Good Stories…

Abstract

“Sustainability” is used strategically in urban governance; it is a means as well as an end. Some argue that the focus often lies on the former. The point of this paper is not to show that “sustainability” is used to achieve a diverse set of goals, but rather how this is done. The article starts with three stories about the transformations of three post-industrial cities (Malmö, Essen, Almada) and lays out how the transformations have been enacted (or not), thus demonstrating the dynamic and context-specific way “sustainability” is put to work in urban governance. Further, the argument is that stories, due to their ontological entanglements, may well be more than “good stories”. In and through stories, “sustainability” as an urban governance issue is un/made along with certain kinds of post-industrial cities. The article points out how stories make sustainability marketable while unmaking it as something that requires fundamental change. Moreover, the claim is that these two stories make competitive post-industrial cities and unmake connections between industrial pasts and global environmental challenges. Nevertheless, they also cause critique and dispute and might pave the way for different dis/connections.