24.
Environmental and Ecological Issues in Cities: An Anthropological Approach
Convenors:
Eveline
Dürr, Auckland University of Technology
Rivke
Jaffe, Leiden University
In an
increasingly urbanizing world, ecological and environmental issues are crucial
to the development of cities. Especially in non-Western societies and
metropolises, these topics have a strong impact on city dwellers’
everyday life as well as on future planning decisions. Air quality, garbage,
noise, stench, and other forms of pollution shape human habits and social
behavior. The anthropological approach concerning these topics focuses on the
cultural perceptions, meanings, and values attached to clean and dirty, purity
and impurity, healthy and unhealthy environments, and on the consequences of
pollution in terms of expression of discrimination, class, urban poverty,
social hierarchies, and ethnic segregation in cities.
Papers presented
in this workshop draw on fieldwork conducted in Africa, Latin America, Europe,
Asia Minor and the Caribbean. Topics explored range from culturally varied
definitions or social construction of nature, purity, cleanliness and
pollution, to the relationship between local communities, NGOs and the state;
it is evident that globalization processes influence environmental discourse
and politics at both the civil society and the government level. Some papers focus
on underprivileged or stigmatized communities and how these deal with solid
waste management issues, highlighting for instance including scavenging,
composting and other forms of recycling. Others study the dynamics of urban
fragmentation and social capital in relation to environmental management.
Comparative and
reflective anthropological research based on fieldwork, as presented in the
papers in this workshop, will contribute to the understanding of essential
environmental and social challenges facing cities today.
Management of
Economy, Ecology and Sanitation through Recycling of Waste in Urban Ethiopia
Almaz Terrefe, ECOSAN
project Ethiopia, Addis Ababa
The Choice of
‘Clean’ and ‘Dirty’: Acceptance and Rejection of
Renovated Bars and Cafés among Asmara’s Young Adults
Magnus Treiber,
University of Munich
The Blurred
Distance: The Emergence of ‘Impure Warsaw’
Wlodzimierz
Karol Pessel, University
of Warsaw
Los Jarochos
Verdes: Environmental Protection, Politics and Power in the State of Veracruz,
Mexico
Philip
Malmgren, University of Stockholm
From
Subculture to Movement: Transitions of the Hungarian Green Movement
Szabina
Kerenyi, Masarykova
Univerzita, Brno
Interrupting
Knowledge: Bureaucratic and ‘Ordinary’ Concerns in the Construction
of a Bridge
Aimilia
Voulvouli, University
College London
Fragmented
Cities: Social Capital, Violence and Environmental Management
Rivke
Jaffe, University of Leiden
Perceptual Content of the Social Footprint: A
Social Constructionist View of Meaning and Consequence
David
L. Iaquinta, Nebraska Wesleyan University
Axel
Drescher, University of Freiburg
Axel.Drescher@sonne.uni-freiburg.de
Jana
Gerold, University of Freiburg