[English] -IV- (Sustainability+Race) x (Urban Politics) = ?

Sustainability and Urban Politics

In the majority of our article, we define actors and examine their patterns of behavior and the limits that limit their actions. Under this heading, we will discuss the situations regarding the concept of sustainability, which is frequently expressed by the United Nations and the European Union.

Are “sustainability goals” a limiting barrier for actors or a guide that directs actors to improve the city?

The article (Mallick, Rudra, & Maity, 2024) to be mentioned in this sense focuses on determining the right and feasible areas for urban construction in the Siliguri Municipality area in the Eastern Himalayan foothills.

In the Siliguri Municipality area mentioned in the article, four different zones were defined based on the criteria set: very high suitability zone, high suitability zone, moderate suitability zone and low suitability zone. The results of the study and its findings showed that approximately one-third of the region in question is low suitability for sustainable urban development. This, of course, affected the decisions that the actors would make regarding the region.

The sustainability assessment examined in the article (Yi, Zuo, Li, & Wang, 2024) on the sustainability level of 14 cities in Liaoning province between 2015 and 2019 provides information to guide actors influencing urban politics on which areas they should focus on to achieve sustainability goals. It is said that these steps can shape the long-term development strategies of cities.

Methods are also being developed for sustainability studies that will guide the decisions of actors affecting urban politics. In an article (Jorge-Ortiz, Braulio-Gonzalo, & Bovea, 2023) written to evaluate urban sustainability in Colombia, this methodology, which includes a comprehensive set of 5 criteria, was applied as a case study in Colombia, specifically in the city of Mosquera. Since the evaluation of that criteria is extremely comprehensive, our study will only mention it.

In this context, we can say that the concept of sustainability is decisive for the actors.

The study (Romero-Lankao & Gnatz, 2013), which investigates city transformations in Latin America and examines the strategies, methods, and procedures used to create more sustainable, more agile, stronger, more resilient cities, addresses the cases of Mexico City and Manizales. In this context, while the actors providing access to resources were able to lead to a deep transformation in the actions carried out with the theme of sustainability, other actors could not approach a similar scale. This article, which I think is remarkable, deserves further study.

Race and Urban Politics

One of the situations that limits the behavior of actors affecting urban politics and classifies actors according to color and origin is the concept of race. Throughout history, there have been countless conflicts and many historical events due to the concept of race. Under this title of our article, we will briefly discuss how the effect of race shapes urban politics.

The ongoing struggle between black and white in regions where black communities live (such as the USA), and racial struggles such as Arab and Persian in war zones close to the Middle East have been seen throughout history.

In an article (Seamster, 2015) written in 2015, it was emphasized that white people were superior in urban management, and it was stated that neoliberal policies excluded poor black people. In the remainder of the article, the importance of participatory urban policies by ensuring racial equality for more coherent and livable cities is emphasized.

A very interesting analysis emerges in a study (Morel, 2018) conducted within the scope of New Jersey. The author is talking about federal states. The federal state is a state structure in which, in addition to the central government, there are also state governments that are autonomous and have specified powers. Surprisingly, the author states that if the groups formed by black people increase, or if the groups influencing urban politics increasingly consist of black people, or if the groups formed by black people increase and increase their effectiveness – in other words, in the rise of black political power – the pressure and intervention of the central government on the state government increases.

The fact that black people can influence urban politics has been explained previously in the lines above. Black people are no different from white people humanly. We used the black-white conceptualization that we used throughout our article because it is included in the literature. Black people are not limited or restricted in terms of institutionalization, creating political structures, and carrying out political activities in urban politics. It has only been stated that whites are dominant in urban politics. At this point, there is an issue that needs attention: Black people are less preferred in the private sector.

This fact, whose historical and psychological dimensions need to be investigated in depth, has made it difficult to make decisions that will affect urban politics. For example, privatization is a management tool like expropriation. Some institutions that are more costly and disadvantageous to be run/managed by the public should be privatized normatively. However, although this is a theoretically correct decision in places where black people are discriminated against, it should not be preferred in practice.

In a study (Arena, 2003) conducted in New Orleans, it was observed that black people who found jobs in public institutions during the neoliberal transformation process could not find jobs in the private sector after these institutions were privatized, and this decision caused confusion in city politics.

In general, actors who influence urban politics on a racial basis can group among themselves. These groups can shape city politics. The central government may intervene in power conflicts between these two groups. If there is discrimination based on race – as in the privatization decision – managers should make decisions by taking into account real-life events as well as theoretical truths.

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