Planners as middle actors in facilitating for city cycling

Abstract

The paper explores the knowledge-making and efforts of planners in facilitating cycling in two Norwegian cities with high ambitions for developing more sustainable mobility modes through cycling. Building on empirical data from shadowing local planning agencies in the two cities, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis, we argue that studying planners and their mediation work is crucial to understand how to transition to more sustainable mobility modes. We find that one reason for Trondheim’s success was that planners made continual efforts to mobilize a variety of people, ideas, and experiences. They developed new arenas for mediating meanings, co-creating of knowledge, and decision-making together with other actors, such as politicians and cyclists, while in Bergen planners operated with a clearer boundary between planning and politicians and use. Trondheim was thereby more successful in normalizing cycling in decision-making arenas and among citizens compared to Bergen. We, therefore, argue that mediation practices of planners is crucial in shaping planning cultures and governance regimes which can foster more sustainable mobility solutions.

Keywords:

• Cycling
• planners
• sustainable mobility
• mediation
• middle actors

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Professor Knut Holtan Sørensen, Professor Vivian Lagesen, Associate Professor Markus Bugge, Professor Bjørn Stensaker, and Research Professor Antje Klitkou for valuable comments on earlier drafts of the paper.

Ethical approval

All participants in this study were informed about the goals of the project and voluntarily gave written consent by email to take part in the research project. All participants have been fully anonymized.

Additional information

Funding

This work received funding from the Research Council of Norway [grant number: 209697] and from the Nordic Institute for Studies of Innovation, Research and Education [grant number 21209-29].