Ecological Modernization or Sustainable Development? Vancouver's Greenest City Action Plan: The City as ‘manager’ of Ecological Restructuring

Abstract

A framework for assessing cities as contributors to sustainable development (SD) is proposed. Differentiating between SD and ecological modernization (EM), we contend that even the weakest EM reforms prompt ecological restructuring (ER). Once unleashed, ER creates four problematics—ecological, economic, political and cultural—which governments at different scales must address by maintaining or challenging the status quo in relation to global structural imperatives; notably, requirements to promote economic growth and maintain legitimacy. That is, ER fosters uneven, non-linear processes of societal learning, which apply at different scales. Hence, where national governments lag behind, cities that develop ‘action plans’ may prompt SD. The framework is road tested by evaluating Vancouver's Greenest City Action Plan. We find that Vancouver does indeed push ER towards SD, especially in the political and cultural domains, even as Canada and British Columbia appear less committed. However, due to the proximity of city government to citizens' lived experiences of unsustainable development, Vancouver, like other cities, confronts a distinct kind of democratizing pressure. A future research agenda on this issue would aim to uncover how planning for SD must both foster and manage this democratizing pressure, which arises as informal (spontaneous, ‘from below’) participation meets formal (procedural, ‘top-down’) process.

Key Words:

• Ecological modernization
• sustainable development
• states
• provinces
• cities
• Canada
• urban policy

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Journal's Editorial Board and anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions, as well as Peter Christoff and Michael Howes, for their comments on the Australasian Political Science Association 2012 conference paper which informs aspects of this article.

Funding

This work was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Research Development Initiative, 2010–2012, Critical Urban Sustainability in the World's Most Liveable Cities [no. 820–2010–176] and International Council for Canadian Studies, Faculty Research Programme 2011, Wooing the Genie: Managing Ecological Restructuring in Vancouver, Greenest City [no. 2633]. Interviews conducted in accordance with the requirements of Simon Fraser University, Department of Research Ethics, project 2012s0257.