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During the past decades, the concept of sustainable development has established itself as a new requirement for urban and metropolitan level public action, which involves the design and practice of urban and land-use planning. Planning approaches such as New Urbanism, Smart Growth and Sustainable Cities have in turn become the leitmotiv of cotemporary planning. Yet in a context where the “the deeply transforming city is progressively moving from an urban regime to a metropolitan regime” (Bassand M., 2001. « Métropoles et métropolisation », in M. Bassand, V. Kaufmann and D. Joye,(eds.), Enjeux de la sociologie urbaine, Lausanne, Les Presses polytechniques et universitaires romande, pp. 3-16.), this new reality raises several questions: What exactly are these new urban utopias about? What are the ambiguities and controversies inherent in these latest watchwords? Can urban and metropolitan land-use planning be revised through sustainable development? Can urban mega projects be the key for supporting the sustainable city? Have urban and land-use planning professionals calling into question their planning practices? Can the public debate surrounding metropolitan and urban planning be considered as a way to build the sustainable city and metropolitan area? Are sustainable city indicator systems and other sustainable urban development assessment tools state-of-the-art? What conclusions can be drawn from the strategies and initiatives undertaken in support of the sustainable development of contemporary cities and metropolitan areas? What is the actual scope of the territorial approach to sustainable development for each of the spatial scales (metropolitan areas, urban centres, suburban fringes, neighbourhoods, suburbs, medium-size cities, etc.)? These are some of the questions we will draw on in order to examine how urban planning and sustainable development are related.
The following is a list of possible topics for papers:
The meaning, ambiguities, and contradictions regarding the notions of the sustainable city, smart growth and new urbanism;
The conditions under which science can be performed in such a way that the study of the relations between urban planning and sustainable development can be considered as a research topic;
The notions of urban ecology and urban ecosystems applied to urban and metropolitan land-use planning;
The revival of urbanistic action and planning through sustainable development;
The metropolitanization phenomenon and its relations with sustainable development;
Transportation policies and sustainable mobility in relation to the revival of urbanistic action (urban sprawl control, urban densification, TOD – transportoriented development);
The transformation of professional practices (abilities, skills, culture, etc.) in support of urban sustainable development;
The public debate and urban projects as instruments for the establishment of sustainable development;
The urban sustainability indicator systems and other tools used for assessing urban sustainable development policies.
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