Abstract
I. MISSION STATEMENT
II. THEMES FOR FUTURE ISSUES
III. DISCOUNTED PRICES AND ELECTRONIC ACCESS TO E&U
IV. SISTER JOURNALS
V. BLOGS
VI. SOCIAL MEDIA
VII. EMAIL NEWSLETTER
VIII. ENGAGING READERS IN BOOK NOTES
I. Mission Statement
Environment and Urbanization (E&U) seeks to advance a more socially just and environmentally sustainable urban world through the provision of knowledge. Our focus is the global South, where an estimated one in three of the urban population live in informal settlements and where more than half work within the informal economy. UN projections suggest that almost all the world’s growth in population in the next few decades will be in urban centres in the global South.
Contributors to E&U include those engaging with critical social science to add theoretical and conceptual insights, those reporting innovative empirical findings that augment our understanding of context and solutions (and their significance for theories and concepts), and those able to share the voices of activist representative groups and movements that are rarely seen in the scholarly literature. In other words, our journal aims both to advance social justice and be the change we strive for by encouraging contributions that share the perspectives of disadvantaged and marginalized groups.
E&U particularly encourages researchers, NGO staff, professionals and activists in Africa, Asia and Latin America to write about their work, present their ideas and debate issues. We promote the work of French, Spanish and Portuguese-speaking authors by arranging for the translation of their work into English.
Papers commonly deal with poverty, inequality, and the power relations underpinning both disadvantage and transformation. Papers also report on trends, policies, programmes and practices related to urbanization, urban development and urban environments. We are concerned with processes of progressive change, while recognizing that these are contested, and that change is neither uni-linear nor necessarily progressive. Urbanization processes are often poorly understood and papers that contribute insights supporting an accurate understanding of grounded realities are important to us. We recognize that sustainable development, including needed responses to climate change, is critical to both current and future populations, and that ecosystems have a critical role in the wellbeing of urban populations and the resilience of their cities. We encourage contributions related to such themes.
II. Themes for Future Issues
This issue of Environment and Urbanization will engage with a political strategy long used by both advantaged and disadvantaged groups, that of urban coalitions. While the role of such reform coalitions in effecting broad-based urban change in the global North is widely recognized, there is little comprehensive analysis of their formation and work. Coalitions, at least in part, may be understood as a response made by agencies to reposition a reform agenda, managing state–society relations to benefit excluded groups. Faced with potentially hostile urban development processes, diverse groups of citizens and professional support agencies have invested in coalitions to ensure their voices are heard and their interests secured. This issue seeks to address that gap by asking questions about the political role and purpose of coalitions, their contribution to advancing specific types of state–society interaction, and practices that underpin coalition building and maintenance. We are not differentiating between coalitions and alliances in this discussion; we are talking about groupings that come together with shared values and common purpose in anticipation of achieving mutual benefits through activities that are sustained over the time required.
There is a myriad of different ways in which groups are disadvantaged and marginalized. Some are related to exploitation, others to dispossession, and still more to denial, discrimination and misrepresentation. Other NGOs and/or academic groups are committed to advancing public interest issues such as improving tax collection or improving access to public services. Despite the differences in the identities and interests of such informal groups and formal agencies, one observed response is that of coalition and alliance building. These are coalitions and alliances that come together to manage political outcomes to secure mutual advantage through building relations across class lines. For those who are disadvantaged, these relations offer ways to source recognition, information, knowledge, emotional support and advice. Coalitions and alliances emerge as effective in multiple ways; however, one of their most significant contributions evident in the existing literature is that they enable voice, and to amplify that voice as it emerges.
We are particularly interested in papers that address the following questions:
What are the benefits that result from working with this modality? And how do groups manage their internal power dynamics to achieve these benefits? When do disadvantaged groups avoid coalitions and/or walk away? Answering these questions will help us to understand the motivations for such strategies and “why” groups choose to invest in coalitions.
While coalitions and alliances are not unique to the urban context, there are specificities in the urban context that appear to favour these approaches. One of these specificities is the need for reforms at multiple points in the process. What can we learn from coalitions that work at multiple scales including both the city and the neighbourhood?
Diverse groups in the global South including academics, civil society organizations and community groups have practical experience in coalition-building to effect an urban change. This collection seeks to advance our understanding of the formation, composition, operation and evaluation of urban reform coalitions working towards broad-based, equitable and sustainable outcomes. We are particularly interested in lessons around how political elites and state officials (at all levels) can be draw into formal and informal alliances. How can coalitions and alliances be developed such that they are used to have the greatest effect – i.e. how to do this to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs? These papers will answer the “how” question.
We are conscious that building coalitions and alliances is only one option for urban social movements. Organizations that nurture insurgent citizenship may see dangers from engaging with coalitions, and/or may try and fail with this strategy as they are pressured to avoid antagonizing the state. What are the challenges to this approach and when is it not an effective use of resources? Or, looked at another way, what are the motivations (such as perceived political opportunities) that trigger coalitions (rather than an alternative strategy), and when are coalition strategies abandoned in favour of another approach. Addressing this question will help us understand the “when” question.
As might be anticipated in any relatively new field of enquiry, there appear to be a plethora of distinct initiatives. But are they really so distinct? Is it possible to group efforts and experiences of a similar type together? And if so, what are the typologies that can help bring together such a categorization?
There are both material and ideational realities that have to be addressed for urban transformation to be secured. That requires public goods to be provided to the benefit of all, including the most disadvantaged groups; it requires identifying strategies that enable prosperity to be secured through building capabilities and supporting enterprise development; and it necessitates new governance models that nurture citizen engagement and an accountable state. If it is the idea of urban development that has been re-visioned and alternative, and more new solutions to address urban challenges need to be identified, developed and tested, then what is the role of coalitions in this? How do coalitions understand the nature of urban development challenges, and how do they identify and develop their own contributions to these processes? If the questions above are about the “what, why, how and when” questions related to coalitions, then this final question is about the self-identity of coalitions and the construction of their public persona.
Finally, there are no panaceas or “cookie-cutter” approaches to short cut development. And we do not want to present reform coalitions through such a lens. Rather we are looking for critical perspectives on the questions above.
The full call for papers is available at https://www.environmentandurbanization.org/themes-future-issues
The aim of this special issue is to discuss how professional practices can contribute to more sustainable and emancipatory forms of city-making. While today’s cities are characterized by unequal relations of power driven by exploitation and value extraction, they are also spaces where grassroots and civil society networks establish emancipatory and environmentally regenerative city-making practices based on principles of care and solidarity. Professionally grounded spatial practices often play a crucial role in supporting these initiatives by offering allyship and support to communities and their organizations.
This special issue aims to highlight and examine community socio-technical assistance in the fields of architecture and urban planning. We want to focus on the work of organizations such as architectural and planning NGOs, technical advisory offices, design clinics, and technical assistance networks that support residents in informal settlements and social housing initiatives. Our goal is to critically reflect on the positions, approaches and methods of these practices, as well as address the challenges related to negotiating questions of power, voice and expertise between professionals and communities. We are interested in examining these relationships from the viewpoints of both practitioners and residents, considering both local and networked experiences. As per E&U’s scope, we encourage diverse contributions, especially from Africa, Asia and Latin America, focusing on critical reflections on experiences such as those of the Community Architects Network in Asia or the Fórum de Assessoria Técnica Popular in Brazil.
This project goes beyond the usual research–practice divide and serves as both an editorial undertaking and a coalition-building effort. Through co-editing this special issue, we aim to weave together a trans-local network of researchers and practitioners in architecture and urban planning who have supported the work of social movements in different locations, scales and temporalities.
We invite submissions in the form of academic articles or field notes based on original research or innovative practices responding to questions that include:
What is the role of professionally grounded spatial practices in promoting socially and environmentally just cities in specific locations, scales and timeframes?
What are the guiding principles, partnerships, methods and tools that define the work of these practices? Additionally, what concepts and frameworks can help us better understand their operational methods?
How do professional practices contribute to the collaborative creation and dissemination of urban knowledge? What are the explicit and implicit forms of knowledge production involved in these practices?
Finally, how can research support the work of professionally grounded spatial practices, and what does such research involve?
By addressing these questions, we aim to gain a deeper understanding of the potential impact of professionally grounded spatial practices on promoting just and sustainable urban development, and how research can assist their efforts.
III. Discounted Prices and Electronic Access to Environment and Urbanization
All papers published in Environment and Urbanization since its first issue in 1989 are available at http://journals.sagepub.com/home/eau, and all but those published during the last two years are open access and so available electronically free of charge. Printed subscriptions to the journal are also available at no charge to libraries or resource centres of universities or teaching or training institutions in low- and middle-income nations.
In addition, the publisher of Environment and Urbanization, Sage Publications, offers large discounts on subscription prices to charities and students and to all subscribers from low- and middle-income nations − see http://journals.sagepub.com/home/eau and click on “Subscribe”. With regard to electronic access, there are schemes that allow access to Environment and Urbanization for universities and research centres in low- and middle-income nations − see Research4Life (http://www.research4life.org). This includes Online Access to Research on the Environment (OARE), which has research journals on the environment, including Environment and Urbanization (http://www.unep.org/oare).
IV. Sister Journals
The last 32 issues of Medio Ambiente y Urbanización (MAyU), published by IIEDAmérica Latina, are accessible at no charge at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iieal/meda. Urbanisation, co-published by Sage and the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, is available at http://urbanisationjournal.com.
V. Blogs
Recent urban blogs (https://www.iied.org/collection/transition-predominantly-urban-world):
Mapping Brazilian waste pickers’ risks and their responses to climate change – Sonia Dias
Supporting waste pickers in Brazil’s cities: what’s needed and what needs to change? – Sonia Dias
Rethinking urbanisation and economic development – Ivan Turok
The fastest-growing cities in Latin America and the Caribbean – David Satterthwaite
Lobbying for land then and now: reflections on what changed in Karachi – Arif Hasan
Is China’s rate of urbanisation too fast or too slow? – Bingqin Li
Reframing infrastructure, reshaping development – Michael Cohen
Building a fairer future: the intersection of climate action and housing justice – Nora Nisi
Driving health equity for cities and communities: the work of Belo Horizonte’s urban observatory – Waleska Teixeira Caiaffa
Principles of community organisation according to Jockin Arputham – and why they are relevant today – Celine D’Cruz
VI. Social Media
To receive news about Environment and Urbanization and urban issues in general, including updates when new Book Notes are available, please follow the journal on X at @EandUjournal. Also on X are editor-in-chief Diana Mitlin @Diana Mitlin and editor David Satterthwaite @Dsatterthwaite. You can visit and follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EnvironmentandUrbanization. Our LinkedIn page is https://www-linkedin-com-s.web.bisu.edu.cn/company/environment-andurbanization.
VII. Email Newsletter
The urban newsletter of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) is emailed to subscribers several times a year and provides updates on the Human Settlements Group’s activities and publications. To sign up to receive the newsletter, please visit http://www.iied.org/sign-up.
You can sign up to receive email alerts about new Environment and Urbanization articles at http://journals.sagepub.com/home/eau.
VIII. Engaging Readers in Book Notes
Our Book Notes section has short summaries of new publications (including working papers and books) that we prepare. We invite you to send us short summaries of new publications you have read that you found interesting – and relevant to urban issues. This includes summaries in English of works published in other languages. Authors may submit summaries too, but not promotional material. You can send these summaries to