Mobilitäten und Immobilitäten von nachhaltigen Politiken auf regionaler Ebene

Basic data for this project

Description

While Freiburg, Germany, has garnered world-wide attention for its multi-faceted initiatives and achievements in the realms of green low-carbon economy, mobility, energy, land use planning and citizen participation, sustainable development in the greater Freiburg region has yet to be coherently addressed, leading to a variety of policies and practices that run counter to Freiburg’s “green city” sustainability objectives. In a parallel fashion, Calgary, Canada, incorporated significant sustainability principles in its 2009 Master Development Plan and Transportation Plan (‘Plan-It’), yet such principles have not been adopted on a regional scale. While the two cities exhibit substantial differences in size, developmental history, political orientation etc., both exhibit a profound disconnection from their regional contexts, especially with regard to sustainable development policies and politics. Calgary’s sustainability policies contrast with those of its surrounding county, which is attempting to attract as much growth and investment as possible, with a minimum of regulation. Freiburg’s surrounding municipalities, which often favour growth and new construction over densification, green retrofitting, and other approaches to reducing carbon emissions, contradict the city’s sustainable urban development agenda by increasing suburbanization, commuting, and soil sealing around Freiburg. The central conflict in both regions is between a central city seeking a “sustainability fix” (While, Jonas and Gibbs 2004) to its fiscal, environmental, and quality of life problems, and growing suburban municipalities characterized by “growth machine” politics (Logan and Molotch 1987; Jonas and Wilson 1999). In this analysis we move beyond a localist ontology (MacLeod and Jones 2011), or what Angelo and Wachsmuth (2014) call “methodological cityism,” by taking into account the larger regional systems in which urban sustainability transitions are embedded. Problems of regional governance and institutional isomorphism rise to the fore, along with associated issues of trust at the individual level, place-based identity, and the need for territorial-political differentiation.