Database of governance scenarios

To address inequality and exclusion in the context of urban sustainability governance, we have created 11 brief governance scenarios that aim to be inspirational for sustainability and justice in cities. These scenarios are extracted from 11 detailed case studies of governance interventions presenting promising governance arrangements. The case studies have been established based on the research material generated in major EU-funded projects taking place since the mid-2000s.

Brief governance scenarios:

1. Learning from successful community-based actions against gentrification
2. Expanding effective practices for food rescuing and sharing among cities
3. A new take on affordable housing through community owned and developed dwellings
4. Inviting citizens to a transformation of street space - flexibly dealing with resistance
5. Balancing long term sustainability and short-term social needs in peri-urban green space
6. Envisioning and co-creating sustainable urban neighborhoods by reaching across institutional boundaries
7. Bringing sustainable infrastructure to all - carefully engaging in public-private partnerships
8. From electricity to empowerment, community energy growing out of the inner-city
9. Overcoming compartmentalization in urban regeneration projects for inclusive sustainability and resilience
10. Making local energy systems inclusively sustainable - by ourselves, with a little help by friends
11. Trusting civil society and residents to co-shape regeneration projects in deprived neighborhoods

The broad topic of governance arrangements for sustainability and justice in cities can be disaggregated into specific ambitions or objectives, that are often discussed:

A) How can sustainability and justice challenges be dealt with in a more integrative and comprehensive way - rather than by (sectoraly) compartmentalized policies and organizations?

(“policy integration”)

B) How can people from governments, civil society and enterprises be enabled to better co-operate for sustainability and justice in their cities?

(“bridging institutional logics”)

C) How can citizens be better enabled to participate in deliberations about the most urgent objectives and measures of urban development?

(“citizens' involvement”)

D) Do we need alternative metrics to guide urban policy development, which could focus e.g. on the affordability of housing rather than on GDP growth, employment and investments?

(“alternative metrics”)

We are going to discuss how these ambitions are tentatively realized in promising experiments at a Community Conversation on June 23rd, 2020; all are welcome to sign up and join the discussion.

In addition, we are interested in knowing which further procedural ambitions you consider crucial on the way towards governance arrangements that foster sustainability AND justice in cities. In case you have suggestions, please contact Philipp Spaeth, or contribue to the further development of the case studies and governance scenarios on this wiki once they are released for co-creation by the wider UrbanA Community of Practice.