From multi-utility to cross-utilities: the challenges of cross-sectoral entrepreneurial strategies in a German city
Résumé
In the water and energy sectors, projects geared towards new forms of cross-sectoral functioning have boomed in most European countries over the past decade, and have deeply transformed the ecology of urban services. These projects are often considered as an answer to a rising challenge affecting numerous traditional utilities: the unforeseen urban change relating to shifting (i.e. declining) demand patterns that are undermining traditional models of infrastructure management. The development of cross-sectoral strategies is considered a way both to tackle the attrition of traditional sources of revenue and to develop greener infrastructure systems by enhancing their efficiency level, often in line with low-carbon programmes implemented by national or local governments. Its appeal lies in a fairly static perception of infrastructure management and technological change. Based on a detailed analysis of a traditional German local multi-utility and informed by a 6-month internship within the company, the article deciphers the rationale of multi-sectoral practices, in particular the company's transformation into a cross-utility that devised a common strategy for all SWM's infrastructure networks and its ambiguities. Various facets of such "boundary work" are analysed, focusing on organisational and financial aspects to reveal the new sites of tensions and negotiations between sectors, but also on the material component of these cross-sectoral projects through the case of one such nexus programme, a waste-to-energy programme. This programme embodies the potential contradictions between the call for reduced use of resources (i. e. the production of less waste) and the development of new urban technical systems relying primarily on those same resources.
过去十年间，大多数欧洲国家都在水和能源部门开展了采用新形式跨部门运作的项目，并深刻改变了城市服务的生态。这些项目通常被认为是回应影响众多传统公用事业的一个日益严峻的挑战：正在破坏传统基础设施管理模式的、与需求模式转变（即下降）的无法预见的城市变化。
跨部门战略的制定被认为是解决传统收入来源的消耗和通过提高效率水平来发展更环保的基础设施系统的一种方式，通常与国家或地方政府实施的低碳计划相一致。其吸引力在于对基础设施管理和技术变革的相当静态的看法。基于对德国传统本地多用途基础设施的详细分析、以及在公司内部进行为期六个月的实习，本文破译了多部门基础设施实践的基本原理，特别是公司转变为跨部门公用事业公司的过程（该过程设计了一个能容纳所有基础设施及其模糊性的战略）。我们分析了这种“边界工作”的各个方面，侧重于组织和财务方面，以揭示部门之间发生紧张和需要谈判的新领域。此外，我们还重点探讨了这些跨部门项目的一些重要方面，这是通过一个“废物生产能源”的此类关系项目。该项目体现了减少资源使用（即减少废物产生）的要求与主要依靠这些资源开发新的城市技术系统之间的潜在矛盾。
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)
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