Social-Environmental Planning

"""Using a charismatic discourse and witty convictions, Chris Maser argues that the functionality of nature’s design can be and has been used as a guiding framework to build human communities. ... Maser’s ability to bridge scientific theory with social psychology is compelling. ... Not since Jones and Cloke’s Tree cultures: The place of trees and trees in their place (2002), and Konijnendijk’s The forest and the city: The cultural landscape of urban woodland (2008), has there been a text so comprehensively bridging urban nature, human culture, and structural process. ... Through practical logic, scientific explanation, and unparalleled social insight and intuition, Maser breaks down stereotypical absolutisms in environmental management planning. ... the book offers excellent insight into the relationships, functions, and parallels of forests and cities; human behaviour; and also management planning strategies. Set against the backdrop of global climate change, this book reinforces the idea that thinking about green nature in relation to urbanization processes is integral to developing sustainable communities in the interest of human health and quality of living.""—Adrina Bardekjian, York University, The Canadian Geographer, 2012, 56(3) ""… provides an important and unique perspective on the strong relationships and parallels between human-made systems and structures and other natural systems and structures. The convergence of the social and physical sciences; of science and spirituality; of art and science and of other previously isolated fields of endeavor and belief will be, I believe, the hallmark of this century. Chris's book elegantly weaves together two such realms of thought and understanding. … I believe this book will make a significant contribution …""—Jane Silberstein, Bainbridge Island, Washington ""Maser makes a compe"