City and Environment
ISBN: 9781439904244
Platform/Publisher: Project MUSE / Temple University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapters; Download: Chapters
Subjects: Sociology Urban.; Urban ecology (Sociology);

For the first time in history, more than half the people of the world live in cities. Comprehending the impact of this widespread urbanization requires an awareness of the complex relationships between cities and natural ecosystems. This innovative book moves beyond the anti-urban lamentations that often dominate today's academic discourse to examine the evolution of cities and to illuminate the roles that humans play in shaping their environments, both natural and constructed. Christopher G. Boone and Ali Modarres argue that understanding the multiple forces of urbanization requires a holistic approach to the interactions of social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental factors. Without casting judgments, City and Environment seeks to engage readers in an exploration of cities from a truly global perspective. Throughout, it illuminates the social-ecological systems of cities not as an academic exercise--although informing academic audiences is one of its goals--but ultimately to help transform cities into livable and ecologically sustainable environments.

Christopher G. Boone is Associate Professor and holds joint appointments in the International Institute for Sustainability as well as the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University.Ali Modarres is the Associate Director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs and a Professor in the Department of Geography and Urban Analysis at California State University, Los Angeles.

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