Municipal planning of a sustainable neighbourhood: action research and stakeholder dialogue

Abstract

How can researchers and planners best facilitate the transition to low-carbon societies? In particular, can they initiate better dialogue in order to foster stakeholder engagement in planning, building and living in low-carbon settlements? These challenges inform a municipal planning process for a new neighbourhood in Trondheim, Norway: Brøset, as well as for an interdisciplinary research project exploring the role of action research in supporting the transition to low-carbon societies. The processes are described for identifying the central actors and applying the dialogue strategies in the early planning project phase. Researchers and planners collaborated to contribute to new knowledge production and practice to support the transition to low-carbon societies. The utility of the co-produced results is their potential contribution to both standards of rigour as well as the timely dissemination of research and knowledge sharing within and across research communities and to different stakeholders involved in the project. This case study provides interesting lessons about why and how other projects can consider similar action research processes as a viable approach for sustaining the transition to low-carbon economies, particularly in the early planning phase.

Comment les chercheurs et les urbanistes peuvent-ils le mieux faciliter la transition vers des sociétés bas carbone ? Peuvent-ils en particulier amorcer un meilleur dialogue afin de favoriser l'engagement des parties prenantes en faveur des habitats bas carbone en termes de planification, de construction et de vie ? Ces défis sous-tendent un processus de planification municipale visant à créer le nouveau quartier de Brøset à Trondheim, en Norvège, ainsi qu'un projet de recherche interdisciplinaire qui examine le rôle de la recherche-action dans le soutien apporté à la transition vers des sociétés bas carbone. Sont décrits les processus qui permettent d'identifier les acteurs centraux et d'appliquer les stratégies de dialogue au cours de la phase de planification anticipée du projet. Des chercheurs et des urbanistes ont collaboré afin de contribuer à la production et à la pratique d'un savoir nouveau permettant d'appuyer le passage à des sociétés bas carbone. L'utilité des résultats coproduits tient à leur contribution potentielle à la fois aux normes de rigueur, à la diffusion opportune des travaux de recherche et au partage des connaissances au sein des communautés de chercheurs et entre elles, ainsi qu'auprès des différentes parties prenantes participant au projet. La présente étude de cas fournit des enseignements intéressants quant au fait de savoir pourquoi et comment d'autres projets peuvent considérer des processus similaires de recherche-action comme constituant une approche viable de soutien au passage à des économies bas carbone, en particulier lors de la phase de planification anticipée.

Mots clés: recherche-action, engagement communautaire, énergie, conception intégrée, interdisciplinarité, société bas carbone, conception de quartiers, planification, habitats durables

Keywords:

• action research
• community engagement
• energy
• integrated design
• interdisciplinarity
• low-carbon society
• neighbourhood design
• planning
• sustainable settlements

Acknowledgements

The final preparation of this article was encouraged and assisted by feedback from the Editor and three anonymous reviewers. Earlier versions of this article also profited from feedback from fellow researchers, from the co-researchers in the project, as well as from international peers discussing the paper at international conferences. The research was financed by the Norwegian Research Council, project number 190982, in cooperation with the City of Trondheim, the Norwegian State Housing Bank, and a local housing cooperative and energy company.

Notes

For more information about the research project, see http://brozed.wordpress.com/ and http://resilient-cities.iclei.org/fileadmin/sites/resilient-cities/files/Resilient_Cities_2011/Presentations/H/H2_Wyckmans.pdf/.

The master plan is still under development by the municipality, but for the four suggestions, see http://www.trondheim.kommune.no/content/1117702475/Parallelloppdraget/.

As this is a project about creating capacity, it may seem ironic to omit the construction industry – since the implication is that this industry is unable to change. The decision was disputed by the research team, and was later criticized by local politicians and design teams participating in the open parallel commission process. The planning team (and some local politicians), however, emphasized the importance of municipal capacity building, and that the construction industry was invited to participate in knowledge building/sharing through participating in The Cities of the Future programme. One representative from the Federation of Norwegian Construction Industries was occasionally involved in various dialogues, and was invited to participate in the expert panels in the open parallel commission supplementing the evaluation committee during the process by actively participating in the debate and teamwork.

Enova's main mission is to contribute to the environmentally sound and rational use and production of energy, relying on financial instruments and incentives to stimulate end users and market actors and mechanisms to achieve national energy policy goals. Enova manages the Energy Fund and finances programmes and initiatives that support and underpin national objectives. It has the freedom to choose its policy measures and the responsibility to establish incentives and financial funding schemes that will result in cost-effective and environmentally sound investments.