Urban sustainability in theory and practice: circles of sustainability /
Paul James; with Liam Magee, Andy Scerri, and Manfred Steger.
- London: Routledge, 2015.
- xxii, 260 pages: illustrations; 23 cm.
Includes index.
Part I: Setting the global-local scene -- Confronting a world in crisis -- Cities are at the centre of these crises -- The new urban paradoxes -- Why do our responses remain short term? -- Towards flourishing sustainable cities -- Case study: Melbourne, Australia -- Defining the world around us -- Sustainable and good development -- Negative and positive sustainability -- Cities and urban settlements -- Globalization and localization -- Community and sustainability -- Case study: New Delhi, India -- Part II: Understanding social life -- Social domains -- Judging the value of any method -- Defining social domains -- Defining perspectives and aspects -- Defining aspects of the social whole -- Appendix -- Case study: Valleta and Paolo, Malta -- Social mapping -- Researching social and project profiles -- Defining social themes -- defining ontological formations -- Case study: Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea -- Social mapping -- Ideas and ideologies -- Imaginaries -- Ontological formations -- Part III: Developing methods and tools -- Assessing sustainability -- Problems with top-down assessment processes -- Problems with bottom-up assessment processes -- Towards a comprehensive assessment method -- Defining the stages of project management -- Appendix -- Case study: Porto Alegre, Brazil -- Generating an urban sustainability profile -- Definitions for the purpose of this questionnaire -- The scale for critical judgement -- Appendix: urban profile questionnaire -- Measuring community sustainability -- Developing a social life questionnaire -- Comparing different communities -- Overcoming methodological limitations -- Appendix: social life questionnaire -- Conducting a peer review -- Building on the strengths of peer review -- Phases in the peer-review process -- Case study: Johannesburg, South Africa -- Adapting to climate change -- Setting objectives for adaptation -- Cross-domain options for adaptation -- Avoiding maladaption -- Risk assessment methods -- Vulnerability assessment methods -- Projecting alternative futures -- Developing a scenario projection process -- The scenario process in action -- Beyond the first stage of scenario development -- Simulating future trends -- Are cities actually like elephants? -- The world of city simulators -- Foundations of the approach -- Simulating the future?
Cities are home to the most consequential current attempts at human adaptation and they provide one possible focus for the flourishing of life on this planet. However, for this to be realized in more than an ad hoc way, a substantial rethinking of current approaches and practices needs to occur. Urban Sustainability in Theory and Practice responds to the crises of sustainability in the world today by going back to basics. It makes four major contributions to thinking about and acting upon cities. It provides a means of reflexivity learning about urban sustainability in the process of working practically for positive social development and projected change. It challenges the usually taken-for-granted nature of sustainability practices while providing tools for modifying those practices. It emphasizes the necessity of a holistic and integrated understanding of urban life. Finally it rewrites existing dominant understandings of the social whole such as the triple-bottom line approach that reduce environmental questions to externalities and social questions to background issues. The book is a much-needed practical and conceptual guide for rethinking urban engagement.Covering the full range of sustainability domains and bridging discourses aimed at academics and practitioners, this is an essential read for all those studying, researching and working in urban geography, sustainability assessment, urban planning, urban sociology and politics, sustainable development and environmental studies. This book responds to the crises of sustainability in the world today by going back to basics. It makes four major contributions to thinking about and acting upon cities. It provides a means of reflexivity learning about urban sustainability in the process of working practically for positive social development and projected change. It challenges the usually taken-for-granted nature of sustainability practices while providing tools for modifying those practices. It emphasizes the necessity of a holistic and integrated understanding of urban life. Finally it rewrites existing dominant understandings of the social whole such as the triple-bottom line approach that reduce environmental questions to externalities and social questions to background issues. The book is a practical and conceptual guide for rethinking urban engagement - From the Book.