition management. Network governance has received more attention because in recent years in the political sciences there has been made a distinction between government and governance. Governance entails a wider conception of the government because more actors are involved. This makes it harder to govern in terms of hierarchy hence new ways of managing are necessary. Noordegraaf (2004) argues that different types of

management are required for each different setting in the public domain. Network governance can be a way to manage processes within a fragmented setting where actors with very different interests need to work together and where ambiguous issues, like establishing smart cities, are at hand. This context calls for giving explicit attention to relationships, interactions and

interpretations (2004: 209). As argued by transition management and in the Smart Cities literature as well, transitions take place in a context of fragmented actors and meanings. Hence network management can be a way of dealing with this context on in order to complete the transition cycle. In the next two paragraphs it will be further explained what network governance entails as to be able to use the theory to analyse the case study of Slim Wonen in Gaasperdam

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between network governance and Smart Cities by looking at theory about network management in urban development and sustainability projects.

3.5 Overlap 3: Network governance and Smart City

The next section argues for the overlap between the concepts of network governance and Smart City. Smart Cities aim at achieving sustainable cities by way of experiments that include a wide array of actors. Hence the collaboration of these actors needs to be facilitated, which can be made possible by network governance. The overlap between the concepts is depicted in figure 4.

Figure 4: Overlap between Smart City and network management

3.5.1 Network governance in Smart Cities: facilitating networks

Network governance is a form of governance in which managing interactions between actors in a network is key to come to results, as opposed to top-down governance. Network governance is a concept that can be seen in the context of the development of the idea of governance, which will be explained in this paragraph. Governance is a concept that is placed next to governments and markets as to show the changing role in government towards working in networks. The

governance tendency of working in networks is to be found in Smart Cities as well. In this paragraph the notion of facilitating collaboration in networks is elaborated on and how this relates to Smart Cities.

Rhodes describes the process of moving from government to governance as following: “The state has been hollowed out from above (for example, by international interdependence); from below (by marketization and networks); and sideways (by agencies and the several species of parastatal bodies)” (2007: 1248). These developments have caused academia and professionals

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in government to redefine government as a facilitator or coordinator, in stead of only an hierarchical organization. According to Hajer et al. the consequence of this redefinition is that policy making is not only about problem solving, but about negotiating the rules of the game about the process of policy making as well (2014: 12). Governance means that the process of policy making is not only in the hands of government, it is also in the hands of a wide range of other actors like citizens, the private sector and NGOs. Hence negotiating the rules of the game means in this case looking at how these actors can best work together. In short, governance is about managing networks of these actors working together (Rhodes, 1997). Smart City solutions also show a lot of resemblances with the governance perspective, as actors try to change the rules of the game by working in networks together in order to make innovation happen. The same goes for transition management which is about changing the rules of the game by aiming at systemic changes.

Network management theorists argue that emphasis on the process of how collaboration comes about is key: “(...) network management comprises three elements: intervention in an existing pattern of relations, consensus building and problem solving” (Kickert & Koppejan, 1997: 45). Network management is about arranging and facilitating interactions in order to achieve these three elements. Facilitating interactions can be done directly by influencing

interaction processes or indirectly by altering the structure or culture of the network (idem: 46). In the next section the importance of facilitating interaction within networks for sustainable urban development such as in Smart Cities is pointed out.

3.5.2 Inclusive network governance for sustainable urban development

In this section it will be argued that network governance is an important tool on a city and neighborhood level in order to achieve sustainable transitions. Furthermore there will be advocated for an inclusive approach to network governance, as to prevent that existing patterns of actors will only be enforced depending on who is allowed to be part of the network.

According to Deakin and Allwinkle (2007), for sustainable urban development in neigborhood projects, network governance can be of added value to implementation because the city and neighborhood level requires place-based knowledge by and for citizens. Deakin and Allwinkle argue that networks are not only key in creating innovation and successful partnerships, but that sustainable urban regeneration through networks also adds to the social capital of both the inhabitants and other partners involved: “ (...) inclusive decision making can institutionalize the civic values required for the regeneration of urban villages and neighborhoods as self-sustaining

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because Smart City projects focus on specific neighborhoods or areas, the local knowledge and social capital of inhabitants, users and other network partners is of major significance in order for a sustainability project to flourish. At the same time the involvement of citizens in urban regeneration can give them certain skills to develop their own self-sustaining communities, which is key in achieving sustainable transitions.

The goal of Smart Cities to make transitions happen cannot be done without making partnerships, especially when it comes to providing urban low-carbon transitions according to Khan (2013). He argues that local authorities have too little control over the mitigation process hence looking for consensus with several parties is key to arrive to implementation (2013: 134). But he warns that network governance can reinforce existing patterns “ (...) since it favours strongly organized interests (food industry, farmers, business, car owners) over those less organized (green consumers, vegetarians, commuters)” (2013: 138). Here Khan makes a point that should be taken into account when assessing network management. Because even though the concept entails encompassing several actors in a fragmented setting, there is a risk that only the already established actors can get involved. Adding to Noordegraaf (2004) who argues that network management fits with a fragmented setting, Khan argues that the network strategy only works when explicit attention is given to social innovation in order to involve all stakeholders at hand. “This is not a light matter since very much is at stake when we consider what an urban low carbon transitions actually means. In technical terms it means bringing down greenhouse gas emissions to zero in the long run. But in social and political terms a low carbon transition can be conceptualized as anything between ‘business as usual’ coupled with technological solutions, to a radical transformation of our societies, cities and lifestyles” (2013: 137). Hence who is included in a network and who is not is of importance when establishing the (social) vision behind urban low carbon transitions by means of sustainable urban projects in Smart Cities.

What the consequences are of the different meanings of urban low carbon transitions in terms of the discussed concepts Smart City, transition management and network governance we will briefly elaborate on in section 3.8. This will be of added value to the analysis of the case study as too see how different meanings can lead to barriers for collaboration in the smart city project. In the next paragraph an overview of and conclusions about the theoretical framework of this thesis are presented.

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3.7 Conclusions of the theoretical framework

In this thesis a framework is presented in which the concepts Smart City, transition management and network governance form the foundation. The Smart City governance approach envisions the city as a place where sustainable development can be reached by doing experiments in urban living labs and by involving various stakeholders. Transition management offers a vision on how to achieve innovations that lead from experiments in niches towards systemic changes that can be applied in Smart Cities. Transition management furthermore argues that a mode of

governance is required that facilitates interactions between stakeholders. Network management offers an approach to achieving this that in return will add to the quest of Smart Cities for doing experiments and making innovation happen. Filling in the schematic model of the

conceptualisation would look like the following figure (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5 Theoretical framework represented schematically

Concluding it can be said that the three concepts show overlaps with each other and the combination of the three complements the already existing literature on Smart Cities. The

framework can offer an approach to implementing urban projects leading to sustainability. In the next paragraph some practical implications for implementing Smart City projects will be

discussed. This discussion will help to analyse the case-study and to give practical

recommendations based on the case study for urban sustainability projects. Moreover, it can help to answer the research question by analysing which barriers there can occur in achieving

Transitions in the Smart City neighbourhood : Slim Wonen in Gaasperdam as a case for transition management and network governance in Smart Cities