This paper analyses the repertoire of the 'sustainable city' by conducting a comparative review of the French-and English-language literature. Some use this language for its practical impact regarding urban policies; others criticize it as a tool for legitimizing growth-oriented policies. The article aims at overcoming this duality. Statistical and lexical analyses evidence four main variants of 'sustainable city' discourses, subject to debate: 'green city', 'city of short distances', 'just city' and 'participatory city'. They yield four main findings: first, there is no single model of the 'sustainable city'; second, the different approaches are not mutually exclusive, be it conceptually, institutionally, practically or geographically; third, the 'sustainable city' appears as a genuinely political repertoirea wide range of actors and institutions act as filters, promoters or detractors; fourth, these situated uses are not fixed but constantly changing, in terms of both contents and procedures.
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