Rise or fall of the superblocks? Discussing recent dilemmas of a popular urban sustainability strategy in the neoliberal city

Superblocks have been at the forefront of innovative local urban sustainability strategies for a number of years. At the same time, the implementation of this concept is routinely subject to scrutiny, conflicting interests and even rejection. In Berlin particularly, the implementation focuses on traffic-calming solutions and the concept has been initiated through a broad civil society coalition. Despite a diverse and strong group of actors and several supportive district governments, its implementation is faltering, and a surprising level of resistance has emerged. A specific neoliberal turn towards participation, shifting responsibilities and the partial shadow of authority explains some of those hurdles. The article employs an in-depth case study of the institutional and perceptional context-factors the ‘Kiezblock Initiatives’ work within to better understand aspects of this constellation. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with state and non-state actors combined with the novel method of the process-net map and analysed through structured content analysis. We argue that specific institutional lock-in effects, actors’ inconsistent goals and a disparate and in general scarce availability of resources are paralyzing attempts for remaking neighbourhoods facing climate change. Challenges in implementation and the absence of a coherent city-wide strategy are found to contribute to public frustration and a lack of acceptance, potentially undermining the effectiveness of superblocks and exacerbating issues of urban socio-environmental justice. The novelty of our approach lies in our focus on structural hurdles inherent in multi-level governance settings specifically for civil-society initiated policy change.