Nature and the City - Making Environmental Policy in Toronto and Los Angeles (Hardcover, illustrated Edition)

Pollution of air, soil, and waterways has become a primary concern of urban environmental policy making, and over the past two decades there has emerged a new era of urban policy that links development with ecological issues, based on the notion that both nature and the economy can be enhanced through technological changes to production and consumption systems. This book takes a new look at this 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 everyoneas benefit, arguing instead that civil political action by local constituencies can influence the establishment of beneficial policies. The book emphasizes asubalterna environmental justice concerns as instrumental in shaping the policy process. Looking back to the 1990s--when ecological modernization began to emerge as a dominant approach to environmental policy and theory--Desfor and Keil examine four case studies: restoration of the Don River in Toronto, cleanup of contaminated soil in Toronto, regeneration of the Los Angeles River, and air pollution reduction in Los Angeles. In each case, they show that local constituencies can develop political strategies that create alternatives to ecological modernization. When environmental policies appear to have been produced through solely technical exercises, they warn, one must be suspicious about the removal of contention from the process. In the face of economic and environmental processes that have beenincreasingly influenced by neo-liberalism and globalization, Desfor and Keilas 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.

General

Imprint:	University of Arizona Press
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	September 2004
First published:	November 2004
Authors:	Gene Desfor • Roger Keil
Dimensions:	236 x 162 x 24mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover - Cloth over boards / With dust jacket
Pages:	274
Edition:	illustrated Edition
ISBN-13:	978-0-8165-2373-3
Categories:	Books > Earth & environment > The environment > General
LSN:	0-8165-2373-8
Barcode:	9780816523733

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