Abstract
through a scientometric review. It situates the identified research themes and trends within the Urban
Sustainability Transitions (UST) frameworks, connecting them to wider urban sustainability transition processes.
Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a qualitative, scientometric analysis with quantitative
insights of 203 peer-reviewed articles from the Scopus database published between 2000 and February 2025,
focusing on top-cited journals, country-specific outputs and author keyword co-occurrence. The preferred
reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) screening workflow was used to perform
VOSviewer-based author keyword co-occurrence, co-citation and temporal overlay analyses. These were then
discussed through the UST frameworks for policy recommendations.
Findings – Eight thematic clusters emerged covering affordability, urbanization, climate risk and self-help
housing, affordability within sustainable transitions, social sustainability, informal settlements, home ownership
and social housing. The temporal overlay reveals that since 2015, the focus has shifted from technology/efficiency
to equity and displacement risks, regime lock-ins in finance and planning and capability/implementation concerns.
Global North knowledge remains heavily concentrated alongside sparse Global South-anchored practice debates.
Originality/value – This study provides a clear, cluster-linked policy portfolio with measurable policy
metrics to connect housing, environmental and economic goals in housing policy development and monitoring.