Urban sustainability transition in Turkey: drivers and barriers

This paper examines the drivers and barriers of urban sustainability policy transfer through a case study in Turkey. We show that increased opportunities for collaboration between the international and local actors, when local demand exists, can encourage municipalities to espouse sustainability discourse and in turn implement sustainable infrastructure projects, breaking institutional inertia. However, we argue these bottom-up attempts have limited transformative impact unless the central government enacts the necessary legislation and regulation to provide local governments with the authority and tools to pursue urban sustainability. These findings provide an important perspective into forces driving the localization of sustainable development goals.