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Recent decades have witnessed a significant transformation in strategies of urban environmental governance as authority has shifted from statist command-and-control systems to more horizontal, networked forms of governance-beyond-the-state. In the USA the changing nature of state authority over urban-regional planning processes has been particularly dramatic in metropolitan regions promoting 'smart-growth' agendas. Smart-growth strategies address regional planning and land-development concerns through market-based incentive programs aimed at increasing development densities and coordinating other land-management priorities. This paper explores the scalar politics through which smart-growth policies in the Greater Boston region of Massachusetts (USA) are being constructed and contested. In this region the state of Massachusetts has used incentive programs, new forms of regulation, and public-private coalitions to implement a smart-growth agenda that seeks to ameliorate the region's housing crisis and sustain its pool of knowledge-economy workers, but these programs also challenge the traditional authority of local communities in governing land-use decisions. Crucial to this assertion of land-management authority at the state scale has been the legacies of past forms of authority and land management, the ability of the state to exploit the positionalities of key actors associated with the smart-growth agenda, and the role of crises (in housing, congestion) in making increased state control more palatable.

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L an d-use-change drivers related to in stitu tio n al dynam ics, including historical p ath dependencies an d political dynam ics associated w ith u rb an lan d tran sfo rm atio n , are difficult to relate to specific spatial locations an d th u s are n o t easily included in spatial m odels o f u rb an land-use change. In this p ap er we describe a land-use model w ith variables representing such in stitu tio n al dynam ics in the G re ater B o sto n region, a m e tro p o lita n area characterized by p eriu rb an spraw l, for the p eriod 1985-99. A n ag g regate land-use m odel is developed at the m unicipal level, based on a n arrativ e analysis d raw n from in -d ep th interview s w ith tow n plan n ers, state officials, an d land developers, to explain land-developm ent p a tte rn s d ocum ented over th a t study perio d using aerial ph o to graphy. E x p la n ato ry variables, including tow n financial variables, school quality m easures, an d spatial variables associated w ith access an d lo catio n , are linked to landch an g e o utcom es th ro u g h the selection environm ent fram ew ork, a fram ew ork borro w ed from econom ic geography to describe how regional gro w th p a tte rn s are sh ap ed by locally specific in stitu tio n al, m arket, an d spatial contexts th a t co n stra in individual land-use decision m akers. R esults o f the analysis suggest th a t in stitu tio n al dynam ics associated w ith h o using values an d associated tax revenues, ed u catio n al expenditures, an d exclusive zoning practices significantly explain m unicipal land-use change in the su b u rb an o r p eriu rb an context. Keywords: land use, m e tro p o litan areas, m odel calib ratio n , policy su p p o rt

This paper examines sustainability transition dynamics in the US electricity system, drawing on the socio-technical systems approach. We view system change as unfolding along several critical dimensions and geographical scales, including dynamics in the environment, science, civil society, discourse, and state regulatory institutions, as well as in capital and technology formations. A particular emphasis is given to the interaction of discourses, policy networks, and institutions. We trace four distinct regimes which have characterized the evolution of this discourse-network-institutional nexus over the last century. The research examines dynamics that present a challenge to the incumbent energy regime based on fossil fuels, nuclear and hydropower, and demonstrates how the actor-network supporting renewables and energy efficiency has grown stronger and more capable of moving toward a sustainability transition than at any time since the sustainable energy movement began a generation ago