Week 8

Date	Topic
WEEK 8	Global urbanization and uneven development combine in ways that make traditional planning and policy approaches problematic, alternative approaches are available.
Feb. 27	Show the documentary "The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream."
March 1	Running the city-region: emerging approaches to metropolitan governance and politics; The San Diego-Tijuana global city-region.

Assigned Readings

Ravetz, J. (2000). Running the city-region. City-region 2020: integrated planning for a sustainable environment. J. Ravetz, Sustainable City-Region Working Group. and Town and Country Planning Association. London, Earthscan: 250-270. (jump to notes below)

United Nations Human Settlements Programme (2006). The State of the World's Cities 2006/2007: The Millennium Development Goals and Urban Sustainability, 30 Years of Shaping the Habitat Agenda. Sterling, Va., Earthscan. Part IV: 4.1-4.6. (jump to notes below).

Topic introduction

City-regions are diverse, often conflicting, aggregations of cities, suburbs, and their environs that need to be organized as integrated systems composed of communicating networks of infrastructures. Yet globalization, uneven development and low-density urban sprawl have combined in ways that make traditional planning and policy approaches problematic. In the developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, an estimated 600 million urban dwellers live in "life and health threatening environments because of unsafe and insufficient water, poor quality and often overcrowded shelters, inadequate provision for sanitation, garbage and drainage, unsafe housing sites and a lack of health care" (Mitlan and Bicknel, 1992:3). In developed as well as developing countries, additional concerns include problems with the structure of livelihood opportunities, land use, habitat destruction, pollution and the loss of biodiversity. Urban planning is an interdisciplinary profession that must grapple with these conditions and contradictions. Cities in a Globalizing World , a recent HABITAT report, documents four dynamic trends in city-region governance over the past decade: (1) devolution of power and resources away from centralized governments toward local governments, (2) rising level of citizen participation in policy-making, (3) emergence of new forms of multi-level governance (collaborative arrangements joining public, private, and civil society institutions in urban problem solving), and (4) policy and decision-making structures that are more process-driven and territorially based (attuned to regional blocs and area-based interests) (Habitat 2001:59-62).

San Diego Union-Tribune, Opinion, by Keith Pezzoli, July 30, 2004
San Diego 's Regional Comprehensive Plan: Reason for optimism? (click here)

"The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream."

Excerpt below is copied from a web site dedictated to sharing info about this documentary:

Since World War II North Americans have invested much of their newfound wealth in suburbia. It has promised a sense of space, affordability, family life and upward mobility. As the population of suburban sprawl has exploded in the past 50 years, so too has the suburban way of life become embedded in the American consciousness.

Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream.

But as we enter the 21st century, serious questions are beginning to emerge about the sustainability of this way of life. With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, The End of Suburbia explores the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet approaches a critical era, as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply. World Oil Peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now, some scientists and policy makers argue in this documentary.

The consequences of inaction in the face of this global crisis are enormous. What does Oil Peak mean for North America? As energy prices skyrocket in the coming years, how will the populations of suburbia react to the collapse of their dream? Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums of tomorrow? And what can be done NOW, individually and collectively, to avoid The End of Suburbia ?

Ravetz, J. (2000). Running the city-region. City-region 2020: integrated planning for a sustainable environment. J. Ravetz, Sustainable City-Region Working Group. and Town and Country Planning Association. London, Earthscan: 250-270.

Metabolism of governance
Political theory is of course a labyrinth in itself, and linkages to the sustainability agenda are many and diverse. Looking beyond the formal structures of 'government through representative democracy in the public sector,' to the wider picture of decision-making in the common interest, there are many layers to the theme of 'sus tainable governance':

* a process of collective negotiation which translates 'needs' into 'outcomes';
* new modes of communication and decision- making;
* new patterns of institutions, networks and representation;
*engagement of groups and communities on the periphery;
* alliances and integration of public, private and civic sectors;
*the wider political debate --if sustainable development means what it says about 'equity', does this mean social redistribution, and if so on what terms? (p. 252)

Towards sustainable governance
The common principles of sustainability or responsibility -themselves an extension of the time-honoured principles of human rights and social justice:

*equity, or responsibility to present generations;
*futurity, or responsibility to future generations;
*ecology, or responsibility to other species;
*empowennent', or responsibility to communities and society. (p. 254)

Sustainable Development Framework
The 2020 governance strategy will see new structures and processes of decision-making, to manage a 'sustainable development framework," integrated between all sectors:

*decision-making with responsive, ICT-enabled, multi-cultural, consensus techniques
*strengthen powers, legitimacy and efficiency of districts, towns and neighbourhoods
* extend Local Agenda 21 to community planning with technical grounding
*set up a city-region 'sustainable development framework' as a coordinating and enabling platform in the context of regional governance
*set up city-region 'agencies' where needed to carry out city-region 'strategies' and 'programmes '. (p. 270)

Part IV: Policies and Practices that have Worked

Vancouver: The world’s most liveable city combines multiculturalism with
environmental sustainability. pdf