Dear EGSG members: The Economic Geography Specialty Group, along with the Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group and the Socialist and Critical Geography Specialty Group, is co-sponsoring a plenary lecture by Andrew Ross, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. The lecture is entitled "The Economics of Sustainability" and relates to his new book "Bird on Fire," which looks at issues of sustainability and environmental justice in Phoenix.
The lecture will be held on Monday, February 27, 2012, from 2:40 p.m. to 4:20 p.m. in New York Ballroom West, Third Floor, Sheraton Hotel. More information (including an abstract for the presentation) is provided below. Hope to see many of you there. Best, Norma (Chair, EGSG) & Kris (Vice-Chair, EGSG) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The Economics Of Sustainability" Chair/Moderator: Susan Parnell, University of Cape Town Presenter: Andrew Ross, New York University Abstract: Today, there is a thriving “sustainable cities” movement all over the developed world, and in many developing countries. Mayors toot their horns whenever their cities move up in the national sustainability rankings, and there is a race afoot right now to claim the title of America’s greenest city. Even without a decisive shift in energy supply, more compact patterns of urban development can deliver a jumbo boost to decarbonization. But for cities to became part of the solution, they need to avoid being part of the problem. If their green policymaking is aimed only at the more affluent populations, then the most likely future lies in a state of urban “eco-apartheid.” Andrew Ross’s lecture draws on his field research in Phoenix, Arizona, arguably the “world’s least sustainable city.” In his profile of the metro region’s environmental challenges, and the political obstacles to addressing them, he will argue that the key to urban sustainability lies less in technical fixes than in social remedies directed at the transforming the geography of class inequalities. Sustainability plans should take as a baseline the needs of the most vulnerable populations, and City Hall should approach sustainability more as a matter of civil rights than as a tool for development or cost avoidance. -- Norma Rantisi, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Geography, Planning & Environment Concordia University 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West Montreal, Quebec H3G 1M8 Tel.: 514-848-2424, ext. 2018 Fax: 514-848-2032 E-mail: nrant...@alcor.concordia.ca OR norma.rant...@gmail.com Webpage: http://gpe.concordia.ca/faculty-and-staff/nrantisi/