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.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainable urban governance
• bibliometric literature review
• sustainability transition

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to the anonymous referees and the editors, particularly for their valuable comments on this work.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

V. M. Thoyyib

V. M. Thoyyib is a PhD student in the Department of Public Policy and Government at the Indian Institute of Management Kashipur. His research focuses on urban governance and sustainability, mainly on how these aspects can achieve collective sustainability and inclusive development in urban centers. His specific interest lies in examining the intersection of social, political, and digital sustainability and their interactions with urban governance structures across different dimensions.

K. M. Baharul Islam

K. M. Baharul Islam is the chair of the Centre for Public Policy and Government at the Indian Institute of Management Kashipur and a visiting professor at the London School of Economics. He has served as the dean at IIM Kashipur. Earlier he taught at various universities in Asia and Africa and worked with UNESCO, UNECA and UNESCAP. He is a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society (UK) and a member of the International Bar Association. Islam has a DLitt., two PhDs, MA, MBA, LLM. LLB and B.Ed. Degrees. He did his post-doctoral study at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok.

Atulan Guha

Atulan Guha is a development economist with over 15 years of teaching and research experience at various national-level academic institutes in India. Presently, he serves as a faculty member at IIM Kashipur. He has numerous international research publications and has served as a policy consultant to several state and central governments in India. Additionally, he has been a member of policy-making bodies for various state governments in India. Guha’s research interests primarily focus on development issues within the context of the Indian economy.