Julian Agyeman
Biographic Data
| ID | 205448 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Julian Agyeman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Julian |
| FAMILY NAME | Agyeman |
| SIGNATURE | AGYEMAN J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tufts University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3209-5687 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 44 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1171 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 37 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 9 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Feeding cities
Acknowledging the historic presence of justice in climate research
Addressing unsustainability with the mindset that caused it
Resistance and Response in Planning
Planning for Climate Leadership
The profession of planning must act now to become an integral player addressing the existential crisis of climate change. This Commentary builds on the findings of the 2020–2021 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning’s Presidential Climate Action Task Force, which assessed opportunities to enhance the academy’s climate leadership in research, teaching, and operations. We argue that our field must integrate climate research and education in…
Sacred Civics
“You want protected bike lanes, I want protected Black children. Let’s link”
Since the early 2000s, academic research on equity and justice has become an increasingly integral component of transportation planning and policy-making. Less research, however, has focused specifically on the intersection of equity, justice, and active transportation (i.e. cycling and walking). This Viewpoint builds on some of the key concerns and barriers associated with active transportation for disadvantaged groups, especially but not exclus…
The Immigrant-Food Nexus
The intersection of food and immigration in North America, from the macroscale of national policy to the microscale of immigrants' lived, daily foodways. This volume considers the intersection of food and immigration at both the macroscale of national policy and the microscale of immigrant foodways—the intimate, daily performances of identity, culture, and community through food. Taken together, the chapters—which range from an account of the mil…
Immigrant-Food Nexus
Local Environment and the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability was first published in spring 1996, in the heady post-1992 UN World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) days. After t
Sustainable Communities and the Challenge of Environmental Justice
Popularized in the movies Erin Brockovich and A Civil Action , “environmental justice” refers to any local response to a threat against community health. In this book, Julian Agyeman argues that environmental justice and the sustainable communities movement are compatible in practical ways. Yet sustainability, which focuses on meeting our needs today while not compromising the ability of our successors to meet their needs, has not always partnere…
On belonging and becoming in the settler-colonial city
With a few notable exceptions, settler-colonial theory has not been applied to the study of U.S. cities and urban planning. Settler-colonial theory is a relatively new field of scholarship that interrogates the destruction of Indigenous laws, ways of knowing, and connections to place to make way for a new settler futurity. This futurity is particularly pronounced in cities, where Indigenous peoples have been rendered almost completely invisible a…
Are you really a Sanctuary City
Urban food sharing and the emerging Boston food solidarity economy
Trends and Directions in Environmental Justice
This article begins with a review and synthesis of some of the key theories, scholars, case examples, debates, methods, and (multiple) interpretations of environmental justice (EJ), as well as its expansion and globalization. We then look to some newly emerging themes, actions, and strategies for EJ and just sustainabilities. First, we look at the practices and materials of everyday life, illustrated by food and energy movements; second, the ongo…
Sharing Cities
How cities can build on the “sharing economy” and smart technology to deliver a “sharing paradigm” that supports justice, solidarity, and sustainability. The future of humanity is urban, and the nature of urban space enables, and necessitates, sharing—of resources, goods and services, experiences. Yet traditional forms of sharing have been undermined in modern cities by social fragmentation and commercialization of the public realm. In Sharing Ci…
Moving the Field of Food Justice Forward Through the Lens of Urban Political Ecology
Food justice has emerged as a powerful social movement across the USA as well as an increasingly studied academic concept. In many circumstances, the food justice movement operates to reject the neoliberal mechanisms that dominate today's food system, but simultaneously needs to operate within this system (to a degree) in order to exist. The movement's engagement with larger neoliberal structures, such as the increasingly consolidated transnation…
Global environmental justice or Le droit au monde
Just Sustainabilities
Introduction: Joined-Up Thinking: Bringing Together Sustainability, Environmental Justice and Equity * Part 1 - Some Theories and Concepts: Environmental Space, Equity and the Ecological Debt * Neo-Liberalism, Globalization and the Struggle for Ecological Democracy: Linking Sustainability and Environmental Justice * Inequality and Community and the Challenge to Modernization: Evidence from the Nuclear Oases * Part 2 - Challenges: Social Justice a…
Culture, Recognition, and the Negotiation of Difference
Recognizing, understanding, and engaging difference, diversity, and cultural heterogeneity in creative and productive ways requires cultural competency. In this article, we first define culture, difference, and equality as a platform to call for a broader conception of culture in the planning profession than that implicit in multiculturalism. Second, we discuss how a broader appreciation of culture is the foundation of planning for intercultural …
Environmental Inequalities Beyond Borders
Case studies demonstrate the spatial disconnect between global consumption and production and its effects on local environmental quality and human rights. Multinational corporations often exploit natural resources or locate factories in poor countries far from the demand for the products and profits that result. Developed countries also routinely dump hazardous materials and produce greenhouse gas emissions that have a disproportionate impact on …
Cultivating Food Justice
Documents how racial and social inequalities are built into our food system, and how communities are creating environmentally sustainable and socially just alternatives. Popularized by such best-selling authors as Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver, and Eric Schlosser, a growing food movement urges us to support sustainable agriculture by eating fresh food produced on local family farms. But many low-income neighborhoods and communities of color …
Shifting the Balance in Environmental Governance
This paper focuses on the notion of environmental citizenship in examining how black and minority ethnic groups (BME) in Britain talk about environmental “rights” alongside environmental responsibilities. This broader discursive context leads us to engage with two interpretations of sustainability promoting different policy and planning agendas—the environmental sustainability and just sustainability policy agendas—in understanding the multiple s…
Speaking for Ourselves
The concept of environmental justice has evolved over the past two decades to offer a new direction for social movements, public policy, and public planning. Researchers worldwide now position social equity as a building block for sustainability. Yet the relationship between social equity and the environmental aspects of sustainability has been little studied in Canada. Speaking for Ourselves draws together scholars and activists Aboriginal and n…
Natura Urbana
Mind the Gap
Numerous theoretical frameworks have been developed to explain the gap between the possession of environmental knowledge and environmental awareness, and displaying pro-environmental behavior. Although many hundreds of studies have been undertaken, no definitive explanation has yet been found. Our article describes a few of the most influential and commonly used analytical frameworks: early US linear progression models; altruism, empathy and pros…
Trends and Directions in Environmental Justice
This article begins with a review and synthesis of some of the key theories, scholars, case examples, debates, methods, and (multiple) interpretations of environmental justice (EJ), as well as its expansion and globalization. We then look to some newly emerging themes, actions, and strategies for EJ and just sustainabilities. First, we look at the practices and materials of everyday life, illustrated by food and energy movements; second, the ongo…
Just sustainability
Environmental justice is both a vocabulary for political opportunity, mobilization and action, and a policy principle to guide public decision making. It emerged initially in the US, and more recently in the UK, as a new vocabulary underpinning action by community organizations campaigning against environmental injustices. However, as the environmental justice discourse has matured, it has become increasingly evident that it should play a role in…
Exploring the Nexus
A paper based upon the original arguments of a book (Just Sustainabilities) by the same authors. It brings together sustainability with environmental justice and argues for an integrated approach by governments. The paper has been widely quoted as the first attempt to merge the sustainable development and environmental justice discourses
Sustainability schizophrenia or “actually existing sustainabilities?” toward a broader understanding of the politics and promise of local sustainability in the US
Toward Just Sustainability in Urban Communities
Two concepts that provide new directions for public policy, environmental justice and sustainability, are both highly contested. Each has tremendous potential to effect long-lasting change. Despite the historically different origins of these two concepts and their attendant movements, there exists an area of theoretical compatibility between them. This conceptual overlap is a critical nexus for a broad social movement to create livable, sustainab…
Toward a ‘just’ sustainability
Why should race and class, justice and equity play a role in sustainability? Has the current environmentally focused sustainability movement not done a good job? Irrespective of whether we take a g
Constructing Environmental (in)Justice
In the US, there are two primary environmental justice arenas. One is the activism, which draws on the skills of a wide range of community, academic and professional actors. This partnership draws on the Civil Rights Movement and organises through the internet. The other arena is the courtroom where environmental justice lawyers try to prove 'racial intent'. In the UK, there is an emerging call for environmental justice, but there is no comparabl…
Culture, Recognition, and the Negotiation of Difference
Recognizing, understanding, and engaging difference, diversity, and cultural heterogeneity in creative and productive ways requires cultural competency. In this article, we first define culture, difference, and equality as a platform to call for a broader conception of culture in the planning profession than that implicit in multiculturalism. Second, we discuss how a broader appreciation of culture is the foundation of planning for intercultural …
Moving the Field of Food Justice Forward Through the Lens of Urban Political Ecology
Food justice has emerged as a powerful social movement across the USA as well as an increasingly studied academic concept. In many circumstances, the food justice movement operates to reject the neoliberal mechanisms that dominate today's food system, but simultaneously needs to operate within this system (to a degree) in order to exist. The movement's engagement with larger neoliberal structures, such as the increasingly consolidated transnation…
Urban food sharing and the emerging Boston food solidarity economy
Global environmental justice or Le droit au monde
Assembling Justice Spaces
In contrast to the US environmental justice movement, which has been successful in building a networked environmentalism that recognises—and has impacted upon—national patterns of distributional (in)equalities, campaigns in the UK have rarely developed beyond the local or articulated a coherent programme of action that links to wider socio‐spatial justice issues or effects real changes in the regulatory or political environment. Our purpose in th…
Shifting the Balance in Environmental Governance
This paper focuses on the notion of environmental citizenship in examining how black and minority ethnic groups (BME) in Britain talk about environmental “rights” alongside environmental responsibilities. This broader discursive context leads us to engage with two interpretations of sustainability promoting different policy and planning agendas—the environmental sustainability and just sustainability policy agendas—in understanding the multiple s…
Planning for Climate Leadership
The profession of planning must act now to become an integral player addressing the existential crisis of climate change. This Commentary builds on the findings of the 2020–2021 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning’s Presidential Climate Action Task Force, which assessed opportunities to enhance the academy’s climate leadership in research, teaching, and operations. We argue that our field must integrate climate research and education in…
Is there more to environmental participation than meets the eye? Understanding agency, empowerment and disempowerment among black and minority ethnic communities
We centred the research gaze on the cultural and ethnic interpretations of environmental dis/engagement among black and minority ethnic groups, which has been under-explored in the UK literature on public participation. We conducted focus groups with black and minority ethnic communities and in-depth interviews with community representatives and key actors facilitating sustainability policy. We identified from our analysis the sub-themes of a ‘di…
Action, experience, behaviour and technology
As I (re)read Jensen and Schnack’s ‘Action competence approach in environmental education’ and Payne’s ‘The technics of environmental education’ I was reminded of a Thanksgiving Dinner a few years
Teaching Urban Nature at Key Stage 2 in England
In this paper it is argued that teachers in England at Key Stage 2 (KS2), i.e. teachers of pupils of 7‐11‐years‐old, have been influenced by Urban Wildlife Groups (UWGs), amongst others, in relation to what they teach in urban nature. The research presented shows that teachers have selected ideas from a set of traditional ecological values, theories and practices, originally developed for rural, not urban environments. The distinction between ‘na…
Teaching Urban Nature at Key Stage 2 in England
In this paper it is argued that teachers in England at Key Stage 2 (KS2), i.e. teachers of pupils of 7‐11‐years‐old, have been influenced by Urban Wildlife Groups (UWGs), amongst others, in relation to what they teach in urban nature. The research presented shows that teachers have selected ideas from a set of traditional ecological values, theories and practices, originally developed for rural, not urban environments. The distinction between ‘na…
The Road to Johannesburg
Exploring the Nexus
A paper based upon the original arguments of a book (Just Sustainabilities) by the same authors. It brings together sustainability with environmental justice and argues for an integrated approach by governments. The paper has been widely quoted as the first attempt to merge the sustainable development and environmental justice discourses
Mind the Gap
Numerous theoretical frameworks have been developed to explain the gap between the possession of environmental knowledge and environmental awareness, and displaying pro-environmental behavior. Although many hundreds of studies have been undertaken, no definitive explanation has yet been found. Our article describes a few of the most influential and commonly used analytical frameworks: early US linear progression models; altruism, empathy and pros…
Constructing Environmental (in)Justice
In the US, there are two primary environmental justice arenas. One is the activism, which draws on the skills of a wide range of community, academic and professional actors. This partnership draws on the Civil Rights Movement and organises through the internet. The other arena is the courtroom where environmental justice lawyers try to prove 'racial intent'. In the UK, there is an emerging call for environmental justice, but there is no comparabl…
Toward Just Sustainability in Urban Communities
Two concepts that provide new directions for public policy, environmental justice and sustainability, are both highly contested. Each has tremendous potential to effect long-lasting change. Despite the historically different origins of these two concepts and their attendant movements, there exists an area of theoretical compatibility between them. This conceptual overlap is a critical nexus for a broad social movement to create livable, sustainab…
Sustainability schizophrenia or “actually existing sustainabilities?” toward a broader understanding of the politics and promise of local sustainability in the US
Just sustainability
Environmental justice is both a vocabulary for political opportunity, mobilization and action, and a policy principle to guide public decision making. It emerged initially in the US, and more recently in the UK, as a new vocabulary underpinning action by community organizations campaigning against environmental injustices. However, as the environmental justice discourse has matured, it has become increasingly evident that it should play a role in…
The New Countryside?
While reforms of welfare policies have been widely analysed, the reform of welfare administration has received little attention. Using empirical case studies, this book provides new insights into the way welfare administration is being internationally transformed. Particular attention is given to the effect on welfare clients, staff and agencies.
The new countryside?
The new countryside?Ethnicity, nation and exclusion in contemporary rural Britain
This book explores issues of ethnicity, identity, and radicalised exclusion in rural Britain. It questions what the countryside ‘is’, problematises who is seen as belonging to rural spaces, and argues for the recognition of a rural multiculture. The book brings together the latest research findings to provide an account of current theory, policy, and practice. Using interdisciplinary frameworks and new empirical data, it provides a critical and c…
The new countryside?
The New Countryside
Action, experience, behaviour and technology
As I (re)read Jensen and Schnack’s ‘Action competence approach in environmental education’ and Payne’s ‘The technics of environmental education’ I was reminded of a Thanksgiving Dinner a few years
Communicating “just Sustainability”
Somewhere about the middle of my keynote address to the 2007 Conference on Communication and the Environment (COCE) at De Paul University, Chicago, I made a statement and asked a question that I th
Creating a Climate for Change
The need for effective communication, public outreach and education to increase support for policy, collective action and behaviour change is ever present, and is perhaps most pressing in the context of anthropogenic climate change. This book is the first to take a comprehensive look at communication and social change specifically targeted to climate change. It is a unique collection of ideas examining the challenges associated with communicating…
Toward a ‘just’ sustainability
Why should race and class, justice and equity play a role in sustainability? Has the current environmentally focused sustainability movement not done a good job? Irrespective of whether we take a g
Polluted Promises
Close to the Edge, down by the River? Joining up Managed Retreat and Place Attachment in a Climate Changed World
Assembling Justice Spaces
In contrast to the US environmental justice movement, which has been successful in building a networked environmentalism that recognises—and has impacted upon—national patterns of distributional (in)equalities, campaigns in the UK have rarely developed beyond the local or articulated a coherent programme of action that links to wider socio‐spatial justice issues or effects real changes in the regulatory or political environment. Our purpose in th…
Speaking for Ourselves
The concept of environmental justice has evolved over the past two decades to offer a new direction for social movements, public policy, and public planning. Researchers worldwide now position social equity as a building block for sustainability. Yet the relationship between social equity and the environmental aspects of sustainability has been little studied in Canada. Speaking for Ourselves draws together scholars and activists Aboriginal and n…
Is there more to environmental participation than meets the eye? Understanding agency, empowerment and disempowerment among black and minority ethnic communities
We centred the research gaze on the cultural and ethnic interpretations of environmental dis/engagement among black and minority ethnic groups, which has been under-explored in the UK literature on public participation. We conducted focus groups with black and minority ethnic communities and in-depth interviews with community representatives and key actors facilitating sustainability policy. We identified from our analysis the sub-themes of a ‘di…
Environmental Inequalities Beyond Borders
Case studies demonstrate the spatial disconnect between global consumption and production and its effects on local environmental quality and human rights. Multinational corporations often exploit natural resources or locate factories in poor countries far from the demand for the products and profits that result. Developed countries also routinely dump hazardous materials and produce greenhouse gas emissions that have a disproportionate impact on …
Cultivating Food Justice
Documents how racial and social inequalities are built into our food system, and how communities are creating environmentally sustainable and socially just alternatives. Popularized by such best-selling authors as Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver, and Eric Schlosser, a growing food movement urges us to support sustainable agriculture by eating fresh food produced on local family farms. But many low-income neighborhoods and communities of color …
Shifting the Balance in Environmental Governance
This paper focuses on the notion of environmental citizenship in examining how black and minority ethnic groups (BME) in Britain talk about environmental “rights” alongside environmental responsibilities. This broader discursive context leads us to engage with two interpretations of sustainability promoting different policy and planning agendas—the environmental sustainability and just sustainability policy agendas—in understanding the multiple s…
Political science (32 works) · Sociology (26 works) · Law (20 works) · Environmental Justice and Health Disparities (17 works) · Environmental ethics (14 works) · Geography (13 works) · Ecology (12 works) · Economic Justice (12 works) · Environmental justice (12 works) · Economics (10 works)