Sustainability in the Global City

Abstract

Cities play a pivotal but paradoxical role in the future of our planet. As world leaders and citizens grapple with the consequences of growth, pollution, climate change, and waste, urban sustainability has become a ubiquitous catchphrase and a beacon of hope. Yet, we know little about how the concept is implemented in daily life - particularly with regard to questions of social justice and equity. This volume provides a unique and vital contribution to ongoing conversations about urban sustainability by looking beyond the promises, propaganda, and policies associated with the concept in order to explore both its mythic meanings and the practical implications in a variety of everyday contexts. The authors present ethnographic studies from cities in eleven countries and six continents. Each chapter highlights the universalized assumptions underlying interpretations of sustainability while elucidating the diverse and contradictory ways in which people understand, incorporate, advocate for, and reject sustainability in the course of their daily lives.

Rummaging through the Attic of New England

“…Finally, those who are inclined to promote reuse as a strategy for ecological sustainability may not be similarly inclined to consider the social and economic dimensions of the sector. But all too many case studies have already illustrated how even the best-intentioned environmental and sustainability programs have exacerbated social or economic inequalities (Checker 2011;Isenhour, McDonogh, and Checker 2015). It is therefore essential that the current emphasis on circular economy and reuse does not work to exacerbate already strong urban and rural divides or to disadvantage those communities in desperate need of local economic development.…”

Uneven urban metabolisms: toward an integrative (ex)urban political ecology of sustainability in and around the city

“…A key analytical advantage of these approaches to sustainability is understanding the ways that natural limits shape social responses, the role of complexity, and produce emergent responses in both human and natural systems adapting to changing conditions (Cumming 2011;Turner and Robbins 2008). Yet political ecologists (and other social scientists) have suggested these studies are insufficient to fully understand the complex ways that human institutions and humanenvironment interventions shape sustainability practices (Turner and Robbins 2008;Cumming 2011;Isenhour, McDonogh, and Checker 2015). Rather they have sought to document the grounded human practices that create sustainable places and land uses.…”

Nourishing Environments, Caring Cities: Gardening and the Social Reproduction of the Urban Environment in Deindustrial Michigan

“…For example, Laura hoped to change how her neighbors and children’s friends experienced the urban environment, and to inspire them to think about living in the city in more sustainable ways. In the face of climate change, such provocations are desperately needed (Isenhour et al 2015), as rising tides and temperatures necessitate critical re‐thinkings of what a city is and what resilient urban environments could one day be (Cohen 2017). Thus, gardening in Elmwood also provides an analytical entrée for examining how people engage in the re‐imagining and recreating of urban environments.…”