Exploring the diversity of social innovations in urban energy and climate transitions. Findings from a broad survey among German municipalities

This study presents quantitative findings concerning social innovation (SI) for the specific case of urban energy and climate transitions. Based on data from a broad survey conducted among 550 German municipalities combined with structural data from external sources, we examine which types of diverse SI in energy and climate transitions occur in municipalities and identify factors related to their diversity. We identify a higher number of SI activities around knowledge sharing and information campaigns and fewer activities related to new ways of producing energy. Furthermore, our results show that more diverse SI activities occur in cities that provide institutionalized capacities for local energy and climate transitions, e.g. personnel or financial resources, and that create opportunities for frequent exchanges between different actor groups. We conclude that future research could build upon conceptual links between urban transitions studies and SI studies and explore the conditions and transformative potentials of changes in social relations on an urban level.