Editorial

Abstract

Sustainability transitions are frequently described through objectives, indicators and regulatory commitments. In the Mediterranean, however, a more demanding proposition becomes particularly visible: transition becomes consequential only when it acquires material, institutional and social form through the infrastructures that organise resource use, technological change, mobility, cultural participation, production and everyday work. This perspective is consistent with research that treats climate change as a problem requiring coordination across regional institutions and policy systems rather than as a sequence of isolated technical interventions. Mediterranean literature has likewise shown how climatic exposure, inherited urban structures and uneven economic development interact within a densely connected territorial system (Hoffmann et al., 2024; Salvati and Vardopoulos, 2024). The same systemic reasoning underpins contemporary work on futureproofed sustainability, in which the built environment, governance arrangements, environmental accounting and technological transition are treated as mutually dependent components of urban and regional resilience rather than as separate policy domains (Vardopoulos and Passas, 2025). Infrastructure therefore matters in an intentionally broad sense. It encompasses transport networks, waste conversion systems, data centres, cultural institutions, digital platforms, monitoring arrangements and the physical environments through which work and public services are performed. These are the structures through which sustainability ambitions become observable outcomes and through which their costs are ultimately distributed.