An urban take on sustainable development policies and corresponding positioning strategies

This article examines how European cities are formulating and implementing sustainable development (SD) policies, and how these policies interact with national policy agendas. Using twelve case studies, the authors develop a framework to understand national-urban relations in SD policy-making, focusing on policy congruence and the scale of the issue. Four ideal types of urban SD policies are identified, categorized by their alignment with national agendas and the scale of the issue (global or urban). The authors also analyze the positioning strategies cities employ to support, promote, or defend these policies, arguing that considering these strategies is crucial to understanding how cities influence global SD agendas.

Stefan Wittwer, Katrin Hofer, David Kaufmann