This event will launch ‘Social Sustainability, Climate Resilience and Community-Based Urban Development: What about the people?’ a new book by Dr Cathy Baldwin (ISCA, University of Oxford) and Dr Robin King (World Resources Institute, USA). It also aims to raise awareness of the importance of interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration in creating, and maintaining, cities that support socially sustainable and climate resilient communities in the light of climate change, one of the biggest planetary crises facing human civilisation.
Speakers:
Book authors – Dr Cathy Baldwin & Dr Robin King
Prof Steve Rayner, Director, Institute for Science, Innovation and Society, University of Oxford
Prof Marcus Banks, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford
Prof Michael Keith, Director of COMPAS (Centre on Migration, Policy, and Society), Co-ordinator of Urban Transformations (The ESRC portfolio of investments and research on cities), and Co-Director of the University of Oxford Future of Cities programme.
Dr Vlad Mykhnenko, Sustainable Urban Development, University of Oxford
Dr Bridget Durning, Environmental Assessment and Management, Oxford Brookes University
Ben Cave, University of Liverpool, and Ben Cave Associates (Public Health Consultant.
This evening event will feature live music from The Lochaber Badgers, the Subfucs, Jermey Lowe (jazz saxophone), John Carnie (Scottish folk guitar), Roz Austin (funk cello); local art by Oxford artist Hugh Pryor; and will be followed by refreshments.
There will also be the opportunity to purchase the book at a 20% discount on the night.
About the book:
‘Social Sustainability, Climate Resilience and Community-Based Urban Development: What about the people?‘ looks at the role of urban planning and the design of infrastructure and public spaces, and participatory community involvement in urban development in promoting positive community behaviours and states of mind that boost daily social sustainability and community resilience to climate change-related adverse weather events and natural disasters in 14 countries in the global south and north. Countries include India, the USA, South Africa, Indonesia, the UK, Brazil, and New Zealand. It features a socially aware planning process and set of evidence-based policy recommendations which are already being used to guide urban developments in Australia and Holland.
Abstract:
Urban communities around the world face increased stress from natural disasters linked to climate change, and other urban pressures. They need to grow rapidly stronger in order to cope, adapt, and flourish. Strong social networks and social cohesion can be more important for a community’s resilience than the actual physical structures of a city. But how can urban planning and design support these critical collective social strengths?
This book offers blue sky thinking from the applied social and behavioural sciences, and urban planning. It looks at case studies from fourteen countries around the world – including India, USA, South Africa, Indonesia, UK, and New Zealand – focusing on initiatives for housing, public space, and transport stops, and also natural disasters such as flooding and earthquakes. Building on these insights, the authors propose a “gold standard”: a socially-aware planning process and policy recommendation for those drawing up city sustainability and climate change resilience strategies, and urban developers looking to build climate-proof infrastructure and spaces.
This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of urban studies, resilience studies, and climate change policy, as well as policymakers and practitioners working in related fields.
If you have any access needs contact Cathy Baldwin. This event is being held on the ground floor.
