European green capitals: branding, spatial dislocation or catalysts for change?

Sareen, Siddharth; Grandin, Jakob

doi:10.1080/04353684.2019.1667258

Cited by 18 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…However, the local impacts and significant justice implications of these global policiessuch as displacement, social exclusion, the disruption of community dynamics and the uneven access to public services and equipment -are left out of the formula. Hence, the Lisbon case confirms the argument made by Sareen and Grandin (2019), that the European Green Capital award is constructed around a discourse that encourages European cities to compete over urban sustainability initiatives, while failing to incorporate environmental justice concerns. This is a recurrent theme when examining the agendas of previous European Green Capitals: an analysis of Stockholm's sustainability strategies and visions following its election as the first European Green Capital in 2010, stresses the need for more fundamentally addressing political concerns (Bradley, Hult and Cars 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 52%

Justice and power relations in urban greening: can Lisbon’s urban greening strategies lead to more environmental justice?

Verheij

Nunes

2020

Local Environment

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Urban greening has become a prevalent tool in the context of climate change adaptation and mitigation in cities. However, given its uneven social and spatial outcomes, urban greening is increasingly recognized as an environmental justice concern, straightly connected to issues of scale and power. In the framework of Lisbon's election as European Green Capital 2020, this paper examines the city's greening strategies and the related decision-making processes, based on a cross-analysis of the city-wide and longterm vision for urban greening and a localized and relatively unusual planning process for a new green space in the neighborhood of Marvila. Based on qualitative research carried out in-situ, we argue that Lisbon's greening strategies are part of a 'green capital' discourse, which falls short on addressing environmental justice concerns. Focus is placed on global and top-down priorities related to climate change adaptation, and on addressing spatial disparities in green space distribution, while failing to acknowledge the importance of procedural justice aspects related to local recognition and participation. Our findings show how representative and democratic forms of knowledge exchange allow the empowerment and negotiation of multi-scalar urban agendas and, therefore, more inclusive processes of environmental decision-making. By understanding environmental justice as an exercise of multiscalar governance, local solutions can be integrated alongside a comprehensive and long-term vision for green space development.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 52%

Justice and power relations in urban greening: can Lisbon’s urban greening strategies lead to more environmental justice?

Verheij

Nunes

2020

Local Environment

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“…Analytical treatment of accountability should address questions regarding the relationships between more or different accountability and a range of normative aims (e.g., the 17 Sustainable Development Goals) in varied contexts. At the same time, a programme of research organised around this theme must address critical questions including how accountability relations implied by monitoring programmes, eco-labeling, environmental management systems, and offsetting schemes, for example, are implicated in our capacity to satisfy ourselves with empty gestures that legitimate existing socio-material relations and "sustain the unsustainable" (Blühdorn 2007;Blühdorn and Deflorian 2019;Sareen and Grandin 2019). By examining how accountability structures interactions at and across multiple scales, we engage critically with who holds whom to account, based on what standards, and in support of whose objectives.…”

Section: Why Focus On Accountability Relations Under Sustainability Transitions?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hollow accountability mechanisms have a performative aspect whereby they produce legitimacy without corresponding changes in the material system. Applied to sustainability transitions, hollow accountability is the principle vehicle for maintenance of cognitive dissonance and business-as-usual (Wolf 2020;Sareen and Grandin 2019). 'from government to governance' (Capano et al 2015), on the other, highlights the contemporary relevance of these quadrants of the LASH matrix.…”

Section: Table 1 the Lash Matrix For Accountability Analysis: Assessment And Sanctionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accountability and sustainability transitions

Sareen

Wolf

2021

Ecological Economics

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What constitutes a sustainability transition? This question is important for analyzing energy transitions and in the broader realm of socio-material systems. We identify sustainability transitions as premised on changes in flows of legitimacy and on shifts in the accountability mechanisms that regulate these flows. Legitimacy flows to organisations through accountability regimes of inputs (standards and assessments), outputs (sanctions) and outcomes (structural and material change). This legitimacy allows organisations to access resources necessary to compete and to thrive. Changing accountability regimes lead to sectoral transitions, and the values underlying these changes determine implications for sustainability. We define accountability as the basis of legitimacy, and identify accountability relations as legitimacy tests. Conformance with norms yields legitimacy. Failing tests of accountability yields sanctions that undermine the relevant actions and actors. Contestation and adaptation of accountability mechanisms lend themselves to empirical observation. Their analysis evidences whether accountability is strongly substantiated, a hollow performance, or an expression of authoritarianism or radical liberalism. It enables characterisation of sectoral transitions in relation to sustainability, and identification of mechanisms to institutionalize accountability relations that integrate ecological limits and justice considerations into socioeconomic dynamics, to advance sustainability transitions. To demonstrate its explanatory power, we analyse solar energy uptake in Portugal, a rapidly growing niche, as a purported case of sustainability transitions. This empirical analysis juxtaposes the promise of movement to a more equitable, low-carbon energy future with institutional and material inertia. We draw on expert interviews, field observation and secondary research to apply accountability analysis to this energy transition case. Our approach targets both formal and informal means of legitimation. Assessment and sanctions serve as markers of the changing accountability regime that characterises sectoral transition. Highlights •Analyzes sustainability transitions in terms of accountability and legitimacy

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“…Cities have to set up responsibility processes that reorganize the spheres of accountability for the systemic and translocal consequences of urban sustainability proposals [34][35][36][37][38][39][40], generate significant sustainability issues while representing robust environments for sustainability transformation, which are essential areas for the development of sustainability transitions, and encounter escalating risks from various sources, undertaking multifarious strategies to come through, surmount, and adjust to shocks and stresses. Urban sustainability assessment represents a main difficult task as a result of the encompassed integrative features that make the appraisal operation intricate and impede the performance of available monitoring tools.…”

Section: Real-time Urban Sustainability Assessment Tools In Environmementioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Sustainability Behavior and Environmental Performance of Urban Systems: A Systematic Review

Pera

2020

Sustainability

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In this systematic review, I cumulate previous research findings indicating that sustainable urbanism and networked public governance can be instrumental in carrying out extensive sustainability and resilience objectives through steering urban transformations in the direction of sustainability and resilience. Urban analytics data infrastructure, multicriteria sustainability evaluation, and sustainable performance assessment display the intricate network dynamics operational within cities, impacting urban resilience decision-making processes and leading to equitable and sustainable urban development. Throughout July 2020, I conducted a quantitative literature review of the Web of Science, Scopus, and ProQuest databases, search terms including “sustainable urban planning,” “urban sustainability assessment,” “sustainable urban governance/urban sustainability governance,” “sustainable urban development,” “sustainable/sustainability behavior,” and “environmental performance.” As I focused on research published exclusively in the past two years, only 301 various types of articles met the eligibility criteria. By removing those whose results were inconclusive, unconfirmed by replication, or too general, and because of space constraints, I selected 153, mainly empirical, sources. Future research should investigate whether the assessment of environmental sustainability performance of heterogeneous urban configurations by shared sustainability policymaking through spatial green infrastructure planning and regulations articulate sustainable urban design and governance for the development of innovative performance.

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European green capitals: branding, spatial dislocation or catalysts for change?

Cited by 18 publications

References 47 publications

Justice and power relations in urban greening: can Lisbon’s urban greening strategies lead to more environmental justice?

Justice and power relations in urban greening: can Lisbon’s urban greening strategies lead to more environmental justice?

Accountability and sustainability transitions

Assessing Sustainability Behavior and Environmental Performance of Urban Systems: A Systematic Review

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