Urban Sustainability and Justice Just Sustainabilities and Environmental Planning : Just Sustainabilities and Environmental Planning

Urban Sustainability and Justice presents an innovative yet practical approach to incorporate equity and social justice into sustainable development in urban areas, in line with the commitments of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda. This open access work proposes a feminist reading of just sustainabilities' principles to reclaim sustainability as a progressive discourse which informs action on the ground. This work will help the committed activist (whether they are on the ground, working in a community, in a non-governmental organization (NGO), in a business, at a university, in any sphere in government) to connect their work to international efforts to deliver environmental justice in cities around the world. Drawing on a comparative, international analysis of sustainability initiatives in over 200 cities, Castán Broto and Westman find limited evidence of the implementation of just sustainabilities principles in practice, but they argue that there is considerable potential to develop a justice-oriented sustainability agenda. Highlighting current successes while also assessing prospects for the future, the authors show that just sustainabilities is not merely an aspirational discourse, but a frame of reference to support radical action on the ground. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by The University of Sheffield. Front Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Contents List of figures List of tables List of boxes About the authors Acknowledgements 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction 1.2 A commitment to just sustainabilities 1.3 Urbanization challenges in the 21st century 1.4 Urban environments in international development policy 1.5 Think globally, act locally: rethinking sustainability’s most famous slogan 1.6 Critical perspectives on just sustainabilities 2: The appropriation of sustainability values 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Technocratic appropriation: technology is the solution 2.3 Economic appropriation: economic growth is the solution 2.4 Sociopolitical appropriation: consensus is the solution 2.5 Conclusion 3: The challenge of emancipatory sustainability thought 3.1 Introduction 3.2 The contradictions inherent to development discourses 3.3 Multiple and situated environmental knowledges 3.4 The city as a classroom to learn socio-ecological relations 3.5 Decolonizing environmental governance, decolonizing the self 4: Planning for just sustainabilities 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Bringing cities to the forefront of environmental action 4.3 Local environmental planning tools and approaches 4.4 Reclaiming environmental planning 5: Improving well-being and quality of life 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Well-being and quality of life as a dimension of just sustainabilities 5.3 The evolution of thought on quality of life and well-being in sustainability 5.4 A situated perspective on quality of life and well-being in cities 5.5 Definitions of well-being and quality of life 5.6 Just sustainabilities strategies to improve quality of life and well-being 5.7 Conclusions 6: Meeting the needs of present and future generations 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Notions of the future in sustainable development discourses 6.3 Knowledge and uncertain futures 6.4 Identifying future needs through representation and deliberation 6.5 Local sustainability initiatives 6.6 Conclusions 7: Justice and equity in recognition, process, participation and outcome 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Results or mode of delivery: an environmental justice dilemma 7.3 The rise of cooperative environmental governance 7.4 Justice as recognition 7.5 From incremental to transformative paradigms of sustainability action 7.6 Conclusions 8: Ecosystem limits 8.1 Rethinking abundance 8.2 The concept of limits in sustainable development thinking 8.3 Planetary boundaries and doughnut economics 8.4 Limits as a political project and scarcity as a social construction 8.5 Local sustainability initiatives 8.6 Conclusions 9: Conclusion 9.1 Shortcomings in realizing just sustainabilities in practice 9.2 Moving forward with the notion of just sustainabilities 9.3 From just sustainabilities to urban transformations References Index An assessment of sustainability initiatives in over 200 cities offering a practical approach to just sustainability as a framework for urban development