Call for Papers: RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2014, London, 26 to 29 August 2014
Greenest Cities? Urban Sustainability and the (Post-)Politics of
Territorial Competitiveness
Convenors: Marit Rosol (University of Frankfurt / Main), Samuel
Mössner (University of Freiburg), Vincent Béal (University of
Strasbourg)
Urban sustainable development and green economies have become
important elements of strategies aimed at fostering urban
competitiveness at the global level. In many places, climate and
environmental policies are transformed into marketing tools and
in practice, sustainable and economic urban development has
given way to hybrid and variegated forms of neoliberalism. While
?eco-cities? are broadly hailed to equally matching ecological
responsiveness, social integration and economic prosperity, most
of today?s ?best-practices? show that climate and environmental
policies are often subjugated to overarching goals of economic
growth. More often, sustainability goals have been hijacked in
order to legitimize economic development. In today?s capitalism,
we witness a strange relationship of ?sustainable? economic
activities and policies that are driven by a global
competitiveness. This competitive and entrepreneurial character
becomes especially obvious in global ?Green City?-competitions
and rankings.
In this session we are interested in better understanding the
consequences of the commodification and economization of
sustainable practices. We are particularly keen to conceptualize
the competitive and entrepreneurial character of urban
sustainability, its consequences for the governance of cities
and particularly its implications for democracy and social
justice.
Therefore, the objective of this session is twofold: First, we
seek empirical reflections from cities/places across the
world that critically reflect on entrepreneurial sustainable
development such as Green Cities competitions. Second, we seek to
further debate and critique of urban sustainability under contemporary
capitalism through various theoretical perspectives such as
post-politics, hegemony, governmentality, the urban sustainability
fix, neoliberalisation, political economy etc.Thus, we welcome
theoretically informed empirical papers that explore (but are not
limited to) one or more of the following questions:
* What role does urban sustainability play in interurban global
competition?
* How do cities try to position themselves in interurban competition
through (selective) recourse to sustainability policies and practices?
How do these policies and practices get invented?
* What kind of actors, groups or institutions, are involved in the
transnational construction of urban sustainability models, best
practices, ranking, etc., which feed interurban global competition?
* How does this change urban governance? What are, for example, the
relationships between urban sustainability and the rise of consensual
and post-political arrangements in cities?
* What are the implications for questions of democracy and social
justice?
* What kind of conflicts, struggles, movements, resistances and
expressions of dissent exist around these ?green cities? projects?
* Are ?alternative Green Cities? possible?
Format: Short presentations (20 minutes including questions)
Please send abstracts (max 250 words) including the title of the
proposed paper presentation, name of author(s), and contact
information to Marit Rosol (rosol@geo.uni-frankfurt.de), Samuel
Mössner (samuel.moessner@geographie.uni-freiburg.de) and Vincent Béal
(vbeal@unistra.fr) by Thursday 6th February 2014.
For general information on the conference see:
http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+
International+Conference/Annual+international+conference.htm
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Vincent Béal
Maitre de Conférences en sociologie
SAGE (UMR 7363) - Université de Strasbourg
http://sage.unistra.fr/membres/enseignants-chercheurs/beal-vincent/
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