Nature and the City
Subtitle: Making Environmental Policy in Toronto and Los Angeles (Society, Environment, and Place)
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Published: September 2004
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 274
ISBN-13: 9780816523733
Subjects: Human Geography; Planning; Environmental Studies; Earth Sciences - Geography; Sociology; Social Science; Ontario; Los Angeles; Environmental policy; Environmental Conservation & Protection - General; Environmental Science; Case studies; Toronto; California
Description: "This book takes a new look at the application of "ecological modernization" to contemporary urban political-ecological struggles. Considering policy processes around land-use in urban watersheds and pollution of air and soil in two disparate North American "global cities," it criticizes the dominant belief in the power of markets and experts to regulate environments to everyone's benefit, arguing instead that civil political action by local constituencies can influence the establishment of beneficial policies. The book emphasizes 'subaltern' environmental justice concerns as instrumental in shaping the policy process." "In the face of economic and environmental processes that have been increasingly influenced by neo-liberalism and globalization, Desfor and Keil's analysis posits that continuing modernization of industrial capitalist societies entails a measure of deliberate change to societal relationships with nature in cities. Their book shows that environmental policies are about much more than green capitalism or the technical mastery of problems; they are about how future urban generations live their lives with sustainability and justice."--BOOK JACKET.