Contemporary Meanings of the ‘Sustainable City’: A Comparative Review of the French‐ and English‐Language Literature

• Published in: Sustainable development (Bradford, West Yorkshire, England) Vol. 25; no. 4; pp. 336 - 355
• Main Authors: Hamman, Philippe, Anquetin, Virginie, Monicolle, Céline
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester Wiley Periodicals Inc 01.07.2017
• Subjects: Cities; Discourses; environmental policy; Green city concept; literature review; Literature reviews; Meaning; Political institutions; stakeholder engagement; statistical and lexical analysis; Sustainability; sustainable city; Sustainable development; Urban planning; Urban policy; Variants; United Kingdom > UK; France
• ISSN: 0968-0802; 1099-1719
• DOI: 10.1002/sd.1660

This paper analyses the repertoire of the ‘sustainable city’ by conducting a comparative review of the French‐ and English‐language literature. Some use this language for its practical impact regarding urban policies; others criticize it as a tool for legitimizing growth‐oriented policies. The article aims at overcoming this duality. Statistical and lexical analyses evidence four main variants of ‘sustainable city’ discourses, subject to debate: ‘green city’, ‘city of short distances’, ‘just city’ and ‘participatory city’. They yield four main findings: first, there is no single model of the ‘sustainable city’; second, the different approaches are not mutually exclusive, be it conceptually, institutionally, practically or geographically; third, the ‘sustainable city’ appears as a genuinely political repertoire – a wide range of actors and institutions act as filters, promoters or detractors; fourth, these situated uses are not fixed but constantly changing, in terms of both contents and procedures. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment