The final Urban Arena for Sustainable and Just Cities is gathering online on 30 September and 1 October, 2021 to  explore how to influence policies, find allies, and take action to support just sustainable cities.

We hope this booklet is useful for city-makers as they design and implement local initiatives. It’s packed with links to videos, case studies and colourful illustrations.

This blog by UrbanA’s Sophia Silverton explores problems with learning between cities for sustainability and justice, and suggestions for how to get better.

We have captured all that UrbanA has learnt into a series of suggested keys — keys to unlock sustainable and just cities. They are still under construction and we invite your input. Deadline 31st May

On 23rd Feb 2021 over 40 people gathered virtually to learn about translocal learning in advance of UrbanA’s ‘Berlin’ Arena on Governance Arrangements for Just and Sustainable Cities. They also provided feedback on UrbanA’s new governance scenarios as tools to facilitate knowledge-sharing between cities.

Municipalities in Transition (MiT) offers a systemic methodology for local communities to develop future-oriented ecological and social solutions in an experiential and community-led way. This online conversation began with a presentation by the MiT team followed by an open space for participants to share ideas and experiences.

This online conversation looked at the power of community gardens to create peace and heal traumas, while contributing to environmental sustainability such as a boost in biodiversity. UrbanA fellow Burcu Eke Schneider and others from Turkey, Syria, Bosnia, Czech Republic and further afield, led a heartfelt discussion after sharing about their Avantgardenist Peace garden in the heart of Wuppertal city, Germany.

Historically, European urban planning has predominantly been in the hands of homogeneous groups of men. This very well-attended workshop, led by UrbanA Fellow Sara Ortiz Escalante from Punto6 in Barcelona, shared the principles and learning of feminist urban planning, which puts people’s diversity and everyday life at the center of decision making.

UrbanA Fellow Marcelline Bonneau led a discussion on poverty and food solidarity. She began by sharing her experience and understanding of how European municipalities have approached food poverty during the COVID19 crisis, sharing examples of both municipal and citizen-led initiatives

The UrbanA Freiburg University team has developed a framework for describing governance interventions for sustainable and just cities. In this blog they share their insights, and invite your suggestions and insights

If we continue to ignore how systemic inequalities in housing, transit, public space and food systems disproportionately put marginalized communities at risk, all our efforts to make cities healthy and pandemic-proof will be in vain. By BCNUEJ researchers Isabelle Anguelovski & Panagiota Kotsila and Helen Cole based on research presented at the UrbanA Open Webinar: COVID-19, Justice and Sustainability in Cities.

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What kinds of injustices and exclusions are entangled in the sustainability-inspired projects that cities implement or support? UrbanA has identified drivers of such injustice, many of which play out in The Liberties, a working class district in Dublin. BCNUEJ researchers Isabelle Anguelovski & Panagiota Kotsila tell the story

The third UrbanA Community Conversation was a dialogue between UrbanA Fellow Emma Erwin of Transition Stirling (Scotland) and Sol Trumbo Villa, Coordinator of the Transformative Cities project at the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam.

The second UrbanA Community Conversation, which dealt with the Wiki for Sustainable Just Cities, included practical advice, hands-on experience of creating and editing wiki pages, and broader discussion about the wiki and knowledge commons.

UrbanA Community Conversations is a new series of regular online events. To begin UrbanA Fellow João Dinis, from Cascais Municipality near Lisbon, gave a rich and exciting presentation on Cascais’ local climate adaptation plan, the very first in Portugal.

The UrbanA team invites city-makers and city-thinkers to contribute their knowledge and experience to the Wiki on Sustainable Just Cities. Join the collaborative endeavor in building a knowledge commons. Follow 5 easy steps

There’s a patch of empty State land in a working class neighbourhood with the first signs of gentrification. Council members keen for re-election. A supermarket angling to buy the property.

The UrbanA Wiki Database documents 33 approaches to tackling urban injustice and unsustainability, ranging from democratic governance and financial mechanisms to community gardens and Transition Towns.

The UrbanA Wiki Database documents 33 approaches to tackling urban injustice and unsustainability, ranging from democratic governance and financial mechanisms to community gardens and Transition Towns.