Redefining success in organizing towards degrowth

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-MIn order to untangle the meaning of success, or rather, thriving, for community-based initiatives (CBIs) that embody and prefigure degrowth, we bring sustainability transition, prefigurative politics, and degrowth scholarships in conversation with group facilitation practice and living systems theory. The article puts forward a model of organizational thriving grounded in the achievement of results while attending to organizational processes and members' needs. We explore the trajectories of five CBIs located in the province of Barcelona (Spain), looking into the ways such model is reflected, performed, and experienced by each of these. A key insight of our nine-year research is that 'care' is core to success. Sustainability transition, and degrowth organizing thus need to acknowledge that 'success' does not only stem from the realization of tangible results but from the consideration of members' needs and the quality of group communication, cohesion, inclusion and decision-making processes inasmuch as reaching targets

Three Histories of Greening and Whiteness in American Cities

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-MHow has urban greening related to the degree of whiteness in neighborhoods? The answer to this question provides an essential "historical diagnostic" that can be used to develop an approach to urban ecology which integrates racial and ethnic change into the planning for proposed interventions. In this paper we employ state sequence analysis to analyze the historical trend of greening (including the implementation of new parks, greenways, community gardens, green recreation areas, and nature preserves) between 1975 and 2014 in a sample of nine cities in the United States relative to concentrations of white and non-white residents. We divide the nine cities into three common growth trajectories and separately examine the trends for each growth trajectory. We further illustrate these trends by mobilizing qualitative data from field work in selected neighborhoods to help explain the processes that generate certain key findings in the quantitative data. We find that the relationship between greening and race/ethnicity differs according to city-level growth trajectory. Cities with continuous high and rapid levels of growth in the postwar period have the strongest link between increased greening and whiter populations. Meanwhile, in cities that contracted or had a punctuated growth pattern, non-white areas had a uniformly low level of greening that occurred mostly in recent years. In all, we show how urban growth, greening, and whiteness are inextricably associated qualities of American cities. We argue that understanding this association is essential for development of a race-conscious model for enhancing urban ecosystems

The influence of urban development dynamics on community resilience practice in New York City after Superstorm Sandy: Experiences from the Lower East Side and the Rockaways

While (urban) resilience has become an increasingly popular concept, especially in the areas of disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA), it is often still used as an abstract metaphor, with much debate centered on definitions, differences in approaches, and epistemological consider- ations. Empirical studies examining how community-based organizations (CBOs) “practice” resilience on the ground and what enables these CBOs to organize and mobilize around resilience are lacking. Moreover, in the growing context of competitive and entrepreneurial urbanism and conflicting priorities about urban (re)development, it is unclear how urban development dynamics influence community- based resilience actions. Through empirical research conducted on the Lower East Side, a gentrifying neighborhood in Manhattan, and in Rockaway, a socio-spatially isolated neighborhood in Queens, we investigate community organizing of low-income residents for (climate) resilience in a post-disaster context. Results show that both the operationalization of resilience – how resilience is “practiced” – and the community capacity to organize for the improved resilience of low-income residents are strongly influenced by pre-existing urban development dynamics and civic infrastructure – the socio-spatial networks of community-based organizations – in each neighborhood. The Lower East Side, with its long history of community activism and awareness of gentrification threats, was better able to mobilize broadly and collectively around resilience needs while the more socio-spatially isolated neighborhoods on the Rockaway peninsula were more constrained

Pluralizing environmental values for urban planning : How to uncover the diversity of imaginaries about socio-natures from Vitoria-Gasteiz (Basque Country, Spain)

Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UABUnidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-MLas ciudades han impulsado iniciativas de renaturalización en los programas de planificación local. Los discursos y justificaciones de estas intervenciones tienden a seguir lógicas instrumentales que a menudo se centran principalmente en los beneficios económicos, sanitarios y ecológicos de las contribuciones de la naturaleza a las personas (CNP). Sin embargo, los diversos residentes urbanos a menudo conectan con otros aspectos socio-naturales asociados a una pluralidad de valores de la naturaleza, incluyendo los valores relacionales, intrínsecos e instrumentales.Centrándonos en las CNP urbanas, utilizamos la metodología Q para explorar las perspectivas y expresiones de la diversidad de valores de los residentes urbanos sobre los espacios verdes urbanos y otras relaciones entre el ser humano y la naturaleza. Exploramos el papel de los valores tanto instrumentales como relacionales, así como ciertos posibles valores negativos de las CNP urbanas. Dada la reciente evaluación de valores del IPBES (IPBES, 2022), seguimos un llamamiento a realizar estudios empíricos y a desarrollar metodologías para explorar, obtener y visibilizar valores plurales sobre la naturaleza.Basamos nuestro estudio en la ciudad vasca de Vitoria-Gasteiz, España (Capital Verde Europea 2012), donde identificamos cuatro perspectivas distintas, todas ellas relacionadas con una diversidad de valores sobre la naturaleza urbana. Los residentes urbanos perciben mayoritariamente que los valores positivos de las CNP están directamente relacionados con su bienestar. Sin embargo, las CNP que afectan a los vínculos sociales dentro de su comunidad social, expresadas por ejemplo a través de valores relacionados con la comunidad, se perciben de forma diferente en las cuatro perspectivas.Concluimos que los planificadores y los responsables de la toma de decisiones deberían prestar atención a la inclusión de las cuatro perspectivas, en parte divergentes, sobre los valores plurales de las CNP (urbanas) en los procesos de formulación de políticas para garantizar resultados justos e inclusivos. En este sentido, se necesitan enfoques interseccionales y participativos que vayan más allá de los marcos dominantes de las CNP y los valores asociados, especialmente aquellos que puedan tener en cuenta las necesidades y preferencias de grupos sociales marginados. Debe hacerse especial hincapié en la integración de los valores relacionales, ya que fomentarlos a través de la planificación puede desempeñar un papel importante en la creación de conexiones arraigadas con los paisajes urbanos locales y la comunidad.Cities have pushed forward re-naturing initiatives in local planning agendas. Discourses and rationales for such interventions tend to follow instrumental framings often narrowed down to the economic, health and ecological benefits of nature's contributions to people (NCP). Yet, diverse urban residents often connect to other socio-nature framings that are associated with a plurality of values held for nature, including relational, intrinsic, and instrumental values. Focusing mostly on urban NCP, we used Q-methodology to explore the perspectives and expressions of urban residents' diversity of values for urban greenery and broader human-nature relationships. We explore the role of both instrumental and relational values, as well as certain potential disvalues of urban NCP. In light of the recent IPBES values assessment (IPBES, 2022) we follow a call for empirical studies and methodologies to explore, elicit and visibilize plural values about nature. We base our study in the Basque city of Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain (2012 European Green Capital) where we identify four distinct perspectives, all of which relate to a diversity of values about urban nature. Urban residents mostly perceive positive values for NCP as directly connected to their wellbeing. Yet, NCP that impact social bonds within their social community, expressed for instance through community-related values, are perceived differently across the four perspectives. We conclude that planners and decision-makers should pay scrutiny to include the four, partly differing, perspectives about the plural values of (urban) NCP in policymaking processes to assure just and inclusive outcomes. Here, intersectional and participatory approaches are needed beyond dominating framings of NCPs and related values, especially those that can take into account the needs and preferences of marginalized social groups. Special emphasis should be put on integrating relational values as nourishing such values through planning can play an important role in creating place-rooted connections with local urban landscapes and the community. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog

The notion of justice in funded research on urban sustainability : performing on a postpolitical stage or staging the political?

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-MAltres ajuts: Maria de Maeztu MDM-2021Urban sustainability has often been accused of tending mostly to its environmental and economic dimensions, neglecting or marginalising issues of justice. Simultaneously, the European Union has been increasingly funding research explicitly focused on the intersection of justice, sustainability and the city. The role of such research in furthering or jeopardising just urban sustainability objectives and outcomes so far remains underexplored. We conducted a discourse analysis on 27 selected research projects funded by the EU FP7 and Horizon 2020 schemes and which focus on the themes of urban sustainability and justice, supplemented by qualitative interviews with core researchers in those projects, to examine their potential in (re-)politicising or depoliticising urban sustainability. Our findings indicate that justice is often loosely defined through terms such as "stakeholder participation," "inclusion," or "diversity" in urban sustainability interventions, and research projects fail to pay attention to structural and historical drivers of injustice within a broader context of political economy, society and culture. We find this trend mostly in international collaborative projects that are implementation-oriented and promise to fast track inter- or trans-disciplinarity within a context of precarious research contracts and limited timescales for researchers. We build on earlier critiques of the ecological modernist character of EU research and policy priorities and contribute further by demonstrating how the academic entrepreneurial system perpetrated by EU-funded projects can undermine the politicising possibilities of research. To overcome funding constraints, we urge funders to allow for broader methods and timescales to examine and reflect on what are, or could be, just urban sustainabilities

Challenging the financial capture of urban greening

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-MUrban greening is critical for human health and climate adaptation and mitigation goals, but its financing tends to prioritize economic growth imperatives. This often results in elite value and rent capture and unjust greening outcomes. We argue that cities can, however, take action to ensure more socially just impacts of green financing. Financing of urban greening has traditionally prioritized economic growth. Here the authors argue for action to ensure more socially just green financing

Are greener cities inequitable?

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"We are the Green Capital" : Navigating the political and sustainability fix narratives of urban greening

Altres ajuts: acord transformatiu CRUE-CSICAltres ajuts: Department of Education of the Basque Government (PIBA19-0096) ; Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-MWith increasing attention on green(ing) cities, urban nature is used to increase liveability, to create new sectors such as tourism, and to boost international investment. What counts as desirable green intervention generally follows internationally accepted practices as cities aim for international recognition. Here, we examine the historic production of a green identity and the ways in which urban leaders have navigated local politics to enact greening. We focus on the mid-sized city Vitoria-Gasteiz (Basque Country, Spain), the 2012 European Green Capital. Based on a critical discourse analysis of archival data and in-depth interviews, we explore the production of a green city-identity over a period of forty years and determine four key processes: (i) early good leadership with a social city being core objective of urban planning, (ii) the need for building shared goals in a context of a violent political conflict in the Basque Country, (iii) policy mobilities and thriving for becoming a green pioneer internationally, and (iv) de-politization of green and sustainability discourses. We argue that the initially perceived social green amenity - an outcome of early progressive urban democratic experimentation - that served as a unifying project across polarized political fractions turned into an economic cultural asset for economic growth, shifting from a political to a sustainability fix

Injustice in Urban Sustainability

This book uses a unique typology of ten core drivers of injustice to explore and question common assumptions around what urban sustainability means, how it can be implemented, and how it is manifested in or driven by urban interventions that hinge on claims of sustainability. Aligned with critical environmental justice studies, the book highlights the contradictions of urban sustainability in relation to justice. It argues that urban neighbourhoods cannot be greener, more sustainable and liveable unless their communities are strengthened by the protection of the right to housing, public space, infrastructure and healthy amenities. Linked to the individual drivers, ten short empirical case studies from across Europe and North America provide a systematic analysis of research, policy and practice conducted under urban sustainability agendas in cities such as Barcelona, Glasgow, Athens, Boston and Montréal, and show how social and environmental justice is, or is not, being taken into account. By doing so, the book uncovers the risks of continuing urban sustainability agendas while ignoring, and therefore perpetuating, systemic drivers of inequity and injustice operating within and outside of the city. Accessibly written for students in urban studies, critical geography and planning, this is a useful and analytical synthesis of issues relating to urban sustainability, environmental and social justice

Environmental justice and community reconstruction in Boston, Barcelona, and Havana

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-270).Environmental Justice (EJ) scholarship has revealed that communities of color and low-income neighborhoods have been disproportionally affected by 'brown' contaminating facilities and excluded from decision-making on their land, and that residents have used a variety of strategies to address such injustices (Bullard 1990, Agyeman 2003, Susskind and Macey 2004, Corburn, 2005, Pellow and Brulle 2005, Schlosberg 2007). However, traditional EJ literature tends to overlook the fact that residents also fight to achieve long-term equitable revitalization and improve the livability and environmental quality of their neighborhoods through parks, playgrounds, community gardens, fresh markets, and improved waste management. Furthermore, previous studies have not examined the role of historic marginalization, threats of displacement, collective identities, and political systems in framing the demands and strategies of these marginalized neighborhoods, especially in different cities and political systems across the world. My dissertation is motivated by this overarching question: How and why do residents of seemingly powerless marginalized neighborhoods proactively organize to improve environmental quality and livability? To answer this question, I focus on three sub-questions: In what ways do residents and organizations engaged in environmental quality initiatives perceive that their work allowed them to re-build their community from within? To what extent do the environmental struggles of marginalized communities represent a desire to achieve environmental gains as opposed to serving as a means to advance broader political agendas in the city? How do different political systems and contexts of urbanization shape the strategies and tactics that neighborhoods develop and how to they manage to advance their goals? My dissertation is built around an international comparative study of three critical and emblematic case studies of minority and low-income neighborhoods organizing for improved environmental quality and livability in three cities - Casc Antic (Barcelona), Dudley (Boston), Cayo Hueso (Havana), - which have all achieved comparable improved environmental and health conditions around parks and playgrounds, sports courts and centers, community gardens, urban farms, farmers' markets, and waste management. During my eight-month fieldwork in Barcelona, Boston, and Havana, I conducted semi-structured interviews with leaders of local organizations and NGOs working on improving environmental conditions, with a sample of active residents in each neighborhood, and with municipal agencies and policy-makers. Furthermore, I engaged in observation of events, as well as participant observation of projects focused on environmental improvements. Last, I collected secondary data on neighborhood development, land use, and environmental and health projects. This study reveals that activists in Casc Antic, Dudley, and Cayo Hueso use their environmental and health endeavors to holistically re-build and repair a broken and devastated community and build safe havens, associating environmental justice with community development, and improvements in physical health with mental health support. They also frame broader political goals in the city such as addressing stigmas about their place, controlling the land and its boundaries, and building a more transgressive and spontaneous form of democracy. These goals reflect and are reinforced by the attachment and sense of community they feel for their neighborhood. To develop their vision, residents select multi-faceted and multi-tiered strategies, which reveal common patterns across neighborhoods despite differences in political systems: collage and bricolage techniques, broad coalitions and sub-community networks, clever engagement with public officials and funders, and local identity and traditions. This research extends EJ theory by focusing on how residents and their supporters make proactive environmental and health claims and defend their vision for improved neighborhood conditions and safety, gain political power, and address inequalities in planning and land use decisions.by Isabelle Anguelovski.Ph.D