Learning Flexibility: Complexity, Innovation & Inter-Urban Knowledge Transfer

Cities are increasing in size and complexity and - as the coronavirus pandemic has shown - are vulnerable to interconnected social, political, economic and health crises. Sustainable urban development will likely require new thinking and innovative and flexible solutions including decentralized systems, participatory approaches and sharing of good practices. In acknowledging the possibility of crisis becoming constitutive of the urban condition, Learning Flexibility has aimed to identify novel practices and knowledge emerging from challenged cities and understand what we may learn from these to support future urban development. This interdisciplinary research project has examined how urban infrastructures respond to crisis and what we may learn from this. We have considered infrastructure in a broad sense, encompassing social, spatial, energy-technical and institutional infrastructure, and the different ways citizens and/or public authorities have developed creative and flexible solutions to urban challenges. Our approach considers that cities facing different 'crises' may possess sustainable strategies and solutions that Norwegian or other urban environments can learn from. In seeking answers to these questions, we have studied both informal and self-organized solutions and formal government approaches designed to address various environmental, social and political challenges. Through case studies of cities in the USA, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, we identify strategies and practices that have supported resilience and change, drawing on novel approaches and inputs that encourage new thinking and new models to address current and future urban challenges. In Phase 1, we examined the challenges - environmental, economic, social, infrastructural - facing stakeholders in Norwegian cities, and began to map how these challenges can be informed by unique, novel and flexible solutions emerging from cities across the globe already contending with complexity, crisis or limited resources. In Phase 2, we have examined practices that have engaged with urban vulnerability in cities in countries including Colombia, India, the USA, Brazil, Lebanon and the Maldives. From this we have identified how new solutions have emerged from these places and drafted insights about how mindsets, actors, behaviours and relationships and structures and resources can support new and promising solutions to addressing urban vulnerability. In Phase 3 we considered how to share this knowledge with Norwegian and international urban actor, and the implications for Norwegian cities in the future.

We anticipate creating impact in several ways. Scholarly impact through new research agendas emerging from our contributions reframing what urban crisis entails, how it is experienced, and the knowledge which may emerge from such places. We anticipate a greater appreciation of interdisciplinary approaches, and deepened interdisciplinary capacity within the research team and networks. It may shift how policy makers and practitioners engage in cities, encouraging diverse networks of learning; or flexible, decentralised or non-traditional urban development and governance approaches. We foresee contributions to public debate on the relevance of cities in development trajectories; how crisis may be understood as central to the urban condition; and how we can learn from other contexts to inform our actions. Cumulatively, this may shift how we perceive the nature of urban challenges and responses, and how individuals and communities can act to shape better cities both now and in the future.

This project applies an interdisciplinary case study approach to examine relationships between current and future urban complexity and vulnerability and innovative solutions that emerge in response. We examine how both infrastructures and institutions are affected by 3 ?thematic pillars?: (i) energy; (ii) governance and participation; and (iii) the environment. Our research is organized in 3 work packages on urban challenges, innovative solutions, and inter-urban knowledge exchange. We conduct initial stakeholder and issue mapping to develop a conceptual framework, and undertake comparative desk and field based qualitative case studies, including interviews with key stakeholders; user-group surveys; and participant observation. We collaborate with local and international stakeholders across, cities, sectors and approaches. We derive lessons and practices from case studies and develop a methodology and toolkit to facilitate transfer of lessons between cities, and develop networks between global urban stakeholders. Supporting IDEALABs focus on innovation and stakeholder engagement, we extend the state-of-the-art on links between urban complexity, vulnerability and innovative responses; and pursue an applied, stakeholder-driven approach to facilitate transfer of knowledge across urban contexts. We also focus on RCN priorities of supporting opportunities for junior and female researchers, and integrating capacity building and training. Host institution is the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), with researchers from Energiråd Innlandet, the University of Oslo, Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO), and SINTEF. We partner with Articulação SUL, a Brazilian research and policy think-tank with expertise on South-South dialogue and knowledge and policy transfer. Expected project outputs include 5-6 academic articles, 2-3 policy briefs, 4-6 op-eds, a case summary booklet, a final project report, and an international knowledge transfer workshop/conference.