Why does everyone think cities can save the planet?

• Published in: Urban studies (Edinburgh, Scotland) Vol. 57; no. 11; pp. 2201 - 2221
• Main Authors: Angelo, Hillary, Wachsmuth, David
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England Sage Publications, Ltd 01.08.2020; SAGE Publications; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Cities; Climate change; Decoding; Discourses; Environmental degradation; Environmental impact; Environmental policy; Foreign policy; Globalization; International policy; North and South; Planets; Public policy; Savings plans; Settlements; Southern Hemisphere; Spatial analysis; Special issue article: Why does everyone think cities can save the planet?; Sustainability; Urban areas; Urban environments; Urban growth; Urban policy; Urban sprawl; Urbanization; informal settlements; 非正规住区; 蔓延; urban sustainability; 气候变化; 城市可持续性; sprawl; climate change
• ISSN: 0042-0980; 1360-063X
• DOI: 10.1177/0042098020919081

This article identifies and explains an underlying transition in global urban policy and discourse from the city as a sustainability problem to the city as a sustainability solution. We argue that contemporary policy discourses of cities saving the planet should be understood in the context of three major historical developments which have their roots in the 1970s and which intensified throughout the 1990s. The first is sprawl: the urban sustainability policy agenda in the Global North has been in large part a reaction to several decades of urban expansion and car-based planning. The second is informal settlements: since the introduction of UN-HABITAT in 1978, an international policy agenda has formed around addressing the environmental deficits associated with processes of informal urbanisation above all in the Global South. And the third is climate change, as the overarching concern that connects urban-environmental problems and policies in the North and South. We then contextualise the articles in this special issue by outlining a new research agenda for decoding the notion that cities can save the planet, which emphasises the need for an historical, multi-spatial, political and representational analysis of urban sustainability thinking and policy. 本文识别并解释全球城市政策和话语的一个潜在转变，即，城市从一个可持续性问题变成了一个可持续性解决方案。我们认为，当代关于城市拯救地球的政策论述应该在三大历史发展背景下理解，这三大历史发展根源于1970年代，并在整个1990年代得到强化。第一个历史发展是城市蔓延：全球北方的城市可持续发展政策议程在很大程度上是对几十年的城市扩张和基于私家车的规划的回应。第二个历史背景是非正规住区：自联合国人居署 (UN-HABITAT) 于1978年成立以来，围绕解决与非正规城市化进程相关的环境赤字（首先是在全球南方）形成了一个国际政策议程。第三个历史背景是气候变化，它是连接北方和南方城市环境问题和政策的首要问题。然后，我们概述了一个新的研究议程来解读“城市可以拯救地球”的概念，强调需要对城市可持续发展的思想和政策进行历史的、多空间的、政治的和代表性的分析，从而将这些文章置于本期特刊的背景中。