K6ET 2130 - Contentious Climate Politics in the City*

Conflicts are inherent to climate change. Despite common discourses emphasizing climate as being beyond politics, win-win solutions, and the need for cooperation in ‘multi-stakeholder governance', climate politics are always contentious – be that articulated or not. Nowhere does this become as apparent as in the city. In a context of global urbanization, urban space becomes increasingly scarce, and with limited urban space, one cannot just add (green) options to the menu. Decisions must be made, generating winners and losers, and producing grievances that often lead to conflict. These conflicts in turn shape the production of urban space. Several examples demonstrate these points: 1. Environmental justice campaigners have contested unequal distributions of environmental goods and bads in the city for decades. 2. Climate activists have increasingly occupied squares and disrupted the flow of urban economies to demand stronger climate action. 3. Urban development increasingly produces ‘green gentrification' and ‘climate apartheid', as well as opposition to those processes. 4. As centers of consumption, cities carry disproportionate responsibility for climate change, while also being centers where consumerism is opposed and alternatives are developed. 5. As climate impacts increasingly disrupt cities across the globe, they become centers for the contestation of climate adaptation. Who is entitled to what protection, and who decides? In short, cities are spaces where climate injustices are produced, experienced and opposed. The aim of this course to explore and understand these processes, and more specifically: 1. To understand the various ways in which climate change and climate injustices are produced and experienced in the city. 2. To understand the conditions for the emergence or absence of urban contestation of climate injustices, the forms these contestations take, and the actors they involve. 3. To understand the impact of such contestation on the development of climate urbanism. More generally, this approach allows us to interrogate the triangular relation between cities, climate change and contentious politics. What is contentious about climate politics? What is the role of cities in producing and contesting climate injustices? Under what conditions do climate politics become contentious? And how are climate futures produced in the city? The course addresses these questions in an interdisciplinary fashion, combining social movement studies, urban studies, and environmental studies. It combines theoretical perspectives on urban space, urban climate governance, contentious politics, comparative politics, and climate justice with case studies from across various geographical contexts, but with a stronger focus on European cities.

Cours magistral seul

English

For each of the 12 sessions, students will have to read one article or chapter. They will have to briefly answer reading questions for each text that will be submitted to Moodle. Occasionally, presentations or similar in-class activities will need to be prepared.

This interdisciplinary course is open to students from all backgrounds, yet a basic knowledge of the impacts of climate change on cities, as well as a general understanding of social science theories and methods is assumed

Autumn 2024-2025

This mandatory course is validate 4 ECTS. The final grade will be based on 1) a presentation; 2) a mid-term paper written in groups (2000-2500 words), 3) one final individual paper (2000-2500 words).

12-2 hours sessions. Sessions will be introduced and concluded by a lecture by the professor, combined with small group discussions, plenary discussions, presentations, and quizzes.