ABSTRACT
Over recent decades it has been recognised that urban sustainability challenges are deeply embedded in urban systems such as mobility, water supply and sanitation, and energy. It has likewise been recognised that the governance of such systems is a fundamentally political enterprise as system design shapes both practices and the bio-physical flows that make up the urban fabric. In this chapter we argue for an extended political understanding of urban transition governance based on the observation that urban systems are not self-evident phenomena with predetermined functions and boundaries. We contend that the tools and methods employed to render urban system knowable as governable phenomena constitute a salient, but under-theorised political component of governance and one that could be used creatively as a leverage point in shaping future transitions pathways. Based on insights from the governmentality literature, science and technology scholarship, and transition studies, we outline an approach for conceptualising and analysing the knowledge politics of contemporary urban transition governance.
