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This innovative book sees contemporary urban settlement as the new human ecosystems defining people's lives across the planet. Just as so-called natural ecosystems have defined our view of the symbiosis between humans and their environments, James H. Spencer argues that it is an urban ecosystem found across the planet that defines the twenty-first century. Using the globally diverse cases of Ho Chi Minh City, Addis Ababa, Honolulu, and New York, the book draws out the commonalities in how our intertwined built and social environments express a shared humanity across continents and cultures.
List of contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Urbanization and the Construction of the Global Urban Ecosystem
Chapter 2: Urban Histories: Arriving at the Global Urban Ecosystem
Chapter 3: Saigon's "Do-Your-Timers": Rural Transformation and the Urban Transition in Saigon
Chapter 4: "Do-Your-Timers" African Style: Addis Ababa, the Unlikely Capital of Africa
Chapter 5: The Indigenous City? Reconciling an Old-Timers' Honolulu with a Global Society
Chapter 6: "For-All-Timers": New York City's Empire State of Mind
Chapter 7: The Global Urban Ecosystem: A Globally Integrated Ecology of Everyday Life
Bibliography
About the author
James H. Spencer is professor of city and regional planning and chair of the Department of Planning, Development and Preservation at Clemson University.
