Special session at "The Dimensions of Political Ecology" conference
Henrik Ernstson of the KTH Environmental Humanities Laboratory is organizing a special session with Mary Lawhon and Jonathan Silver on "Pluralizing the Approaches to Urban Political Ecology in a World of Cities" at The Dimensions of Political Ecology Conference in Lexington, KY, February 27 – March 1. They write: "We are glad to have 10 papers from across the world for our special session. The session will gather in-depth case studies with theoretical conversations, from Jakarta, Teheran, Bangalore to New York City. A great start for our year-long conversation on doing and studying urban political ecology."
The session will mix students and more experienced scholars, theoretical reflection and case studies. Garth Myers pushes us to seek spatial justice in African cities and with Missaka Hettiarachchi we travel to urban wetlands in Kolkatta and Colombo, unpacking the political content of their governing. Lindsay Campbell discusses trees and ‘green spaces’ in New York City, Cameron Hu works through the historical ontologies of Jakarta, and Malini Ranganathanlearns from Bangalore on how to pluralize the state in urban political ecological analysis. Ilia Farahani brings an intriguing case study that combines gentrification and metabolism to analyze a working-class neighborhood in Teheran, Alec Foster unpacks Philadelphian urban ecologies through the notion of ‘doing identity’, and Mary Lawhon analyses media representations of environmental struggles in South Africa. Joshua Cousins will present a broad literature review from 1965-2012 on different theoretical takes on urban metabolism. opens the session by provincializing Urban Political Ecology through African Urbanism. Our two-part session will be moderated by Henrik Ernstson and Mary Lawhon.
We are excited and we warmly thank all authors for sending us their abstracts. We hope for a great meeting in Kentucky in February 2014. Below you will find all abstracts including our call for abstracts. The session will be followed by similar sessions at conferences in Johannesburg in March, and in London in August. Below you can read about the session and the papers. Stay tuned! Our 2014 SUPE Platform Conversation has just begun.
Contact for the DOEP Kentucky session is Henrik Ernstson .