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Understanding applications of energy and materials sustainability as sobriété: reflecting across two generations of écoquartiers in Paris
By Chloé Repka, Master of Resource Management (Planning) student at 911³Ô¹Ï; Meg Holden, Professor in Urban Studies and Resource and Environmental Management, 911³Ô¹Ï; Cedissia 911³Ô¹Ï, Research Associate at Lab'URBA, Université Gustave Eiffel, and Chief Architect and Head of Sustainable Building R&D at the City of Paris
The repertoire of guiding visions and policy tools for approaching urban sustainability has undergone a generational change, marked by new strategies, technologies, scientific discoveries, and legal and policy tools. Sustainability transition is a profoundly cultural process, and language, as a carrier of culture, signals both the visions of sustainable futures and pragmatic steps available in particular contexts. However, seldom is the cultural interface for sustainability transition scrutinized in pragmatic terms, nor the important cultural and contextual aspects of urban sustainability transition adequately recognized.
Through comparative interpretive analysis, this research examines shifts in the use of French language terminologies to advance sustainable urban development from a first generation écoquartier (ecodistrict) project, Clichy-Batignolles, initiated in 2002, to a second generation écoquartier project, Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, currently in development. This offers direct implications for understanding the evolution of policy and planning tools toward greater contextual effectiveness in guiding change, revealing the importance of some untranslatable concepts centering on the concept of sobriété. An interpretive translanguaging approach offers researchers and practitioners interested in understanding the cultural aspects of more and less appealing urban change proposals a new lens with potential for better insight, as the need for climate safe and more sustainable development pathways becomes more urgent.