Paper short abstract:

The paper discusses how to shape the climate future of the city, which boasts of green awards, projects, and the work of green initiatives, but refuses to involve its residents in decision-making beyond the legal requirements. How can we contribute to transformative change in such an environment?

Paper long abstract:

In the summer of 2022, at the end of the earliest heat wave in the history of Ljubljana, urban green initiatives, organizations advocating for sustainability, climate change and public spaces, as well as researchers (including myself) sent a public call to the Mayor of Ljubljana to adopt a "concrete, coherent and ambitious strategy" that would be the basis for an effective fight against heat in the "93% green" city (as estimated for Ljubljana by the Green Destinations standards). Ljubljana was named European Green Capital 2016 and has since been building its image through green projects and commitments (e.g., Zero Waste Capital and EU Mission for 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030). The letter prompted a press conference where the mayor presented the implementation of green measures in energy, digitalisation, greening, agriculture, mobility and water supply. Still, suggestions for citizens' active involvement in the strategy's preparation fell on deaf ears: "The mayor just doesn't like participation".

This paper draws on a decade of ethnographic research on green participatory initiatives and auto-ethnography gathered during the involvement in the city’s recent Mission 100 activities. It discusses the following questions: Which initiatives managed to establish at least a minimum cooperation with the municipality, and why did they succeed? When citizens get involved in top-down activities, how do they communicate their visions of the future? What approaches can we take to make anthropologists interlocutors of a city administration and to empower residents to participate in decision-making processes toward collective transformations?