The linked social and environmental implications of urbanisation and the failures to adequately respond to pressing environmental concerns have amounted to a monumental undertaking for sustainability in urban and regional development. While, sustainable development has come to mean many different things, the term is also being criticised for being ambiguous (While et al., 2010) and too narrowly prescribed according to the predetermined targets and solutions of conventional sustainability management (Etzion et al., 2017). Systemic transformations within urban sustainability discourse are therefore not only becoming increasingly relevant (Wolfram & Frantzeskaki, 2016), they are imperative for re-defining sustainability and addressing contemporary global challenges. Sustainability goals are hence better understood and determined by considering social, economic and environmental effects across different geographic scales, as well as different land uses that are increasingly connected and importantly, by focusing on the inclusivity of marginalised social groups that are disproportionately affected (UN SDSN, 2013).

At the local-scale, multi-level governance structures and emerging social innovation discourses (Coenen & Morgan, 2020) are emphasizing the role of neighbourhoods and communities by revealing the overlaps among social and ecological justice, even countering the hegemony of market-led urban development (Moulaert et al., 2007). Thus with citizen participation and empowerment featuring prominently in counter-hegemonic movements, grassroots innovations and small-scale initiatives for sustainable development, a singular definition of sustainability becomes problematic. Instead, alternative housing models such as co-housing that are re-emerging throughout Europe (Tummers, 2016), community solar schemes, interventions for degrowth in the suburbs (Alexander & Gleeson, 2017) are only a few recent examples of developments in “diverse sustainabilities” (Seyfang & Smith, 2007) that respond to the interests of the communities.

References:

Alexander, S., & Gleeson, B. (2017). Degrowth in the Suburbs: A Radical Urban Imaginary. In Home Office (Vol. 84, Issue 5).

Coenen, L., & Morgan, K. (2020). Evolving geographies of innovation: existing paradigms, critiques and possible alternatives. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift, 74(1), 13–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/00291951.2019.1692065

Etzion, D., Gehman, J., Ferraro, F., & Avidan, M. (2017). Unleashing sustainability transformations through robust action. Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, 167–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.06.064

Moulaert, F., Martinelli, F., González, S., & Swyngedouw, E. (2007). Introduction: Social innovation and governance in European cities: Urban development between path dependency and radical innovation. In European Urban and Regional Studies (Vol. 14, Issue 3). https://doi.org/10.1177/0969776407077737

Seyfang, G., & Smith, A. (2007). Grassroots innovations for sustainable development: Towards a new research and policy agenda. Environmental Politics, 16(4), 584–603. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644010701419121

Tummers, L. (2016). The re-emergence of self-managed co-housing in Europe: A critical review of co-housing research. Urban Studies, 53(10), 2023–2040. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098015586696

UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (2013) The Urban Opportunity: Enabling Transformative and Sustainable Development; UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network: Bangalore, India; New York, NY, USA.

While, A., Jonas, A. E. G., & Gibbs, D. (2010). From sustainable development to carbon control: Eco-state restructuring and the politics of urban and regional development. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 35(1), 76–93. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2009.00362.x

Wolfram, M., & Frantzeskaki, N. (2016). Cities and systemic change for sustainability: Prevailing epistemologies and an emerging research agenda. Sustainability (Switzerland), 8(2). https://doi.org/10.3390/su8020144