ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 has two parts and details the research design and methods. The research is divided into two steps. First, it clarifies the normative and directive targets of sustainability transition and how they influence the transition practices across different contextualization. Do eco and low-carbon cities share a similar outlook or do they diverge in their visions? If so, how are they different, at least normatively, from each other? What are the specific aspects that these projects are supposed to fulfill? These questions reveal how sustainable cities, as ideal forms, are envisioned and described. With the ideal set as the benchmark, we may know how the reality reaches, or falls short of, the visions. In the second step, we select empirical cases from each approach of niche building and management to explain their management strategies, niche-regime-landscape dynamics, and lessons and implications for each type of transition management. It unveils a detailed and vivid narrative of the complexity that lies between the dream and reality of urban sustainability transition.
