Vancouver’s “EcoDensity” Planning Initiative: A Struggle over Hegemony?

Abstract

The proclaimed aim of EcoDensity, an initiative of the former mayor of Vancouver, Canada, was the achievement of a more sustainable city development through densification of existing neighbourhoods. Since the invention of EcoDensity in summer 2006 it has become a highly debated topic. This paper aims at a critical analysis of how a planning strategy of densification tried to tie itself onto a discourse of sustainability, and also how it had to re-invent and reform itself through contestation and public debate in order to gain acceptance. Thus, the development of the strategy and its contestation are the focus of this paper. Theoretically informed by the theory on hegemony by Laclau and Mouffe, the paper shows why EcoDensity has been—although eventually approved by Council—a failing hegemonic strategy. By referring to a theory on hegemony, the paper theoretically captures practices and struggles around a particular ‘urban sustainability fix’.

Strategic planning harnessing urban policy mobilities: the gradual development of local sustainability fix

“…Starting from the paper by While et al (2004), the concept sustainability fix has increased the understanding that local policy-making for urban sustainability is crucially translocal (e.g. Dierwechter, 2010;Jocoy, 2017;Lang & Rothenberg, 2017;Long, 2016;Pirro & Anguelovski, 2017;Rosol, 2013;Temenos & McCann, 2012;Tretter, 2013;Vogel, 2016). In these studies, sustainability fix is analysed as a general goal for urban sustainability, considering the entrepreneurial character of cities.…”

Bypassing Publicity for Getting Things Done: Between Informal and Formal Planning Practices in Finland

“…This has been seen to promote situations in which the practices and power relations of politico-administrative processes are obscured (e.g. Beveridge, 2012;Lester & Reckhow, 2012;Rosol, 2013). On the other hand, some of these studies have demonstrated how network governance may multiply local democracy into coexisting local democracies applying and reflecting different democratic ideas, practices and participants (Häikiö, 2007(Häikiö, , 2010MacLeod, 2011;MacLeod & Jones, 2011;Sweeting & Copus, 2012).…”

Urban agriculture and the sustainability fix in Vancouver and Detroit

“…Although the original formulation of the sustainability fix was developed in the United Kingdom, the concept has since seen application elsewhere, including Vancouver (Kear, 2007;Quastel, 2009;Quastel et al, 2012;Rosol, 2013) and other cities (e.g. Krueger & Gibbs, 2007;Long, in press;Temenos & McCann, 2012).…”