Rethinking sustainable cities: Multilevel governance and the 'urban' politics of climate change
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
While sustainable cities have been promoted as a desirable goal within a variety of policy contexts, critical questions concerning the extent to which cities and local governments can address the challenges of sustainability remain unanswered. We use a multilevel governance perspective to examine the discursive and material struggles which take place in creating sustainable cities. In exploring the politics of implementing climate protection through development planning in Newcastle upon Tyne and transport planning in Cambridgeshire, we find that the interpretation and implementation of sustainability are shaped by forms of governance which stretch across geographical scales and beyond the boundary of the urban. We argue that the 'urban'governance of climate protection involves relations between levels of the state and new network spheres of authority which challenge traditional distinctions between local, national and global environmental politics.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Environmental Politics |
Volume | 14 |
Issue number | 1 |
Pages (from-to) | 42-63 |
Number of pages | 22 |
ISSN | 0964-4016 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Feb 2005 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:
An earlier version of this paper was presented to the ‘Sustainable Development and the Governing of Urban and Rural Areas’ session at the Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers 2003 conference. Harriet Bulkeley would like to thank the Leverhulme Trust and the Newton Trust, University of Cambridge, for funding the research fellowship during which this collaborative research was developed, and the Nuffield Foundation for support for field research. The authors would also like to thank the three anonymous referees and the editor for their helpful comments. The usual disclaimers apply.
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