The role of place in shaping urban transformative capacity. The case of València (Spain)

• Local contextual factors crucially shape urban transformative capacity. • Local historical trajectories and identities are key contextual factors. • Local social movements’ ability to establish relations with local government is essential. • Local government is key in connecting all the components of urban transformative capacity. • Local actors’ capacity to build inclusive and trusted governance spaces is crucial. • Local interactions are conditioned by broader silos of knowledge and action. This paper inquiries into the role of place in shaping urban transformative capacity to advance urban sustainability transitions. The urban transformative capacity notion developed by Wolfram (2016) provides us with a holistic framework to reconceptualize and address the specific contextual conditions that become relevant in a city to advance path-deviant changes towards sustainability. By comparing the energy and agri-food socio-technical systems in the city of València (Spain), insights have been gained into key contextual factors shaping urban transformative capacity; specifically, the previous local historical trajectories regarding each socio-technical system, the role of local social movements and local government as articulator of the different components of the framework. Additionally, the way different accounts of sustainability coexist and the interaction between different socio-technical systems at urban level appear as critical issues.