Green regeneration for more justice? An analysis of the purpose, implementation, and impacts of greening policies from a justice perspective in Łódź Stare Polesie (Poland) and Leipzig’s inner east (Germany)

Inequalities and Injustices of Urban Green Regeneration: Applying the Conflict Analysis Perspective

“…Its main goal is to show how a conflict analysis approach can give us a more in-depth understanding of inequalities and injustices within the framework of urban regeneration. To do so, this paper uses the conflict analysis perspective to reanalyse empirical material about the inner east area of Leipzig, Germany, within the period between 2016 and 2021 that has (in part) already been published between 2020 and 2022 [33][34][35][36]. The included studies provide empirical evidence of green gentrification, environmental justice, and multiple barriers to UGSs, as well as inclusiveness and justice challenges and trade-offs of urban green space development for the area.…”

“…Greening projects after 2000 were established to reuse vacant land (after abandonment and/or demolition), encourage people to stay in the area, and improve the quality of life in a densely built residential area with a significant lack of high-quality urban green spaces. Since the 2000s, several larger-scale greening programmes have been implemented: new parks were established on former brownfield sites and existing parks were enlarged [35]. These led to an increase in the quality of life for the remaining residents, as well as better provision of and access to high-quality green areas.…”

“…The actors involved have been surveyed and a series of local discussions are being organised. Scientific work on environmental justice conflicts and barriers hindering the use of UGSs has explored the topic from different angles [34,35].…”

“…Despite the different nature of the settings and the different configurations of the actors and interests involved in them, there are two causal links that form a tie between them: (1) the struggle between private/market interests and public and/or residents' interests and (2) the disputes between the opposing interests of diverse residential groups living in the area and the way that different actors have unequal social power positions and involvement/roles in participatory processes. This shows how existing inequalities and hierarchies of social power relations unavoidably impact on how green regeneration is being shaped and implemented and that, depending on the conditions, there is a risk that green regeneration will (re)produce inequalities or enlarge existing ones [35]. The green gentrification conflict additionally points to the fact that interests in counteracting residential gentrification are largely limited to the housing sector and do not consider the role of UGSs or green regeneration as a driver of upgrading in contested housing markets.…”

The Social Equity of Urban Parks in High-Density Urban Areas: A Case Study in the Core Area of Beijing

“…In Europe, the large-scale construction of parks began in the 18th century with the parks movement, which was created to improve the living conditions of human settlements, and the public and non-governmental organizations have played a huge role in promoting the construction of parks [10][11][12]. The academic community's understanding of the fairness of parks and green spaces ranges from quantitative and spatial fairness to social fairness and from the enhancement in quantity and quality to the inclination of disadvantaged groups and people of color [13,14]. China's park system is different; it is more like a top-down movement, and the construction of Chinese parks is still dominated by a top-down model [15,16].…”