The Imaginal Cells of the Solidarity Economy: Politics and Policy
Release Date: 09/28/2023
Public Everyday Space: Cultural Politics in Neoliberal Barcelona with Megan Saltzman
Cities@Tufts Lectures
Megan Saltzman presented her new book--Public Everyday Space: Cultural Politics in Neoliberal Barcelona--which explores how everyday practices in public space (sitting, playing, walking, etc.) challenge the increase of top-down control in the global city. Public Everyday Space focuses on post-Olympic Barcelona—a time of unprecedented levels of gentrification, branding, mass tourism, and immigration. Drawing from examples observed in public spaces (streets, plazas, sidewalks, and empty lots), as well as in cultural representation (film, photography, literature), this book exposes the quiet...
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A History of Violence: The Legacy of Environmental Racism in Canada with Ingrid Waldron
Cities@Tufts Lectures
Canada was founded on enslavement and dispossession, most exemplified by its assimilationist ideologies and policies, the displacement, subjugation and oppression of Indigenous and Black peoples and cultures, and the expropriation of Indigenous lands. The colonial theft of land and the accumulation of capital have been foundational to Canada’s wealth. In this presentation, Dr. Ingrid Waldron uses settler colonial theory to examine environmental racism in Canada to highlight the symbolic and material ways in which the geographies of Indigenous and Black peoples have been characterized by...
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Local Leadership for Climate Justice with Hessann Farooqi
Cities@Tufts Lectures
This talk explores how and why city governments can step up to lead on climate action and how resident organizing is critical in making this happen. This talk also explores how to build and sustain the political coalition to ensure climate justice policies can be passed and implemented. Hessann Farooqi is the Executive Director of the Boston Climate Action Network. He is the youngest person and the first person of color appointed to lead BCAN. Hessann studied economics at Boston University, worked in the United States Senate under Sen. Ed Markey, and served on various federal, state, and local...
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From City to Sink: Urban Carbon Removal as Promise and Practice with Duncan McLaren
Cities@Tufts Lectures
Climate policy increasingly relies on techniques to remove CO2 from the environment as a supplement to cutting emissions: counter-balancing residual emissions in ‘net-zero’ and reducing atmospheric concentrations of CO2 to safer levels. In this talk, Duncan will survey how cities are engaging with carbon removal – reviewing the realistic scope of possibilities such as carbon negative building materials, and carbon removal through urban waste management; and suggest ways in which urban carbon removal could be governed to contribute to goals of justice and sustainability. Duncan McLaren is...
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Solidarity Cities: Examining Solidarity Economies at the Urban Level with Maliha Safri
Cities@Tufts Lectures
Contemporary urban discourse is caught in a binary between the Gentrified City, and the Disinvested City. Maliha Safri’s new book presents an alternative urban imaginary: the Solidarity City. Her new co-authored book Solidarity Cities. Confronting Racial Capitalism, Mapping Transformation introduces an alternative spatial imaginary highlighting solidarity relations as definitional features of urban life. In contrast to profit-motive and competition, solidarity economies and the corresponding international movement have commitments to cooperation, democracy, and inclusion. The movement is...
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Environmental Justice, Political-Economic Inequalities, and Pathways to Justice with Prakash Kashwan
Cities@Tufts Lectures
Most researchers of environmental and climate justice agree that political and economic inequalities hurt the environment, racial minorities, Indigenous Peoples, and other marginalized communities. Yet, these conclusions are based, almost exclusively, on analyses of the distribution of "environmental bads" (e.g., industrial pollution and toxic waste). Drawing on a longstanding and cumulative multi-methods research program focused on the distribution of "environmental goods" (biodiversity conservation), this lecture offers an alternative analysis of the relationship between environment and...
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Mutual Aid Lessons from East Boston
Cities@Tufts Lectures
This is a special bonus episode of the Cities@Tufts podcast! Last fall, Tufts University Distinguished Senior Lecturer of Urban Environmental Policy and Planning, Penn Loh, hosted a discussion following the release of a new report, . This episode is from that live event, hosted by Tufts UEP, on October 3, 2024 where panelists shared their mutual aid experiences, lessons learned, and other key findings from UEP-community report on how mutual aid can strengthen civic infrastructure, contribute to movements for social justice, and build communities of care. Resources: Report: In addition to...
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Decolonizing Climate and Energy Policy with Noel Healy
Cities@Tufts Lectures
Addressing the climate crisis requires more than incremental reforms; it necessitates a transformative approach that dismantles deep-seated inequalities and confronts the historical injustices embedded in global structures. Achieving global climate justice hinges on decolonizing fossil fuel politics and dismantling obstructionist forces at both national and international levels. By drawing from and critiquing the Green New Deal movement, Professor Noel Healy explores what genuine economic and political transformation looks like in practice, emphasizing that these systemic changes are...
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Mobilizing Food Vending with Ginette Wessel
Cities@Tufts Lectures
Throughout US history, street food vending has rarely been considered an improvement to modern society or its capitalist economy. However, beginning in 2008, a new generation of mobile vendors serving high-quality, inventive foods became popular among affluent populations. Ginette Wessel’s new book, Mobilizing Food Vending: Gourmet Food Trucks in the American City (Routledge 2024), investigates the gourmet food truck movement in the US and provides a clearer understanding of the social and economic factors that shape vendor autonomy and industry growth. Using a human-centered approach, the...
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Reimagining Urban Planning with Jose Richard Aviles
Cities@Tufts Lectures
Reimagining Urban Planning is a talk based on the monthly webinar series of the same name hosted by the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley. This talk openly critiques the ways in which Urban Planners have been trained and the impacts it has had in the ways Planners approach the Land, and the People that inhabit the land. This talk will share the key highlights from the series while also providing examples, shared by the speakers, that get us to an alternative approach to planning. The hope is that this talk will inspire planners to be more critical of how the field currently...
info_outlineWelcome to the third episode of the Imaginal Cells of the Solidarity Economy: Democratizing Power.
This a special series of episodes that we've been sharing over the summer until Cities@Tufts officially resumes for our fourth season in the Fall.
We are living through an historic moment where a number of crises-- climate change, growing economic and cultural divide, virulent racism, and the slide toward fascism--are converging. This makes for scary times but also times that are ripe with potential for fundamental system change. As the faith in the status quo is shaken, we're seeing a greater openness to post-capitalist futures such as the solidarity economy. This webinar series on The Imaginal Cells of the Solidarity Economy will showcase the myriad ways that solidarity economy practices are providing models and pathways to build a more cooperative, democratic, equitable, and sustainable world--one in which many worlds fit.
This week we are joined by David Cobb, Lydia Lopez, Jyoung Carolyn Park, Kali Akuno, and Petula Hanley to hear about how to use/influence public policy advance individual policies as part of a coherent strategy to democratize the entire economy. The webinar series on The Imaginal Cells of the Solidarity Economy showcases the myriad ways that solidarity economy practices are providing models and pathways to build a more cooperative, democratic, equitable, and sustainable world — one in which many worlds fit.
Brought to you by Shareable, Resist & Build's SE Narrative Circle, the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network, and the New Economy Coalition.
Don't forget to sign up for the next Cities@Tufts event on October 4th when Kristin Reynolds will present: Urban Agriculture, Racial and Economic Equity: Action Research for Food and Social Justice
Cities@Tufts Lectures explores the impact of urban planning on our communities and the opportunities to design for greater equity and justice with professor Julian Agyeman and host Tom Llewellyn.
Cities@Tufts Lectures is produced by Tufts University and Shareable.net with support from The Kresge Foundation, Barr Foundation and SHIFT Foundation.
Lectures are moderated by Professor Julian Agyeman and organized in partnership with research assistant Deandra Boyle. Roame Jasmin is our producer, Robert Raymond is our audio editor, the graphic recording was illustrated by Anke Dregnet, and the series is produced and hosted by Tom Llewellyn.
“Light Without Dark” by Cultivate Beats is our theme song and Caitlin McLennon created this episode's graphic.