Conference on “Urban Futures: Green, Sustainable, Just?” at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, February 20, 2018!

This conference will explore how ‘urban environments’ and ‘green urban environments’ are understood, governed, and experienced under different political formations, cultural and socio-economic contexts, and historical moments and what it means for the future of cities and the people who live in them. Around the world, urban greening initiatives, from environmental quality regulations to park creation, have been celebrated as the path towards a sustainable future; simultaneously, though, these same initiatives have been used to justify slum removal, gentrification, and exclusionary development. This conference will share diverse perspectives from the social sciences to the environmental humanities on urban environments in globalizing and international contexts. We will focus on topics such as new theorizations or frameworks for conceptualizing urban environments; analysis of social, economic, health, and environmental impacts; implications for culture and identity; and connections across international borders.
This one-day conference will include a keynote address titled “Urban greening in the global North and South: Green cities for all or enclaves of environmental privilege?” by Dr. Isabelle Anguelovski, Director of the Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, research presentations from scholars from the region, and a panel discussion on the future of the just, equitable, and green city. Through this event we hope to open up new inter/transdisciplinary spaces for critical examinations of urban environments and to build a network of scholars to catalyze new research directions on urban environmental research in international and globalizing contexts.
This event is co-sponsored by the Global Studies Program and Center for Sustainable Communities at Temple.
See the full schedule of events here.
This event is FREE, but we ask that you register in advance here.

Schedule

This event is FREE, but we ask that you register in advance here.

All events will take place at Temple University in the Women’s Studies Lounge (Andersen 821), building #3 on this campus map.

9:30am-10:50amResearch Presentations, Session I: Urbanization in a changing environmental and economic climate
Name Affiliation Title of talk
Leslie Reeder-Myers Temple University, Anthropology Ancient Sites and Modern Cities: Using Archaeology to Plan for Climate Change in Urban Estuaries
Daniel Cohen University of Pennsylvania, Sociology Follow the Carbon: Housing movements and the politics of climate change
Yoonhee Jung Temple University, Geography and Urban Studies Urban sustainability in transformation: A case study of Seoul
John Sorrentino Temple University, Economics Residential Development in a Philadelphia Metro Watershed:The Case of the Wissahickon Creek
Alan Wiig University of Massachusetts, Boston Urban Planning and Community Development Free zones and the future of urban revitalization across the North Atlantic
11am-12:20pmResearch presentations session II: Social and ecological dimensions of urban greening
Hamil Pearsall & Christina Rosan Temple University, Geography & Urban Studies Growing a sustainable city? The question of urban agriculture
Patrick Hurley Ursinus College, Department of Environmental Studies Foraging in Cities and Suburbs: Harvesting the Culturally and Economically Important Material Benefits of Urban Forests
Jocelyn Behm Temple University,
Center for Biodiversity		 Using the currency of ecosystem services to quantify the sustainability of the local food system in Philadelphia, PA
John-Henry Pitas and Mariya Shcheglovitova University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Department of Geography and Environmental Systems Sustaining the past: trash burning and tree planting in Baltimore, Maryland
Antonio Raciti University of Massachusetts, Boston Urban Planning and Community Development From ecosystem services to ecological devices: the story of a community-university partnership in the Simeto River Valley (Sicily, Italy)
12:30pm-1:30pm: Keynote12:30-12:35: Welcome, Dr. Melissa Gilbert, Director of the Center for Sustainable Communities and Chair of the Geography and Urban Studies Department

Isabelle Anguelovski (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), “Urban greening in the global North and South: Green cities for all or enclaves of environmental privilege?”

1:30pm-2pm: Lunch
2pm-3:20pm: Panel discussion: The Future of the Just, Equitable, and Green CityModerator: Hamil Pearsall (Temple University, Geography and Urban Studies)

Panelists:

  1. Yuki Kato (Georgetown University, Department of Sociology)
  2. Lindsay Naylor (University of Delaware, Department of Geography)
  3. Leah Schinasi (Drexel University, Environmental and Occupational Health and Urban Health Collaborative)
  4. Tina Rosan (Temple University, Geography and Urban Studies)
  5. Jessica Miller (Montclair State University, Department of Earth and Environmental Studies)
  6. Jeremy Mennis (Temple University, Geography & Urban Studies)
3:30pm-4:50pmCoffee & open discussion session on future research directions, collaborations, and networks