Pressure Cooker: Institutional Innovations and Disruptions for Mainstreaming Climate Adaptation in Cities

 
How to materialize institutional change for mainstreaming climate adaptation, including both institutional innovation and disruption? In this pressure cooker on June 4, we define a state-of-the-art on this question, exchange knowledge between research groups in the Netherlands, create networking opportunities, and develop a shared and forward-looking research agenda.
 
Mainstreaming climate adaptation challenges existing urban governance systems to enable multifunctional, long-term, adaptive and inclusive solutions that produce ecological and social value and are synergetic with other functions and systems in a city. As cities worldwide already experiment with innovative climate adaptation measures, we can also see institutional innovations emerging that allow for such measures to materialise and scale.
 
However, these institutional innovations still represent niches within mainstream urban governance contexts that are risk-averse, siloed, in which technological approaches are dominant and social diversity is poorly represented. A systematic perspective on the institutional innovations and disruptions needed for mainstreaming climate adaptation is lacking: what kind of institutional innovations and disruptions support climate adaptation mainstreaming, how can these be brought about, and what are the implications for urban governance?
 
Aims of the Pressure Cooker
The meeting will follow the interactive format of a pressure cooker.
 

• to define a state-of-the-art on the question of how to materialize institutional change for mainstreaming climate adaptation, including both institutional innovation and disruption.
• to exchange knowledge between research groups in the Netherlands and create networking opportunities
• to develop a shared and forward-looking research agenda with practical insights on the next steps needed for mainstreaming climate adaptation in cities. The results could also be developed in a shared research paper.

 
Programme
The day will consist of a mix of brief expert contributions and group discussions that revolve around the following themes:
 

• Collecting examples and categorising types of institutional innovations and disruptions and related governance implications for mainstreaming climate adaptation in cities;
• Identifying the factors why these innovations/disruptions did (not) become embedded in urban governance practice;
• Defining a forward-looking research and practice agenda for fostering institutional innovations and disruptions to mainstream climate adaptation in cities.

 
Read more in-depth on the issue at stake and references.
 
For whom?
Does your research focus on climate adaptation in cities? Do you explore institutional innovations and disruptions necessary for mainstreaming innovative approaches to climate adaptation? If your response to these questions is “yes”, we warmly invite you to join our symposium!
 
How to participate?
If you are interested in joining the pressure cooker, please send a RSVP to Jannes Willems by March 31, 2020. Please include a brief text (max. 150 words) in which you relate your research to the questions stated above. Contributors will be asked to prepare a pitch for the meeting. There is no admission fee and lunch will be provided.
 
Organisation
The pressure cooker is organised by dr. Jannes Willems & prof. dr. Arwin van Buuren from the Department of Public Administration & Sociology (Erasmus University Rotterdam) and dr. Katharina Hölscher & prof. dr. Derk Loorbach,  in the context of two ongoing research projects: Intereg BEGIN and Connecting Nature.