Projectifying urban sustainability transition: the translation of transition initiatives into projects in Northern Sweden

Recently, a growing scholarship has examined the role of the project in policy implementation, particularly focusing on how it works as a politically charged instrument of governing. This article focuses on the projectification of urban sustainability transition as a policy field. Drawing on a case study of the implementation of transition initiatives in Northern Sweden, I analyze how these initiatives are transformed into transition projects. Mobilizing the concept of translation and drawing on project documentation and interviews with civil servants, I analyze the practices used to make transition initiatives fit the project format. The analysis shows that the transformation of transition initiatives into projects involves evidence-based problem construction, planning based on models and a specific conceptual vocabulary, consensus creation in project partnerships, universalization of common geographical challenges, and the establishment of coherent stories of contribution and learning. The article concludes that translation practices are power-laden and serve to stabilize policy.