Sustainable cities: research and practice challenges
Open accessAbstract
This paper presents a concepualisation of the research and practice challenges facing those of us working towards sustainable cities. I argue that these challenges are quite fundamental and centre around our ‘vision’ of the sustainable city and the processes required to bring about sustainable urban development. I draw on my own experience and the work of others to suggest that within the sustainable cities discourse there are a number of competing ‘visions’ of sustainable urbanism, and that it is important that we understand and value this multiplicity of socially-constructed potential futures, rather than adopt a ‘one model fits all’ appraoch. In terms of sustainable urban development processes, I suggest that research, practise and expertise tend to coalesce around either scientific and technological advances or around social change (largely couched in terms of behaviour, economic or governance shifts). Yet we need to move past this dualistic thinking towards a far deeper understanding of the interplay between social and technical solutions if we are make real progress. I hope this new journal provides a forum to explore different ‘visions’ and to share knowledge on the ‘mulitple-pathways’ that sustainable urban development may take.
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Sustainable cities became prevalent and evolved into the leading paradigm of sustainable urban development during the period 1991-2010.
“they became prevalent and evolved into the leading paradigm of sustainable urban development during the period 1991–2010”
From Environmentally sustainable smart cities and their converging AI, IoT, and big data technologies and solutions: an integrated approach to an extensive literature review (2023) · cites this paper as Williams 2009
Cites
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The City: Suggestions for the Investigation of Human Behavior in the City Environment
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Achieving Sustainable Urban Form
Burton, E., Jenks, M., & Williams, K. (2013) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203827925 · Cited by 490 · see citing works
Self-citationWhitehead, M. (2003) · Urban Studies · doi:10.1080/0042098032000084550 · Cited by 153 · see citing works
Understanding Sustainable Cities: Competing Urban Futures
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Smart sustainable cities of the future: An extensive interdisciplinary literature review
Bibri, S. E., & Krogstie, J. (2017) · Sustainable Cities and Society · doi:10.1016/j.scs.2017.02.016 · Cited by 1,599 · see citing works
Bibri, S. E., Alexandre, A., Sharifi, A., & Krogstie, J. (2023) · Energy Informatics · doi:10.1186/s42162-023-00259-2 · Cited by 299 · see citing works
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The “Sustainable” in smart cities: ignoring the importance of urban ecosystems
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- Authors
- Williams, K.
- Affiliations
- University of the West of England (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Williams, Katie
- ORCID
- Williams, Katie
- Venue
- International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2009-01-01
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 1-2
- Pages
- 128-132
- ISSN
- 1946-3138 (ISSN-L)
- 1946-3146
- OpenAlex
- W1975741051
- Cited by
- 167
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 7.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- eprints.uwe.ac.uk
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development (publishedVersion)
- UWE Research Repository (UWE Bristol) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Sustainable Urban and Rural Development
- Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Urban Planning and Governance
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Building and Construction › Sustainable Design and Development
- Keywords
- sustainable cities, sustainable urban development, multiple pathways, social change, technical solutions, urban governance, behavior change
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