Michael Friesenecker
Although, a focus on unequal access to beneficial environmental factors is gaining momentum in Environmental Justice research, the unequal distribution of environmental benefits still needs considerable attention. Housing that provides good environmental standards and enhancing local conditions for ecological innovation while promoting housing affordability and limit segregation should represent a priority. Yet, the debate on this issue remains underdeveloped both in the academic literature and in the political debate on housing solutions. To fill this gap, this paper explores the socio-spatial implications of two ecologically innovative housing projects oriented in Vienna. The Austrian capital is an interesting case study to understand how the local dimension of everyday climate-friendly modes of living as well as mitigation/adaption practices of tenants are influenced by planning practices and choices. Recently, a wide range of social housing projects have experimented with new solutions for urban sustainability by promoting bottom-up initiatives and providing ecological innovation in the social housing stock. A qualitative comparison identifies possible socio-ecological practices that are able to combine urban justice and ecological innovation, while the study confirms that some innovative housing solutions bring limited distributional benefits in terms of environmental and social justice. Nonetheless, the case study of Vienna, as a peculiar example of housing policy in the Western European framework, illustrates the possibility of scaling up alternative approaches to housing production, enhancing our understanding of how socio-spatial justice and environmental justice can be intertwined.