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Contested Construction of Green Building Codes in North America: The Case of the Alley Flat Initiative

School of Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station B7500, Austin, Texas, TX 78712, USA, samoore{at}mail.utexas.edu

Barbara B. Wilson

School of Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station B7500, Austin, Texas, TX 78712, USA, bebrown{at}mail.utexas.edu

Building codes are both an index of social values and a strategy to enforce those values. On these grounds an examination is made of the emergence of green building codes in North America as a category of building codes that is particularly important for sustainable development. The classical definition of sustainability proposes that multiple, competing frames of interpretation—economic development, environmental protection and social equity—can, in theory, be balanced. It is found, however, that in practice equity is generally ignored. Through historical and theoretical investigation, it is hypothesised that codes which are successful in incorporating equity as a criterion emerge from public talk and social learning, not abstract speculation. The paper concludes by articulating a change-oriented research design for an ongoing project to test this hypothesis.

Urban Studies, Vol. 46, No. 12, 2617-2641 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0042098009346327


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