Abstract
During recent decades, urbanization processes and changing population compositions in European cities have underlined the relevance of social sustainability for urban development. Despite a growing amount of research on the social sphere of sustainability, the actual implementation of social sustainability in area development projects remains problematic. In the Netherlands, as in most other European countries, area development is understood as an interdisciplinary practice that strives to integrate strategies, activities and interests of public and private actors into perceived sustainable projects. If area development projects are considered as acts of policy implementation, two questions rise: 1) How are social sustainability dimensions planned, operationalized and implemented through area development projects? and 2) How are they related to governance configurations and mechanisms that relate to decision-making and interventions in these area development projects? The main aim of this paper is to construct a theoretically informed analytical approach to be further developed and applied in PhD research about the implementation of perceived “social sustainability” in area development projects in the Netherlands. We conclude that the implementation of social sustainability in area development projects is a governance process that requires political interventions in a market-driven society and hypothesize that the outcomes of social sustainability in area development are dependent on various aspects of this governance process.
Highlights
Urbanization processes and changing population compositions in European cities have underlined the relevance of social sustainability for urban development
We conclude that the implementation of social sustainability in area development projects is a governance process that requires political interventions in a market-driven society and hypothesize that the outcomes of social sustainability in area development are dependent on various aspects of this governance process
We have argued that the implementation of social sustainability in area development projects is concerned with the management of the various interests of actors, political decisionmaking and tensions between public and private actors
Summary
Urbanization processes and changing population compositions in European cities have underlined the relevance of social sustainability for urban development. Many WestEuropean cities are experiencing rising land prices and shortages in the housing stock (Knight Frank Research, 2018), increasing immigrant inflows (Goodson et al, 2017) and increasing socio-economic segregation (Musterd et al, 2017) These trends emphasize the need to pay attention to social sustainability in urban development. We assume that there is a discrepancy between policy ambitions for socially sustainable cities from a political perspective and the operational outcomes in urban areas, which we connect with a dearth of understanding about the governance of area development projects. This PhD research aims to identify governance aspects that are related to the way that social sustainability is implemented in area development projects.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have