Understanding Just Sustainabilities from Within: A Case Study of a Shared-Use Commercial Kitchen in Connecticut(Routledge Equity, Justice and the Sustainable City series)

Written by the co-founder and former board president of a non-profit shared-use commercial kitchen, Understanding Just Sustainabilities from Within presents an intersectional analysis of CLiCK (Commercially Licensed Co-operative Kitchen), in order to explore what just sustainabilities can look and feel like from within and without. Through a unique combination of autoethnography, participant observation, surveys, and secondary research, this book offers insights into CLiCK’s micro and macro successes, failures, and unknowns in relation to its attempt to put the concept of just sustainabilities into daily practice, and praxis. Developing its practical analyses from a theoretical basis, this book does not focus on definitive answers, recognizing instead that the closest we can get to understanding just sustainabilities in praxis is through long-term collective struggle and ultimately love. Researchers and educators who are interested in linking theory with practice, especially in relation to just sustainabilities and intersectionality, will appreciate the theoretical grounding, making it desirable for multiple social science classes. Additionally, those involved with the social justice, food justice, and just sustainabilities movements will benefit from the book’s insights into best practices to address issues of social inequalities on the micro level, while also offering the benefits of a macro intersectional analysis.

Table of Contents:
Foreword: Mark Winne Preface: CLiCK’s Interfaith Land Blessing Introduction: Understanding a Socially Constructed World Through My Positionality Part I: Understanding in Theory Chapter 1: Understanding Just Sustainabilities in Theory Chapter 2: Understanding Intersectionality in Theory Chapter 3: Overlapping Lenses: Insights into Practice Part II: Understanding from Within and Without in Practice Chapter 4: Origins of CLiCK from Within and Without Chapter 5: Development of CLiCK from Within and Without Chapter 6: Institutionalization of CLiCK from Within and Without Part III: Thresholds of Successes, Failures and Unknowns- Explorations in Praxis Chapter 7: Putting Just Sustainabilities and Intersectionality into Praxis? Chapter 8: Thresholds of Success… Chapter 9: Failures and Unknowns (thus far…) Conclusion: Interconnections Now and Beyond…

About the Author :
Phoebe Godfrey is an Associate Professor in Residence of Sociology at the University of Connecticut, USA.

Review :
"Understanding Just Sustainabilities from Within provides a thoroughly engaging account of the practice of food justice and non-profit community organizing. Godfrey’s activism and intellection engage thought, heart, emotion, intuition, and spirit, enabling her creation of both compelling story and important theory. This book is perfect for my graduate and undergraduate classes on Environmental Justice and Ecofeminism." – Jane Caputi, Professor, Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Communication and Multimedia, Florida Atlantic University. “[This book] leverages a unique insider-outsider perspective to present a reflective evaluation of the theory and practice of just sustainabilities. Ultimately…this book can function as a boundary object; a translator between the activist and scholarly communities that co-constitute the field of just sustainabilities. With its conversational tone and personal style, it is also readily accessible to both undergraduate and graduate students and has important insights to offer those who are interested in critical community studies, food justice, and sustainability studies.” Manisha Anantharaman, Saint Mary’s College of California, USA – an excerpt from a book review in Contemporary Sociology 52, 1 "Understanding Just Sustainabilities from Within provides a thoroughly engaging account of the practice of food justice and non-profit community organizing. Godfrey’s activism and intellection engage thought, heart, emotion, intuition, and spirit, enabling her creation of both compelling story and important theory. This book is perfect for my graduate and undergraduate classes on Environmental Justice and Ecofeminism." Jane Caputi, Professor, Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Communication and Multimedia, Florida Atlantic University "With passionate prose, personal stake, and theoretical creativity, Godfrey lays bare the efforts of a shared-use commercial kitchen to put food justice principles into practice. This book offers a gift. Food justice is iterative. Our ideals run up against the real world, which is an opportunity to refine our praxis." Joshua Sbicca, author of Food Justice Now!: Deepening the Roots of Social Struggle