Bottom-up urban experimentation is key to achieving transformations towards low-carbon, more resilient, just, and sustainable cities. That is the main conclusion of a large-scale meta-study published in Nature Cities. TU/e's Sustainability Ambassador, Anna Wieczorek, is one of the authors and explains how lessons learnt from thousands of sustainability transition experiments translate into university policies.
Over the past twenty years, cities have increasingly become involved in addressing sustainability challenges. In preparation for a special IPCC report on climate change and cities, to be published in 2028, nine international researchers came together to take stock of the diverse experiences, achievements, challenges, and opportunities they have gathered over two decades of studying urban experimentation. The researchers summarized their findings in ten lessons, which they elaborate on in their joint paper in Nature Cities .
TU/e researcher Anna Wieczorek explains: 'Over a duration of twenty years, all nine of us have been involved in research on real-life urban experimentation. Together, we studied a myriad of cases both in developed and developing countries, from which we derived ten lessons about key processes, governance and politics, and impact.'
Biking in Thailand
Wieczorek herself was involved in a study of over 400 experiments with introducing renewable electricity technologies and transforming urban mobility in India and Thailand. 'One of the experiments we studied involved a bottom-up initiative in Chiang Mai from a resident who, inspired by the Dutch biking culture, brought himself a Gazelle from the Netherlands, and started a Sunday cycling club, just for leisure purposes.'
'The club later motivated the construction of bike lanes and a bike rental facility in a warm, humid country with bad traffic, where biking is not the first thing that comes to mind. This is an example of how a small experiment can ignite a new culture and propagate an alternative, clean way of transportation.'
The project nicely demonstrated one of the lessons mentioned in the new research publication: for an experiment to result in a lasting change, it needs to be organized bottom up and driven by intrinsic needs.
Wieczorek: 'For example, when it comes to installing solar home systems, we saw that when they were brought to a community unsolicited, e.g., by a global funding organization and as part of a top-down 'technology transfer', people often installed them in the shadow, or were unable to maintain the technology beyond the project's (financial) duration. However, PV (Photovoltaic/solar energy) projects initiated locally and driven by the necessity to deal with the malfunctioning or missing infrastructure, such as an electricity grid, proved to have a much bigger chance to thrive.'
Room for experimentation
The ten lessons summarized in the Nature paper range from the need to integrate social, cultural, technological, and ecological dimensions to recognizing experimentation as a permanent governance practice. 'To me, that final lesson is perhaps the most important one,' states Wieczorek. 'Especially in the context of addressing great societal challenges that by nature are complex, uncertain, and value-driven.'
'Cities are places where energy, mobility, housing, and many other systems intertwine to fulfil societal functions. Fast wins and isolated initiatives do not help in dealing with conflicting agendas. Real-life, socio-technical experimentation gives space for collective learning about what works, and for trying out new forms of organizing urban life. By empowering citizens to realize their own ideas, we can make our cities more livable, pleasant, and community-based.'
Ten lessons for urban experimentation:
- Integrate social, cultural, technical, and ecological dimensions
- Foster cross-sector learning
- Balance professional and citizen expertise
- Acknowledge the politics of experimentation
- Challenge global North framing of concepts
- Engage with the contested nature of collaborative learning
- Embrace formal and emergent governance mechanisms
- Adopt nuanced, pluralistic approaches to scaling
- Recognize experimentation as permanent governance practice
- Move beyond projectification
Since the lessons are based on a myriad of experiments in a wide variety of settings, contexts, and locations, they have a universal value. Wieczorek shares her ideas on how these findings are relevant for TU/e's sustainability agenda .
Towards a sustainable TU/e
'The first lesson is that we need to go beyond techno-optimism: The view that technology is the universal answer to all problems. Because grand societal challenges are by nature social and political. Therefore, we should go more towards recognizing the importance of socio-technical experimentation, where technology is developed in co-creation with the people who are going to use it.'
'The second lesson is about system thinking. We need cross-sectoral learning and collaboration, since societal challenges cannot be addressed in disciplinary and organizational isolation.'
A third lesson concerns a dominant perception of technology as neutral and apolitical, she explains. 'We should be aware of the fact that technology, no matter how simple or advanced, embeds human values, choices, trade-offs, and power dynamics. For example, facial recognition technology is presented as a neutral method of identifying people for security reasons, but it embeds certain values and decisions.'
'Algorithms can be trained to recognize certain ethnic faces and features, and others not. This reflects the assumed priorities in designing the technology and may harm or prioritize certain demographic groups. There is also a risk of breaching data privacy, even if facial recognition is mostly used for a good cause. As technology profoundly shapes our lives, we need to actively apply an ethical radar when designing it.'
This observation is associated with the need for reflexivity. 'As researchers, we are in a vicious "publish or perish" cycle. But in order for universities to have societal impact, we need to create space and recognize other ways researchers can provide value for society than purely aiming for scientific publications. Experimental engagement with societal context is rewarding not only for society but also enriching for science.'
The importance of self-organization is a fifth lesson the Sustainability Ambassador wants to stress. 'Also in a university context, bottom-up initiatives are way more powerful than top-down activities.' In the same breath, Wieczorek emphasizes the importance of leadership and the undeniable role of mobilizing vision. 'We need to provide experiments with the space and the direction for them to grow and flourish.'
Wieczorek herself is already taking these lessons in her work as TU/e's Sustainability Ambassador. In the meantime, the co-authors of the paper will do the same in other organizations. 'Some of my fellow authors are members of the IPCC. They will incorporate these lessons in the IPCC processes and reports.'
Mature field
All in all, Wieczorek is very pleased with the publication. 'For someone who saw the field develop from scratch, this paper shows that the research into sustainability transitions has matured as a field. A few decades ago, we started with studies of single experiments. Later on, in search of patterns and to explain experimental dynamics, we engaged in building larger databases.'
'And now we are at a point where we can conduct these types of meta-studies that lead to concrete recommendations for future policies. What's more, the fact that this social sciences study is published in a journal from the Nature family shows how the broader scientific community is embracing this type of research. This is a hopeful sign that people are truly interested in how to address problems that cannot be solved with technology alone.'
Publication:
Raven, R., von Wirth, T., Bai, X., Bulkeley, H., Farrelly, M., McCormick, K., Novalia, W., Voytenko Palgan, Y., & Wieczorek, A. (2026). The future of urban experimentation through ten critical lessons from decades of practice.
