Urban Transformations is an inter- and transdisciplinary open access journal. We offer a publishing and discussion platform for people engaged in science, policy and practice, targeting real-life impact. We invite contributions that address transformative urban change in the global North and South, and help to practically shape it towards sustainability.
Aims and scope
Urban transformations are of vital importance for the future of humanity and ecosystem Earth. They demand deep and accelerated changes in urban patterns and processes across all spheres of life, and from local to global. New knowledge on the subject, dynamics and directions of urban change is dearly needed to shift current development trajectories in the global North and South towards sustainability.
We invite contributions from any disciplines addressing these issues. The journal seeks to deepen and broaden current understandings theoretically, empirically and methodologically. There is a need for novel perspectives, drawing on ontological and epistemological multiplicity, inter- and transdisciplinary approaches. We welcome comparative research designs, as well as innovative methods and techniques. Special attention will be given to outcomes from science-practice co-production and co-design.
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We welcome the following article types:
- Research Original research work on the subject, dynamics or direction of urban transformations.
- Review Reviews explore, question, interpret or synthesize the available urban transformation literature on a selected topic.
- Frontiers paper Frontiers papers propose new research topics, approaches or concepts for advancing the science and practice of urban transformations.
- Perspective Short discussions that present thought-provoking arguments from researchers or practitioners.
- Focus point Succinct and informative reports on outstanding practice cases of urban transformations.
Open article collections
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Co-creation and co-production for transforming towns and cities with nature-based solutions
Guest Editors: Marcus J. Collier and Clair Cooper
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Food transformations in African secondary cities
Guest Editors: Jonathan Crush and Liam Riley
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Platform urbanism
Guest Editors: Federico Caprotti and I-Chun Catherine Chang
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Beyond Urban Living Labs: The making of transformative urban innovation systems
Guest Editors: Marc Wolfram, Joe Ravetz and Christian Scholl
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Co-producing urban sustainability transitions
Guest Editors: Niki Frantzeskaki and Marcus Collier
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Transformative turn in planning
Guest Editors: Marc Wolfram and Markus Egermann
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Editors' selection
The project-partnership cycle: managing city-university partnerships for urban sustainability and resilience transformations
Caughman, L., Beaudoin, F. & Withycombe Keeler, L. (2023)
The partnership project cycle and positive feedback loop
Contribute to our open article collections
Our ongoing article collections focus on selected topics and are open for submissions on a continuous basis.
Note: article collections can also be referred to as special issues or thematic collections.
Browse all articles
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Nature can cool cities, but proceed with caution
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The project-partnership cycle: managing city-university partnerships for urban sustainability and resilience transformations
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How to implement the urban bioeconomy: insights from Leipzig’s current policy mix for transitioning towards a bio-principled city
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The networked micro-decision context: a new lens on transformative urban governance
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Perspectives on urban transformation research: transformations in, of, and by cities
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Scaling the impact of sustainability initiatives: a typology of amplification processes
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Shifting landscapes of coastal flood risk: environmental (in)justice of urban change, sea level rise, and differential vulnerability in New York City
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Beyond the smart city: a typology of platform urbanism
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Understanding how city networks are leveraging climate action: experimentation through C40
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Article promotion
Particularly interesting articles are promoted via our BMC blog, where authors are invited to write a short piece summarizing their publication.
Annual Journal Metrics
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2022 Speed
73 days submission to first editorial decision for all manuscripts (Median)
377 days submission to accept (Median)2022 Usage
49,859 downloads
319 Altmetric mentions
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