Title: Urban Planning in Planet Earth’s Tragedy of the Commons
Author: Richard S. Bolan
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 978-1532079108
Pages: 226
Genre: Environmental Policy/City Planning & Urban Development/Urban Planning and Development
Synopsis
Urban Planning in Planet Earth’s ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ explores the immediate challenges from climate change and environmental destruction. The critical problems lie in (1) the rapid growth of urban population throughout the globe, (2) the global dominance of today’s corporatist-oligopolistic economy including its power over governmental and social institutions, and (3) the challenges arising from new technology, including artificial intelligence, robotics, agriculture and warfare. These contemporary forces require a new approach to the problems of urban growth and development if we are to adequately address Planet Earth’s ‘Tragedy of the Commons.’ The final chapters recommend a broader scope of transdisciplinary education for urban plannning along with improvements in other forms of education to provide greater social responsibility from both corporate and political leaders.
About the Author
Richard S. Bolan has been an urban planner for over 60 years. Graduating from Yale, MIT and NYU, he was a planning practitioner for ten years before joining the faculty at Boston College in 1967. While there he served as Editor of the Journal of the American Institute of Planners. In 1985, he moved to the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. In 1990 he became involved in working in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe as they moved from Soviet-style communism to democratic, private economy societies. His scholarly focus has been on planning theory and philosophy. He has two recent books:
(1) Urban Planning’s Philosophical Entanglements (Routledge, 2017) and (2) Urban Planning in Planet Earth’s Tragedy of the Commons (iUniverse, 2019)
