Kenneth A. Gould

"Green Gentrification and Environmental Injustice: Socio-Ecological Changes in the Neighborhoods of Brooklyn"

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

6 pm

301 Crosby, UB South Campus

AIA and AICP Continuing Education Credits Available

This research, conducted in collaboration with Tammy L. Lewis, examines the consequences of the “greening” of cities by analyzing four cases in Brooklyn, New York. We examine the actors who mobilize for urban sustainability initiatives and the consequences that greening has for neighborhoods. In each case, an environmental amenity has been (or is being) (re)constructed, and the neighborhood has changed as a result. The take away is that these urban greening initiatives tend to have negatively redistributive impacts, displacing less wealthy neighborhood residents and attracting wealthier in-migrants. Inequality and environmental injustice, however, are not inevitable outcomes. Early public policy interventions aimed at neighborhood stabilization can create more just outcomes. The research highlights some of the unintended consequences of movements to “green” the city, and suggests policy choices that can be used to address them.

Dr. Kenneth A. Gould is professor of sociology and director of the Urban Sustainability Program, Brooklyn College, and professor of sociology, and earth and environmental sciences, CUNY Graduate Center. His books include Environment and Society (1994), Local Environmental Struggles (1996), The Treadmill of Production (2008), and Twenty Lessons in Environmental Sociology (2015).