Power in urban logistics: A comparative analysis of networks and policymaking in logistics sustainability governance

Abstract

This article unpacks the power relations in urban logistics to understand why cities follow different policy pathways to sustainability. Drawing on the literature on power in sustainability transitions, we investigate key actors’ framings of sustainability in urban logistics and assess how they leverage their positions to pursue their framing of sustainability. We utilize a mixed-method approach, with a quantitative social network analysis and semi-structured interviews, to examine urban logistics governance in three Norwegian cities – Oslo, Bergen, and Trondheim. Our findings challenge the implicit understanding that private actors are the most powerful actors in urban logistics governance. Local authorities, we find, can strategically leverage their dispositional and relational power to prioritize their preferred framing of sustainability, which is based on compact and climate-neutral cities. However, they seek technical-rational interventions in collaboration with private actors, typically in the form of electrification of vehicles, while logistics remains an afterthought in general urban planning.