Smart green cities: from modernization to resilience?

It is possible to detect a shift in the way we think about environmental issues, in particular climate change, from what academics call ‘ecological modernization’ to what can be termed ‘resilient cities’. This is both a consequence and a cause of city regions emerging as the pragmatic scale of governance. This article will use a case study of Greater Manchester in the northwest of England to show how thinking on the environment was centred around ‘ecological modernization’ with an emphasis on business opportunities associated with a move to a low-carbon economy. It will argue that this approach has been enhanced by a new focus on resilience. The case study will use examples of the Ecocities project, green infrastructure and flood risk to show how a concern for resilience has emerged. It will then revisit the issue of energy to show how the new concerns have influenced the low-carbon strategy.