Urban Awakenings

“Following their recent book Degrowth in the Suburbs, Samuel Alexander and Brendan Gleeson turn to the pulsating heart of ‘Marvellous Melbourne’, their home city. Deploying age-old methods of tramping transects and direct observation, they assess this city’s contradictory enchantments and disturbances, its longer-term liveability and viability. Tramping this exemplar of the industrial city, they uncover a consumptive, unsustainable, late carbon civilization dependent on its immediate hinterland, trapped in growth fetishism and inhabited by a troubled ‘homo urbanis’—but still with its considerable charms. Navigating the COVID-19 regulatory lockdown results in an unusual natural experiment as the fault lines of the industrial city are exposed as vulnerable to depopulation, degrowth, deconsumption, and demise. The engaging narrative clips along at rhythmic tramping pace, replete with evocative metaphors, philosophical reflections on the contradictions of late modernity, deep ecological concerns and some welcome humour. This highly readable and lavishly illustrated book ends with a rousing call to action. A must read for anyone concerned about the future of cities, of humankind, and the natural world under siege from the still dominant neoliberal order.” (Jon Altman AM, Emeritus Professor, The Australian National University, Canberra)