Sustaining Success? New Urban Strategies in the Aftermath of the Credit Crunch

[i]Annual Conference, Royal Geographical Society / Institute of British Geographers (RGS/IBG), [/i] London 1-3 September 2010 Session Sponsored by Planning and Environment Research Group (PERG) and Urban Geography Research Group (UGRG) During the 1990s and 2000s the discourses and policies surrounding urban sustainability have been primarily concerned with managing the effects of rapid growth. The emphasis in the UK and elsewhere has been on ‘sustaining success’, or developing a series of policy interventions that support and enhance economic growth in an era of global prosperity. This competitiveness agenda has been coupled with policies that aim to support social reproduction and urban liveability with a new priority being given to the creation of sustainable communities and neighbourhoods, characterised by mixed housing, high quality urban environments, significant property investments, and new levels of public safety and security. However, the sudden onset of global recession, and what some commentators are calling a process of ‘de-globalisation’, is opening up new challenges for policy-makers and communities. The assumptions that have underpinned planning systems for last decade have been rapidly undermined by broader economic changes and the collapse of private sector investment. The boundaries between states and markets are shifting in dramatic and unforeseen ways as the neo-liberal orthodoxies of the late Twentieth Century are corroding in the face of new economic and political pressures. This in turn raises important questions about the property development sector, its development activities and strategies and its influence on the sustainability of urban planning and policy. It is in this broader context that this session calls for papers that explore the impacts and effects of the current recession on sustainability planning in cities and address some or all of the following key questions: What impacts will economic recession have on conceptions of urban sustainability? How will these changes shape evolving urban forms and processes of sustainable community-building? What are the implications for the politics, governance and management of cities in an era of de-globalisation? How might we characterise the evolving relationships between states and markets and their impacts on cities? What are the main continuities and changes in processes and how will they differ in various urban contexts? What short and long term development strategies are emerging in the property sector and what influence will these have on sustainability planning and the construction of ‘quality’ urban environments? What might definitions and conceptions of urban sustainability look like in the future? [b]The deadline for submitting abstracts to the session organisers is 12 FEBRUARY 2010.[/b] Visit the official site: www.rgs.org/AC2010