Wild Cities ─ Spatial Planning in the Urban Age

For urban and environmental planners seeking to support sustainability-led change charting the task ahead remains complex, turbulent and unclear. Is it possible for planning to better serve, protect and nurture our human and non-human worlds? Many have serious doubts about the prospects for planning but there is a real opportunity for planning to better engage with how real places and spaces are produced and change.

This book critically engages with the contemporary challenges of planning wild cities in a climate of change. Drawing on the international literature and case-study examples from the developed and developing country contexts, key issues around urban (in)security, critical infrastructure and the rights to the city for both humans and nature are highlighted. It is within this context that this book focuses on the need to better understand how contemporary cities have changed and the relational role of planning within it.

Planning Wild Cities will be of particular interest to students and scholars of planning, urban studies and sustainable development.

Wendy Steele is a Principal Research Fellow and Associate Professor in the Centre for Urban Research, School of Global Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.