About

Green Space Notes is designed to catalogue and discuss current topics related to nature, economy, politics, technology, and cities. These topics are all interrelated and green space is a way to talk about them at the same time and in the same space. This is not a soapbox blog, but rather an uncluttered chronology of important topics, developments, and politics related to environment and society. Uncluttered here means a visual style that allows the content to be at the center.

Green Space Notes is a site run by Nik Janos, Associate Professor of Sociology at California State University, Chico. His area of expertice is at the intersection of urban and environmental studies. He's mainly interested in social and ecological crisis around salmon in Seattle and hurricanes in New Orleans. This site is a space to connect with the CSU Chico community and his students as well as the world at large through a collection of short notes and comments on news stories, politics, books, and films all related to the intersection of nature and society. Too much of academia is behind journal paywalls, expensive books, and the confines of the classroom. This site is part of a growing trend amongst professors who use blogs to extend the reach and impact of their work.  

Green Space Notes takes aim at "green washing", the act of representing a product, company, organization, or social practice as environmental friendly regardless of evidence, which has only accelerated in the past decade. Green is everywhere these days. One aim of Green Space Notes it to critique the green washing trends in current social and environmental discourse and practice. The second aim, however, is to highlight positive and encouraging devlopements within social and environmental discourse and practice. These are the trends that might help make a more socially and ecologically just world.