Activity of governance with the purpose of sustainable development : evaluating the role of local stadiums in cities’ green governance transition

Abstract

Present-day governance consists of collaboration between diverse system elements for the purpose of achieving desired outcomes. For decades, cities have sought to reduce GHG emissions, particularly the ones deriving from transport. However, stadiums, which are ubiquitous in cities, remain overlooked within the realm of urban sustainability governance. This thesis examines how stadiums might be integrated into city governance to support the transition toward sustainable development. This thesis adopts Cognitive Work Analysis as a framework for examining complex socio-technical systems by first constructing a domain model. The framework then moves towards optimisation of the system performance: Strategies Analysis checks that all necessary tasks for the domain’s operation are in place. The Social Organisation and Cooperation assesses whether the teams responsible are competent and how effectively they collaborate towards achieving the system’s goals. Therefore, this thesis is comprised of a theoretical section which, through carefully analysing various philosophies based on historical descriptions, develops a domain model of governance for sustainable development and explores the potential roles of stadiums within it; and an empirical one focused on Edinburgh’s green transport governance. The theoretical section informed both the data analysis and the design of the surveys presented in the empirical section. Potential strategic problems were identified through published documents, talks, interviews, as well as user observations and surveys. Bottom-up and top-down views on stadium involvement as a solution were assessed through surveys, a case study, and interviews. These analyses lead to the conclusion that assigning constructive social roles to stadiums are often overlooked in policymaking, and that the same hold untapped potential in strengthening contemporary governance by effectively addressing the challenge of citizen engagement.