From Eco to Smart: The Local Variegation and Spatial Circulation of Sustainable Urbanism Models

In the past two decades, various sustainable urban models have been proposed and adopted to help cities pursue a more sustainable future. Much like their predecessors in the history of urbanism, sustainable urban models today share a rich genealogy that has been shaped by evolving ideas and practices within the planning industry as well as external contextual factors. In this talk, Catherine will share her long-term research agenda on the convergence and divergence of sustainable urbanism models. Through the case study of two Chinese eco-cities, Catherine investigates the local variegation and spatial circulation of eco-city models to reveal the social, political, and economic mechanisms that drive the convergence and divergence of the sustainable urbanism models. The findings also indicate several new research directions for studying the development of contemporary sustainable urbanism models.