The Solutions
Understand the drivers of urban inequality and how that impacts urban sustainability
human rights
In order to fix something, we need to understand how it operates. Educating yourself on the drivers of urban inequality is an important step towards a better, more inclusive city. This infographic by Urban Arenas for Sustainable and Just Cities provides a useful starting point.
Support inclusive participation in urban planning
leadership and policy
Urban planning focused on creating participation from the whole community ensures that projects are not just designed for a community but by the community. It allows urban residents to contribute their own knowledge and experiences into urban designs, meaning that the development will best serve them. Urban development designed by the people experiencing it gives residents more control over their lives and the place that they live. Furthermore, through inclusive participation and ensuring marginalised groups and people are recognised, it can help achieve urban justice. This means that at every meeting, at every point of decision making, you need to consider: who is not here, who is benefiting from those groups not being here, and who is being excluded.
Connect with established urban movements and grassroots community work
events and networks
Creating sustainable cities involves altering core dimensions of urban life such as housing, transport, and land use. Changes made to these are always contested, they may benefit some whilst coming at a cost for others, so even sustainable changes to them can never be socially or politically neutral. In fact, cities have demonstrated that changes in the name of sustainability can be used to serve wealthy residents and the accumulation of capital, in processes that create gentrification, rather than leading to environmental justice. Yet, a core aim of the environmental movement should also be to address issues of social inequality. The root causes of these issues are interconnected, thus a holistic approach is needed for addressing them. Many established urban movements and grassroots community work are already fighting social inequality and urban injustice. It is important to collaborate with them to create support for sustainable initiatives and ensure they centre existing urban residents to ultimately help achieve social justice. Join grassroots urban movements and help them campaign and organise.
The Actions
Learn
Learn About Sustainable Cities
- Discover what makes a sustainable city sustainable. There are many facets of a sustainable city, so find out what excites you or what elements near you need addressing.
- Watch this TED talk by Pater Calthorpe about 7 principles for building better cities.
- For a deeper dive, watch Erasmus University Rotterdam’s webinar series on sustainable and just cities.
Understand That Justice Must be Central
- There are lots of buzzwords around sustainable cities, including green cities, smart cities, and resilient cities. However, it is important that when developing these ideas of what a sustainable city is, justice must always be at the core. Otherwise, sustainable urban policies will continue to predominantly benefit the wealthy.
- Watch this video by UrbanA about Why environmental sustainability and social justice must go hand in hand.
- Research case studies on Urban Arena, a Wikipedia for Socially Just Sustainable Cities. The website includes clearly set out overviews of what happened and contact details of people involved for you to ask questions. To start, take a look at these case studies on green space development, resistance against gentrification, and urban food security.
Support
Support the Global Sustainable City Movement
- Cities are leading in sustainable initiatives as they aim to make cities more liveable. Currently, many programmes are being funded to produce best practices that can be replicated across the world. Follow the hashtag #Sustainablejustcities to keep up to date with work and follow green urban programmes such as PlanAdapt and Naturvation. Then support their campaigns through sharing on social media and signing petitions.
- Sign this petition by Clean Cities to stop polluting vehicles being used in EU cities
- Look for petitions to save local green spaces and community services!
Participate
Support Inclusive Urban Planning
- Participate in urban planning in your city through attending workshops and events, signing petitions, and completing surveys. Furthermore, ask how organisations involved in urban regeneration are making participation inclusive. Question who is benefiting from this development? And are things in place to prevent displacement and support inclusion?
- Read this article by Saskia Sassen about who owns our cities and reflect on how it applies to your neighbourhood.
Establish Community Networks
- Establish community networks to help make your community more resilient and able to challenge injustice. Communities are stronger together as they can support each other and provide more resources. This is also important for vulnerable members of our communities who are more at risk when we face disasters. Start by looking for community groups in your area, or use the app Nextdoor to connect with your neighbourhood.
Join a Community Project for Regeneration
- Find grassroots projects focused on regeneration near you. Community-led regeneration involves the community identifying problems and ways to solve them. Many local projects will need volunteers and more support, so they will likely advertise themselves online or in local shops and event spaces. Alternatively, if you have an idea for a project that is not out there yet - start your own! For example, you could join a community garden or start a campaign to create your own urban garden.
Lead
Fight Urban Injustice
- Demand equal access to public resources by joining campaigns and movements focused on urban justice. Here are a couple of examples of urban justice campaigns demanding this which you can join or use as inspiration:
- The Right to the City Alliance (USA) campaigns for the collective right to remake our cities and shape the decisions and the conditions that affect our lives. In particular, Right to the City Alliance is building a framework to address gentrification and urban displacement.
- Many urban studies have shown that wealthy urban areas have greater access to urban green spaces, thus receive more of the benefits of nature. The Friends of the Earth UK have started a project to help people from the UK find out if they are missing out on green space access.
Study Sustainable Urban Planning
- If you are passionate about creating sustainable cities, study courses focused on sustainability, social justice and inclusive urban planning and governance. For example, these Master’s at King’s College London (UK), Nottingham University (China), and Instituto Europeo di Design Barcelona (Spain).
