Urban Environmentalism Global Change and the Mediation of Local Conflict

About this book

A critical examination of urban policies and management practices used to make cities sustainable. With an international perspective, the book describes urban environmental agendas and how they arose in the context of globalization, urban economic restructuring, and the need to make cities competitive. It argues that the environment became an integral part of city development policy, turning attention not only to physical and ecological issues but also to improving the economic performance of cities and the lives of citizens.

The authors also go beyond the technical issues to explore the political importance of urban environmentalism, using case studies to illustrate both its international scope and place-specific characteristics which are inexorably influencing city development throughout the world. In connecting the concept to its political effects, the book raises issues such as local democracy, equality and social regulation, all of which are increasingly concerning academics, professionals, environmentalists and city authorities alike.

Contents

Chapter 1: Urban Change and the Environment: into the Twenty-First Century Urbanization and the environment; Sustainable cities: critics and sceptics; Understanding sustainability- Positivism and the environment- Constructivism and the cultural politics of the environment; Sustainable development and the globalization of capital; Globalization, neoliberalism and urban development; The social agenda of urban environmentalism; Urban environmentalism and the management of conflict. Chapter 2: Urban Environmental Agendas Introduction; Sustainable development and cities; Getting there: a brief histoory of urban environmental agendas- A tale of two cities- Cities and the Earth Summit- Johannesburg and Berlin: the double helix; Cities, space and planning; The conceptualization of cities-The rationalization of planning-The debate on urban form-The technical focus; The social agenda- Equity, health and environmental justice- Local democracy and urban governance- Community- Get a life: lifestyles and livlihoods; Conclusions Chapter 3: The Environmental and Postmodern Spatial Consciousness Sustainable cities and postmodern lives; Environmentalism and postmodernity; Ontological insecurity; Risk; Survival; Ethics; Sociality/solidarity; Individualization; Urban integration and governability; Conclusions Chapter 4: Discourse, Power and the Environment as Urban Ideology Introduction; Discourse and the shaping of urban reality- The importance of discourse- Dicourse and planning theory; Discourse analysis, planning and social change- The linguistic emphasis- The environment as a field of knowledge- Environmental knowledge/power- Green governmentality- Discursive and non-discursive practices Chapter 5: Urban Environmentalism in Action 1: Competitiveness and the Quality of Life in Birmingham, UK Introduction; Urban discourse: economic restructuring, planning and the environment- The demise of planning and the eclipse of the environment- The environment as image- Internationalizing the image: sustainability mark 1-Sustainability mark 2: morality and performance- Policy and discourse: constructions of the environment: Institutions: the regulation of environmental quality and welfare- The state, planning and the environment- Scales of government and urban environmental policy- Competition, partnership and privatization of the poor- Institutions and the mobilization of meaning; Spatial form: greening up- and down-market- Recycling the city centre- Environmental consumption and gentrifcation- Economic restructuring and the greening of poverty-Spatial organization and the ecological environment; Conclusions Chapter 6: Urban Environmentalism in Action 2: Democracy and Participation in Lodz, Poland Introduction; Urban discourse: the environment in transition- The concept of nature and the environment: the communist version- Urbanization and spatial development in the socialist period- Environmental policy under socialism- Alternative voices: challenges to the party narrative; Institutions and the (de)mobilization of meaning in the transition period- The shift toward the European Union and environmental internationalism- Decentralization and urban environment management- Local spatial planning and politics; Spatial form: getting into line?- The new spatial economy- New socio-spatial division- The housing market and spatial consumption- City image and place promotion- Urban environmental conditions in the new millenium; Conclusions Chapter 7: Urban Environmentalism in Action 3: Defusing Violence in Medellin, Colombia Introduction; Urban planning discourse: environments of harmony and peaceful coexistance- The tragic end of modernism and its environmental precipitation- Death, life and the environment- Re-stating security and new spaces of peaceful coexistance; The institutional mobilization and control of meaning- The institutional com

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