Cities worldwide are rising to the challenge of sustainable development, calling for large-scale and fastpaced transformations towards sustainability. Urban sustainability challenges are now being reframed as a lack of capacity of individuals and organizations to carry out such socio-technical transformations. This article expands on transformative capacity literature by elucidating the concept of actor-centric transformative capacity. It focuses on the unique role city-university partnerships (CUPs) can play in catalyzing and supporting effective urban sustainability transformations. Two case studies on CUPs in Portland, Oregon and Tempe, Arizona are used to identify determinants of actor-centric transformative capacity, their role in the transformative capacity of urban systems, and how they are built through CUPs. The article concludes with strategies for building effective CUPs capable of building actor-centric transformative capacity among university actors and city administrators.

Abstract:The urgency of climate change and other sustainability challenges makes transferring and scaling solutions between cities a necessity. However, solutions are deeply contextual. To accelerate solution efforts, there is a need to understand how context shapes the development of solutions. Universities are well positioned to work with cities on transferring solutions from and to other cities. This paper analyses five case studies of city-university partnerships in three countries on transferring solutions. Our analysis suggests that understanding the interest, the action on sustainability, and the individual and collective sustainability competences on the part of the city administration and the university can help facilitate the transfer of sustainability solutions across contexts. We conclude that the nature of the city-university partnership is essential to solution transfer and that new and existing networks can be used to accelerate progress on the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Cities face many challenges in their efforts to create more sustainable and resilient urban environments for their residents. Among these challenges is the structure of city administrations themselves. Partnerships between cities and universities are one way that cities can address some of the internal structural barriers to transformation. However, city–university partnerships do not necessarily generate transformative outcomes, and relationships between cities and universities are complicated by history, politics, and the structures the partnerships are attempting to overcome. In this paper, focus groups and trial evaluations from five city–university partnerships in three countries are used to develop a formative evaluation tool for city–university partnerships working on challenges of urban sustainability and resilience. The result is an evaluative tool that can be used in real-time by city–university partnerships in various stages of maturity to inform and improve collaborative efforts. The paper concludes with recommendations for creating partnerships between cities and universities capable of contributing to long-term sustainability transformations in cities.

Many of the central sustainability challenges facing society today-climate change, social inequality, and resource degradation, to name a few-are socially complex, politically fraught, and imperfectly understood. To be able to effectively engage in addressing such "wicked problems, " individuals need a mixture of content knowledge and soft skills that enable them to critically analyze these challenges from a systems perspective, develop creative solutions, communicate effectively, and work collaboratively with others who may not share common views. Such skill sets and abilities are also more generally valuable in navigating personal, organizational, and societal complexities. Portland State University's (PSU) Pathways to Sustainability Careers initiative seeks to better integrate programs that provide students with the knowledge and experience they need to engage with complex problems and be competitive and effective in sustainability-related careers. While PSU already offers a number of programs relevant to this effort, these opportunities are scattered across the university; finding these opportunities and organizing them into a coherent and complementary set of experiences can be challenging. The Pathways effort is focused on more effectively knitting together existing programs and emergent initiatives from across the university in order to engage faculty and staff through a collective action approach. By doing so, this initiative endeavors to provide a more intentional, cohesive, and easily navigable set of pathways for students, which will provide them with the academic knowledge, leadership skills, and real-world experiences needed to engage with "wicked" problems, and prepare them to successfully navigate an increasingly complex world.

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