Scaling urban climate action through archetypes: a city-matching approach

Numerous city governments around the world have positioned themselves as “leaders” in efforts to deal with climate change. Although valuable, these efforts require scaling in order to achieve the needed impact. Here, we argue that horizontal scaling, i.e. the diffusion of ambitious climate action across cities, will benefit from appropriate city typologies. Typologies can foster the intentional processes of city matching: Identifying and studying pairs or clusters of cities with similar or complementary structural or strategic attributes (like size, cultural heritage, national context, economic structure, interventions, political agency).

However, matching cities requires a methodological approach which takes into account the heterogeneity of cities and their contexts. We propose archetype analysis as a means to help research and match city types that most likely to facilitate horizontal scaling. Generally, archetype analysis investigates recurrent patterns of a phenomenon of interest by identifying multiple dynamics or patterns, each explaining the phenomenon under a particular set of conditions. This comparative approach enables us to identify different kinds of cases when general regularities that apply to all cases cannot be expected. It can address research questions like: To advance horizontal scaling, does city matching work better between cities of the same archetype? Do cities with different but complementary archetypes match better?

This paper showcases how such questions can be addressed. Drawing from a literature review and a research workshop synthesis, it proposes some archetypes that may facilitate matching. For instance, leader and follower cities might not match so straightforward, while matching cities with similar social problems might support scaling well. We posit that empirically testing such archetypes will contribute to scaling successful urban climate action.