Books about Livable from Amazon.com

In this new book noted grass expert and advocate Rick Darke addresses both the aesthetic qualities of grasses in private gardens and the opportunities and challenges of using them in wild and constructed public landscapes. All the true grasses, sedges, rushes, restios, and cattails that possess ornamental merit or that can contribute to ecological plantings are described, and practical matters of propagation, growth, and maintenance are also covered. More than 1000 stunning photographs show details of individual plants and hundreds of gardens and landscapes in which grasses play a prominent part. This worthy successor to The Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses is a new type of design reference that sets a standard for inspired, sustainable use of grasses..
Price: $32.27 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In the first edition of Radical Ecology--the now classic examination major philosophical, ethical, scientific, and economic roots of environmental problems--Carolyn Merchant responded to the profound awareness of environmental crisis which prevailed in the closing decade of the twentieth century. In this provocative and readable study, Merchant examined the ways that radical ecologists can transform science and society in order to sustain life on this planet.

Now in this second edition, Merchant continues to emphasize how laws, regulations and scientific research alone cannot reverse the spread of pollution or restore our dwindling resources. Merchant argues that in order to maintain a livable world, we must formulate new social, economic, scientific, and spiritual approaches that will fundamentally transform human relationships with nature. She analyzes the revolutionary ideas of visionary ecologists for a new economy, society, science, and religion, and examines their efforts to bring environmental problems to the attention of the public.

This new edition features a new Introduction from the author, a thorough updating of chapters, and two entirely new chapters on recent global movements and globalization and the environment. It is a timely update that will give students everything they need to know on the most recent philosophical positions and social movements that characterize the radical ecology spectrum..
Price: $22.42 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The smart growth movement aims to combat urban and suburban sprawl by promoting livable communities based on pedestrian scale, diverse populations, and mixed land use. But, as this book documents, smart growth has largely failed to address issues of social equity and environmental justice. Smart growth sometimes results in gentrification and displacement of low- and moderate-income families in existing neighborhoods, or transportation policies that isolate low-income populations. Growing Smarter is one of the few books to view smart growth from an environmental justice perspective, examining the effect of the built environment on access to economic opportunity and quality of life in American cities and metropolitan regions.

The contributors to Growing Smarter--urban planners, sociologists, economists, educators, lawyers, health professionals, and environmentalists--all place equity at the center of their analyses of "place, space, and race." They consider such topics as the social and environmental effects of sprawl, the relationship between sprawl and concentrated poverty, and community-based regionalism that can link cities and suburbs. They examine specific cases that illustrate opportunities for integrating environmental justice concerns into smart growth efforts, including the dynamics of sprawl in a South Carolina county, the debate over the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and transportation-related pollution in Northern Manhattan. Growing Smarter illuminates the growing racial and class divisions in metropolitan areas today--and suggests workable strategies to address them.

Contributors:
Carl Anthony, Robert D. Bullard, Don Chen, Daniel J. Hutch, Glenn S. Johnson, William A. Johnson, Kimberly Morland, Myron Orfield, David A. Padgett, Manuel Pastor, Jr., john a. powell, Swati Prakash, Thomas W. Sanchez, Angel O. Torres, Maya Wiley, Steve Wing, James F. Wolf, and Beverly Wright.
Price: $20.01 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Existing patterns of urbanization are unsustainable in the long run. Current development practices consume enormous amounts of land and resources, damage local ecosystems, produce pollutants, create huge inequalities between groups of people, and undermine local community and quality of life. Unfortunately planning has itself led to many unsustainable development practices.
Planning for Sustainability presents a straightforward, systematic analysis of how more sustainable cities and towns can be brought about. It does so in a highly readable manner that considers in turn each scale of planning: international, national, regional, municipal, neighborhood, site, and building. In the process it illustrates how sustainability initiatives at these different scales interrelate and how an overall framework can be developed for more liveable communities..
Price: $48.45 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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Price: $4.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

While most historians, journalists, and filmmakers have focused on Los Angeles as a bastion of corporate greed, business boosterism, political corruption, cheap labor, exploited immigrants, and unregulated sprawl, The Next Los Angeles tells a different story: that of the reformers and radicals who have struggled for alternative visions of social and economic justice. In a new preface, the authors reflect on the gathering momentum of L.A.'s progressive movement, including the 2005 landslide victory of Antonio Villaraigosa as mayor..
Price: $15.60 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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Swatt Architects is an award-winning San Francisco Bay area firm known for fusing a modernist sensibility with the particular challenges of California landscapes to create unique spaces for living. The firm has been recognised internationally for creating distinctive, livable modern architecture that emphasizes the creative use of structure, elegant detailing that expresses the nature of material, and spatial continuity and transparency that expands interior space and blurs the distinction between indoors and outdoors. This new publication documents the firm's most significant residential design work and examines in detail its individual approach to house design..
Price: $29.86 [Notify me when price goes down.]