LAUSR

This paper analyses the repertoire of the ‘sustainable city’ by conducting a comparative review of the French‐ and English‐language literature. Some use this language for its practical impact regarding urban policies; others criticize it as a tool for legitimizing growth‐oriented policies. The article aims at overcoming this duality. Statistical and lexical analyses evidence four main variants of ‘sustainable city’ discourses, subject to debate: ‘green city’, ‘city of short distances’, ‘just city’ and ‘participatory city’. They yield four main findings: first, there is no single model of the ‘sustainable city’; second, the different approaches are not mutually exclusive, be it conceptually, institutionally, practically or geographically; third, the ‘sustainable city’ appears as a genuinely political repertoire – a wide range of actors and institutions act as filters, promoters or detractors; fourth, these situated uses are not fixed but constantly changing, in terms of both contents and procedures. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment