Metropolitics

The Ancestors of Pandemic Pets and Vector Animals

Lisa Jean Moore — 2021-05-11T05:00:00Z

How has the place—and role—of animals in the city evolved over the last two centuries, and what bearing have these changes had on the urban fabric, and above all on the way urbanites relate to animals today? Lisa Jean Moore reviews Animal City, by Andrew A. Robichaud, which considers these questions from a US perspective.
Humans have had to reconsider their everyday life with animals during the Covid‑19 pandemic. Specifically, we have had to confront our proximity to animals (humans and

- Reviews / human–animal relations, animals, pandemic, Covid-19, coronavirus, United States, city

The Limits of Progressive Policymaking in US Cities

Richard Schragger — 2018-09-11T05:05:00Z

While many US cities appear to enjoy extensive powers—as evidenced by the progressive policies enacted by certain mayors—local government is in reality often curbed by legislative retaliation at state and federal levels, in a context of ruthless political competition, geographical polarization, and rising anti-urbanism. Richard Schragger, author of City Power, sheds light on the dynamics at play and how cities can respond to them.
---- Series: Progressive Mayors and Urban Social Movements

- Essays / city, local government, urban policy, conflict, polarization, state, progressive urban politics, political geography, political power, anti-urbanism, policymaking, power play

Climate Action Plans and the “Climate-Just” City

Cecelia Walsh-Russo — 2016-09-27T05:00:00Z

In the face of major climatic changes, more and more US cities are developing climate action plans. But while these documents follow national and international guidelines, many fail to take account of the needs of the most vulnerable citizens. Cecelia Walsh-Russo contrasts four cases to show how cities can work towards becoming more “climate-just” places for residents.
To date, 2016 has been one of the hottest years ever recorded, if not the hottest. Against the dual backdrop of rising

- Debates / city, participation, environment, inequalities, United States, citizens, climate change, climate action plans, environmental justice, climate justice

The Triumph of Density and the Agony of Sprawl

Richard E. Ocejo — 2011-11-23T06:00:00Z

The city is more and more often hailed as the paradigmatic form of a new sustainable development, both economic and environmental. Glaeser's book is another significant contribution to this popular awakening. Without contesting the point, Richard Ocejo shows how the arguments put forward in the book may reflect only a partial view of the city, one that misses out on its most important asset: people's actual practices and experiences.
Racial inequality, the regulation of public space, crime

- Reviews / city, sustainable development, urban sprawl, urban development, density

The city is sustainable development

Jacques Lévy & translated by Eric Rosencrantz — 2011-02-09T07:23:46Z

After unraveling the divergent conceptions of the relationship between “nature” and “society” that underlie the debate about sustainable development, Jacques Lévy argues that the compact city is the best way to reconcile the economic, social and ecological aims of sustainability in a rapidly urbanizing world.
The sustainable development paradigm defined in the Brundtland Report (1987) should be regarded chiefly as a framework for discussion in which only the general principles have been

- Debates / géographie, city, sustainable development

Corridors of exile: a worldwide web of camps

Michel Agier & translated by Eric Rosencrantz — 2010-11-25T21:19:51Z

Urban anthropologist Michel Agier describes how Europe controls migrant populations, keeping them “locked out” of our cities. He also shows how a new, quasi-urban realm is painfully emerging inside the camps themselves.
The topography of migrants in the world at large and in Europe in particular forms a network of what I call “corridors of exile”. In the following, I focus on a few aspects thereof: viz. European migration control policies; the worldwide web of camps for refugees, illegal

- Essays / camps, refugees, city, migration