Local environments such as cities and neighbourhoods are becoming a focal point for those concerned with environmental justice and sustainability. The Citizens at Risk takes up this emerging agenda and analyses the key issues in a refreshingly simple yet sophisticated style.
Taking a comparative look at cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the book examines: the changing nature of urban environmental risks, the rules governing the distribution of such risks and their differential impact, how the risks arise and who is responsible
The authors clearly describe the most pressing urban environmental challenges, such as improving health conditions in deprived urban settlements, ensuring sustainable urban development in a globalizing world, and achieving environmental justice along with the greening of development. They argue that current debates on sustainable development fail to come to terms with these challenges, and call for a more politically and ethically explicit approach.
For policy makers, students, academics, activists or concerned general readers, this book applies a wealth of empirical analysis and theoretical insight to the interaction of citizens, their cities and their environment.

About the author(s)

Gordon McGranahan is a senior researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development in London.
Pedro Jacobi is Associate Professor in the Economics of Education Department at the University of Sao Paulo.
Jacob Songsore is Professor of Geography at the University of Ghana-Legon.
Charles Surjadi is Professor of Public Health at Atma Jaya University in Indonesia.
Marianne Kjellen is a researcher at the Stockholm Environment Institute.

Contents

Preface * Introduction * Urban Affluence and Shifting Environmental Burdens * Urban Water: From Health to Sustainability * Shifting Environmental Challenges in Accra, Jakarta and Sao Paulo * Organizing Environmental Improvements in Deprived Neighbourhoods: Plans, Markets, Local Collective Action and Beyond * Techniques for Assessing Local Environmental Problems in Deprived Neighbourhoods * Gender and Local Environmental Management in Accra * Urban Environmental Justice in a Changing World * References * Index