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The City as Fulcrum of Global Sustainability

The City as Fulcrum of Global Sustainability

Ernest J. Yanarella | Richard S. Levine

(2011)

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Book Details

Abstract

This book responds to the some of the twenty-first century’s most assuming problems of our times: global warming, sub-national terrorism, natural resource depletion, and economic, environmental and financial crises. It finds short- and long-term solutions to these global woes by looking to the city as the fulcrum for introducing sustainability around the world. Beginning with an outline of a robust strategy of sustainable cities—or sustainable city-regions—that has emerged out of over two-and-a-half decades of theoretical and practical work, the authors show why these portentous problems can best be addressed at the local-regional scale. In the process, this book cuts through the received wisdom and popular misunderstandings about sustainability and peels away the conceptual fog and ideological confusion about the meaning of sustainability.

Drawing upon extensive fieldwork in North America, Europe and Asia, the authors examine both strong and weak examples of sustainable city approaches that validate their distinctive urban sustainability strategy. They discover keen insights and important lessons in these case studies for sustainability practice across the globe, whether in small towns in the US and Canada, large cities in Europe or tiny Chinese villages in Asia.  Their concluding chapter argues that only the road less travelled holds real promise of creating sustainable city-regions around the world guided by the toolkit of ecological and technological conviviality.


‘This book stands almost alone in the literature on sustainability in correctly proclaiming the role of our built environment – cities, towns and villages – as the lifestyle-defining, energy- and transport-solving, climate-stability-achieving foundation of any structure – physical or strategic – we might hope to build and live in and through. How to get there? Read it and get busy.’ —Richard Register, Founder and President of Ecocity Builders


‘Yanarella and Levine argue that discrete programs of sustainable development – particularly those that target the “low-hanging fruit” – may not lead to ecological or social sustainability, and may in fact simply perpetuate “less unsustainable” development. The alternative they lay out is comprehensive and measurable: a participatory path to sustainable urban development that does not export problems beyond the territory or into the future.’ —Professor Joan Fitzgerald, Northeastern University, Boston


Outlining a robust strategy for sustainable city-regions that has emerged from over two-and-a-half decades of theoretical and practical work, ‘The City as Fulcrum of Global Sustainability’ cuts through the received wisdom and popular misunderstanding surrounding sustainability to demonstrate how global problems can best be addressed at the local-regional scale. Featuring an array of case studies – focusing on both strong and weak examples of sustainable cities – the text delivers a bold message to the urban planners of tomorrow: only the road less traveled holds real promise of creating sustainable city-regions, with this journey requiring the balanced guidance of ecological and technological conviviality.


‘This book is timely, well referenced and comprehensive, presenting the Sustainable Area Budget of a city and its hinterlands as the decision space within which to foster interaction and collaboration in designing an as-yet-untold future.’ —Professor Robert Koester, Director of the Center for Energy Research/Education/Service, Ball State University, Indiana


‘It is irrefutable that cities are the glue that holds together any civilization – in fact they often are the civilization. This insightfully clear text demonstrates the necessity of acknowledging this role for the city – the world will depend on it.’ —Pliny Fisk III, Co-director, The Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems


Ernest J. Yanarella is Professor of Political Science and Richard S. Levine is Professor of Architecture at the University of Kentucky. Together, they cofounded the university’s Center for Sustainable Cities (CSC), whose aim is to study and advance the theory and practice of sustainability.


‘An extensive how-to manual for the ultimate think-globally-act-locally mindset and activities that meld our global trajectory toward urbanization with responsible planning for the well-being of our planet and its people. […] I applaud the authors for their creativity and conviction.’ — Bill Ferguson, ‘Sustainability: The Journal of Record’


Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Front Matter\r 1
HALF TITLE PAGE\r 1
TITLE PAGE\r 3
COPYRIGHT PAGE\r 4
TABLE OF CONTENTS\r 5
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 7
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES 11
INTRODUCTION 15
An Unsustainable World in Crisis 15
Sustainability in an Urbanizing World 17
Sustainability as an “Essentially Contested Concept” 20
Sustainability: New Concepts, New Theory, New Operational Definition 21
The Argument Summarized: Strategy, Concepts, Cautions and Case Studies 24
Main Matter\r 33
Part I\rSTRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONS 33
Chapter 1 DOES SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT LEAD TO SUSTAINABILITY? 35
The Meaning of Sustainable Development 36
An Immanent Critique of Sustainable Development Strategy 43
The Issue of Scale: Societal or Global? 43
The Means to be Employed: Technological Instruments or Idealistic Panaceas? 44
The Relationship between Global and Local Activities 46
Role of the Academic Disciplines: Multidisciplinary or Interdisciplinary? 47
An Alternative Strategy of Sustainable Cities: Five Operating Principles 49
Chapter 2 THE SUSTAINABLE CITIES MANIFESTO 55
Pre-Text 55
Sustainable City Manifesto: Preamble 57
Principles 58
Post-Text 65
Chapter 3 VARIATIONS ON A “GREEN” THEME: OVERCOMING SEMANTICS IN THE SUSTAINABILITY DEBATE 73
“Green” vs Sustainability: How They Differ and Why It Matters 73
Beyond a “Green Party”: The Foundations of a Sustainability Rubric 77
Conclusion 82
Chapter 4 DON’T PICK THE LOW-HANGING FRUIT? 85
Introduction 85
Sustainability as a Path that Cannot Be Traveled 86
Beyond the “Low-hanging” Fruit: Lovins and Hawken on Natural Capitalism 88
From Path to Process 90
Not Picking the Low-hanging Fruit as a Political Conundrum – A Way Out 92
Chapter 5 FROM THE CITY TO THE CITY-REGION: THE SUSTAINABLE AREA BUDGET, RURAL PARTNERLAND AND SUSTAINABILITY ENGINE 95
Sustainability Indicators 96
Ecological Footprint 97
Sustainable Area Budget 99
Possibilities and Problems 101
Using the Sustainable Area Budget 103
The Concept and Necessity of Rural Partnerland 105
The Sustainability Engine 106
Conclusion 109
Chapter 6 THE SUSTAINABLE CITY GAME AS A GAME AND A TOOL OF URBAN DESIGN 111
Introduction 111
From Netville to Cybercities 113
Design Process as a Participatory Game: The Sustainable City Game 116
The Sustainable City Prototype: The City-as-a-Hill 121
Conclusion 123
Part II SUSTAINABLE CITIES AROUND THE WORLD 127
Chapter 7 URBAN DREAMS OF GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY 129
Introduction 129
The Local(ist)-Globalist Debate 130
Between Environmental Moralism and Policy Incrementalism: Local Agenda 21 vs The Aalborg Charter 132
Case Studies in Sustainable Community Development: Status and Prospectus 136
Troyan, Bulgaria 136
Municipal Durban, Kwazulu/Natal Province, Republic of South Africa 138
City of Santos, Brazil 139
Hamilton-Wentworth, Ontario, Canada 141
Critical Evaluation 143
Conclusion 145
Chapter 8 THE PROMISE AND PITFALLS OF CHATTANOOGA’S ENTREPRENEURIAL “SUSTAINABILITY” STRATEGY 147
The Sustainable Chattanooga Story – The Official Discourse of Its Decline and Revitalization 148
Toward Chattanooga Sustainability 3.0 – Some Policy Recommendations 168
Chapter 9 SUSTAINABILITY COMES TO OKOTOKS, ALBERTA 173
Introduction 173
Present at the Creation: The Origins of Sustainable Okotoks 174
Phase 1: Native Resources, Promising Developments and Unresolved Problems 177
Rumble from the North: The Unraveling of Sustainable Okotoks? 185
Some Policy Recommendations 190
Conclusion 195
Chapter 10 VIENNA’S WESTBAHNHOF SUSTAINABLE URBAN IMPLANTATION – THE CITY-AS-A-HILL 197
Introduction 197
The Sustainable City of the Past 198
The Westbahnhof Project − The Sustainable City of the Future 200
The City-as-a-Hill − A New Urban Model 205
The Partnerland Principle in Practice 210
Conclusion 212
Chapter 11 THE SUCCESS OF SUCCESS: THE CHINESE VILLAGE AS CATALYST OF FUTURE CHINESE SUSTAINABLE CITIES 215
Introduction 215
The Village as Generator 216
Methodology 220
Success – Some Examples 222
The Scenario-building Process 227
Sustainability as a Systematic Balancing Process 228
The Sustainable Town-Region: Metropolis vs Village 229
Implementing the Sustainable Town Process 230
Systems Modeling with the Sustainability Engine 233
Conclusion 237
Chapter 12 THE LONG MARCH TO SUSTAINABILITY IN CHINA 239
Introduction 239
Huangbaiyu: From Theory to Design 240
A “SUCCESS”-ful Critique of Huangbaiyu’s Failure 245
Conclusion 253
CLOSING THOUGHTS 257
Conclusion TAKING THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED 259
Worlds in Collision 260
Sustainability Strategy: The Road Less Traveled 262
In Conclusion: Is the City the Fulcrum of Global Sustainability? 265
End Matter\r 267
APPENDIX 267
Appendix A CHARTER OF EUROPEAN CITIES AND TOWNS TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY 269
Part I: Consensus Declaration: European Cities and Towns Towards Sustainability 269
Part II: The European Sustainable Cities and Towns Campaign 274
Part III: Engaging in The Local Agenda 21 Processes: Local Action Plans Towards Sustainability 275
Appendix B EMERALD CITY: A ROLEPLAYING SUSTAINABILITY GAME 277
Three Players 277
Core Values 277
Site and Problem [Example] 278
Rules of Play 281
REFERENCES 283
INDEX 303