Just Sustainabilities |

Fixity or Fluidity? Constructions of Nature Are in the Eye of the Beholder

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Julian Agyeman

I’m a Senior Scholar at The Center for Humans and Nature which is based in Chicago. Recently, they asked for my response to the question “How is nature critical to a 21st century urban ethic?” I replied that before I answer, I first need to ask the more fundamental question: “What is nature and how is it constructed by people in our increasingly different and diverse urban communities?” Read my full response here

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Introducing just sustainabilities: Policy, planning and practice.

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Julian Agyeman

This unique and insightful text offers an exploration of the origins and subsequent development of the concept of ‘just sustainabilities’. Introducing Just Sustainabilities discusses key topics such as food justice, sovereignty and urban agriculture; community, space, place(making) and spatial justice; the democratization of our streets and public spaces; how to create culturally inclusive spaces; intercultural cities and social inclusion; ‘green collar jobs’ and the just transition as well as alternative economic models such as co-production. With a specific focus on solutions-oriented policy and planning initiatives that specifically address issues of equity and justice within the context of developing sustainable communities, this is the essential introduction to just sustainabilities.

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Close to the edge, down by the river? Joining up managed retreat and place attachment in a climate changed world

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Julian Agyeman

Introduction

Climate change is disrupting and will increasingly disrupt the geographies of people, places, and spaces. Countries such as Kiribati, originally inhabited by the Micronesians between 3000 BC and 1300 AD, and towns such as Shishmaref, Alaska, a traditional Inupiaq Eskimo fishing village with 400 years of settlement are planning for relocation. Vulnerable city and other authorities that are beginning to plan for ‘managed retreat’ (1) (the relocation of communities and ecosystems) are only now starting to insert limited policy interventions such as setback regulations into their plans. In this Blog we begin to problematize the way most planners and policy makers are currently thinking about the managed retreat of people, cherished places, and spaces. We suggest how, through psychology research and literature, policies and plans for managed retreat and place attachment should and could become joined up.

Posted in Just Sustainabilities | Tagged climate change, managed realignment, managed retreat, place attachment, rootshock | Leave a comment

Policy and planning tools for healthy corner stores.

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Julian Agyeman

This blog posting is a quick introduction to some research Tufts student Leah Lazer and I are carrying out. The project will focus on policy and planning tools and techniques that cities can use to promote the sale of fresh, healthy food at corner stores in low-income and minority communities in order to increase food access and food security for local residents. Based on a literature review, review of planning and policy reports, news articles and in-person interviews, we will examine which tools work best within city-specific contexts of budget constraints, density and zoning, pre-existing infrastructure, the characteristics of the target beneficiaries, and more.

Posted in Just Sustainabilities | Tagged culturally appropriate food, food access, food insecurity, planning, policy | 3 Comments

Reading just sustainabilities

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Julian Agyeman

2013 marks ten years since the publication of Just Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal World, edited by myself, Bob Bullard and Bob Evans. In the book we broke new ground by embarking on a sustainability and sustainable development-based discourse, but one that focused explicitly on equity and justice – on the inextricable links between environmental quality and human equality.

We opened the book as follows: “In recent years it has become increasingly apparent that the issue of environmental quality is inextricably linked to that of human equality. Wherever in the world environmental despoilation and degradation is happening, it is almost always linked to questions of social justice, equity, rights and people’s quality of life in its widest sense.”

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Interculturalism and culturally inclusive space II

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Julian Agyeman

Part 2 Opportunities: Designing, planning and maintaining culturally inclusive spaces

Despite the conceptual challenges I mentioned in my last blog Interculturalism and culturally inclusive space I, public spaces can be sites of huge intercultural opportunity. They may be the only sites where various groups interact at all and organised events, such as soccer matches, festivals or youth group events may offer important opportunities for inter-group contact (Dines and Cattrell 2006) and for generating shared experiences (Lownsbrough and Beunderman 2007). People who have emigrated from one country and culture to another tend to use public open spaces and parks to gather and congregate in ways that are reminiscent of their home country, transforming the parks of their adoptive community into familiar spaces. People grow attached to spaces, their aromas, textures and the overall ‘feel’ of a space.

Posted in Just Sustainabilities | Tagged autotopography, culturally inclusive space, interculturalism | Leave a comment

Interculturalism and culturally inclusive space I

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Julian Agyeman

Part 1 Challenges: Contact, conflict, separation, segregation.

In my blog Cities of (in)Difference I discussed Bloomfield and Bianchini’s (2002, p. 6) intercultural dream where “different cultures intersect, ‘contaminate’ each other and hybridise.” Clearly parks, public spaces and streets have a role to play in this. Unfortunately however, culturally inclusive spaces, those designed intentionally around the recognition of difference, diversity, and cultural heterogeneity have neither been a major focus of study in the planning literature nor are they well understood by practicing urban designers, planners and policy makers (Kumar and Martin 2004).

Posted in Just Sustainabilities | Tagged culturally inclusive space, difference, diversity, inclusion, interculturalism | Leave a comment

Forget the seat, we’ll set the table: Youth involvement in Food Policy Councils.

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Julian Agyeman

Orientation at NYC’s Flip the Table Youth Food Council (Credit: Mara Gittleman)

“Youth are prominent in the food justice movement today. This isn’t just because they are ‘included’ as afterthoughts to existing projects and programs. They lead and have their own, independent voice.” (Steel 2010). Many food justice organizations, sustainable farming projects or garden based education initiatives are connected to youth development programs. As children and young adults have become increasingly disconnected from their food sources, and as obesity and Type II diabetes become increasingly prevalent in young people, these programs provide a host of benefits for the participants and communities involved. Further, more than just participants along for the ride, young people have demonstrated tremendous initiative and leadership within just and sustainable food movements. However, considering that the food justice movement has touted itself as a diverse, inclusive movement where everyone may have a seat at the table, youth voices have been relatively absent from the food policy discourse.

Posted in Just Sustainabilities | Tagged food justice, participation, youth | Leave a comment

Just sustainabilities

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Julian Agyeman

It occurred to me recently that in the two years that I’ve been blogging, I’d never ‘set out my stall’ as it were, on my take on just sustainabilities. Each of my blog posts explore a part of the whole. So here goes on a broader framework. But be aware this is a teaser! The full version is in my forthcoming book Introducing Just Sustainabilities: Policy, Planning and Practice (Zed Books).

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Cultural competency: Towards culturally inclusive practice.

Posted on August 14, 2012 by Julian Agyeman

In my April 2012 blog post Cities of (in)Difference, I quoted Bloomfield and Bianchini (2002) and Sandercock (2003) on their visionary and transformative thoughts about the shift towards interculturalism. Like Amin (2002), Tully (1995) argues that our societies are intercultural rather than multicultural because of the cross-cultural overlap, interaction, and negotiation — the “politics of recognition” — that occurs out of necessity in the formation of our society. This is what Amin (2002 p 960) calls the “negotiation of difference within local micropublics of everyday interaction.” An acknowledgement of this dynamic cultural nature of society — both the “politics of recognition” and “negotiation of difference” — is a key distinction between intercultural versus multicultural theory and demands a culturally competent approach to both professional planning and urban design, and planning and urban design education.

Posted in Just Sustainabilities | Tagged cultural competency, culturally inclusive practice, culturally inclusive spaces, ethics, intercultural, Universal Design | Leave a comment

Just Sustainabilities

Fixity or Fluidity? Constructions of Nature Are in the Eye of the Beholder

Introducing just sustainabilities: Policy, planning and practice.

Close to the edge, down by the river? Joining up managed retreat and place attachment in a climate changed world

Policy and planning tools for healthy corner stores.

Reading just sustainabilities

Interculturalism and culturally inclusive space II

Interculturalism and culturally inclusive space I

Forget the seat, we’ll set the table: Youth involvement in Food Policy Councils.

Just sustainabilities

Cultural competency: Towards culturally inclusive practice.

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