Tracing complex urban transformations in Germany, Switzerland and Austria using trajectory-based qualitative comparative analysis (TJ-QCA)

Abstract

Cities change: new housing areas are built, former industrial areas are converted, and train stations are renewed together with the surrounding neighbourhoods. The ways in which cities transform, and the planning and policy recipes that drive those changes, are multiple. What works in one place may or may not work in another place. While there are degrees of uniqueness in each city, there are also similarities between them. This defies simplistic causal accounts about the cause of urban transformation, but also does away with the idea that each city is so unique that comparison is impossible. The research presented in this paper identifies the various combinations of conditions that stimulate urban transformations. We carry out a longitudinal comparison of eleven such transformations in German, Austrian and Swiss cities. We use Trajectory-Based Qualitative Comparative Analysis (TJ-QCA), a variation of QCA that incorporates development stages of cases in the comparison. Data derives from primary (policy and planning documents) and secondary sources (newspaper articles). The findings show two main pathways that associate with successful transformations: a combination of a high strategic character of the project with a leading role of public actors, or a combination of a high strategic character with brownfield redevelopment.

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