Livable Cities?: Urban Struggles for Livelihood and Sustainability

by Peter Evans (Editor)

Overview

The sprawling cities of the developing world are vibrant hubs of economic growth, but they are also increasingly ecologically unsustainable and, for ordinary citizens, increasingly unlivable. Pollution is rising, affordable housing is decreasing, and green space is shrinking. Since three-quarters of those joining the world's population during the next century will live in Third World cities, making these urban areas more livable is one of the key challenges of the twenty-first century. This book explores the linked issues of livelihood and ecological sustainability in major cities of the developing and transitional world. Livable Cities? identifies important strategies for collective solutions by showing how political alliances among local communities, nongovernmental organizations, and public agencies can help ordinary citizens live better lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520230255
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	02/01/2002
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	290
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Peter Evans is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is author of Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation (1995), and coeditor of Double-Edged Diplomacy: International Bargaining and Domestic Politics (California, 1993), among other books.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Illustrations
Preface
Manuel Castells
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: Looking for Agents of Urban Livability in a Globalized Political Economy
Peter Evans
2. Urban Poverty and the Environment: Social Capital and State-Community Synergy in Seoul and Bangkok
Mike Douglass, Orathai Ard-am, and Ik Ki Kim
3. Collective Action toward a Sustainable City: Citizens’ Movements and Environmental Politics in Taipei
Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao and Hwa-Jen Liu
4. Community-Driven Regulation: Toward an Improved Model of Environmental Regulation in Vietnam
Dara O’Rourke
5. Social and Spatial Inequalities in Hungarian Environmental Politics: A Historical Perspective
Zsuzsa Gille
6. "Water, Water, Everywhere, Nor Any Drop to Drink": Land Use and Water Policy in São Paulo, Brazil
Margaret E. Keck
7. Sustainability, Livelihood, and Community Mobilization in the Ajusco "Ecological Reserve"
Keith Pezzoli
8. Political Strategies for More Livable Cities: Lessons from Six Cases of Development and Political Transition
Peter Evans
References
List of Contributors
Index