The pigeon is the quintessential city bird. Domesticated thousands of years ago as a messenger and a source of food, its presence on our sidewalks is so common that people consider the bird a nuisance—if they notice it at all. Yet pigeons are also kept for pleasure, sport, and p…
Urban education and its contexts have changed in powerful ways. Old paradigms are being eclipsed by global forces of privatization and markets and new articulations of race, class, and urban space. These factors and more set the stage for Pauline Lipman's insightful analysis of …
The birds, animals, insects, trees and plants encountered by the majority of the world’s people are those that survive in, adapt to, or are introduced to, urban areas. Some of these organisms give great pleasure; others invade, colonise and occupy neglected and hidden areas suc…
A companion to Urban Pest Management, this book builds on the issues of insect pests in urban settings to discuss control strategies that look beyond products. From an environmental and health perspective, it is not always practical to spray chemicals indoors or in urban setting…
Urban insects, like any other insects, are resilient and successful organisms in the natural world. Lack of understanding of their bio-ecology often leaves them considered intruders in the urban environment. Their encounters with humans are mostly reported with alarm and distres…
"With the infrastructure to manage stormwater threats in cities becoming increasingly expensive to build or repair, planners and landscapers need to look at alternative approaches. Ground-level mitigation measures such as raingardens, bioswales and rain water harvesting are beco…
Violence at the urban margins
The inhabitants of the urban margins are hardly ever heard in discussions about public safety. They live in danger but the discourse about violence and risk belongs to, is manufactured and manipulated by, others--others who are prone to view violence at the urban margins as evi…
"Mary C. Comerio provides detailed case studies of housing losses and rebuilding efforts in six recent urban disasters: Hurricane Hugo in South Carolina, Hurricane Andrew in Florida, the Loma Prieta and Northridge earthquakes in California, and the recent major earthquakes in Me…
We are active with our mobile devices; we play games, watch films, listen to music, check social media, and tap screens and keyboards while we are on the move. In Mood and Mobility, Richard Coyne argues that not only do we communicate, process information, and entertain ourselve…