The Multilevel Governance of Just Urban Transitions on the Ground: A Global Perspective

Governments across the globe are increasingly pursuing integrated policy approaches to the ecological and social challenges of climate change, linking urban climate action with social protection, labor resilience, and human well-being. From reduction-driven transitions in the Global North to access-driven transitions in the Global South, there is a shared recognition – although varying in context – that ecological sustainability and social justice are deeply intertwined, requiring coordinated governance across domains and levels and cross-sectoral collaboration between politics and society.

While a growing literature has focused on the policy designs and institutional arrangements of integrated urban policies, their on-the-ground implementation and actual outcomes remain underexplored. This gap is especially pronounced at the street-level, where local bureaucracies, frontline organizations, and community intermediaries play a crucial role in translating, negotiating, or redefining the justice ambitions embedded in policy design. Knowledge also remains fragmented across the Global North and the Global South – with scholarship developing in parallel, despite sharing key governance challenges of multi-actor coordination and collaboration.

This session brings together researchers working on just urban transitions across diverse regional contexts. It aims to deepen our comparative understanding of how the justice-oriented goals of integrated urban policies translate from policy design into street-level practice. We especially welcome contributions dealing with policy integration, cross-sectoral collaboration, and citizen participation in the Global South, alongside Global North perspectives fostering cross-regional dialogue and mutual learning. The session will serve as an opportunity to build connections across research communities, aiming to develop future collaborative networks, projects, and publications.