Sustain no city: An ecological conceptualization of urban development

O. A. K'Akumu

City, 2007, vol. 11, issue 2, 221-228

Abstract: In the current sustainable urban development discourse, a distinct school of urban ecology has emerged based on the ecological conceptualization of urban development. Four main theoretical strands can be isolated, viz. urban growth, urban political ecology, ecological footprints of cities, and urban metabolism. This forum paper faults these 'organicist metaphors’ on the score that they shy away from the logical reality of their implications—that if the city is organic, it has to die for the sake of sustainability. The paper follows this implication to the logical end just to demonstrate the contradiction in the ecological analogies; given the stance of the analogists is that sustainability can be achieved by keeping the cities from dying. Its conclusion teases the urban ecology school to consider the sell‐by dates of cities. Hopefully, this challenge may awaken us to the contradiction of this stance.

Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1080/13604810701395829

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