ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book points toward a discursive formation for green city planning and implementation. It considers the various means by which 'green' may be understood in relation to urban life. The book focuses on Green Urbanism. It discusses the approaches, policies and plans dealing with these complexities also challenge research based on simplified notions of human action, which attribute human motivation to instrumental and utilitarian motives. The book explores the Oslo's green spaces, landscapes and imaginations, and its politics and plans. It examines the paradoxes of green urbanism within the spatial and representational context of suburbs and suburbia. Wergeland deals with the dilemma of green urbanism by investigating the role of driving spaces, that is, urban roads and motorways. Guttu examines the ideas behind the formation of residential green areas, through Oslo's modern history.
