Joost de Moor, “The Missing Movement on Urban Climate Adaptation?”, 24.02.2022, 17h30-19h

Seminar Cities WIP (Work in Process)

Sciences Po, Salle du Conseil, 13 rue de l’Université, 75007 Paris, Compulsory registration

Urban climate adaptation has become an increasingly urgent challenge – even across the so far relatively unaffected European continent. Moreover, critical climate scholars now underline adaptation’s deeply political nature, arguing that what counts as adaptation to one actor may present maladaptation to another. They moreover propose a transformational approach that incorporates adaptation into a radical project to address the fundamental drivers of climate vulnerability in society. Despite this contentious potential, there appears to be little evidence that climate movements across Europe are addressing adaptation. This is all the more surprising given what some depict as the movement’s shift towards ‘postapocalyptic environmentalism,’ which focuses on dealing with, rather than preventing climate disruptions as they are no longer seen as avoidable. Moreover, since transformational adaptation incorporates climate justice as a central tenet, it fits within much of the climate movement’s broader agenda. Why, then, do we see so few signs of mobilizations around urban adaptation on behalf of the climate movement or adjacent struggles? In this seminar, Joost de Moor will address this ‘mystery’ by reviewing main results from several of his recent studies, including a comparative case study of climate movements in five European cities, a case study of the Swedish city of Malmö, ethnographic research with one British climate movement organization, and survey research of participants in Fridays For Future climate strikes across 13 cities in Europe, Australia and the US. He will conclude by reflecting on a more holistic approach to studying the politicization and depoliticization of urban climate adaptation that looks beyond the role of (climate) movements.

Speaker

Joost de Moor, Assistant Professor in Political Science, Sciences Po, CEE

Joost de Moor is Assistant Professor in Political Science at SciencesPo (CEE). His work focuses on the various ways in which citizens concerned about the environment become politically active – individually or collectively – to address their concerns. In particular, he focuses on the ways in which environmental activists navigate a political context marked by the apparent inability of states and international organizations to address crises like climate change, focusing on the dilemmas involved in that. He has published on these topics in journals across fields of political sciences, sociology and urban studies, including in Environmental Politics, Theory & Society, and International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.

Collective Discussion

For more information: citiesarebackintown@sciencespo.fr

A valid health pass and mask are required to attend this event.

Compulsory registration