Thomas Hickmann
Associate Professor | Associate Senior Lecturer
Compound Urban Crises
Author
Summary, in English
The crises that cities face—such as climate change, pandemics, economic downturn, and racism—are tightly interlinked and cannot be addressed in isolation. This paper addresses compound urban crises as a unique type of problem, in which discrete solutions that tackle each crisis independently are insufficient. Few scholarly debates address compound urban crises and there is, to date, a lack of interdisciplinary insights to inform urban governance responses. Combining ideas from complex adaptive systems and critical urban studies, we develop a set of boundary concepts (unsettlement, unevenness, and unbounding) to understand the complexities of compound urban crises from an interdisciplinary perspective. We employ these concepts to set a research agenda on compound urban crises, highlighting multiple interconnections between urban politics and global dynamics. We conclude by suggesting how these entry points provide a theoretical anchor to develop practical insights to inform and reform urban governance.
Department/s
- BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
- Department of Political Science
Publishing year
2022
Language
English
Pages
1402-1415
Publication/Series
Ambio
Volume
51
Issue
6
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Springer
Topic
- Human Geography
Keywords
- Cities
- Complex adaptive systems
- Compound urban crises
- Critical urban studies
- Governance
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0044-7447