Orchestrating ecologies of transition intermediation: insights from a Dutch governmental policy program for urban transformation

• There is a need to better understand how ecologies of transition intermediaries are orchestrated in practice. • Ecology orchestration involves the aggregation of ongoing intermediation across multiple system levels. • This study identifies a new dimension of ecology orchestration: the capacity to sustain institutional memory and share meta-knowledge across transitions. • Policy and funding frameworks should acknowledge and invest in the capacities of ecology orchestration to accelerate sustainability transitions. Transition intermediaries are increasingly understood not as independent agents but as operating within ‘ecologies of intermediation’ that are embedded in the institutional contexts they seek to change. However, little is known about how such ecologies are orchestrated in practice. This paper examines an institutional intermediary through the lens of ecologies, drawing on insights from research on transition intermediation. We ask how ecologies of intermediation are orchestrated within a Dutch policy programme. Empirically, we study Agenda Stad , a government programme fostering urban transformation through experimentation. Based on our findings we posit that ‘ecology orchestration’ involves the alignment of different intermediation functions across local, national and interdepartmental levels. Furthermore, our analysis refines existing accounts of ecology orchestration by specifying the capacity to sustain institutional memory and facilitate meta-knowledge sharing across different thematic transitions. We argue that these capacities, while largely intangible, are essential for the effective functioning of intermediation ecologies.