Who gets to Measure? Urban Sustainability and Locating Knowledge Production Beneath the Power of Indicators
Open AccessUrban sustainability indicators have seen a dramatic gain in popularity. However, their creation and use bring up questions related to what exactly they measure and who really benefits from them. Ever since the articulation of sustainable development from the Rio de Janeiro Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, cities have been urged to tackle environmental responsibility and promote inclusive growth. Related to this commitment, indicators represent a means of assessing progress, identifying areas to be improved upon, and highlighting shortcomings. Thus, indicators are a tool used to promote the conception of a ‘sustainable’ city. Yet there is a gap in terms of how indicators are presented and the reality of how they are made, who makes them, and most importantly, the implications of their use. Advocates of indicators assert that they promote standardized data collection, allow for comparisons, and facilitate more effective policy making. A prominent example of such work is the ISO 37120, which supposedly was created by cities, for cities. The purpose of this thesis is to unpack the knowledge production process embodied in the creation and use of indicators. What do urban sustainability indicators measure and whose interests do they promote? I examine this question through a case study of the ISO 37120, a global voluntary sustainability standard, and its application in the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Arctic Partnership for International Research and Education (PIRE) project.
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