Ecotopia 2121: A Vision for Our Future Green Utopia?in 100 Cities

by Alan Marshall

Overview

A 2016 Green Book Festival "Future Forecasts" Winner and 2017 Silver Nautilus Book Award Winner

A stunningly original, lushly illustrated vision for a Green Utopia, published on the 500th anniversary of the original Big Idea.

Five hundred years ago a powerful new word was unleashed upon the world when Thomas More published his book Utopia, about an island paradise far away from his troubled land. It was an instant hit, and the literati across Europe couldn't get enough of its blend of social fantasy with a deep desire for a better world. Five hundred years later, Ecotopia 2121 once again harnesses the power of the utopian imagination to confront our current problems, among them climate change, and offer a radical, alternative vision for the future of our troubled planet.

Depicting one hundred cities around the globe—from New York to San Francisco, London, Tokyo, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Beijing, Vienna, Singapore, Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, and Mumbai—Alan Marshall imagines how each may survive and prosper. A striking, full-color scenario painting illustrates each city. The chapters tell how each community has found either a social or technological innovation to solve today's crises. Fifteen American cities are covered. Around the world, urban planners like to tailor scenarios for the year 2020, to take advantage of the metaphor of 20-20 vision. In Ecotopia 2121, the vision may be fuzzy, but its sharp insights, captivating illustrations, and playful storytelling will keep readers coming back again and again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781628726008
Publisher:	Arcade
Publication date:	10/04/2016
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	1,001,764
Product dimensions:	11.10(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Dr. Alan Marshall is a New Zealand–born scholar and award-winning teacher, with expertise and training in both ecology and the social study of technology. He is the author of dozens of academic papers as well as both nonfiction and fiction books, all of which deal with the relationship between humanity and nature in some way. He has won the Kenneth M. Roemer Innovative Course Design Award from the Utopian Studies Society and a Mark Time Silver Award for Best Science Fiction Audiodrama for writing and coproducing the radio play "This Pointless Thing Called Life," broadcast in the US on NPR. He has lived and worked in some twenty-five different cities in ten countries around the world. He now teaches in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand, where he resides.

Editorial Reviews

04/10/2017
In this curious and creative volume on ecological utopias, social scientist Marshall imagines what it might be like in 100 cities around the world in the early decades of the 22nd century, combining elements of ecological and social harmony. Marshall organizes his discussion alphabetically, beginning with Abu Dhabi and concluding with the Greek island city Zakynthos, and offers insight on both well-known cities and those that readers might never have considered. Marshall illuminates Reno, Nev.’s reputation for gambling and divorce and the manufacturing past of Wolverhampton, England. The latter’s mines and factories were said to have inspired “poisoned industrial” Mordor in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. The scenarios Marshall constructs for some cities, however, can seem far-fetched. He describes a future Florence, Italy, that features the invention and implementation of “smart biotoilets” that turn human waste into usable organic matter and nitrates. In Perth, Australia, he pictures imported camels enlisted “for both eco-friendly transport and heavy lifting.” Outfitting the animals with solar panels could generate additional power. Creative but occasionally preposterous, Marshall’s predictions for the future of Earth’s cities will likely appeal to eco-conscious audiences keen on science fiction and utopian fantasies, and should interest and entertain urban planners and policy advisors, too. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"This curious and creative volume on ecological utopias . . . will likely appeal to eco-conscious audiences keen on science fiction and utopian fantasies, and should interest and entertain urban planners and policy advisors, too." —Publishers Weekly

“Beautiful and bold . . . Ecotopia 2121 pays great attention to detail and . . . presents what is most important as entertaining as well as educational. . . Very few academics ever produce anything as stunning and imaginative as this.” —The Times Higher Education

"Alan Marshall has produced a masterpiece with Ecotopia 2121. I cannot imagine a better celebration of the 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s Utopia than this innovative and provocative book. It is an inspirational narrative of artistic vision, critical scholarship, ecological imagination and wisdom. I can feel Alan Marshall has tangible, living knowledge of many of these cities and cares deeply about their futures. Ecotopia 2121 is a must-read for every architecture and urban planning student. Furthermore, a copy should take pride of place in every university design and planning department, urban planning office, and on the coffee tables of city mayors globally." —Jennifer M. Gidley, PhD, President, World Futures Studies Federation (UNESCO Partner), psychologist, educator, futures researcher, and author of The Future: A Very Short Introduction

From the Publisher