Towards urban equity: a just sustainabilities analysis of municipal sustainability policy and planning
Date
2015
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Since the early 1990s, there has been a call for local governments to engage in environmental sustainability planning as an integral part of global sustainable development. Similar to broader sustainable development movements, cities often frame their actions around a triumvirate of concern areas (economic growth, social development and environmental sustainability) to achieve corresponding goals. This dissertation examines and evaluates the challenges and outcomes of urban planning in an U.S urban city. It focuses on municipal environmental sustainability efforts integrated with environmental justice principles, using sustainability as the policy focus and giving attention to equity and justice concerns. This study attempts to distill whether planning and policy are undergirded by equitable practices that ultimately lead to improved considerations and conditions for marginalized communities. Drawing on these strategies this study investigates the tensions between urbanization, sustainability and equity concerns by looking at broader policy issues that extend beyond the analysis of planning, and includes investigating the mechanisms that undergird urban growth and development. A just sustainabilities (Agyeman, 2013) framework will be used to gauge how municipal comprehensive development goes about the work of planning and achieving sustainable development. The work concludes that while cities are conscious of social inequities that are exacerbated and promoted by environmental inequality, it highlights that marginalized communities need a greater voice in policy development to promote more equitable outcomes; while more aggressive policies and development action that disseminate from governments are needed to actively identify and eradicate environmental threats and concurrently promote improved quality of life outcomes, such as access to greenspace, improved mobility options and healthy food options.