Urban heat justice is a topic that traverses both how people experience and suffer from heat, especially in the context of evolving climate crisis and its impacts on cities around the world.
In this episode we talk with Panagiota Kotsila about urban futures, climate related suffering and heat injustice – an issue entangled with disability injustice, racial justice, labour justice, housing justice and, in many cases, differentially experienced along lines of age, gender, and class.
We talk about the continuities of colonial histories and their presence in the health of migrants in cities who are differentially affected by urban heat - focusing on experiences from Barcelona, Spain.
We discuss how ‘green isn’t always good’, drawing on examples from Panagiota’s work around social justice issues of urban green spaces and the political ecologies of cities. We also learn about migrant knowledges as central to creating ‘emancipatory’ cities where the diverse needs of residents are met through active participation.
You can follow Panagiota on X/Twitter at @PKotsila.
Links
Some of the books, articles and initiatives mentioned in this episode are linked below. If you are viewing this episode on some podcast players, some links may not work: visit the original post on the Future Natures Substack.
Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability (website)
Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability (YouTube channel)
Undisciplined Environments Collective
Book: Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Justice by Raj Patel and Rupa Marya
Book: Insurgent Ecologies: Between Environmental Struggles and Postcapitalist Transformations. Edited by Undisciplined Environments Collective. Published by Fernwood Publishing - see especially Part 4: Feminisms (by Panagiota Kotsila, Ilenia Iengo and Irene Leonardelli)
Journal article: Expanding the Boundaries of Justice in Urban Greening Scholarship: Toward an Emancipatory, Antisubordination, Intersectional, and Relational Approach. 2020. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 110(6), 1743–1769.
Book chapter: Immigrant communities in Europe as situated knowledge holders for postcolonial and feminist urban adaptation to climate health risks. From the book Urban Movements and Climate Change (2023)
Panagiota’s upcoming research project: Embracing Immigrant Knowledges for Just Climate Health Adaptation (IMBRACE)
