Table 1 Analytical categories of the research

Normativity

− Radical transformation processes that are interconnected and interdependent but take place in different domains (Grin et al. 2010)

− Radical and multi-dimensional change to reorient urban development towards sustainability (McCormick et al. 2013)

− (Radical) economic, social, cultural, organisational, governmental and physical change processes (Ernst et al. 2016)

− Fundamental changes in the ways of doing (practices), the ways of thinking (cultures) and the ways of organising (structures) (Ehnert et al. 2018a, 2018b)

− Focuses on transformative change (Wittmayer et al. 2018)

− Systemic change processes (Frantzeskaki et al. 2018b)

Participation and co-production of knowledge

− Role of power relations and actors’ agency (Avelino and Wittmayer 2016; Frantzeskaki et al. 2018a)

− Facilitates co-creation processes to provide pathways to visionary futures (Wittmayer et al. 2018)

− Role and initiative of civil society (Wolfram 2018; Walsh 2018)

− The role of frontrunner actors and of regime incumbent actors (Frantzeskaki et al. 2018b)

− Patterns of empowerment, mobilisation, and activation created by strategic urban planning processes for change agents to put their innovative potential for transformations in such processes (Frantzeskaki et al. 2018b)

Innovation and disruptive initiatives

− Development and diffusion of radical alternatives (Loorbach et al. 2015)

− Relevance of niche activity (Walsh 2018)

− Incorporation of transformative innovation (Walsh 2018)

− Creation of protected spaces for interactive design, experimentation and learning (Walsh 2018)

− Enabling innovation of urban actors, increasing their visibility and anchoring them (Hölscher et al. 2018)

− Embed innovations in structures, practices, and discourses (Hölscher et al. 2019)

Reflexivity and social learning

− Incorporate a reflexive stance (Walsh 2018)

− Open processes of searching and experimentation. Position experimentation at the core of reflexive practices (Wittmayer et al. 2018)

− Challenge the status quo through experimentation and learning (Hölscher et al. 2018)

− Exploratory approach. Processes of learning from, replicating, and upscaling experiments (Ehnert et al. 2018a, 2018b)