Cities Nature Justice: dialogues for social sustainability in public spaces
Wednesday 10th to Friday 12th December 2008
Hosted by Transforming Cultures Research Centre
Venue: UTS Blackfriars Campus, Blackfriars Street, Chippendale.
FREE
*Download the Conference poster here [pdf]* Register for the Conference here.
See the conference programme here. Read Conference Abstracts here.
Symposium details
Cities Nature Justice is a 3-day international symposium addressing the social science and science of sustainability. A key question for conference attendees will be: Can social sustainability be achieved at the same time as environmental sustainability? Building on the success of the Landscapes of Meaning symposium hosted by TfC in October 2006, Cities Nature Justice will similarly bring together environmental activists, advocates and communicators from India, China, South East Asia, Australia and the United States to discuss new approaches to understanding city environmental issues by bringing both social science and science to bear on key questions of public space, water and social justice.
KEY SPEAKERS
- Setha Low (Professor, Environmental Psychology and Geography at the Graduate Centre CUNY, President American Anthropological Association) will speak on the three kinds of justice needed to address public space planning and management in cities with high ethnic diversity.
- Kartik Shanker (Associate Professor, Centre for Ecological Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore) will speak on city impacts on the challenges to marine biodiversity.
- Dai Qing (Investigative science journalist and social activist) will speak on water, heritage and environmental justice in developing world cities like Beijing.
- John Maynard (Professor of Aboriginal Studies, Newcastle University) will speak on the Aboriginal experience of port cities Newcastle and Sydney.
- Amita Baviskar (Associate Professor, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University) will speak on environmental politics and the restructuring of urban spaces and livelihoods in Delhi.
- Greg Noble (UWS, Centre for Cultural Research & Cultural Research Network), researches racism, culture and cosmopolitanism. He will discuss how power to speak for public spaces is linked to the freedom to speak in and move through local spaces.
- David Burgess (Total Environment Centre, Coal Mining Campaign) will speak on the impact on major urban rivers which have been cracked, drained and polluted by longwall coal mining.
See more speaker biography details here.
SESSION TIMES
Wednesday 10th
9:30am - session 1: The meaning of sustainability and resilience in cities
2:00pm - session 2: Cities and nature: coexistence?
Thursday 11th
9:30am - session 3: Who speaks for City Spaces: class and public space
2:00pm - session 4: Indigenous cities: recognising presence, conflicts and futures
Friday 12th
9:30am - session 5: Fluid Spaces: Water, culture, power
2:00pm - session 6: City footprints: politics, conservation and change
The symposium has been organised by Transforming Cultures Research Centre, and sponsored by UTS, the ARC Asia Pacific Futures Research Network, the Department of Environment and Climate Change (NSW) and is supported by the Transforming Cultures eJournal.
Further enquiries can be direct to:
Conference convenor: Professor Heather Goodall or conference administrator: Conny Betzler
