Suchergebnisse

In this article, we focus on the mutually interrelated processes of constructing urban retrofit and the city-region as a scale for action. Urban retrofitting – the systematic reconfiguration of socio-technologies of energy in the existing built environment and infrastructure – is critical to the achievement of ambitious carbon reduction targets. To realise the ecological and economic benefits of retrofit cities are continually searching for a 'fix' that allows them to upscale retrofit from a largely ad hoc and piecemeal activity of repair and maintenance into strategic and systemic retrofit programmes that transform existing cities. This article is primarily concerned with understanding the politics and purpose of such experimentation and analyses efforts to integrate retrofit and governing in Greater Manchester. To do this, the article draws on a programme of interviews with national, city-regional, local authority and neighbourhood scale actors, documentary analysis and observations. We address on who is constructing retrofit responses in Greater Manchester and also why they are being constructed: Is it to transform the city-region and, if so, in what ways? And ask, in what ways are governance frameworks mediating and interpreting wider sets of global pressures at city-regional scale and which of these – economic, ecological, governing, social justice, etc. – pressures are more and less prioritised? We set out dominant city-regional responses (ON), alternative responses (IN) and assess the possibilities for integrated responses (WITH).

In this article, we focus on the mutually interrelated processes of constructing urban retrofit and the city-region as a scale for action. Urban retrofitting – the systematic reconfiguration of sociotechnologies of energy in the existing built environment and infrastructure – is critical to the achievement of ambitious carbon reduction targets. To realise the ecological and economic benefits of retrofit cities are continually searching for a 'fix' that allows them to upscale retrofit from a largely ad hoc and piecemeal activity of repair and maintenance into strategic and systemic retrofit programmes that transform existing cities. This article is primarily concerned with understanding the politics and purpose of such experimentation and analyses efforts to integrate retrofit and governing in Greater Manchester. To do this, the article draws on a programme of interviews with national, city-regional, local authority and neighbourhood scale actors, documentary analysis and observations. We address on who is constructing retrofit responses in Greater Manchester and also why they are being constructed: Is it to transform the city-region and, if so, in what ways? And ask, in what ways are governance frameworks mediating and interpreting wider sets of global pressures at city-regional scale and which of these – economic, ecological, governing, social justice, etc. – pressures are more and less prioritised? We set out dominant city-regional responses (ON), alternative responses (IN) and assess the possibilities for integrated responses (WITH).

This paper develops a theoretical and conceptual understanding of the role of space and politics in governing relationships between cities, critical energy, water, waste and transportation infrastructures and resource flows. It presents a view of cities as dynamic, experimental social spaces underpinned by infrastructural unevenness with variable provision of and access to resource flows. An emerging set of new pressures to the ways in which cities, infrastructure and resource flows are organised under conditions of neo-liberal urbanism is reviewed. The paper then reflects theoretically and conceptually on the ways in which these pressures can be appropriated in terms of the re-organisation of city, networked infrastructure and resource flows as predicated on tensions between transformative reconfiguration and obduracy from historically produced social and institutional coalitions.

Earth scientists now argue that the current geological era should be re-named the anthropocene to better reflect the impact of humans in reshaping planetary ecology. Urbanism encompasses the social, economic and political processes most closely linked to the rapid transformation of habitats, destruction of ecologies, over use of materials and resources, and the production of pollutants and carbon emissions that threaten planetary terracide. Consequently, the key concern for 21st-century global urbanism is to critically understand the wider societal and material implications of strategic responses to the pressures of climate change, resource constraint and their interrelationships with the global economic crisis. Eco-cities, eco-towns, eco city-states, floating cities and the like represent particular, and increasingly pre-eminent, forms of response. These types of response appear to promote the construction of ecologically secure premium enclaves that by-pass existing infrastructure and build internalised ecological resource flows that attempt to guarantee strategic protection and further economic reproduction. If this is so this raises difficult issues as to what is left for those outside of these privileged enclaves. The search for more equitable and just forms of response requires understanding what types of alternatives to such bounded and divisible ecological security zones could be developed that contribute towards the building of more inclusive collective planetary security. In this respect, the aim of this paper is to ask: what styles of urbanism do these transformations contribute to the production of, what are the consequences of these emerging styles and what alternatives to them are being constructed?

AbstractThe term 'ecological security' is usually used in relation to attempts to safeguard flows of ecological resources, infrastructure and services at the national scale. But increasing concerns over 'urban ecological security' (UES) are now giving rise to strategies to reconfigure cities and their infrastructures in ways that help to secure their ecological and material reproduction. Yet cities have differing capacities and capabilities for developing strategic responses to the opportunities and constraints of key UES concerns. These include resource constraints and climate change, and consequently these newly emerging strategies may selectively privilege particular urban areas and particular social interests over others. In this article, we focus on world cities and outline the challenges posed by the growing concern for UES. We review the emerging responses that may increasingly form a new dominant 'logic' of infrastructure provision, which we characterize as Secure Urbanism and Resilient Infrastructure (SURI). We conclude by addressing the extent to which this new dominant 'logic' underpins a new strategy of accumulation or more 'progressive' politics by outlining alternatives to SURI, possibilities for shaping SURI more 'progressively' and developing an agenda for future research.Résumé L'expression 'sécuritéécologique' s'applique généralement à des efforts visant à préserver les flux de ressources écologiques, infrastructures et services à l'échelon national. Toutefois, la multiplication des préoccupations en matière de 'sécuritéécologique urbaine' (SEU) donne lieu désormais à des stratégies de reconfiguration des villes et de leurs infrastructures dans le but d'assurer leur reproduction écologique et matérielle. Cependant, les villes ont des capacités et des moyens différents d'élaborer des réponses stratégiques aux opportunités et contraintes liées aux grandes questions de SEU. Celles‐ci englobant les pénuries de ressources et le changement climatique, les stratégies émergentes peuvent choisir de privilégier telles ou telles zones urbaines et tels ou tels intérêts sociaux. En s'intéressant aux villes mondiales, l'article présente les enjeux que suscite l'attention croissante pour la SEU. Sont étudiées les premières réponses apportées, susceptibles de constituer progressivement une nouvelle 'logique' dominante dans la fourniture d'infrastructures : ce que nous appelons la SURI (sécurité de l'urbanisme et résistance des infrastructures). La conclusion s'interroge sur la mesure dans laquelle cette nouvelle 'logique' dominante sous‐tend une nouvelle stratégie d'accumulation ou bien des politiques plus 'progressistes' en exposant des alternatives à la SURI, des possibilités de conformer la SURI de manière plus 'progressiste' et de concevoir un programme de recherches.

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on the tensions between economic and environmental priorities through attempts to reconfigure urban governance arrangements in a world city. We examine these tensions through the development of the hydrogen energy economy in London and through attempts to cultivate new techniques of governance in realizing this vision. Through case study material, we develop two representations of the negotiation of new forms of governance. First, we outline the representation of 'London as world leader in progressive urban governance'. Second, we develop a characterization of 'the politics of the world city in CO2reduction'. The article moves on to address the scalar making up of these representations, in relation to and through analysing multiple interpretations of London as a 'national exemplar'. The active positioning and representation of London as the exemplar by the national state and the specificities of London governance, we claim, enables the mayor to actively negotiate between the two sets of apparently conflicting logics of hydrogen development. London's energy strategy is therefore to a large extent 'nationalized' while at the same time national energy policy is also regionalized around London. Consequently, London is differentially and positively positioned in comparison to other city‐regions of the UK. The need to develop a sustainability fix that can allow London, and the greater South East of England, to continue to grow economically and within the apparent constraints of environmental limits requires a specific governance fix around the national exemplar and new socio‐technical energy networks, which we characterize as 'strategic glurbanization'.RésuméCet article s'intéresse aux tensions entre priorités économiques et environnementales dans les tentatives de reconfiguration de la gouvernance urbaine d'une ville mondiale. Ces tensions sont étudiées dans le cadre de l'économie de l'hydrogène développée à Londres et de projets de nouvelles techniques de gouvernance visant à concrétiser cette vision. À partir d'éléments d'étude de cas, deux représentations de la négociation de formes innovantes de gouvernance sont élaborées. D'abord, sont exposées la représentation de 'Londres, chef de file mondial d'une gouvernance urbaine novatrice', puis une description des 'politiques de réduction en CO2de la ville mondiale'. L'article aborde ensuite l'échelle de création de ces représentations, en fonction et au travers de l'analyse d'interprétations de Londres comme 'exemple national'. Le positionnement et la représentation dynamiques de Londres en tant qu'exemple d'après l'État national, ainsi que les particularités de la gouvernance londonienne, permettent au maire, selon nous, de négocier véritablement entre les deux logiques apparemment contradictoires du développement de l'hydrogène. La stratégie énergétique de Londres est donc 'nationalisée' dans une large mesure tandis que, parallèlement, la politique énergétique nationale est régionalisée autour de la métropole. C'est ainsi que la ville se place de manière différente et positive par rapport à d'autres régions métropolitaines du Royaume‐Uni. Le besoin d'élaborer une solution durable qui permette à Londres, et à la région sud‐est de l'Angleterre, de poursuivre leur essor économique moyennant les contraintes manifestes des limites environnementales exige une gouvernance spécifique définie autour de l'exemple national et de nouveaux réseaux énergétiques socio‐techniques que nous qualifions de 'glurbanisation stratégique'.

British cities are now experiencing unprecedented competition for surface and subsurface urban space. Restructuring of the utilities sector has created privately owned companies that are now engaged in major programs of infrastructure renewal while massive investments are underway in retrofitting new forms of telecommunications, energy, and transportation infrastructure. Above the ground, increasing mobility has created new demands for urban road space for the movement of goods and people. Focusing on a case study of Sheffield, the article identifies the competing demands for space, examines the broader implications of these new tensions, and evaluates how far the city is able to mediate between competing demands. The article concludes by raising serious questions about the ability of urban policy to mediate between private companies' demands for urban space in the United Kingdom.

Privatisation of British water services has dramatically reconfigurcd both production and consumption intercsts. While critics such as John Ernst decry a growing service inequity, PeterSaunders and Colin Harris celebrate enhanced consumer benefits. Closer investigation of new styles of utility network management reveal spatially complex patterns of social, econornic and environmental change. While worries over the social and public health implications of water poverly grow, the environrnental dividends of privatised water supply become clearer. The paper identifies two recently emcrging logics of networks management; the first prioritises thc shaping of demand over the expansion of supply capacity; the second prioritises the recovery of water charges over the social am! health needs of low income households. These logics highlight powerful resonanccs and dissonances between the economic and environmental bencfits of the commodification process and the social and health costs associated with a sharpening polarisation in access to basic water services.

Privatisation of British water services has dramatically reconfigured both production and consumption interests. While critics such as John Ernst decry a growing service inequity, Peter Saunders and Colin Harris celebrate enhanced consumer benefits. Closer investigation of new styles of utility network management reveal spatially complex patterns of social, economic and environmental change. While worries over the social and public health implications of water poverty grow, the environmental dividends of privatised water supply become clearer. The paper identifies two recently emerging logics of networks management; the first prioritises the shaping of demand over the expansion of supply capacity; the second prioritises the recovery of water charges over the social and health needs of low income households. These logics highlight powerful resonances and dissonances between the economic and environmental benefits of the commodification process and the social and health costs associated with a sharpening polarisation in access to basic water services. (Prokla / FUB)