[URBANTH-L]PANEL SEARCH: Greening the City (SACRPH 2009)

Nancy Kwak nhkwak at ucsd.edu
Thu Jan 15 13:34:39 EST 2009


From: Matt Lasner <mlasner at gsu.edu> and Nancy Kwak <nhkwak at ucsd.edu>

"Greening the City: Twenty-first-century Environmental Reform in
Historic Perspective"
A roundtable discussion / SACRPH 2009

Central to contemporary efforts to achieve environmental
sustainability is the notion that we must reform the structure of the
city and city-building practices in rapidly developing regions.  We
must change, it is argued, how we live; where we live, work, and shop;
and how, and how much, we move through space.  This panel seeks to
bring together papers that use history—in particular the history of
planning, design, and the built environment—to explore this framework.

We seek brief papers and discussants interested in exploring one or
more of the following questions: To what extent have architects, urban
planners, housing experts, and engineers commandeered environmental
concerns to justify deeper longer-standing critiques of capitalist
modes of producing urban space (speculative real-estate development)?
Are there examples from planning history that suggest how best to
achieve environmental sustainability today—or the kinds of programs
that, due to unintended consequences, ought to be avoided?  How has
planning reconciled comparable competing imperatives to foster social
equity while demanding reductions in consumption?  Does planning,
broadly conceived, have the power or imagination to fundamentally
shift patterns of fossil-fuel consumption?

Relevant themes might include:
* Environmental crisis and the city
* Gardens and green spaces
* Regulating carbon emissions
* Traffic management
* Sustainable housing

We welcome creative approaches to these themes, and are especially
interested in discussing how urban history can bring depth to our
current discussions about sustainability and "green" practices.

Please send one-page abstracts and/or letter of interest ASAP
(deadline Feb. 1) to Matt Lasner, Georgia State University
(mlasner at gsu.edu) and Nancy Kwak (nhkwak at ucsd.edu).

Nancy Kwak
UC San Diego



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