HARRINGTON E.C. ' Desirability Function' may be useful to process the normalized heterogenous factors relevant to the scope of urban environmental justice based on sociological survey results(questionnaires).

ABSTRACT: 'Citizens’ climate juries: co-producing knowledge and legitimacy for city-level responses to climate change'

Embedded socio-economic inequality and conflicting messages from government about the climate crisis have led to a breakdown in trust between those involved in infrastructure planning, development and regulation, and members of the public . This is especially salient in certain regions of the UK, such as West Yorkshire, which still suffer the economic and social effects from deindustrialisation and are disproportionally reliant on high carbon industry and other economic activity that will be affected by the climate transition. Leeds City Council declared a climate emergency in March 2019, compelling the local authority to take serious measures across industries and sectors to implement a reduction in carbon emissions to net zero by 2030. A citizen’s jury was established by an independent local body, the Leeds Climate Commission, to debate various possible courses of action in response to the declaration. Carbon reduction proposals are being made that will comprehensively affect local residents including in transport services, energy production and consumption, waste, commerce, and the other industries.

Citizen’s juries are one of a range of deliberative democracy tools that aim to allow a demographically representative sample of the population to learn about a contested issue from experts, discuss, debate and develop policy recommendations. This paper critically examines the processes surrounding and embedded in the Leeds citizens’ climate jury, which took place September – November 2019, with a focus on participation, co-production and forms of justice. In particular, a critical evaluation is made of the jury’s success in building recognition and procedural justice, to engage marginalised perspectives and knowledges in decision-making. Research questions include to what extent does the citizens’ jury: capture and include marginalised voices; create space for contested values including those outside the mainstream; offer opportunities for empowerment of citizens by building their knowledge and capacity to influence decision making; and build trust between relevant actors? Qualitative methods such as non-participant observation and semi-structured interviews with members of the jury were used to collect and analyse data.

Ttle: Disability justice in the ‘urban green’

Author/presenter: Dr Sarah Bell, University of Exeter ([email protected]).

Abstract: A growing body of research links time spent in/near urban green space (e.g. parks, gardens, street trees, woodlands) with experiences of health and wellbeing. Yet, social inequalities persist in the use and management of such settings. Moving beyond traditional preoccupations with distance and demographics, an environmental justice perspective offers scope to engage with the more intangible exclusions that occur as particular qualities of urban green space encounter come to be privileged and prioritised within policy and practice over time.

Drawing on an in-depth qualitative study exploring people’s broader nature experiences with sight impairment within the UK, this presentation calls for greater attention to disability justice in the urban green. A failure to fully understand alternative and diverse ways of sensing and making sense of nature has led to the rise of so-called ‘accessible’ urban green space experiences that tend to segregate on the basis of perceived sensory difference or disability rather than fostering genuine social inclusion.

This presentation will draw on participant narratives and subsequent engagement work to reflect on opportunities to reframe embodied human diversity as a site for alternative values, sensory knowledges and creative inspiration in the urban green, rather than an additional access ‘need’. In doing so, it calls for greater procedural and recognitional justice, respecting disabled individuals not as people to make changes for within the urban green but as people to make changes with; making space for a wider range of values, priorities and embodiments in contemporary approaches to green space research, management and decision-making.

Today Thomas Verbeek & I submitted the session proposal to RGS-IBG organisers. To provide an overview of the research being presented, and to start the discussion virtually, we also encouraged all discussants to post their abstracts here. We look forward to inspiring exchanges!

Title: Climate adaptation and the risk of “green gentrification”: an issue of urban environmental justice?

Author: Margherita Gori Nocentini, Chiara Certomà Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy

[email protected]; [email protected]

The presentation will discuss a research plan focusing on the impact of climate adaption policies on the justice aspects of urban life. The initial research hypothesis is that climate adaption is not neutral in terms of socio-environmental justice. Since climate change is becoming an increasing concern for governments and civil society, many cities have started implementing plans that are meant to prevent and mitigate its negative effects and build resilience in local communities. Climate adaption therefore impacts urban planning and organization, through environmentally motivated policies that inadvertently affect social, economic or cultural aspects of urban life. Our investigation focuses on potential or factual negative consequences of the implementation of urban policies which respond to the increasing threat of climate change on vulnerable residents. These can be understood as a form of green gentrification. Green gentrification is a recently developed concept that describes the process of displacement which affects lower-income and more vulnerable residents in neighborhoods that undergo environmental improvement. These changes are often the result of local strategies to make cities greener and more sustainable. Many authors adopt an urban environmental justice perspective to study green gentrification, highlighting how displacement exacerbates unequal access to environmental goods, and potentially increases exposure to environmental bads for more vulnerable residents by forcing them to relocate to more polluted and hazardous areas. We wonder whether forms of injustice, other than a distributive one, can be considered as consequences of climate-related green gentrification processes. In order to appreciate how climate adaptation strategies generate further forms of socio-environmental injustice we propose an exploration of their implications in terms of recognition and participation.

Title: More environmental justice through transdisciplinarity? Discussing promises and challenges using the example of cooperative green space development in Leipzig, Germany

Authors: Anika Schmidt, Dr. Annegret Haase, both: Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig, Germany; Department for Urban and Environmental Sociology

In theoretical and conceptual research on urban green and greening, aspects of environmental justice have recently gained more attention. Socio-spatial inequality, uneven distribution and access barriers as well as conflicts, power relations, discrimination and exclusion need to be considered with a more complex understanding.

Based on research in a running project*, we explore whether transdisciplinary approaches and cooperative development provide more justice and create more inclusive ways to shape sustainable urban environments. Empirically, we look at the provision, development and use of urban green space in Leipzig’s inner east, an old densely built-up neighbourhood characterised by dynamic (international) in-migration after a longer episode of decline, a growing diversity of population and a high share of low-income households. Recently upcoming debates on gentrification and rising rents are rarely acknowledging the role of green space creation or improvement in the area. Although housing and green space policies are addressing the need for affordable housing and just distribution of urban green, current development of the neighbourhood and the real estate market result in increased segregation and displacement.

Given this context, we will critically discuss the role of transdisciplinary research on urban green and cooperative urban green space development for Leipzig’s inner east. We highlight the complexity of bringing together different forms of knowledge, as well as the wants and needs by municipality, civil society and science when applying a real-world-laboratory approach. We discuss roles and role ascriptions during the research process and practical engagement on site, mutual expectations, available resources but also questions of decision-making and responsibility. Not least, we will critically discuss forms of in- and exclusion and the embedding of transdisciplinary cooperation into power mechanisms and (formal) governance structures.

*KoopLab – Participation through cooperative green space development in arrival neighbourhoods (2018-2020), www.kooplab.de

Title: Dynamics of urban greening. Distribution and production of urban green space in Milan

Author: Oscar Azzimonti

PhD candidate in Urban Studies (URBEUR). Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milan-Bicocca

E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

The environmental impact of the global and massive processes of urbanisation, along with the impellent consequences of climate change (i.e., socio-environmental disasters, extreme events, etc.), forces to acknowledge the importance and to rethink the role of urban green space. The green space and the related ecosystem services have become a crucial issue in urban governance: a relevant element for urban planning, a valuable investment for developers and a demand from city dwellers’ bottom-up organisations.

Against this context, the research, drawing from the conceptual and analytical tools of environmental justice, political ecology and ecological economy, focuses on the social distribution and production of urban green space in Milan. The objective is to comprehend on the one hand the role of green space in contemporary processes of urbanisation and, on the other, the ways in which urban governance may influence the ecological and the social impact of greening.

The paper therefore puts forward a spatial analysis of the distribution of the supply of urban green spaces and of some of the main ecosystem services they provide, in relation to the socio-economic conditions of urban dwellers (the demand side). Subsequently, the research delves into the socio-economic and political processes behind greening, spanning the meaning of greening in regeneration projects, grassroot initiatives and planning strategies.

Hello everyone,

Annegret Haase and me will still be part of the session at the upcoming RGS-IBG 2021. Should we update this timeline (abstracts etc.) in order to get in touch with each other? We are happy to get to know you all!

Best,

Anika and Annegret