Dr. Randolph Hohle
The Fredonia Brown Bag series will present Dr. Randolph Hohle with his talk, “Social Sustainability Amid Urban and Economic Change.”
The event will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at noon in Williams Center Room S204-ABC. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.
Dr. Hohle is a Professor of Sociology at SUNY Fredonia. He will explore how grassroots actors in left-behind places, places defined by long-term population loss, economic contraction, and urban stigmas, use urban gardening and garden tourism to create sustainable communities. Social sustainability, defined as the presence of social mixing, social cohesion, and an equilibrium between bonding and bridging social capital, is one of the three pillars of urban regeneration. Because social interactions take place within a place, Hohle explores how urban gardening creates contact zones and conversant zones necessary for social mixing and social cohesion to occur. While economic variables act as important inhibitors to social sustainability, they cannot encourage the creation of social sustainability, as capital investment leads to uneven development in the absence of social cohesion and social mixing. Hohle’s talk is a partial preview of an upcoming book on place reputations and social sustainability in Buffalo, NY, and Cleveland.
The Fredonia Brown Bag Lunch Series offers monthly informal talks by SUNY Fredonia faculty and is supported by Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Andy Karafa, the Faculty Student Association for refreshments and the Carnahan Jackson Fund for the Humanities established through the Fredonia College Foundation.
