OTREC Events

Just Sustainabilities: Re-Imagining E/quality, Living Within Limits

May 21, 2014 7:00 pm - May 21, 2014 9:00 pm

Where: Native American Student and Community Center, 710 SW Jackson Street, Portland, OR 97201
Speaker: Julian Agyeman, PhD
Topic: Just Sustainabilities: Re-Imagining E/quality, Living Within Limits

Summary: Professor Agyeman will first outline the concept of ‘just sustainabilities.’ He will argue that integrating social needs and welfare offers us a more ‘just,’ rounded, and equity-focused definition of sustainability and sustainable development, while not negating the very real environmental threats we face. He will define just sustainabilities as ‘the need to ensure a better quality of life for all, now and into the future, in a just and equitable manner, whilst living within the limits of supporting ecosystems.’ He will then look at examples of just sustainabilities in practice in the real world focusing on ideas about ‘fair shares’ resource distribution globally; planning for intercultural cities; achieving wellbeing and happiness; the potential in the new sharing economy; and finally the concept of ‘spatial justice’ and how it complements the more established concept of social justice.

Julian Agyeman is Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University, Medford, MA. He is an environmental social scientist whose expertise and current research interests are in the complex and embedded relations between humans and the environment, whether mediated by governmental institutions or social movements, and the effects of this on public policy and planning processes and outcomes, particularly in relation to notions of justice and equity. He is co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of the international journal ‘Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability.’ With over 150 publications, his recent books include ‘Cultivating Food Justice: Race, Class and Sustainability’ (MIT Press 2011) and ‘Introducing Just Sustainabilities: Policy, Planning and Practice’ (Zed Books 2013). In August 2014, his book ‘Incomplete Streets: Processes, Practices and Possibilities’ will be launched by Routledge.

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