Proximidade pessoal, dissidência disruptiva e governança urbana participativa como formas de ativismo pela mudança climática por meio da agricultura urbana

Although young people are recognized as stakeholders who should be involved in public participation, engagement by youth advocates in local development and decision-making is scarce. Young people's input tends to be seen as less valuable, especially when the prevailing positions on development overemphasize economic interests. This article is based on research conducted in rural border regions in mainland Portugal. We conducted semistructured interviews with representatives of the municipalities (n = 36), a questionnaire (n = 3968) and biographical interviews with young people (n = 50). The results suggest that young people see themselves as capable of contributing to the development of their regions, whilst demonstrating innovative views, with some even proposing a paradigm shift that encompasses a new way of thinking about sustainability and quality of life. We argue that local bodies of governance would benefit from an intentional involvement of young people in local policy making processes, especially when they are focused on local development.

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A participatory urban governance framework: the protection of urban ecosystems’ functions as a barometer for transitioning towards sustainability.

Simon

2023

Preprint

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Research into ways of helping decision-makers to better integrate the notion of sustainability when designing strategies have focused on reforming the main economic indicators (such as GDP) since at least the 1990s. From greening the accounts, efforts progressively turned into creating ‘ecosystems accounts’. The dominant approach, developed by the United Nations, led to the creation of the System of Environmental and Economic Account - Ecosystem Experimental Accounts (SEEA EEA), ‘satellites’ to the main economic accounts. Although mainly used in industrialised countries, these are starting to be more widely used. This article focuses on the urgent need to make our cities (sometimes described as a microcosm of our economic systems) more sustainable and explores to what extent ecosystems accounts could help in this endeavour. However, it approaches the issue differently from what has been done so far in that it advocates considering the city itself as a socio-ecological-economic ecosystem, with its own environmental functions, whose protection will help to identify whether urban transitions are moving towards sustainability. In addition, it explores taking social considerations into account by making the use of the urban ecosystems framework presented here participatory. It thus shows how such a decision-making tool can be used iteratively to contribute to adaptive governance for urban transitions towards sustainability and highlights how such a framework can facilitate potential partnerships and make the economy more cooperative and circular. It concludes by suggesting a practical application focused on food security and demonstrates how this is strongly linked to urban resilience and sustainability.

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Proximidade pessoal, dissidência disruptiva e governança urbana participativa como formas de ativismo pela mudança climática por meio da agricultura urbana

Cited by 4 publications

References 28 publications

The role of Design Thinking to promote a sustainability transition within participatory urban governance: Insights from urban agriculture initiatives in Lisbon

The role of Design Thinking to promote a sustainability transition within participatory urban governance: Insights from urban agriculture initiatives in Lisbon

Understanding the public participation of young people in border regions of mainland Portugal: youth as local development agent

A participatory urban governance framework: the protection of urban ecosystems’ functions as a barometer for transitioning towards sustainability.

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