Abstract
"In light of the growing climate crisis, the "sustainable city" has emerged as one of the key goals of both environmentalism and urbanism. Because the city is so central to economic development and greenhouse gas emissions, and because an ever-growing majority of the world's population now lives in cities, the question of how to make cities more sustainable and resilient in the face of climate change has become ever more urgent. The climate crisis thus poses a corresponding crisis of democracy, as cities rely on an array of civic associations, grassroots movements, democratic processes, and institutional systems to advance environmental justice. Sustainable Cities in American Democracy explores the history of these efforts to transform cities in the United States since World War II (1946-2016). Drawing on work in sociology, urban planning, public policy, and democratic theory, Carmen Sirianni examines how civic and professional associations, such as the League of Women Voters and the Natural Resources Defense Council, developed an institutional field of sustainable cities over a seventy-year period through battles over clean water, clean air, and land use. Over time these efforts resulted in new networks and associations that promoted smart growth, new urbanism, and community engagement. But despite this progress, the work of sustainability, like that of democracy, remains decidedly incomplete, as patterns of unequal power and unjust practices continue. The story of these messy, complex efforts to build environmentally resilient cities shows that society will not achieve greater sustainability without better democracy. As the climate crisis grows, we will need to learn the democratic lessons from the past in order to address the environmental challenges of the future"--