Sustainability Policy, Planning and Gentrification in Cities

Susannah Bunce is Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Geography at the University of Toronto, Scarborough, Canada.

• List of ImagesAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Sustainability Policy, Planning, and Gentrification in CitiesChapter 1: Convergences of Urban Sustainability Policy, Planning, and GentrificationChapter 2: Sustainable Master Planning and GentrificationChapter 3: Sustainability, Urban Lifestyles, and GentrificationChapter 4: Searching for Equity and Justice in Sustainability in the Gentrifying CityConclusion: Future Directions for Resisting GentrificationIndex

"Sustainability Policy, Planning and Gentrification in Cities demonstrates how assemblages of social actors intending to create more environmentally sustainable cities also reproduce inequitable cities. The uncritical replication of urban intensification and sustainable master planning approaches has lead to the spread of environmental gentrification globally. While plans may promise social justice, when they hit the ground, private for-profit interests trump public-minded goals. Even well-meaning gentrifiers with progressive sustainability ideologies contribute to social displacement. Bunce suggests that a shift toward de-growth and de-commodification discourses and actions may be the best way to promote just sustainability." — Kenneth A. Gould and Tammy L. Lewis, authors of Green Gentrification: Urban Sustainability and the Struggle for Environmental Justice"Sustainability Policy, Planning and Gentrification in Cities is a pointed and cogent analysis of contemporary trends in urban environmental gentrification. It offers insightful -- but rarely discussed -- critiques of sustainability master plans and the aesthetics and preferences of today's urban hipsters." — Melissa Checker, Associate Professor, PhD Programs in Anthropology and Environmental Psychology, The CUNY Graduate Center