Julian Agyeman

Carbon markets: a new form of colonialism for Indigenous Peoples? The interconnected and compounding climate change and biodiversity crises have led to increased urgency in moving towards transformational change within how national and international sustainability e...

Indigenous Peoples' exclusion from carbon market decision making is ongoing. Platformed on substantial inequities, marginalisation, and racism, we ask if carbon markets are a new form of colonialism? Are there potential opportunities for Indigenous Peoples? www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

‘Our dreams were shattered’: the Black Californians forced from the city they built In the 60s, the white city of Hayward removed residents of Russell City. Now a $1m reparations fund has been approved – and important histories are coming to light

From West Oakland to San Francisco’s Bayview-Hunter’s Point neighborhood, the Bay Area has a long history of displacement that has largely been forgotten. The work of a state-wide reparations task-force, as well as local reparations efforts are now shining a light www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The nature of AI: Metabolism, energy, water, labour and justice in the urban political ecology of artificial intelligence - Federico Cugurullo, Federico Caprotti, Jennie Day, Shona Geoghegan, Casey R ... The integration of vast volumes of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology into the built environment is changing the metabolism of urban spaces. Due to the pre...

How is urban AI altering urban metabolism? Through an Urban Political Ecology lens focusing on energy, water and labour we discuss how the urban metabolisms altered by AI are reproducing uneven dynamics of development leading to different forms of injustice. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Waymo and its self-driving cars face steep opposition in Boston Waymo recently mapped the city's streets, prompting officials and drivers to sound the alarm over self-driving cars.

I tried Waymo in Tempe, AZ. It works there, from a technical standpoint. A critical difference is that Boston’s streets are challenging. The city lacks a traditional grid system, has many narrow one-way streets, and incorporates heavy pedestrian and cyclist traffic. www.boston.com/news/local-n...

My life as a park bench - Monocle Have you heard? You humans are rethinking the very function that we benches have performed so honourably for centuries. It’s...

What if our civic infrastructure was sentient!? "We park benches - donated, commissioned, old, new, flaking and freshly painted – remain an unsung player of public life. I’ve seen crying babies, sore knees, spilled coffees, mudpies, quiet cries – two marriage proposals.." monocle.com/affairs/urba...

How flood-ravaged Boston took on the climate deniers – and won As the Trump administration dismisses global heating, the coastal city is getting on with becoming one of the most climate resilient in the world. Here’s how

Last August city mayor @wutrain.bsky.social set up the US’s first Office of Climate Resilience. “We needed an office solely focused on delivering climate resilience infrastructure, because otherwise it won’t get done,” says Brian Swett chief climate officer. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Thank you. What you said means everything to me. What was your real name?!

YouTube video by JUST Centre JUST International Launch Webinar

Thrilled to be part of the international launch of the JUST centre at Manchester University @justcentre.bsky.social last week alongside professors Sherilyn MacGregor, Lucie Middlemiss, Rebecca Willis and Stefan Bouzarovski. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArCO...

‘It’s what I’ve always done’: Continuity and change in the household sustainability practices of Somali immigrants in the UK This paper explores the household sustainability practices of people who have migrated from the Global South to the Global North, by studying how Soma…

Do people from ‘less developed countries’ need to be socialised into adopting household sustainability practices? Policy makers should consider more elastic notions of household sustainability, to better fit the lifestyles/motivations of immigrant communities. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

How extreme car dependency is driving Americans to unhappiness A car is often essential in the US but while owning a vehicle is better than not for life satisfaction, a study has found, having to drive too much sends happiness plummeting

There’s a tipping point where more driving leads to deeper unhappiness. While having a car is better than not for overall life satisfaction, having to drive for more than 50% of the time for out-of-home activities is linked to a decrease in life satisfaction. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...

From Seattle to Atlanta, new social housing programs seek to make homes permanently affordable for a range of incomes Americans are realizing that the country’s two-tiered system of market-rate housing and government-operated, low-income housing isn’t doing the trick.

Despite nationwide, bipartisan skepticism of govt. and tax increases, Seattle’s voters show, in light of a severe affordability crisis, a new role for the public sector and a new, dedicated fiscal revenue stream for housing is not only necessary, but possible. theconversation.com/from-seattle...

New York City’s congestion pricing has cut pollution and traffic – but Trump still wants to kill it With less congestion, less carbon pollution, less accidents, could it be a model for other US cities? Six months in, environmentalists say yes

Traffic congestion in Manhattan, site of the $9 charge zone is substantially down, cars and buses are moving faster, air quality is improving as carbon emissions drop, a creaking public transportation system has new verve, there are fewer car accidents/injuries www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Towards everyday conceptions of justice in community-led planning This paper draws upon a novel analytical framework to review a sample of community-led plans produced across the four nations of the United Kingdom. It explores how communities interpret issues of ...

Abstracted notions of equality, diversity and inclusion are almost entirely absent in plans developed by deprived communities which are more likely to focus on tangible issues of local importance such as access to affordable housing, health and service provision. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

35 years old, this foul Cambridge dump has become an urban jewel - The Boston Globe Danehy Park is considered to be an extraordinary urban planning success story, the type of neighborhood anchor that residents couldn’t now imagine living without.

Celebrating its 35th year, Danehy Park is considered an extraordinary urban planning success story At >50 acres, it is the largest park Cambridge, MA owns. It’s also near affordable housing developments, which Danehy’s evangelists say underscores its importance. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/06/m...

Keeping SNAP in Line with Global Evidence on Food Security | NEJM Proposals to introduce nutrition-based restrictions in SNAP ignore a global movement away from this kind of welfare program administration and toward systems that can more effectively improve health.

#SNAP is already globally unusual as an antipoverty program. Cash-like, just for non-prepared foods, at approved retailers.

Evidence from cash transfer programs suggests there are easier ways to protect #foodsecurity.

🛟 🩺📊 🩺 #econsky #academicsky

Understanding accessibility and disability in the planning profession: an examination of planners’ knowledge and practices | Town Planning Review Disability discrimination has been prohibited in Canada for decades, yet people with disabilities continue to experience inaccessible built environments. Canada’s most populous province – Ontario – has well-developed accessibility legislation but was ...

Planners have limited understanding of accessibility/disability, limited experience engaging with people with disabilities, and limited educational training. Importantly, planners were eager to learn more to enhance their practice. www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/full/10....

💻 UPCOMING WEBINAR 💻

𝙀𝙣𝙫𝙞𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙡 𝙅𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙅𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙗𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮

Speakers: @mtejada24.bsky.social and @julianagyeman.bsky.social

𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲: 18 July, 2025 09:00-10:00am (Pacific Time Zone)

Click the link in bio to register!

🚨Join us for the International Launch of the JUST Centre, with keynote remarks from Prof. Julian Agyeman and a discussion with Centre Director Prof. Sherilyn MacGregor, Co-Investigators Prof. Lucie Middlemiss, Prof. Stefan Bouzarovski and Prof. Rebecca Willis.

Register here: tinyurl.com/5bxfdb2z

Health outcomes in redlined versus non-redlined neighborhoods: A systematic review and meta-analysis Redlining was a racialized zoning practice in the U.S. that blocked fair access to home loans during the 1930s, and recent research is illuminating he…

Living in historically redlined areas is associated with increased risk of multiple serious adverse health outcomes. Further research on mechanisms/remediation/neighborhood-level interventions will strengthen our understanding of redlining’s impacts on health. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Planning for dispossession: the continuing legacy of settler-colonialism in contemporary urban planning practices Drawing on a case study of Brisbane, Australia, this paper explores the parallels between the historical formation of settler-colonial cities and cont…

Findings show an understanding of the legacy of colonial approaches to land management/property delineation, and how they continue to permeate throughout contemporary planning practices, including the ongoing effects of dispossession and historical revisionism. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Show Your Stripes Visualising how the climate has changed for every country across the globe

The “warming stripes” are an iconic climate data visualization, adopted globally as a symbol of our warming world. Here’s Boston’s stripes on #ShowYourStripes day showyourstripes.info/c/northameri...

Displaced By Design: Fifty Years of Gentrification and Black Cultural Displacement in US Cities » NCRC A new analysis of gentrification and displacement since 1980 -- with interactive maps.

The Displaced by Design interactive map visualizes 50 years of neighborhood change and gentrification across U.S. cities, from 1970 to 2020. It provides a powerful, data-driven look at how urban development has reshaped communities—often along racial and economic lines. ncrc.org/displaced-by...

The link between low-stress bicycle facilities and bicycle commuting - Nature Cities Bicycling offers a range of benefits for urban commuters, but the facilities that best facilitate bicycle lane use are still unclear. Using data from 28 US cities, this study found that bicycle lanes ...

Protected bike lane mileage installed was significantly associated with bike commuter increases that were 52.5% stronger than standard bicycle lane mileage and 281.2% stronger than shared-lane marking mileage. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Join us on 15 July (2.00-3.00pm BST) for a webinar to launch the JUST Centre. Keynote by Prof Julian Agyeman followed by panel discussion. @julianagyeman.bsky.social
@justcentre.bsky.social

www.eventbrite.com/e/internatio...

Congestion pricing has transformed New York City streets – but can it survive Trump? The first of its kind in the US, a new traffic toll in Manhattan has produced impressive early results while facing looming challenges

Since January, an average of 70,000 fewer vehicles have entered the congestion zone each day, according to the MTA. That’s roughly 2m fewer cars on the road every month. Traffic is down moderately; vehicles are moving between 5 and 10% faster during peak hours www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

I'll be chairing 2 important sessions at the XXVI International Conference of the Society for Human Ecology (SHE) at UMons this week. This first one is a double keynote with @winterchristine.bsky.social and @julianagyeman.bsky.social! We'll talk about (in)justice, ecology, cities and... sand!

A photo of Dr. Julian Agyeman and the text: Just Sustainabilities in Policy, Planning & Practice. The Leeson Lecture, The University of Rhode Island, Metcalf. June 10, 3:30pm at the URI Bay Campus

The Metcalf Institute's Leeson Lecture is this Tuesday! @julianagyeman.bsky.social presents “Just Sustainabilities in Policy, Planning and Practice,” a can’t-miss talk for anyone engaged in urban planning and food justice. ⬇️

June 10 @ 3:30pm
URI Bay Campus

web.uri.edu/metcalf/crit...

Where are urban farms and community gardens? Examining sociodemographic and neighbourhood characteristics associated with urban agriculture in Ohio Urban agriculture is experiencing a renaissance in interest from policymakers and scholars who identify its potential to improve food access, increase greenery, beautify industrial spaces, and prom...

This research sheds light on how urban agriculture initiatives, and their potential benefits, are distributed and supports the creation of larger urban agriculture datasets to examine patterns across geographies and between types of urban agriculture organisations www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The mediating effects of particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) and sociodemographic indicators and health conditions on the relationship between historic redlining and modern-day life expectancy Background: Few studies have utilized mediation analysis to examine both direct and indirect relationships between historic redlining and modern-day outcomes of interest. Objectives: Our study (1) ...

Our study suggests the long-lasting ramifications of historic redlining in predicting modern-day life expectancy and highlights potential points of intervention to reverse the implications of structurally racist practices. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

2025 Leeson Lecture: Dr. Julian Agyeman 2025 Leeson Lecture: Dr. Julian Agyeman Tuesday, June 10, 2025, 3:30 p.m.Corless Auditorium, URI Bay CampusClick here to register Dr. Julian Agyeman is an author and professor of urban and environment...

web.uri.edu/metcalf/crit...