An Introduction to SDG 11 and Conceptual Frameworks for Transition Management1

Sustainable Development Goal 11 or SDG 11 aims to ‘[m]ake cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’ so that all citizens in urban and suburban regions are ensured of social, ecological, public and technical infrastructures that satisfy their needs adequately. However, cities and urbanising regions are complex, highly integrated systems that pose enormous challenges for good governance, policymaking, planning and transformation. There are no standard decision-making tools that can be used to identify systemic pathways for transformation or gain precise understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of each possible route. Under this context, this chapter introduces readers to selected guidelines and frameworks relating to systemic transitions, sectoral transitions and behavioural transitions used and/or proposed by scholars. These can be applied to SDG 11 to better unravel its complexity for resource allocation to move towards the attainment of its ten targets. They are: (i) the Circular Economy; (ii) The Nexus Approach; (iii) The Multilevel Perspective and (iv) The Solution Design Approach. These can serve as elements to be considered for integration in policy and business strategies, as well as possible avenues for further research.