Nature and the City: Making Environmental Policy in Toronto and Los Angeles.

Gene Desfor and Roger Keil. 355 S. Euclid, Suite 103, Tucson, Arizona 85719: University of Arizona Press, June 2004. [phone]. www.uapress.arizona.edu. ISBN 1-8165-2373-8. 290 pp. $45.00 Clothbound.

More than half of the earth's population of 6.3 billion now lives in cities. Caring for and protecting our urban environment is therefore crucial for health, even survival. For more than a decade, many planners, government officials, and other urban policy stakeholders have embraced "ecological modernization." This theory posits that the power of markets and government will regulate both the economy and environment in a rational manner, to the benefit of both, and thus achieve sustainability. Gene Desfor and Roger Keil challenge that premise, arguing that local constituencies can develop political strategies that create alternatives to ecological modernization and influence the establishment of beneficial policies.

Nature and the City presents case studies of Toronto and Los Angeles, and demonstrates that political action has resulted in effective alternatives to ecological modernization.

Gene Desfor and Roger Keil both teach in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University in Toronto. Desfor is co-editor of Just Doing It: Popular Collective Action in the Americas. Keil is author of Los Angeles: Globalization, Urbanization, and Social Struggles.