Institutional design and organised system change for sustainable urban mobility : shifting gears for transformative outcomes

Abstract

This dissertation investigates how sustainability transitions in urban mobility can be effectively organised and governed to achieve transformative system change. Despite growing recognition of the transport sector’s contribution to climate change, progress towards sustainable urban mobility remains incremental. Persistent car dependence reflects institutional, political and behavioural lock-ins that constrain systemic transformation. This research is motivated by the need to better understand how organized efforts to change a system—through institutions, policies and actor interactions—can deliver transformative outcomes.

The dissertation is based on three publications that collectively explore how research on sustainability transitions can facilitate more transformative change, how the institutional environment is structured to govern transitions to sustainable urban mobility and how actor interactions shape the nature, pace and outcomes of system change. To address these questions, three complementary studies were conducted. A systematic literature review (Publication I) mapped research priorities within the sustainability transitions field to evaluate their alignment with global sustainability challenges. An institutional analysis (Publication II), employing Institutional Grammar and Institutional Network Analysis, examined Finland’s multi-level governance framework regarding low-carbon mobility. A qualitative study (Publication III) combined interviews, document analysis and digital archives to trace system change in response to hype and legislative reform, examining how public–private actor interactions shape the nature, pace and outcomes of system change.

The results show that transformative system change requires coherence between problem framings, institutional structures and social mechanisms. This dissertation contributes theoretically by advancing our understanding of organised system change across the problem, situational and causal realms and practically by identifying how institutions and actor interactions can be shaped to support adaptive and inclusive transitions towards sustainable urban mobility.