Urban
Urban Interest Group
The Urban Interest Group brings together scholars and practitioners who work at—and seek to explore further—the intersection of peacebuilding’s urban and environmental dimensions. Recognizing the importance of urbanization globally and the significant share of the world’s population that lives in cities today, as well as cities as influential global agents (including on issues like climate change), it is timely to treat “the urban” and the environment as no longer separate.
The IG recognizes that a lot of work, both research and practice, already touches upon both urban and environmental issues. Building on this work, the IG will constitute a forum for exchange and making those links more explicit. For those oriented toward theory, this can mean theorizing the links better and for those oriented toward policy and practice, this may mean pinpointing the challenges and elaborating solutions specific to navigating the urban-environmental interface.
Background
Despite the obvious impacts of environmental and climate change on cities – and cities being important actors in climate mitigation and adaptation – the environmental peacebuilding literature yet to engage significantly with urbanity. This is all the more surprising given the growing body of scholarly work on urban conflict and peacebuilding. In parallel, studies on urban pollution, heat islands, or green gentrification have already drawn links to violence and conflict. In perpetuating the long-held trope of "nature vs. city", the environmental peacebuilding field would benefit from more intentionally engaging with important dynamics that feed conflict or provide opportunities for peacebuilding.
Aims of the Urban IG
The Urban IG brings together scholars and practitioners who work on urban aspects of environmental peace and conflict (and the environmental dimension of urban conflict and peacebuilding), and those who are interested in further developing environmental conflict and peacebuilding work in cities.
More specifically, it is anticipated that the IG will start by:
- setting out a collective research agenda
- providing a forum for exchange & peer-learning
- connecting researchers and practitioners in the spirit of interdisciplinary, collaborative and participatory action research
- raising awareness on the increasing importance of environment-related conflicts in (and driven by) urban areas and the approaches for managing conflicts and building positive relationships
Potential thematic areas of work (non-exhaustive; drawing from the 2024 Scoping Session)
- city diplomacy
- urban climate action (conflicts)
- urban energy production
- urban resilience
- urban alternative dispute resolution institutions
- nature-based solutions, environmental remediation, and repair
- urban agriculture and food
- “slow violence” and urban justice
- infrastructure and transportation, WASH
Potential activities
Based on the outcome of an initial scoping session on urban environmental peacebuilding organized virtually by EnPAx on September 26, 2024, and a follow-up survey of participants, the IG could start with the following activities:
- collaboration with partner organizations (e.g. UN-Habitat / UNDRR on data and foresight) and new professional organizations (e.g., engineering, architecture)
- host a “project insights”/peer-feedback events series, in which practitioners present their project, define a challenge, and receive community questions and input in response
- academic publications
- mentorship at the intersection of urban/environmental for new graduates, and professionals seeking to pivot in their careers
- research-in-progress panels
- engaging the media / shaping public discourse
- practitioners-meet-researcher engagement sessions for collaborations
- book talks