Toward Comparative Urban Environmentalism: Situating Urban Natures in an Emerging “World of Cities”

Abstract

There is a global discourse forming around urban ecology that risks simplifying how cities and nature are understood together. Its models range from techdriven “smart cities” to ecologydriven “biophilic,” “resilient,” or “ecocities”; to attempts at formulating “a science of cities.” While we recognize that a global response to urban sustainability is important, we question discourses that seem intent on creating unifying frameworks through which to think about and act on urban ecology in all cities. If there is anything that the rich traditions of urban studies, critical environmental studies, and environmental history have shown, it is that place and time matter for how things play out. This book draws upon a wide tradition of thought and research from the humanities and the social sciences concerning ways that cities and nature have been conceptualized together and seeks to offer multiple perspectives for the study of urban natures. 1 Toward Comparative Urban Environmentalism: Situating Urban Natures in an Emerging “World of Cities”