In the nature of cities : urban political ecology and the politics of urban metabolism / edited by Nik Heynen, Maria Kaika and Erik Swyngedouw.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Heynen, Nik, 1973-

Kaika, Maria.

Swyngedouw, E. (Erik)

Series:

Questioning cities series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Urban ecology (Sociology).

Political ecology.

Physical Description:

xv, 271 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2006.

Summary:

The importance of the social and material production of urban nature has recently emerged as an area of importance with academic realms. "In the Nature of Cities" provides an integrated and relational approach that helps to untangle the interconnected economic, political and social processes that go together to form urban landscapes. This volume draws together prominent urban scholars to critically examine how economic, political, cultural processes affect urban environments. Contributions incorporate both new theoretical discussions about the social production while also supporting ideas with empirical research from the US, UK, Europe, Central and South America. The groundbreaking collection will continue to progress knowledge within the realm of human/environment relations, but explicitly with regard to urban areas.

Contents:

1 Urban political ecology: politicizing the production of urban natures / Nik Heynen, Maria Kaika, Erik Swyngedouw 1

2 Metabolic urbanization: the making of cyborg cities / Erik Swyngedouw 21

3 Metropolitics and metabolics: rolling out environmentalism in Toronto / Roger Keil, Julie-Anne Boudreau 41

4 Urban nature and the ecological imaginary / Matthew Gandy 63

5 Nature's carnival: the ecology of pleasure at Coney Island / Eliza Darling 75

6 The desire to metabolize nature: Edward Loveden Loveden, William Vanderstegen, and the disciplining of the river Thames / Stuart Oliver 93

7 Turfgrass subjects: the political economy of urban monoculture / Paul Robbins, Julie Sharp 110

8 Justice of eating in the city: the political ecology of urban hunger / Nik Heynen 129

9 Metabolisms of obe-city: flows of fat through bodies, cities and sewers / Simon Marvin, Will Medd 143

10 The political ecology of water scarcity: the 1989-1991 Athenian drought / Maria Kaika 157

11 The metabolic processes of capital accumulation in Durban's waterscape / Alex Loftus 173

12 The public/private conundrum of urban water: a view from South Africa / Laila Smith, Greg Ruiters 191

13 Inherited fragmentations and narratives of environmental control in entrepreneurial Philadelphia / Alec Brownlow 208

14 Transnational alliances and global politics: new geographies of urban environmental justice struggles / David N. Pellow 226

15 Urban metabolism as target: contemporary war as forced demodernization / Stephen Graham 245.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0415368278

0415368286

OCLC:

60360339

Publisher Number:

9780415368278 (hbk. : alk. paper)

9780415368285 (pbk. : alk. paper)