May 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 40

JULIAN AGYEMAN

Born and trained in the U.K.,
Agyeman has a bachelor's degree
in geography and botany (University of Durham), a master's in conservation policy (Middlesex University), and a doctorate in urban
studies (University of London).
He identifies himself as a critical
urban planning and environmental
social science scholar. Agyeman is
professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at
Tufts University in Massachusetts,
as well as an acclaimed author of
12 books - many of which center
on just sustainabilities principles.

The just sustainabilities idea is not
simply social justice, it recognizes
the need to practice more socially
just ways of living, within the
limits of supporting ecosystems.
I personally had the honor of
having Professor Agyeman as my
academic advisor while completing
a master's in environmental policy
and planning at Tufts. His courses,
supporting lectures and guidance
not only inspired me, but also influenced the way I saw the world,
and more importantly, the way I
envisioned it could be.
Recently, I reunited with Professor
Agyeman for an interview for Parks
& Recreation magazine, in which he
discusses the concept behind just
sustainabilities, the importance of
maintaining a " co-production "
mindset with communities, and how
parks and recreation can help promote these practices in our respective
parks and communities.
Kristine Stratton: Could you start
by explaining the concept of just
sustainabilities?
Julian Agyeman: Sure. The con38

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cept of just sustainabilities came
out of a realization that I had in
the late '90s post Rio Earth Summit. There was what I called an
" equity deficit " in most sustainability discourse, practice and academic research. So, a group of
us got together and really thought
about...how the environmental
justice movement was on the rise
in the '90s, and how do we get the
" justice " of environmental justice
and insert it into this new policy
conversation, called sustainability
or sustainable development? And
we thought, " Hey, what about the
concept of just sustainabilities? "
So, we hammered out this idea and
really gave it a very broad definition: improving people's quality of life
now and into the future in a just and
equitable manner, while living within
the limits of ecosystems.
The just sustainabilities idea is
not simply social justice, it recognizes the need to practice more socially just ways of living, within the
limits of supporting ecosystems. We
recognize that there is no planet B.
So, just sustainabilities was about
acknowledging that we could probably legislate for a green planet, but
if that planet [weren't] also socially
just, would it really be sustainable
in the longer term? So, that was the
origin. My work is on how do we
bring just sustainabilities into public
policy and planning?
Stratton: When you take that
global concept and think
about the context of civic
institutions, our state and local
governments and agencies, how
do you see this concept of just
sustainabilities applying to parks
and recreation?
Agyeman: Well, I'm going to go
back to another concept that I've
been working on...[which is] this

idea of belonging and becoming.
When you think about cities, in
many ways, what [they] are better
at is saying, " We want to become
a smart city. We want to become
more resilient. We want to become sustainable. We want to become healthy. " And, that's good.
We need optimism, vision and
the notion that we can move to a
better place. But at the same time,
these cities are being gentrified -
inequality is increasing. We are
denying belonging to more and
more people.
So, what do I see? I see the city and
its institutions and parks as almost
being a gatekeeper. And, I want
those cities to dream big of what
they can become, but at the moment,
the deficit is in belonging. We are denying increasing numbers of people
the right to belong. And, ultimately,
our cities will only become as good
as we allow people to belong. If we
just allow the urban elites to define
what cities can become, we're not
going to be in a good place. We are
going to define elite spaces, which
will not be inclusive or welcoming
to people who don't feel that they're
part of that elite.
Stratton: Let's dig into that idea
of inclusion. Of course, parks and
recreation controls many of the
public gathering spaces: parks,
recreation centers, senior centers,
etc. When you think about that
vision of having inclusive spaces
where every member of the
community feels like they belong
and can access those resources,
what advice would you give park
and rec professionals in moving
from where we are today to a
future state where people do feel
like they belong?
Agyeman: I think there are three
key aspects of park and rec opera-

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