{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T05:01:25Z","timestamp":1790744485033,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":63,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790726400000},"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>This article examines the governance of the socio-ecological transition in the industrial city of Taranto (Italy) as it strives to move beyond its historical dependence on the steel industry and towards a more sustainable model of development. Based on the qualitative evidence, the article shows the protagonism of local public institutions, namely, the Puglia Region and the Municipality of Taranto. Through a mix of ideational, political, and economic mechanisms, local public institutions have adopted a post-industrial economic model and articulated a vision for Taranto\u2019s transition aligned with a green growth perspective. While positively valuing the unprecedented effort toward the diversification of the area\u2019s economy and society, the local public-led governance raises concerns regarding administrative capacity, the extent of social participation, and the extent to which alternative perspectives are incorporated to achieve its ambition of a just socio-economic transformation toward climate neutrality. The article seeks to deepen understanding of urban and regional transformation driven by the ecological transition in industrial areas and offers an original contribution to the literature on Taranto by moving beyond the predominantly industrial perspective to examine the broader territorial and urban governance arrangements, as well as the socio-economic dynamics underpinning the transition.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fsoc.2026.1899843","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T04:46:02Z","timestamp":1790743562000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Governing socio-ecological transition in an industrial city: public institutions\u2019 prominence and the risk of a top\u2013down process"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Lidia","family":"Greco","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Political Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro","place":["Bari, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","first-page":"147","article-title":"Towards ecological embeddedness in democratised workplaces: addressing climate change as a labour issue","volume-title":"Transformative ideas\u2013ensuring a just share of progress for all","author":"Askenazy","year":"2023"},{"key":"ref2","year":"2019"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"104376","DOI":"10.1016\/j.landurbplan.2022.104376","article-title":"The place of space in urban metabolism research: towards a spatial turn? 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