Cities, Climate and the Impact of Capitalism

Most of us have heard of gentrification. And many of us may have strong views about it. Some think it helps revitalise struggling neighbourhoods. Others claim it pushes people out of their homes and harms local communities. Some critics even go so far as to compare it to social cleansing, colonialism, and genocide. To understand the harm of gentrification we need to attend to the experiences of individuals and communities affected. In this talk, I argue gentrification is a distinctive and profound injustice, which effects cities around the world.

The principal regulatory response to climate change has been to seek solutions that rely upon existing market structures. These include financial divestment from fossil fuels and reinvestment in renewable energies or carbon capture. The key players in those market solutions are large multinational corporations and are often the biggest producers of carbon emissions, such as oil and gas companies. Is it possible to transform the economy and the industrial system just by encouraging the same organisations to make profits, but in a different way? In other words, can a capitalist world survive ?