Mapping the diversity & transformative potential of approaches to sustainable just cities

How can cities be more sustainable and just? This question has guided a process of synthesizing insights from previously funded research and innovation projects that deal with approaches tackling urban sustainability and justice. As part of this process, a database in the form of a knowledge commons was developed to gather 40+ approaches: sets of interventions, actions, strategies, solutions or policies that address urban sustainability and justice. This paper reflects on what we can learn from this database of approaches from an urban transitions perspective, both by sharing the method we used to develop the database and by analysing the content of those approaches and what research has revealed in relation to them. Not only do we introduce our methodology of co-creating the database (Section 2) we also present its outcomes in terms of the interlinkages between sustainable and just cities in the identified approaches (Section 3), their transformative potential (Section 4) and which institutional logics are involved (Section 5). We conclude that in addressing sustainability challenges in cities, tensions and contradictions emerge between ecological sustainability on the one hand and inclusivity, recognition and equity on the other (Section 6). Based on the identified approaches, we find that issues linked to justice are frequently glossed over, implicitly addressed, and instrumentalized in favour of ecological improvements or profitability which causes serious implications for future urban research and innovation. In order to address this gap, we present four recommendations for city-makers and city-thinkers across the globe to integrate sustainability and justice at the urban level

Environmental Justice and Roma Communities in Central and Eastern Europe

Environmental injustice and the social exclusion of Roma communities in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has roots in historical patterns of ethnic exclusion and widening socioeconomic inequalities following the collapse of state socialism and the transition to multi-party parliamentary governments in 1989. In this article, we discuss some of the methodological considerations in environmental justice research, engage theoretical perspectives on environmental inequalities and social exclusion, discuss the dynamics of discrimination and environmental protection regarding the Roma in CEE, and summarize two case studies on environmental justice in Slovakia and Hungary. We argue that when some landscapes and social groups are perceived as “beyond the pale” of environmental regulation, public participation, and civil rights, it creates local sites for externalizing environmental harms

Environmentalism and democracy in Hungary and Latvia

Environmentalism reflects how we define and participate in social and political life (Harper, 1999; Melucci, 1989). Additionally, while there are several different kinds of environmentalism, the particular environmentalism that is engaged in any society reflects the capacity for democratic governance in that society. In this dissertation, I invite you to reflect on a particularly interesting manifestation of environmentalism on social and political life in two countries of the former communist bloc of Central and Eastern Europe, Hungary and Latvia that more than a decade ago made the transition to democracy. The communist regimes fell apart as environmental movements grew and spread across the former socialist states like a green breath of fresh air bringing with it a democratic governance regime characterized largely by the implementation of a multiparty parliamentary system, rule of law, and a budding civil society. Indeed, the first signs of civic life to emerge in Central and Eastern Europe with the decline of communism were environmental associations (Crampton, 1994, 97). Hungary and Latvia provide comparative cases to shed light on how the replacement of the old centralized, single ruling structure of the Communist Party with democratic political regimes came about as the focus of environmentalism shifted from nature protection to environmental protection. In conclusion, I assess and compare the role of environmentalism under the new regimes and how two forms of environmentalism, cosmopolitan environmentalism and ethno-ecologism emerged indicating both an increased capacity for strengthening democracy and a latent capacity for the exploitation of nationalistic and cultural themes that potentially threaten democracy. Certain tensions regarding environmental politics, professionalization, and public protest that strengthen and challenge democracy are discussed

Mapping the diversity & transformative potential of approaches to sustainable just cities

Abstract How can cities be more sustainable and just? This question has guided a process of synthesizing insights from previously funded research and innovation projects that deal with approaches tackling urban sustainability and justice. As part of this process, a database in the form of a knowledge commons was developed to gather 40+ approaches: sets of interventions, actions, strategies, solutions or policies that address urban sustainability and justice. This paper reflects on what we can learn from this database of approaches from an urban transitions perspective, both by sharing the method we used to develop the database and by analysing the content of those approaches and what research has revealed in relation to them. Not only do we introduce our methodology of co-creating the database (Section 2) we also present its outcomes in terms of the interlinkages between sustainable and just cities in the identified approaches (Section 3), their transformative potential (Section 4) and which institutional logics are involved (Section 5). We conclude that in addressing sustainability challenges in cities, tensions and contradictions emerge between ecological sustainability on the one hand and inclusivity, recognition and equity on the other (Section 6). Based on the identified approaches, we find that issues linked to justice are frequently glossed over, implicitly addressed, and instrumentalized in favour of ecological improvements or profitability which causes serious implications for future urban research and innovation. In order to address this gap, we present four recommendations for city-makers and city-thinkers across the globe to integrate sustainability and justice at the urban level

Investigations of low-frequency noise of GaN based heterostructure field-effect transistors

NRC publication: Ye