Cultural Heritage, Sustainable Development, and Climate Policy: Comparing the UNESCO World Heritage Cities of Potsdam and Bern

Kern, Kristine; Irmisch, Janne; Odermatt, Colette; Haupt, Wolfgang; Kissling-Näf, Ingrid (2021). Cultural Heritage, Sustainable Development, and Climate Policy: Comparing the UNESCO World Heritage Cities of Potsdam and Bern Cultural Heritage, Sustainable Development, and Climate Policy: Comparing the UNESCO World Heritage Cities of Potsdam and Bern, 13(16), pp. 1-19. MDPI 10.3390/su13169131

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Developing sustainable, carbon-neutral, and climate-resilient districts seems to be particularly challenging with respect to historic city centers. However, barriers posed by legal requirements for historical buildings are counterbalanced by opportunities because historic cities have not undergone urban modernization and did not embrace the concept of functional cities, which nowadays impedes urban sustainability transformations. Thus, this paper focuses on the relationship between cultural heritage, urban sustainable development, and climate policy. We study continuity and change in the mid-sized UNESCO World Heritage cities Potsdam (Germany) and Bern (Switzerland). These matching forerunner cities share many characteristics, which enables them to transfer policies and jointly create new solutions for common problems. We find that national context matters, but we also identify functional equivalents like referenda and active citizen participation. Despite many similarities, Potsdam is ahead of Bern with respect to the institutionalization and integration of climate mitigation and adaptation. The comparative analysis (interviews and document analysis) identifies innovations that can be transferred between the two cities (e.g., Potsdam’s integrative climate policy or Bern’s efforts to become a role model for stakeholders and citizens). Moreover, the challenge to coordinate heritage management and climate governance offers chances for cooperation between matching cities like Bern and Potsdam

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

Business School > Institute for Sustainable Business
Business School

Name:

Kern, Kristine;
Irmisch, Janne;
Odermatt, Colette;
Haupt, Wolfgang and
Kissling-Näf, Ingrid0000-0001-5225-1723

Subjects:

J Political Science > JS Local government Municipal government

ISSN:

2071-1050

Publisher:

MDPI

Funders:

[UNSPECIFIED] Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), grant numbers: FKZ 01LR1709B

Projects:

[UNSPECIFIED] Urban resilience against extreme weather events–typologies and transfer of adaptation strategies in small metropolises and medium�sized cities” (ExTrass), funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), grant numbers: FKZ 01LR1709B

Language:

English

Submitter:

Ingrid Kissling-Näf

Date Deposited:

27 Jul 2022 09:59

Last Modified:

27 Jul 2022 09:59

Publisher DOI:

10.3390/su13169131

ARBOR DOI:

10.24451/arbor.17233

URI:

https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/17233

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