Sustainability and the Urban-to-Rural Spectrum

摘要

This issue of Environment includes three articles representing different points on the urban-to-rural spectrum of sustainability studies. In their article "It's Time for an Urbanization Science," William Solecki and co-authors argue that the time is long past for a more systematic analysis of urban centers. In many ways, cities represent an ideal focus of sustainability studies—especially as we witness a massive, historic flow of peoples, resources, and power into existing and new cities and megacities around the world. However, cities have always been focal points of shifting demographic tides, the introduction of new technologies, cultural evolution, the rise of specialization, political power, and market forces—where local, regional, and global currents merge and mix together in complex and sometimes revolutionary ways.