Hardback
From Eco-Cities to Sustainable City-Regions
China’s Uncertain Quest for an Ecological Civilization
9781839102776 Edward Elgar Publishing
A political scientist and an urban architect explore China’s odyssey to become an ecological civilization and transform its massive, unsustainable, urbanization process into one that creates hundreds of eco-cities. The resulting From Eco-Cities to Sustainable City-Regions is the first book-length study combining analysis of politics and power, urban design and planning issues derived from the co-authors’ interdisciplinary research, and on-site fieldwork from their political science and architectural area specialties.
More Information
Critical Acclaim
Contents
More Information
A political scientist and an urban architect explore China’s odyssey to become an ecological civilization and transform its massive, unsustainable, urbanization process into one that creates hundreds of eco-cities. The resulting From Eco-Cities to Sustainable City-Regions is the first book-length study combining analysis of politics and power, urban design and planning issues derived from the co-authors’ interdisciplinary research, and on-site fieldwork from their political science and architectural area specialties.
Begun in 1986, little-known policy actions have taken shape in the building of 285 eco-cities–and growing. What are the driving forces of these innovative developments? How is China going about converting its teeming urban areas into replicable and showcase cities? Can these new policy initiatives overcome the damage done to its air, waterways, and land, while significantly reducing public health dangers to its inhabitants? In searching for means for the People’s Republic of China to take the next step from eco-cities to sustainable city-regions, the co-authors assess the potential success of China’s present course and offer key recommendations for Chinese political leaders, urban planners, and citizen stakeholders to make the transition to a sustainable future for its people and the rest of the world.
The primary market for this book will be eco-researchers, Asian studies scholars and teachers, eco- and urban architects, environmental and urban policy professionals, and advanced undergraduates in environmental and sustainability studies or sciences programs. The interdisciplinary reach and critical framework of analysis will appeal to a wide variety of scholars interested in Chinese ecological strides and seeking a critical assessment of its potential.
Begun in 1986, little-known policy actions have taken shape in the building of 285 eco-cities–and growing. What are the driving forces of these innovative developments? How is China going about converting its teeming urban areas into replicable and showcase cities? Can these new policy initiatives overcome the damage done to its air, waterways, and land, while significantly reducing public health dangers to its inhabitants? In searching for means for the People’s Republic of China to take the next step from eco-cities to sustainable city-regions, the co-authors assess the potential success of China’s present course and offer key recommendations for Chinese political leaders, urban planners, and citizen stakeholders to make the transition to a sustainable future for its people and the rest of the world.
The primary market for this book will be eco-researchers, Asian studies scholars and teachers, eco- and urban architects, environmental and urban policy professionals, and advanced undergraduates in environmental and sustainability studies or sciences programs. The interdisciplinary reach and critical framework of analysis will appeal to a wide variety of scholars interested in Chinese ecological strides and seeking a critical assessment of its potential.
Critical Acclaim
‘Overall, this book provides good insights into China’s sustainability effort, the development logic, and various controversies in China’s eco-park development. The various cases provide a vivid view of how Chinese cities search for their path in ecological modernization and the bumpy roads they experienced when attempting to transplant the sustainability concept into the local soil. It can be used as a textbook for under-graduates or graduates to understand sustainability debates and its operationalization process in different political-economic-societal contexts. It can also provide researchers on sustainability and eco-park development with rich information and provocative reflections on the global sustainability debate.’
– Yawei Chen, Eurasian Geography and Economics
‘This remarkable book brings a bold new vision to urban architectural design as an opportunity for informed collective activism over time.’
– Robert J Koester, The Plan Journal
‘This remarkable book brings a bold new vision to achieve highly-integrative systemic performance at the scale of the City-as-a-Hill and its surrounding rural partner land. No less, it provides the means for the ambitious sustainability interests of the Chinese party-state to achieve global recognition for becoming a social and environmentally integrated ecological civilization.’
– Robert J. Koester, Ball State University, US
‘From Eco-Cities to Sustainable City-Regions by Ernest J. Yanarella and Richard S. Levine deserves to be widely read. General readers, China specialists, environmental scientists, and policy makers alike will gain insight into current sustainability concepts and practices around the world, be drawn into a case study approach to China’s environmental challenges, and benefit from the well balanced analysis of China’s efforts, complications, achievements, and failures to address those challenges through the creation of sustainable city-regions.’
– Terry Bodenhorn, (Retired) Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Director of the Library, and Professor of Modern Chinese History, Shantou University, China, 2010–2019
‘Yanarella and Levine bring a needed focus on the term “eco-cities,” taking it further to “sustainable city-regions.” They draw on their detailed knowledge of China’s exploration of eco-cities as part of an ecological civilization. This book is an important assessment of a key aspect of transitioning to a sustainable future.’
– Haydn Washington, author of What Can I Do to Help Heal the Environmental Crisis?
– Yawei Chen, Eurasian Geography and Economics
‘This remarkable book brings a bold new vision to urban architectural design as an opportunity for informed collective activism over time.’
– Robert J Koester, The Plan Journal
‘This remarkable book brings a bold new vision to achieve highly-integrative systemic performance at the scale of the City-as-a-Hill and its surrounding rural partner land. No less, it provides the means for the ambitious sustainability interests of the Chinese party-state to achieve global recognition for becoming a social and environmentally integrated ecological civilization.’
– Robert J. Koester, Ball State University, US
‘From Eco-Cities to Sustainable City-Regions by Ernest J. Yanarella and Richard S. Levine deserves to be widely read. General readers, China specialists, environmental scientists, and policy makers alike will gain insight into current sustainability concepts and practices around the world, be drawn into a case study approach to China’s environmental challenges, and benefit from the well balanced analysis of China’s efforts, complications, achievements, and failures to address those challenges through the creation of sustainable city-regions.’
– Terry Bodenhorn, (Retired) Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Director of the Library, and Professor of Modern Chinese History, Shantou University, China, 2010–2019
‘Yanarella and Levine bring a needed focus on the term “eco-cities,” taking it further to “sustainable city-regions.” They draw on their detailed knowledge of China’s exploration of eco-cities as part of an ecological civilization. This book is an important assessment of a key aspect of transitioning to a sustainable future.’
– Haydn Washington, author of What Can I Do to Help Heal the Environmental Crisis?
Contents
Contents: Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction: China’s Eco-cities and Bid to Become an Eco-Civilization 1. Theoretical Foundations of the Sustainable City-Region 2. Eco-city Development Strategy in Beijing and China’s Cities: Top-down/Bottom-up Dynamics 3. Suzhou, Wuxi and China’s Twenty-first Century Eco-city Program: From Austerity Ecology to Eco-scientific Plenty 4. New Kunming/Chenggong Eco-District: City Surrounding the Countryside? 5. Shantou: A Metropolitan Coastal Garden-City in the Making? 6. Beyond the Dongtan Debacle: Tianjin and Global Showcase Urban Sustainability Conclusion Bibliography Index
