Planning Sustainable Cities and Regions: Towards More Equitable Development (Routledge Equity, Justice and the Sustainable City series) - Hardcover

"Finally, a book about sustainability that fully accepts that the future will not be like the past. Boldly proclaiming that cities are inevitably moving toward livability, Chapple notes how traditional planning techniques cannot fully grapple with our changing demographics, the rise of the networked economy, and the shifting preferences of the next America. Utilizing the experience of the Bay Area – while making the appropriate caveats about the transportability of that experience -- she charts a different approach, one that addresses our distributional and environmental crises even as it neatly fits into an emerging economy that is both more regional and more entrepreneurial. Deftly shifting between high-level theory, case study empirics, and practical policy – and insisting along the way that equity be a guiding principle for the future – this volume should be required reading for both students and practitioners of sustainability planning for the 21st Century." –Manuel Pastor, University of Southern California, USA

"In this exceptional book Karen Chapple develops an argument regarding how planning can be used to achieve justice and sustainability within cities and regions. With great originality Chapple shows how sensitivity to local context is key within a larger goal of enlarging people’s capabilities, not simply broadening their range of choice." –Susan S. Fainstein, Harvard University, USA

"Linking economic development, environmental protection and improvement, and equity have long been articulated, but rarely achieved, goals of city sustainability programs. This book takes a critical look at how cities in California have sought to achieve these goals, and offers a new way of thinking about their pursuit. It is a must read for anyone seriously interested in understanding the promise and impediments to making cities and their regions more sustainable."–Kent Portney, Tufts University, USA

As global warming advances, regions around the world are engaging in revolutionary sustainability planning - but with social equity as an afterthought. California is at the cutting edge of this movement, not only because its regulations actively reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also because its pioneering environmental regulation, market innovation, and Left Coast politics show how to blend the "three Es" of sustainability--environment, economy, and equity. Planning Sustainable Cities and Regions is the first book to explain what this grand experiment tells us about the most just path moving forward for cities and regions across the globe.

The book offers chapters about neighbourhoods, the economy, and poverty, using stories from practice to help solve puzzles posed by academic research. Based on the most recent demographic and economic trends, it overturns conventional ideas about how to build more livable places and vibrant economies that offer opportunity to all. This thought-provoking book provides a framework to deal with the new inequities created by the movement for more livable - and expensive - cities, so that our best plans for sustainability are promoting more equitable development as well.

This book will appeal to students of urban studies, urban planning and sustainability as well as policymakers, planning practitioners, and sustainability advocates around the world.