ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the research background of the mushrooming eco and low-carbon new town experiments in China. With reflections on the theories and practices of eco and low-carbon new town development, the authors propose a string of key research questions regarding policy mobility, green urbanism, government activism and their subsequent consequences. It highlights the following aims of the book: first, this study aims to conceptualize sustainability transition of eco and low-carbon new towns on multiple functional scales and provides an overarching explanatory framework for sustainable new town practices in China, and provides worldwide insights. Second, this book explores the normative transition targets of sustainable new towns. Third, this study investigates the sustainability transition of new towns in empirical cases. Finally, this study is intended to generate practical suggestions for the transition management of different approaches, based on an analytical framework of sustainability transition and a multi-level perspective (MLP).
