Glancey and Greer in The Guardian
Whatever the government says, they will need to be served by even more cars and - this being England - out-of-town supermarkets. In any case, how can a town be called "eco" when its existence requires the loss of green land and a spread of new homes away from established towns, as so many of these proposals do?
"There are some architects and developers who really get climate change, but most don't or choose not to. As a result we get a lot of greenwash, such as green gadgets and microtechnology stuck on to buildings, rather than a proper approach to sustainable design."
Forty years ago, work began on the construction of Thamesmead, 'a 21st century town'. But has it lived up to its promise, and what does its future hold? Michael Collins reports in The Guardian.
"It will not save life on Earth, but merely drive ever more people into hypermobility. "
The Housing Minister has announced a short list of locations for Brtian's eco-towns, and a period of consultation.
Simon Jenkins questions a strategy which ignores the eco-needs of existing towns and cities.
"Britain has plenty of potential eco-towns. They are called London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle, to name a few. They conform to every one of Flint's declared objectives. They have an infrastructure of utilities, schools, clinics, libraries, welfare services and public transport already built. People have shown themselves ready to live, work and play in them without using cars. They are settled communities able to absorb immigration and high-density living, without tearing the bonds of local leadership. "
Government’s target of three million homes by 2020 is under threat
The latest report from the All Party Urban Development Group finds that councils need extra support from Whitehall – and especially from the newly created Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) – to deliver the additional homes needed in their areas.
“There can be no quick fix to sustainable urban regeneration and the report underlines the importance of long term solutions to the future of city living based around better use of public sector land, placemaking, the fostering of communities and delivery models that are not reliant on short annual profit horizons.”
Urban myths? Plans for the prototype eco-towns have been scaled back, and local people are far from convinced. 'I am not sure that anyone actually knows what is meant by an 'ecotown', let alone a 'prototype ecotown'.
The government has announced, More than £9bn is to be spent on projects along the Thames estuary on Europe's largest regeneration project,
Lucy Reynolds asks: Is it too ambitious?
"There is a legitimate debate to be had about where and how these homes are built. However - though it hooks in my green guts to admit it - built they must be."
Patrick Barkham on two developments in Kent.
"Developers spend far more time thinking about whether they are using Italian granite in the bathroom than thinking about what kind of place they are creating..."
Brendan O'Neill on dangerous arguments in the new housing areas debate
'Today's anti-immigrant lobby is more likely to complain about immigrants' carbon footprint and their noxious impact on our green and pleasant land.'
John M. Hagedorn: World of Gangs: Armed Young Men and Gangsta Culture
Looking closely at gang formation in three world cities-Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, and Capetown-he discovers that some gangs have institutionalized as a strategy to confront a hopeless cycle of poverty, racism, and oppression.
Thomas J. Campanella: The Concrete Dragon: China's Urban Revolution and What It Means for the World
The Concrete Dragon provides both a timely and critical overview of China's present as well as a comparison to previous periods of rapid urbanization elsewhere in the world especially that of the U.S., a nation that once itself set global records for the speed and scale of its urban ambitions.
Edgar Pieterse: City Futures: Confronting the Crisis of Urban Development (Global Issues)
This book is a powerful indictment of the current consensus on how to deal with urban challenges. Pieterse argues that the current 'shelter for all' and 'urban good governance' policies treat only the symptoms, not the causes of the problem.
Adrian Favell: Eurostars and Eurocities: Free Movement and Mobility in an Integrating Europe
What does it mean to move to, in and between Europe's changing cities?
Paul Talling: Derelict London
Documenting unregenerate and unregenerated spaces.
: Urbanatomy: Shanghai 2008
More than a guidebook - a riot of pictures, comment and insight.
Catherine E. Wilson: The Politics of Latino Faith: Religion, Identity, and Urban Community
A systematic look at the spiritual, social, and cultural influence Latino faith-based organizations have provided in American life.
Ronald E. Peters: Urban Ministry: An Introduction
Introduction to the particular challenges and opportunities of congregational ministry in urban settings.
Loïc Wacquant: Urban Outcasts: A Comparative Sociology of Advanced Marginality
Urban Outcasts takes the reader inside the black ghetto of Chicago and the deindustrializing banlieue of Paris to discover that urban marginality is not everywhere the same.
Price & Benton-Short: Migrants to the Metropolis: The Rise of Immigrant Gateway Cities
The book focuses not only on cities with long-established diverse populations, such as New York, Toronto, and Sydney, but also on lesser known established gateway cities such as Birmingham (UK) and Amsterdam, and the emerging gateways of Johannesburg, Washington, D.C., Singapore, and Dublin.
Prakash: Spaces of the Modern City Imaginaries, Politics and Everyday Life: Imaginaries, Politics, and Everyday Life
This interdisciplinary collection examines how the city develops in the interactions of space and imagination. The essays focus on issues such as street design in Vienna, the motion picture industry in Los Angeles, architecture in Marseilles and Algiers, and the kaleidoscopic paradox of post-apartheid Johannesburg.
Thierstein & Forster (eds.): The Image and the Region: Making Mega-City Regions Visible!
A great deal is written about the mega-city region yet it is still below the radar for politicians, activists and citizens. What potential is there in making the MCR a normative concept and space for collective action?
Daviel Groody: A Promised Land, a Perilous Journey: Theological Perspectives on Migration
The crossing of geographical borders confronts us with choices: between national security and human insecurity; between sovereign national rights and human rights; between citizenship and discipleship.
Ricky Burdett, Deyan Sudjic: The Endless City
Across the globe there is an unstoppable march to the cities, powered by new economic realities.
Gerald West: Reading Other-wise: Socially Engaged Biblical Scholars Reading with Their Local Communities (Society of Biblical Literature Semeia Studies)
Global perspectives on reading in community. Includes Kari Latvus on the Bible in Bristish urban theology.
Roger Gastman: Street World: Urban Culture from Five Continents (Street Graphics / Street Art)
From juggernauts like hip-hop and punk to much smaller but equally inspiring subcultures endemic to the streets of the Brazilian mega-cities, South African townships and the crowds of Mumbai, "Street World" is the only book to document it all.
Phil Wood: The Intercultural City: Planning for Diversity Advantage
The Intercultural City analyses the relationship of urban policy to policies on cultural diversity, principally in the UK, but also drawing upon original research in North America, Europe and Australasia.
Loretta Lees: Gentrification
The gentrification of urban areas has accelerated across the globe to become a central engine of urban development...
Tom Wright: The Cross and the Colliery
Based on sermons originally delivered by Bishop Tom Wright during Easter 2007, this is a book for Lent that uses the story of a coal-mining town in northern England as a modern parable for loss and rebirth.
Anne Power: City Survivors: Bringing Up Children in Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods
Seen through the eyes of parents, mainly mothers, "City Survivors" tells the eye-opening story of what it is like to bring up children in troubled city neighbourhoods.
Mike Davis & Daneil Monk: Evil Paradises: Dreamworlds of Neoliberalism
Davis and Monk take on thye real and imagined sopaces of the the neoliberal city.
J & K Hammett: The Suburbanization of New York: Is the World's Greatest City Becoming Just Another Town?
The suburbanized frabric of New`York is beginning to fray the once tightly woven and highly diverse urban fabric of the city.
NP Marwell: Bargaining for Brooklyn Community Organizations in the Entrepreneurial City
"Bargaining for Brooklyn" widens the lens, examining the community organizations whose actions and decisions collectively drive urban life.
Jeremy Seabrook: Cities (Small Guides to Big Issues)
Every year tens of millions of people abandon rural areas of the South for life in the city. With education, health care and even safe water in short supply, cities risk becoming sites of violent conflict for future generations. And yet world governments are doing little to address these demographic shifts.
Petrella & Althus-Reid: Another Possible World (Reclaiming Liberation Theology)
"Another Possible World" is the book resulting from the first World Forum on liberation theology that took place in 2005 in Brazil.
Gavin Stamp: Britain's Lost Cities
Reproduced in this haunting volume are hundreds of top-quality photographs of cities from Plymouth to Dundee, all of streets and buildings that are gone for ever. Alternately fascinating, enraging and heartbreaking, this is an extraordinary evocation of Britain's architectural past, and a much-needed reminder of the importance of preserving our heritage.
Paul H. Ballard & Lesley Husselbee : Community and Ministry: An Introduction to Community Work in a Christian Context
a thorough and professional introduction to the subject, and includes: what is community?; community work and mission; models of community work; ethnic, cultural and religious diversity; the local authority and voluntary agencies; working with volunteers; and spirituality in community participation.
Anthony Reddie & Michael N. Jagessar: Black Theology in Britain: A Reader (Cross Cultural Theologies)
This text seeks to outline the development of Black theology in Britain from 18th century through to our contemporary era. By means of re-investigating popular texts and previously unpublished groundbreaking material, the editors offer a comprehensive and challenging interpretation of the development of an eclectic and distinctive voice that is Black theology in Britain.
