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Gender, climate change and sustainability

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Gender, climate change and sustainability

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Suggested Readings:

-The Social Dimensions of Climate Change: Equity and Vulnerability in a Warming World (2009)
-Goh, A. H. (2012). A literature review of the gender-differentiated impacts of climate change on women’s and men’s assets and well-being in developing countries. International Food Policy Research Institute, CAPRi Work.
-Demetriades, J., & Esplen, E. (2010). The gender dimensions of poverty and climate change adaptation. Social dimensions of climate change: Equity and vulnerability in a warming world, 133-143.

Women in Hip Hop taking the lead

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Aboriginal women in Australia are very proactive in the restoration and protection of their Country

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WORKSHOP 1:                                   Hip Hop critical pedagogies 

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WORKSHOP 1:                                   Hip Hop critical pedagogies 

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This articles is about the use of Hip Hop as a pedagogical tool. By combining the tenets of Freire's Critical pedagogy and Hip Hop practices and culture, the author makes a case for the adoption of what he calls a Critical Hip Hop Pedagogy.

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This chapter explores the historical factors that paved the way for the birth of Hip Hop.

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Common - Black America Again ft. Stevie Wonder

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LOWKEY FT. MAI KHALIL - CHILDREN OF DIASPORA (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

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strolling | ep 1 | black british women, gentrification in london, women's bodies & more

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strolling | ep 5  |  free condoms; pay for tampons, typecasting, "selling out", rape culture & more

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strolling | ep 6  |  stolen african artifacts, the queen, religion, weed, charity & more

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In this workshops we explore questions about gentrification, identities and sustainability.

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The Last Kinection - Are We There Yet (featuring Simone Stacey)

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Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies: The connection to the Land.

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Healthy Country Protected Forever - Bush Heritage Australia

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We're a national non-profit, protecting biodiversity in Australia for over 25 years. We buy land of high conservation value & work with other land owners (particularly Aboriginal groups) to help plan & implement conservation on private lands.

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George the Poet: The death of the council home?

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George the Poet reflects on the benefits social housing used to bring and current "crisis".

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The report, Knock It Down or Do It Up looked at major estate regeneration schemes in London over the last ten years and concluded that although thousands of new homes have been built, there was an overall decline in those available for social rent.

For example, only 212 of the 2,535 flats being built in the footprint of the now demolished Heygate Estate ( pictured) in Southwark will be affordable, with only 79 socially rented. The original estate had 1,194 socially rented units.

The Heygate development - which features in the report - is part of a £1.5 billion regeneration of Elephant and Castle led by developers Lend Lease, with practices including AHMM, Panter Hudspith Architects and dRMM working on the wider scheme.

The report comes amid news that developers are able to reduce commitments to building affordable housing in the city. Affordable housing rents are currently set at up to 80 per cent of local market rate.

Across the capital, multiple post-war housing estates are being redeveloped, and the report explores how to improve this process of regeneration by looking into the decisions of councils or housing associations to either demolish or repair an estate.

In addition, the document makes recommendations to the mayor and central government to allow councils to borrow against the existing housing stock in order to reinvest in building new homes, and for governments to reduce the VAT disparity between refurbishment (20 per cent) and new build (0 per cent).

Darren Johnson, chair of the housing committee, said: 'Market homes play an important role in unlocking investment to plough into creating decent social homes, but the extent of the housing crisis means we need more homes for all income groups, not just the well-heeled. What's also clear is that the most popular regeneration schemes are those where councils and housing associations genuinely engage existing residents in decisions, rather than taking important decisions about people's family homes from behind closed doors.'

He continued: 'We also heard of some examples where providers have gone the extra mile to work with their communities on regeneration schemes, and I hope councils, housing associations and residents will be able to use the report to build a two-way dialogue.'

The report also hopes to provide a guide for community groups, housing professionals and councillors to work together when regenerating an estate. The suggestions include creating a steering group of residents, and investing into comprehensive engagement with residents.

'Knock It Down or Do It Up' looked at the 'major schemes' in the capital, defined as housing estate regeneration schemes where there were over 15 existing units, including at least 10 affordable.

The table below shows the number of units given planning permission anytime between 2004 and 2014.

Tenure Existing Proposed

Social rent 30,431 22,135

Affordable rent 46 1,832

Intermediate 550 7,471

Market 3,186 36,163
Total 34, 213 67, 601

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Report: London loses 8,000 social homes in a decade

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The report, Knock It Down or Do It Up looked at major estate regeneration schemes in London over the last ten years and concluded that although thousands of new homes have been built, there was an overall decline in those available for social rent.

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In August 2013, the national media got very excited about what was apparently central London's last home on the market for less than £100,000. A ground-floor studio flat in Brixton was being sold for £99,500. It was in such a shocking state that even the estate agent described it as "horrendous". It had just 56 years left on the lease but buyers were lining up, seeing a bargain with lots of potential.

What went unreported, however, was that just a mile down the road, Southwark council had been snapping up even bigger bargains by the hundred.

The Aylesbury in Camberwell is a vast estate of about 2,700 homes, two miles from the Houses of Parliament. For more than a decade, it has been the subject of plans for a regeneration project, which is now under way. In order to move forward with the scheme, which involves demolition of the existing buildings, the council had to buy out the residents who had previously bought their homes from the council under the right-to-buy policy.

Right to buy allowed people to move into or stay in their area. Regeneration offers a price compelling them to move out

Details of the amounts paid by Southwark for these homes were obtained by campaigners under the Freedom of Information Act. In some cases, they show very low offers being made and accepted under the threat of compulsory purchase.

In September 2012, for example, Southwark council paid one leaseholder on the Aylesbury estate £75,000 for a large, 47 sq m,one-bedroom flat. In 2014, the council paid £147,500 for a four-bedroom, 97 sq mmaisonette. To put this in some kind of context, by January 2013, the average house price in London had hit £400,000.

On the neighbouring Heygate estate, Southwark council paid an average of £107,000 for a two-bedroom flat. Its purchases on that estate started in 2004, but as late as 2011 the council was still paying £115,000 for a two-bed flat there.

Neither is it just in Southwark where councils have been forcing sales at low prices. According to Jasmin Parsons, a leaseholder at the West Hendon estate in Barnet, some leaseholders were offered just £90,000 for a one-bed flat and £130,000 for a two-bed maisonette when the council applied for the first in a series of compulsory purchase orders.

This offer was later increased after the leaseholders employed a surveyor to act on their behalf, but still fell far short of the amount required to buy an equivalent home.

Of course, some leaseholders on council estates who bought their property directly from the council would have benefited from the right-to-buy discount. Others, who had bought their property off another leaseholder, would not. But the issue is that right to buy offered a price which allowed them to move into or stay in their area. Estate regeneration has offered a price that compels them to move out.

Last week, however, the picture changed dramatically, when Sajid Javid, the secretary of state for communities and local government, refused to allow the compulsory purchase of flats on the latest phase of the Aylesbury estate's redevelopment, citing concerns about the way Southwark council was dealing with leaseholders.

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Residents of West Hendon estate protest against Barnet council's plans. Photograph: George Turner for the Guardian

The decision does not end the government's support for the controversial policy of "estate regeneration", and will bring little comfort for those who have gone through the financial brutality it often creates, but it may give some protection to those facing eviction in the future.

In theory, people facing compulsory purchase must be given the market value of their homes. But until now, local authorities, the government and the land tribunal have all backed an approach that has compensated leaseholders based on the average value of homes on the estate to be demolished, not the average value of homes in the wider area. That approach comes with some very obvious problems.

An estate facing demolition is generally the lowest-value housing in any given area, partly because councils will have let the buildings deteriorate, seeing little point in maintaining something that is going to be knocked down. And who wants to buy a home scheduled for demolition anyway?

Another issue facing these leaseholders is that once the council signals its intent to regenerate an estate, it kills the market in the area. That can happen years in advance of a compulsory purchase order being made. Instead, the "market value" becomes the price that leaseholders can get from a single purchaser, the council, which is also their landlord, and the body applying for compulsory purchase.

Given the approach adopted by councils, it is obvious that the amount offered to compensate leaseholders for the loss of their homes will rarely, if ever, be enough for them to afford a home in the area. Unless they can raise significantly more cash to buy back into the redeveloped and more expensive estate, or to buy more expensive housing in the local area, they will be compelled to leave. It is "pay to stay" for leaseholders.

To account for this, councils sometimes offer residents subject to a compulsory purchase order the chance to enter a shared ownership scheme. Having had their property taken from them by compulsion, leaseholders are given the "opportunity" to buy back part of a home on the new estate with the money they have been given, and the privilege to pay rent on the remaining share.

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The Aylesbury estate - just two miles from the Houses of Parliament. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

Leaving aside the obvious inequity, for many residents these offers are simply unrealistic. At West Hendon, 85-year-old Adelaide Adams was forced to sell her home for £175,000. An equivalent home on the "regenerated" estate would be £407,000, with service charges of over £2,000 a year. To her it was obvious that, after having spent 30 years on the estate, she was no longer welcome.

However, it appears that the government has now had a change of heart. After it allowed Barnet to compulsory-purchase homes at West Hendon last year and Southwark to go ahead with compulsory purchase at the Heygate and on previous phases of the Aylesbury, it has blocked the latest compulsory purchase order at the Aylesbury.

In making her recommendation to the secretary of state to refuse the order, the inspector for the department of communities and local government noted that, although the housing options offered by the council would allow leaseholders to remain in the area, "in order to exercise this option they would need to invest considerable personal resources in addition to any compensation they would receive for their properties."

"In this regard," she continued, "the compulsory purchase order would not only deprive them of their dwelling but also their financial security. If they chose not to pursue this option, they would inevitably need to leave the area and this would have implications for their family life, including the lives of those dependent on them."

The inspector concluded that this situation would lead to an unjustified breach of the leaseholders human rights, which the council could have avoided by seeking a different agreement with the leaseholders.

Sajid Javid's decision on the Aylesbury compulsory purchase order does not end the policy of estate regeneration. The inspector and the secretary of state both accepted that the scheme would benefit the area if it were allowed to go ahead, and the government still wants to bring forward plans to regenerate 100 estates across the UK.

But if it is allowed to stand, the ruling establishes an important point of principle, which is that while compulsory purchase can force people out of their homes, it cannot force them out of their communities. While for many campaigners who want to see an end to the policy, this decision does not go far enough, at the very least it promises to restore some humanity to what has become a savage process.

George Turner is an investigative journalist and researcher based in London. In 2014 he launched a one-person legal campaign to stop the redevelopment of the Shell Centre in central London into luxury flats.

Are you experiencing or resisting gentrification in your city? Share your stories in the comments below, through our dedicated callout, or on Twitter using #GlobalGentrification Topics

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What the Aylesbury estate ruling means for the future of regeneration

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Sajid Javid's refusal to allow the compulsory purchase of flats in this London estate adds welcome humanity to a savage process that forces people not just from their homes, but from their communities. But is the decision enough?What is your city doing to resist gentrification?

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Some local people actively opposing but also writing a lot about the regeneration & gentrification of Southwark that's happened over the last 20 years

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Some local people actively opposing but also writing a lot about the regeneration & gentrification of Southwark that's happened over the last 20 years

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Community Food Growers Network featuring May Project Gardens responding to Gentrification

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Nelson's Estate, people using food growing to transform their community

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Nelson's Estate, people using food growing to transform their community

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Come We Grow: Nelson's Estate and its growing community

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Great session today, pls add suggestions for the 3rd week :

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Great session today, pls add suggestions for the 3rd week :

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Akala deconstructs race, class, and Britain's modern myths | Unfiltered with James O'Brien #32

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Hip-Hop & Shakespeare? Akala at TEDxAldeburgh

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Lamlash Gardens [21/10/18]

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Lamlash Gardens [21/10/18

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Lamlash Gardens [21/10/18]

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Why we love the people we do... is it more about us and what they bring in our lives than about the people themselves?

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Hip Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap (Ogbar)

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Connective marginalities of the Hip Hop Globe (Hosumare)

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Connective marginalities of the Hip Hop Globe (Hosumare)

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Tricia Rose, a key Scholar in Hip Hop Studies (on the representation of women in Hip Hop)

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Tricia Rose, a key Scholar in Hip Hop Studies (on the representation of women in Hip Hop)

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De La Soul - Buddy (Remix) [feat. The Jungle Brothers, Monie Love, Queen Latifah & Q Tip]

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Raftaar - Panasonic Mobile MTV Spoken Word presents Swag Mera Desi feat Manj Musik

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We will meet once more in December, before our Spring session. We will talk about the website, examine the footage and do interviews. Date to be decided. 

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We will meet once more in December, before our Spring session. We will talk about the website, examine the footage and do interviews. Date to be decided. 

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https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SI8t-0jdCpDdhdr3gvJeqc27hXvNmOky?usp=sharing

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Sampa The Great - Energy (feat. Nadeem Din-Gabisi)

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Pitch and Flow: Hip Hop for the Environment 

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Pitch and Flow: Hip Hop for the Environment 

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Gediyon Kifle

Eight entrepreneurs and eight rappers try to sell the world on the UN's environmental agenda through rap battles.

On Wednesday night, I attended my first hip-hop show. But with artists dropping lyrics like Solar power, you got the power and Throw trash out the window, hope it floats, the Earth can't swallow so it chokes and chokes, this was no ordinary rap battle. The topic of the night: the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

True to its name, " Pitch & Flow " had a simple premise-something akin to Shark Tank, but in rap form. Eight social entrepreneurs focusing on issues like clean energy, waste, and education for the incarceratedwere paired with underground rappers to translate their cause and the stories of their work into moving verses. There were three rounds total, with commentary from celebrities in the hip-hop world and an entrepreneurial expert, as well as a $7,500 prize at stake. The judges of the night were the audience-a mix that included both families and young and older professionals-who packed into the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Among the entrepreneurs there that night was Lorna Rutto, who had just flown in from Kenya. She reminisced about her childhood, before Nairobi became one of the fastest growing cities in Africa. "The place was green and forested, it used to be so pretty," she said. "But in 1994 due to urban migration, the trees were cut down and what was nice became a dirty town with litter in the streets and clogging the sewages." So she made pollution and deforestation her causes. Now she's the founder of the Nairoi-based company EcoPost, which recycles plastic waste into building materials as an alternative to timber. Her partner, with about a week to prepare their "pitch," was "Natalia Did That," who comes from the world of rap battling.

At first, the pairing seems odd, even by one of the organizers' own admission. "I wanted people to walk away like, 'What the heck was that? That was so weird and unexpected,'" says Kyle Nel, the founder and executive director of Lowe's Innovation Lab-the hardware store's foray into the future of technology and social good.

But it makes sense. Despite the urgency of meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, it can be really hard to sell people on the need to pay attention to things like energy storage and deforestation (I say this as someone who frequently reports on these issues). So who better to call than natural storytellers?

"The ones who tell the best story gather more attention and have more impact, and hip hop has been able to do that," said Colin Gayle, founder and CEO of Africa Creative Agency, which took the lead in the putting the show together. "We could have done it with other musical forms but hip hop is so in your face." (In fact, budding entrepreneurs can learn a thing or two from that.)

The artists on stage that night weren't exactly the Jay-Zs and Beyonces of the world, and in a way, that was the beauty of it. Many double as activists and educators, and are in line with the grassroots vibe of the whole event. One of them even served as a Hip-Hop Cultural Envoy for the U.S. State Department. "These emcees have been community leaders, and they're out there performing for 200 people in the park," Gayle said. "And they're doing it for the love of the art."

Recommended

I caught up with Natalia after the show and asked her if it was hard to come up with not one, but three songs about pollution. It's not exactly a sexy topic. She shook her head no. "I was already doing protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline..., so I've always believed in a clean community," she told me. "When I got to work with EcoPost, I really went into the research on the numbers and how much plastic we can save."

She didn't win the grand prize; that went to "Professor Lyrical"-he's a math professor at Northeastern University-who gave three powerful performances about SunCulture, a company that distributes solar-powered irrigation systems for farmers in East Africa. But Natalia did get a particularly loud applause from the crowd for her lyrics:

Cities are changing fast. Keep up with the CityLab Daily newsletter.
The best way to follow issues you care about.
Unnatural, and lately everything seems package bound
Where this trash go when it goes out your house?
Out of sight out of mind, better ask around
Because by 2025, it could be in piles
140 million tons in our lungs of her breathing now
I'm speaking out for our habitat
This is real life, no plastic wraps

About the Author

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An Unlikely Pairing of Sustainable Development and Hip Hop

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On Wednesday night, I attended my first hip-hop show. But with artists dropping lyrics like Solar power, you got the power and Throw trash out the window, hope it floats, the Earth can't swallow so it chokes and chokes, this was no ordinary rap battle. The topic of the night: the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

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Hip Hop and Environmental Sustainability 

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Hip Hop and Environmental Sustainability 