ABSTRACT. Faced with numerous seemingly intractable social and environmental challenges, many scholars and practitioners are increasingly interested in understanding how to actively engage and transform the existing systems holding such problems in place. Although a variety of analytical models have emerged in recent years, most emphasize either the social or ecological elements of such transformations rather than their coupled nature. To address this, first we have presented a definition of the core elements of a socialecological system (SES) that could potentially be altered in a transformation. Second, we drew on insights about transformation from three branches of literature focused on radical change, i.e., social movements, socio-technical transitions, and social innovation, and gave consideration to the similarities and differences with the current studies by resilience scholars. Drawing on these findings, we have proposed a framework that outlines the process and phases of transformative change in an SES. Future research will be able to utilize the framework as a tool for analyzing the alteration of social-ecological feedbacks, identifying critical barriers and leverage points and assessing the outcome of social-ecological transformations.

Understanding the diversifying role of civil society in Europe’s\ud sustainability pathway is a valid proposition both scientifically\ud and socially. Civil society organisations already play a\ud significant role in the reality of cities, what remains to be\ud explored is the question: what is the role of civil society in the\ud future sustainability of European cities? We first examine the\ud novelty of new forms of civil society organization based on a\ud thorough review of recent case studies of civil society initiatives\ud for sustainable transitions across a diversity of European\ud projects and an extensive literature review. We conceptualize a\ud series of roles that civil society plays and the tensions they\ud entail. We argue that, civil society initiatives can pioneer new\ud social relations and practices therefore be an integral part of\ud urban transformations and can fill the void left by a retreating\ud welfare state, thereby safeguarding and servicing social needs\ud but also backing up such a rolling back of the welfare state. It\ud can act as a hidden innovator—contributing to sustainability\ud but remaining disconnected from the wider society. Assuming\ud each of these roles can have unintended effects, such as being\ud proliferated by political agendas, which endanger its role and\ud social mission, and can be peeled off to serve political agendas\ud resulting in its disempowerment and over-exposure. We\ud conclude with a series of implications for future research on the\ud roles of civil society in urban sustainability transition

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