Cities@Tufts Lectures

Most researchers of environmental and climate justice agree that political and economic inequalities hurt the environment, racial minorities, Indigenous Peoples, and other marginalized communities. Yet, these conclusions are based, almost exclusively, on analyses of the distribution of "environmental bads" (e.g., industrial pollution and toxic waste).

Drawing on a longstanding and cumulative multi-methods research program focused on the distribution of "environmental goods" (biodiversity conservation), this lecture offers an alternative analysis of the relationship between environment and inequality with normative implications that are more complex than those implied in the environmental justice literature.

Such ambiguous normative implications test the ability of societies to prioritize climate justice over climate action with dubious social impacts.

In conclusion, we engage in collective reflections on the prospects of developing politically-resilient strategies for promoting environmental and climate justice.

About the speaker

Prakash Kashwan is an Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Brandeis University. He is also the Chair of the Environmental Justice concentration in the Master of Public Policy (MPP) program at the Heller School of Social Policy and Management.

His teaching, research, and scholarship focus on the intersections of environment, development, and socioeconomic and political dimensions of global environmental and climate change. Kashwan’s academic engagements build on this interdisciplinary background, including a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.), a Master’s in Forestry Management), and a Ph. D. in Public Policy awarded under the tutelage of late Professor Elinor Ostrom, a political economist, who was the joint winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences. Equally important, Kashwan’s research and writings are shaped profoundly by his over two decades-long engagements with global and international environmental governance, including a pre-academia career in international development (1999-2005).

In addition to this audio, you can read the full transcript of the conversation and watch the lecture recording on Shareable.net – while you’re there get caught up on past lectures.

Cities@Tufts Lectures explores the impact of urban planning on our communities and the opportunities to design for greater equity and justice with professor Julian Agyeman.

Cities@Tufts Lectures is produced by Tufts University and Shareable.net with support from Barr Foundation,

Paige Kelly is our co-producer and audio editor, the original portrait of Prakash Kashwan was illustrated by Jess Milner, and the series is co-produced and hosted by Tom Llewellyn.

“Light Without Dark” by Cultivate Beats is our theme song.