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Urban green boosterism and city affordability : For whom is the ‘branded’ green city?

Garcia-Lamarca, Melissa LU orcid ; Anguelovski, Isabelle ; Cole, Helen ; Connolly, James J.T. ; Argüelles, Lucía ; Baró, Francesc ; Loveless, Stephanie ; Pérez del Pulgar Frowein, Carmen and Shokry, Galia (2021) In Urban Studies 58(1). p.90-112
Abstract

Increasingly, greening in cities across the Global North is enmeshed in strategies for attracting capital investment, raising the question: for whom is the future green city? Through exploring the relationship between cities’ green boosterist rhetoric, affordability and social equity considerations within greening programmes, this paper examines the extent to which, and why, the degree of green branding – that is, urban green boosterism – predicts the variation in city affordability. We present the results of a mixed methods, macroscale analysis of the greening trajectories of 99 cities in Western Europe, the USA and Canada. Our regression analysis of green rhetoric shows a trend toward higher cost of living among cities with the... (More)

Increasingly, greening in cities across the Global North is enmeshed in strategies for attracting capital investment, raising the question: for whom is the future green city? Through exploring the relationship between cities’ green boosterist rhetoric, affordability and social equity considerations within greening programmes, this paper examines the extent to which, and why, the degree of green branding – that is, urban green boosterism – predicts the variation in city affordability. We present the results of a mixed methods, macroscale analysis of the greening trajectories of 99 cities in Western Europe, the USA and Canada. Our regression analysis of green rhetoric shows a trend toward higher cost of living among cities with the longest duration and highest intensity green rhetoric. We then use qualitative findings from Nantes, France, and Austin, USA, as two cases to unpack why green boosterism correlates with lower affordability. Key factors determining the relation between urban greening and affordability include the extent of active municipal intervention, redistributional considerations and the historic importance of inclusion and equity in urban development. We conclude by considering what our results mean for the urban greening agenda in the context of an ongoing green growth imperative going forward.

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author
; ; ; ; ; ; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
green growth, green urban boosterism, urban affordability
in
Urban Studies
volume
58
issue
1
pages
23 pages
publisher
Taylor & Francis
external identifiers
  • scopus:85077382133
ISSN
0042-0980
DOI
10.1177/0042098019885330
language
English
LU publication?
no
additional info
Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This article is part of a project that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 678034). It is also part of a project that received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730243. Publisher Copyright: © Urban Studies Journal Limited 2019.
id
8006c117-8843-411a-8ca1-bb97e80ba868
date added to LUP
2024-02-06 14:08:33
date last changed
2024-02-07 09:43:12
@article{8006c117-8843-411a-8ca1-bb97e80ba868,
  abstract     = {{<p>Increasingly, greening in cities across the Global North is enmeshed in strategies for attracting capital investment, raising the question: for whom is the future green city? Through exploring the relationship between cities’ green boosterist rhetoric, affordability and social equity considerations within greening programmes, this paper examines the extent to which, and why, the degree of green branding – that is, urban green boosterism – predicts the variation in city affordability. We present the results of a mixed methods, macroscale analysis of the greening trajectories of 99 cities in Western Europe, the USA and Canada. Our regression analysis of green rhetoric shows a trend toward higher cost of living among cities with the longest duration and highest intensity green rhetoric. We then use qualitative findings from Nantes, France, and Austin, USA, as two cases to unpack why green boosterism correlates with lower affordability. Key factors determining the relation between urban greening and affordability include the extent of active municipal intervention, redistributional considerations and the historic importance of inclusion and equity in urban development. We conclude by considering what our results mean for the urban greening agenda in the context of an ongoing green growth imperative going forward.</p>}},
  author       = {{Garcia-Lamarca, Melissa and Anguelovski, Isabelle and Cole, Helen and Connolly, James J.T. and Argüelles, Lucía and Baró, Francesc and Loveless, Stephanie and Pérez del Pulgar Frowein, Carmen and Shokry, Galia}},
  issn         = {{0042-0980}},
  keywords     = {{green growth; green urban boosterism; urban affordability}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{90--112}},
  publisher    = {{Taylor & Francis}},
  series       = {{Urban Studies}},
  title        = {{Urban green boosterism and city affordability : For whom is the ‘branded’ green city?}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0042098019885330}},
  doi          = {{10.1177/0042098019885330}},
  volume       = {{58}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}