Watch this recent Cities@Tufts webinar, where Isabelle Anguelovski and James Connolly discuss our forthcoming book with Julian Agyeman.
BCNUEJ is excited to announce the launch of its new book, The Green City and Social Injustice, published by Routledge and scheduled for release November 30th, 2021. In this volume, an amazing collective and collaboration of researchers and colleagues examine the recent urban environmental trajectory of 21 cities in Europe and North America over a 20-year period to identify the circumstances under which greening interventions can create a new set of inequalities for socially vulnerable residents, while also failing to eliminate other environmental risks and impacts.
Based on fieldwork in ten countries, and on the analysis of core planning, policy and activist documents and data, the book offers a critical view of the growing green planning orthodoxy in the Global North, highlighting the role of neoliberal policies, large-scale urban redevelopment and real estate speculation in processes of gentrification, displacement and socio-cultural erasure. It also draws on hopeful examples from cities where urban greening has long been accompanied by social equity policies or managed by community groups organizing around environmental justice goals and strategies.
“To students, scholars, activists and planners…we hope this can serve as testimony to debunk the green city branding and hype that so often hides profit-driven interests and perpetuates inequalities. If equity and justice are not at the core of green planning, then the healthy green city is just a myth.” — Isabelle Anguelovski, co-editor
“The green city is not simply about addressing ecological concerns, as it is sometimes framed. It is also about who gets to benefit from the city, whose cultural preferences win out, and who has a physical and psychological place in the city. The stories told in this book help to uncover these less visible issues.” — James Connolly, co-editor
This critical assessment also aims to show how prioritizing equity in access to green space and secure housing, together with bold social policies, can achieve environmental and social benefits for all citizens.
This book forms part of the Routledge Equity, Justice and the Sustainable City series led by Julian Agyeman (Tufts University, USA) and Stephen M Zavestoski (University of San Francisco, USA).
You can purchase it online at Routledge.com, and at a 20% discount with this flyer.
