Landscape architecture and design Books

Book SynopsisRichard Bohannon teaches at the College of St. Benedict & St. John's University, in central Minnesota, USA.Trade ReviewThe author's examination of the religious images and narratives at work through out and after the disaster of the river flooding in Grand Forks reveals astonishing experiences of the both separate and interwoven views of the natural and the urban, the human and the divine. Inspiringly, the book explores in depth the role and significance of Christian narratives and images as normative tools in disaster management and urban ecological restoration. -- Sigurd Bergmann, Professor of Religious Studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim and former chair of the European Forum on the Study of Religion and the Environment.As we face increasing climate instability, this stunning study of the pressured relation between urban and nonhuman nature offers a non-apocalyptic prescience to ecological studies across the disciplines.Raising fresh questions about the role of religion in the interpretation of disaster,reconstruction, and human control, Bohannon's gripping narrative flows with the power of the river it follows. -- Catherine Keller, Professor of Constructive Theology, Graduate Division of Religion, Drew University, USA, and author of On the Mystery.Bohannonskillfully brings together the interdisciplinary conversations regardingreligion and cities, cities and nature, and religion and ecology as he tracesthe often mixed religious imagery regarding both cities and nature. Indeed, foranyone interested in these fields, as well as the cultural response to naturaldisasters, this book raises important questions as it explores expanding thesediscourses in a more complex direction. A well-written and fascinating study ofthe cultural perceptions that shape our sense of "acts of God" and "naturaldisasters", and what they reveal about our larger understanding of cities andnature and the desire to control nature. -- Laurel Kearns, Associate Professor of Sociology and Religion and Environmental Studies, Drew University, USA.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements \ 1. Urban Nature, Disasterand Religion \ 2. Religious Meaning-Makingand the Urban Environment \ 3. Urban Development in theRed River Valley \ 4. A Hard Land: The Cityagainst the River \ 5. Living in a River Town:The Control and Celebration of Nature \ 6. Religion, Cities and theControl of Nature \ Bibliography \ Index

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Book SynopsisSkateboarders are an increasingly common feature of the urban environment - recent estimates total 40 million world-wide. We are all aware of their often extraordinary talent and manoeuvres on the city streets. This book is the first detailed study of the urban phenomenon of skateboarding. It looks at skateboarding history from the surf-beaches of California in the 1950s, through the purpose-built skateparks of the 1970s, to the street-skating of the present day and shows how skateboarders experience and understand the city through their sport. Dismissive of authority and convention, skateboarders suggest that the city is not just a place for working and shopping but a true pleasure-ground, a place where the human body, emotions and energy can be expressed to the full. The huge skateboarding subculture that revolves around graphically-designed clothes and boards, music, slang and moves provides a rich resource for exploring issues of gender, race, class, sexuality and the family. As the author demonstrates, street-style skateboarding, especially characteristic of recent decades, conducts a performative critique of architecture, the city and capitalism. Anyone interested in the history and sociology of sport, urban geography or architecture will find this book riveting.Trade Review'Those few of us in the academy engaged in writing about the sociospatial relations of skating delight in the polished arguments that Borden presents over nine logically structured, pertinent and stylishly illustrated chapters.' Cultural Geographies Borden describes the emergence of not so much a sport as a way of life ... Its relation to architecture is kept beautifully clear ... a good read.' Building Design 'Skateboarders help us to think about buildings and their use. Borden argues that they draw our attention to the city as the site of perpetual change.' The Independent 'The first academic study of skateboarding.' Dazed and Confused 'There's absolutely no way I can do [the] work justice here the book is incredibly thought-provoking, especially from the perspective of actually being a skateboarder. I highly recommend it.' Sidewalk 'A fine book that I recommend to any skateboarder who can read at a college level.' Big Brother 'Borden owes as much to 30 year The book is excellently researched and draws upon an exhaustive aumount of secondary data on skateboarding. A highly original and extremely well written text that discusses the historical and cultural meaning of skateboarding through an engagin reading of the work of Lefebvre and others. University of Sussex

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Book SynopsisINTRODUCTION CHAPTERS.- Reflections on the city.- Urban Perichoresis. The generative dance of scientific cultures For a shared glossary of spatial concepts between Christianity and urban science.- POLITICAL SCIENCES.- Place in which a presence is revealed. Notes on the urban dimension of Pope Francis' thought.- THEOLOGY.- Small theology of the city.-CIVIL ECONOMY.- For the return to the civitas, the city of souls: the lesson of the pandemic.- ETHICS.- A reading in tension between ethics and space.- LITURGY.- Where will I fix my dwelling? (Isaiah 66:1) To imagine new liturgical spaces in our cities.- ANTHROPOLOGY.- Blessed are the placemakers, for they shall be called the children of God Weaving ties, building places.- PHILOSOPHY.- Being on the boundary: the periphery as a laboratory.- ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN.- The begging peripheries between fragility and beauty.- On the streets among the people.- Challenges from Urban Cultures. Communities of the Future.- Appendix.- Notes for an Urban Agenda.- Edge's notes.

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