Punt, Hanne (2023) Swimming against the current: the role of social movements in planning for urban climate resilience. Master thesis.
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Hanne Punt S3752542 Master Thesis SSP Final Version.pdf Download (2MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Becoming resilient has become a key objective for many cities, especially in the Global North. However, it appears to be challenging to plan for resilience that stimulates, alongside robustness to climate events, the capacity to continuously adapt and transform to improved circumstances, known as evolutionary resilience. At the same time, the community dimension of planning for urban climate resilience seems to be underdeveloped in both policy-making and scientific literature. By adopting a social movement perspective, this research aimed to investigate how social movements can contribute to planning for urban climate resilience. The research takes the social movement Fluss Bad Berlin as its subject for a case study. This movement aims to reclaim the river Spree for its citizens by realising a swimming location in the heart of Berlin. To fulfil the aim of this research a framing analysis of literature, policy documents, social media, and interviews with Berlin stakeholders was employed to: 1) determine Berlin’s approach to planning for urban climate resilience, and 2) examine how Fluss Bad positioned itself based on this approach. The findings showed that movements like Fluss Bad can help to promote evolutionary resilience as they foster societal discourse through the positive experience of river swimming. They raise awareness of societal and sustainability issues, such as water pollution, climate concerns and liveability. To advance evolutionary resilience, cities should actively engage with initiatives like Fluss Bad, to emphasise adaptability, stakeholder involvement, broader societal objectives and eventually realise sustainable transformation. Addressing city administration issues, like staffing and resources, appeared to be crucial for enabling the administration to incorporate local initiatives and movements into Berlin’s approach to planning for urban climate resilience. Additionally, cities should encourage spatial experimentation to promote sustainable transformations and increase political and societal support by letting citizens experience the advantages of these transformations. For movements like Fluss Bad, broadening their appeal beyond their current audience through positive experiences is recommended, while avoiding an overly radical and green image. In this way, social movements can play a vital role in reshaping cities' political priorities towards sustainable transformations.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Degree programme: | Society, Sustainability and Planning (MSc Socio-spatial Planning) |
| Supervisor: | Brink, M.A. van den |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Oct 2023 10:38 |
| Last Modified: | 18 Oct 2023 10:38 |
| URI: | https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/4415 |
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