Julian Agyeman

January 20, 2020, 12:00 PM: Julian Agyeman ~ The legacy of MLK: Just Sustainabilities in Policy, Planning and Practice

Walls Lounge, ELC

In his talk, Julian outlined the concept of just sustainabilities as a response to the ‘equity deficit’ of much sustainability thinking and practice. He explored his contention that who can belong in our cities will ultimately determine what our cities can become. He illustrated his ideas with examples from urban planning and design, urban agriculture and food justice, and the concept of sharing cities. 

Julian Agyeman Ph.D. FRSA FRGS is a Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University. He is the originator of the increasingly influential concept of just sustainabilities, the intentional integration of social justice and environmental sustainability. He centers his research on critical explorations of the complex and embedded relations between humans and the urban environment, whether mediated by governments or social movement organizations, and their effects on public policy and planning processes and outcomes, particularly in relation to notions of justice and equity.

He believes that what our cities can become (sustainable, smart, sharing and resilient) and who is allowed to belong in them (recognition of difference, diversity, and a right to the city) are fundamentally and inextricably interlinked. We must therefore act on both belonging and becoming, together, using just sustainabilities as the anchor, or face deepening spatial and social inequities and inequalities.

He is the author or editor of 11 books, including  Just Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal World (MIT Press, 2003), Cultivating Food Justice: Race, Class and Sustainability (MIT Press, 2011), and Sharing Cities: A Case for Truly Smart and Sustainable Cities (MIT Press, 2015), one of Nature’s Top 20 Books of 2015. In 2018, he was awarded the Athena City Accolade by KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, for his “outstanding contribution to the field of social justice and ecological sustainability, environmental policy and planning“.

This event was co-sponsored by the Office of Civic Engagement, the Office of the Associate Provost for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.