Global Im-Possibilities

Phoebe Godfrey is an Associate Professor in Residence in Sociology at the University of Connecticut, USA.Mary Buchanan is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of Connecticut, USA.

• Introduction -- Phoebe Godfrey, Mary BuchananPart I: Promises & Deliveries1. Destroy and rebuild: Considering harm, community benefits & environmental ornamentation in community development in Atlanta -- Dr. Lemir Teron, Ms. T’Shari White, Ms. Farah Nibbs, Ms. Farzaneh Khayat2. The sovereignty paradox: Negotiating values amid tribal adaptation to shale oil extraction -- Jacqline Wolf Tice, David Casagrande3. Activism or extractivism: Indigenous land struggles in eastern Bolivia -- Evan ShenkinPart II: Cities, Citizens & Systems4. The bi-polar waterfront: Paradoxes of shoreline place-making in contemporary Accra and Colombo -- Rapti Siriwardane-de Zoysa, Epifania A. Amoo-Adare5. Negotiations and contestations of just mobility: Rickshaws in Dhaka, Bangladesh -- Md Musleh Uddin Hasan6. Paradoxes of just sustainabilities in urban water sociotechnical systems: Lessons from Athens, Greece -- Marcia Rosalie HalePart III: Scales of Decision-Making & Action7. Resistance to restricting? The politics of cars in Copenhagen -- Kevin T. Smiley8. Popular consultations and extractivism in Colombia: From local to global actions against mining and climate change -- Aracely Burgos-Ayala, Emerson Harvey Cepeda-Rodríguez9. Rescaling energy governance and the democratizing potential of ‘Community Choice’ -- Sean Kennedy, Ph.D.Part IV: Re-imagining the Possible 10. Organic (dis)organization and transformation: Stories of resistance and return at CERES Community Environment Park -- Natalie Osborne & Deanna Grant-Smith11. Just sustainability on the range: Empowering decisions at the soil surface -- Andrea and Tony Malmberg12. Welcome to Tubman House -- Anthony Bayani RodriguezConclusion: Global [Im]-Possibilities for Just Sustainabilities? -- Phoebe Godfrey, Mary BuchananContributorsIndex

Global Im-Possibilities is a collective scholarly endeavour in the best sense of the term. Area specialists provide convincing case studies ranging far and wide, beginning with the Mercedes Benz sports stadium in Atlanta and the impact of oil on indigenous communities in North Dakota. It follows through with a series of ‘unfinished stories’ documenting in impressive detail how the forces of neoliberalism time and again frustrate the quest for just sustainabilities in communities in Sri Lanka, Ghana, Bangladesh, Greece, Australia and more. The book is held together by a structure that explains these struggles by connecting environmental justice, environmental racism, and intersectionality, finding optimism in the prospect of many small victories. At a time when Sustainable Development is widely and mostly uncritically seen as the answer to all our problems, this book is a welcome and sometimes optimistic reality check.