Sustainability Citizenship in Cities (Advances in Urban Sustainability) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1138933635 ISBN 13: 9781138933637

Publisher: Routledge, 2016

Synopsis

Urban sustainability citizenship situates citizens as social change agents with an ethical and self-interested stake in living sustainably with the rest of Earth. Such citizens not only engage in sustainable household practices but respect the importance of awareness raising, discussion and debates on sustainability policies for the common good and maintenance of Earth’s ecosystems.

Sustainability Citizenship in Cities seeks to explain how sustainability citizenship can manifest in urban built environments as both responsibilities and rights. Contributors elaborate on the concept of urban sustainability citizenship as a participatory work-in-progress with the aim of setting its practice firmly on the agenda. This collection will prompt practitioners and researchers to rethink contemporary mobilisations of urban citizens challenged by various environmental crises, such as climate change, in various socio-economic settings.

This book is a valuable resource for students, academics and professionals working in various disciplines and across a range of interdisciplinary fields, such as: urban environment and planning, citizenship as practice, environmental sociology, contemporary politics and governance, environmental philosophy, media and communications, and human geography.

About this title

About the Author:

Ralph Horne is Professor of Geography, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, and Director of the Cities Programme (United Nations Global Compact).

John Fien, formerly Professor of Sustainability in RMIT University’s Innovation Leadership Program (2005–2013), was appointed Executive Director of the Swinburne University Leadership Institute, Hawthorn, Australia in late 2013.

Beau B. Beza is Senior Lecturer in the Planning and Landscape Architecture Program, School of Architecture and Built Environment, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia.

Anitra Nelson is Associate Professor in the Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.

Review:

"This edited collection is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the relation between citizenship and environmental sustainability. The authors approach sustainability citizenship as a work-in-progress, but the focus on its practical articulations ― emphasising collective responsibilities, participatory democracy and ‘being’ rather than ‘having’ ― provides conceptual coherence to the volume." – Benito Cao, Lecturer in Politics at the University of Adelaide, Australia and author of Environment and Citizenship (2015)

"Finally, a bid for the future that is different, imaginative and realistic: a vision which every reader can (perhaps should) help bring to life; a work that is not only against neo-liberalism, but is for an achievable humane alternative that is good for the world – its biodiversity, its sustainability and the wellbeing of its stewards. A must-read within and beyond urban studies." – Susan J Smith, Honorary Professor of Social and Economic Geography and The Mistress of Girton College, University of Cambridge, UK

"Achieving voluntary behaviour change to sustainable forms of living and consumption practices represents one of the grand challenges of the 21st century. The model of sustainability citizenship advanced in this book represents a critical and under-researched pathway to this transformation ― beyond that more commonly focused on individual attitudes and behaviours." – Peter W. Newton, Research Professor in Sustainable Urbanism, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

"Sustainability citizenship is a concept which can constructively move discussion of social change for sustainability well beyond the limited framings of neoliberal discourse. This unique collection takes a major step in advancing understandings of sustainability citizenship by making clear that it is not only an abstracted idealist concept but something happening, and shaping the future, now." – Matt Watson, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Sheffield, UK

"This timely, comprehensive volume firmly ties the epic statement ‘global environmental crisis’ to human experience in the urban age. In stories charged as much with hope as danger, its contributors make clear that the serious species threat posed by the ecological crisis is just as much an opportunity for myriad forms of sustainability citizenship to evolve and flourish." – Brendan Gleeson, Director at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, The University of Melbourne, Australia

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1138933635
• ISBN 13: 9781138933637
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 244
• Editor: Horne Ralph