In the nature of cities
Subtitle: urban political ecology and the politics of urban metabolism
By: edited by Nikolas C. Heynen, Maria Kaika and Erik Swyngedouw.
Contributors: Heynen, Nikolas C.; Kaika, Maria.; Swyngedouw, E.
Series: Questioning cities series
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2005
Place of publication: New York, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 271
Subjects: Urban ecology; Political ecology
Description: "The social and material production of urban nature has recently emerged as an important area in urban studies, human/environmental interactions and social studies. This has been prompted by the recognition that the material conditions that comprise urban environments are not independent from social, political, and economic processes, or from the cultural construction of what constitutes the ‘urban’ or the ‘natural’. Through both theoretical and empirical analysis, this groundbreaking collection offers an integrated and relational approach to untangling the interconnected processes involved in forming urban landscapes. The essays in this book attest that the re-entry of the ecological agenda into urban theory is vital both in terms of understanding contemporary urbanization processes, and of engaging in a meaningful environmental politics. They debate the central themes of whose nature is, or becomes, urbanized, and the uneven power relations through which this socio-metabolic transformation takes place. Including urban case studies, international research and contributions from prominent urban scholars, this volume will enable students, scholars and researchers of geographical, environmental and urban studies to better understand how interrelated, everyday economic, political and cultural processes form and transform urban environments."--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.