The question of how environmental awareness originated and developed has been subject to sharply contesting points of view. Recently the debate has been expressed epistemologically in constructivist versus materialist approaches. In this book, Mark Luccarelli pushes past unproductive mind/body debates by rooting the rise of environmental awareness in the political and geographical history of the US. Considering history in terms of the categorical development of space - social, territorial and conceptual - the book examines the forces that drove people to ignore their surroundings by distancing culture from place and by assiduously advancing the dissolution of social bonds. Thus beneath the question of the surround, and the key to its renewal today, is the quest to re-engage the common. The latter is still a part of the approach to space, its arrangement and disposition, and has a necessary environmental dimension.Concepts of urbanism, place identity, picturesque landscape and nature are part of a larger Western intellectual and cultural context but, by examining the imaging of cities and landscape, Luccarelli links particular American geographic settings - as well as the political ideals and practices of the republic - to the application and aesthetic reading of these ideas. The advocates of these various perspectives shared an aesthetic orientation as a means of redefining or recovering the common. The book looks at various American urban and regional contexts, as well as the work of artists, writers and public figures, including painter and engraver William Birch, Thomas Jefferson, engraver John Hill, Henry David Thoreau and Frederick Law Olmsted. Luccarelli embeds his environmental study in the works of these men and in the course of American history between the planting of the city of Philadelphia and the establishment of Olmsted's major urban parks.

This lively collection of essays explores the vital role of beauty in the human experience of place, interactions with other species, and contemplation of our own embodied lives. Devoting attention to themes such as global climate change, animal subjectivity, environmental justice and activism, and human moral responsibility for the environment, these contributions demonstrate that beauty is not only a meaningful dimension of our experience, but also a powerful strategy for inspiring cultural transformation. Taken as a whole, they underscore the ongoing relevance of aesthetics to the ecocritical project and the concern for beauty that motivates effective social and political engagement.

This lively collection of essays explores the vital role of beauty in the human experience of place, interactions with other species, and contemplation of our own embodied lives. Devoting attention to themes such as global climate change, animal subjectivity, environmental justice and activism, and human moral responsibility for the environment, these contributions demonstrate that beauty is not only a meaningful dimension of our experience, but also a powerful strategy for inspiring cultural transformation. Taken as a whole, they underscore the ongoing relevance of aesthetics to the ecocritical project and the concern for beauty that motivates effective social and political engagement.

As urban regions face the demand to decrease fossil fuel dependency, many cities in the developing world are undertaking initiatives designed to create a greener city by aiming for a more sustainable form of urban development and, to do so, they need to evaluate existing modes of transportation and patterns of land use. Focusing on Oslo, an early leader in urban environmental policy making and a European 'green city' award winner, it argues that this evaluation must adopt and integrate two approaches: firstly, as a process of ecological modernization based on a combination of transit, densification, and mixed use development and secondly, as an opportunity to reconsider the character and substance of the built environment as a reflection of natural values, landscapes and natural resources of the wider region. Environmental debate and concern is widespread in Oslo, and this is reflected in its earlier planning decisions to leave intact large forest reserves, its successful ecological restoration of the Oslo fjord, the importance of outdoor culture among its residents, the relatively progressive political agenda of Norway, This book provides an opportunity for a critical assessment of the limitations and opportunities inherent in 'green Oslo' and suggests the need for much broader integrative approaches. It concludes by highlighting lessons which other cities might learn from Oslo.

As urban regions face the demand to decrease fossil fuel dependency, many cities in the developing world are undertaking initiatives designed to create a greener city by aiming for a more sustainable form of urban development and, to do so, they need to evaluate existing modes of transportation and patterns of land use. Focusing on Oslo, an early leader in urban environmental policy making and a European 'green city' award winner, it argues that this evaluation must adopt and integrate two approaches: firstly, as a process of ecological modernization based on a combination of transit, densification, and mixed use development and secondly, as an opportunity to reconsider the character and substance of the built environment as a reflection of natural values, landscapes and natural resources of the wider region. Environmental debate and concern is widespread in Oslo, and this is reflected in its earlier planning decisions to leave intact large forest reserves, its successful ecological restoration of the Oslo fjord, the importance of outdoor culture among its residents, the relatively progressive political agenda of Norway, This book provides an opportunity for a critical assessment of the limitations and opportunities inherent in 'green Oslo' and suggests the need for much broader integrative approaches. It concludes by highlighting lessons which other cities might learn from Oslo.