Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1. The World Before Chapter 2. The Fallacy of Homo Urbanis Chapter 3. International Governance and its Consequences: The Important Role of the United Nations Chapter 4. Moving Past Modernist Science Chapter 5. Towards the Future: Returning to Earth Chapter 6. Returning to Earth: Becoming Fully Human
Biography
Stephanie Pincetl is professor at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, USA. She is founding director of the California Center for Sustainable Communities that conducts research on infrastructure systems, with an emphasis on energy systems and their equity impacts. She researches what would be entailed by a ‘just’ energy transition. Her background is in land use change, and the consequences of large-scale land transformation on ecosystems, as well as their interconnected equity impacts. Active in policy relevant research in California, she has also held several appointed positions in local government. Her commitment is to conduct research to contribute to the policy and political discourse about the future with a commitment to working toward a world that is more compassionate and an economic system that is less rapacious. Pincetl’s background is in Anthropology and Urban Planning. She has taught at Sciences Po in Paris, has been a visiting scholar at the Institute for Humans in Nature in Kyoto. She has also received several Fulbrights including as a Senior Fulbright Scholar in the Geography Department in Manchester England.
"What are cities for? With this deceptively simple question, Pincetl confronts a truth often ignored in urban theory: cities, like all living systems, are bound by laws of entropy. Dreams of “high energy modernism” have long stood for progress, at great cost to the planet and ourselves. Pincetl invites readers into alternate futures where cities thrive on less energy and extraction, but return far more in character and connection. Ambitious, urgent, and hopeful, Pincetl reimagines cities as worlds of possibility."
Lisa H. Sideris, Professor of Environmental Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara
"In this exceptional book, Stephanie Pincetl has offered up a clear-eyed look at cities and our largely failed attempts to make them sustainable. Drawing together a vast range of sources, she shows us both what modern cities are and what they could be. Perhaps above all, this book is an impassioned call to reconnect with the context of our lives. Recovering the histories and nuances of the places in which we live can provide the basis for more rewarding and harmonious ways to live on our planet. As the world changes before our eyes, this book offers wisdom, insight and inspiration for where we might go next as a species."
James Evans, Professor of Geography / Associate Dean Research (Humanities), University of Manchester
"We need to go beyond the notion of sustainability to tackle the confounding challenges of today’s cities. This book inspires us to reimagine the relationship between humans and nature by embracing a place-based ethics of care. Let’s get to work!”
Andrew Karvonen, Professor of Urban Design and Planning, Lund University
"The Myth of Sustainable Cities offers a groundbreaking reconsideration of the intertwined environmental histories and ongoing legacies of industrialisation, capitalism, and imperial power. The book demonstrates how mainstream assumptions about economic progress, urbanization and nature are now ecologically and socially untenable. Drawing on conceptual insights from history, urban theory, political economy, and ethics, Pincetl convincingly confronts the thermodynamic and moral limits of current development pathways, while recovering sidelined knowledges and ways of living with Earth systems. Bold and deliberately utopian, the book invites readers to imagine and work towards alternative futures grounded in care, reciprocity, modest living, and the restoration of our shared humanity."
Stefan Bouzarovski, Professor, Department of Geography, The University of Manchester
"Why and how to move from a disastrous high-energy urban modernity to a post-capitalist municipal socialism is the key question that Stephanie addresses in this incisively argued and urgently needed book. It is indeed increasingly clear that the question facing humanity today is the choice between a deepening socio-ecological catastrophe or a more humane eco-socialism. This book is an essential read for anyone concerned with the possibility of still having a future."
Erik Swyngedouw, The University of Manchester
