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Call#: Van Pelt Library HM101 .G565 1995
Nothing inherent in the discipline steers planners either toward environmental protection or toward economic development - or toward a third goal of planning: social equity. Instead, planners work within the tension generated among these 3 fundamental aims, which is called the planner's triangle, with sustainable development at the center. This center cannot be reached directly, but only approximately and indirectly, through a sustained period of confronting and resolving the triangle's conflicts. To do so, planners have to redefine sustainability, since its current formulation romanticizes the sustainable past and is too vaguely holistic. Planners would benefit from integrating social theory with environmental thinking and from combining their substantive skills with techniques for community conflict resolution, to confront economic and environmental justice.
Environmental problems have become a worldwide concern for economists, as is witnessed by the development of many theories and policies aimed at driving the economy towards a ‘sustainable economy'. The problem becomes even greater if we discuss cities. As recognised in many studies, a high percentage of the world population lives in cities, where quality of life and environmental concerns undermine all advantages associated with agglomeration economies. The vast experience in terms of theoretical and empirical substance which has been built up around the theme of ‘sustainable economy' has only partially helped to generate a framework for an ‘urban sustainable development'. The city is in fact by definition an ‘artifact environment', where well-established concepts of ‘environmental economics' (such as natural capital stock, natural environment) can hardly be transferred and applied, in the way they are theoretically formulated. The first scope of the paper is to offer an analytical framework for ‘urban sustainable development' to present the main economic concepts that are hidden under this label. In particular, different ‘environments' co-exist in a city: the natural, the artifact and the social environment. Each of them generates positive and negative externalities for the city, since each of them represents ‘use advantages' and ‘use costs' for a city. If this is true, then it is a plausible assumption that the integration of these three ‘environments' has to be supported with specific intervention policies. The main aim of this paper is to highlight the possible intervention policies which may be developed to achieve a balanced ‘sustainable development' in terms of new policy principles that should govern the ‘sustainable city'.
'Struggling with sustainability': weak and strong interpretations of sustainable development within local authority policy
D C Gibbs, J Longhurst, C Braithwaite
Received 3 May 1996; in revised form 12 April 1997
Abstract. In recent years there has been a growing interest in sustainable development as a guiding principle to allow the integration of economic development and the environment within policy and strategy. At all levels of policymaking a major emphasis has been placed upon the local scale as the most appropriate for the delivery of such policies and initiatives, with a particular stress upon local authorities as the major delivery mechanism. Though it is often assumed that this integration is relatively unproblematic, this paper indicates that this is not the case. The paper draws upon research with urban local authorities in England and Wales, which reveals that there are varying interpretations of the environment within local authorities, reflecting environmental and economic development perspectives. In each case, however, these are effectively interpretations which tend towards the 'weak' end of a sustainability spectrum and it is suggested that such divergent interpretations of sustainability are hindering integrative activity and the potential for introducing 'strong' sustainability measures.
Abstract
There is evidence that the politics of economic development in the post-industrial city is increasingly bound up with the ability of urban elites to manage ecological impacts and environmental demands emanating from within and outside the urban area. More than simply a question of promoting quality of life in cities in response to interurban competition and pressures from local residents, the greening of the urban growth machine reflects changes in state rules and incentives structuring urban governance as part of an evolving geopolitics of nature and the environment. The adoption of principles and practices of ecological modernization potentially represents a dramatic shift in the social regulation of urban governance away from unconstrained neoliberalized modes. In this article we explore how different demands on and for urban environmental policy have played out vis-à-vis changing modes and practices of governance in two English post-industrial cities. We explore differences in the ways that entrepreneurial urban regimes have sought to incorporate the green agenda (Leeds), or insulate themselves from ecological dissent (Manchester). We further attempt to conceptualize evolving urban economy-environment relations in the UK in terms of an ensemble of governance practices, strategies, alliances and discourses that enables the local state to manage, though not necessarily resolve, seemingly conflicting economic, social and environmental demands at different scales of territoriality. Here we propose the notion of an 'urban sustainability fix' to describe the selective incorporation of ecological objectives in local territorial structures during an era of ecological modernization.
Heynen N, 2006,
Abstract. This research uses a Marxist urban political ecology framework to link processes of urban environmental metabolization explicitly to the consumption fund of the built environment. Instead of reinventing the wheel, I argue in this paper that Marxist notions of metabolism are ideal for investigating urban environmental change and the production of uneven urban environments. In so doing, I argue that despite the embeddedness of Harvey's circuits of capital within urban political economy, these connected notions still have a great deal to offer regarding better understanding relations between consumption and metabolization of urban environments. From this theoretical perspective, I investigate urban socionatural metabolization as a function of the broader socioeconomic processes related to urban restructuring within the USA between 1962 and 1993 in the Indianapolis inner-city urban forest. The research examines the relations between changes in household income and changes in urban forest canopy cover. The results of the research indicate that there was a significant decline over time in the Indianapolis urban forest canopy and that median household was related to these changes, thus demonstrating a concrete example of urban environmental metabolization.
Abstract
This article addresses the question as to why, in contrast to national governments, city administrations engage so enthusiastically with urban environmental problems. It argues that the politics of urban environmentalism need to be examined not from the point of view of ecological rationality and alternative politics, but as an integral part of spatial transformation and social regulation under neoliberal urbanization. Recent contributions to theoretical debate on this issue are examined, with especial attention paid to the themes of governance, citizenship, subjectivity and ‘regulation of the self’, and their relevance to the understanding of contemporary urban environmental policy and management practices. The article explores the way in which urban environmental management can be understood as contributing to the constitution of the self-governing citizen in the individualized urban milieu of contemporary cities, a process in which the progressive and libertarian aspirations of much early environmental thought have been subtly converted into a new form of subjection to the strategic requirements and political conveniences of neoliberal city administrations.
Abstract
Sustainable consumption is gaining in currency as a new environmental policy objective. This paper presents new research findings from a mixed-method empirical study of a local organic food network to interrogate the theories of both sustainable consumption and ecological citizenship. It describes a mainstream policy model of sustainable consumption, and contrasts this with an alternative model derived from green or ‘new economics’ theories. Then the role of localised, organic food networks is discussed to locate them within the alternative model. It then tests the hypothesis that ecological citizenship is a driving force for ‘alternative’ sustainable consumption, via expression through consumer behaviour such as purchasing local organic food. The empirical study found that both the organisation and their consumers were expressing ecological citizenship values in their activities in a number of clearly identifiable ways, and that the initiative was actively promoting the growth of ecological citizenship, as well as providing a meaningful social context for its expression. Furthermore, the initiative was able to overcome the structural limitations of mainstream sustainable consumption practices. Thus, the initiative was found to be a valuable tool for practising alternative sustainable consumption. The paper concludes with a discussion of how ecological citizenship may be a powerful motivating force for sustainable consumption behaviour, and the policy and research implications of this.
Postmodern explanations of consumer behaviour stress social and psychological factors to the neglect of explanations based on structural issues such as the working life conditions which favour a work-and-spend lifestyle, the conditions of urban living or the effects of pervasive marketing. This paper argues that consumers may not be so keen and willing but are rather locked-in by circumstances. Some of these circumstances are deliberately created by other interests, and a policy to limit consumption must look for adequate means over a large and varied field. In the end shorter working hours may be an important key to a more sustainable future.
abstract
This article reviews recent research into alternative systems of food provision. It considers, first, what the concept of`alternativeness' might mean, based on recent discussions in economic geography. Informed by this, it discusses food relocalization and the turn to `quality' food production, arguing that both are `weaker' alternative systems of food provision because of their emphasis on food. It then examines some `stronger' alternative systems of food provision, which emphasize the networks through which food passes. Lastly, the paper reflects on the concept of alternativeness in the context of food supply chains, and suggests some possible directions for future research.