Sustainable Urban Development by Civil Society Groups and Local Initiatives?
How are civil society groups joining forces in order to advance sustainable urban development? This question is at the center of the currently published study “Nachhaltige Stadtentwicklung durch zivilgesellschaftliche Zusammenschlüsse und lokale Bewegungen? Ergebnisse einer soziologischen Begleitforschung” (Sustainable Urban Development by Civil Society Alliances and Local Initiatives? Results of sociological accompanying research) by Benjamin Görgen, Matthias Grundmann, Niklas Haarbusch, Jessica Hoffmann, Dieter Hoffmeister and Björn Wendt. They studied this question based on the example of a local initiative from Münster.
The realization of sustainable development is one of the main challenges of our time. In the urban space, many civil society actors are engaged in the implementation of sustainable urban development. This publication presents the results of a sociological accompanying research. The researchers studied the local initiative “Münster nachhaltig” and focused on the emergence of initiatives, the motivations of the activists, the cooperation with different actors and the impact of initiatives on the city’s society.
The researchers found that citizens’ impulses and ideas contributed to the creation of a sustainable and future-oriented urban culture. Local initiatives, like the one studied in Münster, acted as platforms for this civil engagement. Civil society initiatives one important factor, but not the central actor in the sustainable transformation process; civil society can’t stem great transformations in a society on its own. In this context, researchers and scientists as well should scrutinize their role in and contribution to the transformation process, according to the authors of the study.
