The need for an urban ecology of the Global South (Global South perspectives in a global urban ecology)

Dr. Charlie Shackleton
Professor, Department of Environmental Science
Rhodes University

Date and Time: 18th May, 2022 at 4 pm 

Venue: ATREE Auditorium

Speaker Bio

Charlie is a full-time research professor in the department of Environmental Science at Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa, where he has been since mid-2000. He occupies a nationally-funded research chair in “Interdisciplinary Science in Land and Natural Resource Use for Sustainable Livelihoods”. He has over 350 journal articles and book chapters, as well as 11 edited books, spanning core research interests in non-timber forest products, rural livelihoods, and trees in urban spaces. He is an associate editor or on the board of several journals, and on the advisory board of several national and international projects. He has supervised almost 100 PhD and Masters students. 

Abstract

Urban ecology is a rapidly expanding and developing discipline, with a potentially significant role to play in informing the design and management of sustainable cities now and into the future. This is perhaps particularly pertinent and urgent in the Global South as it experiences a globally unprecedented surge in urbanisation rates. Yet, despite monumental pressures of urbanisation in the Global South, most urban ecology research is in the Global North (a phenomenon that is not unique to urban ecology). It is therefore not surprising that the volume of and insights from urban ecology work in the Global North dominates urban ecology frameworks and growing theory, resulting in some frameworks (or parts of them), overlooking particular conditions and processes that are significant in shaping urban ecological dynamics in many Global South contexts. Drawing from the 2021 edited volume “Urban Ecology in the Global South” this informal talk will highlight some of the drivers and processes that characterise many Global South urban settings, and how that might affect contemporary urban ecology framings. 

Tea/Coffee will be served downstairs at 3:30 pm.