Geneva, Palais des Nations - May 3-6, 2000
CITIES OF THE SOUTH:
SUSTAINABLE FOR WHOM?
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ESF/N-AERUS International Workshop Geneva, Palais des Nations - May 3-6, 2000
CITIES OF THE SOUTH:
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V. Kreibich
Faculty of Spatial Planning, University of Dortmund, Germany
In the affluent North, sustainable urban development has become a widely accepted paradigm after the Rio Declaration and Habitat II. There is, however, little consensus about its implementation. The practical implications of a sustainable urban development policy are yet to be adequately understood, e.g. the interrelations between economic development and the consumption of non-renewable natural resources, esp. building land, or the spatial extension of a sustainable city which must not end at its administrative borders .
Even more disputed are the consequences of the sustainability paradigm on individual life styles and consumption patterns. In affluent societies, the objective of sustainable urban development will necessarily imply a reduction of resource inputs and consequently an adaptation of consumption preferences and routine behaviour. These changes are by far not yet generally accepted or implemented. A likely prediction of the real chances of sustainable urban development in the North seems to be, therefore, still a hazardous project.
In the poor South, the paradigm of urban sustainability must appear, at least at first glance, as a luxury position imported from or even superimposed by the North, the signing of the Rio Declaration by the majority of the southern Nations notwithstanding. It seems to be too obvious that households struggling for their subsistence cannot reduce their input of non-renewable resources or choose among alternative life styles a more sustainable consumption pattern. Yet, the impressive list of best practices collected by UNCH/Habitat is posing a question, pointing to the need to define and interpret sustainable urban development in the South in a more appropriate manner.
N-AERUS: Network-Association of European Researchers on Urbanisation in the South
http://www.naerus.net