ABSTRACT
The challenge of realizing interventions that emerge from the nexus of sustainability and justice remains a challenge for cities. Critical scholars have long called for an approach to sustainability that integrates social and environmental justice and does not only focus on measuring and comparing economic and environmental impacts. However, a more thorough “diagnosis” of what has been done in terms of urban sustainability (e.g., energy, mobility, housing, greening, food and biodiversity) and what are the main insights gained in terms of justice is largely overdue. In this introduction, we set forward the contradictions that have emerged in research, policy and practice concerning the way in which social and environmental justice is considered when dealing with the “wicked problem” of urban sustainability. In doing so, we present a typology of ten drivers of injustice that operate in the context of urban sustainability, built upon a systematic analysis of research conducted over the last 20 years, mostly in the European Union (EU) and North America, and framed within a broader and global literature from the field of urban environmental justice.
