Schatz CenterWith Jola Ajibade, Ph.D., of Portland State University
Next up in our Climate and Clean Energy series, we explore the justice conundrum in coastal adaptation: should we retreat or invest in floating climatopias?
Dr. Jola Ajibade is an associate professor of geography and a scholar activist who applies both environmental justice and political ecology lenses to study the intersections of climate risk, urban disasters, resilience planning, coastal management, and societal transformations. Broadly speaking, her research focuses on how individuals, communities, and cities respond to global climate change and their different capacities for adaptation and transformation. In her recent research, she examines how climate adaptation solutions such as managed retreat programs, floating cities, tree planting, blue-green infrastructures, and utopian development projects intertwine with exclusionary planning practices to reproduce structural and historical injustices, thereby exacerbating racial, gender, and class-based inequalities and undermining the capacities of marginalized communities to respond to climatic and socio-economic crises.
In her works, Dr. Ajibade advances ideas about just urban adaptation through embracing feminist, decolonial, and antiracist approaches as well as care ethics that can lead to more just, livable, and sustainable urban futures. Her work also explores unconventional approaches such as partnering with social entrepreneurs, grassroots coalitions, cooperatives, and small businesses in promoting a shareable economy, sustainable lifestyle changes, low-carbon development, and socially just resilience planning in cities. Dr. Ajibade’s work has been featured in many academic journals and media outlets including Science Friday, NPR, Yale Environment 360, Science, New Internationalist, and Vice.
About the series
The Climate and Clean Energy Series is sponsored by the Schatz Energy Research Center at Cal Poly Humboldt. All events are free and open to the public.
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