ABSTRACT
This book marks a watershed in our thinking about cities. Other books have dealt with the relationship of nature and the city and the connection between landscape architecture and urbanism. But I know of no other that weaves together ecology, anthropology, urban design, and social activism with anywhere near the complexity and nuance of the essays in this book, while looking at cities across the globe, ranging from the wealthiest communities of Silicon Valley or in the Roppongi district of Tokyo to some of the poorest slums on the planet in cities like Nairobi or Mumbai. The editors call this “Now Urbanism,” defining it as a “critical and complex practice that is simultaneously local, regional, and global” and that “views city making as grounded in the imperfect, messy, yet rich reality of the present city and the everyday purposeful agency of its dwellers” (p. 7).
