The economy benefits people and the environment

Creating new urban economies that serve human needs requires alternative economic approaches and indicators that go beyond the current outsized focus on GDP growth. Research fields such as Degrowth show growth-based economics to be incompatible with sustainability, justice and economic democracy. Existing efforts to put this into practice include Transition initiatives, in which communities come together to remodel their local economies; ecovillages guided by a whole-systems approach that treats economic, ecological, social and cultural dimensions as interdependent; and numerous forms of urban commons. All such initiatives emphasise participation, inclusion and partnership as key foundations of a sustainable and just economy.

Sustainable and just urban economies can only be built from the bottom up. This requires existing decision-makers to commit to a meaningful participation process. Such processes need to tap into existing community networks in order to draw on the needs, perspectives, knowledge and skills that already exist. Bridging different stakeholder groups brings diverse interests and perspectives into dialogue, recognising and addressing conflicts and perhaps identifying unexpected opportunities for collaboration. All these governance arrangements support the inclusive dialogue necessary to create a pluralistic economy; one rooted in sustainability and justice as core principles, rather than secondary concerns.

Alternative city economies based on sustainability and justice directly challenge the unquestioned focus on neoliberal growth and austerity urbanism: They do so by actively recognising that economic priorities should reflect the sustainable provision of human needs rather than uphold unequal and unsustainable systems and power structures. An inclusive urban economy can be an antidote to material and livelihood inequalities and racialised or ethnically exclusive urbanisation. It also simultaneously requires and strengthens civil society participation, and so can help address weakened civil society, in both the short and long term. 

"What we need in order to address the world’s big problems is more than incremental change to the status quo: It will require nothing less than a radical disruption of economic dogma."