IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/urbpla/v4y2019i1p187-199.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Governing the City of Flows: How Urban Metabolism Approaches May Strengthen Accountability in Strategic Planning

Author

Listed:
  • Cathrin Zengerling

    (Urban Footprints Research Group, HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany)

Abstract

The article aims to provide an initial insight into if and how urban metabolism perspectives and approaches may strengthen accountability in urban environmental strategic planning. It argues that many of the challenges in governing urban environmental flows successfully result from accountability gaps in strategic planning. The aim of the research is to test the assumption that urban metabolism perspectives and approaches strengthen accountability in urban environmental strategic planning. Applying a four-pillar accountability analysis to the strategic climate and resource plans of New York and Zurich, two cities which put environmental sustainability high on their political agenda, the study traces the role of urban metabolism perspectives and approaches and discusses the benefits these may have for accountable strategic planning with a focus on carbon and material flows. The interim results show on the one hand that implicit urban metabolism approaches are vital for both cities’ strategic planning and that they contribute to strengthened accountability in all four pillars of the analysis: responsibility, transparency, assessment and participation. On the other hand, the analysis highlights further potential benefits of urban metabolism perspectives and approaches in urban strategic climate and resource planning.

Suggested Citation

  • Cathrin Zengerling, 2019. "Governing the City of Flows: How Urban Metabolism Approaches May Strengthen Accountability in Strategic Planning," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(1), pages 187-199.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:urbpla:v:4:y:2019:i:1:p:187-199
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/1750
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Biermann, Frank & Gupta, Aarti, 2011. "Accountability and legitimacy in earth system governance: A research framework," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 1856-1864, September.
    2. Sander Chan & Philipp Pattberg, 2008. "Private Rule-Making and the Politics of Accountability: Analyzing Global Forest Governance," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 8(3), pages 103-121, August.
    3. Anwar Shah, 2006. "Local Governance in Developing Countries," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7192, December.
    4. Paul Klugman Currie & Josephine Kaviti Musango, 2017. "African Urbanization: Assimilating Urban Metabolism into Sustainability Discourse and Practice," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 21(5), pages 1262-1276, October.
    5. Harriet Bulkeley & Kristine Kern, 2006. "Local Government and the Governing of Climate Change in Germany and the UK," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(12), pages 2237-2259, November.
    6. Christopher M. Jones & Stephen M. Wheeler & Daniel M. Kammen, 2018. "Carbon Footprint Planning: Quantifying Local and State Mitigation Opportunities for 700 California Cities," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 3(2), pages 35-51.
    7. D. Reckien & J. Flacke & R. Dawson & O. Heidrich & M. Olazabal & A. Foley & J. Hamann & H. Orru & M. Salvia & S. Gregorio Hurtado & D. Geneletti & F. Pietrapertosa, 2014. "Climate change response in Europe: what’s the reality? Analysis of adaptation and mitigation plans from 200 urban areas in 11 countries," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 331-340, January.
    8. Biermann, Frank & Gupta, Aarti, 2011. "Accountability and legitimacy: An analytical challenge for earth system governance," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 1854-1855, September.
    9. Oscar Widerberg & Philipp Pattberg, 2017. "Accountability Challenges in the Transnational Regime Complex for Climate Change," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 34(1), pages 68-87, January.
    10. Stephen Jones, 2016. "'If You Can Make it Here, You Can Make it Anywhere': Performance Management and PlaNYC Climate Change Initiatives," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(4), pages 744-755, April.
    11. Marcel J. Dorsch & Christian Flachsland, 2017. "A Polycentric Approach to Global Climate Governance," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 17(2), pages 45-64, May.
    12. Jennifer S. Bansard & Philipp H. Pattberg & Oscar Widerberg, 2017. "Cities to the rescue? Assessing the performance of transnational municipal networks in global climate governance," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 229-246, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Polina E. Animitsa, 2022. "Theoretical and methodological aspects of municipal development under the New Normal," Journal of New Economy, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 22(4), pages 62-77, January.
    2. Rob Roggema, 2019. "City of Flows: The Need for Design-Led Research to Urban Metabolism," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(1), pages 106-112.
    3. Davide Longato & Giulia Lucertini & Michele Dalla Fontana & Francesco Musco, 2019. "Including Urban Metabolism Principles in Decision-Making: A Methodology for Planning Waste and Resource Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-19, April.
    4. Lisa Harseim & Benjamin Sprecher & Cathrin Zengerling, 2021. "Phosphorus Governance within Planetary Boundaries: The Potential of Strategic Local Resource Planning in The Hague and Delfland, The Netherlands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-21, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Teresa Kramarz & Susan Park, 2016. "Accountability in Global Environmental Governance: A Meaningful Tool for Action?," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 16(2), pages 1-21, May.
    2. Adam Bumpus & Thu-Ba Huynh & Sophie Pascoe, 2019. "Making REDD+ Transparent: Opportunities for MobileTechnology," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 19(4), pages 85-117, November.
    3. Park, Mi Sun & Lee, Hyowon, 2019. "Accountability and reciprocal interests of bilateral forest cooperation under the global forest regime," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 32-44.
    4. Catacora-Vargas, Georgina & Tambutti, Marcia & Alvarado, Víctor & Rankovic, Aleksandar, 2022. "Governance approaches and practices in Latin America and the Caribbean for transformative change for biodiversity," Documentos de Proyectos 48542, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    5. Duncan Weaver, 2018. "The Aarhus convention and process cosmopolitanism," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 199-213, April.
    6. Nasiritousi, Naghmeh & Hjerpe, Mattias & Buhr, Katarina, 2014. "Pluralising climate change solutions? Views held and voiced by participants at the international climate change negotiations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 177-184.
    7. Schouten, Greetje & Leroy, Pieter & Glasbergen, Pieter, 2012. "On the deliberative capacity of private multi-stakeholder governance: The Roundtables on Responsible Soy and Sustainable Palm Oil," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 42-50.
    8. Marin-Burgos, Victoria & Clancy, Joy S. & Lovett, Jon C., 2015. "Contesting legitimacy of voluntary sustainability certification schemes: Valuation languages and power asymmetries in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in Colombia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 303-313.
    9. Pickering, Jonathan & Jotzo, Frank & Wood, Peter J., 2015. "Splitting the difference: can limited coordination achieve a fair distribution of the global climate financing effort?," Working Papers 249508, Australian National University, Centre for Climate Economics & Policy.
    10. Michelle Scobie, 2018. "Accountability in climate change governance and Caribbean SIDS," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 769-787, April.
    11. Schouten, Greetje & Bitzer, Verena, 2015. "The emergence of Southern standards in agricultural value chains: A new trend in sustainability governance?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 175-184.
    12. van Oosten, Cora & Runhaar, Hens & Arts, Bas, 2021. "Capable to govern landscape restoration? Exploring landscape governance capabilities, based on literature and stakeholder perceptions," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    13. Klusáček, Petr & Alexandrescu, Filip & Osman, Robert & Malý, Jiří & Kunc, Josef & Dvořák, Petr & Frantál, Bohumil & Havlíček, Marek & Krejčí, Tomáš & Martinát, Stanislav & Skokanová, Hana & Trojan, Ja, 2018. "Good governance as a strategic choice in brownfield regeneration: Regional dynamics from the Czech Republic," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 29-39.
    14. Adelaide Glover & Heike Schroeder, 2017. "Legitimacy in REDD+ governance in Indonesia," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(5), pages 695-708, October.
    15. Röckmann, Christine & van Leeuwen, Judith & Goldsborough, David & Kraan, Marloes & Piet, Gerjan, 2015. "The interaction triangle as a tool for understanding stakeholder interactions in marine ecosystem based management," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 155-162.
    16. Karlijn Muiderman & Aarti Gupta & Joost Vervoort & Frank Biermann, 2020. "Four approaches to anticipatory climate governance: Different conceptions of the future and implications for the present," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(6), November.
    17. Tobias Böhmelt & Gabriele Spilker, 2016. "The interaction of international institutions from a social network perspective," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 67-89, February.
    18. Craik, Neil & Gardner, Holly & McCarthy, Daniel, 2017. "Indigenous – corporate private governance and legitimacy: Lessons learned from impact and benefit agreements," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 379-388.
    19. Aarti Gupta & Harro van Asselt, 2019. "Transparency in multilateral climate politics: Furthering (or distracting from) accountability?," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(1), pages 18-34, March.
    20. Pablo-Romero, María del P. & Pozo-Barajas, Rafael & Sánchez-Braza, Antonio, 2016. "Analyzing the effects of Energy Action Plans on electricity consumption in Covenant of Mayors signatory municipalities in Andalusia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 12-26.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:urbpla:v:4:y:2019:i:1:p:187-199. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.