Editorial: Addressing urban inequalities: co-creating pathways through research and practice

Abstract

Growing inequalities are one of the most pressing issues for cities, threatening the fulfilment of the rights of millions of urban residents. The combined effects of the climate emergency, wars, forced migrations, COVID-19, increased housing insecurity and commodification of basic services, the crisis of care and the precarization of working conditions have deepened existing inequalities and created new ones. With threequarters of cities now more unequal than in 1996, urban inequality has increasingly been recognized as a key global challenge.(1) The Sustainable Development Goals and the UNHabitat New Urban Agenda have recognized that addressing growing inequality has to be a priority for local and national governments, establishing global commitments that are in dialogue with localized efforts of urban transformation towards more equal futures. Concerns for the growth of inequalities have been accompanied by an acknowledgement of their multidimensional character. It is now well established that concepts such as poverty and development require multifaceted understandings, moving beyond income-based concerns, and taking into account social, spatial and political differences. Multidimensional approaches to poverty and its measurement have been gaining centrality for at least the last 30 years,(2) alongside an increasing recognition of more comprehensive approaches to development, growth and well-being, mainstreamed by measurements such as the Human Development Index.(3) This shift towards multidimensional approaches has also been taken up within urban equality discussions. Building upon the seminal work on social justice by Nancy Fraser and Iris Marion Young,(4) researchers have long argued that urban inequality is a multidimensional experience for urban dwellers.(5) For us, as editors, and building upon our common understanding developed under the umbrella of the Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality programme (KNOW),(6) advancing urban equality requires a combination of four dimensions: equitable distribution of the material conditions for living a meaningful life; reciprocal recognition of diverse and intersecting identities and knowledge claims; parity political participation in decisionmaking processes; and solidarity and mutual care between people, and between people and nature.(7) This special double issue of Environment and Urbanization, which will include both this issue and a second in April 2023, collects papers that advance our understanding of inequality and how it can be addressed at different scales. Some of these papers were produced under the international research programme KNOW, 1117374 EAU Environment & Urbanization Vol Xx No Xx Month Xxxx