Just Sustainabilities: Re-Imagining E/Quality, Living within Limits

Join Mayor Greg Stanton as he welcomes Julian Agyeman to Phoenix.

Julian Agyeman is an environmental social scientist whose expertise and 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 these on public policy, planning processes, and outcomes, particularly related to notions of justice and equity. Agyeman has over 150 publications; his recent books include: Cultivating Food Justice: Race, Class and Sustainability and Introducing Just Sustainabilities: Policy, Planning and Practice.

In this Wrigley talk, 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, while not negating the very real environmental threats we face. He will then look at real-world examples of just sustainabilities, focusing on ideas about "fair shares" resource distribution; planning for intercultural cities; achieving well-being and happiness; the potential in the new sharing economy, and, finally, the concept of “spatial justice.”