How do we make our cities ethical?

How do we make our cities ethical? This is a very important question and was addressed at an event on 7 July 2021 organized by RMIT Europe. In the past, we have introduced the ethical city and defined what we mean by this idea. This event, however, provided an opportunity to dig deeper into the practicalities of pursuing various initiatives based on ethical principles within cities, town and communities.

The event which was skillfully moderated by Marta Fernandez, Executive Director of RMIT Europe, and professionally coordinate by Karen Matthews, Senior Manager Corporate Relations and Communications with RMIT Europe.

Our conversation kicked off with a presentation by Barbara Pons-Giner, Advisor to the Vice-Mayor of Barcelona City Council, on the Barcelona Green Deal - a new plan to promote a post-Covid19 economic recovery and the pursuit of a more equitable Barcelona.

The plan has three core pillars around competitiveness, sustainability and fairness. The aim is to create an active entrepreneurial ecosystem in the city, with a digital focus, that will attract global talent. This will be supported by a circular economy, promoting new forms of economic activity and sustainable tourism. The third pillar seeks to develop a solidarity economy through greater localization and the guaranteeing employability for city residents.

Next, Jay Tompt from REconomy Project in Totnes and lecturer in regenerative economics at Schumacher College talked about bottom-up promotion of ethical cities, with particular emphasis on citizen-led economic initiatives. Since 2011, Jay and his colleagues have been creating the conditions for new economic actors, relationships and models to emerge and flourish. One example is the immensely successful Totnes Local Entrepreneur Forum that provides an opportunity for people with new business ideas to make a pitch for funding from the local community.

These very local, bottom-up measures have begun to spread across the South West of England, with new collaborative networks emerging such as Local Spark Torbay and new funding mechanism forming including the South West Mutual Bank. All these examples imagine a bigger role for citizens in the post-Covid19 economic recovery.

This was followed by a presentation from Professor Ralph Horne, co-author of our book on Ethical Cities. He argued that ethical city projects should include three components. First, they should provide for sustainability by addressing climate change and our cultural/social responses. Second, they should tackle inequality, eliminating rifts between haves and have nots at various scales. Third, they need to eliminate poor governance and corruption, while ensuring transparency, engagement and accountability.

Ralph elaborated on his concerns with reference to two examples from Australia. The first dealt with the installation of photovoltaics on homes, where the rapid take-up by relatively well-off members of the community tends to be subsidized by those less well-off. His second example related to the housing situation in Australian cities where home ownership became the norm from the late-1940s onwards, with the rented sector declining and public housing levels remaining low. This has resulted in an housing affordability crisis and growing inequality in housing access in most Australian cities.

The final presentation was delivered by myself and I began with a brief introduction to our book in which we talk about four orientations for cities - (1) globally competitive alpha cities - New York, Paris, London, Tokyo; (2) Urban livability cities - Auckland, Melbourne, Osaka; (3) Fragile, feral and fragmented cities - Dhaka, Rio, Jo’burg, Detroit; and (4) Fight-back, fearless, rebellious and ethical cities. We would place Barcelona in this fourth category, and it is the birthplace of the Fearless City Movement.

In the face of relentless and on-going disruptions including the pandemic, climate change and technological innovation (automation, AI, etc.), cities are responding with a growing and diverse range of new initiatives including universal basic income, community wealth building and local digital currencies. The aim is to create space/security for city residents to explore ways to re-energize their local economies.

The basic premise is that people can be given greater autonomy/control through the introduction of circular/sharing economies, new forms of governance (such as citizen assemblies, juries), participatory budgeting and technological sovereignty (local control over digital platforms). It is clear that civic engagement will continue to prove difficult if urban residents continue to face high degrees of economic insecurity and if their opportunities for controlling local political processes are limited. In this context, the recent attempt by Barcelona City Government to promote participatory government is an excellent example of what is possible with city residents allocating 30 million euros from the municipal budget towards 76 projects.

Perhaps the biggest opportunity for progress on these fronts relates to how cities respond to climate change. Here a good example is the Net-Carbon Road Map for Leeds (my home town) which seeks to reach net-zero by 2030, reducing the city energy bill by £651million per year and creating nearly 15,000 years of extra employment.

As Professor Andrew Gouldson and Lisa Mulherin from the Leeds Climate Commission argue in the introduction to the Leeds Road Map “opportunities to stimulate the development of the city through climate action highlight the need for a green recovery plan with investment in the decarbonization or our homes, our businesses and our transport systems.”

In our book we argue that ethical cities will be those succeed in tackling poverty and inequality, while promoting social inclusion and citizen engagement. In the process, they will become more attractive to global talent, more resilient and more social while they both recreate their local economies and tackle climate change.