ABSTRACT
The decarbonisation of urban infrastructures on which cities depend is a crucial component in moving towards more sustainable futures. However, the power, authority, responsibilities and resources required to facilitate this decarbonisation process are distributed across a multiplicity of entities operating at and between various societal domains, political-organisational scales, and sectors of the economy. In response, theories and frameworks aimed at developing local capacity for governing urban low-carbon transitions most often rely on network forms of governance – systems of coordination based on horizontal, non-hierarchical interactions among affected and/or interested actors to solve such complex public policy problems. This chapter reviews the variety of perspectives on, and interpretations of, concepts of ‘networks’ and ‘governance’ in public policy-making and implementation. It argues for the need of developing a more nuanced understanding of the potential and role of network forms of governance in urban sustainability transitions, based on local contextual factors that enable and constrain the formulation and operation of networks in different cities.
