Wolfgang HauptLeibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space | IRS · Research Group Urban Sustainability Transformations
Wolfgang Haupt
Ph.D. Urban Studies
About
43
Publications
6,558
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255
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Education
November 2015 - May 2019
October 2011 - May 2014
Field of study
- Geography (specialisation: Regional and Urban Development)
October 2008 - September 2011
Field of study
- Geography (minors: Political Science, Land Readjustment and Real Estate Management)
Publications
Publications (43)
Unlabelled:
Drawing on data for the 104 largest German cities, and deeper analysis of six mid-sized cities (including forerunners, followers and latecomers in climate mitigation and adaptation), we find that the spread of local mitigation and adaptation strategies across Germany can be explained by a combination of horizontal diffusion and vertica...
The policy rhetoric of urban resilience has spread rapidly across the globe in recent years, including the scholarly debate and networks of globally oriented practitioners. Despite its success, consensus regarding its theoretical understanding and operationalization into strategies, policies, and actions is still far-off. Particularly successful in...
Both the smart and the sustainable cities represent a positive vision of future urban development. This chapter analyzes and discusses definitions and notions of both concepts, as well as their emergence, establishment, and development. Both concepts share similarities, such as the far-reaching and integrative claim to bring positive change to citi...
Ausgehend von der räumlichen Ebene des Quartiers und teils unter Berücksichtigung gesamtstädtischer Bezüge fördern die Projekte der BMBF-Zukunftsstadtforschung nicht nur kommunale Handlungsmöglichkeiten zu Tage. An verschiedenen Stellen werden auch Anpassungsbedarfe im regulativen Rahmen von Bund und Ländern deutlich. Dieses Impulspapier ist das Er...
This article analyzes and compares the climate policy and transformation pathways of the forerunner cities Turku (Finland), Groningen (The Netherlands), Rostock, and Potsdam (both located in Germany). Our study combines an international comparison of cities located in three different countries with a national comparison of two German cities. This r...
We examine how local socioeconomic, institutional and political factors shape climate transformation pathways in 23 mid-sized German cities. We group our cities into three types: industrial cities (which may have experienced recent structural change), historic cities (in which a significant proportion of the buildings or landscape is under monument...
Damit eine Stadt gegenüber dem fortschreitenden Klimawandel gewappnet ist, sind die Integration von Klimaanpassungsmaßnahmen in kommunale Planungsprozesse und die Schaffung von konkreten Planungs- und Handlungsgrundlagen wesentlich. Dieses politische Empfehlungspapier fasst für Bund, Länder und Kommunen zwölf Handlungsempfehlungen zusammen, die z...
Due to their agglomeration of population, material assets and infrastructures, cities are particularly affected by extreme weather events such as heavy rain and heat. Numerous flooding events as a result of heavy rainfall occurred in various regions of Germany in the last years, not only resulted in losses in the double- to triple-digit million ran...
The German mid-sized city of Remscheid, located in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, can be characterised as an unlikely climate pioneer. Remscheid is a least likely candidate for pioneering climate policies. Previous research suggests that climate pioneers are typically characterised by a growing population, favourable economic condition...
We illustrate how the two mid-sized post-socialist eastern German cities Potsdam and Rostock have managed to become climate pioneers, despite being located in regions that have been reluctant with regard to climate action. Drawing on municipal documentation and fieldwork interviews, we show how favorable and interrelated conditions concerning a cit...
Climate-related changes in the environment, such as an increase in the magnitude and frequency of extreme weather events, have a particularly drastic impact on cities. To build resilience to climate impacts, cities need to develop flexible adaptation strategies. One way to do this is through the creation and expansion of peer learning networks, as...
Aufgrund der hohen Konzentration von Bevölkerung, ökonomischen Werten und Infrastrukturen können Städte stark von extremen Wetterereignissen getroffen werden. Insbesondere Hitzewellen und Überflutungen in Folge von Starkregen verursachen in Städten immense gesundheitliche und finanzielle Schäden. Um Schäden zu verringern oder gar zu vermeiden, ist...
Kommunen fehlen oft die Ressourcen, um eine effektive Klimapolitik zu betreiben. Dabei ist der Handlungsdruck hoch: Gerade Stadtkommunen sind stark von der Klimaerwärmung betroffen, zugleich verursachen Städte einen Großteil der Treibhausgasemissionen. In einem neuen Policy Paper stellen Forschende des IRS drei erprobte Handlungsmodelle vor, die gu...
Dieser Forschungsbericht bietet vertiefte klimapolitische Pfadanalysen von 17 Groß- und Mittelstädten in den Bundesländern Baden-Württemberg, Bayern, Brandenburg und Nordrhein-Westfalen. Die Pfadanalysen basieren auf umfangreichen Analysen zahlreicher Policy-Dokumente und Interviews mit Vertreter:innen aus Stadtverwaltungen, Kommunalpolitik und Ziv...
One way to tackle climate change locally is to adopt successful approaches pioneered elsewhere. However, because most research has focused on large forerunner cities, smaller municipalities with a lower profile may not be aware of initiatives that are directly relevant to them. We need more research into ‘ordinary’ cities that are located “off the...
Cities are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Many larger cities have identified the potential impacts of different climate change adaptation scenarios. However, their smaller and medium-sized counterparts are often not able to address climate risks effectively due to a lack of necessary resources. Since a large number of cit...
Both the smart and the sustainable cities represent a positive vision of future urban development. This chapter analyzes and discusses definitions and notions of both concepts, as well as their emergence, establishment, and development. Both concepts share similarities, such as the far-reaching and integrative claim to bring positive change to citi...
Developing sustainable, carbon-neutral, and climate-resilient districts seems to be particularly challenging with respect to historic city centers. However, barriers posed by legal requirements for historical buildings are counterbalanced by opportunities because historic cities have not undergone urban modernization and did not embrace the concept...
In den letzten Jahren sind Reallabore zu einem wichtigen
Bestandteil der anwendungsbezogenen Nachhaltigkeitsfor-
schung in Deutschland und Europa geworden. Derzeit verla-
gert sich die internationale wissenschaftliche Debatte mehr
und mehr auf die Untersuchung von lokalen Experimenten. Vor
diesem Hintergrund dient dieser Beitrag vor allem dem Zweck...
This report sets out how multi-level nature structures within the German state provide the framework within which cities develop and implement their climate policies. It explains how the energy priorities and requirements of individual federal states (Länder) have led to regional governments adopting different climate strategies, and how the variou...
A Correction to this paper has been published: 10.1007/s10584-021-03184-z
Climate mitigation and climate adaptation are crucial tasks for urban areas and can involve synergies as well as trade-offs. However, few studies have examined how mitigation and adaptation efforts relate to each other in a large number of differently sized cities, and therefore we know little about whether forerunners in mitigation are also leadin...
Kaupungit ovat tärkeitä ilmastopolitiikan tekijöitä. Neljän edelläkävijän vertailussa Turun ilmastopolitiikan vahvuuksia ovat kunnianhimoiset tavoitteet, vahva poliittinen tuki, kaupungin itsenäinen taloudellinen asema ja mahdollisuus vaikuttaa energian tuotantotapoihin. Sen sijaan ilmastonmuutokseen sopeutumisessa ja kaupunkilaisten osallistumis...
Cities are important climate policy actors. In a comparative assessment of four forerunner cities, Turku’s climate policy strengths include ambitious policy targets, strong political support, financial autonomy, and the capacity to steer the transformation of energy production. The areas where Turku can learn from others include climate adaptation...
The Matching Forerunner Cities research project provides an assessment of Turku’s climate policy and compares its performance with three other forerunner cities with similar characteristics. Turku, Malmö, Rostock, and Gron-ingen are mid-sized cities of roughly the same size located in advanced democracies in Northern and Continental Europe. They ar...
Der vorliegende Forschungsbericht befasst sich mit dem Transfer von Klima-Policies (z.B. Strategien zur Dekarbonisierung oder Ansätze zur Klimawandelanpassung) zwischen Städten und fokussiert sich hierbei auf Literaturbeiträge aus den Politik- und Verwaltungswissenschaften sowie der Humangeographie. Policies werden hierbei als übergreifender Begrif...
Over the past years a considerable number of municipalities joined together in networks that address climate change mitigation and more and more also adaptation. The presented research focuses on one key aspect of those networks: The sharing of knowledge and experience among the member cities, referred to as city-to-city learning. Due to climate ch...
Our paper explores the climate pathways of the three mid-sized cities German of Potsdam, Remscheid and Würzburg. Particular emphasis was put on key events (e.g. disruptive events) and key actors (e.g. local decision-makers) that significantly influenced the development of local climate policy. The path analyses are based on the analysis of several...
In the last decades, the discourse on resilience has become extremely influential across the globe. In urban studies, debates have emphasised how cities can be interpreted both as spaces critically exposed to different kinds of risks, as well as actors who must mobilize political initiatives in order to cope with them. This chapter focuses on the m...
Study visits are an underresearched phenomenon, particularly in the field of climate change adaptation. Drawing on interviews with key local stakeholders, this article investigates study visits organized by European municipal climate networks. The results of this exploratory research show that study visits about adaptation policies can (1) particul...
http://hdl.handle.net/10419/214661
Cities are increasingly joining forces through transnational municipal networks. The presented research focuses on one of the key services of these organisations: providing a platform for city-to-city learning. Interviews with representatives of networks and cities showed that through network organisations local policymakers aim to connect with pee...
Municipalities worldwide are increasingly exposed to the impacts of climate change manifesting in a higher incidence of natural hazards. In order to respond to these challenges, local governments need to search for solutions that proved to work elsewhere. Learning exchanges with peers from other municipalities - on the national and international le...
The steady emergence of transnational municipal climate networks demonstrates that cities are globally joining forces to tackle climate change. However, we still know little about how these increasingly influential organisations function. By modifying and extending an existing network typology through the development of a set of new dimensions and...
City-to city (C2C) learning (learning from peers and their best practices) is of crucial importance regarding topics (i.e. urban resilience) in which cities do not have time to re-invent the wheel. This abstract outlines why it is important, how C2C learning can be done most effectively and the mayor challenges regarding C2C learning.
When confron...
A newspaper article in: Albertaner - Award-winning German-Canadian Newspaper for the Province of Alberta (01/04/2018, volume 23, no. 269, p. 12-13)
Increasingly regarded as climate governors cities are joining together in transnational municipal networks (TMN) that address climate change mitigation and since recently also adaptation and resilience. The presented research provides a global picture of one under-researched key aspect of those networks: city-to-city learning (C2CL) and the exchang...
Over the past years a considerable number of towns and cities joined together in transnational networks, which aim to take action on climate change. With regards to European municipalities this development was supported by two major trends: First, an increased willingness of cities worldwide to tackle major global issues jointly. Secondly, a realig...
A newspaper article in: Albertaner - Award-winning German-Canadian Newspaper for the Province of Alberta (01/02/2018, volume 23, no. 267, p. 5)
Die Umsetzung der Energiewende ist ohne das Setzen von finanziellen Anreizen undenkbar. In Deutschland gibt es eine Vielzahl von Programmen zur Förderung von erneuerbaren Energien im urbanen Räumen, welche im Rahmen eines universitären Forschungspraktikums bei der Lokalen Agenda 21 Dresden im Jahr 2013 auf ihr Vor- und Nachteile hin untersucht wurd...
Questions
Questions (5)
I am particularly interested in conceptual literature and pieces of research that aim at advancing the human geographic debate on (local) climate governance. Thank you very much!
In other words is there research that has focussed on the impact of universities/research centers on the adoption of (climate) policies in the city/region they are located in? Ideally climate policies but also studies with a broader focus or studies that have investigated the same phenomenon focussing on a differnt type of policy are highliy appreciated. Thank you!
My impression is that the theory behind urban policy mobilities is very well grounded and when reading a paper contributing to this literature stream the theoretical part usually appears to be very strong and important for the paper. Then again, I sometimes I feel that for scholars working on urban policy mobilities the methodology and the empirical research are less important than the theory. Does this observation make sense?
The most popular research methods seem to be expert interviews and document analysis but what I couldn’t find yet was some sort of guidelines on how to empirically study urban policy mobilities. It would be even better if there was an assessment framework for the analysis analysis of (urban) policy mobilities? I would be most grateful if somebody could recommend some specific literature on that.
I am roughly familiar with the discourse analysis as a qualitative research method. I was wondering if it is possible or if there are examples or guidelines on how to apply a discourse analysis approach on policy documents (e.g. climate action plans or strategies). Could anybody suggest me some literature on that? Thank you!
I am interested in studying and assessing policy learning exchanges, e.g. between local decision makers. I read quite some literature on policy learning and I don’t feel that there is a lack of learning definitions or theorisation. However, what I was struggling with was finding some sorts of frameworks that allow assessing policy learning exchanges. I am aware of the fact that learning is a complex and often very informal process and that there will hardly exist a very solid framework. I would be happy about any suggestion or idea though. Thank you!
Projects
Projects (4)
This project aims at analysing the climate change policy of the City of Turku and compare it with the experience of three comparable cities, Malmö, Rostock, and Groningen. The City of Turku aims at becoming a carbon-neutral city by 2029. The strategy encompasses an implementation programme and specific measures. Since similar strategies have been decided upon and implemented in many European cities, there is much to learn from other forerunner cities. The project will focus on two aspects: first, it will study four matching forerunner cities, assess the learning capacities of their key actors (including public, private and civil society actors) and the transfer potential of demonstration and lighthouse projects in these four cities. Second, it will, on a more general scale, ask how mid-sized forerunner cities like Turku, Rostock, Malmö and Groningen can develop from city pioneers to city leaders, gain national and international recognition and reputation as leading cities, and thus help to upscale successful local projects nationally as well as internationally. The project is an applied research project which will lead to policy advice and recommendations for the four cities involved but also for mid-sized cities in Europe in general. The main findings of the project will be published as a report, in addition various transfer activities will be conducted to facilitate learning opportunities.
https://leibniz-irs.de/en/research/projects/project/matching-forerunner-cities
https://leibniz-irs.de/aktuelles/meldungen/2019/12/neues-angewandtes-forschungsprojekt-staedtische-klimapolitik-im-internationalen-vergleich
1) enhance the resilience of cities to extreme weather events, particularly to pluvial floods and heatwaves and 2) improve the transferability of adaptation strategies and measures among cities; find more information on https://www.uni-potsdam.de/extrass/
Examining how city networks facilitate and improve learning exchanges among municipal policymakers in the field of climate change action.
