Sustainable Urban Development as Consensual Practice: Post-Politics in Freiburg, Germany

Mossner S. Sustainable urban development as consensual practice: post-politics in Freiburg, Germany, Regional Studies. This article starts with the premise that eco-cities are and reflect political processes. Consequently, eco-city models are not objective manuals to a more sustainable urban world, but depend from political context. Drawing on empirical insights from the sustainable urban development in Freiburg, Germany, this article first traces the political process of modelling urban sustainability, and then shows how consensus-building appears as a political strategy whose aim is to depoliticize sustainable urban development and to relocate political decisions made in this context outside societal debate. The article contributes to a perspective that highlights the political dimension of urban sustainability.