Metropolitics

Cooperating in Democracies

Evan Casper-Futterman — 2023-01-13T06:00:00Z

Evan Casper-Futterman reviews Practicing Cooperation: Mutual Aid Beyond Capitalism by Andrew Zitcer, which reflects on the role of cooperation in democratic societies, and specifically the importance of practices of cooperation for a more just society.
Practicing Cooperation (2021) is a timely reflection on the necessity of cooperation in democratic societies. Andrew Zitcer asks us to consider the many spaces where cooperation already exists, at various scales from the body to society. The

- Reviews / social justice, democracy, cooperation, cooperative enterprises

Electoral Organizing in North Carolina: An Interview with Tomás Garduño

Tomás Garduño & Kate Selden — 2020-10-27T06:00:00Z

Kate Selden interviews Tomás Garduño, a social-justice organizer, about his work in Lenoir County, North Carolina, leading up to the 2020 general election and the importance of organizing in rural areas. A lightly edited transcript of their conversation is published below.
Kate Selden: My name is Kate Selden, I'm an urban planner in Brooklyn, and I work in affordable housing development.
I'm here with Tomás, who I will let introduce himself.
Tomás Garduño: My name is Tomás Garduño, I'm

- Interviews / US election, presidential election, elections, vote, social justice, North Carolina, United States, rural, community organizing, video

Climate Change and Social Change

Gregory Smithsimon — 2018-04-03T05:30:00Z

Cities are home to more than half the world's population and the source of most global CO2 emissions—and yet often occupy vulnerable sites particularly sensitive to the effects of climate change. Out of necessity, cities have therefore become pioneers when it comes to responding to these changes. In this series, we examine not just the different strategies they deploy but also the associated social issues, and more specifically how questions of social justice and equity are taken into

- Series / environment, social justice, urban ecology, energy, climate change, sea-level rise, climate action plans, environmental justice, climate justice

The Urban Heart of a Just Transition: How Cities Plan for Social Justice in Climate Action

Alexa Waud — 2018-04-03T05:00:00Z

Cities are often framed as sustainability saviors. Alexa Waud analyzes 20 climate action plans of cities that participate in the international Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance, and argues that in order to minimize the impacts of decarbonization on vulnerable populations, cities must understand the historical context of racial and social justice struggles, the immediacy and impact of climate action plans, and the strong potential for action on climate change.
---- Series: Climate Change and

- Essays / sustainable development, social justice, energy, climate change, sustainable city, climate action plans, environmental justice, climate justice, urban sustainability, energy transition, ecological transition, decarbonization, just transition

A Right to the Suburb? New Urbanism, Public Space, and the Law

Anthony Maniscalco — 2014-12-08T05:50:00Z

The American suburb is changing. It is racially and economically diverse. Its sterile spaces are being redesigned for more community life. And yet, even in the community spaces in redesigned suburbs, rights to free speech and protest are legally denied, as the spaces are still private. As our suburbs become more like cities, can we create genuine public spaces for politics?
No longer homogeneous bedroom communities or exclusively white, middle-class commuter enclaves, America's suburbs are

- Essays / public space, placemaking, United States, social justice, suburbs, New Urbanism, edge cities, protest

Well-being in the Paris region: widening regional disparities despite overall improvement

Lise Bourdeau-Lepage & Élisabeth Tovar & translated by Eric Rosencrantz — 2011-10-12T09:07:22Z

Has the socio-spatial divide widened over the past 10 years in the Paris region? Using an original method inspired by the work of Amartya Sen to measure the distribution of well-being in the Paris region between 1999 and 2006, Lise Bourdeau-Lepage and Élisabeth Tovar come to a rather pessimistic conclusion: the general rise in well-being actually masks widening regional disparities and setbacks in the northern suburbs of Paris, which are increasingly disadvantaged.
In recent years, the Paris

- Essays / segregation, Paris region, inequalities, well-being, social justice, Greater Paris