Gareth Edwards – författare

The confluence of global climate change, growing levels of energy consumption and rapid urbanization has led the international policy community to regard urban responses to climate change as ‘an urgent agenda’ (World Bank 2010). The contribution of cities to rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions coupled with concerns about the vulnerability of urban places and communities to the impacts of climate change have led to a relatively recent and rapidly proliferating interest amongst both academic and policy communities in how cities might be able to respond to mitigation and adaptation. Attention has focused on the potential for municipal authorities to develop policy and plans that can address these twin issues, and the challenges of capacity, resource and politics that have been encountered. While this literature has captured some of the essential means through which the urban response to climate change is being forged, is that it has failed to take account of the multiple sites and spaces of climate change response that are emerging in cities ‘off-plan’.

An Urban Politics of Climate Change provides the first account of urban responses to climate change that moves beyond the boundary of municipal institutions to critically examine the governing of climate change in the city as a matter of both public and private authority, and to engage with the ways in which this is bound up with the politics and practices of urban infrastructure. The book draws on cases from multiple cities in both developed and emerging economies to providing new insight into the potential and limitations of urban responses to climate change, as well as new conceptual direction for our understanding of the politics of environmental governance.

The confluence of global climate change, growing levels of energy consumption and rapid urbanization has led the international policy community to regard urban responses to climate change as ‘an urgent agenda’ (World Bank 2010). The contribution of cities to rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions coupled with concerns about the vulnerability of urban places and communities to the impacts of climate change have led to a relatively recent and rapidly proliferating interest amongst both academic and policy communities in how cities might be able to respond to mitigation and adaptation. Attention has focused on the potential for municipal authorities to develop policy and plans that can address these twin issues, and the challenges of capacity, resource and politics that have been encountered. While this literature has captured some of the essential means through which the urban response to climate change is being forged, is that it has failed to take account of the multiple sites and spaces of climate change response that are emerging in cities ‘off-plan’.

An Urban Politics of Climate Change provides the first account of urban responses to climate change that moves beyond the boundary of municipal institutions to critically examine the governing of climate change in the city as a matter of both public and private authority, and to engage with the ways in which this is bound up with the politics and practices of urban infrastructure. The book draws on cases from multiple cities in both developed and emerging economies to providing new insight into the potential and limitations of urban responses to climate change, as well as new conceptual direction for our understanding of the politics of environmental governance.

The book investigates and develops several lines of thinking on community and relates them to leadership. These perspectives include individualism, sense of belonging, friendship and social networks, aesthetics and symbolism, liminality and language and ethics. Offering a critical postmodern stance, Gareth Edwards examines themes for future research, as well as suggesting ideas and implications for leadership learning.

Students looking to explore contemporary thinking on leadership will find this book to be of interest while academics will find use in the avenues for future research and conceptual thinking.

The Editors have selected a diverse range of approaches to leadership development which demonstrate the broad platform of techniques and methods that enable leadership in individuals and organisations to flourish. This Field Guide is embedded in theoretical and academic ideas but still provides accessible and comprehensive knowledge to development teams. Key points at the end of each chapter help the reader to adopt or translate the approaches for their own organisation and industrial context.

This Field Guide will be an invaluable resource for human resource specialists, learning facilitators and trainers, and faculty heads. It will also appeal to leadership academics and postgraduate students, such as Masters students in business and psychology, and those focusing on careers in human resources and education.

Contributors: S.J. Allen, A. Armitage, S. Bainbridge, S. Barnes, R. Bathurst, J. Billsberry, P. Chapman, K. DeCay, G. Edwards, C.P. Egri, S. Endres, J.L. Goolsby, J. Gosling, E. Guthey, B. Hawkins, C. Jarvis, D.M. Jenkins, S. Kempster, F. Kennedy, D. Ladkin, J. MacInnes, N. Modha, J.C. Quick, D. Schedlitzki, A.J. Schwartz, W.I. Serhane, S. Smith, A.F. Turner, M. Uhl-Bien, E. Watton, J. Weibler, S. Western