Greening cities – To be socially inclusive? About the alleged paradox of society and ecology in cities

authored by

Dagmar Haase, Sigrun Kabisch, Annegret Haase, Erik Andersson, Ellen Banzhaf, Francesc Baró, Miriam Brenck, Leonie K. Fischer, Niki Frantzeskaki, Nadja Kabisch, Kerstin Krellenberg, Peleg Kremer, Jakub Kronenberg, Neele Larondelle, Juliane Mathey, Stephan Pauleit, Irene Ring, Dieter Rink, Nina Schwarz, Manuel Wolff

Abstract

Greening cities, namely installing new parks, rooftop gardens or planting trees along the streets, undoubtedly contributes to an increase in wellbeing and enhances the attractiveness of open spaces in cities. At the same time, we observe an increasing use of greening strategies as ingredients of urban renewal, upgrading and urban revitalization as primarily market-driven endeavours targeting middle class and higher income groups sometimes at the expense of less privileged residents. This paper reflects on the current debate of the social effects of greening using selected examples. We discuss what trade-offs between social and ecological developments in cities mean for the future debate on greening cities and a socially balanced and inclusive way of developing our cities for various groups of urban dwellers. We conclude that current and future functions and features of greening cities have to be discussed more critically including a greater awareness of social impacts.

External Organisation(s)

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin)
Stockholm University
Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB)
Technische Universität Berlin
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ)
Villanova University
University of Lodz
Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER)
Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Technische Universität Dresden
International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation - ITC
Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health

Type

Article

Journal

Habitat international

Volume

64

Pages

41-48

No. of pages

8

ISSN

0197-3975

Publication date

01.06.2017

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Urban Studies

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 13 - Climate Action

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2017.04.005 (Access: Closed)
https://research.utwente.nl/en/publications/0c441731-7b69-465e-89a0-9a3a7b48e510 (Access: Open)