Cities, systems and sustainability: status and perspectives of research on urban transformations

A Transformative Turn towards Sustainability in the Context of Urban-Related Studies? A Systematic Review from 1957 to 2016

“…Literature reviews do not refer to a specific theoretical approach or theoretical foundation but do consist of clearly defined methodological steps and an analytical framework, which makes the search criteria and search process transparent. Qualitative reviews on articles published on transitions and transformations in connection with spatial categories and system change towards sustainability exist [8,11]. In contrast to these works, our approach targets to display particularly the relation between urban sustainability transformations and other aspects of urban transformations (for example rural-urban migration or changes in the built environment).…”

“…We added a conceptual approach towards urban transformations from a socio-environmental science perspective, highlighting the three dimensions resource efficiency, quality of life and resilience as well as their interdependencies as key understanding [9,10]. Even though urban transformations and also urban transitions "have quickly become widely shared normative catch phrases in science and policy that evoke (radical) change for urban sustainability" [11] (p. 18), it is still a matter of discussion what is actually meant by these terms beyond a general understanding of transformation as change [11]. Nevertheless, this definitional blurriness reaches beyond the currently predominating urban transformations to sustainability debate: In other studies on urban areas, which do not have a focus on sustainability but on issues such as migration, the built environment, urban culture or urban economy, the term urban transformations is used with a variety of different meanings by different scientific disciplines and even within the same scientific communities (see for example the differences regarding the use of the terms urban transformation/transition between [12][13][14][15]).…”

“…Synthesis research has shown that works on urban transformations to sustainability frequently make reference to prominent transformations research strands such as the multi-level-perspective and socio-technical systems (STS) [8,11]. Also, here, different definitions of urban transformations and transitions exist.…”

“…This makes it difficult to evaluate if unintended ongoing urban changes or rather explicitly intended changes towards sustainability can be coined as (a) transformations; (b) transitions or as (c) sustainable urban development in general and what actually are the differences among the three. Even though only work which uses urban transformations in connection with systemic change towards sustainability was evaluated in that synthesis ( [8,11]), divergent uses of objective, character and process described by the term urban transformations were identified. As a consequence, the concept of urban transformations to sustainability remains vague and it is still not clearly defined, what is actually meant if someone uses the term urban transformations.…”

Urban Energy Landscapes and the Rise of Heat Networks in the United Kingdom

“…As Hodson and Marvin (2009: 516) note, "While transition approaches acknowledge the interplay and interpenetration of different landscape (macro), regime (meso), and niche (micro) levels they say little explicitly about the role of the city and regional scale in processes of transition." This has been addressed to some extent in recent years by a "spatial turn" in sustainable transitions scholarship (see Coenen et al, 2012a;2012b;Raven et al, 2012;Hansen and Coenen, 2015;Sengers and Raven, 2015;Wolfram et al, 2016). However, there is a continued need for more detailed analysis of how cities contribute to sustainable transitions.…”