Current images of sustainability are often designed to instil fear and force change, not because we believe in it, but because we fear the consequences of inaction. Moving away from negative portrayals of sustainability, this book identifies the factors that motivate people to aspire towards sustainable living. It introduces the notion of sustainability as an "object of desire" that will allow people not to be scared of the future but rather to dream about it and look forward to a better quality of life. Tracing the history of major changes in our society that have dramatically altered our perceptions, beliefs and attitudes about sustainability, the book analyses the role of communications in persuading people of the benefits of sustainable living. It describes our current desires and dreams and explains why we need to change. Finally, the book suggests what could be done to not only make sustainability an object of desire, but also introduce hopes and dreams for a better future into our everyday lives. This inspiring and interdisciplinary book provides innovative insights for researchers, students and professionals in a range of disciplines, in particular environment and sustainability, sustainable marketing and advertising, and psychology.

Current images of sustainability often are designed to instill fear and force change, not because we believe in it, but because we fear the consequences of inaction. We also far too often are faced with adverts that use sustainability images in order to sell their product, which are not sustainable at all.

This book identifies the factors that motivate people to aspire towards sustainable living and determines the role of communications in persuading people of the benefits of sustainable living. It introduces the notion of sustainability as an "object of desire," that will allow people to not be scared of the future but rather, to dream about it and look forward to a better quality of life. The book traces the history of major changes in our society that have dramatically changed our perceptions, beliefs and attitudes as related to sustainability. It describes our current desires and dreams and explains why we need to change. Further, it identifies the factors that motivate people to aspire towards sustainable living and determines the role of communications in persuading people of the benefits of sustainable living. Finally it suggests what could be done to not only make sustainability an object of desire, but also introduce hopes and dreams for a better future into our everyday lives.

This inspiring and interdisciplinary book provides innovative insights for researchers, students and professionals in a range of disciplines, in particular environment and sustainability, sustainable marketing and advertising, communication studies, and behavioural studies.

This book addresses the future of urbanisation on the Galapagos Islands from a systems, governance and design perspective with the competing parameters of liveability, economic and ecological, using the Galapagos as a laboratory for the theoretical and postulative understanding of evolving settlement and habitation. The Galapagos islands are one of the world's most examined and reported examples of a series of naturally evolving ecosystems. The biodiversity of these island ecosystems are the focus of tourism and the image across the world yet human settlement are part of the local ecology. While human intervention is limited, the islands are a distinctive context in which to consider the impact of human habitation as a part of our ecosystems. In this book, authors take the framework of complex adaptive systems (CAS) in which to model systems that grow and evolve, the relations between these various sectors change; systems that get more complex as they evolve. Tested and applied discretely in the two realms of natural and urban, for the first time this text will bring the two together in understanding options for the future of urban settlements on the Galapagos Islands and, by extension, consider how the approach can be used globally in other contexts.

This book investigates what the history of Hong Kong's urban development has to teach other cities as they face environmental challenges, social and demographic change and the need for new models of dense urbanism. The authors describe how the high-rise intensity of Hong Kong came about; how the forest of towers are in fact vertical culs de sac; and how the city might become truly 'volumetric' with mixed activities through multiple levels and 3D movement networks incorporating 'town cubes' rather than town squares. For more information, visit the authors' website: http://www.makingofhk.com/makingofhk.swf