(Not) My Green City? Green Spaces in Times of Urbanization
Starting from joint discussions at the 8th Nordic Geographers' Meeting on "Sustainable Geography Geographies of Sustainability"1, this special issue adds to the debate on green spaces in times of urbanization as pinpointed in the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) By setting the provision of "safe, inclusive and accessible green and public space" as one objective, SDG 11 "sustainable cities and communities" points to the crucial role of green areas for environmental and socio spatial justice in cities working towards sustainability (UN.org 2020) Against the backdrop of an accelerating global urbanization, with the percentage of people living in cities expected to rise to 70% by 2050 (UN.org 2018) nature based solutions to ecological, climatic and social challenges have become ever more important globally and locally. Post modernist urban planning principles oscillating around the "human scale" (Gehl 2010) in particular guide our attention to the benefits of green spaces for the city environment, the creation of social ties and as enablers of public health. At the same time, despite these widely known benefits (e.g. WHO 2016) and the trend in self portrayal as "sustainable" or "green cities" (Berglund and Julier 2020; Davidson 2010; Lindholst et al. 2016; Wolch et al. 2010) urban green spaces are under threat: heavy densification in city centres, which often puts housing and green space provision in competition with one another (Benjamin 2020; Schmelzkopf 2002) urban sprawl at the cost of surrounding green spaces (Sharma Wallace 2016) and neoliberal urbanism fuelling real estate development, green space privatization and commercialization (Smith 2018) as well as the problem of "green gentrification" (Rigolon and Nemeth 2018; Votsi 2017) to name only a few. As a result, green space provision at high quality and usability is often not only insufficient but its accessibility is also very unevenly spread among different districts and urban residential groups (Rigolon 2016; De Silva Sousa 2018) Considering the tension between green space benefits and the limited and unequal access, it is crucial to develop a deeper understanding of the contemporary usage practices and planning principles of urban green spaces. Who uses urban green spaces for what purposes, and even more importantly, who does not (Boyd et al. 2018; Hitchings 2013)