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The Circulation of Swedish Urban Sustainability Practices: To China and Back

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  • Anna Hult

    (Department of Urban Planning and Environment, KTH—Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden)

Abstract

This paper explores the effects and underlying intentions of Swedish practices of exporting sustainable development models to Chinese ecocities. Under the ‘best-practice’ banner, international architectural firms are often invited to masterplan ecocity developments. The ‘sustainable city’ has thus become an export commodity, supported by the Swedish government and seen as especially suited to the Chinese ecocity market. Two cases are examined, where Swedish architecture firms have been commissioned to masterplan Chinese ecocities: the Caofedian and Wuxi Eco-cities. In particular, I examine three kinds of ‘effects’: first, the planning discourse manifested in the planning documents; second, how these plans materialize on the ground; and, third, the effects of this exported planning practice on Swedish policy and practice at home . This paper advances our understanding of how transnational urban sustainability practices are constructed and circulated. It further adds to the field of planning mobilities by examining not only the discourse and diffusion of transnational master planning but also how the ‘export’ circulates and returns. I argue that the two intentional logics of exporting the Swedish ‘sustainable city’—to shape a better world and to export clean-tech products—could both be seen as having failed in these two cases. Instead, the naming and branding of the ecocities seem to boost a certain repetitive problematic idea and practice of sustainable urban development. I argue that the Swedish exported practice strengthens and legitimizes a circulating narrative establishing a sustainable urban planning practice fostering a paradoxically generic image of upper-middle-class consumers as ecocity inhabitants in China as well as in Sweden.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Hult, 2015. "The Circulation of Swedish Urban Sustainability Practices: To China and Back," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 47(3), pages 537-553, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:47:y:2015:i:3:p:537-553
    DOI: 10.1068/a130320p
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Patsy Healey, 2013. "Circuits of Knowledge and Techniques: The Transnational Flow of Planning Ideas and Practices," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(5), pages 1510-1526, September.
    2. I-Chun Catherine Chang & Eric Sheppard, 2013. "China's Eco-Cities as Variegated-super-1 Urban Sustainability: Dongtan Eco-City and Chongming Eco-Island," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 57-75, January.
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    4. Simon Joss & Arthur P. Molella, 2013. "The Eco-City as Urban Technology: Perspectives on Caofeidian International Eco-City (China)," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 115-137, January.
    5. Martin de Jong & Dong Wang & Chang Yu, 2013. "Exploring the Relevance of the Eco-City Concept in China: The Case of Shenzhen Sino-Dutch Low Carbon City," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 95-113, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Changjie Zhan & Martin De Jong, 2017. "Financing Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City: What Lessons Can Be Drawn for Other Large-Scale Sustainable City-Projects?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-17, February.

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