What is the vision of the City of the Future and how can it be achieved? Ideas for a sustainable and environmentally just city are to be explored in a process of visioning (phase I), planning (phase II) and experimenting (phase III). A core element of the research project "Dresden – the City of the Future" is the participation of citizens. They are to be empowered to develop own visions of their city and design transition experiments to implement these visions. Through this research, new insights are to be gained on political planning and the governance of transition processes. This is to contribute to the research of the research area of „Transformative Capacities“.
Visioning (phase I)
During the first phase (2015-2016), the citizens of Dresden developed a vision of "Dresden – the City of the Future", which comprises more than 70 individual visions. They were created during a series of workshops ("Visioning") with 24 workshops.
Planning (phase II)
During the second phase (2017-2018), citizens drafted 95 project ideas and 24 concepts of transition experiments. These were developed during a series of workshops ("Planning") with 30 workshops.
Experimenting (phase III)
During the third phase (2019 – 2022), ten transition experiments were implemented through a transdisciplinary process of co-production and co-evaluation with an interdisciplinary research team. The findings and lessons learned are recorded on the online platform “WerkStadtKoffer” (German only).
Overarching research question
Specific research questions
The transition experiments are developed and implemented through a process of co-creation. Citizens (civil society and the business community), the City of Dresden, the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development and the Technische Universität Dresden - Laboratory of Knowledge Architecture (WA), the Chair of Business Management, esp. Sustainability Management and Environmental Accounting, the Institute of Waste Management and Circular Economy and the Chair of Traffic and Transportation Psychology - form an inter- and transdisciplinary research team:
Sustainable ways of doing, thinking and organising have been explored through the following transition experiments:
For further information, you are welcome to visit the project website.
Publications
Baatz, A., Ehnert, F., Reiß, K., 2024. Sites for sustainability transitions: the interplay of urban experiments and socio-spatial configurations in transforming habits. Urban Transform 6, 3. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42854-023-00060-0
Baatz, A., 2024. Transforming practices through social learning: change and stability, collectivity and materiality. Environmental Education Research 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2024.2329149
Baatz, A., Ehnert, F., 2023. Reframing places, communities and identities: social learning in urban experimentation. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy 19, 2207369. https://doi.org/10.1080/15487733.2023.2207369
Ehnert, F., Neumann, M., Artmann, M., Baatz, A., Reiß, K., 2022. Transdisziplinär und transformativ forschen: Werkzeuge für die Forschungspraxis. Landeshauptstadt Dresden: Wissenschaft. https://www.zukunftsstadt-dresden.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ZSDD_WSK_Handreichung-Transdisziplinaer-und-transformativ-forschen.pdf.
Ehnert, F., 2023. Bridging the old and the new in sustainability transitions: The role of transition intermediaries in facilitating urban experimentation. Journal of Cleaner Production 417, 138084. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.138084
Ehnert, Franziska: Review of research into urban experimentation in the fields of sustainability transitions and environmental governance In: European Planning Studies (Online First)
https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2022.2070424 (Online First 2022)
Neumann, M., Ehnert, F., 2024. Knowledge re-integration in real-world laboratories to transform cities and communities: report on workshop designs. RIO 10, e124018. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.10.e124018
Neumann, Marie; Ehnert, Franziska (2022): 5 Fragen an … das Reallabor "Zukunftsstadt Dresden 2030+" Netzwerk "Reallabore der Nachhaltigkeit". Blog "Möglichkeitsfenster: Auf dem Weg zu inklusiven Reallaboren"
Reiß, K., Seifert, T.L., Artmann, M., 2024. Initiating, innovating and accelerating edible cities. A case study based on two transition experiments in the city of Dresden (Germany). Urban Ecosyst. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-024-01525-1
Reiß, K., Artmann, M., 2023. The role of spatial and relative proximity while transforming towards an edible city – The case of the City of the Future Dresden (Germany). Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 49, 100778.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2023.100778