As the global food system causes environmental degradation and contributes to detrimental health effects, a transformation is vital for a sustainable and fair future for all. Research on food system transformation and the role of food initiatives have increased. Niche initiatives or “seeds” in the food sectors in Stockholm and Cape Town are finding new ways to contribute to change in the social-ecological systems in which they operate. The questions addressed in this thesis are (i) how the transformative capacity of these seeds have developed over time (ii) what amplification strategies the seeds apply to increase their impact and (iii) what the enablers and barriers to amplification processes are. A three-dimensional framework of transformative capacity and a typology of eight amplification processes are used for the analysis. Findings indicate that seeds are building momentum and developing transformative capacity within three areas: connecting to the biosphere, social cohesion, and agency. The initiatives foremost apply strategies of stabilizing, growing, scaling deep, and scaling up to amplify their transformative impact. Food seeds play an important role in building sustainable food systems and their contribution to change challenges the traditional thinking of growth in transformations and emphasize aspects of changing values, improving quality, and encouraging diversity.

As the global food system causes environmental degradation and contributes to detrimental health effects, a transformation is vital for a sustainable and fair future for all. Research on food system transformation and the role of food initiatives have increased. Niche initiatives or “seeds” in the food sectors in Stockholm and Cape Town are finding new ways to contribute to change in the social-ecological systems in which they operate. The questions addressed in this thesis are (i) how the transformative capacity of these seeds have developed over time (ii) what amplification strategies the seeds apply to increase their impact and (iii) what the enablers and barriers to amplification processes are. A three-dimensional framework of transformative capacity and a typology of eight amplification processes are used for the analysis. Findings indicate that seeds are building momentum and developing transformative capacity within three areas: connecting to the biosphere, social cohesion, and agency. The initiatives foremost apply strategies of stabilizing, growing, scaling deep, and scaling up to amplify their transformative impact. Food seeds play an important role in building sustainable food systems and their contribution to change challenges the traditional thinking of growth in transformations and emphasize aspects of changing values, improving quality, and encouraging diversity.

The role of intermediation in the development of transformative climate governance capacities in cities is insufficiently examined, which is concerning given that research on transformative climate governance  has shown low degrees of  actual capacity on-the ground. As transformative climate governance is produced in the relational activities of urban stakeholders, the potential role intermediary actors can play in strengthening transformative governance capacities in cities warrants in-depth investigation.  The aim of this study  is to  examine the role intermediaries can play in advancing transformative climate governance capacities in cities, using the case of the Swedish Strategic Innovation Programme (SIP) Viable Cities and the work they do in supporting cities towards climate neutrality.  The study uses four dimensions of transformative climate governance capacity - stewarding capacity, unlocking capacity, transformative capacity, and orchestrating capacity  -  to examine what kinds of transformative climate governance capacities Viable Cities promote and incentivize as an intermediary working together with a network of several cities, varying in size and geographical location.  The study adopted a qualitative case-study approach, examining  Viable Cities through interviews with practitioners as well as participatory observations and document analysis.  The results show that Viable Cities stimulate novelty creation and identification of possible application contexts, while creating alignment and strengthening linkages between actors and resources, specifically between the networks of municipalities they engage with and the institutions they enlist to develop the conditions necessary for cities to become climate neutral. The results also indicate that Viable Cities put great emphasis on transformative capacity and orchestrating capacity through the strategies and tools they utilize, while lesser emphasis lies on stewarding capacity and unlocking capacity. This is not surprising, given the explicit focus Viable Cities has on stimulating innovation and facilitating collaboration – both in their own way of working as well as the strategies and tools they promote towards the participating municipalities.  The application of the transformative climate governance framework to the case of Viable Cities and the intermediation they perform across several cities was a novel feature of this study. The concept of transformative climate governance capacities have proven useful to assess what kinds of transformative climate governance intermediaries promote and incentivize for entities they engage with, and it can potentially be used as a tool to improve strategies to ensure that they actually have the potential to contribute to transformative climate governance. / Medlande aktörers roll i utvecklingen av transformativ klimatstyrningskapacitet i städer är i nuläget otillräckligt undersökt; vilket är oroande med tanke på att forskning om transformativ klimatstyrning har visat låga grader av faktisk kapacitet i praktiken. Eftersom transformativ klimatstyrning produceras i relationella aktiviteter mellan urbana aktörer, kräver den potentiella roll som medlande aktörer kan spela för att stärka transformativ klimatstyrningskapacitet vidare utredning. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilken roll  medlande aktörer  kan spela för att främja transformativ klimatstyrningskapacitet i städer,  genom att undersöka det strategiska innovationsprogrammet Viable Cities och det arbete de gör för att stödja städer i resan mot klimatneutralitet.  Studien utgår från fyra dimensioner av transformativ klimatstyrningskapacitet - förvaltningskapacitet, upplåsningskapacitet, transformativ kapacitet och orkestreringskapacitet - för att undersöka vilka typer av transformativ klimatstyrningskapacitet Viable Cities främjar och stimulerar  i deras  arbete tillsammans med ett nätverk  av städer och myndigheter. Studien är utformad som en kvalitativ fallstudie och undersöker Viable Cities genom intervjuer med nyckelpersoner inom organisationen samt genom deltagande observationer och dokumentanalys.  Resultatet visar att Viable Cities stimulerar innovation och identifiering av möjliga tillämpningskontexter, samtidigt som de skapar likriktning och stärker kopplingar mellan aktörer och resurser, särskilt mellan nätverken av kommuner och  myndigheter  de  arbetar mot. Resultatet indikerar också att Viable Cities lägger stor vikt vid transformativ kapacitet och orkestreringskapacitet genom de strategier och verktyg de använder, medan mindre vikt ligger på att utveckla förvaltande kapacitet och upplåsningskapacitet. Detta är inte förvånande med tanke på det uttalade fokus Viable Cities har på att stimulera innovation och underlätta samarbete  –  både i sitt eget sätt att arbeta såväl som de strategier och verktyg de främjar gentemot de deltagande kommunerna.  Tillämpningen av  ramverket för transformativ klimatstyrningskapacitet på en  medlande aktör som Viable Cities var ett nytt inslag i denna studie. Konceptet transformativ klimatstyrningskapacitet har visat sig användbart för att bedöma vilka typer av transformativa klimatstyrningskapaciteter medlande aktörer kan främja och stimulera, och ramverket kan potentiellt användas som ett verktyg för att förbättra och skräddarsy mellanhänders strategier.

Climate change is already having a powerful effect on many areas through superstorms and flooding events. The flooding from tropical storm Irene in 2011 took Vermont by surprise, sparking momentum for change. While adaptive capacity as a response to climate change is vital, in many cases it may not be enough. This thesis developed an analytical framework for assessing transformative capacities from a linked social-ecological system perspective. By combining the literatures of transition management and resilience transformations, a cohesive framework emerged, with a scope incorporating multiple interacting scales and phases of transformation.  The findings suggest a multiplicity of capacities are activated in a post-disaster setting, with networks, bridging organizations, and leaders as primary for restorative, adaptive, and transformative capacity activation, while innovation and obstacle negotiating as primary foci for informal networks and experimentation. Broadly, the framework when applied spatially (multi-scale) and temporally (multi-phase) was effective in uncovering dynamics of change processes. Additionally, a foundation of social, economic, and cultural aspects was shown to be influential in the development and mobilization of capacities, including community resilience, place attachment, and the long-term viability of the economic sector. This study makes a theoretical contribution by linking transitions and transformations literatures in a single framework, which can be tested in further studies.

Cities drive some of the most urgent sustainability challenges that societies face today, including inequality, resource consumption and climate change. Meanwhile, economic growth is increasingly being viewed as a challenge for sustainable development, generating a call for post-growth transformation. In recent years, the notion of a sharing economy has spread to cities across the globe and has been adopted as a solution for addressing multiple urban sustainability challenges. The sharing economy is often associated with multinational corporations such as Airbnb and Uber, however, there is a parallel movement of emerging social practices. This study investigates the case of the multi-actor sharing economy in Gothenburg, Sweden, in order to assess the capacity of an emerging grassroots movement to contribute to economic transformation towards a post-growth model. The findings demonstrate how the grassroots movement show potential for radical change as they adopt and replicate goals and visions aligning with post-growth transformations. Further, the results show how the movement is reconfiguring urban governance relations through i) transformative leaders and ii) intermediary organizations enabling cross-sectorial actor relations to emerge. However, the findings also point to emerging risks of disempowerment and limited capacity of grassroots which induce three policy suggestions to strengthen the transformative capacity of the movement. These are to i) organize multi-actor exercises that foster collective visions, ii) support the development of co-operative business models for grassroots, and iii) establish a Community Support Centre. The study concludes that Gothenburg is an example of a type of sharing economy with potential for post-growth transformation.

The work towards global sustainable development is growing increasingly complex. Cities and the local urban scale have been acknowledged as important arenas towards sustainability; as they are actors contributing to high climate impacts and contain nebulous circumstances surrounding social orders due to rapid urbanisation. In response to the elaborate difficulties of achieving urban sustainability, Marc Wolfram (2016) conceptualised a framework for urban transformative capacity aimed at analysing and creating capacity for development. By applying relational ontology to a case study of Vallastaden, a newly built neighbourhood in Linköping Sweden this thesis has deepened the understanding of transformative capacity on a local scale. This was accomplished by scrutinising the planning and built environment of Vallastaden in the case study by applying semi-structured interviews, qualitative content analysis and a survey as data collecting methodologies.  The findings of the case study show that Vallastaden has been planned with care by focusing on the human scale and putting emphasis on building meaningful places and aiming to create social sustainability through many shared premises in the neighbourhood. The following six out of ten components of the framework for urban transformative capacity were made visible in the empirical data; (1) transformative leadership, (2) inclusive and multi-form governance, (3) empowered communities of practice, (4) system awareness and memory, (5) reflexivity and social learning and (6) urban sustainability foresight. Furthermore, the most prominent findings display the relations between the agency component (1-3), that the project of Vallastaden contributes to capacity development through social learning and a heterogeneous interdependence of relations between the shared premises and residents.