This article examines the potential and challenges of sufficiency initiatives within the urban environment, focusing on their ability to bring people and politics together. Drawing on research from the EU-funded “FULFILL” project, which includes surveys, interviews and case studies in five EU Member States, this study explores the role of civil society initiatives in fostering sufficiency—a concept that advocates for meeting human needs within planetary boundaries by altering lifestyles, societal norms, and regulatory frameworks. Sufficiency initiatives find themselves in a precarious position against a backdrop of growth-oriented urban development and face barriers such as lack of resources, legal and regulatory challenges, measurement difficulties, and inertia of municipalities. However, the study also identifies examples of fruitful cooperation between municipalities and initiatives and identifies enablers for successful collaboration, including aligned goals, engaged individuals, and effective communication. By providing an outlook for short-, mid-, and long-term governance perspectives, this article argues for strategic niche management in the short term, development of metrics for sufficiency in the medium term, and a systemic shift in urban dynamics in the long term. As urban sufficiency initiatives offer services and infrastructure to promote sustainable living, they are critical players in guiding cities towards ecological and social resilience. This article contributes to the discourse on urban sustainability by highlighting the importance of municipalities in nurturing sufficiency initiatives that can drive social well-being and environmental stewardship.

Arctic cities are often perceived as exceptional and uniquely challenged by extreme conditions, leading to their treatment as special cases in urban planning and development. However, this perception overlooks the reality that Arctic cities share similar issues common to many small and medium-sized urban centers globally, such as mobility, climate adaptation, and aging populations. By recognizing Arctic cities as ordinary cities, we can better address their needs and foster effective solutions. This article reflects on the results of a fourth-year Master-level course in Sustainable Urban Development, where students researched urban sustainability aspects (e.g., mobility, green infrastructure, energy, public spaces) in northern regions of Finland, Sweden, and Norway. It analyzes pedagogical approaches, highlighting challenges in integrating sustainability perspectives into architecture and planning curricula. Findings hold relevance for educators seeking to address similar challenges in the Arctic or other ordinary cities worldwide, contributing to more resilient and sustainable urban development across diverse environments.

To inform and operationalize an urban degrowth agenda, more systematic and larger-scale experimentation with degrowth practices is needed. The aim of this study was to explore the suitability of shrinking cities as testing grounds for urban degrowth practices. To answer this question, we analyzed two cases, both urban greening initiatives, located in the shrinking urban region of Parkstad Limburg, in the Netherlands. The cases show that in a shrinking city, with a large surplus of urban land and long-term vacancy and demolishing of buildings, there is literally abundant “room” to experiment with alternative ways and types of urban land use. There is also interest on the side of the local government in alternatives to the conventional approaches to urban planning and development. As both cases can be interpreted as “experiments with urban degrowth practices,” it can be concluded that shrinking cities offer ample opportunities for urban degrowth experiments. The lessons learned from the two studied cases are not very positive concerning the wider feasibility of the tested degrowth practices, but as experiments, the cases can be considered successful. This is because they provided a better understanding of the conditions required for the implementation and upscaling of these practices, also in growing cities. To inform and operationalize an urban degrowth agenda, we, therefore, recommend more research on cases in shrinking cities that can be interpreted and analyzed as experiments with urban degrowth practices.

The lack of affordable housing remains a major problem in Spain. Following the decline in public and affordable housing production caused by the economic, political, and social crisis of 2008, efforts to produce public housing were reactivated in the mid-2010s, gaining increasing importance. In Barcelona, housing policies have played a central role in recent political discourse, particularly with the tenure of housing rights activist Ada Colau (2015–2023). With traditional approaches failing to address the housing emergency, the local government introduced five new procurement strategies to increase the affordable housing stock. These involve new forms of council housing, delegated developments, limited-profit investments, zero-equity housing cooperatives, and urban refurbishment. This article uses a mixed methods approach to analyse these strategies. The analysis spans all design phases, from inception to construction, and includes post-occupancy evaluations. Methods include typological analysis, expert interviews, and spatial performance analysis using ethnographic methods and inhabitant interviews. The results evidence the importance of diversifying procurement models, tailoring approaches to different user profiles, and enhancing emerging opportunities by including new stakeholders in the development process.

The legacy passed on from one generation to another has deep connections to a shared identity, a sense of belonging, and cultural heritage. Different types of architecture reflect cultural and societal changes, especially housing. In the UAE, housing has played an important role in nation-building efforts, with the Emirati villa, a space filled with intangible practices through which domestic cultural production and national identity can be read. Therefore, the transformation of domesticity has been instrumental in the process of rapid Emiratisation and nation-building. This article discusses the tangible and intangible aspects of domesticity and hospitality found in the Emirati villa using conventional architectural analysis and live experience studies. By presenting what guides and informs domestic practices, one can read the interior space as a series of spatial qualities. It asks: How have Emirati homes become a means to create and preserve shared social practices? This aims to reveal how social practices, such as hospitality, are spatialised in Emirati homes, capturing everyday life and social norms. The article argues for the recognition of domestic cultural transformations as a valuable contribution to Emirati national identity over the last 50 years of nation-building.

Participatory budgeting has arisen as an interesting form of citizen participation in urban development and, thus, as a new way of exercising placemaking and grassroots democracy. In this article, we provide an analysis of projects in Lisbon (Portugal), Valencia (Spain), and Warsaw (Poland) with a focus on three key projects concerned with improving the public realm and their contribution to enhancing the network of public open spaces. Our guiding question is: What are the potential benefits of participatory budgeting to increase green spaces and urban governance? A comparison of the three cities’ participatory budgeting programmes provides an overview of their social and political goals and the contents that provide opportunities for citizens’ participation in decision-making. The cases of Jardim do Caracol da Penha (Lisbon), the Green Street Świętokrzyska (Warsaw), and the Green Plan for the Poblats Marítims District (Valencia) pave the way for a discussion on engagement, empowerment, and connectivity with the local communities through public spaces. Using participatory budgeting as a planning and political instrument at the municipal level, as the three cases show, can be a useful way to enhance and enrich the communities’ engagement with their environments. One aspect that emerged is the communication strategies implemented in the three cases. The analysis shows that the use of media and social networks to disseminate information and gather supporters for their ideas and this growth in political influence seems to be essential for participatory budgeting. The study is backed by desk work (comprehensive understanding of the local programmes) and field work to better identify the changes in loco.

Everyday life is a central element for understanding the (sub)urban. Broader forces shape the (sub)urban and manifest in both its geographical structures and everyday life. These forces also shape globalized and complex urban contexts. Recent debates have addressed the question of which research designs best decipher this interplay. We argue that the struggles of everyday life could be a fruitful starting point for (sub)urban studies. Our research on socio-spatial changes in suburbia shows that these struggles emerge in a multidimensional field of tension. The concept of struggles of everyday life simultaneously acknowledges the relevance of the everyday and the impact of structural forces. We demonstrate this with our research design, the essential elements of which are literature work, narrative-episodic interviews, expert interviews, vignettes, and a hermeneutic, iterative research process. Conceptually, our research is based on the epistemological framework of planetary urbanization and Henri Lefebvre’s perspective on everyday life. We outline which conceptual and methodical approaches are useful for deciphering the interweaving of everyday life and structural forces, through the example of a suburb of the City of Cologne, Germany. Thereby, we provide remarks on recent questions of comparative urbanism in conceptual and methodological terms.

Zoning that supports urban manufacturing may offer new opportunities to promote sustainability benefits ranging from improved job accessibility to reduced waste and resource use. However, industrial uses in urban areas face displacement from competing and conflicting uses. While the process of industrial gentrification is well documented, little work has examined how planning strategies and regulations affect urban manufacturing and its potential contribution to sustainable economic development. Drawing on a review of planning documents and interviews with food and beverage manufacturers, we examine how planning regulates the sustainability potential of manufacturing enterprises in Melbourne, Australia. In doing so, we contribute a deeper understanding of the ways that zoning affects urban manufacturing and the obstacles, tensions, and trade-offs urban planners face in creating a more sustainable local manufacturing base.

Access to a private car has established itself as a critical control on mobility and access to opportunities for residents living in a diverse range of settings, globally. Across cities of the Global South, the benefits of private car access are often intensified by the absence of viable alternative modes of travel. This article explores the influence of private car access and mobility in relation to residents living in “ger district” areas of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital city. These peri-urban areas are informally created when rural migrants set up home on the edge of the city, initially using mobile felt dwellings called “ger” that become augmented or replaced by permanent structures over time. An absence of forward planning as well as unmade roads and hilly topography mean that the ger districts are often poorly served by public transport, while the low density of the built environment also means that informal transport services can be limited in coverage and relatively expensive. This article utilises a database of household questionnaires collected in 2020 to compare mobility patterns and accessibility between car-owning and non-car-owning households in three case study ger districts, capturing seasonal differences between the extreme cold of the wintertime and warmer summer conditions. The findings not only reveal stark mobility and access differences in relation to car ownership but also discrepancies between car ownership and actual car use for important and routine journeys. This indicates that despite a lack of public transport available, many households opt to use what public transport they can. This pattern provides a potentially important basis for future policies that aim to limit car use in order to reduce traffic congestion and broaden access to the city for non-car-owning households by providing more accessible public transport.

Green and blue infrastructures have always played a key role in shaping European cities, acting as drivers for urban and rural development and regeneration. There is a reawakening of consciousness by European cities towards their waterways following long periods of estrangement relating to (de)industrialisation and, consequently, the decline in industrial riverfronts. This article reviews the precedents relating to the regeneration of disused waterways in European cities, depicts the common threads that distinguish those locales, traces similarities with the Manchester Ship Canal, and develops a catalyst-based approach for future development. The catalyst-based approach is a well-established methodology in other disciplines but has not been tested in urban design. The article investigates the Deux-Rives in Strasbourg and similarities to, and possible scenarios for, future development of the Manchester Ship Canal. The catalyst-based approach focuses on connectedness, employment, health and well-being, affordable housing, and the challenge of governance in managing cross-border areas around waterways. The article explores the potential of a catalyst-based approach in developing a smart ecological urban corridor, applying possible scenarios alongside the Manchester Ship Canal. Through an investigation of the possible application of the distinctive innovative methodology, combining the catalyst-based approach with a community engagement process, the article examines possible scenarios of urban development with green and blue infrastructure linked by a linear mobility spine for a smart and sustainable urban corridor between Manchester and Liverpool alongside the Manchester Ship Canal.