Exploring sustainable urban governance: Evolving dynamics, transitions, and ambiguities

Abstract

In the context of rapid urbanization and urban sprawl, growing concerns about sustainability in urban governance have come to the forefront. The study employed exploratory bibliometric analysis to examine the literature on sustainable urban governance and critically investigate how sustainability is complexly woven into urban governance as a multidimensional phenomenon. The paper addresses the existing literature gaps, including contextual challenges and inadequate theoretical-methodological underpinnings, by analyzing 2,194 scholarly outputs. We propose a “sustainable urban governance framework” that rationalizes contextual justifications (at the macro-meso-micro and interlevel) by synthesizing the concept of good urban governance, interlinks of sustainability dimensions, and multilevel governance systems. Sustainable urban governance is defined in this study as a process and system that creates harmonious coexistence among urban settings’ ecological and social strata through integrating rationalized contextual justifications, collective sustainability objectives, and inclusive urban resilience plans.

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