Transferring sustainability: imaginaries and processes in EU funded projects in Thessaloniki

ABSTRACT

Since the 1990s, sustainability agenda has dominated cities’ efforts to improve their environment; has been elaborated in European Commission documents, has been disseminated and funded through different mechanisms. The paper examines the way urban sustainability has been framed in Thessaloniki’s EU funded urban regeneration projects, focusing on projects that have been materialized or planned, since the outbreak of the financial crisis in Greece in 2010. It places emphasis on conceptual shifts in EU policies regarding sustainability and their reflection on specific urban projects. A critical light is shed on imaginaries pursued, and processes employed in these projects.

KEYWORDS:

• urban sustainability
• urban regeneration
• Thessaloniki
• EU urban policy

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr Maria Karagianni and Dr MatinaKapsali for their help with the drafting of Diagram 1.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The network was started in 2008 with ‘the ambition to gather local governments voluntarily committed to achieving and exceeding the EU climate and energy targets’ (https://www.covenantofmayors.eu). The municipality of Thessaloniki has joined the network in 2011 and presented an action plan to reduce energy consumption.

2. However, Nadler and Nadler (2018), assessing the 55 projects funded through JESSICA in its first programming period (2007–2013), discovered that many of them were regional and not urban projects.