Learning About Sustainability From Informal Settlements & Practices

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  • Compare and contrast two different urban areas of your choice. The first one is known to have high income groups, organized planning, buildings comply with city codes, … and is considered urban formal area. The 2nd is known to be a slum area with low-income housing, organic urban form, dominated by informal practices and suffers from deteriorating conditions. Write one page summarizing the existing condition of both and the main standing alone characteristics.
  • Applying the sustainability knowledge and tools you learned throughout the class, write one-page describing which of both is more sustainable than the other and why.

(Sustainable Development in Cities, USP 514 Class Discussion)

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International Development & Sustainability

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There is a number of challenges and obstacles to achieve sustainable development for international project. Find an international project implemented by and international organization in the Global South. Identify the category of the organization as per the class material. Look at the area where it is implemented and provide a sustainability assessment and the challenges you anticipate the project faced.    (Include the link to the project report in your response).

(Sustainable Development in Cities, USP 514 Class Discussion)

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Global Sustainability

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There is a number of challenges and obstacles to achieve sustainable development goals. Select one of the SDGs that you see as most pressing and identify the obstacles that may prevent from achieving it. Explain these obstacles challenges demonstrating your understanding of how they connect to sustainability on global scale.

The implementation of Sustainable Consumption & Productions (SCP) helps to achieve overall development plans, reduce future economic, environmental and social costs, strengthen economic competitiveness and reduce poverty. In the light of the SDG you selected, and among the 4 policy instruments we discussed in class, what are the top two policy instruments you would use to overcome the obstacles of your selected goal? (select only two policy instruments)

(Sustainable Development in Cities, USP 514 Class Discussion)

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Sustainability Debate – The Greens

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The Greens see the world primarily in terms of ecosystems, and thus concentrate on depletion, damage, pollution, and population growth. They focus on carrying capacity and want to bring about better under- standing of how large the economy can grow before it outstrips its host. Their policy focuses on how many and how much, the number of people, and the amount of impact each person can have upon the environment. Greens are not usually technophobes; most see technology as an important tool to reduce human impact. More recently, some have become interested in free-market mechanisms, and want externalities presently borne by society to be fully integrated into producer costs and consumer prices so that markets become, in David Korten’s phrase, “mindful.” The Greens, and to some extent the Reds, host bigger tents in that they hold a bolder and broader diversity of views. But this also keeps them splintered and self-canceling, as Greens tend to unite their enemies and divide their friends, a good formula for political failure. They are often portrayed as caring less for people than animals, more about halogenated compounds than waterborne diseases.

After participating in the debate and hearing all the different views, arguments, propositions, counterarguments and the overall feedback:

(1) Summarize in 400 words what makes the new project of the Pink Lake City in Senegal a sustainable one according to the value system of the Greens.

(2) Write another 400 words on issues that the city plan fails to address according to the value system of the Greens.

(Sustainable Development in Cities, USP 514 Class Discussion)

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Sustainability Debate – The Blues

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The Blues are mainstream free-marketers. Such people have a positive bias toward the future based on technological optimism and the strength of the economy. They are armed with a strong statistical case, based on the vigorous and dynamic economies of Western and (until1998) Asian nations. Their approach is deeply rooted in conventional economics, and their number-crunching reveals a world vastly improved and rapidly ascending. Blues believe that reliance on innovation, investment, and individual freedom will ensure a shining future for humankind, and a level of material well-being that has strong appeal to virtually everyone in the world. Their optimism also extends to the environment, believing that in most cases, markets will send strong and appropriate price signals that will elicit timely responses, mitigating environmental damage or causing technological breakthroughs.

After participating in the debate and hearing all the different views, arguments, propositions, counterarguments and the overall feedback:

(1) Summarize in 400 words what makes the new project of the Pink Lake City in Senegal a sustainable one according to the value system of the Blues.

(2) Write another 400 words on issues that the city plan fails to address according to the value system of the Blues.

(Sustainable Development in Cities, USP 514 Class Discussion)

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Sustainability Debate – The Reds

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The Reds represent the sundry forms of socialism. Although one might expect them to have been discredited by the downfall of the Soviet Union, their worldview is very much alive. They find validation in the chaotic and horrific economic conditions that the rise of bandit capitalism has brought to contemporary Russia, a country whose economic machinery now benefits a minority at the expense of a materially and socially disadvantaged majority. The growing and worldwide gap between rich and poor confirms the Reds’ analyses, which are as accurate about poverty and suffering as the Blues’ observations are accurate about growth and change. While Blues focus on the promise of growth and technology, Reds focus on its shadow and try to discern its root causes. They view labor—one aspect of human capital—as the principal source of wealth and see its exploitation as the basis of injustice, impoverishment, and ignorance. The Reds generally have little to say about the environment, seeing it as a distraction from fundamentally important social issues.

After participating in the debate and hearing all the different views, arguments, propositions, counterarguments and the overall feedback:

(1) Summarize in 400 words what makes the new project of the Pink Lake City in Senegal a sustainable one according to the value system of the Reds.

(2) Write another 400 words on issues that the city plan fails to address according to the value system of the Reds.

(Sustainable Development in Cities, USP 514 Class Discussion)

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Sustainability Debate – The Whites

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The Whites are the synthesists, and do not entirely oppose or agree with any of the three other views. With an optimistic view of humankind, they believe that process will win the day, that people who tell others what is right lead society astray. Since Blues, Reds, and Greens all fall into that category, Whites reject them all, preferring a middle way of integration, reform, respect, and reliance. They reject ideologies whether based on markets, class, or nature, and trust that informed people can solve their own problems. On the environmental level, they argue that all issues are local. On business, they say the fabled level playing field never existed because of market imperfections, lobbying, subsidies, and capital concentration. On social problems, they argue that solutions will naturally arise from place and culture rather than from ideology. Leadership in the White world is reminiscent of the Taoist reminder that good rulers make their subjects feel as if they succeeded by themselves. Environmental and social solutions can emerge only when local people are empowered and honored.

After participating in the debate and hearing all the different views, arguments, propositions, counterarguments and the overall feedback:

(1) Summarize in 400 words what makes the new project of the Pink Lake City in Senegal a sustainable one according to the value system of the Whites.

(2) Write another 400 words on issues that the city plan fails to address according to the value system of the Whites.

(Sustainable Development in Cities, USP 514 Class Discussion)

#Sust_Glob_South