Lehtimäki et al. (2023). Project-based practices for promoting a sustainability transition in a city organization and its urban context

Summary: We studied a project that was working on urban circular economy to initiate sustainability change in a city. We present longitudinal participatory action research on the activities of a project management team in a city organization. We used practice-theory perspective in analyzing the praxes of the project team. The results of our study show how praxes of a project team without hierarchical authoritative power to give orders or delegate change-related activities in the host organization create organization-level outcomes in the city’s organization and urban living lab contexts among external stakeholders. Our study increases understanding about the dual role of a project in advancing change in public organizations and helping them to adopt roles in initiating and steering urban sustainability transitions. The study shows how short-term project activities foster long-term strategic changes in siloed and departmentalized host organizations while at the same time creating outcomes in the external urban living lab context. This provides novel insights into the evolving intermediary roles of projects that support city organizations in acting as leaders in urban sustainability transitions and agents in circular economy change.

Usefulness of the results: The results of this study encourage people working on sustainability project to trust that the day-to-day work on advancing sustainability and circular economy can have an impact for sustainability change in the host organization and in the larger network stakeholders. We have written detailed insights and reflections by the project team and we think that our study gives ideas about designing, planning, steering, and evaluating sustainability and circular economy projects. Our participatory action research highlights the benefits of practitioner–researcher dialogue in creating a space for project team members to reflect on their actions, become aware of their inherent framing of interventions, and explore alternative ways of approaching challenging situations in interactions with members of the host organization and external stakeholders.

Authors: Hanna Lehtimäki, University of Eastern Finland; Ari Jokinen, Tampere University; Jatta Pitkänen, University of Eastern Finland

Publishing date: 30.8.2023

Format of the publication: Scientific Article

Publishing platform: International Journal of Project Management (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2023.102516)

More information: hanna.lehtimaki@uef.fi