The New Charter of Athens: Democracy and Climate Change

The focus of this workshop is to discuss a philosophical problem with practical implications: the complicated relationship between democratic practices and designs meant to deal with climate change in cities. We are exploring whether and how democratic practices can be squared with the efforts needed to mitigate or adapt to climate change in cities, from a broad and philosophical standpoint, in order to inform more practical activities taking form at UNHabitat. Specifically, we want to bring philosophers and political theorists together with urban designers and environmentalists to chart this issue we should bring into Habitat III, the environmental convocation that occurs every twenty years under the auspices of UNHabitat.