Just Sustainabilities Webinar

 Notes from Just Sustainabilities Webinar by Professor Julian Agyeman 5/27/2026:

Diversity and rights to the city are required for true sustainability.
A green world would not necessarily be just. Social needs and welfare
and economic opportunity are integrally related to living within the 
environmental limits imposed by supporting ecosystems.

Environmental degradation happens mostly in poor people's neighborhoods. Countries with greater inequality have higher social malaise - crime, teen pregnancy, drug addiction, etc. "Inequality
sells" - advertising creates competitive consumption at all economic levels, which in turn creates environmental degradation.

We need to decrease inequality both within and between nations. This includes:
1) improving our quality of life and wellbeing
2) meeting the needs of present and future generations
3) justice and equity in terms of recognition, process, procedure and outcome (eg BLM)
4) living within ecosystem limits

Urban planning needs to include:
1) managing our co-existence in shared space
2) moving from racial planning (desegregation) to reparation planning
3) fostering the relationship between belonging and becoming
4) humane scaling

Spatial justice is allocating rights not along class lines geographically, for example via walls (as in Israel/Palestine), railway lines, highways, that cut through cities. It is about "complete streets" - giving equal access to public transit, walking, biking and private vehicles.

Heavily trafficked streets have less socialization. We need more people-friendly streets, such as walking zones. Spike and walled areas, as well as arm rests on public benches are used to make homeless people "move on". Some cities now take these barriers away. Removing urban highways can also improve neighborhoods.

We also need to deal with gentrification with measures such as rent control. There needs to be more spaces where people can meet, such as parks.

"Complete streets" and parks alone do not help the inequity problem if they are not available to everyone everywhere. The more diversity mixing, the more empathy is created to others. Public spaces should
include ethnically local street vending. Everyone should have walkability (sidewalks and walking streets), not just the wealthy. Planning needs to include the people from the neighborhoods to be affected in the decisions that affect them.

Minneapolis had racialized covenants, single family zoning and redlining, but recently moved to 2 and 3 story buildings and allocated 10% of units for moderate income households. Also, mayor Wu of Boston has called for the availability of culturally appropriate local foods.

When asked about militarism, Dr. Agyeman said "militarism is antithetical" to just sustainabilities. When asked about transforming cities like Los Angeles, which was built on highways, he acknowledged that retrofitting is difficult. When asked about degrowth, he said that we can't have the same message for everyone (to make do with less). However, he agreed that universal basic services, where they have been used, have decreased food insecurity. Some cities have tried some of these measures, then taken them away. They need to be done consistently and everywhere. This can include networks of community gardens and places for rural farms to bring food into cities, stores selling foods below market rates, congestion charging (to fund such efforts), city owned rentals and rental tax abatements and support for food coops.