Abstract
Edgar Pieterse offers a critique of the mainstream Brundtland inspired conception of sustainable cities. His alternative conceptual approach presents the critical dimensions of an alternative urban development framework. He looks at how three co-constitutive urban operating systems – infrastructural, economic and spatial – need to be transformed in order to achieve more sustainable lives and livelihoods. He argues that such transformations depend on grounded alternative visions and effective politics.
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Notes
The ACC is an inter-disciplinary research platform at the University of Cape Town. It operates six applied urban research laboratories that bring together public officers, university scholars, social movements and interested private sector actors to explore specific urban problems over a period of two years in order to generate policy insights and fresh academic perspectives on the contested and lived realities of cities. This work cross-pollinates with the building of research and practice networks across Africa to better understand and foreground the urban question (Parnell et al., 2009). See http://www.africancentreforcities.net.
The work of the International Panel on Climate Change is clear that if the world is to avoid a two degrees rise in temperature, carbon emissions will have to be cut by half of current levels by 2050, which further implies an 80 percent cut by developed nations. This means that a low-carbon future is simply a non-negotiable even though how we will achieve these reductions remain a mystery given the current patterns of real politik. For an insightful overview on the imperatives of a low-carbon future, see Flavin (2008).
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Acknowledgements
This article is based on ongoing research support provided by the National Research Foundation of South Africa and the Mistra Urban Futures project. The research and editorial support of Kim Gurney is gratefully acknowledged. The author remains solely responsible for views expressed herein.
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Presents an alternative urban development framework to the mainstream Brundtland approach
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Pieterse, E. Recasting Urban Sustainability in the South. Development 54, 309–316 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2011.62
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2011.62