Assembling wild berry transitions: The spatial work of projectified sustainability transitions in Västerbotten, Sweden

In Europe, widespread projectification has led to sustainability transitions increasingly being enacted through projects. While projects have been seen as spaces in which multiple actors from different levels of society can interact to accelerate transitions, this paper examines the deeper implications for transition work that arise from relying on the project form. Drawing on an assemblage-topological lens, it analyses regional transition projects in northern Europe to explore the spatial work of project-making, showing how heterogeneous elements are drawn into relational proximity and held there, as well as how relations are forged across dispersed initiatives. The paper examines transition projects centred around wild berries in Västerbotten, Sweden. Through an analysis of project documents and interviews with project and case leaders, as well as related actors, it reveals projectified transitions to be dynamic and contested processes whose effects emerge from the spatial labour that continually shapes the scope and composition of transition projects. Furthermore, it shows that transitions are not driven by projects per se, but also by the relational practices through which actors pool resources and mobilise connections across multiple project configurations to enact transitions despite fragmentation. By tracing how transitions emerge from the spatial work required to assemble relations that operate within, across, between, and despite projects, this paper shows that transition work does not unfold through the mere execution of project plans, but rather through ongoing efforts to navigate the affordances and constraints of a projectified funding landscape.