EBOOK: World Cities And Climate Change

Book excerpt: Relationships between cities and energy, water, waste and transport networks are changing. World Cities and Climate Change argues that this is not something that is happening naturally but is the product of social, economic, political and spatial processes and that these changes have profound implications for the shape of contemporary and future cities. Drawing on research and examples from London, New York, Tokyo, Melbourne, Shanghai, San Francisco and other world cities, Mike Hodson and Simon Marvin pose a critical question: Are visions of future urbanism socially and ecologically progressive or do they promote the selective and partial re-bounding of particular social groups and places predicated on new - often hidden - interdependencies? They develop a critical synthesis of dominant, new infrastructure styles that they argue are emerging as responses to the systemic pressures of climate change and resource constraint confronting cities and networks. The book outlines the key elements of these new strategies and critically assesses their implications and relevance to other urban contexts. World Cities and Climate Change is key reading for students, academics, researchers and policy makers with an interest in urban politics, technology and ecology.