This book fleshes out the idea that everything about the city involves a fight for the good life. From how we conceptualize it to its streets and the fiber-optic cables beneath them, nothing is excluded from creating the cities we want to call home.
In turn, this book continues Shane Epting’s ideas developed in Urban Enlightenment and Meaning in the Metropolis. It begins with an examination of how scholars define the term “city.” He argues that while cities are often described as ecosystems or technologies, these views should be abandoned in most cases. Instead, Epting maintains that cities are groups of people capable of shaping the built environment and its supporting technologies, united by the goal of creating places where people can live their best lives. This is the fight for the city. That fight involves many elements vital to city living, such as streets, land use, historic preservation, and preparation for extreme weather. He argues that fighting for the city is not merely about control. Rather, its purpose is to create environments that foster human flourishing while safeguarding communities against disaster.
Creating Future Cities will be essential reading for scholars and advanced students in philosophy, urban studies, and architecture.
Table of Contents:
1. Introduction 2. The Fight for the City as a Concept 3. The Fight for City Power 4. The Fight for Land’s Moral Utility 5. The Fight for the Street 6. The Fight for the Future 7. The Fight for Resilience 8. The Fight for the City
About the Author :
Shane Epting is an associate professor of philosophy at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, USA. Some of his books include Meaning in the Metropolis: Towards an Urban Existentialism (Routledge, 2024), Urban Enlightenment: Multistakeholder Engagement and the City (Routledge, 2023), The Morality of Urban Mobility: Technology and Philosophy of the City (2021), and Saving Cities: A Taxonomy of Urban Technologies (2021).
Review :
"Shane Epting, in Creating Future Cities, insightfully analyzes complex normative challenges in urban planning and design—from organizing urban residents' political power to building for resilience—and passionately argues that citizens of cities must fight for their cities and their futures."
Ronald R. Sundstrom, University of San Francisco, USA
