Paul James, Urban Sustainability in Theory and Practice, notes.

1. Paul James, Urban
Sustainability in Theory and
Practice, notes.
Team 1

2. Part 1: Setting the Global-Local Scene
1. Confronting a world in crisis
● A common tension that people argue about is ‘social change for sustainability.’
● Changing the world is an aspiration, sustaining the world is a necessity
● Without specifying what is good, what is to be changed, and what is to be
sustaining, aspiring to both becomes contradictory
● Sustainability means conditions of enduring continuity (consistency), social
change causes discontinuities (disruption)

3. Use of Language
● Using conflicting concepts together has become our dominant way of
speaking
● Attention needs to be payed to how we describe these issues
● Rhetoric needs to be connected to practice (empty words otherwise)

4. About This Book
● This book will be used to understand concrete ways on how practitioners can
best go about creating a change amidst rushing global change and the
increased urge for sustainability
● Practitioners are important, they are the people who act
● Three fields of action
○ Civil Society (including universities and non-government organizations)
○ Governance Organizations (including municipalities)
○ Business

5. Questions
● How can we improve the common phrase, ‘social change for sustainability’ in
order to reflect the intended message without contradiction?
● What are the ways we can engage and explore the tension and conflict
inherently existing within the phrase, “social change for sustainability”? Can
this be done by introducing off the wall ideas not directly related to these
topics in order to generate new ideas to drive both pieces of this equation?
● How does social change generate discontinuities and how does it block
enduring sustainability?

6. ● How can social change generate discontinuities and how can it block
enduring sustainability?
Air pollution, deforestation, the sixth great extinction, ocean plastic waste, and the
consequences of a climate in crisis all originate from one driving force: consumption.
The demands that our “needs” place on the natural systems that sustain us are in an
unprecedented state of affect.
As humans, we love stuff — or more to the point, we love being in love with
things, we love having an easy and convenient life, and so it’s easy for us to be
encouraged to buy, own, and discard one thing for the next best thing.

7. Map | Sarah Coplan
Bright
Blue
Door
Driggs
Ave. Btwn
7th & 8th
St.
Pile of
Bikes
Driggs
Ave. & 7th
St.
Mirrored
Window
Lorimer St.
& Norman
Ave.
Sticker
Decorated
Trash Can
Roebling
Ave. & N
6th St.

8. Map | Avi Glibicky

9. Notes | Avi Glibicky Seagulls, Wind, Water, Steam, Helicopter
If I was a seagull I would cry out against the wind
Rusted and unkempt
Did you know the Florida Keys reside in Red Hook?
I notice the shine of the rocks on the pier and see them sparkle like
jewels, did man make it this way?
Green moss at the foot of the pier is the lushest shades of green.
Water brings life and man takes it away. From liquid to living to solid
and grey. From grey to green to grey again. I am at the end of this
connection. I notice the tracks on the pier and at the end a rundown
trolley car..left ..will it spring back to life ever again?
A distant buoy dings with a meditative consistency.
Ding...dong...ding dong..swaying back and forth as ferries go past.
I reach the end of the tracks

10. Map | xindi gao
cigarette butts in the corner Lots of cigarette butts
Trapped cigarette butts