Degrowth in the Suburbs : A Radical Urban Imaginary

This book addresses a central dilemma of the urban age: how to make the vast suburban landscapes that ring the globe safe and sustainable in the face of planetary ecological crisis. The authors argue that degrowth, a planned contraction of economic overshoot, is the only feasible principle for suburban renewal. They depart from the anti-suburban sentiment of much environmentalism to show that existing suburbia can be the centre-ground of transition to a new social dispensation based on the principle of self-limitation. The book offers a radical new urban imaginary, that of degrowth suburbia, which can arise Phoenix like from the increasingly stressed cities of the affluent Global North and guide urbanisation in a world at risk. This means dispensing with much contemporary green thinking, including blind faith in electric vehicles and high-density urbanism, and accepting the inevitability and the benefits of planned energy descent. A radical but necessary vision for the times.

Author: Samuel Alexander, Brendan Gleeson

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date: Oct 11, 2018

Number of Pages: NA pages

Language: English

Binding: Hardcover

ISBN-10: 9811321302

ISBN-13: 9789811321306