| 1. |
- Buijs, Arjen E., et al.
(författare)
-
Advancing environmental justice in cities through the Mosaic Governance of nature-based solutions
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Cities. - : Elsevier. - 0264-2751 .- 1873-6084. ; 147
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nature-based solutions (NBS) are championed for providing co-benefits to cities and residents, yet their environmental justice impacts are increasingly debated. In this paper, we explore whether and how hybrid governance approaches, such as Mosaic Governance, may contribute to just transformations and sustainable cities through fostering long-term collaborations between local governments, local communities, and grassroots initiatives. Based on case studies in three major European cities, we propose and then exemplify six possible pathways to increase environmental justice: greening the neighborhood, diversifying values and practices, empowering people, bridging across communities, linking to institutions, and scaling of inclusive discourses and practices. Despite the diversity of environmental justice outcomes across cases, our results consistently show that Mosaic Governance particularly contributes to recognition justice through diversifying NBS practices in alignment with community values and aspirations. The results demonstrate the importance of a wider framing of justice in the development of NBS, sensitive to social, cultural, economic and political inequities as well understanding potential pathways to enhance not only environmental justice, but also social justice at large. Especially in marginalised communities, Mosaic Governance holds much potential to advance social justice by enabling empowering, bridging, and linking pathways across diverse communities and NBS practices.
|
|
| 2. |
- Pauleit, Stephan, et al.
(författare)
-
Advancing urban green infrastructure in Europe : Outcomes and reflections from the GREEN SURGE project
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. - : Elsevier BV. - 1618-8667 .- 1610-8167. ; 40, s. 4-16
-
Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Urban green infrastructure (UGI) is a promising concept when developing multifunctional green space systems to address major challenges of urbanization such as increasing social cohesion, promoting the transition to a green economy, adaptation to climate change and conservation of biodiversity. In response to the European Commission's Communication on Green Infrastructure from 2013, the GREEN SURGE project aimed to further advance the development of UGI in European cities by (i) strengthening the conceptual foundations of UGI, (ii) developing improved methods and tools for assessment of its state, benefits and governance and, (iii) applying these to build a stronger evidence base. This paper aims to provide an overall synthesis of the project's main achievements. GREEN SURGE adopted an inter-and transdisciplinary approach. Urban Learning Labs and focal Learning Alliances in five cities were instrumental for intensive collaboration between disciplines and across science and practice. Pan-European surveys, e.g. of planning and governance practice or human-nature interactions established the state-of-the-art across the continent and identified good practices. The project consolidated green infrastructure planning and governance conceptually, and it mapped opportunities for better linking government-led planning with bottom-up initiatives for creating and managing UGI. It also introduced a framework for knowledge integration to support UGI valuation. Importantly, development and application of the concept of biocultural diversity gave new insights into human-nature relationships in multicultural urban societies. The results strongly call for more context-sensitive development of UGI that addresses the different needs and diverse cultural practices of people engaging with nature. In a nutshell, GREEN SURGE showed that UGI indeed can make a major contribution to sustainable and resilient urbanisation. Transdisciplinary research in urban labs, if well-conceived, has shown to hold great potential to advance UGI concepts, methods, knowledge and practice.
|
|
| 3. |
- Buijs, Arjen E., et al.
(författare)
-
Active citizenship for urban green infrastructure : fostering the diversity and dynamics of citizen contributions through mosaic governance
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - : Elsevier BV. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 22, s. 1-6
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Active citizens may contribute to the environmental, social, and institutional resilience of cities. This review discusses how citizen initiatives protect biodiversity hotspots, contribute to social cohesion, institutional innovation, and diversity in urban green space management. Challenges related to social inclusiveness, ecological connectivity and continuity suggest government involvement is pertinent, but needs to be refocused. To maximise environmental outcomes of active citizenship, governments may adopt an enabling and stimulating governance style that harnesses the transformative potential of active citizenship. This paper argues for mosaic governance to work with the heterogeneous array of people, institutions, and spatial practices associated with active citizenship. Mosaic governance aims for a context-sensitive way of urban green infrastructure planning, enhancing relationships between the diversity of landscapes and communities across cities.
|
|
| 4. |
- van der Jagt, Alexander P. N., et al.
(författare)
-
Cultivating nature-based solutions : The governance of communal urban gardens in the European Union
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Environmental Research. - : Elsevier BV. - 0013-9351 .- 1096-0953. ; 159, s. 264-275
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In many countries in the European Union (EU), the popularity of communal urban gardening (CUG) on allotments and community gardens is on the rise. Given the role of this practice in increasing urban resilience, most notably social resilience, municipalities in the Global North are promoting CUG as a nature-based solution (NbS). However, the mechanisms by which institutional actors can best support and facilitate CUG are understudied, which could create a gap between aspiration and reality. The aim of this study is therefore to identify what governance arrangements contribute to CUG delivering social resilience. Through the EU GREEN SURGE project, we studied six CUG initiatives from five EU-countries, representing different planning regimes and traditions. We selected cases taking a locally unique or innovative approach to dealing with urban challenges. A variety of actors associated with each of the cases were interviewed to achieve as complete a picture as possible regarding important governance arrangements. A cross-case comparison revealed a range of success factors, varying from clearly formulated objectives and regulations, municipal support, financial resources and social capital through to the availability of local food champions and facilitators engaging in community building. Municipalities can support CUG initiatives by moving beyond a rigid focus on top-down control, while involved citizens can increase the impact of CUG by pursuing political, in addition to hands-on, activities. We conclude that CUG has clear potential to act as a nature-based solution if managed with sensitivity to local dynamics and context.
|
|
