Governing sustainable transformations of urban social-ecological-technological systems

Abstract Cities have grown rapidly—while they provide opportunities for many, they must also confront pervasive and rising inequality, unsustainable consumption, and growing vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. Recent research emphasizes the need to improve urban resilience and sustainability in the face of climate change, but offers circumscribed approaches that mostly focus on either (1) resource management and service provision, (2) social processes and capacities for transformation, or (3) governance and power relations among actors. Here, we embrace the emerging approach that considers urban areas as interdependent social-ecological-technological systems (SETS) and consider the implications for sustainable service provision; the role of bottom-up efforts in initiating urban transformations; and how governance may, under certain conditions, coordinate these efforts to effect broader change.