Municipalities' ambitions and practices: At risk of hypocritical sustainability transitions?. Issue 3 (26th May 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vogel, Nina
• Is Part Of: Journal of environmental policy and planning. Volume 18:Issue 3(2016)
• Page Start: 361
• Page End: 378
• Publication Date: 2016-05-26
• Subjects: Urban sustainability transitions -- sustainable mobility -- ambivalence in planning -- ecological modernization -- green growth -- token sustainability efforts -- hypocrisy; Environmental policy -- Europe -- Periodicals; Environmental policy -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 333.7
• DOI: 10.1080/1523908X.2015.1099425
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1523-908X

Abstract

Astract: In contemporary planning discourse and practice, different planning ideas co-exists. How this affects the transition towards a sustainable development is an important question for both research and practice. The aim of this study is to explore potential conflicts between planning goals caught between growth-led planning and sustainability commitments in a case study of Fredericia, Denmark. The paper discusses the underlying, framing and controlling conditions for transition dynamics. The analysis builds largely on the formulated policies, strategies or national goal achievements towards sustainable futures. These are put in the context of planning and political practices, which are interpreted from a sustainability rationale. Here this study introduces hypocrisy as a theoretical-analytical perspective to dispute actual sustainability practices to respond to continuous ambivalent planning measures. The author concludes that disregarding the inherently different internal logics of growths and sustainability leads to planning paradoxes and impedes sustainable transitions pursued.