Assigned Readings

Green & Haines Chapter 1

Wheeler & Beatley, pp. 11-43 (Howard, Mumford, Leopold, Jacobs, McHarg)

Class Preparation

Wheeler and Beatley provide key sections of writings by seminal thinkers about sustainable development, particularly sustainability within the urban context. Select any one of the writers assigned for this week and learn more about how he/she has influenced our contemporary thinking about sustainable communities. For example, you might look at how the author's key ideas do (or do not) appear in the contemporary discussion about sustainability. Be prepared to participate in a discussion about the author you select. Do not prepare a presentation. I will be asking some broad questions about what sustainability means and how our thinking about this concept has evolved. I expect you to be able to contribute to the discussion of those questions.

Here are some questions for you to think about as you prepare for class.

1. Is urban growth -- the actual physical growth of cities -- inevitable? Certainly, towns and later cities have grown for the past 10,000 years, with few exceptions. The "black plague" in Europe is one of the few exceptions. Estimates of the death rate during that event range from 25 to 50%. Not only was the population greatly reduced, but so was the actual physical size of many European towns and cities. Locally, some citiies have decreased in size as the result of local disasters -- New Orleans in the United States and Kinshasa in the Congo are examples. Overall, however, the trend has been toward more and more, larger and larger cities.

2. Are cities inherently "unsustainable"? They certainly change over time. Contemporary London looks very little like the London of the late 1800s. Contemporary Mexico City looks little like the Aztec city. Yet, in every era, it seems that cities are both magnets that offer opportunities and resources that cannot be accumulated in rural areas -- and conditions that threaten the quality of life, if not the very life, of their inhabitants. The smog-filled London of the 1800's is gone. But today's London seems to bring a host of ills that are every bit as serious as those of the industrial city. The archaeological record shows us that both the pre-Columbian Maya and the Aztec cities caused enormous environmental destruction and were subject to outbreaks of disease. Modern day Mexico City is, some claim, the most congested city on the planet.

3. To what degree is sustainability a question of morals and ethnics? Aldo Leopold is credited with the first expression of what later came to be called "deep ecology" -- the idea that ethics and morality require that human beings hold all living organisms, and perhaps even the ecosystem itself, in the same esteem that we hold human life (in theory). Others argue that sustainability can never be cased on concepts of morality, value systems, or ethics either because (a) it won't work or (b) to do so inevitably suggests that some people or social groups exhibit moral superiority over others.

4. Can we "plan for sustainability," or is sustainability a process rather than an outcome? Both McHarg and Jacobs, at different times and from different perspectives, seem to argue that planning, per se, is part of the problem. Contemporary American society has certainly moved radically toward a planned approach to development, however flawed the execution of the plans may be. Our decisions are highly circumsized by zoning laws, growth development plans, environmental impact regulations and the like. Will more and better planning create more sustainable landscapes? Or is it the process that matters, and particularly the active involvement of the citizenry in the decision-making process about development?

Additional Resources

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