Enabling Urban Alternatives

This book asks how thinking, governing, performing, and producing the urban differently can assist in enabling the creation of alternative urban futures. It is a timely response to the ongoing crises and pressing challenges that inhabitants of cities, towns, and villages worldwide are faced with in the midst of what has been widely dubbed as ‘an urban age’. Starting from the premise that current urban development patterns are unsustainable in every sense of the word, the book explores how alternative patterns can be pursued by the wide variety of actors – from governments and international institutions to slum-dwellers and social movements – involved in the on-going production of our shared urban condition. The challenges addressed include exclusion and segregation; persisting poverty and increasing inequality; urban sprawl and changing land use patterns; and the spatial frames of urban policy. As such the book appeals to urban scholars, policy makers, activists, and others concerned with shaping the future of our cities and of urban life in general. Additionally, it is of interest to students in urban planning, architecture and design, human geography, urban sociology, and related fields.

Alternative urban spaces across civic, private, and public spheres emerge in response to the great challenges that urban actors are currently confronted with. Labour markets are changing rapidly, the availability of affordable housing is under intensifying pressure, and public spaces have become battlegrounds of urban politics. This edited collection brings together contributors in order to spark an international dialogue about the production of alternative urban spaces through a threefold exploration of alternative spaces of work, dwelling, and public life. Seeking out and examining existing alternative urban spaces, the authors identify the elements that provide opportunities to create radically different futures for the world’s urban spaces. This volume is the culmination of an international search for alternative practices to dominant modes of capitalist urbanisation, bringing together interdisciplinary, empirically grounded chapters from hot spots in disparate cities around the world. Offering a multidisciplinary perspective, The Production of Alternative Urban Spaces will be of great interest to academics working across the fields of urban sociology, human geography, anthropology, political science, and urban planning. It will also be indispensable to any postgraduate students engaged in urban and regional studies.

Urban Alternatives contains the proceedings of the USERC Environmental Resources and Urban Development Workshop held at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland in November 1975. The workshop aims to obtain information on the technical implications of various possible urban development decisions. This book details the descriptions of the workshop and the process used to arrive at the recommendations. The workshops are organized into topics of urban development, energy, communications, meteorology, water resources, public health, in-situ sensing, remote sensing, socio-economic problems, and science technology and government.

Alternative Urban Futures challenges existing models of urban development and promotes alternative paradigms, processes, and technologies designed to fulfill human needs and limit the harmful impacts of human activities on the environment. The book focuses on how planners and policy makers can develop and manage essential urban infrastructures in ways that support sustainable development in the areas of waste management, water supply and management, energy production and use, building design and construction, land-use, transportation, and food systems. Each chapter features case studies that provide concrete examples of how ecologically and socially responsible urban and sustainable development planning and policy approaches have been successfully implemented in cities around the world. The book is especially effective in its emphasis on recently published statistics and writing supporting new planning and policy recommendations. Each chapter ends with a summary, accompanied by a list of questions that can be addressed with information provided in the text.

This Collection Of Essays By Academics And Practitioners From Around The World Underscores Issues And Concerns Of Sustainable Urban Development And Best Practices In Terms Of Theory As Well As Praxes. Contributors Have Made An Attempt To Critically Reconcile The Hypothetical With The Applied In Order To Arrive At Innovative Solutions For Urban Good Governance In The Context Of The Steady Proliferation Of Habitats And Conurbations All Over The World. Their Papers More Often Than Not Transcend Regional Specifics To Address The Common Agenda Of Urban Development Debates As Informed By Assorted Modernization Perspectives In The 21St Century. This Volume Brings Together Social Scientists, Development Consultants And Non-Profit Professionals So That The Multipositional Theories And Multicultural Praxes Might Be Reflected In Their Papers Based On Empirical Research And Field-Level Insights. It Is Expected That This Volume Will Provoke Fresh Debates And New Ideas That Will Facilitate Theory-Building As Well As Formulation Of Paradigms For Good Practices And Sustainable Urban Applications. The Book Would Be Found Highly Useful By Town Planners, Municipal Administrators, Ngos Working In The Field Of Urban Development, And Common Readers Interested In Urban Problems And Policies. It Will Be Equally Valuable For Policy Makers As Well As Students, Researchers And Teachers Of Urban Economics, Urban Sociology, Urban Geography And Public Administration.

Urban Regeneration — A Manifesto for transforming UK Cities in the Age of Climate Change explores and offers guidance on the complex process of how to transform cities, continuing the unfinished project of the seminal 1999 text Towards an Urban Renaissance. It is a 21st-century manifesto of urban principles compiled by a prominent urbanist, for the regeneration of UK cities, focusing on the characteristics of a ‘good place’ and the strategies of sustainable urbanism. It asks readers to consider how we can best transform the derelict, abandoned and run-down parts of cities back into places where people want to live, work and play. The book frames an architecture of re-use that translates and combines the complex ‘science of cities’ and the art of urban and architectural design into actionable and practical guidance on how to regenerate cities. Fascinated by the typology and value of the compact UK and European city model, Lehmann introduces the concept of ‘high density without high buildings’ as a solution that will make our cities compact, walkable, mixed-use and vibrant again.