Organic Cities

When discussing the topic of sustainable cities, there are several concepts and approaches in

dispute. Typical phenomenon of a field marked by the polysemy and the controversies over worldviews competitors in sustainability in the urban space necessarily indicates the search for the good life. Therefore, it is matter for policy definition, both in its reference to the forms of living together in the polis, the city, as the very essence of world view and ideologies that lead. Contrary to the technicist and managerial views on the urban space defend unfortunately also present in the disputes over the meaning of sustainability, not just a grouping of best practices, strategies and managing resources used for the preservation of the environment in cities.

In this tangle of views, debates and conflicts, the lack of a monolithic and closed conception of what are to be sustainable cities, contrary to what many social and environmental activists can imagine, is not a problem or a supposed step of an even first years of a world view that one day will become precise, delimited, hegemonic and definitive. On the contrary, the wealth of opinions and options is the result of one of the most important components of sustainable development, which often goes unnoticed by those who focus their lenses on the nature and forget that environmental conservation is always a matter of the encounter between " animals, plants and people, "the component of democratic freedoms and the establishment of public interest. So the ways of sustainable development in cities are many and lead to many "Roma", to many cities.

The sustainable city is based upon some pillars. The first is the belief that the concept of sustainable development is better than that of sustainability, as it indicates that it is continuous process and connects to other discussions about development that marked and mark the debates in society on the good life and the interest public, also present in rich polysemy of adjectives for development: economic, local, urban, community ... When working with the concept of sustainable development as a guide to the understanding of reality and social intervention is continued on the same track discussion development and not lose the progress that sustainable adjective has managed to rally despite suffering with hard misunderstanding scams, little creativity, cowardice and vested interests that insist on taking advantage of it.

In addition, it should be noted that sustainability, however fashionable it is, is not cities attribute. There are no sustainable cities! There are cities that develop dynamic favorable, but must always be continuous and redone, and improved towards sustainable development. No use sustaining the environment of a city and its surroundings be degraded. Incidentally, this is not likely to occur. Similarly, contrary to what the fashion discourse loves defend, there is no sustainable business, sustainable leadership, and sustainable practices, there yes organizations, people, attitudes and actions that contribute to the sustainable development process and those do little or nothing and even those who oppose it. Sustainable development does not represent a final step in a long journey of a city, a company, a leading, in which it reaches sustainability, but in the very walk ad infinitum, always walk, always effort, ever more demanding and always before new challenges for society, even as the nature and communities are changing toward the good life and let other beings and things and live and exist.

It should be noted also that the idea of ​​sustainability has never been only preserve the environment, since Ignacy Sachs helped formulate the concept of eco-development, which then turned for the worse, admittedly, in sustainable development. Using the ideas of Ignacy Sachs, one can understand that sustainable development is always in a territory and therefore varies from one location to another, with no sustainable development, but sustainable development processes in different cities. And for it to be achieved, Sachs argues that popular participation is essential, as the defense of the environment is not maintained in low popular participation contexts, restriction of democratic freedoms, autocratic limitation of press performance, reduced transparency and social control fragile. This researcher also believes that sustainable development must be based on the reduction of social inequalities and poverty, as people in vulnerable situations are more likely to victimize with environmental tragedies and to give vent to environmental degradation processes to ensure their survival while groups that has very high income from the average of society can develop a lifestyle based on exaggerated and unnecessary consumption, which makes reference to other social groups, spreading lifestyles little or nothing compatible with sustainable development . In short, sustainable development is closely connected with the way of life of communities, thus also a cultural expression of different social groups that make up the cities. Finally, he operates within the so-called green and inclusive economy, one that develops in bases that protect the environment and help mitigate economic inequalities, social, political and access to the environment.

Various fields of knowledge, as is well known, intersect in the construction of environmental knowledge, as advocated by Enrique Leff. In the field of so-called social sciences and humanities, the study of traditions Urbanism, Economics, Law, Public Administration, Social Sciences, Anthropology, Political Science and Administration jumble together offering multiple approaches and perspectives that must be rescued and put into action and dialogue to promoting sustainable development in cities. In this melting pot, must be present regional and urban planning, the study of urban lifestyles and sociability, public policy analysis, the discussion on the expansion of citizenship and the dynamics of participatory democracy, the right to housing, mobility and the land regularization in urban areas and a number of other issues, approaches and traditions of studies that have as an object of analysis and desire cities.

At a time when cities also receive numerous adjectives ranging from competitive cities, where one of the emblematic cases is Barcelona, ​​through the smart cities, digital, democratic, innovative to reach the resilient cities, sustainable cities can become just more a very abstract goal in an ocean full of possibilities, with many risks of starvation before so many action spots, scattering efforts and struggles. The art and mastery behind the construction of sustainable development processes in the cities is to achieve the difficult but necessary balance between plurality of paths and action fronts and convergence efforts, energy and advances in life forms and urban living.

But as always the question lingers, especially by the avid reader to engage in urban social and environmental battles, how to effectively promote this utopia as necessary, urgent and possible to be earned, even if with difficulty, the more robust diffusion of sustainable development in your city, it list some major action fronts. Sustainable development in Brazilian cities operates necessarily by: a) increase opportunities for public participation in the discussion on ways to develop and intersectional partnerships, i.e. between governments, civil society organizations and companies that are not captured by the stronger partners and by private interests disguised as public; b) economic momentum that small innovative enterprises in environmental socially flourish with fair credit and generate employment, income and fair working conditions, alleviating poverty and reducing income differences within the urban space; c) promote public policies that contribute to public transportation at the expense of the individual; d) increased access to parks, gardens and nature not only for those who have income, status and power in the cities; e) appropriate treatment of water policy able to effectively mitigate problems of floods or shortage for the poor; e) reducing the levels of air pollution; f) dissemination of environmental education able not only to inform and raise awareness on urban environmental problems, but to change attitudes and postures in the day-to-day reality of the cities; g) expansion of urban sanitation for all, especially for remote communities; h) promotion of encounter and shared living between different groups that make up the urban space, bringing to flower diversity in its different dimensions in the concrete of the same place, as opposed to segregate them in popular neighborhoods, suburbs and ghettos; i) diffusion of cultural expression of peripheral populations, fighting the "environmental racism"; j) promoting shared forms of access and management of public housing in opposition to the lobby of urban real estate interests; l) greater culture of transparency, accountability and social control; m) implementation of the National Solid Waste Policy, without any concession is made for business dynamics eager to delete the wealth generated by the garbage recyclers now and spread incineration technologies, proven detrimental to the environment and human health.

How many roads lead to sustainable development and how it is changing almost everything at once now and promote on Earth the "City of God" St. Augustine, one can start with one step at a time. Therefore, we need to flourish in cities not only the beautiful and contagious spirit of indignation against the ills of public policy and politics in Brazil, but also a multitude of civil society organizations, working in multiple fields of promoting sustainable development in urban space, driven by an indignation which results in works, actions, bigger and better discussions, bigger and better questions and controversies, which plated on democratic soil, may lead to better ways to live well in the cities if they are always watered by the commitment with the public interest.