Abstract
I. MISSION STATEMENT
II. THEMES FOR FUTURE ISSUES
III. DISCOUNTED PRICES AND ELECTRONIC ACCESS TO E&U
IV. SISTER JOURNALS
V. BLOGS
VI. SOCIAL MEDIA
VII. EMAIL NEWSLETTER
VIII. ENGAGING READERS IN BOOK NOTES
I. Mission Statement
Environment and Urbanization (E&U) seeks to advance a more socially just and environmentally sustainable urban world through the provision of knowledge. Our focus is the global South, where an estimated one in three of the urban population live in informal settlements and where more than half work within the informal economy. UN projections suggest that almost all the world’s growth in population in the next few decades will be in urban centres in the global South.
Contributors to E&U include those engaging with critical social science to add theoretical and conceptual insights, those reporting innovative empirical findings that augment our understanding of context and solutions (and their significance for theories and concepts), and those able to share the voices of activist representative groups and movements that are rarely seen in the scholarly literature. In other words, our journal aims both to advance social justice and be the change we strive for by encouraging contributions that share the perspectives of disadvantaged and marginalized groups.
E&U particularly encourages researchers, NGO staff, professionals and activists in Africa, Asia and Latin America to write about their work, present their ideas and debate issues. We promote the work of French-Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking authors by arranging for the translation of their work into English.
Papers commonly deal with poverty, inequality and the power relations underpinning both disadvantage and transformation. Papers also report on trends, policies, programmes and practices related to urbanization, urban development and urban environments. We are concerned with processes of progressive change, while recognizing that these are contested, and that change is neither uni-linear nor necessarily progressive. Urbanization processes are often poorly understood and papers that contribute insights supporting an accurate understanding of grounded realities are important to us. We recognize that sustainable development, including needed responses to climate change, is critical to both current and future populations, and that ecosystems have a critical role in the wellbeing of urban populations and the resilience of their cities. We encourage contributions related to such themes.
II. Themes for Future Issues
There is growing recognition among policymakers and researchers around the world that cities perform a leading role in economic growth and human development. This contribution is doubly important as countries seek to bounce back from the dual health and economic crises of COVID-19. Although the pandemic threatens core aspects of urban life, such as density and connectivity, cities are best placed to lead the economic recovery, renewal and transformation. This is because they have inherent advantages for growth and inclusion arising from the concentration of assets, institutions and diverse skill sets, along with strong information and trading connections to other cities and regions. These attributes have the potential to foster dynamic human and business interactions that promote learning, stimulate enterprise, raise productivity, create jobs and livelihoods, and increase the returns on public and private investment. However, the positive feedback and synergies are not automatic because urban growth is also accompanied by congestion, pollution, overloaded infrastructure, social tensions and higher property prices, which can deter productive investment, entrepreneurial talent and highly skilled workers. Successful outcomes seem to require capable city-level institutions to guide the process and provide essential public goods and services, because market mechanisms cannot organize urban development effectively to ensure that it creates functional, liveable and sustainable environments.
The purpose of this special issue is to explore the contemporary opportunities and challenges facing cities in seeking to boost economic growth and ensure widely shared prosperity. What are the foundations of urban economic success in the twenty-first century and how are these changing? What obstacles need to be tackled to harness the potential of urbanization to lift people out of poverty and improve their wellbeing? Environment and Urbanization encourages submissions that address one or more of the following key themes:
The relationship between urbanization and economic growth/development.
The challenge of low productivity, low investment and low-income urban growth, and the success of efforts to transform these conditions.
The effectiveness of efforts to promote small, medium and/or large enterprises, to create jobs and to secure livelihoods.
The changing relationship among the locations of firms, households and transport systems in the post-pandemic city.
The planning and financing of urban infrastructure to improve productivity and liveability.
The role of city-level governance and institutions in planning and managing urban economic development.
The role of cities in macroeconomic policies, national industrial policies and/or national infrastructure plans.
Ways of understanding and enhancing links between city economies and economic activity in small towns and villages in the surrounding area.
The concept and measurement of urban density and its economic upsides and downsides.
The existence and strength of agglomeration economies in the global South.
The relationship between urban economies and the climate emergency.
The contribution of digital technology and/or innovation to urban economic development.
Much of the debate on climate justice in cities focuses on adaptation and calls on wealthy countries and donors to increase and decentralize investments and aid for climate adaptation projects. This reflects how the increasingly severe effects of climate breakdown – for example more frequent intense storms, heat and flooding – disproportionately hurt the urban poor across the global North and South. There is less focus on cities as accelerators of decarbonization or how mitigation finance can also respond to pervasive dimensions of urban poverty such as poor access to housing and basic services. Decarbonization has the potential to transform life in cities. However, to be equitable in effectiveness, interventions must benefit all urban residents, especially the urban poor. Informal settlements and other low-income neighbourhoods have relatively low carbon footprints, and any infrastructural investments in these neighbourhoods that include a focus on decarbonization will enable these communities to bypass the carbon-intensive trajectories underway in other parts of the city.
We invite contributions that expand documentation and deepen our knowledge of how climate change mitigation policies and practices can align with the agendas of new and established urban social movements and the imperative to decrease socioeconomic inequalities in cities. This special issue of Environment and Urbanization will build on the growing literature examining climate justice in cities (Bulkeley et al., 2014; Granberg and Glover, 2021) and urban just transitions (Hughes and Hoffmann, 2020; McCauley, 2021), particularly concerning emissions mitigation and resilience in informal and low-income neighbourhoods (Almansi et al., 2020; Dodman et al., 2018; Satterthwaite et al., 2020), aligning climate finance with infrastructure inequalities and urban justice (Colenbrander et al., 2018; Mulligan et al., 2020), the injustice of urban climate policy and action (Blok, 2020; Bouzarovski et al., 2018; Sovacool et al., 2019), and how urban social movements are contesting inequalities in the context of a warming planet (Pickerill, 2020; Routledge et al., 2018).
We invite submissions in the form of academic articles or Field Notes based on original research or innovative practices. We will also consider interviews or dialogue exchanges(1) with social movement leaders or artists. Potential themes to explore include:
Policy and governance innovations driving decarbonization and reduction of poverty in cities.
Analysis of co-produced and pro-poor mitigation interventions from informal settlements and low-income neighbourhoods.
Analysis of new urban social movements in relation to environmental and climate justice.
Creative approaches of community mobilization connecting the arts, activism and climate action.
Critical analysis of urban climate policy and governance in relation to social, economic and spatial inequalities.
Planning for more equitable and compact cities, with potential (re)development on brownfield and greenfield sites.
Potential clashes between urban justice and climate action, such as “green gentrification”, forced relocation of informal settlements, “green washing”, etc.
The concept, measurement and application of “climate justice” in cities.
Regional or international comparative analysis of climate action and inequalities.
Tracking and analysis of climate finance flows to cities and effects on segregation and socioeconomic and spatial inequalities.
Integration of renewable energy and/or green-blue infrastructure in informal and low-income neighbourhoods.
Footnotes
1.
In contrast to an interview, a dialogue exchange might be an edited conversation between two or three thought- and movement leaders speaking to relevant research questions and debate.