History of the network

Ecourbanism research network is a site for sharing knowledge and experience about ecourban neighbourhoods in different parts of the world.

The idea for the research network sprung from a French-Canadian project financed by the France-Canada Research Fund (FCRF), linking French and Canadian researchers on this topic. In exploring the possibilities for partnership, the exchange of perspectives on ecourbanism, the processes and tools of urban development, policy and planning drove the researchers to expand the network and their work together.

They sought new perspectives on the subject from colleagues working in the United States, Japan, Brazil, Vietnam, Algeria, Denmark and Israel, and published this glimpse of the comparative work in the edited volume: (Re)Thinking the City of the 21st Century: 20 years of ecourban neighbourhoods in the world, published by Dunod (Paris) in 2019.

This website is a tool to further expand and reinforce such exchanges amongst researchers and practitioners in sustainable cities and neighbourhoods.

Researchers at Simon Fraser University in Canada conducted research on the model sustainable neighbourhood from 2015-2019, based upon the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant, Ecourbanism Worldwide. This short introductory film serves as a primer to what ecourbanism means, and aspires to do, in the city.