Critical Sustainabilities

Environmental crisis amidst neoliberal modes of governance has brought a new era of green “solutionism,” marked by faith in technological fixes for systemic problems, the bifurcation of ecological from social questions, and an orientation toward stasis and reform rather than change and revolution. CUES examines these interventions and their consequences with the goal of thinking productively about progressive alternatives in both scholarly and policy realms.

Concretely, our research topics include ideas about “nature,” geographies of environmental and racial (in)justice, and the political economy and political ecology of disasters and post-disaster redevelopment, food and agriculture, energy and decarbonization, militarization, finance, housing, and urban sustainability and climate planning. Across these areas, we’ve drawn political and policy lessons from our work including how to “democratize the green city,” foreground  affordable housing and anti-displacement policy in sustainability planning, and integrate visions for indigenous stewardship and other “vernacular sustainabilities” in land management.

Beyond critique, we also aim to explore and lift up engaged, future-facing, justice-oriented visions for socio-ecological change and movement building within and beyond the Santa Cruz region.

Related Projects

Related Article

Related Publications

Last modified: Nov 17, 2023