Metropolitics

The Banality of Innovation: Mythic Discourse and the Long Road to Shore Power in New York City

Iain McDavid — 2024-12-03T06:00:00Z

If the New York City Economic Development Corporation is committed to the city's “green transformation, ” then why is it dragging its feet to curb cruise-ship pollution at city ports? Iain McDavid explains how clean air doesn't align with EDC's primary concern of encouraging investment.
By allowing ships to plug into the electrical grid while at berth, shore power installations can drastically reduce carbon emissions and harmful pollutants produced by a vessel's auxiliary engines (CLIA 2024;

- Debates / cruise ships, pollution, air quality, Brooklyn, New York, United States, energy, environmental justice, environment, shore power

Underground Berlin: Where Infrastructure Meets Politics

Clarence Hatton-Proulx & translated by Oliver Waine — 2022-12-02T06:00:00Z

Water, electricity, gas: in Remaking Berlin, Timothy Moss presents a history of Berlin's infrastructure networks from 1920 to 2020, and shows how their operation has varied with successive political regimes.
For anyone interested in the history of cities, the case of Berlin is particularly rich. In less than a century, the German capital lived through a succession of different political regimes: the Weimar Republic, Nazi rule, the division of the city between two concomitant republics (one

- Reviews / Berlin, infrastructure, Germany, energy, history, networks, urban technical networks, utilities

Electricity in War-Torn Aleppo: A New Form of Urban Management

Youssef Diab & Abboud Hajjar & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-11-23T06:00:00Z

In Syria, electricity is one of the sectors most adversely affected by the war. New means of electricity production, provided by private individuals, are being developed to make up for the public sector's shortcomings. In examining the case of Aleppo, Abboud Hajjar and Youssef Diab have analyzed the creation of a marketplace for subscriptions to neighborhood electricity generators and the involvement of city dwellers in the day-to-day management of this sector.
Management of the electricity

- Essays / energy, networks, utilities, urban public service, war, Syria, urban technical networks, electricity, electricity generators, urban services, Aleppo

Rio de Janeiro: An (Inequitably) Connected City?

Francesca Pilo' & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-09-21T05:00:00Z

The tangled webs of electrical wires, a symbol of the favelas, are also the sign of an electricity service that remains profoundly unequal and uncertain in Brazilian cities. Francesca Pilo' considers the varying quality of electricity distribution in Rio de Janeiro, and shows how this network contributes to dynamics of urban fragmentation that go beyond the simple dichotomy between shanty towns and prosperous neighborhoods.
Despite the universal nature of electricity provision, in terms of

- From the Field / inequalities, energy, networks, utilities, urban public service, Global South, socio-spatial inequalities, Latin America, Brazil, favela, Rio de Janeiro, urban technical networks, electricity, social division of space, fragmentation, service provision, distribution, urban services

Local Leadership and Global Goals: How City Sustainability Networks are Changing Progressive Policymaking

Emma French & Supraja Sudharsan & Jennifer Clark — 2018-09-18T09:47:41Z

While national governments often struggle to address global climate change, cities are in a better position to innovate, especially through peer networks that publicly value sustainability. However, challenges remain, notably in translating intention into action and building internal capacity. Here, we show how mayors have influenced policymaking in four southeastern US cities.
---- Series: Progressive Mayors and Urban Social Movements The global nature of environmental crises has

- Essays / urban policy, New Orleans, environment, United States, energy, networks, resilience, progressive urban politics, climate change, climate action plans, Atlanta, urban sustainability, capacity building, policymaking, Houston, Orlando, mayors, progressive mayors

Climate Change and Social Change

Gregory Smithsimon — 2018-04-03T05:30:00Z

Cities are home to more than half the world's population and the source of most global CO2 emissions—and yet often occupy vulnerable sites particularly sensitive to the effects of climate change. Out of necessity, cities have therefore become pioneers when it comes to responding to these changes. In this series, we examine not just the different strategies they deploy but also the associated social issues, and more specifically how questions of social justice and equity are taken into

- Series / environment, social justice, urban ecology, energy, climate change, sea-level rise, climate action plans, environmental justice, climate justice

The Urban Heart of a Just Transition: How Cities Plan for Social Justice in Climate Action

Alexa Waud — 2018-04-03T05:00:00Z

Cities are often framed as sustainability saviors. Alexa Waud analyzes 20 climate action plans of cities that participate in the international Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance, and argues that in order to minimize the impacts of decarbonization on vulnerable populations, cities must understand the historical context of racial and social justice struggles, the immediacy and impact of climate action plans, and the strong potential for action on climate change.
---- Series: Climate Change and

- Essays / sustainable development, social justice, energy, climate change, sustainable city, climate action plans, environmental justice, climate justice, urban sustainability, energy transition, ecological transition, decarbonization, just transition

Shrinking Networks, Growing Solidarities? How to Design a New Social and Territorial Contract

Daniel Florentin — 2017-09-27T05:00:00Z

Utilities operators in a number of European cities, faced with significant reductions in consumption levels across the networked infrastructures they run, are at the forefront of urban shrinkage management. Unlike numerous works describing a neoliberal process of territorial dislocation, Daniel Florentin demonstrates, through the case study of Magdeburg in Germany, that these dynamics of shrinking water and energy consumption can also foster new solidarities in the management of large technical

- From the Field / deindustrialization, energy, water, networks, utilities, urban public service, Germany, solidarity, shrinking cities, urban decline, Magdeburg, urban shrinkage, degrowth, shrinkage, urban technical networks, urban services

After Fukushima: The Silence of Environmental Organizations on Nuclear Catastrophe

Michael Dreiling & Nicholas Lougee & Tomoyasu Nakamura — 2015-09-22T05:00:00Z

The nuclear catastrophe at the Fukushima plants in Japan in 2011 raised global awareness of the massive dangers inherent in nuclear energy and led to the shutdown of almost all reactors in the country. Today, Japan is reopening reactors despite public opinion against it. In this article, the authors show that the silence of most environmental organizations reveals their widespread co‑optation by a political and industrial establishment that has, since the Kyoto Protocol, promoted nuclear energy

- Essays / catastrophe, disaster, environment, energy, nuclear, Japan, global warming, mobilization

Water, sanitation, energy, waste: the dawn of the network-free city?

Sylvain Petitet & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-04-18T04:45:00Z

Negative externalities, changes in society and technological innovation all call into question the industrial model used to organise urban services and utilities. For Sylvain Petitet, it is high time to consider new models and new complementarities for the provision of these urban services.
For almost two centuries, an industrial model characterised by the creation and operation of major urban networks has fashioned the development of cities and has established itself as the only service

- Debates / innovation, energy, water, public–private partnership, sanitation, waste, networks, territorial development, utilities, urban public service, urban technical networks, urban services