Fifteen Beyond urban sustainability and urban resilience: towards a socially just future for London

This chapter discusses how sustainable development discourse is shifting towards the notion of resilience that seems more conservative than the concept of sustainability, and less likely to offer a way to challenge the inequities of socio-spatial development pursued in the name of sustainable development. In evaluating the potential effects of the shift in emphasis, the chapter recommends that there is need to move debates, plans and policies away from the current sustainable cities agenda, which is concerned primarily with pursuing sustainable cities that balance environmental concerns, the needs of future populations and economic growth. Instead, it suggests a reconsideration of interpretations of sustainability concerned with the traditional notions of social justice which seek to balance market and social interests in the public good.