Cities, Nature and Development: The Politics and Production of Urban Vulnerabilities

by Sarah Dooling (Editor), Gregory Simon (Editor)

Overview

Bringing together an interdisciplinary team of scholars, this book illustrates how and why cities are comprised by a mosaic of vulnerable human and ecological communities. Case studies ranging across various international settings reveal how 'urban vulnerabilities' is an effective metaphor and analytic lens for advancing political ecological theories on the relationships between cities, nature and development. Contributions expand upon conceptions of vulnerability as a static condition and instead present vulnerability as a phenomenon that is produced through complex and contentious planning histories, and which may, in turn, be politicized, exploited and-in some instances-contested. Expanding upon snapshot vulnerability assessments, this volume articulates vulnerability as a process that is marked by the accumulation of risk over time and the transference of risk across space and populations. Moving beyond notions of vulnerability as a singular, case studies demonstrate that social and ecological vulnerabilities are deeply integrated and, as such, are irreducible to one or the other. This volume also highlights how the production of vulnerabilities is frequently achieved through integrated and mutually reinforcing economic development and environmentally driven agendas. This collection thus suggests that vulnerability-and also forms of resilience-are implicated in efforts to plan for and manage sustainable cities. This book provides timely and provocative perspectives on a wide range of urban issues including: park management, gentrification, suburban expansion, sustainability planning, local organic food systems, hazards management, climate change activism and north-south flows of urban environmental externalities. Collectively, these works reveal the complexities of urban vulnerabilities-related to scalar interactions, accumulation and transfer of risk, politicization and governance, and capacity for resistance-and in doing so, provide readers with coherent, robust and well-theorized analysis of the politics and production of urban vulnerabilities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781409408314
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/05/2012
Edition description:	1
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Dr Sarah Dooling, University of Texas Austin, USA and Dr Gregory Simon, University of Colorado Denver, USA.

Table of Contents

Contents: Part 1 Geographies of Wealth and Risk Accumulation: Neoliberal Policy and Resource Instrumentalism: Cities, nature and development: the politics and production of urban vulnerabilities, Sarah Dooling and Gregory Simon; Development, risk momentum and the ecology of vulnerability: a historical-relational analysis of the 1991 Oakland Hills firestorm, Gregory Simon; The neoliberal production of vulnerability and unequal risk, Timothy W. Collins and Anthony M. Jimenez; The production of urban vulnerability through market-based parks governance, Harold A. Perkins. Part 2 Unanticipated Vulnerabilities: Sustainability Planning, Environmental Movements, and Activism: Re-imagining the local: scale, race, culture, and the production of food vulnerabilities, Julian Agyeman and Benjamin L. Simons; Sustainability planning: ecological gentrification and the production of urban vulnerabilities, Sarah Dooling; Between here and there: mobilizing urban vulnerabilities in climate camps and transition towns, Kelvin Mason and Mark Whitehead. Part 3 Vulnerabilities in the Urbanizing Context: Cultural and Demographic Transformations: Co-opting restoration: women, voluntarism, and insurgent performance in Philadelphia, Alec Brownlow; Rust-to-resilience: local responses to urban vulnerabilities in Utica, New York, Jessica K. Graybill; The privilege of staying dry: the impact of flooding and racism on the emergence of the 'Mexican' ghetto in Austin's low-eastside, 1880-1935, Eliot M. Tretter and Melissa Adams; Epilogue; Index.