Abstract: This paper revises the multi-level perspective to analyse policy innovations within urban transitions. This investigation is concerned with demonstrating how live/work accelerates as a sustainability transition and which governance structures, approaches to planning, and actors influence the process. To analyse the trajectory of live/work, documentation, interviews, direct observation, and physical artefacts were used as data collection methods. Four case studies (San Francisco, Oakland, Vancouver, and Melbourne) provide different geographical, political, and cultural contexts. This research highlights the significance of landscape and regime actors in analysing transitions from a niche perspective. It finds that rigid and top down governance structures are less flexible and open to change, political approaches to planning are less responsive and adaptive, and strong political actors have the ability to either initiate or inhibit change. The application of sustainability transition theories, particularly the multi-level perspective, to the adoption pathways for live/work policies in four cities provides a framework within which to analyse the different pathways.