geografie luoghi spazi città

Aa.Vv. (2016), Commons/Comune, Società di studi geografici. Memorie geografiche NS 14, pp. 679-686
CHIARA FARNÈ FRATINI, JENS STISSING JENSEN*
WATER GOVERNANCE TRANSITIONS IN DENMARK: IN BETWEEN
INNOVATION OF FUNCTION AND INNOVATION OF PLACE
1. INTRODUCTION. — In times of environmental and economic crises and growing urban population,
the role of cities as arenas where impacts are most visible, and thus most debated and acted upon,
has been acknowledged (UN-Habitat, 2012). At the same time, the transition of large-scale utilities e.g.
water, energy etc., have been extensively debated in relation to sustainable development (Bulkeley et
al., 2011). On one hand, expectations on urban services are changing as networked infrastructures are
turning out to be critical in supporting urban livability and environmental protection (Kaika,
Swyngedouw, 2000). On the other hand, influenced by neoliberal discourses, market-oriented policies
are drastically changing the political priorities of urban services (Graham, Marvin, 2001). Kaika and
Swyngedouw (2012) suggest that such a diversity of discursive formations requires recasting sustainability
transitions as a political project “to ask questions about what visions of nature and what urban
socio-environmental relations we wish to inhabit”.
Despite scholars increasingly emphasize the significance of geographies in transition studies (Coenen
et al., 2012), the relational qualities of places remain largely unexplored (Jensen et al., 2015b).
Murphy (2015) argues that “transition studies could benefit from analyses of the competing placeframes
associated with sustainability initiatives and the networks and actor- or institution-specific positional
ties that stabilize, obstruct, and/or promote development visions”. This paper explores how
place-specific transformative dynamics emerged and which role they are having in the current transition
of the Danish water regime. Our ambition is to positioning our research at the intersection of
cross-cutting debates on regime destabilization, urban sustainability transitions and the geographies
of transition governance.
2. A DYNAMIC VIEW ON URBAN SUSTAINABILITY TRANSITIONS. — Geels (2014) has argued for
the need of studying processes of regime destabilization to develop conceptual frameworks able to account
for the role of agency, power and politics in transition processes. Following the same line of reasoning,
Jensen et al. (2015b) highlight how, drawing on Actor-Network Theory (ANT) (Latour, 2005)
and downplaying the consistency of rules and mechanism of the regimes level, the Arena of Development
(AoD) approach, calls for sensitivity to how representations of large-scale systems are typically
related to interests, and how their impact is defined by the power characterizing specific actor constellations
supporting them. Thus “the introduction of regime level tensions and inconsistencies allows
for studying situated actors’ political engagement in conflicts and sense-making dynamics through
their performed interventions” (Jørgensen, 2012).
To take into account the intrinsic multiplicity and tension characterizing the construction of urban
orders, ANT scholars employ the concept of “urban assemblages”. This notion suggests that cities
are the precarious outcome of a multiplicity of interdependent yet relatively autonomous assemblages
that are performed by a variety of situated actors and actor constellations, informed by myopic and
*This work draws on data collected with the involvement of a Danish partnership called “Vand i Byer” [Water in Urban Areas] aimed
at developing new water management practices in Denmark with the purpose of helping the water sector to contribute to climate change
adaptation, green innovation and liveability of Danish cities. Particular thanks go to all the interviewees for sharing with us their knowledge
and data on water governance in Denmark.
Quest’opera è soggetta alla licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione – Condividi allo stesso modo 4.0 Internazionale