Turning Up the Heat

The collection brings together theoretical discussions and rigorous empirical analysis by key scholars in order to move Urban Political Ecology into current debates about urbanization and climate change. 'Turning up the heat is an ambitious book that delivers what it promises, a bringing together of the proliferating field of urban political ecology, to take stock, but moreover, to move on. In a hotter world with increasing social inequality, it will function as inspiration for scholarship and political ecological action for many and for years to come.'Henrik Ernstson, Associate Professor and Docent in Political Ecology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Manchester‘Turning up the heat makes a brilliant contribution to critical scholarship. Here is a rich and much-needed collection of cases and critiques that pushes us to theorise the urban from its margins. It demands creative modes of political thought and action to confront a world of environmental destruction, authoritarianism, and economic inequality.’ Malini Ranganathan, Associate Professor, American University, and co-author of Corruption Plots: Stories, Ethics, and Publics of the Late Capitalist City Since its emergence in the 1990s, the field of Urban Political Ecology (UPE) has focused on unsettling traditional understandings of the ‘city’ as entirely distinct from nature, showing instead how cities are metabolically linked with ecological processes and the flow of resources. More recently, a new generation of scholars has turned the focus towards the climate emergency. Turning up the heat seeks to turn UPE's critical energies towards a politically engaged debate over the role of extensive urbanisation in addressing socio-environmental equality in the context of climate change. The collection brings together theoretical discussions and rigorous empirical analysis by key scholars spanning three generations, engaging UPE in current debates about urbanisation and climate change. Engaging with cutting edge approaches including feminist political ecology, circular economies, and the Anthropocene, case studies in the book range from Singapore and Amsterdam to Nairobi and Vancouver. Contributors make the case for a UPE better informed by situated knowledges: an embodied UPE that pays equal attention to the role of postcolonial processes and more-than-human ontologies of capital accumulation within the context of the climate emergency. Acknowledging UPE’s rich intellectual history and aiming to enrich rather than split the field, Turning up the heat reveals how UPE is ideally positioned to address contemporary environmental issues in theory and practice. Since its emergence in the 1990s, the field of Urban Political Ecology (UPE) has focused on unsettling traditional understandings of the ‘city’ as entirely distinct from nature, showing instead how cities are metabolically linked with ecological processes and the flow of resources. More recently, a new generation of scholars has turned the focus towards the climate emergency. Turning up the heat seeks to turn UPE's critical energies towards a politically engaged debate over the role of extensive urbanisation in addressing socio-environmental equality in the context of climate change.The collection brings together theoretical discussions and rigorous empirical analysis by key scholars spanning three generations, engaging UPE in current debates about urbanisation and climate change. Engaging with cutting edge approaches including feminist political ecology, circular economies, and the Anthropocene, case studies in the book range from Singapore and Amsterdam to Nairobi and Vancouver. Contributors make the case for a UPE better informed by situated knowledges: an embodied UPE that pays equal attention to the role of postcolonial processes and more-than-human ontologies of capital accumulation within the context of the climate emergency. Acknowledging UPE’s rich intellectual history and aiming to enrich rather than split the field, Turning up the heat reveals how UPE is ideally positioned to address contemporary environmental issues in theory and practice.

Pages: 402, Paperback, Manchester University Press