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Short abstract:

Accountability practices feature prominently in soft Policy Instruments applied eg. in (urban) sustainability governance such as action plans, roadmaps, or awards. I argue that these protypes of techno-managerialism might have a transformative potential by encouraging “the political”.

Long abstract:

Accountability practices are corner stones of current Policies. They feature prominently in soft Policy Instruments commonly applied eg. in (urban) sustainability governance such as action plans, roadmaps, or awards.

In these and other instruments accountability practices feature in a twofold way. On the one hand, they are put to work to achieve eg. set reduction goals. They are used as enabling governance practices for example in Strategic Energy Action Plans, where various urban stakeholders are held accountable through reporting schemes. On the other hand, Policy Instruments themselves and those working with them are being held accountable or at least, efforts in this direction are made, since one characteristic of soft instruments is that they generally defy evaluative quantifications.

Research partners from different administrative and political branches consider Action Plans, Awards and Actions Weeks as transformative. They are being scaled up and down and are emphatically promoted. Taking stock at current sustainability governance, business as usual is still prevailing.

From a practice theoretical informed perspective, I argue that policy instruments are generally neither transformative nor stabilizing. Depending on the situation I argue that Policy Instruments, have the potential to be transformative due to their political character.

I would like to share how Policy Instruments that are considered prototypes of techno-managerialism might unfold a transformative potential by encouraging “the political”, and how it might look like re-imagining and re-narrating accountability practices. The basis for this is fieldwork in which I followed six Instruments through three post-industrial EU European cities and beyond.