The TANGO-W (Transformative cApacity in eNerGy fOod and Water) project is an applied research project that develops urban transformative capacities (UTC) as a novel governance ability at the interface of food, energy and water. TANGO-W follows Wolfram’s (2016) capacity building approach, adopting a needs and requirements-based focus on the capacity building priorities of urban stakeholders (Objective 1). At the heart of TANGO-W is the multi-level capacity building approach (Objectives 2 & 3), which works at two levels. At the urban level, TANGO-W designs and implements Urban Living Labs 2.0 (ULL). At the European level, TANGO-W establishes a transdisciplinary Community of Practice (CoP) as an integrative and coordinating transformation system. Both are the spaces for the development of UTC according to the needs of urban actors in several dimensions (i.e.  transformative governance formats, shaping new transformation roles; self-organization, technical skills and tools). At the same time, the ULL and CoP act as novel governance formats at local and EU level to accelerate urban change in a desired, sustainable direction. The activities of TANGO-W result in policy recommendations for replication and upscaling measures as well as in training concepts and pilot courses that support capacity building in TANGO-W fellow cities (Objective 4).

Results

The strategic JPI UE SRIA 2.0 prioritises (1) ‘urban resilience’, (2) ‘inclusive public spaces’, (3) ‘infrastructure’ and (4) ‘digital change’ as current urban dilemmas to be addressed. TANGO-W has been working on the first three dilemmas ‘ for the last three years: For example, in Stockholm and Norrtälje, feasibility studies have been carried out on the construction of greenhouses in former industrial wastelands and on the roofs of houses, where plants are grown using renewable energy. These plants serve as food for fish, whose excrement fertilises the plants themselves. The fish and plants, in turn, provide food for people who can learn about the technologies, processes and products of the green house e.g. through sustainability seminars. In this way, the production of renewable energy goes hand in hand with the careful use of process and drinking water and with urban food production. Green-house solutions have also been examined in terms of their functionality in public spaces, i.e. how they can serve as meeting places for residents and visitors in urban parks (e.g. Royal Harbour/Stockholm) or central squares (Norrtälje), thus supporting communication processes between different target groups to realise sustainable solutions that arise periodically.

The first year was dedicated to setting up the legal and organisational framework (RACI, contracts, social media etc.) and the learning architecture in the TANGO-W project itself (f2f CoPs) as well as for the individual ULLs (online CoP, local PEER systems). At the same time, the ‘City Needs & Challenge Maps’ (D2.1), the ‘Good Practice Playbook’ (D2.2) and the ‘Living Lab 2.0 Design Guide’ were used to collect good practices and provide the theoretical basis for building a ‘Transformative TANGO-W ULL 2.0’. A key achievement of the first year was the successful implementation of the project learning and support system. In addition, the results achieved were the ‘TANGO-W Vision’, ‘a UTC process and impact monitoring model’, ‘transformation architectures’ and ‘implementation roadmaps’ for each individual ULL, based on the joint evaluation of a SWOT analysis per ULL. The jointly agreed dissemination strategy was also launched.

The second TANGO-W project year 2023 can be described as the ‘year of implementation’: the focus was on the step-by-step implementation and regular readjustment of the experimental R&D and UTC objectives and implementation measures in all 7 ULLs. At the governance level, the newly developed transformative governance instruments (social and temporal project architectures with clear cooperation roles and decision-making rules) were tested and evaluated in the planning and implementation process. A key success was the gradual development of an awareness of the central importance of the steering roles of ‘municipal project manager’ and ‘transformative researcher’ for successful transformation. Methodologically based practical reflections on the interactions between personal role interpretation and municipal system dynamics enabled the step-by-step development of alternative options for action and the joint definition of new requirements for transformative researchers and civil servants. This provided the basis for the TANGO-W curriculum (D5.2) and the TANGO-W webinars (D.6.5). Another highlight was the operationalisation and steering of the implementation of the TANGO-W process and impact monitoring model by the individual ULLs.

The third and final project year 2024/2025 can be seen as the year of final integration of all TANGO-W results and self-reflective learning of all project partners and local stakeholders. All existing results and findings from the ULL experiments could be brought together and used, together with isolated local ‘black swans’, for the ‘transformative governance learning’ of TANGO-W researchers and ULL project managers. The newly developed TANGO-W UTC and F-W-E impact and process monitoring model also proved to be extremely effective in this regard. The consolidation of results focused on a) a completely new approach to formulating ULL 2.0 business plans, b) the production and publication of transformative implementation and replication guidelines, c) the careful finalisation of individual ULL experiments, and d) the bundling of all UTC results and findings into a TANGO-W curriculum for transformative civil servants and action researchers. Highlights of the last year included the piloting ERA-NET Cofund Urban Transformation Capacities (ENUTC) Cofunded call of two modules (online and f2f) of the TANGO-W curriculum and the completion of four TANGO-W publications, which will be available for download from the TANGO-W website from March. It should be noted that JPI-UE can draw on a practical recommendation on the ‘HOW’ of implementing the curriculum. In addition to JPI-UE itself, Climate-KIC has taken on the task of disseminating the TANGO-W curriculum with its findings and learning content in the countries of Northern, Central and Southern Europe.

References

Beers, P.J., Van Mierlo, B., 2017. Reflexivity, reflection and learning in the context of system innovation: breaking entangled concepts, in: Elzen, B., Augustyn, A.M., Barbier, M., van Mierlo, B. (Eds.), AgroEcological Transitions: Changes and Breakthroughs in the Making. Wageningen University & Research, pp. 243-256.
Braams et al (2021): Legitimising transformative government: Aligning essential government tasks from transition literature with normative arguments about legitimacy from Public Administration traditions, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, volume 39, 2021, pages 191-205
Ebbeke-Nohlen, A. (2009): Introduction to systemic supervision. Carl-Auer Compact Verlag 2009.
Foerster, H. v.; Pörksen, B. (1998): Truth is the invention of a liar. Conversations for sceptics. Carl Auer Publishers.
Greenwood, D.J., Levin, M., 2007. introduction to action research. Social Research for Social Change, 2nd ed, Sage, Thousand Oaks.
Hammerschmid, Gerhard, Palaric, Enora, Rackwitz, Maike & Wegrich, Kai (2023). “A shift in paradigm?
Collaborative public administration in the context of national digitisation strategies.”
Königswieser, R.; Exner, A. D. (1998): Systemic Intervention. Architectures and Designs for Consultants and
Change Managers, Stuttgart, Klett-Cotta 2002.
Kronsell, Annica, Mukhtar-Landgren, Dalia (2018) Experimental governance: the role of municipalities in urban living labs, European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(5), pages 988-1007, May.
Lewin, Kurt (1948): Action research and minority problems. 1948. in: K. Lewin (ed.): The resolution of social
conflicts. Christian-Verlag, Bad-Neuheim, pp. 278-298.
Meisch, Simon: Transformative research (2020): The IASS approach. IASS Discussion Paper: Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), August 2020; Translation and editing: Damian Harrison
Schäpke, Nike et al. (2017): Real-world laboratories in the context of transformative research: Starting points and conceptualisation and embedding in the international state of research. IETSR Discussion papers in Transdisciplinary Sustainability Research Leuphana University, Lüneburg.
Schein, E.H. (2010): Organisational Culture and Leadership. 4th Edition. Published by Jossey-Bass, San Francisco 2010; Copyright by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Schneidewind, Uwe; Singer-Brodowski, Mandy 2014: Transformative Science. Climate change in the German science and higher education system, Marburg.
Simon, F.B. (2002): The art of not learning. And other paradoxes in psychotherapy, management, politics. Carl-Auer-Systeme Verlag 2002.
Strohschneider, Peter 2014: On the Politics of Transformative Science, in: Brodocz, André, et al. (eds): The Constitution of the Political. Festschrift for Hans Vorländer. Wiesbaden, pp. 175-192.
Wilhelmer, D. (2017): Society in need of future. Complementary Foresight as a method to co-create transformation. In: Elias G. Carayannis / David F. J. Campbell / Marios Panagiotis Efthymiopoulos (eds.): Handbook of Cyber-Development, Cyber-Democracy, and Cyber-Defense. Challenges, Opportunities and Implications for Theory, Policy and Practice. New York, NY: Springer 2016. Print ISBN 978-3-319-06091-0;
Wilhelmer, D., Wagner, P., Haindlmaier, G. (2020): Transformation rooms: Building transformative capacity for European cities. (IJUPSC). Special issue of International Journal of Urban Planning and Smart Cities, Volume 2; Issue 2; July – December 2021.
Wolfram, M., & Frantzeskaki, N. (2016). Cities and Systemic Change for Sustainability: Prevailing Epistemologies and an Emerging Research Agenda. Sustainability, 8(2), 144. doi:10.3390/su8020144
Wolfram, M. (2016). Conceptualising urban transformative capacity: A framework for research and policy. Cities, 51, 121-13