Experimental Logics of Street Transformations

Source abstract

Street experiments are proliferating in cities worldwide and have emerged as an approach to transform urban mobility and public space. Previous research attests to the broad spectrum of street experimentation and its variety of stakeholders, aims, methods, and impacts. In this article, we probe this multi‐faceted nature through a study of the landscape of street experimentation as it evolved in one city—Stockholm, Sweden—over a 10‐year period (2014–2023). Through document analysis and 19 semi‐structured interviews, we analysed stakeholder involvement, motives, and interactions related to four different platforms of street experimentation. Our temporal, evolutionary perspective moves beyond isolated case studies to show how experimental logics emerged over time in Stockholm via shifting ambitions, foci, and stakeholder constellations. The city‐specific perspective allowed us to analyse how experimentation develops and transforms as actors change, thus revealing dynamics of complementarity and competition, the addition or subtraction of layers, and successful as well as missed opportunities for between‐experiment learning. The article highlights the crucial role of municipal actors for implementation and scaling, but also their limited capacity to effect transformative change.