This paper paints an altogether broader canvas building upon earlier debates in <italic>City</italic> concerning the decline of cities over the coming decades and the changed states of mind and understanding of what life is about that can be expected to unfold under these circumstances. There is already...

Against a background of unrest and violent demonstrations and the demise of the Suharto regime in Indonesia, Adrian Atkinson highlights the activities of the Metropolitan Environmental Improvement Project (MEIP) in the city of Surabaya. He discusses, how through this project, the Surabaya Urban...

‘Perhaps the planning process is inherently “out of control”’, writes Adrian Atkinson in this article (see City 8(1), pp.89--108 for a related discussion). A refusal to take responsibility for our settlements as they grow in uncontrolled ways, alongside unsustainable inputs of...

In this third and last instalment of ‘Cities after Oil’, I envision the stages through which ‘modern’ civilisation will collapse over the coming decades. The first essay analysed the discourse on sustainability and how this has abjectly failed to deflect what has become a fatal global...

This paper reviews the current state of public debate concerning the problems of ‘climate change’ and ‘peak oil’. Following a short analysis of what is at stake, a number of documents are reviewed, together with the public reception which some of these have encountered. There is still...

Europe and North America—the Occident—have adopted the role of the bearers of civilization for a long time, assuming the task to enlightening (or imposing it on) others. ‘Development’ in its current form derives from ideas and practices, as Atkinson accurately describes, that have their...

This is a sequel to another paper-also entitled 'Readjusting to Reality', published in <italic>City</italic> 17 (1)-that focused on Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture (UPA) as a vital component of the downward passage from our energy-intensive modern world to one where we will have to live more in tune with our...