- UEI, formed at Boston University in 1998, is a hybrid organization that works to bridge the gap between academia and communities. They focus on 1.) urban natural science education, targeting middle and high school experiential education and 2.) the regreening of distressed urban areas.
- Their mission is to "help urban communities build healthy, vibrant cities by educating residents about their environment, connecting them to each other, and engaging them in the transformation of their neighborhoods into places where people love to live."
- UEI has a program called "City Roots." They accept applications from community groups in "environmental justice areas" (a term I can't quite define or abide by), interested in greening efforts. They are walked through a stakeholder analysis, and then (through a lot of capacity building) get organized and carry out amazing, community-focused projects with very limited resources. COOL!
Eric Strauss introduced us to UEI by very clearly explaining his perspective on the research to be done in urban ecology and its great importance. While he provided a lot of historical context for the growth of urban areas and very interesting statistics, I found two other pieces that he presented the most thought-provoking:
- So, OK, great. We all agree - we need more ecological research in urban areas. BUT WHO IS GOING TO DO IT? In general, there's a serious stigma associated with ecologists who don't go to far off, untouched environs for their studies - that they couldn't get funding to do something cooler. So how do you convince ecologists to spend more time studying THEIR local environment at the cost of their reputation? That's a major social norm that needs to be adjusted, and I've never heard anyone talk about it in quite that way. It makes me wonder if perhaps city governments should be commissioning more of this work; who else might initiate the demand?
- A human-ecosystem framework is desperately needed when considering urban ecology. Instead of treating people as a confounding variable in the study of ecology, this framework integrates humans into ecological concepts. Eric and his team support the "integrated, iterative conceptual framework for socio-ecological research" found below. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. It's a little too linear for me, and while they call it iterative (indicating that you cycle through this diagram over and over again, because it is constantly changing), I’m not sure that you have to go ENTIRELY through the cycle before it starts over. It’s like you could put infinite little loops inside of the diagram; the reverse arrows don’t quite do it for me.
My thoughts:Up front disclaimer: I LOVE this organization. They are doing some profoundly important work. However, I finished the day's experiences with a "foul taste in my mouth." And I don't blame that on UEI or our fabulous guest speakers; I think it's just the current state affairs that put me into a funk. You see, at least based on this cursory introduction, I don't think they're doing anything new! The Chicago Conservation Corps (my employer), a program of the Chicago Department of Environment, has a very similar mission: "to recruit, train and support a network of volunteers who work together to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods and schools through environmental service projects that protect our water, clean our air, restore our land and save energy." Essentially, we work with urban communities to connect them to each other and available resources to improve the places they live and work. Sound familiar? Greencorps Chicago is another program of the Chicago Department of Environment. They provide resources, training, and support to community gardens across the city, much like the City Roots program (although City Roots does focus more on trees), even down to training garden coordinators, offering design assistance, and looking at stakeholder analyses. So, OK. UEI is based at a university. They're focusing more on scholarly pursuits as they relate to communities. That's unique, right? Not really! How about Extension services offered through (I believe) all 76 land grant universities?! And those institutions, while they had an agricultural focus at the start, have certainly evolved and kept up with the times in many ways, expanding to urban areas.
I'm not saying that UEI isn't unique or important or worth studying. What I AM saying (and what frustrates me) is that we're all very guilty of shoving ourselves into silos, and while we're all happy to share our work with others (read: show off), how many of us in this field actively seek out other, similar organizations to see what we can learn? It's like we all want to tell others how it's done, but none of us want to compare. And that comparison is so important! It could help us answer questions like, what are the defined best practices for environmental education and service organizations that work to resolve environmental justice issues through applied/action research and community activism? What's the professional organization WE can join? It's not the environmental education organizations that are populated with nature centers and museums. It's not the environmental justice organizations (I don't think) who focus so closely on policy and righting wrongs (and, in my experience, often are NOT asset-focused). It's not really the social service/community organizing groups, because their funding, structure, and affiliations are often so different from ours that there's not a lot of transferable knowledge.
I posed this question to Gideon on the van trip back from the site, and he told me that UEI is a part of the Urban Ecology Collaborative, which has an education team...but they are based on the east coast (read: Chicago's not welcome). Not what I wanted to hear. I don't know. In short, I think I'm just sad to see a major missed opportunity and, if I'm honest with myself, I don't have the time or energy to fix that at this juncture. Sigh.
Quotable quotes:
"Urban ecology is another one of those terms that seems like it should be an oxymoron...like jumbo shrimp, military intelligence, or industrial park."
Key questions:
- How do you define/categorize UEI's work so that similar programs can be clumped?
- I mysteriously missed anything about funding in anyone's presentation. I don't have anything in my notes, and I don't remember anything...did I space out? Where do they get their money?
- How do you generate more interest in urban ecology among ecologists?
Potential follow-ups:
- Read the issue of Science focused on cities
- Read works by Jane Jacobs (Sticking Up for Cities in particular)
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