Abstract
This article approaches urban ethics through critically examining the production and reproduction of an eco-modern socio-technical imaginary of sustainable urban development in Sweden, and the conditions and obstacles this poses for a just transformation. We see that notions of ecological modernization re-present problems of urban sustainability in ways that do not challenge the predominant regime, but rather uphold unjust power relations. More particularly, through an approach inspired by critical discourse analysis, we uncover what these problem representations entail, deconstructing what we find as three cornerstones of an eco-modern imaginary that obstruct the emergence of a more ethically-engaged understanding of urban sustainability. The first concerns which scales and system boundaries are constructed as relevant, and how this results in some modes and places of production and consumption being constructed as more efficient—and sustainable—than others. The second cornerstone has to do with what resources and ways of using them (including mediating technologies) are foregrounded and constructed as more important in relation to sustainability than others. The third cornerstone concerns the construction of subjectivities, through which some types of people and practices are put forth as more efficient—and sustainable—than others. Utilizing a critical speculative design approach, we explore a selection of alternative problem representations, and finally discuss these in relation to the possibility of affording a more ethical urban design and planning practice.
Highlights
Increasing attention has been given to the political and ethical implications of sustainability transformations (Agyeman & Evans, 2004; Avelino, Grin, Pel, & Jhagroe, 2016; Bradley, 2009)
The analysis was carried out by identifying and examining problem representations in both policy-in-practice and in socio-technical imaginaries related to urban sustainability
We can conclude that contemporary Swedish sustainable urban development is characterized by an eco-modernist discourse—seen primarily in the promotion of ‘green’ technology, the reliance on market-based incentives, the emphasis on ‘green’ consumption, and in the foregrounding of efficiency
Summary
Increasing attention has been given to the political and ethical implications of sustainability transformations (Agyeman & Evans, 2004; Avelino, Grin, Pel, & Jhagroe, 2016; Bradley, 2009). The major societal shifts needed entail reconfiguring or completely overhauling key socio-material systems that today afford the reproduction of unsustainable modes of production and consumption (Geels, 2010; Markard, Raven, & Truffer, 2012) This includes challenging power regimes and imaginaries of what constitutes development, for whom, and in what ways (Avelino et al, 2016; Kenis, Bono, & Mathijs, 2016). Findings are synthesized into three ‘cornerstones’ of contemporary urban sustainability Based on these and utilizing a critical speculative design approach to illustrate the materialization of the cornerstones in everyday life, we explore a selection of alternative problem representations, and discuss these in relation to the possibility of affording a more ethical urban design and planning practice
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