Rethinking Sustainability in Urban Areas: São Paulo, London, Berlin

Abstract

The five chapters of this volume speak to a series of social and environmental problems faced by many cities around the world: the degradation of green public spaces; homelessness; access to blue-green infrastructure; and food waste. Such problems – like many other challenges to the sustainability of our urbanising world – have global dimensions, but their concrete forms relate to local contexts limiting the applicability of ‘best practice’ solutions derived from experiences elsewhere. Each of the studies here therefore takes a cross-comparative approach, grounded in the specificities of three cities with very different historical trajectories and expectations for the future: London, Berlin and São Paulo. This approach has allowed the authors not only to diagnose successes and failures in relation to their immediate environments, but also to draw out cross-cutting recommendations for the future.

The work is the result of the ‘Global Research Academy’ study programme undertaken by doctoral researchers from University of São Paulo, Freie Univerisität Berlin, and King’s College London. This programme was initiated in 2021 with joint funding from each of the three universities. Following a competitive application process, the participants attended study visits in London (2022), Berlin (2022), and São Paulo (2023), working in interdisciplinary groups to devise and implement the projects whose findings are presented here. These projects also kindled a series of alternative forms of dissemination, available via the USP repository web pages at: https://interscity.org/gra The study groups were supervised jointly by Prof Fabio Kon (Computer Science, University of São Paulo), Prof Sérgio Costa (Sociology, Freie Univerisität Berlin), and Dr Robert Cowley (Geography, King’s College London).

We would like to express tremendous gratitude to the Global Engagement Office at King’s, Agency for National and International Cooperation (AUCANI) at University of São Paulo, and the Centre for International Cooperation at Freie Univerisität Berlin for facilitating the Global Research Academy, as well as to the local organisations and guest speakers who enriched the programme of activities in each city.

Keywords: Sustainability, Sustainable Cities, Smart Cities, Urban Planning, Data Science

JEL Classification: R11, R14, Z18