Centre for Social Justice and Community Action: Connecting Communities for a Sustainable Future

Date: Tuesday 16th November 2021

Time: 12.00-15.00 (GMT)

Sustainable development, both as a concept and an agenda, seeks ways to promote the flourishing of both human populations and the planet of which we are a small part. Such an ambitious agenda requires people from different countries and communities to transcend in-group and out-group differences, creating what Ward, Jackson and Jackson (1962) called ‘the moral unity of human experience’, at local and global levels to protect the ecosystem in which humans are located.

Globally, since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, world leaders have committed to building partnerships for sustainable development. Locally, awareness of the impact of human activity on the climate and climate change on human society, has grown amongst connected and disparate community movements. While we need communities to join hands, share wealth and resources and take care of each other across class, caste, age, cultural, racial, gender and other differences, community organising often involves working with contested identities, uneven power distribution, social hierarchies and differentiated access to resources. Taking an intersectional perspective, the event aims to explore the potential and challenges of community organising for transforming our everyday practice and social systems. Covering issues from co-creating treescapes with young people (Prof Kate Pahl and Dr Caitlin Nunn) and the impact of climate change on social and health care systems (Dr Jonathan Wistow) to processes for sustaining community protection for young people at risk of harm (Prof Carlene Firmin and Dr Lauren Wroe), this event will explore ways we can connect communities for a sustainable future.

Keynote speaker: Professor Loretta Pyles, State University of New York, USA

Title of the keynote: The Future of Transformative Organising: Re-Wilding, Emergent Strategy, and Healing Justice

Loretta Pyles, Ph.D., is Professor in the School of Social Welfare at the State University of New York at Albany in the USA. Her research has focused on environmental disasters, community organising, gender based violence, poverty, racism, and integrative social work practice. Her key books include Progressive Community Organizing: Transformative Practice in a Globalizing World (Routledge, 3rd edition, 2021), Healing Justice: Holistic Self-Care for Change Makers (Oxford University Press, 2018) and (with Juliana Svistova), Production of Disaster and Recovery in Haiti: Disaster Industrial Complex (Routledge, 2018). In addition to these books, she has published more than 50 articles and book chapters. Loretta is an active unionist in United University Professions, the union for higher education professionals in New York state and is a board member of the Labor-Religion Coalition of New York, the coordinating organization for the New York Poor People’s Campaign.

The event is free but numbers are limited so to ensure your place please book early.