TRACK 1: POST-GROWTH URBANISM

Looking “Beyond Growth” for Ecological Balance and Social Equity in Cities and Regions 

Chairs:

• Emrah Altınok, Istanbul Bilgi University
• Shefali Nayak, HafenCity Universität
• Barbara Pizzo, Sapienza Universita di Rome

Climate change, economic inequality, and resource depletion pose mounting challenges to cities and regions, prompting a reevaluation of conventional growth-driven development models and their ability to serve the common good. This session on "post-growth urbanism" examines settlements as integrated social-ecological systems, investigating how urban and regional areas can evolve beyond the demands of ceaseless economic, physical, and material expansion. Furthermore, it explores how their metabolisms can be reconfigured to sustain both ecological balance and social equity.

We solicit critical contributions from the potentially integrated perspectives of urban and regional planning, political ecology, and political economy, to envision a post-capitalist future, incorporating innovative critiques of the society-nature divide and drawing upon novel interpretations of the "metabolic rift."

Given that urban areas account for significant energy consumption and emissions, we will examine the role of cities and regions in restoring eco-social balance. We will discuss strategies for reducing environmental footprints beyond mainstream efficiency-oriented measures, integrating nature-based solutions, and fostering circular economies that regenerate rather than exploit ecosystems, including the necessity of "scaling-down" production and consumption, as advocated by de-growth proponents.

We seek contributions that address key planning questions, such as:

• How can planning tools be utilized to reshape housing, transportation, water, and energy systems to better align with community needs while fostering regenerative relationships between society and the environment?
• How can cities and regions be reimagined to offer more equitable resource distribution, inclusive governance, and improved access to public goods, particularly for geographically and socially marginalized communities?

Participants are expected to contribute to the post-growth debate by presenting novel theoretical and conceptual frameworks, cutting-edge case studies, practices, and innovative policy approaches from diverse global contexts, offering actionable insights and new modes of interdisciplinary collaboration between academia and industry that guide us towards models of eco-social integrity in a post-growth context.

Keywords: Cities and urbanism beyond growth; Degrowth; Social equity; Ecological balance