The Social Sustainability of Cities

by Polese, Mario; Stren, Richard E.

• ISBN13: 9780802083203
• ISBN10: 080208320X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-06-01
• Publisher: Univ of Toronto Pr

Summary

Cities are a locus of human diversity, where people with varying degrees of wealth and status share an association within a particular urban boundary. Despite the common geography, sharp social divisions characterize many cities. High levels of urban violence bear witness to the difficult challenge of creating socially cohesive and inclusive cities. The devastated inner cities of many large American urban centres exemplify the failure of urban development. With an enlightened democratic approach to policy reform, however, cities can achieve social sustainability. Some cities have been more successful than others in creating environments conducive to the cohabitation of a diverse population. In this collection of original essays, case studies of ten cities (Montreal and Toronto in Canada, Miami and Baltimore in the United States, Geneva and Rotterdam in Europe, Sao Paulo and San Salvador in South America, and Nairobi and Cape Town in South Africa) are presented and analysed in terms of social sustainability. The volume as a whole looks at the policies, institutions, and planning and social processes that can have the effect of integrating diverse groups and cultural practices in a just and equitable fashion. The authors conclude that policies conducive to social sustainability should, among other things, seek to promote fiscal equalization, weave communities within the metropolis into a cohesive whole, and ideally, provide transport systems that ensure equal access to public services and workplaces, all within the framework of an open and democratic local governance structure.

Author Biography

MARIO POL+SE is a research professor at the, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique û Urbanisation, UniversitT du QuTbec a MontrTal, as well as director of the Montreal Inter-university Group Urbanization and Development. Richard Stren is Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto.

Table of Contents

Foreword--Humanizing the City: A View from UNESCO's Most Programme	vii
Ali Kazancigil
Acknowledgments	xi
Notes on Contributors	xiii
Understanding the New Sociocultural Dynamics of Cities: Comparative Urban Policy in a Global Context	3	(36)
Richard Stren
Mario Polese
The Social Sustainability of Montreal: A Local or a State Matter?	39	(29)
Anne-Marie Seguin
Annick Germain
Governance and Social Sustainability: The Toronto Experience	68	(30)
Frances Frisken
L.S. Bourne
Gunter Gad
Robert A. Murdie
Miami: Governing the City through Crime	98	(25)
Jonathan Simon
`A Third-World City in the First World': Social Exclusion, Racial Inequality, and Sustainable Development in Baltimore, Maryland	123	(34)
Marc V. Levine
Geneva: Does Wealth Ensure Social Sustainability?	157	(18)
Antoine S. Bailly
Room to Manoeuvre: Governance, the Post-industrial Economy, and Housing Provision in Rotterdam	175	(27)
Frans Dieleman
Robert C. Kloosterman
Sao Paulo and the Challenges for Social Sustainability: The Case of an Urban Housing Policy	202	(26)
Ana Amelia da Silva
Downtown San Salvador: Housing, Public Spaces, and Economic Transformation	228	(22)
Mario Lungo
Social Transformation in a Post-colonial City: The Case of Nairobi	250	(30)
Diana Lee-Smith
Davinder Lamba
Cape Town: Seeking Social Sustainability in a Fast-Growing City	280	(28)
John Abbott
Learning from Each Other: Policy Choices and the Social Sustainability of Cities	308
Mario Polese