ICS Seminar Series

Event Name
ICS Seminar Series
Date
22 August 2019
Time
11:30 am - 01:00 pm
Location
Parramatta South Campus

Address (Room): EB.G.02 Parramatta campus (South), Western Sydney University

Description

Abstract A growing number of environmental groups focus on more sustainable practices in everyday life, from the development of new food systems, to community solar, to more sustainable fashion. No longer willing to take part in unsustainable practices and institutions, and not satisfied with either purely individualistic and consumer responses or standard political processes and movement tactics, many activists and groups are increasingly focusing on restructuring everyday practices of the circulation of the basic needs of everyday life. This work labels such action sustainable materialism, and examines the political and social motivations of activists and movement groups involved in this growing and expanding practice. The central argument is that these movements are motivated by four key factors: frustration with the lack of accomplishments on broader environmental policies, a desire for environmental and social justice, an active and material resistance to the power of traditional industries, and a form of sustainability that is attentive to the flow of materials through bodies, communities, economies, and environments. In addition to these motivations, these movements demonstrate such material action as political action, in contrast to existing critiques of new materialism as apolitical or post-political. Overall, sustainable materialism is explored as a set of movements with unique qualities, based in collective rather than individual action, a dedication to local and prefigurative politics, and a demand that sustainability be practiced in everyday life – starting with the materials and flows that provide food, power, clothing, and other basic needs. Biography David Schlosberg is Professor of Environmental Politics in the Department of Government and International Relations, Payne-Scott Professor, and Director of the Sydney Environment Institute at the University of Sydney. His main theoretical interests are in environmental and climate justice, climate adaptation and resilience, and environmental movements and the practices of everyday life – what he terms sustainable materialism. Professor Schlosberg’s more applied work includes public perceptions of adaptation and resilience, the health and social impacts of climate change, and responses to food insecurity. His previous authored, co-authored, or co-edited books include Defining Environmental Justice (Oxford 2007), The Climate-Challenged Society (Oxford 2013), and The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Political Theory (Oxford, 2016). Professor Schlosberg has been a visiting scholar at the London School of Economics, Australian National University, Princeton University, University of Washington, and UC Santa Cruz, among others.

Speakers: Professor David Schlosberg (University of Sydney)

Web page: https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/ics/events/seminars/ics_seminar_series

Contact
Name: Yinghua Yu

y.yu@westernsydney.edu.au

Phone: 0402 528 006

School / Department: Institute for Culture and Society