Publisher Description

At a time when environmental and social stakes are at their highest – with rising crises and contradictions at the nexus of a building sense of environmental and social collapse – there are no easy solutions. Global Im-Possibilities explores just what can be done around the world to ameliorate this dynamic.Using a range of essays and a multitude of case studies, this book explores what new lessons can be learned from examining the challenges and impediments to achieving just sustainabilities on the levels of policy, planning, and practice, and considers how these challenges and impediments can be addressed by individuals and/or governments.Taking a nuanced approach to provide an intersectional analysis of a particular issue relating to the ideals for achieving sustainability, this book asserts that that it is only in recognizing such complexity that we can hope to achieve just sustainabilities.

Author Biography

Phoebe Godfrey is an Associate Professor in Residence in Sociology at the University of Connecticut, USA.Mary Buchanan is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of Connecticut, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction -- Phoebe Godfrey, Mary BuchananPart I: Promises & Deliveries1. Destroy and rebuild: Considering harm, community benefits & environmental ornamentation in community development in Atlanta -- Dr. Lemir Teron, Ms. T'Shari White, Ms. Farah Nibbs, Ms. Farzaneh Khayat2. The sovereignty paradox: Negotiating values amid tribal adaptation to shale oil extraction -- Jacqline Wolf Tice, David Casagrande3. Activism or extractivism: Indigenous land struggles in eastern Bolivia -- Evan ShenkinPart II: Cities, Citizens & Systems4. The bi-polar waterfront: Paradoxes of shoreline place-making in contemporary Accra and Colombo -- Rapti Siriwardane-de Zoysa, Epifania A. Amoo-Adare5. Negotiations and contestations of just mobility: Rickshaws in Dhaka, Bangladesh -- Md Musleh Uddin Hasan6. Paradoxes of just sustainabilities in urban water sociotechnical systems: Lessons from Athens, Greece -- Marcia Rosalie HalePart III: Scales of Decision-Making & Action7. Resistance to restricting? The politics of cars in Copenhagen -- Kevin T. Smiley8. Popular consultations and extractivism in Colombia: From local to global actions against mining and climate change -- Aracely Burgos-Ayala, Emerson Harvey Cepeda-Rodríguez9. Rescaling energy governance and the democratizing potential of 'Community Choice' -- Sean Kennedy, Ph.D.Part IV: Re-imagining the Possible10. Organic (dis)organization and transformation: Stories of resistance and return at CERES Community Environment Park -- Natalie Osborne & Deanna Grant-Smith11. Just sustainability on the range: Empowering decisions at the soil surface -- Andrea and Tony Malmberg12. Welcome to Tubman House -- Anthony Bayani RodriguezConclusion: Global [Im]-Possibilities for Just Sustainabilities? -- Phoebe Godfrey, Mary BuchananContributorsIndex

Review

Global Im-Possibilities is a collective scholarly endeavour in the best sense of the term. Area specialists provide convincing case studies ranging far and wide, beginning with the Mercedes Benz sports stadium in Atlanta and the impact of oil on indigenous communities in North Dakota. It follows through with a series of 'unfinished stories' documenting in impressive detail how the forces of neoliberalism time and again frustrate the quest for just sustainabilities in communities in Sri Lanka, Ghana, Bangladesh, Greece, Australia and more. The book is held together by a structure that explains these struggles by connecting environmental justice, environmental racism, and intersectionality, finding optimism in the prospect of many small victories. At a time when Sustainable Development is widely and mostly uncritically seen as the answer to all our problems, this book is a welcome and sometimes optimistic reality check. * Leslie Sklair, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics *
Godfrey and Buchanan challenge sustainability advocates to grapple with the paradoxes, contradictions, and tensions of the sustainability interventions examined in this volume. The contributors bring together stories of just and unjust sustainabilities, featuring a breathtaking diversity of protagonists – from the African American communities subject to the injustices of environmental ornamentation perpetrated by the construction of Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, the members of the Baltimore activist group who call themselves The 1619 Coalition, the rickshaw pullers of Dhaka, and the lowland Indigenous communities, who experienced a collective sense of institutional betrayal under the Morales administration. This volume offers a treasure trove of insights and inspirations for those interested in the multiple pursuits of environmental and climate justice. * Prakash Kashwan, Associate Professor, University of Connecticut *

Promotional

A fresh and realistic insight into just what needs to be done to achieve just sustainabilites and impede the potential social and environmental crisis.

Long Description

At a time where environmental and social stakes are at their highest - with rising crisis and contradictions at the nexus of increasing environmental and social collapse - there are no easy solutions. Global Im-Possibilities: The Paradoxes of Policies, Plans, and Practices for Just Sustainabilitie s explores just what can be done around the world to ameliorate this social and environmental collapse. Via a range of essays and a multitude of case studies, this book explores what new lessons can be learned from examining the challenges and impediments to achieving just sustainabilities on the levels of policy, planning, and practice, and considers how these challenges and impediments can be addressed by individuals and/or governments. Taking a nuanced approached to provide an intersectional analysis of a particular issue related to the ideals for achieving sustainability, this book asserts that that it is only in recognizing such complexity that we can hope to achieve just sustainabilities. This is a must read for undergraduates, graduates and anyone involved with policy planning or change-making who seeks to create lasting-transformation at a global level.

Review Quote

" Global Im-Possibilities is a collective scholarly endeavour in the best sense of the term. Area specialists provide convincing case studies ranging far and wide, beginning with the Mercedes Benz sports stadium in Atlanta and the impact of oil on indigenous communities in North Dakota. It follows through with a series of 'unfinished stories' documenting in impressive detail how the forces of neoliberalism time and again frustrate the quest for just sustainabilities in communities in Sri Lanka, Ghana, Bangladesh, Greece, Australia and more. The book is held together by a structure that explains these struggles by connecting environmental justice, environmental racism, and intersectionality, finding optimism in the prospect of many small victories. At a time when Sustainable Development is widely and mostly uncritically seen as the answer to all our problems, this book is a welcome and sometimes optimistic reality check." -- Leslie Sklair, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics

Promotional "Headline"

A fresh and realistic insight into just what needs to be done to achieve just sustainabilites and impede the potential social and environmental crisis.

Feature

A timely examination of what could be done to soften the impact of the increasingly likely social and environmental collapse

Description for Sales People

A timely examination of what could be done to soften the impact of the increasingly likely social and environmental collapse. Uses 14 current and nuanced case studies in order to examine realistic issues and paradoxes. Each case study offers insights into the intersectional complexities in relation to policy, plans, and practices that attempts to create just sustainabilities Case studies are drawn from around the world and highlight a multitude of actors, from governments, citizen groups, individuals, and more.

Details