Governing urban spaces has always been demanding. While dealing with challenges and problematic areas in cities used to be characterized by a law and order approach, a shift towards a more educational style of governing can now be observed (Pykett 2012). Be it through information campaigns or architectural urban arrangements, educational strategies most often follow the same underlying principle of nudging citizens towards a certain goal thereby putting responsibilities for solving urban problems on their shoulders (Newman 2010).
These forms of governing can especially be observed in contexts of sustainable urban development: sustainable behaviour in cities is encouraged and fostered especially on an individual level while governments and local authorities evade their responsibilities of implementing sustainable policies (Maniates 2001). Often urban spaces are (re-)created in a seemingly sustainable fashion in order to animate citizens to contribute to a sustainable city. Thus, citizens are guided towards a decision that is considered “sustainable” by local authorities in a conditioned field of possible actions aiming to avoid irrational behaviour. Michel Foucault has famously described this form of government as governmentality (Foucault 2006).
In order to illustrate the role of educational nudges used in local governance for a sustainable city, examples from a field study in Berlin will be given. By analysing documents on sustainable urban development of the last two decades using a governmentality perspective, I will present examples of how local authorities lead citizens to a form of self-government without them noticing it. A special focus will be put on spatial strategies that are not straightforwardly presented as educational but are disguised as optional possibilities citizens can choose from.
Mots clés : sustainable urban development|governmentality|governing thorugh education
A104527AA