Speaker
Description
The world becomes urban, the majority of people live in cities, and we speak of an ‘urban age’. Planning as transformative action, especially towards and in a future post-growth society, involves motivating and engaging urban imaginaries. While some of them remain hidden in urban theory and associated role perceptions of planners and policymakers, so do we see imaginaries driving cities to action. Supported by European and international frameworks, new models from research, or funding mechanisms, some cities seem to lead the discourse around core questions of the urban future. For post-growth planning, this could be the application of Kate Raworth’s doughnut economics in cities like Amsterdam, but also some local initiatives within URBACT. Beyond these examples, a wide range of networks mushrooms to foster local actions, participation, and democracy, such as the European Capital of Democracy.
Against much emphasis on ‘the urban’, cities as a spatial form occupy only a little part of our common space while their impact reaches way into its surroundings here now in the same way as elsewhere and in the future. Both from a spatial and a relational perspective, cities are not closed, but deeply intertwined with hinterlands, remote areas, and the systems necessary for their own existence and reproduction. They are more than a set of buildings: sites for democracy, places for active citizenship and opportunities for making and claiming rights. But what are the limits to making urban politics within the territorial limit of a city? We build this contribution on an interdisciplinary seminar series on the question “Where is Urban Politics?” in Groningen in 2024 and 2025, crossing boundaries between philosophy, urban politics, and spatial planning. We use post-growth thoughts to complement critical questions about how we can positively re-gain democracy and governance in cities while not leaving our common foundation beyond cities out of sight. Literally said, not running alone somewhere, but moving together collectively. What needs to change in the self-understanding of planners and city makers, to achieve this?
References
Beveridge, R., & Koch, P. (2023). How cities can transform democracy. Polity Press.
Brenner, N. (2019). New urban spaces: Urban theory and the scale question. Oxford University Press.
Durrant, D., Lamker, C. W., & Rydin, Y. (2023). The Potential of Post-Growth Planning: Re-Tooling the Planning Profession for Moving beyond Growth. Planning Theory & Practice, 24(2), 287–295. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2023.2198876 (Comment).
Ryan-Collins, J., Lloyd, T. P., MacFarlane, L., & Muellbauer, J. (2022). Rethinking the economics of land and housing. Bloomsbury Academic.
Thompson, M., Cator, C., Beel, D., Jones, I. R., Jones, M., & Morgan, K. (2024). Amsterdam’s circular economy at a world-ecological crossroads: postcapitalist degrowth or the next regime of capital accumulation? Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 17(3), Article rsae022, 535–550. https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsae022
| Keywords | Urban Future; Urban Politics; Post-Growth Planning |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
