This paper reports on social innovation systems for building resilient communities within different social and political contexts across four continents. It considers how social innovation in the built environment occurs over phases of network, framework and architecture and explores the linkages with the study of sustainability and resilience. It tracks the emergence of social innovation in response to social, economic and environmental challenges through nine case studies, using ethnography to probe the barriers and enablers of social innovation. Findings reveal the role that politics and ideological governance levers play in planning for sustainable, inclusive communities. An overview of the role of architecture in the politics of space from literature review is provided based both on historical and contemporary sources. Modern commentators who build on concepts such as the ‘Right to the city’ are considered, in the study of how networks can collaborate on frameworks for change that enable social equity in the built environment. Political themes have laid a foundation for both the literature review and investigation in the field—looking to enlightened policy, such as that based around the Right to the city, which may offer a theoretical framework for communities to effect planning and decision-making.

Social innovation—while not a new practice in itself—has re-emerged since the global financial crisis in 2008 as an approach to solving our collective intractable global challenges. Despite its renewed popularity, there is no common definition for the phenomenon, not least in the context of its application when planning the built environment or civic infrastructures. This paper seeks to position the practice of social innovation as a means for holistic collaboration between disciplines to develop sustainable social ecologies and systems that provide for resilient communities. It tests a hypothesis that social innovation develops over phases (feedback loops)—that of the network, framework and architecture phase—to design for social, environmental and economic resilience. It looks to theories emerging in other subject areas like sociology and technology, that can inform its application in a planning context, such as Actor-Network and Adaptive Complexity theories. It explores the mechanisms that provide for resilience through action research and engagement with a number of international case studies and scenarios. Lastly, the paper identifies further avenues of research pertaining to networks, frameworks and architectures to develop models of best practice for inclusive, sustainable and iterative community development.

In their natural state, wetland ecosystems provide an optimum natural environment for the sequestration and long-term storage of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere. The loss of wetlands under advancing urbanization not only diminishes this capacity for storage, but increases methane and greenhouse gases as the land is disturbed. Nevertheless, there is growing scientific interest in using artificial or constructed wetlands as a way to mitigate the impact of global climate change, with most attention on their use for water management. Using a potential integrated urban wetland site in Glasgow as a case study, this paper critically examines how artificial urban wetlands can contribute to urban net zero targets in terms of their ability for carbon sequestration, and as part of sustainability initiatives more broadly. We find there are several barriers to implementing artificial urban wetlands for carbon drawdown alone, in particular regarding land ownership constraints, uncertainties in capture efficacy and capture quantitation, and eligibility for market-based crediting schemes. These issues make it currently challenging for the carbon reduction contribution of urban wetlands to be quantified and, say, certified to generate revenue to communities through market-based carbon crediting. However, if integrated within wider community-based sustainability initiatives, artificial urban wetlands can support multiple dimensions of sustainability, creating or supporting value far beyond water management and carbon sequestration objectives. Potential co-benefits range from areas such as health and wellbeing, biodiversity, education, food security, behavioural changes, and social care. Our findings show that for these co-benefits to be identified, maximised and realised, a place-based approach to urban wetland development must be adopted, engaging stakeholders from the project outset to define and facilitate collaboration towards shared outcomes for society, community, and environment. These findings will be relevant to any urban infrastructure development seeking to meet sustainability goals beyond carbon capture.

Purpose: This paper aims to focus on increasingly entrepreneurial approaches to urban governance in the country’s second city Cork, where neoliberal strategy has driven uneven spatial development. Design/methodology/approach: This paper combines insights from literature review with new knowledge derived from interviews with key informants in the city. Findings: Post-colonial themes provoke a consideration of how uneven power dynamics stifle social innovation in the built environment. Research limitations/implications: Assembled narratives expose opaque aspects of governance, ownership and participation, presenting opportunities for rethinking urban vacancy through placemaking. Practical implications: These draw on nuanced models for tourism as a platform for a broader discourse on rights to the city. Social implications: A century after independence, Ireland is recast as a leading small European economy, away from historical framings of a rural economic backwater of the British Empire. Originality/value: The model of success is based on a basket of targeted investment policies and somewhat dubious indicators for growth.