Tracing the boundaries between sustainable cities and cities for sustainable development. An LDA analysis of management studies

In recent years, an increasing number of researchers have focused their attention on the absence of a comprehensive definition of ‘sustainable cities’. The discussion has also interested the United Nations, which has contributed by providing a point of reference for local governments in the Agenda 2030. To shed light on the debate, the present study has adopted a latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) analysis of the literature produced within the last five years. Furthermore, this study has adopted a bibliometric analysis to provide further insights into the published literature. Finally, the institutional work theory has been used to read the results of the analysis concerning the three main institutional works identified by scholars: political, technical, and cultural work. The study has revealed eight different trends concerning sustainable cities research, involving topics such as urban development, public management, environmental issues, and cultural impact on citizens. Additionally, topic analysis has resulted in a strong connection with the SDG 11. Conclusions of the analysis include the realisation that the sustainable city is supported by the political work of local governments and by the contributions of either the cultural or the technical work of city institutional actors.