Urban Ecology - as Science, Culture and Power
How can we understand urban ecology? This PhD course provides participants with an overview of and engagement with various theoretical perspectives, debates and research practices that have energized the discussions around urban ecology, urban ecosystems, and urban sustainability during the last 10-15 years.
Tid: Må 2013-06-10 kl 09.00 - Fr 2013-06-14 kl 17.00
Plats: Stockholm
Participants will furthermore be part of a workshop on an international book project called the Histories and Futures of Contested Urban Natures and have the chance to meet and engage with top-scholars coming to Stockholm, including Amita Baviskar (Delhi, India), Richard Walker (San Francisco, USA), and James Evans (Manchester, UK).
This will enrich the course greatly, with talks and case studies that will question how ‘urban nature’ is talked about, used and reworked towards a ‘wordling of urban nature’, de-centering its EuroAmerican academic origins. Other lectures and discussion seminars will be lead by Henrik Ernstson , with assistance from Joshua Lewis and .
This interdisciplinary course is primarily directed to PhD students in the fields of: Cultural Geography, Political Ecology, Environmental History, Urban Ecology and Systems Ecology, Urban Planning, Urban Design (architecture, landscape architecture etc.).
The course is given as a collaboration between the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town, , and Stockholm Resilience Centre , Stockholm University. There are no fees but students need to secure their own travel and accommodation costs.
The course gives 4 credits and is supported through grants received by Formas, STINT and KTH. More information about the course is given below.
RSVP 31 April, 2013
If you are interested, send an email with a two-page letter of interest describing your PhD research project and your interest in the course to course administrator
Susanna Lidström
before 31 April, 2013. Based on these letters, a selection will be made and confirmation sent out.
Urban Ecology as Science, Culture and Power (pdf 333 kB)
UPDATE: We had a fantastic week learning about each others projects and discussing how they relate to different kinds of urban natures. One of the students, Paul Lintott , reflects on the course in a blog post on urban ecology beyond the realms of science .