{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,17]],"date-time":"2026-08-17T05:24:25Z","timestamp":1786944265039,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":82,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,17]],"date-time":"2026-08-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1786924800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Sociol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    This article argues that socio-ecological transition in Italian cities unfolds less as a coherent policy trajectory and more as a fragmented and contested field of governance devices, discourses, and coalitions. Drawing on a systematic mapping of sustainability-related policy instruments adopted in Milan between 2015 and 2025, discourse analysis, and key-informant interviews, Milan is approached as a critical urban laboratory. The paper shows how sustainability is produced through a proliferation of partially autonomous policy instruments, what we conceptualise as\n                    <jats:italic>sustainability molecules<\/jats:italic>\n                    , whose alignment is periodically attempted around major\n                    <jats:italic>turning points<\/jats:italic>\n                    such as mega-events, crises, and political cycles. These moments typically do not produce systemic integration; instead, they tend to reconfigure urban coalitions and legitimise selective interpretations of sustainability, highlighting its dual role as both a transformative agenda and a dispositif of urban legitimation.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fsoc.2026.1892885","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,17]],"date-time":"2026-08-17T04:31:19Z","timestamp":1786941079000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Framing sustainability in Milan\u2019s urban policies: new coalitions in a molecular transition"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Monica","family":"Bernardi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milan-Bicocca","place":["Milan, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Carlos","family":"Manzano","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milan-Bicocca","place":["Milan, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Adriano","family":"Cancellieri","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milan-Bicocca","place":["Milan, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Simone","family":"Tosi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milan-Bicocca","place":["Milan, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2","DOI":"10.1038\/s41893-017-0013-9","article-title":"Building a global urban science","volume":"1","author":"Acuto","year":"2018","journal-title":"Nat. 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