Advocacy and Urban Environment

ADVOCACY AND URBAN ENVIRONMENT

ICourse Description

Advocacy for the poor, oppressed and marginalized section in an urban environment requires a thorough knowledge of the city and its environs, its people, the problems, prospects and so on.

All cities across the globe have certain common features. Moreover, each city will also possess an individuality that is unique by itself.

This course lays emphasis on the following:

Urbanization
Environment
Peoples’ issues
Advocacy

IICourse Rationale

This course consists of 4 distinct units that are interrelated. At the end of the session, the student will be able to understand that urbanization is an inevitable process in human civilization. Nevertheless, there are problems and issues that come along with it and there is a necessity for a Christian to identify them and develop strategies to intervene for those who are in need of advocacy.

People need to be sensitized even to understand that they need help in the areas where urban problems surround them, which could be solved in order to improve their faith, morale and standard of living.

IIIUnit 1

Urbanization in the global sense is an inevitable process of human growth and development. Along with this, mankind faces the problems of environmental degradation which affects especially the poor and developing nations and marginalized and oppressed sections in societies.

An overall concept on global urbanization, land use, governance, ChennaiCity and its metropolis, the role of its planning body in urban development are discussed in this unit.

IVUnit 2

The urban environment undergoes a massive change in the face of development leading to environment pollution (air, water, land, noise, etc) which reflects on all living things on the planet. Man-made and natural disasters add to the peril bringing about huge loss of lives and property.

Analyzing the urban environment on aspects that are social, economical and geographical throws an insight on peoples’ issues that are cross-cutting and interlinked with urbanization and environmental degradation.

VUnit 3

Peoples’ issues are varied in an urbanized community. Urban poverty is a crucial factor where advocacy of the oppressed needs to be analyzed.

The concept of ecosystem and man’s role in tempering with nature are discussed here. The importance of peoples’ participation, stakeholders and the means of urban community development are discussed in this unit.

VIUnit 4

All the 3 units discussed so far are now viewed at from the point of advocacy. The areas and sections of the community that needs advocacy are identified with a theological base.

The students are sensitized to the urban development and environmental degradation that need to be understood holistically. The role each person as a Urban Transmission Leader could take to bring about a sustainable development in their area of action would be made clear when analyzed form the biblical standpoint.

Unit Calendar

Hours / Topics
1-2 /

Global Urbanization
Urban Environment

3-4 /

Urban Land Use
Urban Poverty

5-7 /

Urban Pollution

8-10 /

Disaster Management

10-13 /

Urban Community Development and Sustainable Development

14-17 /

Chennai Metropolitan Area

18-21 /

Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and its functioning

22-24 /

Paper Presentation by 2 students on 2 topics & Field Trip (Tamilnadu Pollution Control Board)

25-27 /

Paper Presentation by 2 Students on 2 topics and Field Trip ( Tamilnadu Slum Clearance Board)

28-30 /

Paper Presentation by 2 students & Field Trip (Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority)

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Institution

Master of Arts in Transformational Urban Leadership (MATUL) Program

TUL655: Advocacy and the Urban Environment(3 units)

Global Issues and Advocacy

Urban Environmental Health

Theory and Practice of Land Rights and Housing

Relief and Crisis Management

Coursewriters: Land Rights: Atty Doy Bringas

Advocacy: Dr Rich Slimbach

Relief and Crisis Management: Dr Rob Bellingham

Facilitator: name; title; institutional affiliation and address; Email address; phone #; fax #

I. Course Description

Movements among the urban poor require engagement in advocacy to the privileged classes. Theology and practice are analysed in the context of three particular emphases in this course:

Land rights and housing issues
Urban environment health
Relief and crisis management

II. Course Rationale

This course consists of three distinct units linked by the theme of advocacy. Advocacy is explored from the Biblical perspectives of justice and speaking out for the oppressed.

Unit 1: Advocacy…

Advocacy is about God, nature, and human activity in the city. Advocacy for the oppressed by those with access to power, wealth or education is examined as a Biblical theme (particulalry in the life of Job). Advocacy from among the oppressed to those who oppress involves an alternative approach utilising people power. This has been developed in the discipline of community organization, developed by Alinsky based on Nehemiah. At the level of national and global development, issues particularly bearing upon the well-being of the urban poor—like ecological degradation and land rights—are increasingly being addressed through a “political ecology” approach.

…And Global Environmental Issues

Not content with purely economic (poverty) and demographic (overpopulation) explanations for environmental degradation, political ecology also considers the social and political forces that, through history, have shaped resources access, the political structures that mediate control over land and property, and uneven development. “Urban ecology” and “advocacy” come together to address, both a range of environment issues (deforestation, informal settlements, water conflicts, toxic/hazardous waste, air and water pollution, noise pollution) and advocacy issues (urban planning, housing authorities slum clearance policies, land rights, environmental movements). Our primary objective is to use the framework of political ecology to analyze the complex relationships between ecological and social change that underlie contemporary environmental problems in Third World slums and shantytowns.

Advocacy and the Urban Environment builds upon the Primary Health Care course by offering a careful analysis of the interaction between the city’s built environment, the ecology (climate, soils, water resources, flora and fauna) in which it is embedded, and the urban poor who affect, and are affected by, the city.

Unit 2: Theology and Practice of Land Rights and Housing : Students undertaking this unit will be able to develop a biblical approach to advocacy for land and entering into land rights conflicts, being familiar with the processes of obtaining land rights documents and resolving land rights disputes within their particular city, and understanding progressions that occur internationally in obtaining just housing.

Unit 3: Relief and Crisis Management : This unit will enable students to understand and assess the dynamics of various disaster situations, the protocols for responding, organizational structures, planning and communication tools. Students will examine a particular case study and present information about the case and analyze the effectiveness of the responses to it. This analysis of the case will be presented in class under a strict time frame similar to pressures of a disaster situation. They will also develop a ‘Volunteers Operating Procedure’ for a selected emergency.

Each unit will be developed as an entity below. Approx Class Hours

Advocacy Unit / Land Rights Unit / Relief Unit
Classroom / 15 / 9 / 15
Field Trips / 11
Self Study / 21 / 15 / 21
Integration / 4 / 4 / 4

TUL655 Unit 1: AdvocacyGlobal Environmental Issues

Facilitator name; title; institutional affiliation &address; Email address; phone/fax #

Course Writers: Rich Slimbach, Viv Grigg

I. Unit Description

Advocacy and Global Environmental Issues is about God, nature, and human activity in the city. Advocacy for the oppressed by those with access to power, wealth or education is examined as a Biblical theme (particularly in the life of Job). Advocacy from among the oppressed to those who oppress involves an alternative approach utilizing people power. This has been developed in the discipline of community organization, developed by Alinsky based on Nehemiah. At the level of national and global development, issues particularly bearing upon the well-being of the urban poor—like ecological degradation and land rights—are increasingly being addressed through a “political ecology” approach.

II. Unit Rationale

Theology of Advocacy: The purpose of theology is to glorify God by thinking about God and the world for the purpose of living better on the earth. Though theology involves serious thinking, it is not primarily an intellectual activity. “Faith in God does not consist in asserting God’s existence,” writes Henri Nouwen, “but rather in acting on God’s behalf.” It is supremely practical in its goal of enhancing right living (discipleship) – that is, thinking, willing, and living in ways that are in alignment with God’s thoughts and purposes. In this sense every Christian is a theologian, or should be. Thinking, willing, and living are functions that must be carried out together. We cannot honor and praise God, nor love the world properly, if we have not first thought through who God is and how God loves the world.

Yet thinking theologically must face up to certain hard realities. The first is human finiteness and fallibility. The postmodern critique of theology underscores the fact that human beings are not coherent subjects but ones deeply limited and conditioned by their historical and cultural situations. Universal and conclusive assertions about “God,” “world” and “human being” are thus highly suspect. This being so, what kind of unstable, incomplete, and self-interested subjects can speak for God? Theological statements, it seems to me, must be satisfied with being dearly held but partial and inconclusive interpretations made by historically bound creatures about universal matters.

In seeking to discern God’s will regarding the created order (earth), the context of theology assumes major importance. The context shifts from a primary focus on me and my salvation to the well-being of human communities and the planet. Individuals are embedded in a network of social and ecological relationships, and shaped by forces that operate on a transnational level. Our eco-social and global context calls theology to view the self or subject, not as an individual who is “saved” for life in another world, but as one who is embodied, relational, and interdependent with everyone and everything else.

Advocacy for the oppressed by those with access to power, wealth or education is examined as a Biblical theme (particularly in the life of Job).

Issues of Advocacy and the Urban Environment: Some of the most challenging global issues facing humanity: how to manage metropolitan growth while simultaneously trying to safeguard human well-being (especially among the urban poor) and minimize impacts on ecosystems. The rapid rate of global urbanization, the decaying state of the natural world, and the growing gap between the rich and the poor calls for Christians to think systematically and concretely about the earth as God’s household, God’s oikos. As in all households, right management of relationships and resources is required for proper functioning. The theological task is to discern how God speaks and acts concerning this household, and then of acting—as individuals and groups—in ways consistent with the divine will. That task is informed by the Bible which functions both as a constitution for Christianity and a framework for understanding God, earth, Christ, and human life.

Lester Brown’s Plan B 2.0 (W.W. Norton, 2006) provides a deeply unsettling view of the planet – one of shrinking forests, accumulated greenhouse gases, polluted air, dying species, dwindling fisheries and farmland, and increasing numbers of poor people. Urbanization is regarded as a primary contributor to these ecological crises. Today, over fifty percent of the earth's human population lives in cities that make an ecological footprint on local, regional, continental and world ecosystems. In fact, cities by nature are ecological disasters: in virtually every case they pollute air and water, deforest land, reduce biodiversity and habitat, contribute to atmospheric change and climate effects, and introduce toxins. Those that successfully provide healthy living and working environments for its inhabitants will inevitably address issues of water supply, the provision of sanitation and waste disposal, transport infrastructure, and a sustainable relationship between the demands of consumers and the ecosystems that they draw upon.

III. Student Outcomes in this Unit

Theology: Students will describe a working theology as to the nature of an advocate and their work in the contemporary urban poor environment and seeking shalom as its goal.

Context: Students (in teams) will develop a conceptual model for understanding the political ecology of the city slums, including its “drivers” (topography, population, economic growth, colonial history, land use policy, infrastructure investment, etc.), “patterns” (of land use, transportation, water/sewage infrastructure, etc.), “processes” (runoff, erosion, nutrient cycles, etc.), and “impacts” (to humans and the earth).

Praxis: Students will understand the range of options and approaches for Christian advocacy for ecological issues from above and below, with a ‘hands-on’ opportunity to investigate aspects of advocacy organizations and a government agency involved in urban planning though multiple field trips.

IV. Resources