Typology and Perception of Informal Green Space in Urban Interstices: A case study of Ichikawa City, Japan

Multitudinous studies about urban green space (UGS) reveal that designed and managed UGS may provide not only social, environmental, and economic benefits for cities, but also mental, physical, and physiological benefits for their residents. However, past studies have focused on widely recognized green spaces in urban areas such as parks, gardens, and forests. Wasteland, wilderness, and unplanned in-between margins, which have been called informal green space (IGS), could provide supplementary green space. This study explores IGS in Ichikawa City, a post-industrial satellite town of Tokyo with scarce UGS, by addressing the following questions: (a) What types of non-standardized and unsystematised green space exist in the target area? (b) How is IGS in the target area perceived? (c) Could IGS be considered supplementary green space for the city? Using a systematic land use survey, we identified nine types of IGS in Ichikawa City that accounted for 6.35% of total land use. A questionnaire survey showed that undergraduate students recognize the existence of IGS in their neighbourhood, perceive multiple benefits and see especially street verges, unimproved land and water verges as potential supplementary green space. We conclude that IGS can serve as a supplementary green space and discuss how IGS might be integrated into green space planning to improve residents’ well-being

Not just playing: The politics of designing games for impact on anticipatory climate governance

Simulation games are increasingly popular tools for opening up future imaginaries, especially in the arena of sustainability policy-making and decision support. However, there is a lack of understanding regarding the potential power of games in anticipatory governance. We argue that the utility of simulation games in support of anticipatory climate governance can be greatly increased when game processes are consciously designed to impact present day planning and action. At the same time, game designers with the intention to support or intervene in governance and policy-making inevitably enter political arenas and bear responsibility for understanding and managing their influence at the science-policy interface. We present two case studies: a game simulating a sustainable food policy council with food system actors in Kyoto, Japan, and a game focused on the exploration and imagination of the global impacts of climate tipping points aimed at participants of the global climate negotiation community. Each case study represents a specific logic for translating game play into real-world impacts at different governance scales with distinct political implications. Based on these two case studies, we develop principles for the design and evaluation of simulation games that seek to impact anticipatory climate governance, based on five lenses: (1) purpose and positionality; (2) conceptions of the future and imaginaries; (3) beneficiaries, key stakeholders and participants; (4) the politics of game features and design; and (5) evaluation

Learning, playing, and experimenting with critical food futures

Imagining sustainable food futures is key to effectively transforming food systems. Yet even transdisciplinary approaches struggle to open up complex and highly segregated food policy governance for co-production and can fail to critically interrogate assumptions, worldviews, and values. In this Perspective we argue that transdisciplinary processes concerned with sustainable food system transformation need to meaningufully engage with critical food futures, and can do so through the use of soft scenario methods to learn about, play with, and experiment in futures. Specifically, soft scenarios contribute in four ways: 1) questioning widely held assumptions about the future; 2) being inclusive to multiple perspectives and worldviews; 3) fostering receptiveness to unimaginable futures; 4) developing futures literacy. Based on insights from a 5-year transdisciplinary action research project on sustainable food transformation across Asia, we demonstrate how these processes play out in narratives, serious games and interactive art featuring soft scenarios. We conclude by discussing the potential for collaboration between transdisciplinary and futures researchers, especially for transforming food systems

Advancing Sustainable Consumption and Production in Cities - A Transdisciplinary Research and Stakeholder Engagement Framework to Address Consumption-Based Emissions and Impacts

Urban consumption patterns and lifestyles are increasingly important for the sustainability of cities today and in the future. However, considerations of consumption issues, social norms, behaviour and lifestyles within current urban sustainability research and practices are limited. Much untapped potential for the reduction of the environmental footprint of cities exists in combined production and consumption-based approaches, particularly in the “demand” areas of mobility, housing, food, and waste. To change unsustainable consumption and production patterns in cities, research needs to be transdisciplinary, actively involving stakeholders through co-creation processes. This paper builds on the premise that the perspectives and approaches of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) for cities require the involvement of non-traditional stakeholders that are generally not included in urban planning processes such as social change initiatives, citizen groups and informal sector representatives. We present a transdisciplinary research and engagement framework to understand and advance the transition to sustainable SCP patterns and lifestyles in cities. This transdisciplinary approach to SCP transformations in cities combines co-creation, participatory visioning processes and back-casting methods, participatory urban governance and institutional change, and higher-order learning from small-scale community initiatives. We illustrate our conceptual framework through three empirical case studies in cities which take an integrative approach to lowering ecological footprints and carbon emissions

Advancing sustainable consumption and production in cities - A transdisciplinary research and stakeholder engagement framework to address consumption-based emissions and impacts

Urban consumption patterns and lifestyles are increasingly important for the sustainability of cities today and in the future. However, considerations of consumption issues, social norms, behaviour and lifestyles within current urban sustainability research and practices are limited. Much untapped potential for the reduction of the environmental footprint of cities exists in combined production and consumption-based approaches, particularly in the “demand” areas of mobility, housing, food, and waste. To change unsustainable consumption and production patterns in cities, research needs to be transdisciplinary, actively involving stakeholders through co-creation processes. This paper builds on the premise that the perspectives and approaches of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) for cities require the involvement of non-traditional stakeholders that are generally not included in urban planning processes such as social change initiatives, citizen groups and informal sector representatives. We present a transdisciplinary research and engagement framework to understand and advance the transition to sustainable SCP patterns and lifestyles in cities. This transdisciplinary approach to SCP transformations in cities combines co-creation, participatory visioning processes and back-casting methods, participatory urban governance and institutional change, and higher-order learning from small-scale community initiatives. We illustrate our conceptual framework through three empirical case studies in cities which take an integrative approach to lowering ecological footprints and carbon emissions.Energy & Industr

Not just playing: The politics of designing games for impact on anticipatory climate governance

Simulation games are increasingly popular tools for opening up future imaginaries, especially in the arena of sustainability policy-making and decision support. However, there is a lack of understanding regarding the potential power of games in anticipatory governance. We argue that the utility of simulation games in support of anticipatory climate governance can be greatly increased when game processes are consciously designed to impact present day planning and action. At the same time, game designers with the intention to support or intervene in governance and policy-making inevitably enter political arenas and bear responsibility for understanding and managing their influence at the science-policy interface. We present two case studies: a game simulating a sustainable food policy council with food system actors in Kyoto, Japan, and a game focused on the exploration and imagination of the global impacts of climate tipping points aimed at participants of the global climate negotiation community. Each case study represents a specific logic for translating game play into real-world impacts at different governance scales with distinct political implications. Based on these two case studies, we develop principles for the design and evaluation of simulation games that seek to impact anticipatory climate governance, based on five lenses: (1) purpose and positionality; (2) conceptions of the future and imaginaries; (3) beneficiaries, key stakeholders and participants; (4) the politics of game features and design; and (5) evaluation