Planning roles in infrastructure system transitions: A review of research bridging socio-technical transitions and planning

Human settlements, particularly cities and their surrounding regions, are sites of infrastructural intensity and agglomeration, presenting challenges and opportunities for sustainable development. Both strategic spatial planning and sustainable transitions examine the interrelationships of urban, regional and infrastructural sustainability. Interdisciplinary interactions between planning and transitions in these contexts require further examination. This integrative literature review examines 30 journal articles with the aim of identifying the roles planning plays in sustainable infrastructure system transitions. Research examining local and regional infrastructure and urban transitions highlights the relational and contingent roles planning plays in place-based contexts. The review distils and discusses seven roles played by planning in sustainable transitions. Examining these roles provides insight into equipping planning, as a spatial and integrated policy process, for engaging with socio-technical transitions in complex policy processes.