Cities and their constant growth have a crucial role in global sustainable development. The objective of this article is to present a conceptual framework of collaborative governance for the shaping of sustainable cities. The adoption of the multiple case study (5) method allowed understanding the reality of the cities of Copenhagen (Denmark), Amsterdam (Netherlands), London (England), Hamburg (Germany) and Barcelona (Spain). Sources of evidence were collected through in-depth interviews, documents, and observation, plus the data analysis was performed by using the NVivo software. For that, exploratory-descriptive research was conducted with the use of a qualitative research approach. The results exhibit strategies, benefits, risks, and limits inherent to collaborative governance systems in the cities and bring contributions to the development of the governance theory.