The City of Grace

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxiii

   PDF

2. Population, Globalization, the Market and the Environment

   • David Wadley

   Pages 1-12

3. The Foundations of Urban Modeling

   • David Wadley

   Pages 13-37

4. Beyond Goodness and Greatness: Desperately Seeking Grace

   • David Wadley

   Pages 39-61

5. Modeling The City of Grace

   • David Wadley

   Pages 63-107

6. A City Gracious in Function

   • David Wadley

   Pages 109-153

7. A City Graceful in Form

   • David Wadley

   Pages 155-187

8. A Graceless Age: Roadblocks and Pathways to Progress

   • David Wadley

   Pages 189-209

9. Conclusion: Grace and Urban Well-being

   • David Wadley

   Pages 211-227

10. Postscript: A Southern Saga

    • David Wadley

    Pages 229-234

11. Back Matter

    Pages 235-259

    PDF

In this sweeping appraisal of the urban condition, David Wadley argues that anything less that high-level resolution in modelling the well-being of inhabitants is wasting precious time. Humanity is encountering rising entropy, caused by unsustainable economic and demographic expansion. Supported by a strong interdisciplinary backdrop featuring systems and crisis theories, The City of Grace tackles these obstacles by picturing gracious function and graceful form in a human-scale settlement. In an attempt to salvage things lost in the teleology of urban development over the last 100 years, the outlook is both heterodox and contrarian. How long can we all go on in the present way? In addressing grace, a more elevated concept than those focusing previous urban analyses, this manifesto aims not to placate or please but, instead, to get humanity to face the encompassing realities it tries so hard to forget.

• urban development
• urban modelling
• environmental sustainability
• self-determination theory
• steady state economics

“With another two billion people on the planet by mid-century, and more than two-thirds of the world living in cities, will urban life be heaven or hell? How do we ensure that cities will be characterised by gracefulness and graciousness—by grace? Cities should be humane, just, creative and green, but is this enough? Will it also allow its citizens the possibility of becoming self-motivating and self-actualizing human beings? David Wadley provides an excellent roadmap for achieving a City of Grace, characterised by health, wealth, innovation, altruism, stewardship and moderation. And, through city planning, it would provide distinctive, ecologically sustainable development affording a high quality of life.” (Jenny Goldie, Vice-President of Sustainable Population Australia)

“Combining wisdom from economics, ecology, philosophy, religion, aesthetics, psychology, urban planning and many other fields, City of Grace gives us a new vision of our future possibilities. This is an inspiring read for anyone who wants to develop a positive vision of urban life in an age of global threats.” (Richard M. Ryan, University of Rochester)

• School of Earth and Environmental Science, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia

  David Wadley

David Wadley is a teaching and research academic in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Queensland, Australia.

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