ABSTRACT
This chapter develops a new approach for sustainability transition analysis. Favourable institutional conditions, such as decision-making autonomy and social equality, which allow and support new institutional arrangements, make self-organised and cooperative forms of management of common-pool resources in the urban resource systems more likely. The research question implies the aim to find out how the governance of common-pool resources in the three core resource systems - energy, green spaces, and water, in cities could be improved to better contribute to a transition to sustainable development. A framework is required that allows: to treat social and ecological systems in almost equal depth and to analyse the feedbacks between the resource conditions and the rules determining the harvesting rates of the resource. A broader approach to sustainability transitions is needed to bring the possible institutional change itself into the focus of inquiry and the resource systems which are key for such socio-ecological transitions towards strong sustainability as well.
