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Presentation Type
Recorded Presentation Video
Event Website
https://naturelab.risd.edu/events/recap-the-regeneration-a-virtual-series/
Start Date
18-2-2021 12:00 PM
End Date
18-2-2021 1:15 PM
Description
February 18 hosted the fifth conversation in the Regeneration series with Teju Adisa-Farrar, geographer, writer, and poet focused on contemporary and historical Black geographies as they relate to the environment, urban ecologies and culture. Take a look at this document with resources that were mentioned during the conversation to further your learning.
During this conversation, Teju presented on how gentrification is not only a social issue, but also an environmental issue. Beginning around the time of the violent European conquest of the “New World,” commodification of nature became a global idealogy that aimed to centralize economies around the world. This caused a ripple effect of global shifts, including genocide of Indigenous communities, enslavement and forced migration of Africans, increased control over and mass extraction of natural resources, and entrenchment of European settler colonialism around the world.
These major shifts caused the problems we face today: the overdevelopment of economic urban centers, gentrification of historical spaces, displacement of communities, and destruction of natural landscapes. When we ask ourselves why these changes exacerbate injustices, as Teju asserted, the “environments in the western world are structured by racism.” We need to think about the long-lasting impacts of these environmental shifts before we can begin to understand where our world is now and how to change things for the better.
Teju posed the question, “How can we think about growth differently so that it’s less about scaling and more about reconnecting with sustainable systems and knowledges? How can we design with nature instead of around nature?” We need to design and grow with both our global histories and regenerative futures in mind.
Regeneration with Teju Adisa-Farrar
February 18 hosted the fifth conversation in the Regeneration series with Teju Adisa-Farrar, geographer, writer, and poet focused on contemporary and historical Black geographies as they relate to the environment, urban ecologies and culture. Take a look at this document with resources that were mentioned during the conversation to further your learning.
During this conversation, Teju presented on how gentrification is not only a social issue, but also an environmental issue. Beginning around the time of the violent European conquest of the “New World,” commodification of nature became a global idealogy that aimed to centralize economies around the world. This caused a ripple effect of global shifts, including genocide of Indigenous communities, enslavement and forced migration of Africans, increased control over and mass extraction of natural resources, and entrenchment of European settler colonialism around the world.
These major shifts caused the problems we face today: the overdevelopment of economic urban centers, gentrification of historical spaces, displacement of communities, and destruction of natural landscapes. When we ask ourselves why these changes exacerbate injustices, as Teju asserted, the “environments in the western world are structured by racism.” We need to think about the long-lasting impacts of these environmental shifts before we can begin to understand where our world is now and how to change things for the better.
Teju posed the question, “How can we think about growth differently so that it’s less about scaling and more about reconnecting with sustainable systems and knowledges? How can we design with nature instead of around nature?” We need to design and grow with both our global histories and regenerative futures in mind.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/naturelab_regeneration/conversations/videos/5