The city as actor in UN frameworks: formalizing ‘urban agency’ in the international system?

Cities have been recognized as important players in some of today’s most visible global agendas, from the Paris Agreement on climate to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. This is a formalization of the global role of cities, on which we have little systematic evidence. The formal role of cities remains murky at best, when not unspecified or lumped into civil society. The review presented here, the first of its kind in both international and urban studies, explores the ways in which the United Nations has formally recognized cities in its key documentation, as represented by 32 key frameworks, treaties and statements underpinning the current Agenda 2030. It differentiates across three ‘functions’ ascribed to cities: as issues, as places and as actors. The results of this study highlight the pervasiveness of cities being referred to as actors in official United Nations documentation, over and above other functions. Further unpacking the idea of city agency and implications for cities, we demonstrate that talk of the meteoric ‘rise’ of cities might need to be undertaken more carefully with the better understanding of historical trends.