Policymakers have had great difficulty in responding effectively to the socio-technical and multi-scalar complexities of building sustainable places and communities. These challenges often embed contested understandings and framings among stakeholders, at different scales, with strongly held beliefs. Along with the need for collective responses, this means that simple top-down policy interventions are rarely available.
What are ‘flashpoints’?
‘Flashpoints’ are critical or contested sustainability topics that erupt in specific place-based contexts.
‘Flashpoints’ raise important questions about how sustainability transitions are governed at different geographic scales, the ways in which past conflicts shape present-day contestation, and the types and levels of engagement promoted and experienced by different interest groups. Accordingly, we need to understand what makes for a ‘flashpoint’ issue:
- How do such issues emerge?
- How are they framed?
- How can changes to governing sustainable living promote ways of working with communities that promote participation and the co-production of solutions?
What is contestation and conflict?
‘From healthy to-and-fro of democratic engagement (contestation) to polarised and entrenched disagreement (conflict).’
Illustrative ‘Flashpoints’
Working with our partners the project selected four illustrative ‘flashpoints’ to focus on. There were other flashpoints we could have selected; however, we hope that work package 4 will provide guidance for others to utilise the participatory mechanisms approach.
