Urban reform coalitions for transformative sustainability: reflections and lessons from Durban, South Africa

City managers, research institutions, civil society organizations, communities, and to some degree the private sector, are grappling with what kinds of social formations and governance processes are best suited to address wicked urban challenges. Centralized, modernist forms of government can no longer address urban problems alone, given the complexity of environmental and social risks. In response, urban reform coalitions bring actors together in a network around a common goal, usually at the local scale, to co-produce knowledge for more progressive, evidence-based urban policies and practice. An urban reform coalition has been established in Durban, South Africa to support catchment rehabilitation through investment in social, ecological and governance processes, as part of the city’s ecosystem-based approach to improving social and environmental well-being. This paper focuses on how this diverse group of actors, through knowledge co-production, have been able to navigate contestations generated through different framings of catchment rehabilitation, and remain together.