Thanks to a grant from the Build4People project, a recent detailed analysis on urban transition interventions based on the case study of the Build4People Sustainable Building Arena, implemented in Phnom Penh in 2022, and written by Ravi Jayaweera of the Build4People Work Package “Sustainable Urban Transformation” as lead author, has been published as open access publication at the renowned journal Energy Research & Social Science (impact factor: 6.7; CiteScore 11.9).
The paper “Urban Transition Interventions in the Global South: Creating empowering environments in disempowering contexts?” shows that empowerment effects of transition interventions must be understood multi-dimensionally and that such a multi-dimensional framework should integrate willingness, social capital, and resource access (see figure below).
The empirical analysis further shows that empowerment effects of studied sustainable building arena are strongest for willingness and social capital, but that interventions should focus more on financial resource empowerment, as well. Finally, it was shown that designs for contexts like in Cambodia require independent safe spaces that selectively integrate state actors.
Bibliographic information:
Jayaweera, R., Becker, A. L., Rohracher, H, Nop. S, Waibel, M. (2023). Urban Transition Interventions in the Global South: Creating empowering environments in disempowering contexts? Energy Research & Social Science (ERSS), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2023.103312.