Integrating rural development into urban planning: the Right to the City as a tool for discussing and implementing Ecological Transition

Ecological transition involves transforming our societies and economies to operate within the ecological limits of our planet. Beyond integrating sustainable practices into the design and development of cities - such as enhancing green infrastructure, promoting renewable energy, and reducing waste and pollution - urban planning and urban ecology challenge us to question our ways of occupying the territory and our economic relations with nature.

Viewing the right to the city as the right to appropriated, equitable, and sustainable public services and community life, helps us rethink the concepts of “urban” and “rural”; of “urban cities” and “rural cities”; and nature as a legal person or as an object. When we add to that environmental concerns - like soil nourishment, water conservation, organic agriculture, and developing local economic systems – we achieve the “integrating rural development” into urban planning. In doing so, we allow people to live in small cities and in rural cities that provide not only essential infrastructure and utilities, but also arts and culture. This embraces the belief in the capacity of people and the democratic participation process to change our attitudes and practices towards our planet into a posture of respect and care.

Speaker

Eduardo Garcia Ribeiro Lopes Domingues

LE STUDIUM / FIAS Research Fellowship

FROM: Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO) - BR 
IN RESIDENCE AT: Maison des Sciences de l'Homme Val de Loire (MSH VdL)  / University of Tours - FR