Planetary Planning Podcast

In this episode, we hear from Sharon Sand. Sharon is an Urban Planner focused on climate change adaptation, protecting biodiversity, and providing equitable access to nature, parks and green schoolyards. She is on the Government Affairs team as Public Grants Program Senior Manager for Trust for Public Land in California (USA) to obtain public funding for land conservation and urban park projects in neighborhoods that need it most. In this role she also contributes to state and regional policy and strategy related to funding land preservation, access to green space, and climate change adaptation. Sharon is based in LA and has been part of the Stockton team since 2021. Before this work, Sharon worked in cancer genetics research and education including administering international consortia. She is author and co-author of numerous publications resulting from this work. Sharon earned a bachelor’s in Psychology from CSULA and a master’s from UCLA in Urban and Regional Planning with a certificate in Design and Development and another as a Leader in Sustainability through the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.

In the episode, Sharon is incredibly generous in sharing examples from her work as grant advisor and planner for the access to nature in the U.S.A., and especially in California. She shares insights from as wide ranging examples as access to riversides, to the greening of schoolyards, and shows the crucial emphasis on community-led, bottom-up work. We also reflect a little on how the crucial role of mobility and spaces for mobility in this context.

Sharon also shares a little about the challenges that work in this field is encountering especially now, with a politically less advantageous arena, and how this is requiring pivoting to find funding for such important initiatives for ensuring access to and contact with natural environments for people from all economic situations and diverse abilities.

Sharon ends on recommendations focused on this connection to nature and we end up hypothesising that perhaps it is both the communities planners work with, and planners themselves, who may need to re-connect with their natural environments more.

Small correction of a detail mentioned in the episode: the EPA Community Change Grants were for $20 million max not $50 million.

Take-aways for planners, by Sharon Sand:

* Prioritize communities and their connection to nature

* Think about how people can connect to nature, and water(scapes) specifically, as this is crucial for health and well-being

Links to various examples mentioned:

ParkServe shows access to parks in most cities across the U.S.A. (except very small ones)

ParkScore ranks the parks in the 100 largest cities of the U.S.

Richmond Wellness Trail, which connects the Iron Triangle neighborhood to transit, schools, medical center and to the Bay Trail and the San Francisco Bay itself (see also: https://richmondrisingca.org/projects/)

More on Stockton parks work can be found here: https://www.tpl.org/city/stockton-california, and more on the Great California Delta Trail Master Plan here: https://delta.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/GDT-Master-Plan-508.pdf

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In this episode, Mariko O. Thomas and Melissa M. Parks join us to share some of their insights on plant communication, and from and process of writing the book “Storying Plant Communication. More-than-Human Relationships in New Mexico”, available for pre-order now, and to be published in October. As the book description explains, the book “explores the narrative accounts of southwestern herbalists, healers, teachers, farmers, and other plant enthusiasts who maintain deep and reciprocal relationships with the local flora.”

Mariko Oyama Thomas is Teaching Faculty at Skagit Valley College, USA. She holds a PhD in Environmental Communication from the University of New Mexico and is Co-Founder of the arts and ecology collaborative Submergence Collective.

Melissa M. Parks is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and the Environmental Humanities Program at the University of Utah. She is also the Associate Director of the Taft-Nicholson Center for Environmental Humanities Education in Centennial Valley, Montana, USA.

For the podcast, Mariko and Melissa build on the fact that it seems much easier to imagine more-than-humans as animals than as plants, and how then, in the field of communications, they sought for a way to include plant communication in the picture and in their teaching as well. They describe of how they found storytelling as the best method to study plant communication from a social science perspective (a method we’ve come across a few more times in Planetary Planning, with previous guests such as Jamie Wang, Isabelle Doucet, and Phoebe Wagner, among others). They share several practical examples of how anyone - including planners! - can engage in plant communication, and plant awareness wherever they are.

We discuss the language we use to speak about plants, the ways we can study plants through the stories told about them, and the potential that signage can have if it would use storytelling to speak of plants. They speak of the rhythms of plant communication and the need to de-centre the ego of academic work to be able to engage with this topic.

Key take-aways for planners:

* Allow ourselves to tell stories, and listen to other stories, to help break out of binaries and embrace a more multi-species and commons approach to the world

* Remember to consider perspectives that can’t verbally tell their stories

* We need all hands on deck and all disciplines on deck

* We need to get comfortable with the lack of egoism that is necessary to work in groups

References

Thomas, M. O. & Parks, M. M. (2025) Storying Plant Communication. More-than-Human Relationships in New Mexico. Bloomsbury.

Robin Wall Kimmerer’s books: https://www.robinwallkimmerer.com/books (mentioned in relation to the grammar used surrounding plants and other more-than-humans)

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In this episode, Edda Bild shares insights on human and more-than-human sounds, and which of these are considered more positively, versus which tend to be considered “noise”. Edda currently works as post-doctoral research associate at the Institute for Work and Health in Toronto, Canada, where she focuses on topics around occupational health and safety, like the newcomer experience in the workplace, small businesses and psychological health and safety. She also continues her work as a post-doctoral soundscape researcher and an ambassador of the Sounds in the City team at McGill University. She works on the hearing modality, the broader urban sensory experience, and its implications for urban practice, and has now shifted focus to encouraging sound awareness and education. She is passionate about knowledge transfer and turning research into meaningful interventions and practices.

In the episode, we discuss the difference between noise and sound, and which human and more-than-human sounds are more or less considered as noisy. Humans seem to tend to like hearing the sounds of other humans (though not all of their sounds), of birds chirping, and of various “urban waters”, while machines such as cars or construction are often considered only as noise (negative). However, as we discuss towards the end, there are also political policy decisions regarding for example which noises should be tolerated for public purposes even when they are not considered pleasant (e.g. public transportation versus private cars). Edda shares several examples of how sound matters in public spaces (including inside buildings and transportation), and how it is most commonly approached in planning: as noise, that is, as primarily problem. She shows how this makes sense, but that sound is also more complex than staying below 80 decibels to avoid noise, and that sound co-habitation must take many perspectives into account. She also shares some insights on the ways human sound has affected more-than-humans both in (urban) public spaces and under water (referring e.g. to the field of Bioacoustics, see reference below). We end on her take-aways for planners (see below) and on how the theme of sound, like most themes planners work with, have important political implications - e.g. in defining where which sounds are to be permitted, which beings protected from which noises, and so forth. Sound is political.

Take-aways for planners, by Edda Bild

* Place more emphasis on genuine communication: when you talk, make sure the messages are simple and / or straight-forward enough for the various audiences involved

* But do not only talk. Good communication is also about keeping an “open ear”. That is: make sure to listen, be considerate and attempt to understand various perspectives. (For some hints for how to “listen” to more-than-humans, see for instance the episode with Emilija Vaselova or the one with Jonathan Metzger)

* Sound is one more element on the list of many that planners need to look out for, but this is why collaborating cross-disciplinarily is key in planning.

References and resources

Bild, E., Steele, D., & Guastavino, C. (2024). Supporting the Living Laboratory: A Literature Review of Montreal Sound-Related Research. Journal of Planning Literature, 08854122241266816. https://doi.org/10.1177/08854122241266816

Corbin, A., & Corbin, A. (1986). The foul and the fragrant: Odor and the French social imagination. Harvard University Press.

Di Croce, N., & Bild, E. (2024). How do urban policies shape atmosphere? A multimethod inquiry of the sonic environment. Urban Research & Practice, 17(3), 416–437. https://doi.org/10.1080/17535069.2023.2232344

Mitchell, A. (2022) Bioacoustics: What nature’s sounds can tell us about the health of our world. Canadian Geographic.

Ross, A. (2024) What is Noise? The New Yorker.

Stamm, C., Bild, E., Tarlao, C. and Guastavino, C. (2024) ¿Por qué deberías preocuparte por lo sonoro? Instituto de Estudios Urbanos y Territoriales. Pontifica Universidad Católica de Chile.

Steele, D., Bild, E., & Guastavino, C. (2023). Moving past the sound-noise dichotomy: How professionals of the built environment approach the sonic dimension. Cities, 132, 103974. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2022.103974

Thompson, E. A. (2008). The soundscape of modernity: Architectural acoustics and the culture of listening in America, 1900 - 1933 (1. paperback ed., [Nachdr.]). MIT Press.

Trudeau, C., Steele, D., & Guastavino, C. (2020). A Tale of Three Misters: The Effect of Water Features on Soundscape Assessments in a Montreal Public Space. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 570797. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.570797

Other podcasts discussing Sound (as a key theme or on occasional episodes):

* The Rest is Just Noise Podcast

* Sound Matters Podcast

* Crossing City Limits Podcast with episode with Edda on Quebec sound

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In this episode, Subina Shrestha, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Network for Equity in Sustainable Transition (CERC NEST) at the University of Toronto Scarborough in Canada, shares her insights about how the field of logistics is changing spaces, human relations, and more - and especially through the increasing dominance of more-than-human, or perhaps rather: less-than-human, digital technologies.

This episode sheds important light on digital more-than-human dynamics that a Planetary Future must take into account. In many societies, especially among the financially wealthiest countries around the world, it has become taken for granted that any object should be available to us within days or even hours, even when it is not something that is normally available in our immediate surroundings. At the same time, many other places, the people in those places, are working hard for an economy that is nowhere near them and that they see little to no benefit from. And then there are the people working in transporting those objects, be it over long distances or for the least mile.

As Subina shares with us, much of these logistics are dominated by a corporate objective of speed, efficiency and productivity. She argues that planning can and must play an important role in challenging those objectives in favour of more wellbeing-oriented values. This means that seeking a more-than-humanness in terms of technology and automation, as major corporations tend to do, should not be allowed to be achieved when these go to the detriment of human wellbeing - and perhaps also other more-than-human wellbeing, though we explore this less in this episode. Subina does also see the digital more-than-human world to offer many positive contributions, if one is careful to use them to that end, such as by enabling “platform cooperativism”.

In this episode we touch on “cyborg jobs”, workers’ rights and solidarity networks, agency of consumers and local municipalities, the dominance of large corporations in the current planning and execution of logistics, the increasing dominance of less-than-human digital technologies in this, and what planners can do.

Take-aways for planners, by Subina Shrestha:

* Think about logistics in terms of human wellbeing perspectives - including consumers as well as workers

* Focus on urban vitalism as the key objective in urban planning, meaning to aim to elevate wellbeing for everyone in the city

* Think well about how digital tools can be used well, and avoid using them to the detriment of the local population. When thinking of people-centered planning, this should also include workers in logistics. And be sure to ask: whose interests are technological innovations serving, in both research and practice?

References:

Haarstad, H., Rosales, R., & Shrestha, S. (2024). Freight logistics and the city. Urban Studies, 61(1), 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980231177265

Mimes, C. (2021) Arriving Today. From Factory to Front Door -- Why Everything Has Changed About How and What We Buy. Harper Business.

CityFreight project

And Antidote’s work, mentioned by Kim, for instance to find a way to support alternatives to Amazon, and to help consumers avoid Amazon.

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In this episode, we speak with Liz Challinor, researcher in anthropology at the Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA) of the New University of Lisbon, as well as fiction and poetry writer. She shares her reflections on categories along which we see others - and ourselves - and how it is often forgotten that we have multiple identities, when in fact this is crucial. In fact, creating connections between those multiple identities might be key. Although the more-than-human lens is not Liz’s field, it becomes clear that at least some of what she has studied among humans is likely to also count between humans and more-than-humans (in themselves categories that may better be transcended, perhaps).

Liz highlights the a-historical and a-political approaches that have become more dominant in regards to people crossing borders, essentializing the question of identities and cultures of people often to harmful extents. She also points to how calling out a “crisis” (be it a refugee (or refuge?) crisis, a housing crisis, or a “polycrisis”) can make one feel without agency, hopeless, when in fact we humans have a lot of agency - as well as responsibility for the consequences we now witness.

Perhaps as a way to connect our multiple identities with our agency, we go on to speak on the important role that various arts forms, and especially fiction and poetry, can have for bringing back some of the emotion and intuition - and some careful playfulness, too - that is involved in human relations, but that more academic or “scientific” or “rigour-based” approaches tend to reject. Perhaps there is a place for all these approaches, but writing is certainly a legitimate and perhaps even crucial one to maintain as part of our inquiries.

Take-aways for planners, by Liz Challinor:

* Recognize Planning as presence

* Engage with Planning as not only about avoiding disruption, but rather also about being open to disruption, and knowing how to welcome it and realize what it’s bringing

References:

Challinor, E. (2018). "Cross-border citizenship: mothering beyond the boundaries of consanguinity and nationality". Ethnic and Racial Studies 41 1: 114-131. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2017.1293278

Challinor, E. (2019). When does difference matter? Border-generating categories in the lives of foreign nationals in northern Portugal. International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, 5(4), 308. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJMBS.2019.105811

Challinor, E. (2022). Who Marks the Borders of the (Un)Known? Relational Reflexivity in the Production of a Play on Forced Mobility in Northern Portugal. In N. G. Ortega, & A. B. M. García (Eds.), Representing 21ST-Century Migration in Europe: Performing Borders, Identities and Texts (1st ed., pp. 208-223). Berghahn Books. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781800733817-014

Challinor, E. (2024). Navigating through the Cracks of the State System: Shifting Spaces of Hope in the Portuguese Mobility Regime. Anthropological Quarterly 97(1), 95-124. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/anq.2024.a923085

Horgan, M. (2012). Strangers and Strangership. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 33(6), 607–622. https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2012.735110

Maalouf, A. (2012). In the name of identity: Violence and the need to belong (B. Bray, Trans.). Arcade Publishing.

Sacramento, O., Challinor, E., & Silva, P. G. (Eds.). (2020). Quest for Refuge. Reception Responses from the Global North. Edições Húmus.

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This episode is a conversation with António Ferreira, multidisciplinary researcher and writer on themes as varied and interconnected as degrowth/post-growth, urban and regional planning, mobilities and transport, critical innovation and digitalisation studies, and more. António works as principal researcher at CITTA, Centre for Territory, Transports and Environment, at the University of Porto.

In this episode, we focus on cyborgs, a topic António dives into in depth in one of the chapters of his recent book, Mobilities in a Turbulent Era. We discuss what cyborgs are, the extent to which they are more-than-human, less-than-human, or perhaps something else entirely. António gives us many examples of the cyborgs already within and among us, as well as the possibilities that could emerge in relation to cyborgs in future. We discuss kaleidoskopic ways of looking at the world (and problems within in) - as an alternative to feeling stuck in dilemma’s or always applying the same go-to “solution”. António applies some of this thinking when we discuss digitalisation more broadly, and how seeking digital solutions to any problem has become the go-to option that - by losing critical reflection about the why and how underlying it - has many hidden downsides. Of course, we also touch on the materiality of the cyborg and the digital, that brings another dimension to the critique of the human-nature binary that has been previously discussed in this podcast. Finally, António shares his take-aways from all this for Planetary Futures and Planetary Planning based on this conversation:

Take-aways for planners (and others), by António Ferreira:

* Humans in general and Planners in particular should seek more maturity in their decision structures and actions.

* Let’s not “throw computers at the problem” assuming that “something should come out of it, right?” - think a bit further and more critically (and creatively?) about this

* Protect children from excessive computer exposure, digital exposure and ciborgisation, before they are capable of making their own choices in this matter

* All the above can help to have a planning education that is not about a ciborgisation process only because we cannot imagine an alternative

* Less computers, less digitalisation, and more humanity in adressing complexity

References mentioned during the episode:

Ferreira, A. (2024) Mobilities in a Turbulent Era. Edward Elgar.

Hine, D. (2023) At Work in the Ruins. Finding Our Place in the Time of Climate Crises and Other Emergencies. Chelsea Green.

Sennett, R. (1970) The Uses of Disorder. Personal Identity and City Life. Verso Books.

Daniel Schmachtenberger on the Multi-Polar Trap (see for example, here)

The Karate Kid 1984 (Film)

RoboCop 1987 (Film)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit planetaryplanning.substack.com

In this episode, we speak with Jamie Wang, urban environmental humanities scholar, editor and poet. She works as Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Literature and Cultural Studies at the Education University of Hong Kong, and is editor of the journal Feminist Review. Jamie has recently published the book Reimagining the More-Than-Human City. Stories from Singapore, and we discuss some of what she explores in the book, as well as her broader perspectives, inspiration, and some examples on more-than-human cities and the example of Singapore in particular.

In this conversation, Jamie shares some key insights from her book, especially around the interrelations between the three core themes of eco-modernist theory, more-than-human studies, and future / futuring studies. Through this, Jamie helps de-center not only the human but also the urban that is so central to human thought and also to the Planning discipline nowadays. She furthermore gives special emphasis to the idea that more-than-human thinking is not equal to non-human, that is, that this lens does not flatten the still important relations between humans among themselves, but perhaps rather sharpens and complexifies our understanding of this also. In her book, Jamie seeks to use storytelling methods - inspired by Deborah Bert Rose and Tom van Doren who have also come up previously, for instance in the episode with Isabelle Doucet; see also our episode with Phoebe Wagner on Solarpunk storytelling. Through this approach, she argues that it becomes much more possible to speak of complexity and multiplicity, and to address planetary themes without losing sight of micro-narratives that are key for deeper understanding.

Jamie also shares some examples from Singapore, such as concering its changing politics regarding green spaces, shifting from “garden city”, to “city in a garden”, to “city in nature”, and gives us a glimpse into how very particular politics and modernisation aspirations can shape a city over time, also as this city-state claims its place in global politics and global imaginaries. She highlights that solutions for more-than-human futures will most likely not be harmonious, that choices about inclusion and exclusion are inevitable, but can be much more transparent and considerate of all species (for those interested, this also links back nicely to our episode with Jonathan Metzger). Jamie shares some concrete examples of what this might look like, but also says much work is still needed, including the inclusion of multiple species in the visualisations of changing landscapes - which also means that the past, present, and future should be folded into one another when imagining futures, so that we can better perceive whose habitats are being prioritized, who is winning and who is losing.

Take-aways for planners (jointly with others!), by Jamie Wang:

* Accelerating discussions and action on environmental issues, co-existence, displacement, global capitalism, and related themes.

* Think about the past and the present as imagined futures. See what had to be removed so that this could be, who is in it and who had to be removed. Also when imagining and imaging (creating images) about it.

* Enable the public (including planners) to “imagining better”. In other words, creating conditions for imagination.

* In the face of climate change, Planning probably needs to go beyond a mathematical issue, but take a more holistic view.

References:

Deborah Bird Rose

Emily O’Gorman

Nixon, R. (2013) Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Harvard University Press.

Thom van Dooren

Wang, J. (2024) Reimagining the More-Than-Human City. Stories from Singapore. MIT Press.

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In this episode, we speak with Olivia Bina, Senior Researcher at the Instituto de de Ciências Sociais Universidade de Lisboa (ICS - Institute of Social Sciences University of Lisbon), and Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS). We delve chiefly into three points with her, each fascinating angles on how a “nature”-human relationship can be questioned. First, we broach the theme of imaginaries, futures and utopia as posing various questions about how a sustainable world might look, which Olivia has studied, for example, through the fascinating lens of science-fiction (see especially Bina et al. 2020, referenced below). Yet ultimately continuing to leave open Donella Meadows’ question from 1994 about how difficult - but not impossible - it is to envision a desirable sustainable world.

Second, Olivia shares insights gathered through various specific experiences in a life journey across Italy, Chile, China, Hong Kong and Portugal, and especially her experiences in Santiago de Chile, Beijing and Hong Kong. She shares how these three deeply urban environments highlighted different (problematic as well as positive) ways the human-“nature” relationship can take shape and deeply affects how urban environments are made and experienced. Olivia clarifies that one of the key motivations throughout her multidisciplinary work has always been the premise that change is needed, but also the ongoing need to question: what change, for which reasons, and what it would look like exactly. This also leads to persistent questions of diverse epistemologies and ontologies.

Third, Olivia recounts the main results of the Form Follows Life competition, a fascinating project she has been recently involved in (see links below for the two winning teams). She reflects on the kids of results they obtained, and what they seem to indicate and lead her to think further about now.

Finally, as all our guests, Olivia also left us with her takeaways for planners, which we share below. Please also see the references below to some of her most relevant work on the above themes, and to the competition page and winning groups from Form Follows Life.

Take-aways for planners, by Olivia Bina:

* Unlearn and decolonize the knowledge systems that we have so preciously cultivated and accumulated in ourselves, opening up to both diversity and plurality of ways of knowing and ways of thinking.

* Learn humility and take time.

References:

Form Follows Life Competition, via Non-A: https://www.non-a.com/open-architecture-competitions/form-follows-life/

The two winners of the Form Follows Life Competition:

* Team Advanced living corridors. https://www.fair.archi/

* Team Skyfall; Birth of a Biocity. Here is the link to the post to our Instagram which is a collaboration post:

Academic references:

Bina, O. (2024) What if… “Form followed Life”? In Blogue SHIFT, 11th July, https://ambienteterritoriosociedade-ics.org/2024/07/11/what-if-form-followed-life/ 

Fokdal, J., Bina, O., Chiles, P., Ojamäe, L. and Paadam, K. (Eds.) (2021) Enabling the City: Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary encounters in research and practice Routledge, New York and Abingdon, https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780367277390 

Bina, O., Baptista, M. D., Pereira, M. M., Inch, A., Falanga, R., Alegría, V., Caquimbo-Salazar, S., Duarte, D. H. S., Mercado, G., Valenta, A. T., Vasquez, A. and Verellen, T. (2024) Exploring desired urban futures: the transformative potential of a nature-based approach, Futures, 103362, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2024.103362. 

Bina, O., Inch, A. and Pereira, L. (2020) Beyond techno-utopia and its discontents: On the role of utopianism and speculative fiction in shaping alternatives to the smart city imaginary, Futures, 115, 102475, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2019.102475.

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In this super-short episode, we share two quotes by David Graeber, which are mentioned and discussed in the collection of essays “The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World…”, edited by Nika Dubrovsky and published in 2024 (among other places where the quotes have previously been published). As an anthropologist and activist for social justice, David Graeber focused his work chiefly on human relations and their myriad facets, and the fact that these relations are much more flexible than they are made to seem in today’s largely globalized and interconnected social world. We briefly share the quotes and how they have inspired us to also feel the enormous potential this can hold for embracing and acknowledging the myriad positive ways human to human as well as human to more-than-human relationships could look and evolve.

Finally, we announce our next episode, to be published on 3 February 2025, on Questioning Imaginaries of Change, with Olivia Bina.

We look forward to a new year full of insightful conversations, and hope that you as listeners will join us on the way. Do send us your recommendations for speakers or themes you would be interested in!

Reference:

“The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World… Essays.”, 2024, by David Graeber, Edited by Nika Dubrovsky. Allen Lane.

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In this episode, we speak with Isabelle Doucet, Professor of theory and history of architecture at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. She here reflects on multi-species perspectives and social and environmental justice. I, Kim, met her at the IRS Academy in Berlin last spring, and am very glad I subsequently asked her to come on the podcast. This episode is a fascinating exploration into a very multi-disciplinary take on architecture, design and how to consider the “other” while de-centering the frequently white, male and human dominant perspectives we are faced with around the world today.

Isabelle cites a wealth of authors that we cite / link to below and heartily invite our listeners to have a look into. The list includes Anna Tsing, Donna Haraway and Rosi Braidotti, among many others. She also provides examples of architectural visions and experiences that truly consider multi-species realities in surprisingly realistic ways.

Throughout the journey of this conversation, Isabelle speaks of how a multi-species perspective “forces us to think the world through connections and entanglements”, and to move beyond human exceptionalism. She highlights how important storytelling is for “de-centering” the designer, and how central economics can be for the potential for change in these regards: challenging contemporary practices in relation to land and the accumulation of value through built structures for example. Finally we also broach the subject of participation and how including various perspectives is a theme that equally surfaces in architecture and planning, and yet remains a challenge, even more so when attempting to move beyond the human.

Take-aways for planners, by Isabelle Doucet:

* Ask the question of who benefits, but also of who is damaged? In both architecture and planning there seems to be strong positivity about the make-ability of the world, but this often neglects the (conscious or unconscious) damages that this “making” can also inflict.

* Planning has an amazing opportunity as a broad field to bring together environmental, social and spatial justice and questions of the owning, (re)claiming, and accessibility of land.

References:

Isabelle Doucet, Interspecies Encounters: Design (Hi)stories, Practices of Care, and Challenges. In K. Förster (Ed.), Environmental Histories of Architecture. Canadian Centre for Architecture. https://www.librarystack.org/environmental-histories-of-architecture/

Isabelle Doucet, Anticipating Fabulous Futures, E-Flux Journal (Overgrowth Series), September 2019. https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/overgrowth/284918/anticipating-fabulous-futures/

Isabelle Doucet, Architectural Storytelling: A Space Between Critical Practice and Fragile Environments. In: Hélène Frichot, Adrià Carbonell, Hannes Frykholm, Sepideh Karami, eds., Infrastructural Love. Caring for Our Architectural Support Systems (Birkhäuser 2022).

Akwugo Emejulu, Fugitive Feminism (Silver Press 2022) https://www.silverpress.org/products/fugitive-feminism?srsltid=AfmBOop5h2awzKQaWV6BMf_NjKzji3U8u05vG2nAzAa28jivQrakP0Lv

Astrida Neimanis, Cecilia Åsberg, & Johan Hedrén, Four Problems, Four Directions for Environmental Humanities: Toward Critical Posthumanities for the Anthropocene. Ethics and the Environment, 20(1), 2015, 67–97. https://doi.org/10.2979/ethicsenviro.20.1.67

May-Britt Öhman, “Settler Colonialism in Ungreen, Climate-Unfriendly Disguise & As a Tool for Genocide” in: Climate: Our Right to Breathe, eds. Chu, Down, Mabaso et al. (L’Internationale And K verlag, 2022) (Book chapter. Access: https://internationaleonline.org/site/assets/files/8140/lio_climate_2022.pdf)

Thom Van Dooren and Deborah Bird Rose, Lively Ethography: Storying Animist Worlds, Environmental Humanities 8, no. 1 (May 2016): 77–94. https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-3527731

Additional authors mentioned:

* Donna J. Haraway

* Anna L. Tsing

* Deborah Bird Rose

* Thom van Dooren

* Vinciane Despret

* Isabelle Stengers

* Rosi Braidotti

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