Special Issue "Social Innovation in Sustainable Urban Development"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Geography and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2021.

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Harald A. Mieg
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Geography / Georg-Simmel Center for Metropolitan Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany
Interests: sustainable urban development; innovation; revitalization of urban industrial sites; financing urban infrastructure

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

How can a city advance from social invention to social innovation to attain sustainable urban development (SUD)?  Many new ideas, initiatives, and showcases for social innovation have been introduced; however, this kind of project-based experimentation is often just part of the ongoing urban politics (or governmentality) and lacks sustainability, with traditional siloed city administrations remaining a central obstacle to SUD. In Mieg and Töpfer (2013), we therefore claimed that cities need greater institutional innovation.

For this Special Issue, we invite contributions on sustainable social innovations related to SUD. We welcome submissions on topics such as: (1) new, successful models of urban governance for city administration and SUD (cf. Angelidou and Psaltoglou, 2017); (2) the role of design for SUD (cf. Manzini, 2014); (3) innovation forms and discourses on social vs. technological innovation (cf. Edwards-Schachter and Wallace, 2017): smart cities, responsible research and innovation (rri), digital commons, etc.; (4) diffusion of social innovation (cf. BEPA, 2010): multi-level governance, rural–urban regional systems, game changers, etc.; (5) the moral dimension of social innovation: Do we need better citizens or better institutions?

Angelidou, M., & Psaltoglou, A, (2017). An empirical investigation of social innovation initiatives for sustainable urban development. Sustainable Cities and Society, 33, 113–125.

BEPA Bureau of European Policy Advisers. (2010). Empowering people, driving change: Social innovation in the European Union. Publications Office of the European Union.

Edwards-Schachter, M.,  & Wallace, M. L. (2017). ‘Shaken, but not stirred’: Sixty years of defining social innovation. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 119, 64–79

Manzini, E. (2014). Making things happen: Social innovation and design. Design Issues, 30, 57–66.

Mieg, H. A., & Töpfer, K. (Eds.). (2013). Institutional and social innovation for sustainable urban development. Earthscan.

Prof. Dr. Harald A. Mieg
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • social innovation
  • sustainable urban development
  • institutional innovation
  • urban governance
  • city administration
  • policy experimentation
  • multi-level governance
  • rural–urban regional systems
  • game changers
  • smart cities
  • responsible research and innovation (RRI)
  • digital commons
  • social responsibility

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

Article
The Governance Challenge within Socio-Technical Transition Processes: Public Bicycles and Smartphone-Based Bicycles in Guangzhou, China
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 9447; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13169447 - 23 Aug 2021
Viewed by 259
Abstract
In urban China, utilitarian cycling plays a significant role in achieving sustainable mobility. Within this context, different kinds of sharing-bicycle programs equipped with new technologies/devices emerge and extend. By comparing two generations of them in Guangzhou (China), this paper explores how new technologies [...] Read more.
In urban China, utilitarian cycling plays a significant role in achieving sustainable mobility. Within this context, different kinds of sharing-bicycle programs equipped with new technologies/devices emerge and extend. By comparing two generations of them in Guangzhou (China), this paper explores how new technologies impact existing modes of mobility governance. First, the technical innovations, e.g., app-based bicycle locks and micro-GPS equipment, contribute to liberating emerging private companies from existing governmental regulations based on land control. Second, the adoption of these innovations not only contributes to the accumulation of cultural and symbolic capitals based on a fashionable lifestyle but also links bicycles to personal point-to-point travel data that could be translated to economic capital. Third, the discrepancy between the dispositions of the government and private companies regarding the innovations opens an opportunity for the quick extension of sharing bicycles, which brings both positive and negative consequences on citizens’ daily travel and life. The absence of other civic actors in the decision-making process accelerates the negative consequences caused by the profit-driven fast extension of sharing bicycles and the governmental top-down governing logic. These findings provide academia with implications for understanding the impact of innovations on achieving sustainable mobility. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Innovation in Sustainable Urban Development)
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Article
Precaution and Innovation in the Context of Wastewater Regulation: An Examination of Financial Innovation under UWWTD Disputes in London and Milan
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 9130; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13169130 - 15 Aug 2021
Viewed by 432
Abstract
The Water Framework Directive (WFD) under the guidance of the precautionary principle sets out standards to guarantee high quality water services for European citizens. This creates pressure on European cities to update and renew their water infrastructures in accordance with EU Law at [...] Read more.
The Water Framework Directive (WFD) under the guidance of the precautionary principle sets out standards to guarantee high quality water services for European citizens. This creates pressure on European cities to update and renew their water infrastructures in accordance with EU Law at great financial cost. Cities within the Union try to bridge this financial gap with a variety of approaches. This paper presents the cases of London and Milan, both of which were subject to legal proceedings for breaching the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. By example of these two cases, this article details how the precautionary principle affects urban water infrastructure provision, and how the regulation of the primary risk of pollution can both trigger innovation and create secondary risks within the highly integrated urban water infrastructure sector. The London case focusses on an individual infrastructure project and shows how its financial framing has compromised the final outcome, while the Milan case presents a longer-view perspective that shows how structural changes in the urban water infrastructure sector have enabled an environment for sustainable financial innovation. The role of transparency and good local governance practices are emphasized for a successful implementation of the precautionary principle requirements in a city’s water sector. Managing this process effectively can result in meaningful social innovation for urban water infrastructure provision. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Innovation in Sustainable Urban Development)
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Article
Social Innovation for Sustainable Urban Developmental Transitions in Sub-Saharan Africa: Leveraging Economic Ecosystems and the Entrepreneurial State
Sustainability 2021, 13(13), 7360; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137360 - 30 Jun 2021
Viewed by 499
Abstract
This study theorizes social innovation-based transitions to sustainable urban development from the perspective of the African urban condition, highlighting that large infrastructure and service provision deficits, poverty, inequality, heavy import dependence and the prevalence of dual formal–informal sector systems are key factors to [...] Read more.
This study theorizes social innovation-based transitions to sustainable urban development from the perspective of the African urban condition, highlighting that large infrastructure and service provision deficits, poverty, inequality, heavy import dependence and the prevalence of dual formal–informal sector systems are key factors to account for in a just, sustainable urban African developmental transition. It identifies an opportunity space that can be leveraged for urban and broader transitions to sustainability on the continent by leveraging “economic ecosystems” for local scale social innovation-based development interventions. It theorizes that multi-level transitions to sustainability can be engendered by adopting an entrepreneurial state led approach at local scales by using economic ecosystems as the framework to (1) stimulate social innovation-based entrepreneurship that meets local and local–regional demands through decentralized, low cost, small-scale infrastructures, technologies and services, (2) leverage social innovation-based economic ecosystems for catalyzing multi-scalar transitions to sustainability, (3) recast the role of the entrepreneurial state, specifically in relation to social innovation and sustainable urban development (SUD) in Africa and (4) bridge formal–informal sector dualism. This framing prioritizes local economic development over centralized, state-led interventions that involve grand-scale masterplans, wholly new satellite cities and bulk infrastructure deployments in conceptualizing sustainable urban development transitions in Africa. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Innovation in Sustainable Urban Development)
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Article
Assessing the Contributions of Urban Light Rail Transit to the Sustainable Development of Addis Ababa
Sustainability 2021, 13(10), 5667; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105667 - 18 May 2021
Viewed by 486
Abstract
Many of the existing urban transport infrastructures in developing African cities are challenged by the mobility demands of their ever-increasing population and increased vehicle capacity. To address these transportation challenges, the Federal government of Ethiopia through the Ethiopian Railway Corporation (ERC) constructed and [...] Read more.
Many of the existing urban transport infrastructures in developing African cities are challenged by the mobility demands of their ever-increasing population and increased vehicle capacity. To address these transportation challenges, the Federal government of Ethiopia through the Ethiopian Railway Corporation (ERC) constructed and operates the Addis Ababa light rail transit (AA-LRT). Currently, many other African cities are following in action. This study aims to assess the contributions to sustainable development derived from the services of urban light rail in Addis Ababa. Cross-sectional quantitative research by means of a structured questionnaire survey considering key variables of social, economic, and environmental transport sustainability dimensions was conducted in Addis Ababa. Dimension-wise, the collected data was then analysed in order to measure the contributions made by AA-LRT and to identify the relations amongst each considered variable and each sustainability dimension. The findings of the study indicate a high level of perceived contributions of the economic sustainability dimension as compared to social and environmental sustainability. The study suggests an improved consideration of the environmental and social dimension for a holistic approach to transport sustainability of the city. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Innovation in Sustainable Urban Development)
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Article
Economic Development, Informal Land-Use Practices and Institutional Change in Dongguan, China
Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 2249; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042249 - 19 Feb 2021
Viewed by 666
Abstract
This paper is engaged with the critical perspective that highlights the role of the state in the production of urban informality by examining the dynamics of informal land-use practices in Dongguan, China since 1978. Based on in-depth interviews and archival analysis, the relationship [...] Read more.
This paper is engaged with the critical perspective that highlights the role of the state in the production of urban informality by examining the dynamics of informal land-use practices in Dongguan, China since 1978. Based on in-depth interviews and archival analysis, the relationship between informal land development, the state, and land institution change has been revealed. Our findings show that informal land development is practiced by village collectives from below in Dongguan as a response to the absence and limitation of the national land law. The local government handles the informality in a pragmatic way that serves the goal of economic development in different historical conditions by actions of encouraging, tolerating, and authorizing, suggesting that the definition of informality is not a neutral classification. It is argued that while informality represents people’s creativity in dealing with practical problems, when and to what extent it can be tolerated, formalized, and absorbed depends on the intention of the state in a specific historical context. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Innovation in Sustainable Urban Development)
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