Urban ecological futures: Five eco-community strategies for more sustainable and equitable cities

CHITEWERE, Tendai, CORNEA, Natasha, LOCKYER, Joshua, MACRORIE, Rachel, MALÝ BLAŽEK, Jan, NELSON, Anitra and PICKERILL, Jenny (2023). Urban ecological futures: Five eco-community strategies for more sustainable and equitable cities. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.

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Abstract

Cities are critical sites for understanding, and potentially ameliorating, the effects of global ecological change, the climate emergency, and natural resource depletion. Contemporary cities are socio-materially connected through global markets, trade and transportation, placing ever-increasing demands on the natural environment and generating dangerous pollutants and emissions. Current approaches to address these environmental crises are dominated by neoliberal forms of ‘green’ urban development, carbon accounting, and techno-economic solutions, which extend corporate control over cities and tend to entrench inequality. A more strategic approach for enabling ecologically sustainable and equitable urban futures is urgently needed. We present five strategies for urban ecological futures in the Global North, derived from qualitative and ethnographic empirical research with international eco-communities, which open up discussions about how to tackle this challenge by acknowledging the role and potential of: (1) non-extractive community economies; (2)democratic processes of cooperative action; (3) social approaches to resource management; (4) participatory collaborative governance; and (5) urban heterogeneity and social justice. We explore the relational, contested and contextual processes through which these approaches could become embedded in urban policy and planning, thereby offering the strategic capacity required to move towards truly sustainable cities.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	12 Built Environment and Design; 14 Economics; 16 Studies in Human Society; Urban & Regional Planning; 33 Built environment and design; 38 Economics; 44 Human society
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13209
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Elements
Depositing User:	Symplectic Elements
Date Deposited:	17 Aug 2023 09:56
Last Modified:	02 Oct 2023 09:04
URI:	https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/32276

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