ABSTRACT
The world’s population is currently undergoing a significant transition towards urbanisation, with the UN expecting that 70% of people globally will live in cities by 2050. Urbanisation has multiple political, cultural, environmental and economic dimensions that profoundly influence social development and innovation. This fundamental long-term transformation will involve the realignment of urban society’s technologies and infrastructures, culture and lifestyles, as well as governance and institutional frameworks. Such structural systemic realignments can be referred to as urban sustainability transitions: fundamental and structural changes in urban systems through which persistent societal challenges are addressed, such as shifts towards urban farming, renewable decentralised energy systems, and social economies.
This book provides new insights into how sustainability transitions unfold in different types of cities across the world and explores possible strategies for governing urban transitions, emphasising the co-evolution of material and institutional transformations in socio-technical and socio-ecological systems. With case studies of mega-cities such as Seoul, Tokyo, New York and Adelaide, medium-sized cities such as Copenhagen, Cape Town and Portland, and nonmetropolitan cities such as Freiburg, Ghent and Brighton, the book provides an opportunity to reflect upon the comparability and transferability of theoretical/conceptual constructs and governance approaches across geographical contexts.
Urban Sustainability Transitions is key reading for students and scholars working in Environmental Sciences, Geography, Urban Studies, Urban Policy and Planning.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter 1|20 pages
Urban Sustainability Transitions
part I|136 pages
Characteristics and Distinctiveness of Urban Transitions
chapter 2|14 pages
Anchoring Global Networks in Urban Niches
chapter 4|15 pages
The Governance of Transformative Change
chapter 5|21 pages
Transitioning complex urban systems
chapter 6|20 pages
The Role of Place-specific Dynamics in the Destabilization of the Danish Water Regime
chapter 7|27 pages
Village Communities and Social Innovation Policies in Seoul
chapter 8|15 pages
Spatialising Urban Sustainability Transitions
chapter 9|9 pages
INTERLUDE: Urban Sustainability Transitions
part II|128 pages
Experimentation and Urban Sustainability Transitions
chapter 12|19 pages
From Building Small urban spaces for a car-Free life to challenging the global regime of automobility
chapter 14|30 pages
Worth the Trouble?!
chapter 15|15 pages
Change and Persistency
part III|71 pages
Politics of Urban Space and of Urban Sustainability Transitions
chapter 17|13 pages
Cities as arenas of low-carbon transitions
chapter 18|11 pages
Mediators Acting in Urban Transition Processes
part IV|11 pages
Taking Stock and Connecting with Sustainability Transitions Studies