Introduction to the special section: Infrastructures and transitions

The state is often portrayed as a progressive entity enabling transition processes. However, this article delves into the limitations faced by state institutions, which have been identified as resistant to change and entrenched in path dependence. This article explores the political and institutional barriers that state institutions encounter when implementing sustainability approaches in the infrastructure sector in Chile. The article argues that explanations based on path dependence and lock-in overlook the crucial political and strategic dimensions of policy and institutional inertia. Employing a Strategic Relational Approach (SRA) reveals that the identified barriers, such as limited state capacity and institutional logics, are strategically employed by state and civil society actors to maintain a growth-oriented policy paradigm conflicting with sustainability goals. State barriers constitute a system of strategic selectivity to discourage the adoption of sustainability approaches while favouring incumbent actors, market-based systems, and those specific infrastructures of the growth-oriented paradigm.

District heating systems are considered a feasible heating alternative to replace natural gas to mitigate emissions in cities. However, urban transitions are very complex because energy systems often operate in densely populated areas, which gives rise to all kinds of interdependencies in cities. These interdependencies can result in unintended consequences which can indirectly help or hinder urban energy transitions. Understanding these influences the transition to climate neutrality. This research investigates the lessons learned from a project conducted in Rotterdam: a high-density city in the Netherlands which is expanding its district heating systems. We use qualitative system dynamics models to explore the underlying complexity and to recognize indirect consequences of policies. Our results cover both technologically oriented and policy-oriented insights, contributing to the literature on transition governance in cities. On the one hand, the national and urban strategies in the Netherlands activate mechanisms that support cities with district heating systems such as Rotterdam. On the other hand, the same strategies could also lead to a potential rivalry between energy efficiency and energy security, which are both crucial goals in urban transition governance. Participative modeling provides policy-makers with an analytical tool to detect systemic dependencies which can be used to identify synergies and barriers among different energy policy objectives. This helps avoiding potential unintended consequences including the use of carbon-heavy systems and displacing investments from energy efficiency and renewable heating systems.

This paper addresses the ‘digital imperative’ and how organisations are pressured to digitalise. In comparison to previous studies that often emphasise market pressures to digitalise, this paper focuses on institutional pressures exerted on organisations that lack competitive pressures. By drawing upon institutional theory, which considers the social embeddedness of organisations, it acknowledges that social expectations and approval can shape the way organisations respond to technological change. Based on a study of digitalisation within the water sector, where the perceived benefits of digital technologies are advocated under the label of ‘digital water’, it shows that there are isomorphic processes in place through which the idea of digital water is legitimised. Hence, water utilities are under institutional pressures to digitalise which, in turn, can influence how they respond to digitalisation.

Cities are increasingly recognized as potential motors of sustainability transitions. These transitions build on existing as well as new infrastructures, and these infrastructures mutually influence each other in many ways, a phenomenon known as infrastructure interdependencies. These infrastructure interdependencies have significant implications for both enabling or restricting urban sustainability transitions but their implications remain understudied. We elaborate the role of interdependent infrastructure systems from a socio-technical perspective and explore recent examples of how socio-technical interdependencies in infrastructure systems influence urban sustainability efforts. We analyze infrastructure interdependencies in the Netherlands which is relevant because of its high urbanization rate, dense urban areas, and innovative developments. We distinguish seven socio-technical infrastructure interdependency types that can influence urban sustainability transitions: functional, evolutionary, spatial, life-cycle, policy/procedural, market, and culture/norm interdependencies. We identify and discuss contrasting multi-mode relationships of each interdependency example. Our results offer an interdisciplinary framework and examples of potential influential infrastructure interdependencies to explore, understand, and discuss the implications of infrastructure interdependencies for urban sustainability transitions.

While knowledge integration has been well framed conceptually, the structural aspects that support co- learning and knowledge integration in transdisciplinary research remain only modestly addressed. Addressing this gap, we enlighten how a conceptual framework – building on former work by Ostrom, Giddens and Whaley – could help to structure and analyse systemic knowledge integration processes. The conceptual model is based on a transdisciplinary research project, ‘Region Römerland Carnuntum 2040’, aiming to investigate and trigger regional sustainability transformations via the experimentation with a new governance format “Future council”. The present article is based on the Future Council’s patching of rules for knowledge integration as well as a well thought-through accompanying research, which consist of a series of surveys and interviews to reveal subliminal values, capabilities, knowledge and emotions of the regional stakeholders involved in the FC. The conceptual model helped to provide a more equal playing field for systemic knowledge integration in a heterogenous group as well as just representation of marginalized groups (e.g. youth). On the other hand, our findings reveal that structural adaptability comes with the danger of reproducing power structures (e.g. of mayors). For the future we identify a need for more research on social boundaries, values and emotions and their important structuring role for transdisciplinary knowledge integration.

Decaying water infrastructure is a growing challenge in high-income countries while at the same time being under pressure from other socioeconomic and environmental issues. This paper analyses why addressing these challenges is so challenging, despite the critical role of water service for society. The paper is based on a study of the Swedish water sector and reveals how the utilities are influenced by several factors that constrain their agency. Most importantly, the utilities operate in a ‘societal shadowland’ where the public and politicians take their services for granted, lowering the sense of urgency and impeding their ability to take action.