About this Research Topic

Background

Building on the Millennium Development Goals, the UN Sustainable Development Goals are the cornerstone of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, billed by the UN as “An Agenda of unprecedented scope and significance.” The seventeen ambitious goals, which are intended to be reached by 2030, are conceived as integrated, indivisible, and as balancing the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. They are organized around five core pillars:

● People: ending poverty and hunger and ensuring that all human beings can lead fulfilling lives in a healthy and dignified environment.

● Planet: protecting the environment while ensuring sustainable use and management of natural resources.

● Prosperity: ensuring environmentally sustainable economic growth, mutual prosperity, and decent work for all.

● Peace: building societies that are peaceful, just, and inclusive, and in which human rights and gender equality are respected.

● Partnership: strengthening global solidarity to address inequalities within and between countries, by focusing on the needs of the most vulnerable.
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This Research Topic addresses the eleventh Sustainable Development Goal, which is to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.” Progress toward this goal is measured by a number of individual targets and indicators.
The UN’s most recent SDG progress report notes that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, cities had “rising numbers of slum dwellers, worsening air pollution, minimal open public spaces and limited convenient access to public transport.” In recent years, the number of slum dwellers globally has been growing, and exceeded 1 billion in 2018. As of 2019, only around 50 per cent of the urban population had convenient access to public transport. Furthermore, the proportion of urban areas allocated to streets and open public spaces averaged 16 per cent in 2020, below the UN recommendation of 30 per cent for streets and an additional 10 to 15 per cent for open public spaces.
The pandemic has only exacerbated these conditions for many urban dwellers, further reducing the likelihood of this goal being reached by 2030. With nearly two thirds of the world’s population expected to be living in urban areas by 2050, significant efforts are needed to ensure national urban policies are successfully implemented so that urban dwellers can enjoy safe, inclusive and sustainable environments.
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This Research Topic will address the eleventh Sustainable Development Goal from a sociological perspective. Researchers, among other themes, will investigate urban inclusion, the impact of urban policies on social differences, and gentrification.
Given the significant impact of the lack of decent work and economic growth on urban living, this year’s edition of the Research Topic will focus particularly on the challenges and complexities of sustainable urban planning and development in the context of decent work and economic growth and the associated crisis.
This Research Topic welcomes papers that will provide both theoretical and empirical findings. Potential issues include, but are not limited to:

• Social polarization, social exclusion, digital divide, and public policies to respond to such challenges.

• Cities and communities in the context of environmental racism, climate citizenship, and climate-related migration.

• Theoretical approaches to the sustainability of urban and rural areas.

• Sustainability and community development.

• Adaptation and modernization of working and housing environments in cities and local communities.

• The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on housing, living conditions, and people’s behavior in urban environments.

• The role of residential and recreational functions in shaping healthy, inclusive, and resilient living environments in the context of a pandemic.

• Guidelines for shaping COVID-proof commercial and residential buildings and areas.

• Governance, public management, and organizational management-related issues, including multi-level, multi-stakeholder, and multi-sectoral approaches to healthy and age-friendly environments, cities, and communities.

• A collaborative and thoughtful approach to urban design and urban living that prioritizes climate-resilient infrastructure, inclusion, and accessible urban green spaces.

• Overcoming barriers in implementing inclusive green infrastructure with the usage of multi-sectoral partnerships, innovative funding/financing tools and techniques, measurement tools to value green spaces, and engagement of communities and civic-led initiatives.

• Organizing and delivering open public spaces and affordable housing as well as public services such as education, arts and culture, transportation, emergency services, waste management, and water supply.

• Studies that combine sustainable cities and communities with concepts such as the silver economy, longevity economy, social economy, circular economy, green economy, and sharing economy.

Keywords: Sustainable cities and communities, Affrdable housing, SDG11, Green infrastructures, Urban design, Climate-resilient infrastructures, Urban inclusion, Climate citizenship, Gentrification, Social Polarization

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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