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Urban Planning, "Reframing Urban Sustainability Through the Perspective of Socio-Environmental Justice"

State planning initiatives in Latin America have been highly influenced by colonial-based urban policy, and still relies in western ideals of development and valorization of technical knowledge. Such an approach is insufficient to address the complexity of spatial issues in cities since it creates unequal opportunities to access urbanized land. Thus, this process forces urban low-income communities to occupy improvised spaces, in improvised ways, often meaning the emergence of informal settlements in environmentally sensitive areas.

As an urban planning practitioner working with organizations that advocate for the right to the city in Brazil, I have observed the consequences of institutional policy based on risk management, that often treat vulnerable groups as illegal and provide alternatives detached from resident’s local realities. My experience leaves me with the question of how can urban sustainability policy be rethought in a way to address the implications of informal occupation of environmentally sensitive areas while being attentive to local human-nature dynamics- something I've been investigating for the past few years.

Thus, through this research, I argue that urban environmental policy should be reframed to a more transformative sustainability framework, especially in a climate crises context. This can happen through the visibilization and empowerment of groups living in environmentally vulnerable areas and of social movements building agenda around environmental justice, establishing practices from below as a learning paradigm.

In my investigation process, focused in Fortaleza, Brasil, I will build and apply a conceptual framework to evaluate current urban policy and projects that aim to address environmental issues; conduct interviews with key community leaders and policy makers;participate and support activities organized by communities and social movements; and conceptualize insurgent environmental planning that will serve as lenses to conduct reflections and analysis. The ultimate goal of this work is to make theoretical and practical contributions capable of influencing policy while empowering residents.