Inequalities and Injustices of Urban Green Regeneration: Applying the Conflict Analysis Perspective

Abstract

Green regeneration has become one of the most powerful strategies for improving the quality of life in cities, supporting climate change adaptation, and reducing the carbon footprints of cities. While it is the ambition of most green regeneration projects to create benefits for residents and users, reality shows that green regeneration also reinforces existing or even shapes new ‘green inequalities’. These can result from green gentrification and displacement, procedural injustices, and exclusion from participation or barriers to the access and use of newly created urban green spaces. Set against this background, the paper uses a conflict analysis perspective to look at the inequalities and injustices that evolve within the context of green regeneration. Applying social conflict theory, it seeks to understand (1) why and how green regeneration may lead to inequality and justice conflicts and (2) how conflict analysis helps to understand the nature and implications of green regeneration conflicts in more depth. As for its empirical foundation, the paper reanalyses empirical evidence that was examined in earlier projects on a residential area in the city of Leipzig, Germany.