Promoting sustainable cities through creating social empathy between new urban populations and planners

New migrant populations in rapidly growing cities globally are often socially and politically marginalized, limiting their potential to contribute to the positive transformation of urban futures. Such marginalisation can potentially be overcome through deliberate efforts to build empathy between gro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:npj Urban Sustainability 2024-11, Vol.4 (1), p.52-9, Article 52
Main Authors: Szaboova, Lucy, Adger, W. Neil, Safra de Campos, Ricardo, Siddiqui, Tasneem, Alam Bhuiyan, Mohammad Rashed, Billah, Tamim, Rocky, Mahmudol Hasan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
4014/2808
4014/4004
Cities
Climate change
Earth and Environmental Science
Emotions
Empathy
Environment
Populations
Sustainability
Sustainable Development
towns
Underserved populations
Urban Ecology
Urban Geography
Urban planning
Urban populations
Urbanism
Urbanism (inc. megacities
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Summary:New migrant populations in rapidly growing cities globally are often socially and politically marginalized, limiting their potential to contribute to the positive transformation of urban futures. Such marginalisation can potentially be overcome through deliberate efforts to build empathy between groups. Here we apply insights on empathic action to planning processes with the aim of diversifying planning processes to provide plural perspectives on risk and sustainability and giving marginalised groups opportunities to shape key decisions. We report on action research to examine whether empathic connection between urban planners and new migrant populations leads to processes that enhance and integrate new voices and perspectives. The intervention involved photo-elicitation interviews, focus groups and perspective exchange workshops over eighteen months of intensive engagement in Chattogram, Bangladesh. The findings demonstrate that empathy for diverse social groups has practical implications for sustainability where individuals have agency and feel empowered to enhance each other’s wellbeing.
ISSN:2661-8001
2661-8001
DOI:10.1038/s42949-024-00189-2