Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education pp 1–9Cite as

Sustainable Urban Transformation

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:

  • 147 Accesses

Definition

“Sustainable Urban Transformation” refers to theoretical and applied advancements in sustainable development that focus on the central role of cities in achieving recognized sustainability goals, emphasize collaborative contributions from various stakeholders, and integrate diverse perspectives from various bodies of knowledge and expertise.

Introduction

The origins of Sustainable Urban Transformation have been largely codified in McCormick et al. (2013a) and McCormick et al. (2013b), and have been exemplified in such case studies as Hellstrom-Reimer et al. (2012), Block and Paredis (2013), Trencher et al. (2013), Mejía-Dugand et al. (2013), and Ernst et al. (2016). “Sustainable urban transformation” (SUT) builds upon historical conceptualizations of sustainable urban development that were articulated in detail in such works as the 1987 WCED Brundtland Report and the 1992 United Nations Agenda 21 Action Plan (Wheeler and Beatley 2014). However, scholars of SUT point to a...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

References

  • Adger, W. Neil, Jon Barnett, Katrina Brown, Nadine Marshall, Karen O’brien (2013) Cultural dimensions of climate change impacts and adaptation. Nature Climate Change 3(2):112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aelenei L, Ferreira A, Monteiro CS, Gomes R, Gonçalves H, Camelo S, Silva C (2016) Smart city: A systematic approach towards a sustainable urban transformation. Energy Procedia 91:970–979

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benton-Short L, Short J (2013) Cities and nature, 2nd edn. Routledge, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Blaikie P, Cannon T, Davis I, Wisner B (2014) At risk: natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters. Abingdon: Routledge

    Google Scholar 

  • Block T, Paredis E (2013) Urban development projects catalyst for sustainable transformations: the need for entrepreneurial political leadership. J Clean Prod 50:181–188

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brand P (2007) Green subjection: the politics of neoliberal urban environmental management. Int J Urban Reg Res 31(3):616–632

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown WM, Hamburger MW (2012) Organizing for sustainability. New Dir Stud Serv 137(2012):83–96

    Google Scholar 

  • Calthorpe P (2010) Urbanism in the age of climate change. Island Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Curran W, Hamilton T (2012) Just green enough: Contesting environmental gentrification in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Local Environ 17(9):1027–1042

    Google Scholar 

  • Checker M (2011) Wiped out by the “greenwave”: environmental gentrification and the paradoxical politics of urban sustainability. City Society 23(2):210–229

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dempsey N, Bramley G, Power S, Brown C (2011) The social dimension of sustainable development: defining urban social sustainability. Sustain Dev 19(5):289–300

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duany A, Speck J, Lydon M, Goffman E (2011) The smart growth manual. McGraw Hill, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ernst L, de Graaf-Van Dinther RE, Peek GJ, Loorbach DA (2016) Sustainable urban transformation and sustainability transitions; conceptual framework and case study. J Clean Prod 112:2988–2999

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans J, Jones R, Karvonen A, Millard L, Wendler J (2015) Living labs and co-production: university campuses as platforms for sustainability science. Curr Opin Environ Sustain 16:1–6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs D, Krueger R, MacLeod G (2013) Grappling with smart city politics in an era of market triumphalism. Urban Studies 50(11):2151–2157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamann R, April K (2013) On the role and capabilities of collaborative intermediary organisations in urban sustainability transitions. J Clean Prod 50:12–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hellstrom-Reimer M, McCormick K, Nilsson E, Arsenault N (2012) Advancing sustainable urban transformation through living labs. In: International conference on sustainability transitions

    Google Scholar 

  • Heynen NC, Kaika M, Swyngedouw E (eds) (2006) In the nature of cities: urban political ecology and the politics of urban metabolism, vol 3. Taylor & Francis, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodson M, Marvin S (2017) Intensifying or transforming sustainable cities? Fragmented logics of urban environmentalism. Local Environ 22(supp1):8–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hudler K, Dennis L, DiNella M, Mendez J, Ford N (2017) Intersectional Sustainability and Student Activism: a framework for achieving social sustainability on university campuses. Unpublished Senior Capstone. Southwestern University, Georgetown

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahn ME (2006) Green cities: urban growth and the environment. Brookings Institute Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy C, Cuddihy J, Engel-Yan J (2007) The changing metabolism of cities. J Ind Ecol 11(2):43–59

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kitchin R (2014) The real-time city? Big data and smart urbanism. GeoJournal 79(1):1–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krueger R, Gibbs D (eds) (2007) The sustainable development paradox: urban political economy in the United States and Europe. Guilford Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Luque-Ayala A, Marvin S (2015) Developing a critical understanding of smart urbanism. Urban Stud 52(12):2105. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098015577319

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Long J (2016) Constructing the narrative of the sustainability fix: Sustainability, social justice and representation in Austin, TX. Urban Studies 53(1):149–172

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Long J, Rice JL (2018) From sustainable urbanism to climate urbanism. Urban Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098018770846

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marans RW, Callewaert J (2017) Evaluating sustainability initiatives on university campuses: a case study from the University of Michigan’s sustainability cultural indicators program. In: Handbook of theory and practice of sustainable development in higher education. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp 189–199

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Marshak L, Van Wieren T, Ferrell DR, Swiss L, Dugan C (2010) Exploring barriers to college student use of disability services and accommodations. J Postsecond Educ Disabil 22(3):151–165

    Google Scholar 

  • Marvin S, Luque-Ayala A, McFarlane C (eds) (2015) Smart urbanism: utopian vision or false dawn? Routledge, Abingdon

    Google Scholar 

  • McCormick K, Anderberg S, Neij L (2013a) Sustainable urban transformation and the green urban economy. In: The economy of green cities. Springer, Netherlands, pp 33–43

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • McCormick K, Anderberg S, Coenen L, Neij L (2013b) Advancing sustainable urban transformation. J Clean Prod 50:1–11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mejía-Dugand S, Hjelm O, Baas L, Ríos RA (2013) Lessons from the spread of bus rapid transit in Latin America. J Clean Prod 50:82–90

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mountz A, Bonds A, Mansfield B, Loyd J, Hyndman J, Walton-Roberts M, … Curran W (2015) For slow scholarship: a feminist politics of resistance through collective action in the neoliberal university. ACME 14(4):1235

    Google Scholar 

  • Müller A (2013) Green creative city. UVK Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Konstanz

    Google Scholar 

  • Museus SD, Ledesma MC, Parker TL (2015) Racism and racial equity in higher education. ASHE Highr Educ Rep 42(1):1–112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olson J (2014) Whose voices matter? Gender inequality in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Agenda 28(3):184–187

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parnell S, Oldfield S (eds) (2014) The Routledge handbook on cities of the global south. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Parnell S, Robinson J (2012) (Re) theorizing cities from the global south: looking beyond neoliberalism. Urban Geogr 33(4):593–617

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pearsall H, Pierce J (2010) Urban sustainability and environmental justice: evaluating the linkages in public planning/policy discourse. Local Environ 15(6):569–580

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pearsall H, Anguelovski I (2016) Contesting and resisting environmental gentrification: responses to new paradoxes and challenges for urban environmental justice. Sociol Res Online 21(3):1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quastel N (2009) Political ecologies of gentrification. Urban Geogr 30(7):694–725

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Radywyl, Natalia, Che Biggs (2013) Reclaiming the commons for urban transformation. J Clean Prod 50:159–170

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rankin S, Weber G, Blumenfeld W, Frazer S (2010) The 2010 state of higher education for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. Campus Pride, Charlotte

    Google Scholar 

  • Rice Jennifer L, Daniel Aldana Cohen, Joshua Long, Jason R. Jurjevich (2019) Contradictions of the Climate-Friendly City: New Perspectives on Eco-Gentrification and Housing Justice. Int J Urban Reg Res https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12740

  • Rosol M (2013) Vancouver’s “EcoDensity” planning initiative: A struggle over hegemony?. Urban Studies 50(11):2238–2255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seeliger L, Turok I (2015) Green-sighted but city-blind: developer attitudes to sustainable urban transformation. In: Urban forum, vol 26, no 3. Springer, Netherlands, pp 321–341

    Google Scholar 

  • Trencher GP, Yarime M, Kharrazi A (2013) Co-creating sustainability: cross-sector university collaborations for driving sustainable urban transformations. J Clean Prod 50:40–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UNDP (United Nations Development Report) (2015) World urbanization prospects. Retreived online 26 Aug 2016: https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2014-Report.pdf

  • Wamsler C, Brink E, Rivera C (2013) Planning for climate change in urban areas: from theory to practice. J Clean Prod 50:68–81

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wheeler SM, Beatley T (eds) (2014) Sustainable urban development reader. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • While A, Jonas AE, Gibbs D (2004) The environment and the entrepreneurial city: searching for the urban ‘sustainability; fix’in Manchester and Leeds. Int J Urban Reg Res 28(3):549–569

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wigginton NS, Fahrenkamp-Uppenbrink J, Wible B, Malakoff D (2016) Introduction to special issue: cities are the Future, Science 352(6288):904–905

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wolch J, Dear M (2013) The Power of geography: how territory shapes social life. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Zaman AU, Lehmann S (2013) The zero waste index: a performance measurement tool for waste management systems in a ‘zero waste city’. J Clean Prod 50:123–132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang X, Hes D, Wu Y, Hafkamp W, Lu W, Bayulken B, … Li F (2016) Catalyzing sustainable urban transformations towards smarter, healthier cities through urban ecological infrastructure, regenerative development, eco towns and regional prosperity. J Clean Prod 131:155

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Studies Program, Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX, USA

    Joshua Long

Authors
  1. Joshua Long
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joshua Long .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Life Sciences, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences Faculty of Life Sciences, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

Section Editor information

  1. Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

    Noor Adelyna Mohammed Akib

  2. School of Accounting, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Tehmina Khan

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Long, J. (2019). Sustainable Urban Transformation. In: Leal Filho, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63951-2_100-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63951-2_100-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-63951-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-63951-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation