Eco-City Dimensions: Healthy Communities, Healthy Planet

Alice Kidd is an editor with The New Catalyst editorial collective in
Lillooet, B.C.

Long before sustainable development became a household word, many
individuals and groups were struggling to envision a world in which
humans lived in balance with nature—a world in which community,
ecology, and economy were equally important in framing and supporting
human society. Urban ecology, a movement founded in 1975, seeks to
“rebuild cities in balance with nature.” The key elements of this
growing movement are “healthy communities,” “appropriate
technology,” “community economic development,” “social
ecology,” “the green movement,” “bioregionalism,” “the
native world view,” and “sustainable development.” The 14 articles
in this book build toward a synthesis of these eight strands.

The authors include designers (professionals like architects and
planners), practitioners (politicians, local bureaucrats, and citizen
groups), visionaries (academics and scholars in a variety of
disciplines), and activists (from single-issue environmentalists to
community activists). The articles are arranged under six headings that
showcase the urban ecology movement’s body of work.

Topics include eco-city planning and housing development; greening the
economy; trading systems and municipal support for economic development;
the role of citizen initiatives in developing the eco-city; the
evaluation of progress and typical roadblocks; and the role of the
cultural forms that have emerged from the efforts to develop eco-cities.

This well-written and accessible collection of essays provides useful
theoretical and practical tools for those engaged in the struggle to
make the eco-city a reality. Highly recommended.