Panels > Local stewardship facing ecological degradations in urban and peri-urban territories of the Americas

In the Anthropocene era, the Americas, from North to South, are dealing with the multiple impacts of urbanization. This phenomenon affects the ecological quality of progressing built environments vulnerable to climate change (Ordóñez & Duinker, 2015; Romero-Lankao et al., 2013; Stone et al., 2010) and damage biodiversity levels of such environments (Elmqvist et al., 2013; MacGregor-Fors & Escobar-Ibáñez, 2017). Even though public policy do not offer any coordinated response at the continental scale, civic mobilizations acting at the local level tend to multiply, following new governance patterns (Connolly et al., 2014; Krasny et al., 2014; Mitchell, 2006). The great diversity of repertoires of contention cover from direct actions of ecological restoration to common education, including advocacy against some polluting urban projects (Melé, 2012). Historically linked to civic rights movements in America, these registers can have effects on social-environmental injustices (Boyce et al., 2007; Hardoy & Pandiella, 2009) or on collective resilience to environmental changes or disasters (Sakai et al, 2018 ; Krasny et al, 2015). For each biotope, there are numerous examples and a growing literature about local communitiesinvested in reforestation of urban fabric in Baltimore, Seattle (Romolini et al., 2013), Toronto (Nichols, 2009). In Sao Paulo, “Pocket forests” are being planted and one observe community-based action to recover aquatic flora in a stream in Buenos Aires (Graziano et al., 2019) or stewardship in urban waterfronts of New York (Enqvist et al., 2019). In the Americas, like in Canada or in the Andean region, actions towards environmental justice also join fights for native peoples’ rights undergoing urbanization, installation of polluting infrastructures or grabbing of ancestral and common lands (Kipfer, 2018; Schlosberg & Carruthers, 2010). 4/4 This workshop aims to offer comparative insights between local environmental stewardships at the transnational scale of the Americas, exploring the multiple impacts of these social-ecological dynamics, both on the physical milieu and on social and territorial transformations. Even if civic modes of mobilization are analyzed by a North-American literature and from American casestudies, they are spreading in different social-political and economic contexts, in Latin and South America. Based on precise case studies in urban or peri-urban contexts, we look for exploring the circulation of repertoires of contention between northern and southern parts of the continent. To what extent do forms of mobilization, capacities of action and sociologies differ from a region to another? Are collective actions always framed as conflictual, or do they include ordinary stewardship initiatives or partnerships with local authorities? Differentiating locally, the study of these stewardships could reveal disparities between capabilities to mobilize in the North and the South of the continent. Finally, the discussion could be dealing with hybrid capacities of human and non-human collectives to improve the quality of their environments and life conditions. The contributions to this workshop are open to the human and social sciences approaches as well as the one from environmental sciences.

Thursday, September 23rd, 9am-11am

Centre de Colloques, room 11

Organizers :

- Nathalie Blanc (LADYSS – Université de Paris)

- Marianne Cohen (Sorbonne Université)

- Hugo Rochard (LADYSS – Université de Paris)

Interventions :

Anne Sourdril (LADYSS – Université Paris Nanterre) & Luc Barbaro (DYNAFOR – Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse) – Écouter et faire entendre pour se mobiliser : les paysages sonores au service de la protection des écosystèmes dans une région minière en Arizona (États-Unis)

Elimar Pinheiro do Nascimento (Université de Brasilia) & Silvio Marques (Université Fédérale d’Amazonas) - Le rôle de l’Église Catholique dans le conflit sur la construction de la centrale hydroélectrique de Belo Monte, Para, Brésil.

Lorena Torres Bernardino (Triangle – ENS de Lyon) – Gouvernance de l’eau et les mobilisations sociales face aux infrastructures hydrauliques

Sofia Guevara Viquez (LATTS – École des Ponts ParisTech) – Territoire, risque et mobilisation. De l’environnement comme ressource face aux inondations urbaines à San José, Costa Rica

Hélène Gaillard (TIL – Université de Bourgogne Franche Comté) – Les mots-signes de John Fekner à New York : 50 ans de mobilisation contre la dégradation écologique et sociale de la ville

André Barreto de Sena (Sorbonne Université) – Recife, la mangrove engloutie par la ville: Le cas du projet Via Mangue