Essential reading for anyone interested in creating healthier human habitats in the concrete jungles of our cities and asphalt barrens of suburbia, Urban Place deserves a spot on the shelf next to Biophilia. This optimistic compendium of new thinking in a wide range of academic disciplines argues the necessity of building more place attachment, ecological restoration, local food awareness, and green space into our increasingly displaced, indoor digital culture.
Francesca Lyman, environmental journalist and author of The Greenhouse Trap and Inside the Dzanga-Sangha Rain Forest
Essential reading for anyone interested in creating healthier human habitats in the concrete jungles of our cities and asphalt barrens of suburbia, Urban Place deserves a spot on the shelf next to Biophilia. This optimistic compendium of new thinking in a wide range of academic disciplines argues the necessity of building more place attachment, ecological restoration, local food awareness, and green space into our increasingly displaced, indoor digital culture.
Francesca Lyman, environmental journalist and author of The Greenhouse Trap and Inside the Dzanga-Sangha Rain Forest
This is a hopeful and inspiring contribution to the understanding of global conservation. With careful and detailed analysis, Steinberg demonstrates that concern for the natural environment can take root in poor countries as easily as in the rich, and for the same economic and psychological reasons.
Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor Emeritus, Harvard University
It's all about connections, and Mitchell Thomashow shows us how to connect the global and local, both intellectually and practically. Bringing the Biosphere Home is must reading for people wanting to build a coherent world that honors place and planet.
David W. Orr, Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College
A rich and complex reflection regarding the subtle dependence of human subjectivity on the more-than-human natural world, and the strange ease with which we turn away from that world in its devastation. Drawing upon diverse materials—including human ecology, psychoanalysis, poetry, aesthetics—Shierry Nicholsen has fashioned a warm meditation on our chilling capacity for oblivion.
David Abram, author of The Spell of the Sensuous
The issue of excessive, careless, and ignorant consumption has been conspicuously absent in all the talk about sustainability. No longer! These essays break new conceptual ground and clarify the dynamics of consumption with intellectual honesty and political boldness. The authors aim to transform consumption from mindless and destructive to mindful and regenerative. This is a vitally important book!
David W. Orr, Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College
For far too long we've understood the city as the very antithesis of animate nature. If humankind is to survive the calamitous century now upon us, it will be in large part because of a new rapprochement between our urban centers and the elemental earth. This fine book illuminates some of the necessary steps toward such a vital reconciliation.
David Abram, author of The Spell of the Sensuous
Urban Place is the story of an exciting revolution in the way we design, build, and live in urban settings, driven by the recognition that human health and that of nature are one and indivisible. Peggy Barlett and her colleagues are describing nothing less than the renaissance of a humane and decent civilization and the outlines of a sustainable urban world.
David W. Orr, Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College
Sound philosophy requires a solid understanding of the nature and origin of mind, which in turn depends on the best neuroscience available. Patricia Churchland, with verve and exactitude, has taken a large step toward establishing that link.
Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor Emeritus, Harvard University
Urban Place is a wonderful book—an eloquent, wise, and useful guide to the potentials and ambiguities of ecological restoration. By connecting nature, community, memory, and intention so artfully, Eric Higgs has redefined the field.
David W. Orr, Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College
For far too long we have understood the urban world as the very antithesis of animate nature. If humankind is to survive the calamitous century now upon us, we'll need to rediscover our cities not as merely human constructs but as earthly places informed and permeated by the more-than-human terrains that really sustain them. This fine book illustrates some key steps toward such a vital renewal.
David Abram, author of The Spell of the Sensuous
Peggy Bartlett has assembled and led an impressive team of researchers to reexamine how our urban selves are finding new ways to connect with nature, how we are both reclaiming and recreating meanings in these connections, and the personal and social benefits of such reconnection.
Jac Smit, President, Urban Agriculture Network
