Suchergebnisse

Dominant electricity systems are inevitably transitioning into new forms in terms of power generation mix, mode of energy system governance and vested interests, the extent of state and consumer/citizen participation in the energy system, and energy justice expectations in different geographies in the Global North and Global South. In this editorial to the thematic issue entitled Politics and (Self-)Organisation of Electricity System Transitions in a Global North–South Perspective, we discuss politics and (self)-organisation of (just) energy transitions to expose how messy, convoluted, and fluid future electricity system transitions can be in both the Global North and Global South.

Veränderungen, wie sie durch die Globalisierung und die wachsende Anwesenheit von Immigrant(inne)en in Westeuropa entstehen, bringen das traditionelle Konzept des Bürgertums in eine Krise: das formale Kriterium der (Staats-) Bürgerschaft ist nicht länger von Bedeutung für die Aufnahme bzw. die Inklusion einer wachsenden Anzahl von Menschen wie Drittstaatsangehörigen. Ein Forschungsprojekt wie das im Beitrag vorgestellte, das die Forderung von Zuwanderer(inne)n nach (Staats-) Bürgerschaft (MEZZADRA 2001) zu untersuchen beabsichtigt, muss sich deshalb an einem pragmatischeren Verständnis von (Staats-) Bürgerschaft orientieren. Teilweise auf der Grundlage der Arbeiten anderer Autor(inne)n, die das Thema untersucht haben, hat die Verfasserin dieses Beitrags ein multidimensionales Model zur Analyse der Selbstorganisation und der politischen Teilnahme von Zuwanderer(inne)n in Italien und im Besonderen in der Veneto-Region entwickelt. Das Model berücksichtigt vier Faktoren, die großen Einfluss auf die zivilgesellschaftliche und politische Teilnahme von Immigrant(inne)en ausüben können: 1. der supranationale und nationale Kontext; 2. das lokale Zuwanderungsfeld, 3. die infra-politische Sphäre, den kulturellen Hintergrund, die transnationale Dimension und 4. individuelle Faktoren (wie Geschlecht, Alter, Aufenthaltsdauer etc.). Die Forschungsresultate zeigen die Wirksamkeit dieser Faktoren und ihre Bedeutung in der Entwicklung von "(Staats-) Bürgerschaftsforderungen bei Zuwanderern" (MEZZADRA 2001) und verdeutlichen, dass für viele Zuwanderer(innen) die formale (Staats-) Bürgerschaft keine zwingende Voraussetzung für die aktive Teilnahme in der Aufnahmegesellschaft darstellt.

In the beginning of new century, on the wave of ICT pervasion collaborative urban design was expected to boost, but digitalization of established practices was far to be a cure-all solution. Many successful planning systems eventually discredited themselves in the face of challenges of 21st century: to recognize broad public as an equal actor in the process of decision-making; to revise notion of value in a changing economic and political reality; to take into consideration informal manifestations of urban life; to process, interpret and use overwhelming amounts of data in a legitimate way. Effective comprehensive solution for these challenges does not lie in neither of existing fundamental planning paradigms. Hypothesis behind this work is that it can naturally emerge, based on self-organizing capacities of humankind accompanied with technological innovation. As we witness success of self-organizing online communities operating in the reality of shared economies and urban commons, we need to take part in the design of new digital infrastructures, that would facilitate the emergence of new communities that would better serve our common needs and aspirations. The first aim of this work is to theoretically describe technological artifacts, that are needed to facilitate the emergence and becoming of bottom-up urban planning initiatives. Technology can play crucial role, helping us to reflect on our society, to identify convergence amongst our needs and wishes, to inform us about potentials for local cooperation and to facilitate the process of collaborative design and decision-making. The second, practical goal, is to implement prototypes, test them in the real life, analyze results and iteratively develop further.

Planning Order and Self-Organisation. The Regulation of Competition and Spatial Relations in Interwar Transport Expertise Planning practices in high modernity are often analysed as authoritarian and topdown interventions. This interpretation is derived from the concentration on largescale planning projects. By investigating small-scale and everyday transport planning examples, this article tries to enhance our understanding of high modern planning practices. Transport planning during the interwar years was meant to establish a transport regime in which all means of transport were put into a rational relation to each other. This was only possible by building up a spatial order in which different spatial functions – connecting places, opening up regions and structuring spaces – were placed in a hierarchical order. Hence, the planned spaces often displayed a hierarchy of top-down and bottom-up organisational patterns. This should by no means be regarded as a form of pre-postmodern fascination for self-organisation of order out of chaos. On the contrary, these planning projects, too, reveal strictly defined power relations, even if their objectives and methods cannot be put on a par with famous large-scale projects.

This paper differentiates between different levels of conflict in the open-source movement and discusses the role conflict and self-organisation play in the emergence of structures of leadership emergence and the bifurcation into core and peripheral groups and soft control by cryptohierarchies; in the different levels of group polarisation and conflict between communities negotiating their identity, strategy, coordination and complexity; and lastly, in the dynamic relationships between hierarchies and networks. These dynamics are forcing open-source communities to exist at the edge of chaos, and to constantly engage in lines of flight and resistance from the system of global control, while ignoring current capitalist practices and 'growing their own' models of self-organising knowledge creation and exchange.

The arena of locally embedded and engendered responses to climate change offers a particularly fruitful and challenging space in which to scrutinise the encounters between established forms of governance and knowledge as they become entwined with locally generated forms of self-organisation. The issue of climate change offers a particularly fertile case for study because to date it has largely been dominated by state and market-based responses and associated forms of governance selectively articulated with knowledge generated through scientific and expert modes of knowledge. The central focus of the article is on identifying the variegated forms of understanding associated with the groups we researched and how they drew upon/utilised knowledge (knowledge-in-action) vis-à-vis the governance of ecological politics and environmental governance. The article draws on case studies of self-organising locally based groups in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom that are addressing climate change, in a broad sense, within their locality. These groups represent a range of responses to the issue and associated modes of action, exhibit different levels and forms of 'organisation' and may challenge more established forms of governance and knowledge in different ways.

Abstract The arena of locally embedded and engendered responses to climate change offers a particularly fruitful and challenging space in which to scrutinise the encounters between established forms of governance and knowledge as they become entwined with locally generated forms of self- organisation. The issue of climate change offers a particularly fertile case for study because to date it has largely been dominated by state and market- based responses and associated forms of governance selectively articulated with knowledge generated through scientific and expert modes of knowledge. The central focus of the article is on identifying the variegated forms of understanding associated with the groups we researched and how they drew upon/utilised knowledge (knowledge-in-action) vis-à-vis the governance of ecological politics and environmental governance. The article draws on case studies of self-organising locally based groups in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom that are addressing climate change, in a broad sense, within their locality. These groups represent a range of responses to the issue and associated modes of action, exhibit different levels and forms of 'organisation' and may challenge more established forms of governance and knowledge in different ways.

Community food initiatives are gaining momentum. Across various geographical contexts, community food initiatives are self-organising, providing communities with inspiration, knowledge and the opportunity to work towards responsible and socially acceptable transformations in food systems. In this article, we explore how self-organisation manifests itself in the daily activities and developments of community food initiatives. Through the conceptual lens of community self-organisation, we aim to provide a more detailed understanding of how community food initiatives contribute to broader and transformational shifts in food systems. Drawing on a multi-method approach, including community-based participatory research, interviews and observations, this article follows the creation and creative dissolution of the Free Café—a surplus food sharing initiative in Groningen, the Netherlands, which in the eye of the public remains unified, but from the volunteers' perspectives split up into three different initiatives. The results suggest that community self-organisation accommodates differing motivations and experiences embedded in the everyday collective performances of community rationalities and aspirations. This article also points to the changing individual and collective perspectives, vulnerabilities and everyday politics within community food initiatives. This paper contributes to emerging debates on community self-organising within food systems and the potential of community initiatives to promote broader social realignments.