The paper addresses tensions in organizing civil society activities in urban sustainability transitions. It argues that these activities need focus to be impactful while also demanding flexibility to remain adaptive. The latter can hardly be achieved by individual organizations alone but requires closer examination of the of organizations in which civil society actors operate. This paper contributes to the literature on the governance of urban sustainability by systematically analyzing this organizational context and its long-term dynamics. Adopting a neo-institutional lens, the paper scrutinizes civil society activities with the ‘institutional work’ approach and sheds light on how the organizational context enables changes therein. The longitudinal case study of the Local Agenda 21 in Augsburg reveals, via a mixed-method approach, how civil society actors navigate tensions by altering their organizational context. Increasing its diversity and complexity in a bottom-up process allowed them to engage in more transformative work.

中文翻译：

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组织起来吗？为城市可持续发展转型中的民间社会活动创造组织环境


该文件讨论了在城市可持续发展转型中组织民间社会活动的紧张局势。它认为，这些活动需要重点关注才能产生影响力，同时也需要灵活性以保持适应性。后者很难仅靠个别组织来实现，而是需要对民间社会行为者运作的组织进行更仔细的审查。本文通过系统分析这种组织背景及其长期动态，为城市可持续发展治理的文献做出了贡献。本文采用新制度视角，用“制度工作”方法审视公民社会活动，并揭示组织环境如何促成其中的变革。奥格斯堡地方 21 世纪议程的纵向案例研究通过混合方法揭示了民间社会参与者如何通过改变其组织环境来应对紧张局势。在自下而上的过程中增加其多样性和复杂性使他们能够从事更具变革性的工作。