Governing Urban Sustainability

In her study of the interactions between tools of urban sustainability governance in key cities Lisa Pettibone argues that a new factor-sustainability-minded groups-may be critical to building momentum for sustainability. The book presents in-depth case studies of six cities in the USA and Germany: New York Portland Seattle Berlin Hamburg and Heidelburg. Drawing on 75 interviews document analysis and a bilingual literature review the book analyzes how sustainability is politically constructed in city strategic plans and sustainability indicators. The volume provides a comprehensive introduction to the principles of sustainability discusses the key governance instruments relevant to urban sustainability and delivers new empirical and theoretical material on their role in a sustainability transition. It concludes that despite the national-level differences cities’ experiences in both countries are similar. Political sustainability at the city level differs in several important ways from academic principles of sustainability. Finally it proposes that sustainability-minded groups may be a key link to connect urban sustainability in practice to theoretical concepts.