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.

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