Speaker
Description
The linkage of degrowth and planning has been increasingly acknowledged in the last few years, not only for the sake of facilitating degrowth transition, but also for the transition of urban planning into a practice better aligned with the socio-ecological needs of today’s world (Xue, 2021; Xue and Kębłowski, 2022). Literature on urban degrowth provides key principles of spatial organization for degrowth (Savini, 2021), and proposes prime constituents for creating spatial degrowth agenda (Kaika et al., 2023). Concrete architectural and urban planning practices have also been examined to determine their compatibility with degrowth (De Castro Mazarro et al., 2023). There is, however, little research on how the transformation to degrowth planning occurs. Though Ruiz-Alejos and Prats (2021) proposes the need for back-casting scenarios, research on the process itself of the transition from mainstreaming planning to degrowth planning is substantially lacking.
This paper delves into the case of gender mainstreaming planning in Vienna, Austria, and analyzes its implementation process to the city’s planning practices. By analyzing a successful case of gender mainstreaming, a concept that was as peripheral in the 1990s as degrowth is today in the planning field, and examining why it was possible to integrate this concept into mainstreaming planning as well as how the process evolved, this paper will provide a useful analogical guideline that can help outline the path to urban degrowth.
Vienna is known for its gender mainstreaming planning that was launched in the 1990s. Having installed a Frauenbüro (Women’s office) in 1992, the City of Vienna launched a number of projects to promote equal access to the city regardless of gender. This includes the building of Frauen-Werk-Stadt, apartments designed by and for women, running pilot projects in the district of Mariahilf for improving women’s mobility, and improving the design of public parks to better adapt to the needs of girls (Kail, 2016).
The analysis will use the framework of Multi-Level Perspective from transitions studies (Frantzeskaki et al., 2018). This framework perceives the process of change as taking place at multiple levels that interact with each other: a micro-level consisting of niche innovative incubators; a meso-level referring to the status-quo regime that resists change; and a macro-level where overarching trends and developments are located.
The study first outlines the content and the process of gender mainstreaming planning in Vienna, Austria since the 1990s, using literature including official documents, and by conducting interviews. It then uses the framework of Multi-Level Perspective to analyze how this process has occurred at different levels, and how these different levels influenced each other. This result is then discussed in the last section to extract elements that could be useful analogies in creating transition strategies for degrowth planning.
References
De Castro Mazarro, A., George Kaliaden, R., Wende, W., Egermann, M. (2023) Beyond urban ecomodernism: How can degrowth-aligned spatial practices enhance urban sustainability transformations. Urban Studies, 60(7), 1304-1315. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980221148107
Frantzeskaki, N., Bach, M., Hölscher, K., Avelino, F. (2018) Introducing Sustainability Transitions’ Thinking in Urban Contexts. In Frantzeskaki, N., Hölscher, K., Bach, M., Avelino, F. (eds) Cocreating Sustainable Urban Futures. Future City, vol 11. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69273-9_3
Kaika, M., Varvarousis, A., Demaria, F., & March, H. (2023) Urbanizing degrowth: Five steps towards a Radical Spatial Degrowth Agenda for planning in the face of climate emergency. Urban Studies, 60(7), 1191-1211. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980231162234
Kail, E. (2016) Zielgruppenorientierte Planungsansätze - zur Implementierung des Paradigmenwechsels in Planungsprozessen [PowerPoint presentation]. Available at: https://www.oevg.at/fileadmin/user_upload/Editor/Dokumente/Veranstaltungen/2016/paradigmenwechsel/kail.pdf [Last accessed on January 15, 2025]
Ruiz-Alejos, C., & Prats, V. (2021) In quest of implementing degrowth in local urban planning policies. Local Environment, 27(4), 423–439. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2021.1983789
Savini, F. (2021) Towards an urban degrowth: Habitability, finity and polycentric autonomism. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 53(5), 1076-1095. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X20981391
Xue, J. (2021) Urban planning and degrowth: a missing dialogue. Local Environment, 27(4), 404–422. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2020.1867840
Xue, J., & Kębłowski, W. (2022) Spatialising degrowth, degrowing urban planning. Local Environment, 27(4), 397–403. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2022.2066642
| Keywords | urban degrowth; post-growth planning; gender mainstreaming planning; transitions studies; Vienna |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
