Johannes Suitner

TU Wien | TU Wien · Institute of Spatial Planning

Regional energy transitions are largely understood as technology-driven processes. We argue that social innovation (SI) is as important and that scrutinizing it calls for an agency perspective. Analysing two examples of SI in energy in Austrian non-core regions, we show how resources, relations and reflexivity enabled agency to promote SI and conse...

Living Labs, Grassroots Innovationen, Transition Arenas – Experimentierräume haben in der urbanen Klima-Governance den Status als Hoffnungsträger einer transformativen Wende erhalten. Während die Relevanz derartiger Experimente unbestritten ist, sind die Hintergründe ihrer Entstehung und die Schlüsselelemente ihres Erfolgs aber oft unklar. Dieses P...

Syllabus for the seminar 'Transformation Processes and Steering Approaches in Metropolitan Regions' at the TU Wien, Institute of Spatial Planning, Winter 2021

Interdisziplinarität in der Stadtforschung ist ein Forschungsversprechen, das schon lange formuliert, aber nicht immer konsequent eingelöst wurde. Was bedeutet Interdisziplinarität für die Erforschung von komplexen Themenfeldern wie Wohnen, Infrastrukturen oder Mobilität? Die Beiträge des Bandes bieten einen Überblick zu unterschiedlichen disziplin...

This paper presents a periodized overview of two centuries of urban planning in Vienna, providing an entry point for scholars approaching the city from an historically informed perspective. It begins with introducing a way of systematizing and periodizing stable formations and transitions of a time- and place-specific configuration of urban plannin...

In the quest for energy transition pathways, energy regions have become the instrument of choice in peripheralized Austrian regions. This paper unveils why “locked-in" regions usually struggling with systemic change can still create alternative paths. Based on the bricolage concept and the ASID heuristic, we develop a framework to examine the trans...

This paper investigates planning and development processes of networked infrastructure systems from an institutional perspective. It applies theories of ASID (agency, structure, institutions, and discourse) and dis-cursive institutionalism to unveil simplistic structure-agency imaginaries of infrastructure planning. The concept of discursive instit...

“Red Vienna” refers to a phase of urban development in Vienna, Austria, between 1919 and 1934. Inspired by ideas of municipal socialism, the Social Democratic Workers' Party implemented local social reforms to improve the living conditions of the working class. Policies were aimed particularly at the fields of housing, welfare, and healthcare, as w...

In this paper we aim to enhance the prevailing structural perspective on metropolization by pointing to the mutual relationship between the processes of metropolization and polycentric development. We claim that a processual view is needed to emphasize the temporal dependencies between different layers of polycentricity, and to reveal that European...

Media discourses always consider Vienna as a» cultural city «. This study shows how such a perception is skilfully shaped by political constructions of cultural imaginaries in and of the city. The book unveils how simplistic cognitive interpretations of culture not only define an unquestioned, reductionist idea of the city's cultural character-it a...

Imaginaries sind gesellschaftlich anerkannte, meist simplifizierte Vorstellungen komplexer sozialer Gebilde, etwa „Wirtschaft “,„Kultur “, oder „Stadt “. Der politische Philosoph Charles Taylor etwa arbeitet anhand einer historischen Analyse in eindrucksvoller Weise die Imaginierungen der westlichen modernen Gesellschaft heraus. Taylor beschreibt W...

Why do the same planning approaches cause different results around the world? Because, even in times of globalization, there is obviously more than one way of planning. These different modes are an expression of distinct local planning cultures. Hence, we need to take a closer look at the influence of planning cultures on outcomes of urban developm...

During the last months the discussion on a strategy for the Danube Region as a new approach for a European macro-region has been intensified, predominantly within the area of Central and South-Eastern Europe. Evidently the territory of the Danube Region is characterized by a divergent group of countries concerning the process of integration and the...