The Dictionary of Human Geography

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of the first explicit attempts at urban and

regional planning. One of his primary goals

was to seek a balance between industry and

nature, a goal shared with the parks move-

ment in the USA, particularly as advocated by

Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted

(Jackson, 1985; Hall, 2002a [1988]). The

‘City Beautiful’ movement was another

response against industrialization, but one that

focused primarily on physical architecture

rather than land use overall (Hall, 2002a

[1988]). The architect Le Corbusier’s grandi-

ose visions were influential in the creation of

entirely new cities in Brasilia, Brazil and

Chandigarh, India (Hall, 2002a [1988]).

With the rise ofneo-liberalism, urban and

regional planning is increasingly apublic__pri-

vate partnership, with an emphasis in some

countries on self-help initiatives (Drakakis-

Smith, 1997). The impact ofglobalization

and competition amongglobal citiesalso

curtail the authority of planners working at

the urban and regionalscale. The ‘pillars’ of

modernist planning have been ‘crumbling’ for

at least three decades for other reasons as

well (Sandercock, 2003, p. 2). Jane Jacobs

(1961) leveled an early and highly influential

critique and alternative. More recently, Leonie

Sandercock (2003) has charted ‘the life and

death’ of modern planning, outlining alterna-

tive progressive, democratic planning practices

influenced by feminist, post-colonial and post-

modern theory (Seefeminism,postmodern-

ism,post-colonialism). dgm

Suggested reading

Hall (2002a [1988]); Jacobs (1992 [1961]);

Sandercock (2003).

urban ecology Two different perspectives

relating to the study of urban environments:

the first, drawn from thechicago school,

examines thespatialityof urban land use

and social groups; while the second refers to

urban natureand anecosystemsapproach.

Urban ecology from thechicago schoolis

part of the broaderhuman ecologytradition.

It treats urban land-use patterns as the result

of social processes such as competition,seg-

regation,invasion and successionamong

social groups, resulting in a ‘natural’ spatial

order despite constantmobilityand expan-

sion of the system (Berry and Kasarda,

1977). Hawley (1950, cited in Berry and

Kasarda, 1977) modified this ecological app-

roach to emphasize interdependence among

individuals and their activities, and constant

adaptation to the physical and social

environment (Berry and Kasarda, 1977).

Scholars continue to pose research questions

relating to human organization andcommu-

nity, urban form and environmental adapta-

tion, but the urban ecology approach as

derived from underneath the human ecology

umbrella is not dominant. Critiques of the

Chicago School’s biologicalmetaphorsand

lack of specificity in defining key terms, such

as ‘environment’ (Berry and Kasarda, 1977,

pp. 14–15), contributed to the decline, as has

the rise of new approaches to concepts of

natureandecologyitself.

The ecosystem perspective – often called

urbanpolitical ecology– is the contempor-

ary, and dominant, approach to urban ecology

(Keil, 2003). It shares with the early ecological

approaches recognition of the importance of

interdependence, social relations and human–

environment relations (Vasishth and Sloane,

2002). But as Wolch, Pincetl and Pulido

(2002) point out, the Chicago School ecologies

transposed biological metaphors and ecosys-

tem thinking on to human activity and relation-

ships, leaving all conceptualizations of nature

as separate from and outside of the urban.

Contemporary urban ecology seeks to redress

this omission, incorporating nature and non-

human species into an approach that recog-

nizes the interdependency and coexistence of

social, political and environmental processes

and events in the urban sphere. Urban political

ecology examines urban and nature as inter-

related, mutually constituting dynamics, rather

than separate arenas (Keil, 2003). Further,

urban political ecology explicitly links urban

environments and problems ofsustainability

to global processes such ascapitalism.Urban

ecology is one of a growing area of ecological

scholarship, analytically linking humans and

nature inlocal__global relations. dgm

Suggested reading

Keil (2003); Swyngedouw and Heynen (2003).

urban entrepreneurialism A strategic and

political response by urban policy-makers to

the loss of income from taxes and intergovern-

mental fiscal transfers. It entails a shift from

the management ofpublic servicesto specu-

lative strategies intended to attract private

investment and government grants through

place-marketing, spectacular developments

and so forth (Harvey, 1989a). Entrepre-

neurialism is distinguished from earlier rounds

of boosterism by the local public sector’s

assumption ofriskassociated with develop-

ment through its role in public–private

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URBAN ENTREPRENEURIALISM