How can we help? An exploration of the public’s role in overcoming barriers to urban sustainability plan implementation

Kinzer, Kirsten

doi:10.1016/j.scs.2018.02.028

Cited by 19 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Scholars contend that the development of participatory processes with citizens provides evidence for effectively supporting environmental policies and reducing the risk of future backlashes [31]. As residents have a chance to shape the development of their neighbourhood or city, solutions are likely to be more aligned to local needs and aspirations [32], as shown in seminal experiences under the "Global Agenda 21" [19].…”

Section: Conceptual Framework: Urban Sustainability and Citizen Participationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Green(er) Cities and Their Citizens: Insights from the Participatory Budget of Lisbon

2021

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There is rising scholarly and political interest in participatory budgets and their potential to advance urban sustainability. This article aims to contribute to this field of study through the specific lens of the city of Lisbon’s experience as an internationally acknowledged leader in participatory budgeting. To this end, the article critically examines the lessons and potential contribution of the Lisbon Participatory Budget through a multimethod approach. Emerging trends and variations of citizen proposals, projects, votes, and public funding are analysed in tandem with emerging key topics that show links and trade-offs between locally embedded participation and the international discourse on urban sustainability. Our analysis reveals three interconnected findings: first, the achievements of the Lisbon Participatory Budget show the potential to counteract the dominant engineered approach to urban sustainability; second, trends and variations of the achievements depend on both citizens’ voice and the significant influence of the city council through policymaking; and, third, the shift towards a thematic Green Participatory Budget in 2020 was not driven by consolidated social and political awareness on the achievements, suggesting that more could be achieved through the 2021 urban sustainability oriented Participatory Budget. We conclude recommending that this kind of analysis should be systematically carried out and disseminated within city council departments, promoting much needed internal awareness of PBs’ potential as drivers of urban sustainability. We also identify further research needed into the sustainability potential of green PBs.

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Section: Conceptual Framework: Urban Sustainability and Citizen Participationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Green(er) Cities and Their Citizens: Insights from the Participatory Budget of Lisbon

2021

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“…For example, addressing the political and institutional barriers in cities is critical [43,44] but also requires many more resources to overcome them. These barriers are mostly a legacy from the past, which makes them rather difficult to tackle for municipal staff and local politicians.…”

Section: Addressing the Barriersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Barriers to the Adoption of Urban Living Labs for NBS Implementation: A Systemic Perspective

et al. 2021

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Urban Living Labs (ULLs) are widely believed to provide a safe environment for experimentation, co-creation and evaluation of innovations in real-life settings. A growing number of cities have been adopting ULLs to co-create and test Nature-Based Solutions (NBS). However, many of these cities have been facing major barriers in trying to adopt the ULL approach for implementing NBS. In this study, we seek to identify these barriers and provide a systemic understanding. Barriers are identified by means of workshops and interviews. Subsequently, interpretive structural modelling serves to identify the interdependencies among the barriers, resulting in a structural model of barriers in adopting ULLs for NBS. Our results show that political and institutional barriers are significantly limiting the adoption of ULLs. Moreover, knowledge brokers and other intermediaries, as well as cross-sectoral collaboration, play a key role in getting ULLs adopted. The findings from this study can help cities to develop strategies that overcome the main barriers for ULL adoption in the context of nature-based solutions.

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“…Nevertheless, although citizen participation is now 8 increasingly backed up by a broad range of arguments, its implementation has led to feeble and contradictory results (Boonstra and Boelens 2011). On the one hand, participatory practices are often not very convincing due to a weak political will, an ignorance of the requirements of participatory democracy or due to the exploitation of participation to serve other parallel ends (Curry 2012;Bherer 2010;Kinzer 2018). On the other hand, discourses and forms of participatory governance are often seen to downplay the impacts of structural inequalities which ultimately set the 'rules of the game' (Mohan and Stokke 2000;Swyngedouw 2005;Bandeira and Ferraro 2013).…”

Section: The Terms For Effective Participationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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How can we help? An exploration of the public’s role in overcoming barriers to urban sustainability plan implementation

Cited by 19 publications

References 24 publications

Green(er) Cities and Their Citizens: Insights from the Participatory Budget of Lisbon

Green(er) Cities and Their Citizens: Insights from the Participatory Budget of Lisbon

Barriers to the Adoption of Urban Living Labs for NBS Implementation: A Systemic Perspective

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

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