Sustainable cities: Research and practice challenges

This paper presents a concepualisation of the research and practice challenges facing those of us working towards sustainable cities. I argue that these challenges are quite fundamental and centre around our ‘vision’ of the sustainable city and the processes required to bring about sustainable urban development. I draw on my own experience and the work of others to suggest that within the sustainable cities discourse there are a number of competing ‘visions’ of sustainable urbanism, and that it is important that we understand and value this multiplicity of socially-constructed potential futures, rather than adopt a ‘one model fits all’ appraoch. In terms of sustainable urban development processes, I suggest that research, practise and expertise tend to coalesce around either scientific and technological advances or around social change (largely couched in terms of behaviour, economic or governance shifts). Yet we need to move past this dualistic thinking towards a far deeper understanding of the interplay between social and technical solutions if we are make real progress. I hope this new journal provides a forum to explore different ‘visions’ and to share knowledge on the ‘mulitple-pathways’ that sustainable urban development may take. © 2009, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC