Research Catalog

Title

Human settlements and planning for ecological sustainability : the case of Mexico City / Keith Pezzoli.

Author

Pezzoli, Keith.

Publication

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 1998.

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Holdings

Details

Description

xxi, 437 pages : illustrations, maps; 24 cm.

Summary

• In many areas of the world, environmental degradation in and around human settlements is undermining prospects for both socioeconomic justice and ecological sustainability. To explore the issues involved in this worldwide problem, Keith Pezzoli focuses on a dramatic instance of conflict that grew out of the unauthorized penetration of human settlements into the Ajusco greenbelt zone, a vital part of Mexico City's ecological reserve.
• The Mexican government's initial response to these "irregular" human settlements was contradictory and reactive. Social unrest, ecological deterioration, and violence have all been part of the continuing crisis.
• The heart of the book is the story of what happened when residents of Los Belvederes, a group of Ajusco settlements, fought relocation by proposing that Los Belvederes be transformed into Colonias Ecologicas Productivas, or productive ecology settlements. Through innovative organized resistance, their grassroots movement generated environmental and social action that eventually won crucial state support.
• Pezzoli draws upon urban and regional planning theory and practice to examine biophysical as well as ethical and social sides of the story, and he uses the Mexican experience to identify planning strategies to link economy, ecology, and community in sustainable development.

Series Statement

Urban and industrial environments

Uniform Title

Urban and industrial environments.

Subjects

• Land use > Mexico > Mexico City
• Sustainable development > Mexico > Mexico City
• Land use > Mexico > Mexico City > Planning > Citizen participation
• Ajusco (Mexico)
• Mexico City (Mexico) > Environmental conditions

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [379]-428) and index.

Contents

Foreword / John Friedman -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Mexico City's Current Status: A Global and Comparative Perspective -- 3. Urban-Environmental Policy and Planning: International Agendas/Local Realities -- 4. Mexico City's Urban-Ecological Coevolution -- 5. State-Society Relations and the Production of Human Settlements -- 6. Ecological Arguments and the Politics of Containment -- 7. The Expansion of Irregular Settlements into the Greenbelt Zone of Ajusco -- 8. Key Actors and the Overall Balance of Forces -- 9. Popular Mobilization in the Formation of Los Belvederes: Origins, Structures and Agendas -- 10. Grassroots Environmental Action at the Frontier: The Colonia Ecologica Productiva Movement -- 11. Ecology as Politics -- 12. Conclusion.

ISBN

0262161737 (hc)

LCCN

97039497

OCLC

• 37489603
• ocm37489603

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries