Urban Policy Implications on the Electric Vehicle Transition in Berlin and Washington, DC

Abstract: This thesis argues for an approach which goes beyond the conventional urban climate governance view. With engagement in social-technical practices, a more sustainable and inclusive way of transforming the city can be accomplished. One way of doing so is with the offering of the urban living lab as a playground for real-life experiments. With a purposive intervention in an urban socio-technical system, the three- dimensional concept of urban environmental governance, socio-technical experiments and strategic experiments with designed policies can create a more sustainable urban transition. The urban electric vehicle transition is just one example of how these three concepts can be applied. In order to demonstrate the interaction of a sustainable urban transition, an empirical case study was conducted.   This thesis makes a conceptual contribution by engaging with current understanding of urban sustainability transition, using the urban electric vehicle transition as a reference point. The insights of this study extend the theories of the socio-technical system and argue that it is not only about social and technological innovation but how multiple innovations are experimented with and combined in an existing urban context. In addition, the research addresses how this transition is governed on a municipality level and is achieved through a multiple case study approach, analysed through the lens of environmental governance and offers an empirical exploration and develops the theoretical and conceptual framework of the socio-technical system further.