Organizing sustainable cities: planning, strategy, governance, management

Funded by Vetenskapsrådet 2015-2018

TheOrganizing sustainable cities project aims at grasping how urban sustainable development becomes ‘translated’ as a concept and in practice through the networks and practice spheres of present-day city administrations. The project particularly focuses on the challenges faced by broad organizing ambitions, such as integrative strategies for sustainable urban development, when confronted with incongruent domains of practice that operate according to different protocols and in accordance with diverging values, norms and procedures. By following how actors in different spheres of practice in city administrations translate sustainability into practice in their own domain and make sense of it, the project will contribute to a better understanding of when, how and why this generates friction, incoherence and sometimes open conflict as to what constitutes sustainable urban development and how to ‘do’ it in practice.

Project publications include:

Lindblad, J., & Anand, N. (2023). Cities after planning. Environment and Planning D, 41(4), 606-614. https://doi.org/10.1177/02637758231202863

Lindblad, J. (2023). Planning context: Flexible plans and mayoral authority in French urban planning.Environment and Planning D: Society and Space,41(4), 615-636. https://doi.org/10.1177/02637758231196412

Metzger, J., & Lindblad, J. (Eds.). (2020). Dilemmas of sustainable urban development: A view from practice. Routledge.

Adolfsson, P., Lindblad, J., & Peacock, S. (2021). Translations of sustainability in urban planning documents—A longitudinal study of comprehensive plans in three European cities.Cities,119.103360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2021.103360