smart growth

Tyler, Norman and Robert Ward (2011) Planning and Community Development: A Guide for the 21^st Century. New York, NY: WW Norton and Company.

This would make a good text for a course on sustainable development or urban planning. It provides a historical and current perspective on planning including comprehensive plans, urban planning, housing, historic preservation, economic development, transportation planning, environmental planning and rural/transitional planning. The appendix is a simulation you can use for training purposes.

Edwards, Andrés (2010) Thriving Beyond Sustainability: Pathways to a resilient society. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers.

Finally a book that doesn’t waste chapters documenting the problems. This book pulls together a lot of the solutions already underway. Chapters include learning from our ancestors, going ‘glocal’, greening commerce, regenerative design, etc. The up-side is that this book pulls together a bunch of good initiatives; the down-side is that if you’ve been in the industry for a while, only dribs and drabs will be new to you.

The last chapter lays out his SPIRALS framework, a set of criteria for what he calls a ‘thriveable future’: scaleable, place-making, intergenerational, resilient, accessible, life-affirming, self-care.