Synopses & Reviews
Cities and Nature illustrates how the city is part of the environment, and how it is subject to environmental constraints and opportunities. The city has been treated in most geographical writings as a primarily social phenomena, and at the same time, many environmental scientists have tended to ignore the urban. This book aims to reconnect natural science and social science through the examination of the urban environment.
The book is a comprehensive and accessible text organized around three central themes: 1) urban environment in historical context; 2) issues in urban-nature relations and; 3) realigning urban-nature relations. The growing environmental impact associated with increasing urbanization has shaped much urban public policy. The environmental dynamic of recent urban trends includes the impact of giant urban regions and megacities; postindustrial cities and brownfields, urban sprawl, new industrial spaces and shantytowns. Environmental disasters, and issues relating to pollution and garbage - as both a technical and social issue - for both large and small cities are also discussed. The possibilities of a green city, the environmental experience of cities through and across space, and the differences between cities in developed and developing economies are explored. The final section considers race, class and environmental justice and unpacks the popular notion of urban sustainability.
Cities and Nature clearly illustrates the physical and social elements of the urban environment. The book includes further reading and boxed case studies from cities around the world including Bangkok, Chicago, Cubatao, Dacca, Delhi, Los Angeles, London, New Orleans, Paris, Rome and Toronto. This book is essential reading for students and researchers in Geography, Environmental Studies, Urban Studies and Planning
Synopsis
Cities and Nature illustrates how the city is part of the environment, and how it is subject to environmental constraints and opportunities. The city has been treated in geographical writings as only a social phenomena, and at the same time, environmental scientists have tended to ignore the urban. This book reconnects the science and social science through the examination of the urban. It critiques the dominant academic discourse which ignores the environmental base of urban life and living, and discusses the urban natural environment and how this is subjected to social influences.
The book is organized around three central themes:
- urban environment in historical context
- issues in urban-nature relations
- realigning urban-nature relations.
Ideas such as pollution as a physical environmental fact, often created or impacted by economic, cultural and political changes are discussed, as well as viewing pollution as a social act: consuming patterns of everyday activities - driving, showering, shopping, eating - and how this has an environmental impact. The authors reintroduce a social science perspective in examining urban nature, the city and its physical environment.
Cities and Nature clearly illustrates the physical and social elements of the urban environment and shows how these are important to examining the city. It includes further reading and boxed case studies on Bangladesh, Paris, Delhi, Rome, Cubatao, Thailand, Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans and Toronto. This book would be an asset to students and researchers in environmental studies, urban studies and planning.