Defining the eco-city: A discursive approach

Abstract

(Full text: https://www.westminster.ac.uk/eco-cities/reflections) - This paper presents the results of a discourse analysis of documents describing six different eco-city projects: Dongtan Eco-City, Masdar City, Sonoma Mountain Village, Hammarby Sjöstad, Eco-village Ithaca, and Malmö bo01. The aim of the research was to uncover the diversity underneath the various uses of the term eco-city, and to determine the extent of convergence or divergence in the way projects conceive of what an eco-city should be. The research looked at five categories of urban sustainability discourse: the aspect of sustainability emphasised, whether eco-city projects saw themselves as a model for future urban development or as an educational tool, the way in which eco-cities proposed to make urban living more sustainable, the extent to which projects looked at achieving sustainability by design or through governance and management, and the type of actors that play a role in the eco-city. The results suggest that there is a great deal of diversity among projects considered to be eco-cities. In this sense, we argue, it is better to think of the eco-city as an ambition or objective which there will be multiple ways to achieve.

Full text

DEFINING THE ECO-CITY: A DISCURSIVE APPROACH
Elizabeth Rapoport
University College London
e.rapoport@ucl.ac.uk
Anne-Lorene Vernay
Delft Technical University
A.B.H.Vernay@tudelft.nl
Abstract
This paper presents the results of a discourse analysis of documents describing six
different eco-city projects: Dongtan Eco-City, Masdar City, Sonoma Mountain
Village, Hammarby Sjöstad, Eco-village Ithaca, and Malmö bo01. The aim of the
research was to uncover the diversity underneath the various uses of the term eco-city,
and to determine the extent of convergence or divergence in the way projects
conceive of what an eco-city should be. The research looked at five categories of
urban sustainability discourse: the aspect of sustainability emphasised, whether eco-
city projects saw themselves as a model for future urban development or as an
educational tool, the way in which eco-cities proposed to make urban living more
sustainable, the extent to which projects looked at achieving sustainability by design
or through governance and management, and the type of actors that play a role in the
eco-city. The results suggest that there is a great deal of diversity among projects
considered to be eco-cities. In this sense, we argue, it is better to think of the eco-city
as an ambition or objective which there will be multiple ways to achieve.
Keywords: Eco-city, discourse, sustainability, planning, environment
INTRODUCTION
With both the rapid growth of the world’s urban population and increasing concern
about the environment, the challenge of making urban living more sustainable is in
the forefront of the minds of many designers, academics and government officials. In
recent years, one response that has gained increasing prevalence is the idea of the
‘eco-city.’ Richard Register, a California based architect widely credited as the first to
have coined the term defined an eco-city in 1987 as “an urban environmental system
in which input (of resources) and output (of waste) are minimized” (Register 2002).
As the term’s usage has become more widespread, so too have the meanings
associated with it and the diversity of projects adopting the label. Already in the late
1990s, Roseland argued that there was no single accepted definition of the eco-city.
Rather, he proposed, it was more a collection of ideas about concepts such as urban
planning, housing, transportation, and economic development (Roseland 1997).
Reading these early writers on eco-cities it is difficult to develop a clear,
comprehensive vision of what an eco-city actually looks like. This began to change in
the early 2000s when a number of ambitious plans began to emerge for brand new
sustainable urban districts and cities. High-profile examples include Hammarby
Sjöstad, in Stockholm, Sweden and Masdar City, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab
Emirates (UAE). China in particular, through the State Environmental Protection
Administration (SEPA), has supported the development of a number of eco-city

projects around the country. Tianjin Eco-city, which is currently under construction,
is due to be complete and home to 350,000 people by 2020.
Yet as the usage of the term spreads, what exactly constitutes an eco-city seems to be
even more unclear. Today an ever-increasing range of existing cities and new urban
projects, from minor retrofits to large-scale new-towns, call themselves, or are
labelled, eco-cities. The most comprehensive survey of eco-cities to date was carried
out in 2009-10 by Joss. Joss admits that the conceptual diversity and plurality of
initiatives using the term makes it difficult to develop a meaningful definition. He
ultimately questions the usefulness of attempting to define eco-city narrowly. Instead
he elects to define the term using three analytical categories. Thus according to Joss
an eco-city must be a development of substantial scale, occurring across multiple
sectors, which is supported by policy processes (Joss 2011: 12).
This paper accepts Joss’s definition as a starting point. However it will also question
whether in the search for similarities among eco-cities, Joss glosses over substantial
differences between these projects. The purpose of this paper is to use a discourse
analysis to test the hypothesis was that there is a substantial diversity in the way eco-
city projects promote themselves and are written about. The paper begins with a brief
overview of the value of discourse analysis as an analytical tool in the social sciences.
It then puts forward a set of categories of environmental discourses that are often used
in discussions of urban development and sustainability. It then presents the
methodological approach followed by a discussion of the results of the analysis. The
findings are presented in tabular and descriptive format. This is followed by a
discussion pulling out the points of convergence and divergence among the case
studies, and a conclusion discussing the implications of the findings for future
research on eco-cities.
ECO-CITIES AND ENVIRONMENTAL DISCOURSES
Much of the broader literature on sustainable cities is analytical, attempting to test
various propositions about what makes a city sustainable. Work on eco-cities,
however, tends to either attempt to describe the phenomenon (Roseland 1997; Joss
2010) or focuses on normative prescriptions for achieving eco-city status (Register
2002; Girardet 2008; Kenworthy 2006). From this prescriptive literature it appears
that the eco-city could be understood as a way of practically applying existing
knowledge about what makes a city sustainable to the planning and design of new and
existing cities. However what is ‘known’ about the relationship between planning and
urban design interventions and sustainability objectives is a subject of much debate
(Bulkeley & Betsill 2005; Williams 2009). This means that realizing an eco-city
requires making countless decisions about sustainable technologies, urban form,
building design and governance.
How, though are these decisions made? Many contemporary scholars and theorists of
urban and environmental planning processes argue that this occurs through a social
process consisting of complex negotiations, and often disputes (Flyvbjerg 1998; Hajer
1995; Healey 2007). This paper adopts this perspective and hence views eco-city
initiatives as socially constructed through design and policy-making processes. Thus
the eco-city is not a model or a template, but the outcome of a social process

involving numerous stakeholders. From this perspective it is easier to make sense of
the diversity of different eco-city initiatives. The eco-city is the solution to a problem;
perhaps the diversity of eco-city initiatives reflects different ideas of what exactly the
problem is. Looking for the broader discourses behind the solutions proposed in
different eco-city initiatives may reveal these different ideas.
The discourse of the eco-city
Hajer (1995) defines discourse as “a specific ensemble of ideas, concepts, and
categorizations that are produced, reproduced, and transformed in a particular set of
practices and through which meaning is giving to physical and social realities” (44).
In the social sciences, discourse analysis is used to study the way in which issues and
understandings are socially constructed. It does so through the analysis of both
statements, and the context in which those statements are made (Hajer 1995). A
number of authors have demonstrated the value of discourse analysis to understanding
how planning decisions are made (Kumar & Pallathucheril 2004; Portugali & Alfasi
2008). Similarly, in the field of environmental sociology, discourse analysis is used to
explore the way that actors construct environmental issues (Dryzek 2005; Hajer
1995).
Discourse analysis can reveal the way in which problems are constructed. In the study
of eco-cities then discourse analysis can reveal the basis of their claims that they can
make cities more sustainable. Does the answer lie in particular aspects of their
design? If so, which ones? Or does it lie in the way they are governed, or their citizens
involved in decision making? All of these issues are subject to significant debate.
How do the designers of eco-cities answer these questions? And, among eco-cities, is
there any convergence around a particular set of answers? If there were, this would
help identify what exactly it means to be an eco-city. These questions are pursued by
looking at five categories of discourse about urban development and sustainability,
each of which is explained below.
Category 1: Type of sustainability: economic, social or environmental?
Much of the discourse about sustainability talks about it as consisting of three
dimensions: environmental, social, and economic. Ideally, for sustainability to be
achieved, these dimensions need to be in balance. Is that actually the case in eco-city
projects or does one dimension dominate?
Category 2: Which actors drive the eco-city?
The question of who should be involved in the development of an eco-city is also
central to understanding its vision. Several categories of actors are frequently
involved in large-scale planning projects. These are the private sector, individuals,
civil society and community groups, government actors and expert advisors. What
role do different types of actors play in shaping, developing and operating the project?
Category 3: Eco-city as a model or eco-city as an educational tool?
Given that the eco-city is a relatively new and ambitious model of urban
development, one could anticipate that the actors involved would see it as more than
just a place to live. On the one hand the eco-city could be about presenting a new
model of sustainable urban living to the world, something to be replicated in other
locations. On the other hand more emphasis could be put on using the eco-city as an

educational tool. In this case the eco-city could, for instance, be used to increase the
awareness of local residents and / or the public about sustainability.
Category 4: Behaviour change as solution or technology and design as solution?
How can an eco-city help achieve sustainability? In considering existing sustainable
urban projects, there appear to be three ways for it to do this. First, inhabitants can be
encouraged to change their behaviour in order to live more sustainably. The other
possibilities are connected to technological solutions, which can be used in two
different ways. Production focused solutions incorporate technologies to generate
renewable energy into an eco-city. Consumption focused solutions use technology
and design to decrease the demand for resources, for instance through passive
ventilation.
Category 5: Sustainability by design or management and governance?
Following from the above, the last category suggested relates to the role given to
design versus governance in reaching sustainability in eco-cities. On the one hand,
eco-cities may see sustainability as resulting from efforts made during the design
phase: a city is an eco-city because it has been designed as such. On the other hand,
being an eco-city may also depend on the way it will be managed and governed after
project completion: a city is an eco-city because it is governed as such.
METHODOLOGY
The approach taken in this research was to analyse a set of documents for six different
eco-cities in order to identify how and whether they talked about each of the issues
identified above.
Selection of cases
In this paper eco-city is used as an umbrella term. As such, some projects labelled
“eco-district” or “eco-village” are also considered here as eco-city projects. Joss’s list
of 79 was the starting point in selecting the cases for analysis. We then shortlisted
projects on the basis of project type, size and ambition, and document availability. We
eliminated eco-city initiatives in existing urban areas, focusing instead on urban
projects that were developed from the beginning with strong eco or sustainability
objectives. Projects also had to house at least 100 people and have a minimum of two
land uses (i.e. residential and commercial). Having narrowed down the list, we then
looked for a range of sizes and geographical locations. Through this process of
elimination we were able to shortlist Joss’s list to 22 projects. The next step was to
identify the projects for which there was sufficient information available in the public
realm and in English to do an analysis. This was to ensure that we had an adequate
number of documents to analyse. Through this process we were also able to eliminate
a number of projects that were clearly highly speculative. Ultimately, we settled for
six eco-city projects. Table 1 lists each of the selected projects as well as some basic
information about them.
Selection of documents for analysis
We selected three documents to analyse for each project. To ensure that the analysis
would evaluate the projects on the basis of their basic characteristics and perceived
virtues, we ruled out any documents that were critical, and used only documents that

described the projects in neutral or positive terms. The documents range in length
from 360 words to over 2000. The sources used also varied, and included professional
magazines, online databases about sustainable planning, project websites, academic
publications, and online magazines. A list of the documents used to analyse each
project is presented in table 2.

Table 1: Summary of projects analysed
Project Location Description Status
Dongtan Eco-City Shanghai, China Dongtan, promoted as the world’s first eco-city, was planned for an 86
km2 site near Shanghai. The British engineering firm Arup designed the
city for the Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation (SIIC), a public-
private partnership and the commercial enterprise arm of the Shanghai
municipal government.
Unbuilt
Masdar City Abu Dhabi, United
Arab Emirates
Masdar City, planned for a 1,483-acre site in Abu Dhabi, was designed
by a consortium of British firms led by Foster and Partners Architects, for
the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company. The city, which originally aimed
to be zero-carbon and zero-waste, will provide a home and testing ground
for Abu Dhabi’s Masdar Initiative, which aims to develop Abu Dhabi as a
major energy research centre.
Under construction
Sonoma Mountain
Village
Northern
California, USA
Sonoma Mountain Village is a 200 acre mixed-use development on a
former industrial site in California. It is initiated and financed by the
investment holding company Coding. The project aims to integrate the
principles of New Urbanism with the One Planet Living framework
developed by the environmental charity BioRegional.
Under construction
Hammarby Sjöstad
Stockholm,
Sweden
Hammarby Sjöstad is a 200 hectare development initiated and steered by
the City of Stockholm. When complete the development will have about
10,000 residential units and 350,000 m2 of commercial space, with about
35,000 people living and/or working in the area. In the district strong
efforts have been made to close the material and energy cycle.
Mostly completed
Eco-Village at
Ithaca
State of New York,
USA
A small cohousing scheme of 96 homes in Ithaca, New York with shared
facilities, collaborative decision making and energy efficient buildings.
Completed & being
expanded
Western Harbour,
Bo01
Malmö, Sweden This district of 160 hectares is built on reclaimed industrial land and has
room for 600 dwellings, offices and shops. It was developed in the
context of the European Housing Expo that was held in Malmo in 2001.
Completed

Table 2: Documents analysed for each project*
Project Documents analysed
Dongtan Eco-City

(Bullivant 2007): Professional magazine / journal
 (Hart 2007): Professional magazine / journal
 (Danish Architecture Foundation n.d.): Good practice
database
Masdar City

(Masdar n.d.): Project website
 (Foster & Partners n.d.): Website of the designing firm
 (Nader 2009): Academic publication by a project backer
Sonoma
Mountain Village

Peters 2009: Online magazine
 McCabe 2010: Professional magazine / journal
 Langdon 2010: Professional newsletter
Hammarby
Sjöstad

Fränne, 2007: Brochure developed for the city
 Pandis and Brandt, 2010: Academic publication
 Nattrass, and Altomare, undated: Good practice database
Eco-Village at
Ithaca

ecovillageithaca.org: Project website
 Jackson, undated: Professional magazine
 Fellowship of intentional community, 2009: Online magazine
Malmo Western
Harbour, Bo01

Beer, undated: Online magazine
 EnergyCite, undated: Good practice database
 City of Malmö, undated: Project website
* for full bibliographic information refer to the references at the end of this paper
Search terms
To help identify statements expressing each of the discourses developed above, we
developed a list of words that, if used, were likely indicated the presence of that
discourse. For example, for eco-city as an exemplar project, we searched the text for
words such as model, exemplar, template, replicate, and first. Using a simple software
tool, Textstat, freely available from the Freie Universität Berlin, we identified how
many times each of these words was mentioned. This helped us identify each instance
in which that particular discourse was mentioned. A full list of all search terms is
included in table 3. Each time we saw a word mentioned, we then checked the context
in which they were used to make sure that only those that had a connection with the
discourse were counted. Moreover, we also made sure that words would not be
counted twice (e.g. renewable technology). This enabled us to compile a database of
all instances in which each project was discussed (for instance) as an exemplar. For
the category “behaviour as change” however, a different methodology was followed.
Identifying in the various discourses attempts at behavioural change would be too
limited if the analysis was restricted to specific words such has behaviour or consume.
Instead, we undertook a manual content analysis, carefully reading through the
documents and looking for instances where behavioural change was suggested.
From this database we compiled a frequency table (see table 4). From the relative
frequencies with which each discourse was mentioned, we then were able to make
some initial conclusions about the ideologies of each of the eco-city projects analysed.
It is important to note that these are general conclusions based on a qualitative
approach and should not be interpreted as having undergone tests for statistical
significance.

Table 3: Search terms used for the analysis of the eco-city projects
Category 1 Search terms
Environmental sustainability
Environment, nature, ecology,
preservation, wildlife, biodiversity, green,
renewable, efficient, reduce, passive
Social sustainability
Social, accessible, affordable, culture,
diverse, attractive, equity, participate,
health, spirituality
Economic sustainability
Economy, industry, commercial,
employment, company, business, work,
financial, job
Category 2 Search terms
Actors: private sector Company, business, industry, developer,
private, architect, contractor
Actors: individuals People, residents, inhabitants, public,
individual, society, everyone
Actors: community / civil society Participation, resident, community,
involvement
Actors: government State, government, authorities, official,
politicians
Actors: experts Expert, consultant, university
Category 3 Search terms
Eco-city as exemplar
Model, exemplar, template, first,
replicate, prototype, inspire, paradigm,
experience, communicate, demonstrate
Eco-city as education
Educate, teach, workshop, training,
student, campaign, information, tour,
engage, visit, course, knowledge
Category 4 Search terms
Behaviour change as solution Manual content analysis
Technology & design as solution:
production-focused
Generation, renewable, technology, CHP,
solar, wind, biomass, design
infrastructure, photovoltaic, production
Technology & design as solution:
consumption-focused
Efficient, reduce, design, needs, diminish,
insulate, minimize, saving, passive
Category 5 Search terms
Achieving sustainability through design Architect, engineer, design, plan,
masterplan
Achieving sustainability through
management and governance
Manage, operate
FINDINGS
Table 4 presents a summary of our analysis of the sets of documents for each of the
six projects. For each project it lists how many statements we found that reflected

each discourse. The type of statement that was dominant in each category is indicated
by putting the relevant number in bold.
Table 5 summarises the results in each category for the six projects. We concluded
that a particular discourse could be seen as dominant if that discourse was used at
least twice as often as the others in that category. Dominant discourses are identified
by the words in bold text. Table 6 presents the same results summary, however here
the highlighted terms are those two categories that were mentioned most overall in the
texts. The results are discussed in more detail below.
Table 4: Frequencies
Dongtan
Masdar Sonoma
Mountain
Hammarby
Sjöstad
Eco-
village
Ithaca
Western
Harbour,
Bo01
Category 1: Type of sustainability
Environmental 37 24 28 76 28 64
Social 8 1 10 12 33 5
Economic 12 26 13 8 6 11
Category 2: Actors
Private sector 5 5 30 16 2 34
Individuals 9 3 18 37 12 23
Community /
civil society
1 0 0 4 59 0
Government 6 6 3 16 0 12
Experts 16 0 8 0 4 1
Category 3: Model or Educational tool?
Model 17 4 9 10 18 21
Education 2 0 1 28 51 13
Category 4: Solution focus
Technology &
design:
production
24 16 17 110 8 53
Technology &
design:
consumption
15 26 15 51 23 8
Behaviour change
2 0 1 5 0 0
Category 5: How to achieve sustainability
Design 21 16 8 39 20 37
Management 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total amount of
words in the text
About
4100
Almost
3000
Almost
3200
Almost
11,000
About
6,700
About
6,000

Table 5: Dominant sub-category in each area
Discourse Dongtan Masdar Sonoma
Mountain
Hammarby
Sjöstad
Eco-village
Ithaca
Western Harbour,
Bo01
Type of
sustainability
Environmental Economic Environmental Environmental Social Environmental
Actors Experts Government Private sector Individuals Community /
civil society
Private sector
Model /
educational tool?
Model Model Model Education Education Model
Solution focus Technology &
design
(production)
Technology &
design
(consumption)
Technology &
design
(production)
Technology &
design
(production)
Technology &
design
(consumption)
Technology &
design
(production)
How to achieve
sustainability
Design Design Design Design Design Design
Table 6: Most frequently discussed themes for each project
Discourse Dongtan Masdar Sonoma
Mountain
Hammarby
Sjöstad
Eco-village
Ithaca
Western Harbour,
Bo01
Type of
sustainability
Environmental Economic Environmental Environmental Social Environmental
Actors Experts Government Private sector Individuals Community /
civil society
Private sector
Model or
Educational tool?
Model Model Model Education Education Model
Solution focus Technology &
design
(production)
Technology &
design
(consumption)
Technology &
design
(production)
Technology &
design
(production)
Technology &
design
(consumption)
Technology &
design
(production)
How to achieve
sustainability
Design Design Design Design Design Design

Economic, social or environmental sustainability?
In four out of six projects, discourses of environmental sustainability clearly
dominated over economic and social. For three projects, Hammarby, Dongtan and
Malmo, it was strongly dominant, and even for the two projects where it was not
mentioned most, it was a close second. Its appears then that the environmental
dimension of sustainability is important to the eco-city. Looking at the text, the
importance of decreasing the environmental footprint of urban areas is a clear theme.
For instance, for Hammarby Sjöstad, the goal for the district is to be “twice as good in
relation to what goes for the best applied technology in today’s new building design.”
Masdar & Ithaca are interesting in their emphasis on different aspects of
sustainability. Masdar’s frequent mention of economic issues makes sense given that
the city is presented as a vehicle for developing a renewable energy industry in Abu
Dhabi. In this case, sustainability starts to be seen as a source of economic
development. Ithaca’s emphasis on social sustainability also seems to derive from the
underlying aims of the project. The Ithaca website states that “as residents, [they] are
engaged in a fascinating social experiment.” This emphasis on social issues was
unique among the cases studied.
Which actors drive the eco-city?
In the case of the actors that are playing a role in the eco-city, we found very few
similarities among the projects. Each project seemed to focus on different actors. One
interesting outcome was the impact that having a particular actor associated with the
project had on the results. This can be seen in the case of Dongtan, where the
designers Arup were mentioned many times and contributed to the dominance of the
expert category. This was also the case for Sonoma Mountain Village, where the
developer, Codding Enterprises, was also mentioned frequently and contributed to the
dominance of the private sector as actor in the results for that project.
Mention of a category of actor did not necessarily seem to indicate it would be
involved in shaping the project. In Hammarby the category the most frequently
mentioned was individuals (37 times). For instance, one text stated that “all solutions
have to be adapted to the needs of local residents.” This seems to indicate that the
future residents played a central role when designing the district and that it is built for
them. However, the involvement of residents or inhabitants in the design of the
district is only mentioned 4 times.
In this category Ithaca again stands apart from the other projects, with the community
/ civil society category coming up most frequently. Moreover, out of the 14 sub-
categories of discourses examined in the analysis, it is the one most often used in the
texts about Ithaca. From this it would appear that in projects where social
sustainability is central, community groups might be more involved in the project.
Eco-city as a model or eco-city as an educational tool?
Each of the six projects is described multiple times as a model or example. A text
written by the builders of Ithaca states “Our goal is to build a replicable model of a
cooperative, environmentally sensitive village.” In the case of Malmö, one text states
that “the aim is to make Västra Hamnen an international leading example of a densely
populated, environmentally sound neighbourhood.” Masdar City is described as “a

model for future development” and “the role model for the world,” Dongtan as “a
global template for sustainability in urban planning,” and a “prototype for the future
of all cities.”
When talking about the eco-city, four cities see themselves mainly as an exemplars
(Dongtan, Masdar, Sonoma and Malmo) while Hammarby Sjöstad and Ithaca are
more focused on education. Somewhat surprising given that the Masdar Institute is
heavily focused on research into renewable energy is that for this project the eco-city
as an educational tool is not mentioned a single time. The project with the strongest
emphasis on education is Ithaca, where this discourse was the second most mentioned
of all the categories searched for. The eco-city as an educational tool appears as a
crucial element of the discourse of the project. Actors involved in this project even
talk about their “educational style.”
Behaviour change as solution or technology and design as solution?
The use of technology and design are among the most frequently mentioned
categories for all of the projects. In fact, every project studied mentions using
technology and design as a way of achieving sustainability. However there was some
variety in emphasis between projects when it came to whether this was for the
production of renewable energy or the reduction of consumption. For four of the six
projets, the use of technology and design was focused on developing more sustainable
means of energy production. The two projects where environmental sustainability did
not dominate over all the other dimensions, Ithaca and Masdar, were also the two
most focused on using design and technology towards reducing consumption.
That said, Masdar and Ithaca have different ideas about how to reduce consumption.
Intelligent design, the “latest high-tech monitoring systems” and “cutting edge
technology” are described as helping to ensure that “Masdar City’s use of resources
will be far lower than that in conventionally designed communities.” In Ithaca
however, “passive solar design” or “south-facing arbours with deciduous vines
minimiz[ing] overheating in warmer months” are mentioned as “strategies to achieve
high energy efficiency.” These extracts also highlight another point. When discussing
reducing consumption, the texts focus on doing so through design. The need for
residents to change their behaviour almost never came up in any of the texts. Instead,
there is a recurring theme of making sustainable living effortless for residents. A text
about Sonoma Mountain village for instance says that “the community is based on the
premise that an ordinary resident will be able to live there sustainably with little extra
effort.”
Achieving sustainability through design; achieving sustainability through
operation / governance
The one consistent result emerging out of the entire analysis is that in all of the cases,
design is much more frequently mentioned than management as a driver of
sustainability. Even in the case of Ithaca, while the texts suggested that governance is
also important, it was not specifically mentioned.

DISCUSSION
The sheer diversity of approaches to creating an ecological or sustainable urban
development found even in this small study would seem to indicate that, for the
moment, there is no standard definition of what an eco-city is. Despite this diversity,
it is still possible to draw out a few commonalities between all the projects. First,
there was the overwhelming focus on achieving sustainability through technology and
design and the lack of attention paid to the ongoing government and management of
these projects. That the notion of governance is not even mentioned in any of the
cases studied is interesting when considering the increasing body of literature dealing
with the notion of governance for sustainability. This may be related to the preference
for a design-led approach to developing an eco-city. This leads to the question of
whether the entire proposition of the eco-city is based on an excessively physically
deterministic approach to planning.
Regarding strategies for achieving sustainability, again the projects’ focus on design
and technology dominated, this time over strategies to change the behaviour of
inhabitants. Technology is in all cases used to deal both with consumption and
production. However, no real patterns emerged about which of the two should be
focused on. Finally, in most of the cases, one or both of these clearly appeared as one
of the main discourses used to describe the project. This seems to indicate that
technology is an inherent aspect of eco-city development and that it is seen as having
a crucial role to play in achieving sustainability.
A third point of convergence among the projects studied was that they all aimed, in
some way, to be seen as models or examples of urban sustainability. In some cases
this ambition was more pronounced than in others but it was nonetheless always
present. Additionally, the projects often discuss an ambition to be seen as models on a
global, not just local scale. While most projects did not speak about education, in this
sense they could all be seen as wishing to educate the world at large on what a new
breed of ecological urban development looks like. This fits with a growing trend
where places like Hammarby are becoming case studies of ‘good practice’ and field
trip destinations for students of sustainable urbanism.
Finally there was the emphasis on environmental sustainability. Even for the two
projects where other types of sustainability were more frequently mentioned, the
environment was still a strong theme. This could reflect the challenge of incorporating
economic and social issues into a design-led approach. Perhaps the designers of eco-
cities are simply more experienced with and knowledgeable about how to address
environmental issues. In the documents on Dongtan, which discuss environmental
issues with great confidence, social and economic proposals are often couched in
speculative language, e.g. the planners ‘envisage’ that local employment will be
generated and ‘feel that the Chinese should maintain local fishing and farming.’
The results presented in this paper are very preliminary and based on an analysis of
only six eco-city projects, and there are some limitations to the methodology used.
First, the requirement that documents be available in English limited the selection of
cases. Second, the total amount of words analysed for each case differed quite
significantly with the largest nearly 11,000 words and the smallest only 3,200. This
was in part due to difficulties finding a balanced array of documents for each project.

Despite these limitations, we believe the insights gained form this study can help
progress an understanding of the ideologies behind of eco-city projects, and hope that
the study has produced results which will be useful in directing further research.
CONCLUSION
The analysis in this paper demonstrated that there is a great deal of diversity among
projects considered to be eco-cities. By looking for particular themes in the discourse
about these projects, we have demonstrated that this diversity goes beyond just their
size, location and ambition. Indeed, it expands to their vision of what a sustainable
urban future looks like, the techniques that planners and designers should use to
achieve it, and the actors who should be involved.
We propose that this diversity may in fact be a good thing. As much as each of these
projects wants to be seen as a model, perhaps it is better to accept that there is no
single solution for making urban living more sustainable. In this sense, it is better to
think of the eco-city as an ambition, an objective that there will be multiple ways to
achieve. Many lessons can be learned from studying each project, both in isolation
and in comparison with others. As time goes on and more eco-city projects are
actually built, this diversity will allow for interesting and instructive comparisons.
The above may make it seem that we are remaining somewhat agnostic about the
quality of these projects in relation to their sustainability goals. While our objective
was to revel rather than judge, we can make what we hope will be some critically
constructive comments about the projects studied. We are concerned about the lack of
attention to ongoing governance and management of projects, and to the idea that
people might need to change their behaviour. These characteristics could reflect a
hesitance to engage with the more challenging and aspects of making urban living
more sustainable. Perhaps the designers and developers behind these projects believe
that these issues are beyond their remit, but we would counter that those interested in
a comprehensive approach to sustainability must take them into account.
We hope that this paper will provide the grounding for further more in-depth research
on eco-cities. We would particularly like to encourage qualitative analyses of the type
that we have attempted, which try to uncover some of the underlying assumptions
behind high profile projects. One reason for this is that as the demand for practical
ideas about how to make urban living more sustainable increases, these projects are
likely to get increasing attention from policy makers and practitioners around the
world. Further research should focus on providing the information that these people
will need to make informed decisions about how to achieve the eco-city objective in
their own context.

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