Student Publications [Scholarly]

Aligning place-making, community investment, and sustainability experiments: Ecodistricts in the Pittsburgh metro region

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Urban sustainability experiments are arising in cities worldwide to facilitate sustainability transitions. Experiments engage diverse coalitions in generating innovative solutions to on-the-ground development challenges in neighborhoods, campuses, and other districts. To interrogate experiments’ transformative potential, it is essential to unpack how they engage with uneven urban development patterns at multiple scales. Through a comparative qualitative case study of two ecodistricts in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania metropolitan region, this research engages a relational place-making lens to assess how experiments shape community investment dynamics. The analysis shows that the inclusivity of and the strength of alignments between place narratives, governance networks, and material landscapes within and beyond experiments influences how communities attract investment to sustainability projects and derive value from these investments. This highlights the importance of place-making to the embedded and multi-scalar dynamics through which experiments are mediated by and transform community investment and development patterns in cities. © 2025

Publication Title

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

Publication Date

3-2026

Volume

58

ISSN

2210-4224

DOI

10.1016/j.eist.2025.101063

Keywords

community investment, geographies of transition, place-making, uneven development, urban experiments, urban sustainability transitions

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