Urban Sustainability Transitions in Two Frontrunner Cities: Insights from the Multi-level Perspective

ABSTRACT

Research on urban sustainability has extended our understanding of what principles cities can apply to minimize their impacts on the global ecosystem. However, how urban sustainability transitions unfold and how location-specific characteristics in different territorial contexts impact transition processes have been previously addressed only to limited extent. Drawing on relevant transition theory (in this case the Multi-level Perspective), this paper examines the underlying drivers, opportunities, and barriers to sustainability transitions in cities. The analysis draws on two case studies from both the developed (Freiburg) and the developing world (Curitiba). We argue that cities have fundamentally different endowments and inherent characteristics; therefore, policy dealing with urban transitions should be responsive to the specific requirements of its application domain.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainability transitions
• cities
• agency
• Freiburg
• Curitiba

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the informants for their time in discussing the issue of urban sustainability transition in Freiburg and Curitiba. Special thanks also go to Prof Volker Ziegler and Alexander Gomes for helping us to identify key informants in Freiburg and Curitiba.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For example, Freiburg has received several global and local awards in the last decades which include: recognition as German Green Capital (1992), European Local Public Transport Award (1995), European OSMOSE Award (2007), the European City of the year 2010, United Nations City of the decade (2011), and a recipient of the first German Sustainability Award for cities and towns (2012) among others (Freytag et al., 2014; Stadt Freiburg, 2015).