Isabelle Anguelovski talks about urban greening and climate justice in Brussels

Isabelle Anguelovski will be giving a lecture about urban greening and climate justice in the Brussels Centre for Urban Studies of the Vrije University.
 

Seminar: "Are urban greening and climate justice compatible?"

Speaker: Dr. Isabelle Anguelovski, ICTA-UAB researcher
 

Date: Thursday, 13 March 2025
Time: 17.30-19.30h
Venue: Brussels Centre for Urban Studies - Ixelles/Elsene

The 2024-2025 StadsSalonsUrbains Lecture Series explores the evolving role of urban welfare infrastructures in contemporary cities. It examines how access to social spaces and community resources—beyond basic services like education, healthcare, and utilities—shapes people's ability to live fulfilling lives. With the pressures of privatization, austerity, and shrinking public spaces, traditional welfare systems are increasingly under strain. However, cities also serve as hubs for innovative solutions, where community-based initiatives, new models of governance, and collaborations across civic, public, and private sectors are creating alternative social infrastructures. These spaces not only address practical needs but also foster collective well-being, progressive politics, and social justice. The lecture series delves into these dynamic and critical issues from diverse theoretical perspectives.

Are urban greening and climate justice compatible? 

This talk explores the complex and often overlooked dynamics of urban greening interventions, such as parks, greenways, and climate-resilient green infrastructure, and their unintended role in green gentrification. While many of these projects are designed to address a multiplicity of climate challenges, they frequently deepen or accelerate social inequalities, particularly in historically marginalized communities. Throughout the presentation, I will unpack the nuanced socio-spatial processes and feedback loops that contribute to new forms of green inequality yet also challenge the conventional narrative that equates urban greening with inevitable gentrification by examining some of the policy tools and civic action that can advance urban green justice and foster just climate urbanism.
 

Isabelle is an ICREA Research Professor, a Principal Investigator, and Head of the Gender, Diversity, and Wellbeing Committee at ICTA-UAB. She also currently coordinates the Catalan-funded SGR (Research Group) BCNUEJ. She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Studies from Science Po Lille and a Master’s in International Development at the Université de Paris 1 Sorbonne, pursued a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management at Harvard University and obtained a PhD in Urban Studies and Planning from MIT before returning to Europe in 2011 with a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship

As part of collaborative and individual international research projects, she studies how urban environmental injustice is materialized and contested. Currently, her focus is on four main research areas: 1) The politics of the green city as a growing global planning orthodoxy; 2) The social and racial manifestations and impacts of green gentrification for historically marginalized residents; 3) Urban planning for health and wellbeing, with a focus on health equity and justice; and 4) Justice and inclusivity in climate adaptation planning, including distributional and procedural insecurities produced by adaptation plans, interventions, and land use configurations and regulations. Her most current work examines the compounding environmental racisms and injustices faced by marginalized groups when exposed to climate impacts (e.g. heat, flooding), resilient infrastructures, and displacement pressures.