IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v60y2023i7p1304-1315.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beyond urban ecomodernism: How can degrowth-aligned spatial practices enhance urban sustainability transformations

Author

Listed:
  • Alejandro De Castro Mazarro

    (Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development, Germany)

  • Ritu George Kaliaden

    (Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development, Germany)

  • Wolfgang Wende

    (Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development, Germany)

  • Markus Egermann

    (Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development, Germany)

Abstract

For spatial practices such as architecture, urban design and planning, degrowth remains an abstract concept, as there is no clear alignment of its principles into spatial strategies. To bridge this gap, this paper examines how degrowth can be operationalised into sustainable spatial practices. Through a review of more than 200 sustainable spatial projects across the world operating at the building, neighbourhood and citywide scales, the paper shows that while the majority of sustainable interventions representative of dominant architecture and urban design culture do not align to degrowth principles, a significant number of examples using sustainability strategies such as convivial technologies, building retrofitting, urban renaturation and revitalisation, eco-urbanisation and spatial infrastructure upgrading are in fact aligned to degrowth principles. We suggest that these examples form a potential stepping-stone to enable an urban design and building culture rooted in a degrowth agenda, however further research and conceptualisation are needed to enable this to happen.

Suggested Citation

  • Alejandro De Castro Mazarro & Ritu George Kaliaden & Wolfgang Wende & Markus Egermann, 2023. "Beyond urban ecomodernism: How can degrowth-aligned spatial practices enhance urban sustainability transformations," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(7), pages 1304-1315, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:60:y:2023:i:7:p:1304-1315
    DOI: 10.1177/00420980221148107
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00420980221148107
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00420980221148107?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maria Kaika & Angelos Varvarousis & Federico Demaria & Hug March, 2023. "Urbanizing degrowth: Five steps towards a Radical Spatial Degrowth Agenda for planning in the face of climate emergency," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(7), pages 1191-1211, May.
    2. Yaryna Khmara & Jakub Kronenberg, 2020. "Degrowth in the Context of Sustainability Transitions: In Search for a Common Ground," Lodz Economics Working Papers 1/2020, University of Lodz, Faculty of Economics and Sociology.
    3. Isabelle Anguelovski & James Connolly & Anna Livia Brand, 2018. "From landscapes of utopia to the margins of the green urban life," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(3), pages 417-436, May.
    4. Rodríguez-Labajos, Beatriz & Yánez, Ivonne & Bond, Patrick & Greyl, Lucie & Munguti, Serah & Ojo, Godwin Uyi & Overbeek, Winfridus, 2019. "Not So Natural an Alliance? Degrowth and Environmental Justice Movements in the Global South," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 175-184.
    5. Power, Anne, 2008. "Does demolition or refurbishment of old and inefficient homes help to increase our environmental, social and economic viability?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 4487-4501, December.
    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. Sofia Morgado & Jeanna de Campos Cunha, 2023. "Grounded in the Landscape—Climate Action, Well-Being and Public Space in a Small Town in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-22, August.
    2. Maria Kaika & Angelos Varvarousis & Federico Demaria & Hug March, 2023. "Urbanizing degrowth: Five steps towards a Radical Spatial Degrowth Agenda for planning in the face of climate emergency," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(7), pages 1191-1211, May.
    3. William Otchere-Darko, 2023. "Scaling-up degrowth: Re-imagining institutional responses to climate change," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(7), pages 1316-1325, May.

    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. Christopher Hassall & Michael Nisbet & Evan Norcliffe & He Wang, 2024. "The Potential Health Benefits of Urban Tree Planting Suggested through Immersive Environments," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-12, February.
    2. Aryana Soliz, 2021. "Creating Sustainable Cities through Cycling Infrastructure? Learning from Insurgent Mobilities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-21, August.
    3. A. Haven Kiers & Billy Krimmel & Caroline Larsen-Bircher & Kate Hayes & Ash Zemenick & Julia Michaels, 2022. "Different Jargon, Same Goals: Collaborations between Landscape Architects and Ecologists to Maximize Biodiversity in Urban Lawn Conversions," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-18, September.
    4. Francesc Valls Dalmau & Pilar Garcia-Almirall & Ernest Redondo Domínguez & David Fonseca Escudero, 2014. "From Raw Data to Meaningful Information: A Representational Approach to Cadastral Databases in Relation to Urban Planning," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-28, October.
    5. Mumbunan, Sonny & Maitri, Ni Made Rahayu, 2022. "A Review of Basic Income for Nature and Climate," OSF Preprints bre43, Center for Open Science.
    6. Shiyao Zhu & Dezhi Li & Haibo Feng & Tiantian Gu & Jiawei Zhu, 2019. "AHP-TOPSIS-Based Evaluation of the Relative Performance of Multiple Neighborhood Renewal Projects: A Case Study in Nanjing, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-17, August.
    7. Belotti, Alice, 2016. "Estate regeneration and community impacts: challenges and lessons for social landlords, developers and local councils," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121480, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Hamza, Neveen & Gilroy, Rose, 2011. "The challenge to UK energy policy: An ageing population perspective on energy saving measures and consumption," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 782-789, February.
    9. Nessa Winston, 2021. "Sustainable community development: Integrating social and environmental sustainability for sustainable housing and communities," Working Papers 202106, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    10. Stefan Olsson & Tove Malmqvist & Mauritz Glaumann, 2015. "Managing Sustainability Aspects in Renovation Processes: Interview Study and Outline of a Process Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(6), pages 1-17, May.
    11. Na’Taki Osborne Jelks & Viniece Jennings & Alessandro Rigolon, 2021. "Green Gentrification and Health: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-23, January.
    12. Fallon S. Aidoo, 2021. "Architectures of mis/managed retreat: Black land loss to green housing gains," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 11(3), pages 451-464, September.
    13. Federico Savini, 2023. "Maintaining autonomy: Urban degrowth and the commoning of housing," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(7), pages 1231-1248, May.
    14. Chihsin Chiu, 2020. "Theorizing Public Participation and Local Governance in Urban Resilience: Reflections on the “Provincializing Urban Political Ecology” Thesis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-12, December.
    15. Dani Broitman, 2023. "“Passive” Ecological Gentrification Triggered by the Covid-19 Pandemic," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 312-321.
    16. Gräbner-Radkowitsch, Claudius & Strunk, Birte, 2023. "Degrowth and the Global South: The twin problem of global dependencies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    17. Dowson, Mark & Poole, Adam & Harrison, David & Susman, Gideon, 2012. "Domestic UK retrofit challenge: Barriers, incentives and current performance leading into the Green Deal," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 294-305.
    18. Simone Buratti & Leticia Merino-Pérez, 2023. "Linear Parks as Urban Commons—Considerations from Mexico City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-22, June.
    19. Adriana A. Zuniga-Teran & Blanca González-Méndez & Christina Scarpitti & Bo Yang & Joaquin Murrieta Saldivar & Irene Pineda & Guadalupe Peñúñuri & Eduardo Hinojosa Robles & Kassandra Soto Irineo & Ser, 2022. "Green Belt Implementation in Arid Lands through Soil Reconditioning and Landscape Design: The Case of Hermosillo, Mexico," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-27, November.
    20. Haas, Mara, 2024. "Das transformative Potenzial suffizienzorientierter Stadtentwicklung als Beitrag zur Postwachstumsstadt in Wien," Forschungsberichte der ARL: Aufsätze, in: Finger, Anne & Badelt, Ole & Dahmen, Kathleen & Heilen, Lydia & Mai, Nora & Seegers, Ronja & Seewald (ed.), Transformationsprozesse in Stadt und Land: Erkenntnisse, Strategien und Zukunftsperspektiven, volume 23, pages 39-52, ARL – Akademie für Raumentwicklung in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft.

    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:sae:urbstu:v:60:y:2023:i:7:p:1304-1315. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    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.