Degrowth in the Suburbs: A Radical Urban Imaginary (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9789811347368)

This book addresses a central dilemma of the urban age: how to make the vast suburban landscapes that ring the globe safe and sustainable in the face of planetary ecological crisis. The authors argue that degrowth, a planned contraction of economic overshoot, is the only feasible principle for suburban renewal. They depart from the anti-suburban sentiment of much environmentalism to show that existing suburbia can be the centre-ground of transition to a new social dispensation based on the principle of self-limitation. The book offers a radical new urban imaginary, that of degrowth suburbia, which can arise Phoenix like from the increasingly stressed cities of the affluent Global North and guide urbanisation in a world at risk. This means dispensing with much contemporary green thinking, including blind faith in electric vehicles and high-density urbanism, and accepting the inevitability and the benefits of planned energy descent. A radical but necessary vision for the times.

Author: Samuel Alexander, Brendan Gleeson
ISBN-10: 9811347360
ISBN-13: 9789811347368
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
Language: English
Published: 12/29/2018
Pages: 213
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.61lbs
Size: 8.27h x 5.83w x 0.48d