I thought it was about time to start laying out my ideas, so here is the start of an outline. It still needs to be fleshed out in many areas, but represents the way I’m thinking about framing my argument. Roughly, I want to begin with a history of utopian urbanism, so that I can situate eco-cities within a longer history of master-planned cities. I’ll then offer a brief defense of utopianism, followed by a characterization of specific master planned eco-cities. Here is where the bulk of my discourse analysis, etc will come into play. Then I’ll step back and try to identify some overall trends within these various eco-cities, and identify how they build on traditions from past stains of utopian urbanism. I also want to situate eco-cities within broader trends in sustainability discourse, particularly relating to the convergence of economic and environmental concerns. I’ll conclude with a discussion of how these extreme cases of new-build eco-cities are relevant to more typical sustainable urban development initiatives.
1. Introduction (3-4)
- Utopia & urbanism
- Pressures of the anthropocene
- Era of the eco-city?
2. Antecedents: a history of utopian urbanism (6-10)
- Progressive era (1-2)
- City Beautiful
- Uplift and edify the polity
- Olmsteadian vision of public space
- Modernist (2-3)
- Technological optimism: better living through engineering, elimination of daily drudgery
- Rationalization of space, efficiency
- Post-modern//Neoliberal (2-3)
- As death of utopia
- Backlash against urban renewal
- Utopianism conflated with authoritarianism (both in cities and in politics)
- As free market utopia
- Privatization of public space
- Insulation from socioenvironmental ills
- Free movement of capital: globalization and FTZs
- What good is the notion of utopianism? (1-2)
- Transformative potential
- Right to the city
- Dialectical Utopianism
- As death of utopia
3. Survey of current eco-cities (5-7)
- Explanation of methodology (2-3)
- Descriptive Questions (3-4): What (scale, architecture, design)? Where? When? Why (motivations/goals)? How (financing)? Who (developers, users)?
- Masdar
- Tianjin, Dongtan, Songdo
- Eko Atlantic, HOPE, Konza
4. What’s old about these new cities? (4-8)
- Modernist faith in technology (2-3)
- Construction of climate change as engineering problem
- Technological fix
- Post-modern pastiche of architecture (0-1)
- Literally copy and pasting buildings in some cases
- Neoliberal (1-2)
- Enclave development
- Designed with profit in mind (esp. smart/techno cities)
- Centrality of real estate market
- Emphasis on spatial form over social process (1-2)
- (need for more dialectical utopianism)
5. What’s new about these new cities? (5-8)
- Influence of globalization (intensified): while typical of neoliberalism more generally, it is unique development at the city scale (2-3)
- Desire to be world/global city
- Financed by foreign capital
- Openness to foreigners and foreign investment
- Eco-city as “green-print” to be exported
- Iconic of green capitalism (2-3)
- Convergence of environmental crisis and liberal economics
- Environmental crisis as new market opportunity
- De-politicization of sustainability (1-2)
- Widespread consensus
(6. Critique of Sustainability)
7. Conclusion: futures of the eco-topian city (3-5)
- Significance of new-build eco cities for more typical, retrofit projects
- Examples of actually existing dialectical eco-topianism?