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In response to growing levels of social isolation and loneliness in cities, the promotion of social connectedness has come to the forefront of urban health, sustainability, and resiliency agendas. Despite policy attention locally and internationally, social connectedness is not consistently defined, conceptualized, or measured in population health and urban planning research. The term has also been used interchangeably with various other concepts in research on social environments and health, particularly social cohesion, social capital, and social inclusion. These discrepancies create confusion for planners and policymakers looking for evidence-informed guidance on the implementation and evaluation of urban interventions designed to promote social connectedness. Further, it presents a challenge for intervention researchers interested in investigating possible causal pathways between urban change, social connectedness, and health. Drawing from contemporary public health and urban planning literature, this paper aims to delineate the concept of social connectedness, including its meaning, measurement, and relationship to neighbourhoods and health. Clarifying social connectedness for urban health research and policy is crucial to interpreting and advancing evidence on its role – both its determinants and impacts – in the development of healthy, sustainable, and resilient cities.
Meridith Sones; Caislin L. Firth; Daniel Fuller; Meg Holden; Yan Kestens; Meghan Winters. Situating social connectedness in healthy cities: a conceptual primer for research and policy. Cities & Health 2021, 1 -14.
AMA StyleMeridith Sones, Caislin L. Firth, Daniel Fuller, Meg Holden, Yan Kestens, Meghan Winters. Situating social connectedness in healthy cities: a conceptual primer for research and policy. Cities & Health. 2021; ():1-14.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMeridith Sones; Caislin L. Firth; Daniel Fuller; Meg Holden; Yan Kestens; Meghan Winters. 2021. "Situating social connectedness in healthy cities: a conceptual primer for research and policy." Cities & Health , no. : 1-14.
The sustainable city represents an ideal of good and just living that has inspired urban development work for at least 25 years. While criticized by many for its scientific, social and political vagueness, the concept of the sustainable city has nonetheless continued to frame material and political efforts in urban redevelopment. From a perspective grounded in the pragmatic sociology of critique, this article takes this phenomenon as evidence of an international movement to generate not just political pronouncements or technical fixes, but a new order of worth, from the concept of the sustainable city. After presenting the pragmatic sociology of critique and the application of this body of social research as it pertains to better understanding sustainable urban development, we reflect on the factors that challenge the acceptance of the sustainable city as an order of worth, or as a mode and manner of justifying significant decisions in the public domain, recognizable and understandable to a majority. For efforts to create the sustainable city to justify themselves, socioculturally, in this way, the work demands a clear test of worthiness. This article illustrates the search for an adequate test through a review of two distinct efforts to generate new systems of assessment for sustainable building projects, and points out the contrasting nature of these two tests: one which aims to be accessible to thoroughgoing public debate fit to transform a context toward a political discourse of urban sustainability as well-being; the other that interprets the need for a test as affirmation of expertise related to the unfolding climate emergency.
Meg Holden. The Quest for an Adequate Test: Justifying the Sustainable City as an Order of Worth. Sustainability 2020, 12, 4670 .
AMA StyleMeg Holden. The Quest for an Adequate Test: Justifying the Sustainable City as an Order of Worth. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (11):4670.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMeg Holden. 2020. "The Quest for an Adequate Test: Justifying the Sustainable City as an Order of Worth." Sustainability 12, no. 11: 4670.
The Hey Neighbour! pilot project set out to engage two residential buildings, their inhabitants and staff, to animate and increase the intra-building sense of community from within. The research presented here accompanied this pilot in order to devise and test a theory of change for this pilot project in terms of impacts on three key stakeholder groups who stood to benefit in terms of their health and well-being. Because the literature on the importance of sociability, social connections, and neighbourliness for health, well-being, and democratic engagement is diverse and interdisciplinary, crystallizing the expected and achieved impact of a project like Hey Neighbour is a challenge. The two rental buildings are situated in two distinct neighbourhoods in Vancouver, Canada. The City-led pilot project selected four individual residents in particular to take on the role of ‘Resident Animator’ (RA), to trial activities to increase sociability. Results indicate that, by bringing together housing providers, landlords, property managers, researchers, local and regional governments, housing associations and health authorities, the Hey Neighbour project demonstrates potential to achieve greater community well-being in urban vertical communities.
Sadaf Seifi; Rahil Adeli; Meg Holden. Hey Neighbour! Understanding a Pilot Project to Build Neighbourliness into Rental Housing. International Journal of Community Well-Being 2020, 3, 341 -359.
AMA StyleSadaf Seifi, Rahil Adeli, Meg Holden. Hey Neighbour! Understanding a Pilot Project to Build Neighbourliness into Rental Housing. International Journal of Community Well-Being. 2020; 3 (3):341-359.
Chicago/Turabian StyleSadaf Seifi; Rahil Adeli; Meg Holden. 2020. "Hey Neighbour! Understanding a Pilot Project to Build Neighbourliness into Rental Housing." International Journal of Community Well-Being 3, no. 3: 341-359.
Meg Holden. Correction to: Community Well-Being in Neighbourhoods: Achieving Community and Open-Minded Space through Engagement in Neighbourhoods. International Journal of Community Well-Being 2019, 2, 181 -181.
AMA StyleMeg Holden. Correction to: Community Well-Being in Neighbourhoods: Achieving Community and Open-Minded Space through Engagement in Neighbourhoods. International Journal of Community Well-Being. 2019; 2 (2):181-181.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMeg Holden. 2019. "Correction to: Community Well-Being in Neighbourhoods: Achieving Community and Open-Minded Space through Engagement in Neighbourhoods." International Journal of Community Well-Being 2, no. 2: 181-181.
Meg Holden. An Invitation to Submit and Introduction to the Book, Policy and Initiative Reviews Section (Volume 2, Issue 1). International Journal of Community Well-Being 2019, 2, 75 -76.
AMA StyleMeg Holden. An Invitation to Submit and Introduction to the Book, Policy and Initiative Reviews Section (Volume 2, Issue 1). International Journal of Community Well-Being. 2019; 2 (1):75-76.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMeg Holden. 2019. "An Invitation to Submit and Introduction to the Book, Policy and Initiative Reviews Section (Volume 2, Issue 1)." International Journal of Community Well-Being 2, no. 1: 75-76.
Meg Holden. Correction to: Bringing the Neighbourhood Into Urban Infill Development in the Interest of Well-Being. International Journal of Community Well-Being 2019, 2, 77 -77.
AMA StyleMeg Holden. Correction to: Bringing the Neighbourhood Into Urban Infill Development in the Interest of Well-Being. International Journal of Community Well-Being. 2019; 2 (1):77-77.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMeg Holden. 2019. "Correction to: Bringing the Neighbourhood Into Urban Infill Development in the Interest of Well-Being." International Journal of Community Well-Being 2, no. 1: 77-77.
This article examines the contradictory proposed connections between compact urban form and small housing and human well-being. Whereas planners have argued the merits of smart growth and more compact urban form, compared to the traditional North American sprawling suburb, since at least the 1990s, other researchers and the global urban development community have more recently added their own evidence and argument in order to understand how not just the land use dimensions but also the transportation infrastructure design, greenhouse gas emissions profile, and social and personality characteristics may be more favourable in a compact, infill urban context than in a suburban or sprawling context. At the same time, the connection between compact urban living and well-being is not clear to many, as suburban style development expands at a faster rate than compact urban development in much of the world. Moreover, compact urban form is increasingly criticized for exerting downward pressure on liveability and well-being by exacerbating unaffordability. Taking a case based focus on the Metro Vancouver region in British Columbia, well-known for its liveability advantage and compact urban form, we present the results of survey research on resident attitudes toward and perceptions of moderate density housing being added within existing neighbourhoods. We find evidence of a tipping point, at which attitudes about new compact housing may hinge on the possibility for existing residents to have a voice in new developments and on the rate of change as much as on design or structural characteristics of the development. Perceptions of the contribution of more compact urban form and housing options to well-being should be considered central to efforts to advance such housing forms and types in cities, if these efforts are to pass the test of public opinion.
Meg Holden. Bringing the Neighbourhood Into Urban Infill Development in the Interest of Well-Being. International Journal of Community Well-Being 2018, 1, 137 -155.
AMA StyleMeg Holden. Bringing the Neighbourhood Into Urban Infill Development in the Interest of Well-Being. International Journal of Community Well-Being. 2018; 1 (2):137-155.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMeg Holden. 2018. "Bringing the Neighbourhood Into Urban Infill Development in the Interest of Well-Being." International Journal of Community Well-Being 1, no. 2: 137-155.
Meg Holden. Introduction to the Book, Policy and Initiative Reviews Section. International Journal of Community Well-Being 2018, 1, 81 -82.
AMA StyleMeg Holden. Introduction to the Book, Policy and Initiative Reviews Section. International Journal of Community Well-Being. 2018; 1 (1):81-82.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMeg Holden. 2018. "Introduction to the Book, Policy and Initiative Reviews Section." International Journal of Community Well-Being 1, no. 1: 81-82.
This perspective documents current thinking around climate actions in Canada by synthesizing scholarly proposals made by Sustainable Canada Dialogues (SCD), an informal network of scholars from all 10 provinces, and by reviewing responses from civil society representatives to the scholars’ proposals. Motivated by Canada’s recent history of repeatedly missing its emissions reduction targets and failing to produce a coherent plan to address climate change, SCD mobilized more than 60 scholars to identify possible pathways towards a low-carbon economy and sustainable society and invited civil society to comment on the proposed solutions. This perspective illustrates a range of Canadian ideas coming from many sectors of society and a wealth of existing inspiring initiatives. Solutions discussed include climate change governance, low-carbon transition, energy production, and consumption. This process of knowledge synthesis/creation is novel and important because it provides a working model for making connections across academic fields as well as between academia and civil society. The process produces a holistic set of insights and recommendations for climate change actions and a unique model of engagement. The different voices reported here enrich the scope of possible solutions, showing that Canada is brimming with ideas, possibilities, and the will to act.
Catherine Potvin; Divya Sharma; Irena Creed; Sally Aitken; François Anctil; Elena Bennett; Fikret Berkes; Steven Bernstein; Nathalie Bleau; Alain Bourque; Bryson Brown; Sarah Burch; James Byrne; Ashlee Cunsolo; Ann Dale; Deborah De Lange; Bruno Dyck; Martin Entz; José Etcheverry; Rosine Faucher; Adam Fenech; Lauchlan Fraser; Irene Henriques; Andreas Heyland; Matthew Hoffmann; George Hoberg; Meg Holden; Gordon Huang; Aerin L. Jacob; Sebastien Jodoin; Alison Kemper; Marc Lucotte; Roxane Maranger; Liat Margolis; Ian Mauro; Jeffrey McDonnell; James Meadowcroft; Christian Messier; Martin Mkandawire; Catherine Morency; Normand Mousseau; Ken Oakes; Sarah Otto; Pamela Palmater; Taysha Sharlene Palmer; Dominique Paquin; Anthony Perl; André Potvin; Howard Ramos; Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne; Natalie Richards; John Robinson; Stephen Sheppard; Suzanne Simard; Brent J. Sinclair; Natalie Slawinski; Mark Stoddart; Marc-André Villard; Claude Villeneuve; Tarah Wright. Stimulating a Canadian narrative for climate. FACETS 2017, 2, 131 -149.
AMA StyleCatherine Potvin, Divya Sharma, Irena Creed, Sally Aitken, François Anctil, Elena Bennett, Fikret Berkes, Steven Bernstein, Nathalie Bleau, Alain Bourque, Bryson Brown, Sarah Burch, James Byrne, Ashlee Cunsolo, Ann Dale, Deborah De Lange, Bruno Dyck, Martin Entz, José Etcheverry, Rosine Faucher, Adam Fenech, Lauchlan Fraser, Irene Henriques, Andreas Heyland, Matthew Hoffmann, George Hoberg, Meg Holden, Gordon Huang, Aerin L. Jacob, Sebastien Jodoin, Alison Kemper, Marc Lucotte, Roxane Maranger, Liat Margolis, Ian Mauro, Jeffrey McDonnell, James Meadowcroft, Christian Messier, Martin Mkandawire, Catherine Morency, Normand Mousseau, Ken Oakes, Sarah Otto, Pamela Palmater, Taysha Sharlene Palmer, Dominique Paquin, Anthony Perl, André Potvin, Howard Ramos, Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne, Natalie Richards, John Robinson, Stephen Sheppard, Suzanne Simard, Brent J. Sinclair, Natalie Slawinski, Mark Stoddart, Marc-André Villard, Claude Villeneuve, Tarah Wright. Stimulating a Canadian narrative for climate. FACETS. 2017; 2 (1):131-149.
Chicago/Turabian StyleCatherine Potvin; Divya Sharma; Irena Creed; Sally Aitken; François Anctil; Elena Bennett; Fikret Berkes; Steven Bernstein; Nathalie Bleau; Alain Bourque; Bryson Brown; Sarah Burch; James Byrne; Ashlee Cunsolo; Ann Dale; Deborah De Lange; Bruno Dyck; Martin Entz; José Etcheverry; Rosine Faucher; Adam Fenech; Lauchlan Fraser; Irene Henriques; Andreas Heyland; Matthew Hoffmann; George Hoberg; Meg Holden; Gordon Huang; Aerin L. Jacob; Sebastien Jodoin; Alison Kemper; Marc Lucotte; Roxane Maranger; Liat Margolis; Ian Mauro; Jeffrey McDonnell; James Meadowcroft; Christian Messier; Martin Mkandawire; Catherine Morency; Normand Mousseau; Ken Oakes; Sarah Otto; Pamela Palmater; Taysha Sharlene Palmer; Dominique Paquin; Anthony Perl; André Potvin; Howard Ramos; Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne; Natalie Richards; John Robinson; Stephen Sheppard; Suzanne Simard; Brent J. Sinclair; Natalie Slawinski; Mark Stoddart; Marc-André Villard; Claude Villeneuve; Tarah Wright. 2017. "Stimulating a Canadian narrative for climate." FACETS 2, no. 1: 131-149.
This introductory chapter to the volume provides an overview of the history of community indicators, beginning with a grant provided by the Russell Sage Foundation in 1910 to the Charity Organization Society (of New York) to survey industrial conditions in Pittsburgh, and moving to present day. As a social movement, we present community indicators efforts as being grounded in challenges and innovations within the distinct but overlapping domains of public administration, social work and philanthropy, community development, sustainable communities and environmental justice, happiness and wellbeing studies, and data analytics. Each frames and pursues the task of crafting and disseminating indicators of community conditions in a different way, resulting in a richly diverse field of practice and theory, that the Community Indicators Consortium seeks to serve and promote. In so doing, the Community Indicators Consortium recognizes that uniting these diverse approaches in community indicators provides a forum in which to pursue common themes of work, including the need to amplify the voice of disadvantaged communities, to seriously explore the increasing use of information technology, to produce positive community change and to sustain these efforts over time. Each chapter in this volume is also summarized here.
Lyle Wray; Chantal Stevens; Meg Holden. The History, Status and Future of the Community Indicators Movement. Community Quality-of-Life and Well-Being 2017, 1 -16.
AMA StyleLyle Wray, Chantal Stevens, Meg Holden. The History, Status and Future of the Community Indicators Movement. Community Quality-of-Life and Well-Being. 2017; ():1-16.
Chicago/Turabian StyleLyle Wray; Chantal Stevens; Meg Holden. 2017. "The History, Status and Future of the Community Indicators Movement." Community Quality-of-Life and Well-Being , no. : 1-16.
Getting to Groundbreaking (G2G) is a housing indicators project formed in 2013 that brought together home builders, industry associations, municipalities, the regional government, and academic urban researchers around a common interest: to understand what works in housing development regulation and planning across the Metro Vancouver region of British Columbia, Canada. The project aims were to inject new, credible information into the discussion of regulation of land and housing development. The project investigated trends in the provision of housing, surveyed opinions and practices amongst municipalities, homebuilders and the public, and collected information on new innovations in regulating the provision of housing. The G2G 2014 report detailed the cost, timing and regulatory best practices involved in the development approvals process for new town houses, and the G2G 2016 report examined these factors related to woodframe apartment buildings. The Metro Vancouver region is marked by high regulatory costs and long time frames for housing development, with considerable variability at the municipal level. However, G2G data does not indicate any relationship between lower regulatory costs and less time in the regulatory process and a lower cost of housing. In the context of the politically charged debate about the cost and regulation of housing, we detail the collaborative industry-researcher-government multistakeholder partnership approach taken by G2G and discuss the divergent interests in data transparency, and the politics of participation and control that pervaded the G2G project. In 2016, the G2G partnership broke down as a result of these unresolved questions, leaving unclear how much collaboration can be expected to offer the practice of urban indicators work in a heated political terrain.
Meg Holden. Getting to Groundbreaking, but not Build Out: From Formation to Failure in a Regional Housing Indicators Collaborative. Community Quality-of-Life and Well-Being 2017, 2, 87 -110.
AMA StyleMeg Holden. Getting to Groundbreaking, but not Build Out: From Formation to Failure in a Regional Housing Indicators Collaborative. Community Quality-of-Life and Well-Being. 2017; 2 ():87-110.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMeg Holden. 2017. "Getting to Groundbreaking, but not Build Out: From Formation to Failure in a Regional Housing Indicators Collaborative." Community Quality-of-Life and Well-Being 2, no. : 87-110.
This paper explores current debates, data products and key implications of what has been called the urban data revolution, which has emerged to international prominence in recent years. We engage with critical appraisals of the new urban data revolution, and discuss what they can learn from both the successes and the failures of the earlier wave of data enthusiasm, the community indicators movement. Second, we analyse the different challenges, dangers and implications of the urban data revolution that both complicate and can sustain a citizen-centred vision of good city governance. We further consider the potential for deliberation and participation in the use of data to define and measure urban progress and success. In the face of a mounting volume and velocity of urban data, these lessons nonetheless pose democratic challenges to the urban data revolution today.
Sara Moreno Pires; Liam Magee; Meg Holden. Learning from community indicators movements: Towards a citizen-powered urban data revolution. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 2017, 35, 1304 -1323.
AMA StyleSara Moreno Pires, Liam Magee, Meg Holden. Learning from community indicators movements: Towards a citizen-powered urban data revolution. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space. 2017; 35 (7):1304-1323.
Chicago/Turabian StyleSara Moreno Pires; Liam Magee; Meg Holden. 2017. "Learning from community indicators movements: Towards a citizen-powered urban data revolution." Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 35, no. 7: 1304-1323.
Meg Holden. Planning matter: acting with things, by Robert A. Beauregard, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2015, 264 pp., $30 (paperback), ISBN 9780226297392. Urban Geography 2016, 38, 632 -634.
AMA StyleMeg Holden. Planning matter: acting with things, by Robert A. Beauregard, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2015, 264 pp., $30 (paperback), ISBN 9780226297392. Urban Geography. 2016; 38 (4):632-634.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMeg Holden. 2016. "Planning matter: acting with things, by Robert A. Beauregard, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2015, 264 pp., $30 (paperback), ISBN 9780226297392." Urban Geography 38, no. 4: 632-634.
Holden Meg; Scerri Andy. More than This: Liveable Melbourne Meets Liveable Vancouver. Urban Planning International 2016, 31, 26 -34.
AMA StyleHolden Meg, Scerri Andy. More than This: Liveable Melbourne Meets Liveable Vancouver. Urban Planning International. 2016; 31 (155):26-34.
Chicago/Turabian StyleHolden Meg; Scerri Andy. 2016. "More than This: Liveable Melbourne Meets Liveable Vancouver." Urban Planning International 31, no. 155: 26-34.
Urban resilience frameworks and strategies currently taken up in cities around the globe fall short of adequately preparing urban communities for the scale of change that many will face in coming decades. For cities aiming to address the impacts of climate change in a proactive sense as well as post-disaster, urban resilience presents itself as a useful frame, grounded in both ecological systems theory and psychological theory. This chapter tackles the question of where the notion of resilience helps, and where it holds cities back, in terms of urban planning and policy. Resilience in the urban planning and policy context may hold cities back because it lacks normative value in social and political spheres. That is, while concepts such as social justice and sustainable development suggest a normative direction for planning toward the improvement of our communities, resilience thinking does not imply any value-based criteria by which communities might determine how best to “bounce back” or “bounce forward.” Additional tools for urban resilience planning are needed, and we suggest and elaborate here upon two: the development path and regenerative sustainability. The notion of the development path originated within the IPCC process and draws upon futures studies, scenario planning and backcasting, in order to understand the social and political change and decision making implications of responding to climate change. The second concept we offer, regenerative sustainability, can be considered as the work of increasing the capacity of the current generation to give back more than we receive. The contribution of these two concepts to the value of urban resilience thinking in political contexts is explained through a discussion of five possible scenarios of urban transformation, which vary in terms of the social and political intentions at work in the strategies needed to build resilience.
Meg Holden; John Robinson; Stephen Sheppard. From Resilience to Transformation Via a Regenerative Sustainability Development Path. Physics of Automatic Target Recognition 2016, 295 -319.
AMA StyleMeg Holden, John Robinson, Stephen Sheppard. From Resilience to Transformation Via a Regenerative Sustainability Development Path. Physics of Automatic Target Recognition. 2016; ():295-319.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMeg Holden; John Robinson; Stephen Sheppard. 2016. "From Resilience to Transformation Via a Regenerative Sustainability Development Path." Physics of Automatic Target Recognition , no. : 295-319.
In modern times, efforts to construct sustainable alternative neighbourhood scale developments date to isolated voluntary initiatives in 1970s Europe and the United States. Since about 2006, they have increased rapidly in popularity. They now go by many names: ecodistricts, écoquartiers, eco-cities, zero/low-carbon/carbon-positive cities, ecopolises, ecobarrios, One Planet Communities, and solar cities. They have become frames—sometimes the dominant frame—used to orient the construction of new pieces of a city in a growing number of countries. Despite numerous standardization efforts, the field of ecourban neighbourhood planning and practice lacks a consistent cross-cultural understanding of what constitutes meaningful ecourbanism in specific economic, political, ecological, social, and design-based terms. Ecourban neighbourhood projects also respond to strictly local challenges and opportunities and express themselves in fragmented ways in different contexts. This article presents an original typology of ecourbanism as the integration of seven extreme type principles. We developed this typology through an abductive approach, or the back and forth testing of observed practices with arguments advanced in theories of sustainable development, planning and urban studies. While ecourban neighbourhood developments by definition express integrative goals, this typology permits assessment of the extent to which outcomes are being achieved in terms of each specific principle. We define and present a limiting case for each of these extreme type principles. Rather than attempting to render different standards equivalent across national contexts, this typology-based approach to understand the outcomes of ecourban neighbourhood developments promises a means to facilitate orienting these developments toward higher levels of integration within a common set of principled boundaries, as they are developed around the world.
Meg Holden; Charling Li; Ana Molina. The Emergence and Spread of Ecourban Neighbourhoods around the World. Sustainability 2015, 7, 11418 -11437.
AMA StyleMeg Holden, Charling Li, Ana Molina. The Emergence and Spread of Ecourban Neighbourhoods around the World. Sustainability. 2015; 7 (9):11418-11437.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMeg Holden; Charling Li; Ana Molina. 2015. "The Emergence and Spread of Ecourban Neighbourhoods around the World." Sustainability 7, no. 9: 11418-11437.
Large‐scale waterfront redevelopment projects, an urban development phenomenon that originated in the 1970s, are attractive to a growing suite of cities worldwide. But why? These mega‐projects are full of pitfalls, broken promises, cost overruns, disappointments and are often accused of promoting inequality. In this article, we consider the specific case of Melbourne's Docklands, which local popular opinion has roundly judged a failure despite the countervailing judgment of success in the revival of ‘liveability' of the adjacent Melbourne central business district. We use the Docklands case to illustrate the utility of a ‘critical pragmatic' framework of analysis to get behind dominant explanations of the demands of the urban growth machine and postmodern neoliberal capitalism. Without denying the existence of these dynamics, nor their hegemony, we nevertheless explicate how a critical pragmatic analysis can reveal the social dynamics driving the judgments and justifications offered by actors in urban redevelopment. A pragmatic analysis of these dynamics of argument and action at critical moments in the long process of an urban redevelopment can reveal new kinds of compromises and tests by which these projects are judged. In other words, what counts as failure and as success in the work of city building will shift, depending on what actors do and how they talk about it, and on how well these actions and justifications hold up to public challenges about the true character of a successful city. By gauging how these challenges are constituted and settled, we can better understand the evolution of the urban value proposition, and the new notion of justice grounded in urbanity that is emerging at the urban redevelopment frontier.
Meg Holden; Andy Scerri; Azadeh Hadizadeh Esfahani. Justifying Redevelopment ‘Failures' Within Urban ‘Success Stories': Dispute, Compromise, and a New Test of Urbanity. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 2015, 39, 451 -470.
AMA StyleMeg Holden, Andy Scerri, Azadeh Hadizadeh Esfahani. Justifying Redevelopment ‘Failures' Within Urban ‘Success Stories': Dispute, Compromise, and a New Test of Urbanity. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 2015; 39 (3):451-470.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMeg Holden; Andy Scerri; Azadeh Hadizadeh Esfahani. 2015. "Justifying Redevelopment ‘Failures' Within Urban ‘Success Stories': Dispute, Compromise, and a New Test of Urbanity." International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 39, no. 3: 451-470.
New sustainable neighborhood developments are multiplying worldwide. Embedded in these model neighborhoods are not only particular ideas about better urban form, but also particular ideas about better organization of urban governance and development responsibilities, and how these guide social development and, ultimately, urban life. Numerous frameworks, certifications, and labels have emerged from a range of organizations and actors, intending to offer a level of predictability and certainty in what is included in a sustainable neighborhood, but the majority of these frameworks have yet to be implemented in more than a handful of cases. In this article, we consider two “second generation” ecourban neighborhood frameworks, the Living Community Challenge and EcoDistricts Protocol. We examine these frameworks in terms of seven principles of ecourbanism, and consider the potential of each to guide practice toward an extreme in any particular dimension, or toward an integrated approach. Next, building upon a conceptualization of the demand for intermediary organizations in managing transitions toward urban sustainability, we examine the emergence of these frameworks as they are playing or could play an intermediary or ‘backbone’ role, in building towards collective impact in the realm of ecourbanism. Intermediaries are necessary to advance the practice of transition because none of the key actor groups, while they are necessary and instrumental to bringing particular ecourban neighborhoods into being, are invested with any particular role, responsibility or power to spread the practice of ecourbanism more broadly.
Meg Holden; Charling Li; Ana Molina; Daniel Sturgeon. Crafting New Urban Assemblages and Steering Neighborhood Transition: Actors and Roles in Ecourban Neighborhood Development. Articulo 2015, 1 .
AMA StyleMeg Holden, Charling Li, Ana Molina, Daniel Sturgeon. Crafting New Urban Assemblages and Steering Neighborhood Transition: Actors and Roles in Ecourban Neighborhood Development. Articulo. 2015; (14):1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMeg Holden; Charling Li; Ana Molina; Daniel Sturgeon. 2015. "Crafting New Urban Assemblages and Steering Neighborhood Transition: Actors and Roles in Ecourban Neighborhood Development." Articulo , no. 14: 1.
A growing chorus of planners and designers heralds the neighborhood as the best scale at which to pursue a shift toward low-carbon, “green” living alternatives to the status quo Western lifestyle. Within this, attention to ecourban developments, as a set of planning, design, social and technological arrangements for living better within resource limits, has increased; ecourban neighborhood scale developments, as well as the certification frameworks seeking to imbue them with legitimacy, can be found in different countries worldwide. They hold potential lessons for one another across environmental, design and engineering perspectives while also serving as catalysts and demonstration projects of planning, policy and design for sustainability in their local contexts. They offer new opportunities for learning about living well. This is not to say that the rolling out of ecourban neighborhoods in different contexts around the world does not engender tensions. Models, frameworks and practices of ecourbanism may carry divergent interpretations of sustainability and hence advance, to varying degrees, different priorities. These divergences can be seen, for example, across livability, environmental, social and economic priorities. Similar tensions also occur on the issue of scale, with ecourban developments taking form as urban redevelopment megaprojects, technological innovation demonstration projects, smaller-scale alternative lifestyle projects, and other scales in between. This special issue of Articulo - Journal of Urban Research advances the exploration of current trends in ecourban neighborhood-scale developments, including the tensions that they raise. This introduction to the special issue provides a summary of the literature on ecourbanism and the importance of the ‘neighborhood scale’, a synopsis of the Ecourbanism Worldwide project, and provides a brief introduction to the scholarly work included in this special issue.
Daniel Sturgeon; Meg Holden; Ana Molina. What Does Neighborhood Theory Mean for Ecourbanism? Introduction to the Themed Issue on ‘Ecourbanism Worldwide’. Articulo 2015, 1 .
AMA StyleDaniel Sturgeon, Meg Holden, Ana Molina. What Does Neighborhood Theory Mean for Ecourbanism? Introduction to the Themed Issue on ‘Ecourbanism Worldwide’. Articulo. 2015; (14):1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaniel Sturgeon; Meg Holden; Ana Molina. 2015. "What Does Neighborhood Theory Mean for Ecourbanism? Introduction to the Themed Issue on ‘Ecourbanism Worldwide’." Articulo , no. 14: 1.
Meg Holden; Sara Moreno Pires. The minority report: social hope in next generation indicators work. Commentary on Rob Kitchin et al.’s ‘Knowing and governing cities through urban indicators, city benchmarking, and real-time dashboards’. Regional Studies, Regional Science 2015, 2, 33 -38.
AMA StyleMeg Holden, Sara Moreno Pires. The minority report: social hope in next generation indicators work. Commentary on Rob Kitchin et al.’s ‘Knowing and governing cities through urban indicators, city benchmarking, and real-time dashboards’. Regional Studies, Regional Science. 2015; 2 (1):33-38.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMeg Holden; Sara Moreno Pires. 2015. "The minority report: social hope in next generation indicators work. Commentary on Rob Kitchin et al.’s ‘Knowing and governing cities through urban indicators, city benchmarking, and real-time dashboards’." Regional Studies, Regional Science 2, no. 1: 33-38.