Honest
Discover 5 keys to make cities honest:
#ResearchAndInnovation - Justice is hardwired into research & innovation projects on urban sustainability
EU research agendas are steered to investigate how cities can achieve social and environmental sustainability in a just, inclusive and equitable way. Research stems from the concerns and needs of inhabitants in urban contexts and does not impose concepts, practices or blueprints. EU-funded projects aimed at improving urban planning in the field of sustainability have clear justice incentives, address the needs of vulnerable groups and include their voices in the research process, as well as its outcomes and impacts.
Related keys: #Participation #Knowledge #Solidarity
What approaches can activate this key?
Research funding should encourage new research objectives, tools, and pathways to fully examine the extent to which historically marginalised groups are exposed to longstanding exclusion or inequality. Funding schemes should give space for exploring bolder pathways to just and sustainable cities, including alternative economic models, land arrangements or urban development strategies. Some of the approaches identified by UrbanA that could contribute to such a direction would be the broader embracement of citizen science in EU-supported research projects, and co-learning and knowledge brokerage processes.
What governance arrangements enable this key?
More interdisciplinary dialogue is needed if justice is to be given due consideration in policy and funding schemes. This requires a comprehensive vision of change that assists policy makers, municipal technicians, civil society organizations and other urban governance actors to draw links between different aspects and scales of sustainability policy -- from biophysical processes to issues of identity, culture and social justice.
Efforts to strengthen transdisciplinarity in urban sustainability research require work to acknowledge and involve non-academic actors as holders of vital expertise. But doing this crucial work opens up more opportunities to embody justice in the research process. In this sense, other supportive governance arrangements could include committing to meaningful participation processes and tapping into existing community networks.
What drivers of injustice does this key address?
It is often the case that projects of research and implementation on urban sustainability engage with the notion of justice only superficially or mechanistically, for example through loosely defined concepts such as ‘social cohesion,’ ‘diversity’ or ‘participation.’ Instead, justice needs to be understood and studied in its many facets: It has (among others) material, historical and symbolic dimensions. What is often falsely assumed in sustainability research is that justice will automatically trickle down from sustainability interventions into local contexts. But this fails to consider the ongoing effects of perpetuated exclusion and inequality. A problematic and limited engagement with the concept of participation in urban planning and sustainability projects can exacerbate, rather than alleviate inequalities.
Moreover, there is often a Lack of effective knowledge brokerage and stewardship opportunities; access to useful information and know-how produced by academics around sustainable urban interventions is not shared effectively or equally among social groups, sectors or disciplines. To overlook this gap constrains the potential for meaningful work towards sustainability and justice.
Extra insights from UrbanA Community
- EU research and innovation focusing on the local level should better respond to inhabitants’ needs, rather than answering questions unrelated to their concerns.
- Guidelines for funding should be co-designed with marginalised groups and/or marginalised groups’ representatives.
Inspirational example: Research supports intersectionality, Barcelona
In Barcelona, the City Council has initiated an effort to address the question of civil participation and intersectional inequities in urban planning by awarding a prize to research projects with a community and ecofeminist perspective.
In 2019, this award went to a project with the title “Network of climate and care shelters from a community and ecofeminist perspective,” which co-designs urban climate shelters in under-served neighborhoods, actively involving immigrant women residents. By recognizing the value of intersectional projects with a gender perspective and women acting as change-makers, Barcelona is exemplifying one way through which research can support sustainable and just urbanism. In Barcelona, this research is part of a wider effort to tackle the climate emergency – while leading with an ecofeminist focus.
A video that summarizes this initiative is available here.
Avenues for action
Use projects to promote transdisciplinary learning
- Recognise and use research and innovation projects (e.g. EU-funded ones) as opportunities to foster transdisciplinary learning and break silos across environmental, social, economic and political spheres.
- Build on pre-existing projects by taking stock and planning ways to keep using available project outputs.
- Remember to integrate a transdisciplinary approach in your communication by using non-discipline-specific language and accessible communication channels, for example. Provide possibilities for discussing the different perspectives to approach the topic of interest (e.g. joint events and publications).
Read more about the UrbanA team's work to map and analyse EU-funded projects relating to urban sustainability and injustice.
#Economy - The economy benefits people and the environment
The economy of a sustainable and just city focuses on the creation of social, cultural, ecological and other forms of value that benefit people from all walks of life. The inclusive and fair allocation of resources ensures an economy that works for the common good. Production and consumption are organised so as to minimise negative externalities, cultivate non-consumerist values and reduce unnecessary demand. City-makers challenge inherited neoliberal narratives that overemphasize GDP growth, and are open to post-growth and post-capitalist approaches. This openness facilitates experimentation with socially and environmentally innovative concepts such as regeneration, care, sharing and solidarity.
Related keys: #Regional #Solidarity #Finance
What approaches can activate this key?
Creating new urban economies that serve human needs requires alternative economic approaches and indicators that go beyond the current outsized focus on GDP growth. Research fields such as Degrowth show growth-based economics to be incompatible with sustainability, justice and economic democracy. Existing efforts to put this into practice include Transition initiatives, in which communities come together to remodel their local economies; ecovillages guided by a whole-systems approach that treats economic, ecological, social and cultural dimensions as interdependent; and numerous forms of urban commons. All such initiatives emphasise participation, inclusion and partnership as key foundations of a sustainable and just economy.
What governance arrangements enable this key?
Sustainable and just urban economies can only be built from the bottom up. This requires existing decision-makers to commit to a meaningful participation process. Such processes need to tap into existing community networks in order to draw on the needs, perspectives, knowledge and skills that already exist. Bridging different stakeholder groups brings diverse interests and perspectives into dialogue, recognising and addressing conflicts and perhaps identifying unexpected opportunities for collaboration. All these governance arrangements support the inclusive dialogue necessary to create a pluralistic economy; one rooted in sustainability and justice as core principles, rather than secondary concerns.
What drivers of injustice does this key address?
Alternative city economies based on sustainability and justice directly challenge the unquestioned focus on neoliberal growth and austerity urbanism: They do so by actively recognising that economic priorities should reflect the sustainable provision of human needs rather than uphold unequal and unsustainable systems and power structures. An inclusive urban economy can be an antidote to material and livelihood inequalities and racialised or ethnically exclusive urbanisation. It also simultaneously requires and strengthens civil society participation, and so can help address weakened civil society, in both the short and long term.
Extra insights from UrbanA Community
"What we need in order to address the world’s big problems is more than incremental change to the status quo: It will require nothing less than a radical disruption of economic dogma."
Inspirational example: Social Solidarity Economy, Barcelona
The social solidarity economy (SSE) in Barcelona draws on long-standing traditions of collaboration, mutual aid, commoning and cooperativism, and is an important force for economic transformation in the city and across Catalunya.
A 2016 study reported a total of 4,718 separate socio-economic initiatives dedicated to a more equitable and sustainable economy in the city, many of which are actively networked at neighbourhood, city and regional scales. Against a background of rising unemployment in the city, employment in workers’ cooperatives rose by more than half between 2009 and 2014. Support from Barcelona's municipal government has accelerated since the citizens' movement Barcelona En Comú came to power in 2015. A dedicated Impulse Plan includes targeted financial support for new SSE projects and pays particular attention to addressing structural inequalities. The city administration has also taken action against corporate dominance of key sectors such as water and housing, including efforts toward the remunicipalisation of energy services.
Avenues for action
Enable cross-economic dialogue and knowledge sharing
- Participate in, support and encourage dialogue between different, locally grounded businesses, community, and government actors which bring in alternative motivations and approaches to economic activities.
- Include a diversity of economic actors in your projects and institutional processes (e.g. discussing the local economic development strategies).
- Also include activists and other interest-groups who can challenge the dominant approaches on economic development and provide alternatives (e.g. green growth, blue growth, degrowth).
Align your activities with goals related to justice and sustainability
- Align your activities with initiatives that question GDP and economic profit as (the only) measures of value. When planning activities and objectives, consider other aspects of value, such as environmental and social metrics - care, regeneration, solidarity, etc.
- Support private sector opportunities, and private/public collaboration, in justice and sustainability (e.g. social innovations) by providing funding and suitable regulatory frameworks.
- Push for and adopt equitable and transparent taxation, income and employment models, which support both social justice and environmental sustainability (e.g. environmental taxes).
- Adopt and support innovative economic initiatives (e.g. community currencies, timebanking) which prioritise community-building and solidarity over economic profit.
Check out Beyond GDP indicators. And check out the Brixton Pound as an example of community currency.
#Power - Power dynamics are identified and dismantled for more equitable structures
In a sustainable and just city, harmful power relations are addressed for systematic and transformative change to take place. Power relations characterized by inequality, exclusion, exploitation and extractivism are acknowledged and questioned. People have the transformative capacity to challenge, alter and replace existing power relations. Transforming power is about dismantling existing structures and creating alternative practices while also being critical and transparent about new power dynamics that emerge.
Related keys: #Solidarity #Knowledge #Translocal (LINK TO THEIR CLUSTER PAGES)
What approaches can activate this key?
What governance arrangements enable this key?
What drivers of injustice does this key address?
Extra insights from UrbanA Community
Inspirational example
Avenues for action
You might be wondering, what everyday actions can I take to put all this theory into practice? Take a look at the avenues for action, below, for some practical guidance.
#Technology - Digital tools can serve everyone
In sustainable and just cities, digital technologies contribute first and foremost to environmental sustainability and human wellbeing. They provide the means of including people in deliberative and participatory decision-making processes, and support the adoption of sustainable consumption and production practices. Ethical artificial intelligence, open data and open source tools and standards can all support digitalization for sustainable and just cities.
Related keys: #Finance #Accessibility #Power (LINK TO THEIR CLUSTER PAGES)
What approaches can activate this key?
What governance arrangements enable this key?
What drivers of injustice does this key address?
Extra insights from UrbanA Community
Inspirational example
Avenues for action
You might be wondering, what everyday actions can I take to put all this theory into practice? Take a look at the avenues for action, below, for some practical guidance.
#Responsibility - City-makers take responsibility and are held accountable
In creating sustainable and just cities, everyone has a role to play, as well as the responsibility to speak out and act upon current injustices and unsustainable practices, even if individual actions must ultimately be connected to systemic efforts. As such, responsibility is shared by all actors – to the best of their varying capabilities – in a city and beyond its boundaries. Local authorities recognise the significant contribution that community-led initiatives make to achieving the city’s sustainability and justice goals, without co-opting them. Local authorities also protect all citizens from exposure to pollution and climate risks. They recognize citizens’ claims of harm and assist victims of pollution. In short, in the quest for a sustainable and just city, city-makers are aware of and are committed to their responsibilities, while keeping an eye to broader systems change.
Related keys: #Power #Solidarity #Knowledge (LINK TO THEIR CLUSTER PAGES)
What approaches can activate this key?
What governance arrangements enable this key?
What drivers of injustice does this key address?
Extra insights from UrbanA Community
Inspirational example
Avenues for action
You might be wondering, what everyday actions can I take to put all this theory into practice? Take a look at the avenues for action, below, for some practical guidance.