CITY OF GRACE : an urban manifesto. 9789811511110, 981151111X

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The City of Grace An Urban Manifesto

David Wadley

The City of Grace

David Wadley

The City of Grace An Urban Manifesto

David Wadley School of Earth and Environmental Science The University of Queensland St Lucia, QLD, Australia

ISBN 978-981-15-1111-0    ISBN 978-981-15-1112-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1112-7 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © Svetlana Isochenko / Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Preface

The preface first points to the lives of quiet desperation of ‘ordinary men’—as if there were no alternatives. Mediated by the interaction of the economic and natural environments, their existence occurs increasingly in urban areas. Cities could arguably aspire to goodness and greatness or perhaps something more—a condition of grace? Could ‘grace’ address the downsides in life and offer psychological satisfaction to urban residents? A chapter plan is set out in order to investigate this question as the focus of the research project. From Walden Pond MA, philosopher Henry David Thoreau ([1854] 2004, 7) found iconic words to describe the lives of ordinary men: What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work … When we consider what, to use the words of the catechism, is the chief end of man, and what are the true necessaries and means of life, it appears as if men had deliberately chosen the common mode of living because they preferred it to any other. Yet they honestly think there is no choice left.

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Some 130 years later, Margaret Thatcher echoed Thoreau’s thesis in advocating global capitalism via the TINA manifesto: There Is No Alternative. After the socialist collapse, Frances Fukuyama (1993) followed Karl Marx to proclaim ‘the end of history,’ this time embodied in a neoliberal democracy to advance the claims and spatial expansion of capitalism. Yet, sparked by American debt and real estate profligacy, the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC) spread serious recession from financial markets to real economies. Worldwide, stocks lost around $US10 trillion (Coyle 2011, 145). The travails of the rich overshadowed the more wretched impacts on the global poor. Vast international disparities remain in income, opportunity and well-being (Harvey 2000, 42–45; Mahbubani 2018, 4–7). In 2017, the highly interlinked world economy generated US$80.93 trillion of GNP, dominated by the United States (US$19.49 trillion), China (US$12.23 trillion), Japan (US$4.82 trillion) and about 30 developed countries.1 Some 200 others were less well off. This experience and its capacity for ‘creative destruction’ indicate that unshackled neoliberal capitalism could engender its own desperation (Schumpeter [1942] 1975, 83; Gray 1998; Emmott 2003, 173–313). First, a sameness could spread through ‘global leveling,’ which could produce cookie-cutter cities, possibly of indifferent quality (Fainstein 2005, 6; McGhee 2005, 165). Second, as part of Simons’ (1995, 69) ‘economic imperialism,’ business activities colonize not only geographic space and nonmarket arenas but also time, recruiting a 24/7 platform for production and marketing (Osborne 2018). Third, industry structure concentrates, reducing choice of provider and, potentially, that of goods and services. Fourth, commensurate with the state of technology (which Peter Dicken (2003, 85) has called ‘a great, growling engine of change’), capitalist production and consumption devour renewable and nonrenewable resources with little regard for externalities.2 Fifth, the process relies on compounding growth, facilitated through demographic expansion (cf. Miller 2005, 15–32; 186–91). Such tendencies confront the finiteness of planetary resources. Intensifying activity in a universal market would, without restraints, encourage monolithic providers reliant upon continued population and economic growth to ensure their own and the system’s perpetuation. Yet the GFC questions ‘supercapitalism’s’ inherent stability, such that ­scrutiny is again timely (cf. Reich 2007).3 Notwithstanding neoliberalism’s claims that enlarged wealth will mitigate environmental impact, concerns are

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mounting about resource degradation and diminution of standards (Daly 2005). The life of quiet desperation could, without a viable alternative, deflate toward the lowest common denominator, experienced today by many in capitalism’s South, or as a ‘race to the bottom’ in the urban masses’ quality of life. Alexander and Gleeson (2019, 13) provocatively refer to ‘a planet of slums.’ Far-fetched? A decade ago, it was reported that a sixth of the world’s population live in such circumstances, the count of inhabitants having doubled in the preceding 15 years (Dugger 2007). Seen differently, capitalism affords a minority of the world’s population a comfortable lifestyle in tolerable surroundings (Gay 1991, 73; Gore 2013, 33). This capability combines with the doctrine of ‘no alternatives’ to quell contrarians and utopians, who could conceivably launch critiques of, or improvements to, the existing order (Baeten 2002a, b). Given business as usual, disjointed incrementalism undertaken by small governments would remain the modus operandi. It well suits people possessing money, power, status or all three desiderata—but maybe not the rest of humanity which, despite its relegation, should retain a stake in the future. Yet, as systematic constraints, vested interests have been comprehensively ‘outed’ by Jim Collins’ (2001) study of leadership and performance among American Fortune 500 corporations. He maintains that ‘good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great.’4 Collins (2001, 5–16) devises metrics to define a corporation’s ‘greatness’—in short, a Rostow (1960)-like ascent beyond composite securities exchange benchmarks sustained over a 15-year period. In environments as complex as cities, such a straightforward approach is problematic, as reflected in attempts even to define the ‘difference’ which planning makes (Gleeson 2003). Planning, however, has not only imagined ideal urban forms (Lynch 1981, 1984; Short 1989; Sandercock 1998), but has borrowed performance indicators and best practice approaches from industry. Some headway is thus plausible. It is important, too, because world history largely proceeds from cities and they are the focus of innovative activity (Boudon 1978, 415; Dear 2000, 261). There could be many interpretations of urban ‘greatness,’ some tainted by hegemony and hubris. Global financial status and demographic size are too obvious, easy or familiar. The challenge is to up the ante, to introduce a new mode of thought around something more inspiring than neoliberalism’s Vibrant City. Since Wadley (2008, 650, 655–56) fashioned

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that particular construct a decade ago, things once taken for granted have ebbed away—like sustainable water supplies, fresh air and freedom to move around metropolises without crippling congestion. Contrariwise, could some focused modeling frame a City of Grace, apprehended along secular lines? Productively managed, such a project would step beyond John Friedmann’s (2000, 2002, 103–18) ‘Good City,’ outstrip aspects of ‘greatness’ and tackle the desperation surrounding humdrum urbanization. Definitional work will reveal that ‘grace,’ long understood as the unexpected gift of a positive good, has uplifting qualities which, often in an understated way, can address downsides in life and offer psychological satisfaction to urban inhabitants. The present research has found no evidence of people who have rejected grace, freely given, or who have disparaged its existence or effect. Rather obviously, though, grace has been neglected outside the humanities. The proposed study investigates the concept’s place in those fields, but goes further to identify relevant intersections in the social sciences with at least economics, management, human geography, architecture, city planning and sociology. Engagement with globalization is never tidy. The ‘humdrum’ has its virtues, far preferable to the chaos of state-based conflict, civil unrest, social breakdown or terrorist outrages in major world venues. These events are of an acute nature. Regarding reactions to more chronic disruption, both progressives and conservatives might have words to say5 when even primary students are mobilized to quit school and protest on the streets about climate change. Today, a wide-angle view and informed systems thinking are required. These stances urge observers not to sweat the detail but to stand back and acknowledge emerging trends around the world. To do so requires expansive thinking and resort to the metatheories summarily discarded in postmodern analysis over the last 30 years. The concept of grace, or, indeed, its absence, is compatible with these high levels of systemic resolution.6 Today, there are likely few examples of metropolitan grace, with even fewer to come, should capital fail in its promises. Unless signals have been missed and The City of Grace already exists, any case must be mounted deductively, not inductively as per those of Collins (2001) or Glaeser (2011). But Rome was not built in a day. Since the proposal involves a high-level construct, it must be equipped with strong, interdisciplinary foundations which take time to articulate.7 Resort must be to working

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definitions and propositional logic, emphasizing the necessary and sufficient conditions to conceptualize and operationalize urban grace. There could be theoretical footwork (a ‘slow burn’) to establish the outline of the City. Yet, once an outpost of grace can be conceptualized, it should provide a benchmark in integrated urban development. History abounds with calls for urban enhancement, accompanied by statements of ideals, some speculative (Pinder 2002; Hardy 2000, 2005), others more chronological or practical (e.g. Chaoy 1965; Fishman 1982; Buder 1990; Hall 1998, 2014). Given long-standing utopianism/dystopianism in social sciences (Levitas 1990; Harvey 2000), further deliberations would be risible to economists, critics and those in city hall were they not intended to advance human development.8 As will be shown, ‘grace,’ however novel or egregious in an instrumental world, can link directly with the quality of urban existence. Fully depicting The City of Grace will involve an initial survey of contextual conditions, followed by recourse to relevant, high-level theories. Next will come a review of themed urban literature to seek leads in the process of model construction. The focal element, grace, will need comprehensive definition. Having undertaken these preliminaries, it makes sense to see if a City of Grace already exists in the real world. Then more specific literature is assessed to ensure strong foundations upon which to build the model. Its conceptualization and operationalization are explained, focusing on the conversion of various kinds of capital inputs. There follow accounts of how the City will, as outputs, manifest grace in its function and form. Stress-testing of the model is subsequently undertaken to point issues which could challenge it. Finally, the project offers conclusions which summarize results, indicate limitations and suggest channels of further research. These various phases preempt eight tasks relayed as the chapters which form the structure of this book. They are to: • audit current drivers relating to population, globalization, the market and the environment • ground the modeling in world urbanization, theoretical preliminaries, general systems and chaos theories, and the ontology of previous urban literature

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• analyze grace in its theological, ascetic, aesthetic and material expressions • model urban ‘grace’ by relating its constituent elements to a quality of life by way of a vision, necessary precepts and sufficient strategies • explain the role of grace (graciousness) in urban function • relay constituents of grace (gracefulness) in urban form • outline the major obstacles in achieving urban grace • summarize the construction of The City of Grace and indicate how its inhabitants could achieve self-actualization. While centered on a perhaps abstruse and neglected theme, this book is not intended to be prophetic. It is a product of its time, when false news, fake facts, spin and desire mask underlying realities which need careful identification and analysis. It likewise reflects its author’s schooling in the (increasingly disparaged) western humanities and social sciences. The work suggests a stance in urbanism which, if found helpful, could be pursued or, if found lacking, subject to critique and modification from alternative viewpoints, values and traditions of thought. The City of Grace starts here—but will also end as no more than a beginning. St Lucia, QLD, Australia

David Wadley

Notes 1. World Bank online data, see also Endnote 9 below. 2. To Jewish author, Jeremy Benstein (2006, 20), land has become a commodity, rather than a community. Nature has become ‘de-spirited,’ no more than an anthropocentric collection of raw materials to fulfill human needs. To see the world as an ecosphere rather than a technosphere dethrones humanity from its position as overlord and raises pagan specters. 3. Days after it received a US$37.8 billion bailout package from the US government, embattled insurer American International Group attracted White House and Congressional opprobrium by hosting a US$440,000

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conference for high-end brokers at the Ritz-Carlton in California’s Half Moon Bay (Meier 2008). It followed another week-long conference at Monarch Beach which featured US$23,000 expenditure for ‘spa services.’ Business as usual—all the better, if taxpayer-funded. See prescient remarks by Giddens (2003, 10–11)….’ [business] has overrun the limits of its own legitimacy. A civil society needs a ‘civil economy.’ 4. The other possibility is that there is philosophically so much to goodness that we never get beyond analyzing it. See book-length treatments by Sparshott (1958) and von Wright (1963). 5. Words said for different reasons. Demonstrations supported by progressives, abhorred by conservatives. See Haynes (2019) for a global update. Those interested in the edge of chaos, viewed from the school room, might care to access https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR5ApYxkU-U and wonder why the site has attracted over 425 million visits—and counting. 6. Systemic resolution specifies the level at which a system is analyzed. High-­ level resolution occurred after the 9/11 attacks in the United States when President George W.  Bush in a State of the Nation address declared, ‘Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.’ Maybe channeling the biblical parallel of Luke 11:23, this framing effectively split the world in two. See the following site, accessed June 2018: https://www.theguardian. com/world/2001/sep/21/september11.usa13. 7. More comprehensive foundations, in fact, that many other past attempts at urban modeling. 8. John Short (1989, 6) underscores the point by writing that continued reiteration and armchair theorizing of the role of capital by academics is now ‘merely radical posturing that lacks substance, conviction or any real point of contact with political forces.’ Their ‘stale voices of despair’ parallel those of ‘new realist’ writers who ‘mindlessly repeat the words and message of the free marketeers.’ Naïve radicalism meets private market brutalism. Now, 30 years later, both groups have to respond to the environmental crisis.

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References Alexander, S. and Gleeson, B. 2019. Degrowth in the suburbs: A radical urban imaginary. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. Baeten, G. 2002a. The spaces of utopia and dystopia: An introduction. Geografiska Annaler B 84 (3/4), 141–42. Baeten, G. 2002b. Western utopianism/dystopianism and the political mediocrity of critical urban research. Geografiska Annaler B 84 (3/4), 143–52. Benstein, J. 2006. The way into Judaism and the environment. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing. Boudon, P. 1978. Utopicités. In Le discours utopique. Direction M. de Gandillac and C. Piron. 403–16. Paris: Union Génerale d'Éditions. Buder, S. 1990. Visionaries and planners: The Garden City movement and the modern community. New York: Oxford University Press. Chaoy, F. 1965. L’urbanisme: Utopies et réalités. Paris: Editions du Seuil. Collins, J. 2001. Good to great: Why some companies make the leap…and others don’t. Sydney: Random House. Coyle, D. 2011. The economics of enough: How to run the economy as if the future matters. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Daly, H.E. 2005. Economics in a full world. Scientific American 293 (3), 100–07. Dear, M. 2000. The postmodern urban condition. Oxford: Blackwell. Dicken, P. 2003. Global shift: Reshaping the global economic map in the 21st century (4th ed.). London: Sage. Dugger, C. 2007. Urban dwellers grow in daunting numbers (Syndicating the New York Times). The Australian Financial Review, 29 June, 36. Emmott, B. 2003. 20:21 vision: Twentieth-century lessons for the twenty-first century. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Fainstein, S.S. 2005. Cities and diversity: Should we want it? Can we plan for it? Urban Affairs Review 41 (1), 3–19. Fishman, R. 1982. Urban utopias in the twentieth century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Courbusier. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Friedmann, J. 2000. The good city: In defense of utopian thinking. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 24 (2), 460–72. Friedmann, J. 2002. The prospect of cities. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minneapolis Press. Fukuyama, F. 1993. The end of history and the last man. New York: Avon Books. Gay, C.M. 1991. Cash values: The value of money, the nature of worth. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.

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Giddens, A. 2003. Neoprogressivism: A new agenda for social democracy. In The progressive manifesto: New ideas for the centre-left. 1–34. Ed. A. Giddens. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Glaeser, E. 2011. Triumph of the city: How our greatest invention makes us richer, smarter, greener, healthier and happier. New York: Penguin Press. Gleeson, B. 2003. The contribution of planning to environment and society: Towards a framework for analysis. Australian Planner 40 (3), 25–30. Gore, A. 2013. The future. New York: Random House. Hall, P. 1998. Cities in civilization: Culture, innovation and the urban order. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Hall, P. 2014. Cities of tomorrow: An intellectual history of urban planning and design since 1880 (4th ed.). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Hardy, D. 2000. Utopian England: Community experiments 1900–1945. London: Spon. Hardy, D. 2005. Utopian ideas and the planning of London. Planning Perspectives 20 (1), 35–49. Harvey, D. 2000. Spaces of hope. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Haynes, G. 2019. Greta Thunberg: The girl who went on strike for the planet. Time 193 (20), 32–35. Levitas, R. 1990. The concept of utopia. Hemel Hempstead, Herts: Philip Allan. Lynch, K. 1981. A theory of good city form. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Lynch, K. 1984. Good city form. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Mahbubani, K. 2018. Has the West lost it? A provocation. London: Allen Lane. McGhee, D. 2005. Intolerant Britain: Hate, citizenship and difference. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press. Meier, B. 2008. AIG parties as Fed tops up its funding. (Syndicating  The New York Times) Australian Financial Review, 10 October, 22. Miller, G.T. 2005. Living in the environment: Principles, connections, and solutions (14th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks Cole. Osborne, N. 2018. For still possible cities: A politics of failure for the politically depressed. Australian Geographer 50 (2), 145–54. Pinder, D. 2002. In defence of utopian urbanism: Imagining cities after the ‘end of utopia’. Geografska Annaler B 84 (3–4), 229–42. Reich, R.B. 2007. Supercapitalism: The transformation of business, democracy and everyday life. New York: Knopf. Rostow, W.W. 1960. The stages of economic growth: A non-communist manifesto. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

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Sandercock, L. 1998. Toward cosmopolis: Planning for multicultural cities. Chichester, Sussex: Wiley. Schumpeter, J.A. [1942] 1975. Capitalism, socialism and democracy. New York: Harper and Row. Short, J.R. 1989. The humane city: Cities as if people matter. Oxford: Blackwell. Simons, R.G. 1995. Competing gospels: Public theology and economic theory. Alexandria, NSW: Dwyer. Sparshott, F.E. 1958. An enquiry into goodness and related concept; with some remarks on the nature and scope of such enquiries. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Thoreau, H.D. [1854] 2004. Walden. Ed. J.S. Cramer. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. von Wright, G.H. 1963. The varieties of goodness. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Wadley, D. 2008. The garden of peace. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 98 (3), 650–85.

Contents

1 Population, Globalization, the Market and the Environment  1 World Population Dynamics   2 Globalization   4 The Neoliberal Economy   5 The Natural Environment   7 References  11 2 The Foundations of Urban Modeling 13 World Urbanization  13 Modeling: Theoretical Preliminaries   14 General Systems and Chaos Theories   16 Toward a Working Ontology   20 Leads in Modeling   30 References  33 3 Beyond Goodness and Greatness: Desperately Seeking Grace 39 Grace and the Spiritual   40 Grace and the Ascetic   45 Grace and the Aesthetic   47 xv

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Grace and the Material   51 Leads in Modeling   55 References  58 4 Modeling The City of Grace 63 Preliminaries  63 Approaching the Modeling   73 Framework of the Model   76 Necessary Processing Elements: Precepts   82 Sufficient Processing Elements: Strategies   89 Leads in Modeling   97 References 101 5 A City Gracious in Function109 Economic Function  110 Political Function  124 Social Function  128 Modeling Outcomes  139 References 145 6 A City Graceful in Form155 Micro-Scale: Architectural Form  157 Meso-Scale: Architectural Decorum  162 Macro-Scale: City Dynamics  166 Manifesting Precepts and Strategies  175 Modeling Outcomes  179 References 181 7 A Graceless Age: Roadblocks and Pathways to Progress189 Utopianism and Acceptance  190 The Future of Capitalism  191 The Pathway to Rational Progress  199 Summation 202 References 205

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8 Conclusion: Grace and Urban Well-being211 Conspectus 211 Objections 219 Prospectus 221 References 224 9 Postscript: A Southern Saga229 References 234 References237

Book Abstract

This book is about the future of a presently endangered species, homo sapiens, and whether, in urban development, application of the concept of grace can ameliorate its prospects. Presently, global growth of the human population is clocking 1.1 percent or (net) 83 million people per year.1 Assuming a rise from 55 to 68 percent in urbanization by 2050, will the new and existing cities represent heaven or hell on earth? As a secular construct, The City of Grace surpasses goodness and greatness to propose a potentially challenging but satisfying urban environment offering different interpretations of personal and social welfare. Its hallmarks would be graciousness of function and gracefulness of form. The proposition  draws on theories advanced by Abraham Maslow, Herman Daly, Romesh Diwan, Richard Ryan, Edward Deci and Gabor Zovanyi. The project reviews the progress of global urbanization, assesses prior writing, defines grace and undertakes the challenge of modeling it in an urban context. It then develops a vision, mission, guiding precepts and strategies to create the City. Through rational applications, the work indicates ways in which grace might endow progressive communities prepared to trade contemporary orthodoxies and negotiate various risks in the quest for self-actualization. Once built, the model is evaluated in respect of forces which could hinder its operationalization. The conclusions evaluate the overall enterprise and outline future research directions. xix

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Book Abstract

Note 1. Wikipedia, Population growth. Accessed July 2018: https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Population_growth. United Nations. Accessed July 2018: https://www.un.org/ development/.../2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html.

List of Figures

Fig. 4.1 Intangible relationships with the environment. (Source: After Porteous 1996, 9) 70 Fig. 4.2 The spectrum of the disciplines. (Source: Adapted from Daly 1977, 19) 74 Fig. 4.3 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. (Source: Adapted from http:// www.iloveulove.com/psychology/maslowhon.htm)77 Fig. 4.4 States of amotivation, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation according to self-­determination theory. (Source: After Ryan and Deci 2000b, 72) 78 Fig. 4.5 Dynamic properties of sustainability. (Source: After Leach et al. 2010, 62) 88 Fig. 4.6 Key interactions among strategies, The City of Grace. (Source: Author)90 Fig. 7.1 Realms and levels of consciousness. (Source: After Wilber 2001, 225) 201 Plate 9.1 Architect’s impression, Fragrance Tower, Hobart. (Source: http://xsa.net.au/project/fragrance-davey-street-hotel/)230 Plate 9.2 Superimposition of Fragrance Tower upon the Hobart waterfront and hinterland. (Source: Tasmanian Conservation Trust) 231 Plate 9.3 Expansive urban design: situating built environment components (center and portside) within the natural landscape, Hobart, Tasmania. (Source: Woolley 2018, 21) 233

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List of Tables

Table 1.1 Population of the world and regions for selected years in the twenty-­first century (millions) Table 2.1 Themes relevant to The City of Grace Table 3.1 Themes surrounding grace Table 4.1 Differentiating types of environmentalism Table 4.2 Aggregate process model of The City of Grace

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1 Population, Globalization, the Market and the Environment

Though a long-term resident of this planet, I have yet to find The City of Grace. For others interested, this book offers an initial roadmap. Let us get underway. As an environmental audit, the first chapter reviews the most fundamental driver on earth, population growth, citing projections for the twenty-first century. Ebullient demography should foster continued globalization in production and trade, spurring more countries to join the neoliberal open market. It continues a movement known as economic development which, since the Industrial Revolution, has been seen to provide gains in living standards and quality of life. Yet, consequential environmental problems are pressing, with writers suggesting that we would need four planet earths to sustain even existing inhabitants at the level of today’s advanced nations. All these elements, in addition to energy, climate and economic stressors (Homer-Dixon 2006, 11), constitute the systemic context into which The City of Grace must fit.

© The Author(s) 2020 D. Wadley, The City of Grace, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1112-7_1

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World Population Dynamics Aggregate Analysis Recent world population has demonstrated remarkable growth. In 1750, commencing the Industrial Revolution, it included an estimated 790 million people, first surpassing one billion in 1803. This milestone was overtaken by a second billion (i.e. a doubling) over the next 124 years (1927) and the third a mere 33 years thereafter (Roser and Ortiz-Ospina 2018). Since 1960, that count again doubled such that, by mid-2019, the aggregate was estimated at 7.714 billion people, around 6 percent of all who have ever lived on earth (Worldodometer).

Components Analysis According to the latest United Nations (2019) population report, the greatest continental concentrations occur in Asia (4.60 billion), Africa (1.31 billion) and Europe (0.75 billion) (Table  1.1). China (1.42 billion), India (1.39 billion) and the United States (0.33 billion) are presently the most populous countries, followed by another 11, each exceeding 100 million. These 14 take in advanced and developing lands, yet only 4 (the United States, Russia, Brazil and Japan) exhibit net inward migration. Two (Russia and Japan) post negative demographic growth, whereas, among the other 12, rates range up to +2.60 percent per  annum (in Nigeria). That country mirrors its continent (Africa), which posts a 2.49 Table 1.1  Population of the world and regions for selected years in the twenty-­ first century (millions) Region World Africa Asia Europe Latin America and the Caribbean Northern America Oceania

2019 7713 1308 4601 747 648 366 42

2030 8548 1688 4974 741 706 391 48

2050 9735 2489 5290 710 762 428 57

Source: United Nations (2019, 19: see Data Booklet, Annex Table)

2100 10,874 4280 4719 630 679 490 75

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percent annual rate, far exceeding Asia (0.87 percent) and Europe (0.06 percent) (all data from Worldometers 2019). Apart from migration, population alters through births and deaths. The conventional, but also complacency-inducing, demographic transition model tracks the movement of countries from underdeveloped to advanced status (Daly and Cobb 1989, 243). The former, often with abundant fertility, exhibit high birth and death rates, while developed nations have transited to low death and birth rates, achieving demographic stability unless emigration or immigration interpose. In 1960, the world total fertility rate was 4.89 children per woman but, from 2016, it steadied at 2.51. Commensurately, global annual population grew by 1.82 percent in 1960, peaked in 1970 at 2.07 percent, and retreated to 1.09 percent in 2019 (Worldometers 2019).

Population Projection Some years ago, the noted economist, Walter Rostow (1998, 26), asked ‘how close has the human race come to a more or less stationary global population?’ He continued, ‘the demographers’ answer is that after 2025 the rate of population increase will slow down rapidly and stabilize at about 10 billion. The demographers may be right, but history generally produced irregular outcomes.’ Correspondingly, Henry Teune (1988, 29) calls demography ‘an imprecise field of study.’ In 1972, in its Volume 2, Number 1, The Ecologist contemplated, under various assumptions, a global population of 15.5 billion by 2070 (Lee 1989, 147). Fortunately, we can downsize this estimate. World population currently increases by 227,400 people a day, the size of a small city. The United Nations (2019, 19) predicts that it will reach 8.55 billion by 2030, 9.77 billion by 2050 and 10.74 billion by 2100 (a count which Alexander and Gleeson (2019, 192) see as ‘utterly catastrophic from both a social and environmental perspective’). While at 0.1 percent per annum (Roser and Ortiz-Ospina 2018), the growth rate in 2100 will fall short of that currently experienced, another three billion people will populate the earth, 39 percent more than at present. Table  1.1 shows the dramatic redistribution of aggregate population forecast by century’s end. Whereas

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in 2019, peopling of Asia was 3.52 times that of Africa, by 2100 it will be only 10 percent larger. Alternatively, in 2019, Africa’s share of world population was 17.1 compared with Asia’s 59.4 percent, shifting respectively to 39.3 and 43.4 percent by 2100. Europe in the same timespan will have dropped from 9.6 to 5.7 percent, this relative fall signifying an absolute loss of 117 million persons. Gabor Zovanyi (2013, 10) disputes ideas that another billion or two would not make much difference, pointing out that ‘it would take only 11.5 days for a million individuals transported on a conveyor belt to pass by a fixed point at a rate of one each per second, whereas it would take 31.5 years for a billion to pass by at the same rate.’ In sum, not only will the world have to accommodate many more people, but current geographical relativities will be radically altered. The quest for urban grace will likely be more relevant than it now appears.

Globalization Lechner (2005, 331) regards globalization as ‘the worldwide diffusion of practices, expansion of relations across continents, organization of social life on a global scale, and the growth of a shared global consciousness.’ It has transdisciplinary1 status, spanning politics, governance, business, technology, sport, crime, terrorism, poverty, inequality, development and more. The estimable Peter Dicken, in seven editions of Global Shift, writes about structural changes in the make-up and geography of the world economy, which, by means of supply chains and logistics, including those of command régimes, increasingly integrate production, distribution and allocation (Hamilton 2003, 119). Globalization changes spatial relationships, usually centralizing economic and political control. Some argue that the process is new and will produce a borderless world, maybe with a single government. A traditional school suggests that the world economy has formerly been far more integrated than at present (el-Ojeili and Hayden 2006, 14–28), despite today’s multinational and transnational corporations.2 Robertson (2001, 465) proposes a concept of ‘glocalization,’ which unites the global and the local, and creates unique outcomes around the

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world. It fosters heterogeneity to offset the encompassing homogeneity often assumed through multinational brands, customs, technologies and hegemonic practices. Some positive aspects of homogenization appear within modernization as, for example, in advances in transport and sanitation systems. Less prospectively, it impacts as placelessness found in urban function and form as cities embrace global efficiency. Abetted by forces that ‘flattened the world’ (Friedman 2005), such tendencies can produce feelings of individual and community dislocation, dehumanization and anomie in a ‘geography of nowhere’ (Kunstler 1993). They translate today as sharp and decisive political reactions by those protesting the status quo (Goodhart 2017). The alternatives of heterogeneity and heterogenetization as found in glocalization ‘involve the interaction of many global and local cultural inputs to create a kind of pastiche, or a blend, leading to a variety of cultural hybrids’ (Ritzer 2003, 75). One outcome can challenge uniformity through the translocation of national food dishes or music. Another, the opposite of purification, is creolization, involving a combination of languages, customs or products, which were formerly unintelligible to one another (e.g. pidgin) (Ritzer 2003, 78–79). These forms hold interest as possible social innovations.

The Neoliberal Economy Globalization also connotes a pervasive, neoliberal, free market ideology. In claiming to increase growth or living standards, it encourages far greater spatial mobility in populations and in the essential requirements for business. Among these production (‘factor’) inputs, land is immobile but can be owned or leased by foreign entities. Labor moves across national boundaries to take up prospective opportunities. Capital, in the form of physical or intellectual property, can be traded and transposed from country to country, while liquid (electronic) capital is hypermobile, chasing lucrative investment conditions. Entrepreneurship toward the development of new products or services is oriented globally, while its counterpart, management, is conducted by an international cadre of professionals.

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‘Neoliberal’ harks back to the mercantile capitalism experienced in free trade during 1846–1880. This era stimulated early classical economists to develop models effectively unencumbered by public intervention. Indeed, Britain was busy privatizing transport routes and establishing commerce. Self-interest within Victorian society was constrained only by the need to provide essential services such as constabularies, civic buildings and public health facilities. Enthusiasm for laisser faire waned after 1880, as countries regulated market forces and erected protective barriers to shelter national economies (el-Ojeili and Hayden 2006, 50). Such provisions were reinforced in the 1930s and 1940s when depression and war necessitated collectivist outlooks. For some nations, this consensus around monetary and fiscal intervention produced a 30-year postwar boom. It was also associated in western economies with the enlargement of social democracy and a welfare state. From the mid-1970s, (radical) conservative theorists argued a return to economic liberalism, now cast as neoliberalism. A revolution in financing instruments and methods followed (Kaletsky 2010, 69). Small government was applauded in removing perceived excesses of the cradle-tograve, ‘nanny state.’ Instead, the free market would orchestrate production, distribution and allocation to augment the social welfare of individuals by rewarding their own effort and enterprise. In Women’s Own in October 1987, the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, suggested that people’s problems were a responsibility for individuals and families, not ‘society,’ of which there was ‘no such thing.’ Critics maintain that, at birth, people lack equal opportunity and face a kinked baseline. Unlikely to be as perfect as in economic theory, the market will concentrate industry and power alliances which can overwhelm individuals and establish unequal contests in information and agency. This economistic, neoliberal stance not surprisingly supports the homogeneity argument regarding globalization. Gay (1991, 77–78) holds that individualization, and commodification of social institutions, has actually devalued our idea of ‘value.’ Given scale economies and sufficient consumers with disposable incomes, capitalism can continue to pursue productivity gains to enlarge profits. This quest underpins global expansion (cf. Mumford [1938] 1970, 272). The fall of the Soviet bloc in 1989 and China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001

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eliminated most of the remaining barriers to capitalist development (aka hegemony). According to Ritzer (2003, 81), ‘we live in an era in which, truly for the first time, capitalism is unchained and free to roam the world in search of both cheap production facilities and labor as well as new markets for its products.’ He calls this process grobalization— ‘gr’ as in ‘growth.’ It features sub-processes of McDonaldization (massive customer and retail chains) and Americanization, the propagation of American ideas, customs and industry. The enculturation involved has, until recently, come with the epithet of exceptionalism, and the military-­political role of America as the world’s policing authority (pax Americana). Apart from China, no nation has been positioned to impact the pre-­ 2000  world order in the new millennium. Rather, via their marquee brands such as Sony, BMW, Nokia and Dyson, most advanced lands have fought for a place within it, conscious that falling behind will, perhaps quite soon, reduce per capita income and living standards. Encompassing growth dominates the global psyche (Hamilton 2003).3 Rather than any necessary gain in the gracility of the human condition, the consequence is environmental impact.

The Natural Environment In the early 1960s, Rachel Carson’s bellwether publication, Silent Spring, warned humanity about the effects of modernity (in the form of pesticides) upon the natural milieu. Awareness grew of the finiteness of the earth, prompted by the Cold War nuclear standoff, ecological disasters, public protests and advocacy, remedial legislation, and the formation of nongovernmental organizations such as Friends of the Earth in 1969 and Greenpeace in 1971. The following year, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) was founded and attention focused on The Limits to Growth (Meadows et al. 1972), a cri de coeur of the Club of Rome formed in 1968. Some 50 summers later, an erstwhile preoccupation with the environment has become an international obsession. As a leitmotiv, ‘pollution’ has ceded to a far more encompassing ‘climate change,’ to be wrestled

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with at a global level. Earlier concerns about chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) producing a hole in the earth’s ozone layer (Bennett 2001) have ceded to recurring worries about greenhouse gases (GHGs), most notably carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane. They are, say the world’s leading scientists, responsible for warming and related effects such as ice melting and sea-­ level changes. Amid mention of a ‘large, unplanned geo-physical experiment,’ Gore (2013, 281, 311) writes of GHGs’ ‘trapping more extra heat each day in the lower atmosphere than would be released by 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs.’ The scientific basis of warming was established in two papers of 1859 and 1896 (Gore 2013, 311–12). Some writers now recognize in the Industrial Revolution a new geological period, the Anthropocene, based on a carbon economy (Homer-Dixon 2006, 140; Heinberg 2011). Over the last 800,000 years, several Ice Age cycles have varied average world temperatures by up to five degrees Celsius. Yet, even at the highest point, atmospheric CO2 never reached 300 parts per million (ppm). Now, relative to the pre-industrial 280 ppm, it has topped 415 ppm (May 2019) for the first time in three million years4 and is increasing at about 2 ppm per year. Alternatively, for a one-in-two chance of holding average global temperature to no more than two degrees above pre-1750 levels, cumulative CO2 emissions to the far future must not exceed a trillion tonnes. We have contributed 550 billion tonnes already and are presently burning 10 billion tonnes of carbon per year (Goldie 2014, xxiii). Though hubris, insouciance, inchoateness and sundry impediments, humanity appears sleepwalking toward disaster  (Mazutis and Eckardt 2017). While Gore (2013, xiv) bewails the ‘rapid, unsustainable growth’ of relevant negative markers, Jared Diamond (2011) recalls the demise of past civilizations—local or regional, not global, as is the prospect today. In the ‘hyper-expansionist’ future, few want to contemplate any slow-­ down or radical change, even if the welfare of the planet is threatened (Gore 2013, 315). Robertson (1989, xi, 11) discusses loss aversion (pinpointed as one facet of irrationality by Brafman and Brafman 2008, 17) in these terms: people with more power and wealth than others do not willingly give them up, and people who enjoy security and order do not willingly want to see

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them threatened. It would be foolish to underestimate potential resistance to the necessary economic transformation … [or] the ruthlessness with which this transformation might be suppressed even in law abiding countries…

Otherwise, Finnish theological scholar, Seppo Kjellberg (2000, 12) writes that ‘practical materialism, or mammonism, is a worldwide movement of a religious nature. But mammonism obviously defends common values that can be seen as the ultimate cause of the ecological problems of our time.’ One seminal means that might transform human thinking is the IPAT identity advanced by Ehrlich and Holdren in 1971. It asserts that environmental impact (I) is a multiplicative function of: population size (P); income per capita—affluence (A); and environmental impact per unit of income—technology (T) (Dietz and O’Neill 2013, 77). While this formulation could appear simplistic or sweeping, it is scalable from local to world levels and is sufficiently general to offer policy directions. Few plaudits will be forthcoming for reducing affluence, and nations are wedded to technology as indicating ‘progress’ and allegedly overcoming environmental constraints. Population thus emerges as the most straightforward, ‘first-order’ component to control but, as shown, its strong projected global growth to 2100 undergirds neoliberal capitalism. On the other hand, certain countries have found viable, though not necessarily popular, ways to check it, and demographic sanity appears latterly to have emerged in another set of advanced nations.5 The claim that ‘demography is destiny’ has never been more pointed—but how much of its relevance is now ironic rather than positive? IPAT nevertheless provides the link among environmental outcomes, capitalism, neoliberalism and globalization—a Promethean ensemble with an Icarian underside. Particular risks characterize nonlinear systems, with chaos around the corner. A neoliberal ethos would have them addressed by individuals rather than collectively as heretofore. The risks introduce problems of coherence and cohesion in that they emerge from various sources and no one institution is capable of controlling them (Kamppinen and Wilenius 2001). Gorringe (2011, 285) captures the sense, asserting that:

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all forms of technological progress since 1760 or so have been harnessed to a profit-oriented economic rationality, or irrationality, which has had the reproduction and accumulation of capital as its primary goal … What this means is that the ecological crisis is a crisis of a whole world-view and a whole world system, which we refer to these days as “globalization.” The triumphs of Western technology and of market economics have been exported to the whole inhabited earth but may cost the whole inhabited earth.

The question remaining is whether there could be any way to counter these apparently unsustainable trends of human development.

Notes 1. ‘Transdisciplinarity indicates a transcendence of disciplinarity, although it certainly does not mean the obliteration of perspectives deriving from the conventional academic disciplines’ (Robertson 2001, 458). 2. The former retain their headquarters in a country of origin and expand internationally, whereas the latter have shifted headquarters from their original homeland. 3. See the blistering critique in the edited readings of Davis and Monk (2007, ix) which opens by asking ‘toward what kind of future are we being led by savage, fanatical capitalism?’ Or, to reframe the question, ‘What do contemporary “dreamworlds” of consumption, property and power tell us about the fate of human solidarity?’ 4. Accessed June 2019 at https://truthout.org/articles/co2-levels-hit415-parts-per-million-for-first-time-in-over-3-million-years/ Climatologist, Eric Holthaus, also a journalist for the Seattle-based Grist magazine, is quoted as saying, ‘we don’t know a planet like this.’ 5. Demographic ‘sanity’ suggests the onset of zero population growth (ZPG) allied with a steady-state economy. The reference is not directly to the 52 percent reduction in sperm counts among unselected western men from 1973–2011 reported in a systematic review undertaken by Levine et al. (2017)—though this finding could also have future demographic relevance.

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References Alexander, S. and Gleeson, B. 2019. Degrowth in the suburbs: A radical urban imaginary. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. Bennett, O. 2001. Cultural pessimism: Narratives of decline in the postmodern world. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Brafman, O. and Brafman, R. 2008. Sway: The irresistible pull of irrational behavior. New York: Crown Publishing. Daly, H.E. and Cobb, J.B. Jr. 1989. For the common good: Redirecting the economy toward community, the environment and a sustainable future. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Davis, M. and Monk, D.B. (Eds.). 2007. Evil paradises: Dreamworlds of neoliberalism. New York: The New Press. Diamond, J. 2011. Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed. New York: Penguin. Dietz, R. and O’Neill, D. 2013. Enough is enough: Building a sustainable economy in a world of finite resources. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. El-Ojeili, C. and Hayden, P. 2006. Critical theories of globalization. Houndmills, Hants: Palgrave Macmillan. Friedman, T.L. 2005. The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century (2nd ed.). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Gay, C.M. 1991. Cash values: The value of money, the nature of worth. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. Goldie, J. 2014. Introduction. In Sustainable futures: Linking population, resources and the environment. Eds. J.  Goldie and K.  Betts. xix–xxv. Collingwood, VIC: CSIRO Publishing. Goodhart, D. 2017. The road to somewhere: The populist revolt and the future of politics. London: Hurst. Gore, A. 2013. The future. New York: Random House. Gorringe, T.J. 2011. The common good and the global emergency: God and the built environment. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Hamilton, C. 2003. Growth fetish. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin. Heinberg, R. 2011. The end of growth: Adapting to our new economic reality. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers. Homer-Dixon, T.F. 2006. The upside of down: Catastrophe, creativity and the renewal of civilization. Melbourne: Text Publishing. Kaletsky, A. 2010. Capitalism 4.0: The birth of a new economy in the aftermath of crisis. New York: Public Affairs.

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Kamppinen, M. and Wilenius, M. 2001. Risk landscapes in the era of social transition. Futures 33, 307–17. Kjellberg, S. 2000. Urban ecotheology. Utrecht: International Books. Kunstler, J.H. 1993. The geography of nowhere: The rise and decline of America’s man-made landscape. New York: Simon and Schuster. Lechner, F.J. 2005. Globalization. In Encyclopedia of social theory. Ed. G. Ritzer. 331–33. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Lee, K. 1989. Social philosophy and ecological scarcity. London: Routledge. Levine, H., Jørgensen, N., MartinoAndrade, A., Mendiola, J., Weksler-Derri, D., Mindlis, I., Pinotti, R., and Swan, S.H. 2017. Temporal trends in sperm count: A systematic review and meta-regression analysis. Human Reproduction Update 23 (6), 646–59. Mazutis, D. and Eckhardt, A. 2017. Sleepwalking into catastrophe: Cognitive biases and corporate climate change inertia. California Management Review 59 (3), 74–106. Meadows, D(onella) H., Randers, J., and Meadows, D(ennis). 1972. The limits to growth: A report for the Club of Rome’s project on the predicament of mankind. London: Universe Books. Mumford, L. [1938] 1970. The culture of cities. New  York: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich. Ritzer, G. 2003. The globalization of nothing. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Robertson, J. 1989. Future wealth: A new economics for the 21st century. London: Cassell. Robertson, R. 2001. Globalization theory 2000+: Major problematics. In Handbook of social theory. Eds. G. Ritzer and B. Smart. 458–71. London: Sage. Roser, M. and Ortiz-Ospina, E. 2018. World population growth. OurWorldInData.org. Accessed June 2018 at https://ourworldindata.org/ world-population-growth Rostow, W.W. 1998. The great population spike and after: Reflections on the 21st century. New York: Oxford University Press. Teune, H. 1988. Growth. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. United Nations. 2019. World population prospects, the 2019 revision: Key findings and advance tables. New York: (Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division), United Nations. Worldometers. 2019. World population. Accessed June 2019 at http://www. worldometers.info/world-population/ Zovanyi, G. 2013. The no-growth imperative: Creating sustainable communities under ecological limits to growth. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

2 The Foundations of Urban Modeling

To position The City of Grace conceptually, we analyze its context via a résumé of worldwide urbanization. Advancing from this situational audit into the main deductive approach, the need is for an input of scientific rationality as applies in formal model-building, lest impressionism or journalism result. So this chapter is about modeling. A venerable stance in human geography casts the city as a system, situated within a wider system (network) of cities. Useful leads emerge from the highest (most universal) means of resolution in social science, general systems and chaos theories, which offer sound procedural guidelines. The rest of the chapter assesses prior interpretations of themed cities and general urban literature to garner any substantive points which could aid subsequent construction of The City.

World Urbanization Urbanization involves people congregating and settling in an area, then creating businesses and governance to support themselves (Orum 2005, 853). Relatively, the term also measures the extent to which the population of an area (of any scale) lives in settlements that, on the basis of © The Author(s) 2020 D. Wadley, The City of Grace, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1112-7_2

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headcounts, density or other criteria, are classed as ‘urban.’ Urbanization can arise from an excess of births over deaths in designated urban areas, or by migration from surrounding hinterlands or elsewhere. It is associated with economic development, evidenced since the Industrial Revolution in the precedence of manufacturing and services over agriculture. Accordingly, national levels of urbanization vary markedly. The world became majority-urbanized (exceeding 50 percent) in 2007. Today the level is 54.9 percent,1 increasing annually by 0.3 percentage points toward a projected level of 68 percent in 2050. Among sizeable countries, those most urbanized (over 90 percent) include Belgium, Chile and Japan. Notably low ratios characterize Trinidad and Tobago (8 percent) and Papua New Guinea (12 percent). Perhaps it would be easier to build The City of Grace ab initio than to find it ready-made in developed societies (cf. Edmond 2004). Of the world’s most populous or economically dominant lands, China posts 58 percent urbanization to India’s 32 percent. The United States, United Kingdom and Brazil range between 81 and 84 percent, while Indonesia and Thailand record 52 to 54 percent. Reviewing the twentieth century, Orum (2005) suggests various qualitative ways of classifying and modeling urbanization and urbanism, citing German theorists and the Chicago School of sociology. He mentions different conceptions of the city—political, economic and ideological— and explains forms such as global and edge cities, suburbia and megalopolises. Though interesting, this exposé is insufficient to launch The City of Grace. The process should properly begin with an understanding of what modeling itself entails.

Modeling: Theoretical Preliminaries Conceptualization of complex phenomena is facilitated by employing models. They can be constructed either deductively, by using past theory and known facts as building blocks, or inductively by undertaking real-­ life observations and rationalizing them into theorems. Peter Haggett and Richard Chorley (1967) contend that a model can be a theory, a law, a hypothesis or a structured idea, a role, a relation or an equation. Its purpose is to simplify and abstract empirical situations. In a sequence of

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scientific reductionism, the totality of the real world is decomposed into more understandable component systems. They are hence isolated conceptually and can be studied for particular purposes. Such selectivity means that models have a limited range of application and come with varying degrees of probability, as selective approximations of reality. Structured and suggestive, they seek patterns in the world at large. Models can be transposed from one situation or place to another, or maybe one time to another, limited by initial assumptions which they, themselves, propose. Modeling functions, first, psychologically in providing a bridge from theory to reality and in simplifying complex phenomena (scientific reductionism). Second, it is acquisitive in suggesting a framework in which information can be collected, defined and ordered. Third, models are organizational in allowing us to squeeze maximum (often predictive) information from a given set of data. In this way, we also speak of models as being scientifically parsimonious and elegant. Fourth, they perform a logical role by helping to explain how particular phenomena occur. Fifth, they can be normative by comparing some phenomenon with a more familiar one (argument by analogy). Sixth, models are systematic. We approach issues at different levels of resolution and modeling fit parts into a coherent whole. In this sense, they fulfill a seventh, constructional, function as will be required to formulate the dimensions of The City of Grace. Haggett and Chorley (1967, 24) maintain that models cannot be judged as ‘true’ or ‘false,’ but rather as ‘appropriate,’ ‘stimulating’ or ‘significant.’ This standpoint aroused debate in the late 1960s, but scholars have accepted its fundamental correctness and it will apply to the formulation of The City of Grace. Things are never totally—only more or less—‘right’ or ‘wrong.’ We cannot ‘prove’ anything beyond doubt, since doubt characterizes science just as scarcity underpins economics and uncertainty pervades business. Given this positioning, our quest for explanation never ends and, as empirical conditions change, models are simply helpful to a greater or lesser degree. Grace is a wide-angle concept. To model its urban applications comprehensively, first resort should be to general systems and chaos theories as both a platform for deductive inquiry, and as guidance around a vision,

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mission, precepts and strategies for the City. Thereafter follows a search for substantive leads within the many volumes about urban development.

General Systems and Chaos Theories From within cybernetics and thermodynamics, general systems theory originated after 1945 to examine the principles common among systems with the objective of unifying science. It aims to explain empirical phenomena by pairing a level of abstraction with an optimum measure of generality. This move achieves appropriate ‘systems resolution’ for the purposes of study, which is often interdisciplinary in nature (Boulding 1956, 198). A system is a ‘set of objects together with relationships between the objects and between their characteristics’ (Hall and Fagen 1956, 18). Hence, a change in one component or in a sub-system could have significant repercussions throughout the entire construction. Mechanical arrangements are termed ‘non-morphogenetic,’ while sociocultural ones are ‘morphogenetic’ in character. Unlike the former, the latter have complex and unstable components, a fluid structure and often a disorganized relationship of parts. They can be flexible, conflictual and competitive in nature (Eliot Hurst 1974, 33–35). In processing matter, energy and information, systems can also be open or closed, though the latter are isolated and rare in nature. An open system is living and mostly permeable unless it closes to material judged harmful to its survival. Systems can be concrete or abstract. The former consist of material objects embedded in physical, social or other kinds of interrelationships. Abstract systems, as will be engaged in the present project, incorporate theories, constructs, values or symbols (Bailey 2005, 310–11). System properties and architecture become important in picturing The City of Grace. As an open system, an urban area will feature energy exchange (or ‘transference’) with its environment, producing an ecological footprint. This interaction presumes inputs, a processing mechanism and output(s) or, in the parlance, a ‘metabolism.’ The overall system can be structurally hierarchical, with nested sub-systems to implement its purpose or function. As well as the outer edge, its inner components have

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their respective boundaries, introducing feedback as energy moves through them. Simple action systems only have one-way feedback (as in rainfall affecting erosion but not vice versa), while others exhibit two-way effects (Eliot Hurst 1974, 34). Linkages among the components of a system can provide stability, with negative feedback loops acting to correct settings and/or constrain activity and outputs in adaptation to an environment. Positive impulses can be energizing and, on occasion, dis-­equilibrating, as when nonlinear forces turn on themselves. Passing through a trigger-­ point can cause a phase shift in a deterministic system. Regarding this process, which could create critical outcomes, Geels (2002) offers some useful epistemology about socio-technological transitions drawn from the management literature.2 One view has economic evolution as a process of variation, selection and retention; another Schumpeterian approach argues for the unfolding and establishment of new combinations, resulting in different paths and trajectories. Systems can thus be transformed by shifting assemblies and associations. Effects manifest themselves at different hierarchical levels, starting with the lowly niche, which might incubate radical and often less-than-properly formulated novelties. Above the niche is situated the technological régime, defined as a set of semi-coherent rules applied by different social groups. Its ‘institutional’ level of analysis is superimposed by the landscape. According to Geels (2002, 1260), the latter contains a set of heterogeneous factors, such as price levels, vectors of growth and conflict, population movements, the existence of political coalitions, cultural and normative values, and environmental problems. The landscape thus provides an external structure or context for the interrelations of actors. Moving beyond Geels’ technological analogy, triggers in the natural environment can emerge at different levels and manifest themselves, or cumulate, positively or negatively. Thresholds present a critical mass of perturbation which exceeds system capabilities to contain change. The disruption can be expressed acutely as a shock or over a longer period as a stress (Leach et al. 2010, 59). Components or agents in the system will retreat and others emerge, thus altering configurations. How these developments are viewed by observers will depend on their standpoint, values and interests. Some phase shifts will have been experienced previously as

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‘known knowns’ or can, in due course, be understood as ‘known unknowns.’ Economist Nassim Taleb (2010) has further probed socioeconomic and technological history to suggest the influence of random and disruptive events producing strong and unanticipated impacts, the so-called black swans. They are unpredictable, aperiodic and of low probability, but their striking consequences elevate their status in terms of risk management. They can introduce chaos into existing arrangements (Sardar and Abrams 2013, 16, 21). Amid globalization, capitalist and demographic expansion, and smaller-scale repercussions, the external context into which socioeconomic systems nest is becoming increasingly dynamic and complex (cf. Emery and Trist 1965, 21). Therefore, The City of Grace should be modeled as ideal-seeking within a ‘turbulent’ setting (Amin 2013; Sardar and Abrams 2013, 57). As just suggested, it can experience unplanned consequences (‘field forces’) of its activities, sufficient to induce autochthonous processes. It will exhibit interdependence of economic and non-economic influences and rely on research to meet its challenges. Its future is unknown and the urban system must adapt by learning (Alchian 1950; Walmsley 1972, 48). The emergence of external or internal chaos cannot be ruled out. Throughput within a system introduces the concepts of entropy and equilibrium. The former is ‘the degree of dissipation … of the energy or force that enables the system to undertake work, whether this be internal differentiation or export to the environment’ (Walmsley 1972, 28). Entropy encompasses energy and matter, either of which can be negative or positive (Georgescu-Roegen 1980, 33). Regarding materials and information, the process variously involves forces of concentration or dispersal. but, subject to the degenerative second law of thermodynamics, energy is expended and scattered so that entropy can only increase (Boulding 1980). As Bailey (2005, 311) clarifies, equilibrium could be readily achieved in closed settings devoid of external input, but, in an open system, it signifies maximum entropy. That is actually an undesirable condition in which energy has been depleted and structure impaired. The system is stable but also inert. Mostly, system operations tend toward high entropy, such that if a transition into chaos is to be avoided, the

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open variant must develop some counteractive (negentropic) means within the input—processing—output sequence mentioned above. Early theorists confused equilibrium with stability, balance and the high degree of order which typifies low entropy. They corrected their position with concepts such as: moving equilibrium, which signifies a series of successive equilibrium states within a system, whether or not the original condition is ever returned; homeostasis, referring to the balance achieved when the system is operating within certain parameters; and the steady-state which points, on one hand, to the static condition of a non-­ living system but, on the other, to a dynamic equilibrium through which an open system sustainably undertakes work and intermediates its external environment. These adaptations for social science, however, failed to satisfy critics who stress the thermodynamic properties of physical systems (Walmsley 1972, 27; Bailey 2005, 312). Boulding (1980, 259) advocates the steady-state of minimizing throughput (flow) and concentrating on the extent, quality and complexity of an economy’s total capital stock (physical, natural, human and social). In an urban setting, a sensible aim would feature sufficient health, prosperity and social harmony to maintain low entropy. Significant phase shifts such as economic crashes, crime waves and social or political revolts can generate shocks and/or stresses. These outcomes, experienced as gradual decline or the abrupt onset of chaos, sap confidence and cohesion and invite high entropy. Curiously, systems and chaos thinking have not suffused prior urban model-building, which usually occurs in a complacent, ‘business as usual’ macro-environment, rather than in dynamic, multi-­ polar markets prone to discord and disequilibrium. Given nonlinearity, the difficulty lies in working out what is, and is not, actually predictable. Systems theories place process before pattern or, alternatively, the idea of function prior to any concentration on form3 (Gorringe 2002, 1). This order contrasts with orthodox and somewhat static emphases in geography and town planning around form, leaving the interpretation of function to less spatial disciplines such as economics and sociology. ‘The conventional ideas of cities as “architecture-writ-large” cannot be easily related to the theory of cities as social, cultural, economic and institutional systems’ (Sardar and Abrams 2013, 125). Being universal in scope as opposed to an aggregation of individual or piecemeal elements,

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systems and chaos theory offer modeling an overarching position featuring high-level resolution. They can accommodate the exigencies attending a formative criterion such as ‘grace.’ Certain of their elements will become an essential backdrop and central to the City. Yet, before they can be actioned, more footwork is required.

Toward a Working Ontology The next step must be to consider landmark, book-length treatments on urbanism and city development, not to exhaust the field but, rather, as important within a deductive approach, to uncover any contents (‘known facts’) influencing the modeling of grace. In moving from general to more specific cases, the initial point is to examine the philosophical boundary known as utopia.

Utopian Options Our reconnaissance begins with the contributions of Lewis Mumford (1895–1990), author of over 20 major urban/architectural titles between 1920 and 1970. His 1922, The Story of Utopias, traces such thought from Plato’s ideal city in The Republic to H.G. Wells’ 1909 A Modern Utopia. Though ‘utopia’ in Greek actually means ‘nowhere,’ the theme has a long pedigree. Excluding dystopian works, it covers Sir Thomas Moore’s Utopia of 1516, Francis Bacon’s The New Atlantis of 1627, Tommaso Campanella’s The City of the Sun which followed in 1637, Charles Nordhoff’s 1875 The Communistic Societies of the United States, Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward of 1888, William Morris’ 1891 News from Nowhere, and Ebenezer Howard’s practically oriented Garden Cities of Tomorrow of 1902.4 Mumford (1922, 14) makes several germane points. First: the physical world is a definite, inescapable thing. Its limits are narrow and obvious … For good or ill, you must breathe air, eat food, drink water … Only a lunatic would refuse to recognize this physical environment; it is

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the substratum of our daily lives … But if the physical environment is the earth, the world of ideas corresponds to the heavens. We sleep under the light of stars that have long since ceased to exist, and we pattern our behavior by ideas which have no reality as soon as we cease to credit them.

He continues: ‘an idea is a solid fact, a theory is a solid fact, a superstition is a solid fact as long as people continue to regulate their actions in terms of the idea, theory, or superstition; and it is none the less solid because it is conveyed as an image or a breath of sound.’ Gorringe (2002, 1) reinforces this reality-check by remarking that ‘to be human is to be placed … to be born … live in [a] house … to go to school … to shop…’ [italics added]. Further significant is the insight of two eminent geographers, Peter Lloyd and Peter Dicken (1977, 338), that ‘in the final analysis, the economic landscape is the cumulative expression of the decisions [italics added] made by individuals at different points in time and under a variety of conditions.’ While Batty and Longley (1994, 1, 7) endorse this view, Gorringe (2002, ix, 8–9) responds that behind every decision lies an ethic. Therein, we oversee the conditions and protocols which determine city function: otherwise, in respect of form, we are what we inherit or build. From a single person’s outlook, the prospect of the metropolis could be monolithic. It could invite ‘learned helplessness,’ observable when a subject experiences passivity, suffering or discomfort from uncontrollable circumstances without a means of escape (Peterson et al. 1993, 228–29; Gore 2013, xxiii; Osborne 2018). Such powerlessness at once defies the ethos of vibrant neoliberal individualism and yet typifies those who fall from, or never achieve, its noble, global graces (Goudzwaard 1979, 152–54). The sequel is inertia. At its benign best, it permeates large systems which must so freely devote resources to their own upkeep that they are scarcely able to undertake any new initiatives (Bailey 2005, 312; Goodrich 2014, 214–15). At some midpoint, we have Mumford’s ([1956] 1968, 116) vision of the city as ‘an amorphous, over-mechanized, urbanoid mass, lacking both esthetic identity and social character.’ At the fetid worst, we can envisage mental depression and squalor in parts of the burgeoning, un-sanitized, underdeveloped city, a vision of hell on earth,5 completely alien to the intent of The City of Grace.

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The value of utopianism is artfully measured by Mumford (1922, 15) in this way: [There are] utopias of escape and the utopias of reconstruction. The first leaves the external world the way it is; the second seeks to change it so that one may have intercourse with it on one’s own terms. In one we build impossible castles in the air; in the other we consult a surveyor and an architect and a mason and proceed to build a house which meets our essential needs.

Set firmly in the latter vein, the proposed secular City represents a model divergent from that of encompassing global neoliberalism. Were it simply to advocate flight from surrounding excesses and assume a spectacular future, it would clearly be utopian in the style of past visionaries and commentators (Fishman 1982; Hall and Ward 1998). Instead, its manifesto, through construction and reconstruction, is gradually and realistically to introduce a more stable and adaptive arrangement. There is no enfeeblement; the spirit is robustly formative and anti-dystopian. Needed in the face of environmental decay is rational and activist, as against lesser types of, urban development. Certain texts provide contemporary reasoning and examples in this regard (Miles 2008).

‘City’-Themed Texts This inquiry rightly begins 40 years ago with Solomon’s (1980) The Prospective City, a collection of opinions on the future of the American metropolis. An Antipodean response came in the Spirited Cities edited by Freestone (1993), acknowledging Hans Westerman, professor of planning at The University of New South Wales in Sydney. The compendium covers intercultural elements, transportation, social issues and suburbs, and general metropolitan planning. Though the said ‘spirit’ does not include grace, workable insights emerge. Westerman, we are told, ‘is not greatly taken by grand blueprints and utopias’ and ‘came to realise that convincing totalizing statements were inherently unrealistic and probably undemocratic.’ His vision was about inspired and people-sensitive choice,

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managing uncertainty and trading off desirability with feasibility so as not to lose future options. His ideal city, where hope displaces despair, ‘is not a frozen physicalist dream, but rather an arena of possibilities.’ They include richness in places of learning and creative thought, compactness, pulsation and tranquility, efficiency, beauty and heritage. These various points can be reapplied in The City of Grace. Nicholas Schoon’s 2001 The Chosen City promotes an urban renaissance to ‘make neighborhoods and cities places where people with choices in life choose [italics added] to live’ (backcloth). It first exposes the drift in Britain over the twentieth century toward dereliction and blight (Hitchens 2018). As occurred in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, these circumstances left the poor locked in the largest cities, while, to flee congestion and pollution and to improve life-chances, many of the better-off white population sought suburban, county-town or country settings. Schoon’s remit is to keep in an area ‘a sizeable proportion of self-reliant people with earned incomes who value education … hate crime … want to raise their quality of life and believe that they can do so by their own efforts, who save and plan for a better future … Keep them in a district in sufficient numbers and it will remain civilized, hopeful and able to look after itself, to the benefit of all its inhabitants’ (#134). He offers numerous, practical ways to achieve these ends and undertake urban regeneration, but the sanguine course is not to let an urban area decline in the first place. The nature of dwellings and the effect of the property life cycle have an impact in this regard. As to temporality, Tony Hall (2015) in The Robust City concurs that planning should provide a long-term context to frame short-term matters. ‘Robust’ denotes the ability of urban form and layout to outlast a property life cycle of, say, 60 years (Pyhrr et al. 1989, 46–50). Buildings should be able to be repurposed and extended since very few cities contract a really over time. Robust physical form is needed at all scales to achieve quality of life and sustainability; in Hall’s view, such development will be the only type allowed. Given these principles, he favors a radial plan emphasizing transit-oriented development and green buffer zones. Though the enterprise is commendable, the text, like Safe Cities of Wekerle and Whitzman (1995) and The Safe City of van den Berg et al. (2006), remains partial in its primary focus on technology, design and

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urban form. Robustness and safety are worthy functional aims, but wider economic, social and environmental issues are less discussed. From the 1844 formation of Britain’s Health of Towns Association to the present day, population well-being has been a bedrock of urban development. An early edition is John Ashton’s (1992) Healthy Cities, which relays progress following the World Health Organization’s instigation of the Healthy Cities project of 1986. A follow-up was Davies and Kelly’s Healthy City readings of 1993, with several more generalized titles appearing over the subsequent 20 years. In a 2014 authorship, Sarkar et al. fill a research gap between built environment parameters (aka morphometrics) and health outcomes. They argue counterintuitively that better performance against relevant parameters might be achieved in smaller cities, a matter of distinct interest in modeling The City of Grace. A more recent edition by de Leeuw and Simos (2017) reiterates that urban health is a facet not just of built form, planning and science but also governance to balance access within the population. These ideas introduce Fainstein’s (2010) The Just City, directed to ‘what appears feasible within the present context of capitalist urbanization in wealthy, formally democratic, Western countries’ (#5). As distinct from the competitiveness and neoliberalism which reduce government influence and facilitate market dominance, justice is taken as the first keynote in policy making. Its expression in terms of political régimes and development outcomes is studied in New  York, London and Amsterdam. To Fainstein, essential underpinnings include equity, democracy and diversity. Her endeavor must accommodate two viewpoints: one of the neo-­ Marxist, David Harvey (2009, 46), that acting within a capitalist system can only mitigate the worst manifestations of injustice; and her own (‘non-reformist reform’) stance that sufficient leeway exists, which, if backed by political mobilization, can produce change. Noting Harvey’s comment that a just city has to be about continual conflict, she wonders, perhaps with Ehrenhalt (1995), ‘whether most people wish to live in a state of constant battle.’6 Her prescriptions (#172–74) for equity include the aggregation of housing units to be maintained in perpetuity as affordable accommodation, a broad ban on forced residential or commercial displacement, economic programs favoring employees and small business, mega-projects

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assisting low-income groups, low fares for public transport and planners arguing for egalitarian solutions. Democracy requires advocacy for disadvantaged people, public planning consultation for existing areas and, apropos newly developing precincts, for people outside the boundaries. Diversity can be achieved by zoning for inclusiveness and porous boundaries, mixed land uses endorsed by local populations, sufficient public open space, affirmative action for historically oppressed groups and a ban on forced relocation to achieve the requisite aims backed by avoidance of creating new communities which foster segregation. In these ways, her work straddles urban function and form, as must modeling The City of Grace. Wood and Landry (2008) extend the discussion of community in their writings on The Intercultural City. They hold that, since in globalization movement of people and diversity are inevitable, the latter should be embraced for its inherent opportunity, resources and advantage. So much echoes foregoing literature on cosmopolitanism, the functioning of organizations, innovation, cultural integration and public policy (Sandercock [1998] 2003). ‘Diversity advantage’ occurs when a city becomes ‘progressive’ through operations and governance involving an ‘intercultural lens’ which can promote integration. Antagonism among enemies is replaced with a healthy agonism between adversaries. It might work through what Australian social commentator, Hugh Mackay (2018, 169) calls ‘the discipline of compassion.’ Moving forward requires: an interculturally oriented leader to assert that the gains of the new diversity override the perceived losses; an expansive planning agenda to instigate change in matters such as housing types, school curricula and economic incentives; a reorientation of urban management from purely sectoral foci to those with an intercultural outcome (as in a division concerned with ‘relations between people’); a ‘glocal’ citizenship charter, ‘guaranteeing basic rights for everybody based on the social bond of belonging to and participating in the local [italics added] community’; and endorsement of ‘bridgers and mixers,’ ordinary citizens moving among different communities, in that ‘a million small accommodations amount to a movement that can shift a city’ (variously #317–24). Alan Ehrenhalt (1995) in The Lost City traverses ground relating to entropy in general systems theory. Superficially, his text appears

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c­ onservative in interrogating the role of choice, authority and sin in an urban area. Yet, those elements contribute to ‘the forgotten virtues of community’ and can aid social structure and cohesion. The case is underscored in Ehrenhalt’s foreword: The worship of choice has brought us a world of restless dissatisfaction, in which nothing we choose seems good enough to be permanent and we are unable to resist the endless pursuit of new selections … The suspicion of authority has meant the erosion of standards of conduct and civility … The repudiation of sin has given us a collection of wrongdoers who insist that they are not responsible for their actions because they have been dealt bad cards in life. When we declare that there are no sinners, we are a step away from deciding that there is no such thing as right and wrong.

Ehrenhalt (1995, 25) continues that ‘the world is full of repressed libertarians, waiting to be freed from the bondage of rules and authority … While the legitimacy of any particular set of rules is a subject that philosophers will always debate, it nonetheless remains true, and in the end more important, that the uncharted life, the life of unrestricted choice and eroded authority, is one most ordinary people do not enjoy leading.’ His critique touches the progressive and/or permissive fringes of left and right-wing thought. It could simultaneously address unrestricted capitalism, expansionism and the high-entropic, neoliberal dissolution found by Kunstler (1993), Eberle (1994) and Schoon (2001) in nameless suburbs and human scrapheaps. It speaks realistically of probable bounds to action and implicit responsibilities as the price of living in a fully functioning, adult city equipped with a sense of direction. Hence, it presents as non-utopian. The readings about The Ecological City by Platt et  al. (1994) begin much as has the present project with a developmental review, finding that the world’s urban population expanded tenfold during the twentieth century. The introduction cites key historical moments in urban ecology, dominated by luminaries including Frederick Law Olmsted Sr (public parklands), Ebenezer Howard (Garden Cities), Patrick Geddes (nature conservation), Frank Lloyd Wright (Broadacre City) and Le Corbusier (La Ville Radieuse). It remarks that, despite a presumption of i­ nexhaustible

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resources, the earth was given to humanity for usufruct, not consumption (cf. Daly 1977, 23), signifying that a steady-state economy should use income, not capital, to meet its recurrent needs (Robertson 1979, 45). Nevertheless, advocacy for sustainability has focused on the environment at large, rather than urban areas in particular—where it might actually be regarded as an oxymoron. Urban sustainability has two senses: the first concerning the protection and restoration of the remaining biological phenomena and processes within a city; and the second regarding ‘the impact of settlements upon the larger terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric resources of the biosphere from which they draw their sustenance and upon which inflict harmful effects’ (Platt 1994, 11–12). From these preliminaries, the edition discusses important issues such as design, wetlands, ecosystems, trees and forests, heat islands and endangered species. Many are revisited in Platt’s (2006a) The Humane Metropolis. It points to vast increases in the sprawl of American metropolises since the 1994 publication. Humane cities need to be ‘more green, safer and healthier, more people friendly, and more socially equitable’ (Platt 2006b, 317). The message is underlined: ecology partners entropy in the urban equation. James Russell’s The Agile City (2011, principally 1–15, 147–51, 221–40) reads ‘ecology’ as the fundamental question of climate change raised earlier. It involves a very high level of systemic resolution between humanity and nature and requires multi-faceted responses. The text, architecturally and planning-focused, starts with land which, to Americans, has equated to freedom, such that the making of cities has been left to owners and speculators. Given global warming, deeply held values about private property must make way for more resilient ideas. Distorted views about growth, along with vested interests, caused suburbia to go viral. Megaburbs metastasized, locking in a land- and energy-­ intensive lifestyle and creating donut cities, as bemoaned by Schoon (2001). Agile growth can transcend the thinking which makes cities no more than a venue for profit. It revolves around many small but catalytic increments to innovative building design and techniques, combined with collectivist moves in a ‘post consumption’ economy (#221–22). In extending the ecological case of Platt et al. (1994), its provenance is thus the (A) affluence and (T) technology components of Ehrlich and Holdren’s (1971) IPAT identity.

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Finally, in Lifeboat Cities (2010), Australian academic, Brendan Gleeson, nominates urban areas as the vehicle to carry humanity to its next stage of existence, away from ‘the storms of change which we have brought down on our own silly heads.’ Taking to these lifeboats ‘means abandoning the ship of foolishness that we know as Prometheanism,’ which came with ‘an awful lot of self-preening and whingeing [sic] during the neoliberal era.’ Urban populations must adopt ‘a trinity of survival values—restraint, sacrifice and solidarity.’ ‘Everyone will need to surrender much personal space and all preciousness in what will feel like an ever more cramped situation.’ The requirement is for a population strategy, the aim being to make ‘Australia secure and sustainable …’ [with a focus on] ‘the maximization of wellbeing, not material wealth’ (quoting variously from #130–33). The sequel, interestingly, is a chapter in which Gleeson tackles the eternal struggle in human history, juxtaposing St Augustine’s De Civitate Dei (the City of God) with the City of Man. ‘Everyday urban life can be understood as a great act of mutiny against the natural forces that govern all materiality … [producing] not the reign of pure reason but an unruly disruption of nature’ (#186). The reference is to entropy in a hinterland, as well as inside an urban area. The ideals of The Good City which must guide us forward include justice (i.e. equity), modesty (to safeguard civilization) and solidarity. They serve a higher necessity, the cause of nature’s renewal (#187). Clearly, there is much here to inform modeling of The City of Grace. This review of the city-themed literature has been informative but incomplete. It excludes reference to the novelist Jonathan Raban’s noted and republished, but essentially dystopian, Soft City ([1974] 2008); the edition by Jenks et al. (1996) toward The Compact City; Hall and Ward’s Sociable Cities of 1998; the Partners for Livable Cities’ (2001) workbook on urban regeneration entitled The Livable City; Simmie’s (2001) readings about Innovative Cities; Richard Williams’ (2004) The Anxious City which includes chapters on picturesque and free cities; Power and Houghton’s (2007) Jigsaw Cities, with segments on ‘the new Jerusalem’ and ‘smart cities’; and the journalist, Charles Montgomery’s (2013), Happy City which notes interestingly that ‘cities do design our lives.’ These and other sources will later be engaged as appropriate. The immediate move is from themed to general urbanist sources.

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General Urbanist Accounts This sub-section unlocks a vast literature from which only the most selective sampling, even of relevant works, is feasible. Despite the models outlined above and the comforting claims of globalizers and cosmopolitans, urban futures vary considerably worldwide. Reliable backstops are data-rich texts such as that of John McDonald (2008), which factually summarize past trends and predict coming ones from the best available evidence. Of the United States, he approves the work of Grogan and Proscio (2000), who, in Comeback Cities, foresaw some urban resurgence (which might precede Schoonian ‘choice’) by way of: the expanding community development movement; reinstatement of the inner city resulting from immigration, increasing credit and retail growth; a decline in crime; and more effective public policy making. McDonald (2008, 319) calibrates this outlook by citing studies which interpret an urban rebound mainly in property price rises attending the increasing amenity and attractiveness of areas of certain cities. Other initiatives have focused on civic culture, informed by the prospective achievements of Chicago and Philadelphia to rectify inadequate elements of the housing stock. If one is looking for positivity, Montgomery (2013) is certainly in the running, but the flag-bearer is Edward Glaeser’s (2011) Triumph of the City. By the latter account, western cities are now ‘wealthier, healthier, and more alluring than ever’ while ‘in the world’s poorer places, cities are expanding enormously because urban density provides the clearest path from poverty to prosperity’ (#3). Cities do not make people poor, but attract poor people, since urban disadvantage surely beats rural poverty. The agenda should be to help poor people, not furnish poor places with massive construction projects. The greatness of cities comes from their populations, not buildings. Finally, the complexity and chaos which engage sociologist, David Byrne (1997), relate to entropy in urban and other systems. He regards chaos in its popular sense of ‘indeterminacy, disintegration and the uselessness of knowledge—the postmodern condition in summary’ (#51). In his view, ‘there is a very considerable clue to postmodernism’s character in

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[the] emphasis on surfaces—we can see but we can’t understand what made what we see, and if we lack that understanding we can do nothing very much’ (#55). Here is another case of learned helplessness which, with Glaeser (2011), emphasizes the importance of function before form in urban modeling. Academics might luxuriate in relativism and indeterminacy, but politicians, whether democratic or authoritarian, will soon be replaced because society aspires to gains, not setbacks, in the quality of life. In science, chaos is seen to emerge from a deterministic progression of feedback loops which, as emergent properties, can ultimately lead to the reinstatement of stability and order. Systems are sensitive to initial placement, but their evolutionary paths depend on the exact conditions and the timing of perturbations. Evolution is thus unpredictable but not in hindsight inexplicable (#55). Situations are not inherently static and they change in response to environmental developments and co-­ evolutionary competition (#59). Byrne’s theorizing affords insight in modeling a city of grace. It is not to be conducted in a laboratory or surreally static setting. As corroboration, Homer-Dixon (2006, 11) identifies five key stressors impacting contemporary urbanism: demographic, energy, environmental, climatic and economic, any of which can impact mental health (Hamilton 2003, 41). Considerable turbulence exists and, if unaddressed, could lead to cumulating feedbacks, phase shifts, elevating entropy and systemic dissolution. As foreign as it might sound to progressives and libertarians, the chaos behind these forces challenges the common good. Any urban modeling today, as an external force, should recognize the interactive dynamism of neoliberalism, environmental threats and social persuasions. Given complexity and possible crisis, there is no room for The City of Grace to be escapist in outlook.

Leads in Modeling Until at least until recently, humanity appeared to have conquered earth, turning it from an ecosphere into a technosphere (Daly 1977, 177). Recalling that, as to its lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and bio-

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sphere, our planet is effectively closed, we are alone in space. Regarding lower-level, anthropogenic systems, the city is what our forebears have bequeathed and what we, as ‘prisoners of our own device,’7 make of it today. There is no one else to praise or blame. Foregoing sections have portrayed a collage of development ideas based on cities’ historical circumstances and trajectories. Despite the divergences, one homogenizing precept of globalization is countries’ shared aspirations for a pleasant and fulfilling quality of life. While journalists and commentators move inductively (as did pre-1960s ‘regional geography’) with entertaining narratives of assorted and different places, more systematic, deductive modeling offers prospects of economy and generality. Correspondingly, general systems and chaos theories afford an umbrella which allows cities to be interpreted as internal systems embedded in a wider external system comprising the natural environment and global production and trade. To model The City of Grace from this baseline, the world’s foremost urbanists offer plenty of leads (Table 2.1). Mumford shows us how to be constructive if, of necessity, we have to engage with utopianism. Table 2.1  Themes relevant to The City of Grace Topic/author(s)

Urban focus

Themes

General systems/ chaos theories

Theory

Mumford Freestone Schoon Hall

Utopia Spiritedness Choice Robustness

Energy, feedback, phase shifts, tipping points, homeostasis, entropy, complexity, chaos Groundedness, escape, reconstruction Democracy, feasibility, people-sensitivity Civility, regeneration Repurposing, sustainability, constraint, quality of life City size, governance Equity, democracy, diversity Cosmopolitanism, culture, integration

Ashton et seq. Health Fainstein Justice Wood and Landry Social diversity Ehrenhalt Civil society Platt Ecology Russell Adaptation Gleeson Reform Glaeser Allure Byrne Complexity

Community, cohesion, authority Usufruct, protection, restoration, Agility, resilience, innovation Justice, modesty, solidarity People-sensitivity, optimism Chaos, restitution

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Freestone’s contribution is to avoid over-prescriptive modeling so as to allow an arena of possibilities around urban amenity, creativity, beauty and heritage. Schoon reminds us that the fiscal metabolism of a city depends on the enterprise of its middle classes to look after themselves and assist the poor. Hall urges longevity of built form and provides a comprehensive structure plan. Understandably, a school of writers plump for health causes. Fainstein urges equity, democracy and diversity in formulating a just city. Wood and Landry strongly support the diversity case and urge a view of the city through an intercultural lens. Ehrenhalt reminds readers that community cohesion depends on measures of order, authority and individual responsibility if high entropy is to be averted. At a broader environmental scale, Platt’s contributions highlight the importance within a closed system of usufruct and ecological prudence. Likewise oriented to climate change, Russell (2011, 223) challenges the profit motive and sets out ways in which innovative construction can promote ‘agile’ growth. Another author aware of the problematic external milieu, Gleeson (2010), argues that the future of urbanism lies in restraint, sacrifice and solidarity with a focus on well-being, not material wealth. This last stance departs from a buoyant strand of literature which portrays cities as the conduits of a fulfilling neoliberalism. Yet, efforts to achieve goodness and greatness need to be anchored, unless system limits are strained and negativities of urban development ensue. With the majority of the world’s population now urbanized, environmental limits bear down on cities, irrespective of how they pursue their internal affairs. These macro influences portend ongoing stress (enduring shift), alongside periodic local shocks (transient disruptions) such as riots, terrorist attacks, strikes and shortages, which can befall large settlements (Homer-­Dixon 2006, 277–81; Leach et  al. 2010, 84). These are the highly entropic and chaos-inviting parameters within which The City of Grace must be modeled if it is to have any value beyond that of nostalgia or utopia. The essential step now is an inquiry into this muchvaunted ‘grace.’

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Notes 1. All urbanization data accessed from Worldometers, June 2018. See references. 2. For an introduction to this literature, I am indebted to Kelly d’Alessandro, a doctoral student in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland. Geels’ formulation appears to link well with the types of technological change proposed by Dicken (2015, 76). 3. Batty and Longley (1994, 2) point out that fractal geometry operates alternatively from form to function. 4. Among the later works, Bellamy (1888) provides a vision to the year 2000, Morris (1891) depicts a socialist England and Howard (1902) introduces the concept of the Garden City, which, along with other, smaller settlements, subsequently materialized as Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City, also in England. See for a fuller listing: http://www.sacredtexts.com/utopia/index.htm, accessed December 2018. 5. A domestic urban hell, different from the interwar variant described by Mumford ([1938] 1970, 272). 6. At the very least, the existence of millions of refugees today would support Fainstein’s (2010, 171) position regarding living in conflict. 7. The Eagles, ‘Hotel California’ from Hotel California, 1976.

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Glaeser, E. 2011. Triumph of the city: How our greatest invention makes us richer, smarter, greener, healthier and happier. New York: Penguin Press. Gleeson, B. 2010. Lifeboat cities. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. Goodrich, R.E. 2014. From earth to oblivion: The passing of mankind. Minneapolis, MN: Mill City Press. Gore, A. 2013. The future. New York: Random House. Gorringe, T.J. 2002. A theology of the built environment: Justice, empowerment, redemption. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Goudzwaard, R. 1979. Capitalism and progress: A diagnosis of Western society. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. Grogan, P. and Proscio, T. 2000. Comeback cities. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Haggett, P. and Chorley, R.J. 1967. Models, paradigms and the new geography. In Models in geography. Eds. R.J.  Chorley and P.  Haggett. 19–41. London: Methuen. Hall, A.D. and Fagen, R.E. 1956. Definition of system. General systems 1, 18–28. Hall, P. and Ward, C. 1998. Sociable cities: The legacy of Ebenezer Howard. Chichester, Sussex: Wiley. Hall, T(ony). 2015. The robust city. London: Routledge. Hamilton, C. 2003. Growth fetish. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin. Harvey, D. 2009. The right to the just city. In Searching for the just city. Eds. P.  Marcuse, J.  Connolly, J.  Novy, I.  Olivo, C.  Potter and J.  Steil. 40–51. London: Routledge. Hitchens, P. 2018. The abolition of Britain: From Winston Churchill to Teresa May. London: Bloomsbury. Homer-Dixon, T.F. 2006. The upside of down: Catastrophe, creativity and the renewal of civilization. Melbourne: Text Publishing. Howard, E. 1902. Garden cities of tomorrow. London: Sonnenschein. Jenks, M., Burton, E., and Williams, K. (Eds.). 1996. The compact city: A sustainable urban form? London: Spon. Kunstler, J.H. 1993. The geography of nowhere: The rise and decline of America’s man-made landscape. New York: Simon and Schuster. Leach, M., Scoones, I., and Stirling, A. 2010. Dynamic sustainabilities: Technology, environment, justice. London: Earthscan. Lloyd, P.E. and Dicken, P. 1977. Location in space: A theoretical approach to economic geography (2nd ed.). London: Harper and Row. Mackay, H. 2018. Australia re-imagined: Towards a more compassionate, less anxious society. Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia.

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McDonald, J. 2008. Urban America: Growth, crisis and rebirth. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. Miles, M. 2008. Urban utopias: The built and social architectures of alternative settlements. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Montgomery, C. 2013. Happy city: Transforming our lives through urban design. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Morris, W. 1891. News from nowhere: Or, an epoch of rest, being some chapters from a utopian romance. London: Longmans, Green. Mumford, L. 1922. The story of utopias. New York: Boni and Liveright. Mumford, L. [1956] 1968. The urban prospect. New  York: Harcourt, Brace and World. Mumford, L. [1938] 1970. The culture of cities. New  York: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich. Orum, A. 2005. Urbanization. In Encyclopedia of social theory. Ed. G. Ritzer. 853–58. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Osborne, N. 2018. For still possible cities: A politics of failure for the politically depressed. Australian Geographer 50 (2), 145–54. Peterson, C.P., Maier, S.F., and Seligman, M.E.P. 1993. Learned helplessness: A theory for the age of personal control. New York: Oxford University Press. Platt, R.H. 1994. The ecological city: Introduction and overview. In The ecological city: Preserving and restoring urban biodiversity. Eds. R.H.  Platt, R.A.  Rowntree and P.A Muick. 1–17. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press. Platt, R.H. (Ed.). 2006a. The humane metropolis: People and nature in the 21st century. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press. Platt, R.H. 2006b. Epilogue. In The humane metropolis: People and nature in the 21st century. Ed. R.H.  Platt. 315–22. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press. Platt, R.H., Rowntree, R.A., and Muick, P.A. (Eds.). 1994. The ecological city: Preserving and restoring urban biodiversity. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press. Power, A. and Houghton, J. 2007. Jigsaw cities: Big places, small spaces. Bristol, UK: The Policy Press. Pyhrr, S.A., Cooper, J.R., Wofford, L.E., Kapplin, S.D., and Lapides, P.D. 1989. Real estate investment: Strategy, analysis, decisions (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley and Sons. Raban, J. [1974] 2008. Soft city. London: Picador.

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Robertson, J. 1979. The sane alternative: A choice of futures. Minnesota, MN: River Basin Publishing. Russell, J.S. 2011. The agile city: Building well-being and wealth in an era of climate change. Washington, DC: Island Press. Sandercock, L. [1998] 2003. Towards Cosmopolis: Utopia as a construction site. In Readings in planning theory (2nd ed.). Eds. S.  Campbell and S.S. Fainstein. 403–07. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Sardar, Z. and Abrams, I. 2013. Introducing chaos: A graphic guide. London: Icon Books. Schoon, N. 2001. The chosen city. London: Spon. Simmie, J. (Ed.). 2001. Innovative cities. London: Spon. Solomon, A.P. (Ed.). 1980. The prospective city: Economic, population, energy and environmental developments. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Taleb, N.N. 2010. The black swan: The impact of the highly improbable. New York: Random House. Van den Berg, L., Pol, P.M.J., Mindargo, G., and Speller, C.J.M. 2006. The safe city: Safety and urban development in European cities. Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate. Walmsley, D.J. 1972. Systems theory: A framework for human geographical enquiry. Canberra, ACT: Australian National University (Publication HG/7, Department of Human Geography, Research School of Pacific Studies). Wekerle, G.R. and Whitzman, C. 1995. Safe cities: Guidelines for planning, design and management. New York: van Nostrand Reinhold. Williams, R.J. 2004. The anxious city: English urbanism in the late twentieth century. London: Routledge. Wood, P. and Landry, C. 2008. The intercultural city: Planning for diversity advantage. London: Earthscan.

3 Beyond Goodness and Greatness: Desperately Seeking Grace

What exactly is ‘grace?’ How, in cities, can we appreciate its elevation beyond goodness and greatness and how much use could it be to human ends? Does grace encompass the characteristics which urban settlements in the twenty-first century must embrace to be ecologically viable and psychologically rewarding for their residents? How and why could it be a worthy motif for future development? This chapter aims to provide some answers to these questions which attend a multi-layered concept. WordReference.com proceeds to define grace as follows: • the beneficence of God, a gift to be received with gratitude • blessing or thanksgiving, as in grace before a meal • good will or goodwill, as in a disposition to love, kindness and compassion; favor • seemliness, a sense of propriety and consideration for others • gracility, elegance and beauty of movement or expression The list requires interrogation at different levels. The first distinction is between theology (including soteriology) and various branches of philosophy. Belief in divinity or the supernatural obviously aids the explication of grace. Consequently, the cleft is not so much between theologians © The Author(s) 2020 D. Wadley, The City of Grace, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1112-7_3

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and philosophers, as between philosophers religiously and not religiously preoccupied.1 Though unavoidably perfunctory, this chapter investigates grace in theology, ascetics, aesthetics and among the material. In each domain, leads are sought which might aid in constructing a secular city incorporating the quality of grace. However, this approach is not necessarily the only one possible, nor the ‘correct’ one. An account could analyze just one, two or three of the four nominated domains or, within each, incorporate different aspects from those canvassed here (see, for example, Gorringe (2002, 2011)).

Grace and the Spiritual Grace in theology emerges as a mercurial and evanescent concept, more appreciated in its absence than presence (Huebsch 2009, 9, 16). While a complex account is well-developed over centuries of thought, elevated doctrinal works regularly overlook the urban—maybe too gritty, or grace has yet to permeate the city (e.g. Whitley 1932; Journet 1960; Gleason 1962). More apparent is that Christianity differs from other religions: its teachings surrounding the Crucifixion allow atonement via supernatural (‘free’ or habitual) grace, as against a requirement to earn forgiveness from sin through ritual, good works or both (Bakker 1916, 394–97).2 Correspondingly, grace is differentiated from mercy. The former connotes an added gift bestowed, not sought from, a benevolent figure. The lesser quality of mercy involves the withdrawal of a punishment. As Michael Stanly3 quips, grace is getting what you don’t deserve and mercy averting what you do deserve. Though different theological standpoints are possible, the Judeo-Christian incorporation of grace, with its strong moral and legalistic requirements, usefully frames the present discussion. It represents likely the most elaborate and fully developed position and can accommodate contemporary urban exigencies (Inge 2003; Holt 2007).

The Hebrew Scriptures This ancient tradition had no word for ‘grace’ but supported three related terms: ‘hen’ meaning favor, charm or elegance possibly applied as a social

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attitude to a person of inferior status, thus signifying a relationship; ‘hanan’ as in the Psalms, which refers to a person’s approach to be gracious to someone; and ‘hesed,’ denoting mercy emanating from an attitude of kindness but with generosity, faithfulness, reliability and a lack of coercion (Dreyer 1990, 43–50; Gorringe 2011, 40). These wellsprings underpin the comprehension of grace in the subsequent theological interpretation and would not go astray in a setting of urbanity.

Free Will and Predestination Filtered through the events surrounding Crucifixion and Resurrection, Christian writing originates with St Paul and St Thomas. St Paul’s scripts attempt to integrate foregoing Jewish law with notions of redemption and salvation, and charis or grace framing Christian life (Dreyer 1990, 55–56). In the fifth century AD, a British ascetic named Pelagius living in Rome taught that humans’ free will involves a duty to reject mediocrity and strive for moral perfection. (St) Augustine (of Hippo) (AD 354–430) added that only God could free people from their inherently sinful natures. Pitting evil against the will, he developed a thesis of predestination, incorporating ‘prevenient’ or ‘preceding’ grace to embody the discerning purview of the Holy Spirit prior to human impulse or action. A school of semi-Pelagians or Arminians countered that humans could petition God for grace, a position rejected by the Council of Orange in 529AD (Beck 1999, 8–10).

Beneficence and Faith Following a train of monastic and visionary authors leading into the evangelical thirteenth century, St Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274) returned to Aristotelean and Augustinian roots radically to define two types of grace: actual (or supernatural), through which God moved humans to do good4; and sanctifying (or natural) as people’s corresponding impulse, reinforced in the sacraments, to move toward God in a divine-human relationship (cf. Stevens 1963, 70–91). After contributions in the troubled fourteenth century, including innovations within

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grace conceived by Julian of Norwich (c. 1342–1416) (Dreyer 1990, 104–25), the topic dominated theological argument in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Reformers Luther and Calvin held that grace represented God’s favor to the descendants of Abraham, interpretable only through the law and scriptures. To Luther, the justification of grace obtained extrinsically in God’s beneficence: it could not be earned by good works but was received in faith, which then, itself, facilitated good works. Believers respond to the grace of God, however experienced, with gratitude, understood as ‘good grace’ or thanksgiving. For his part, Calvin maintained that grace, once endowed, could not be repealed.

Good Works and Divine Tailoring Disputing Luther’s 95 theses, the Roman Catholic Council of Trent (1545–1563) countered that divine mercy could indeed be accessed through good works (cf. Gleason 1962, 212; Roberts 1988, 180; Huebsch 2009, 10–11). In the vehement de auxiliis controversy which followed from 1581, Dominicans promoted concepts of efficacious grace (through which God moves humans to good acts) and sufficient grace (which does not necessarily cause a good act) (Beck 1999, 10). Jesuits replied that the human response to grace varied. Access was divinely tailored through scientia media or ‘mediate knowledge.’ Alternatively, Jansenists maintained, with St Augustine, that God’s grace was irresistible. Always at stake was mortal free will relating uneasily to a supernaturally inspired grace.

Emanence and Immanence Later theology sidesteps these troubles, depicting grace as the favor of the strong for the weak, the lofty for the lowly and, ultimately, of God’s regard for humanity (Goudge 1932, 322). Its effects can be understood as justification and merit (Stevens 1963, 92–96). A doctrine of emanence has grace proceeding from God to humanity (especially to the just, who obey religious laws), whereas one of immanence has grace suffusing from the God within the individual (Beck 1999, 11). Twentieth-century theologians Paul Tillich (Protestant), Karl Rahner (Catholic) and Pierre

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Teilhard de Chardin (Jesuit) see grace residing not solely within the church but as ‘the patient, luminous, inviting presence of a transcendent and mysterious God intimately active in the pain and glory of life’ (O’Meara 2005, 3647). Though Christian denominations are increasingly validating the presence of grace in other world religions and in the disjunction of individual lives in secular and agnostic societies, such a movement has yet to nucleate into a distinctive or purposeful conurbation of like-minded individuals.

The Numinous This concept is explored in the theologian, Rudolf Otto’s, Das Heilige [trans.] of 1917. He maintained that the underpinning of all religion was ‘numinous’ experience, consisting of three states. The mysterium engulfs us as completely apart from anything we encounter in ordinary life (cf. Huebsch 2009, 20). A mysterium tremendum entails feelings of immanence energized by the awe and dread of God’s power, wrath and majesty compared with our nothingness and dependence. Despite such terror, the numinous, presenting as the mysterium fascinans, acts differently to beguile us with the promise of mercy and grace.

Gratuitousness, Liberation and Transcendence Broaching other definitions, Daujat (1959, 10–12) notes that ‘grace’ literally translates the Latin gratia, derived from the adjective gratus or ‘pleasing.’ In a theological or secular sense, this is the victor’s grace, a gratuitous favor to an undeserving party or, more as ‘mercy,’ perhaps, a pardon for a penalty (or sin). The idea of forgiveness begets that of liberation, viewed as the defining advance of Christianity over its Judaic roots (to which, in the theology of grace, it owes much). Among world religions,5 only Hinduism traverses similar ground, its bhakti movement teaching that God (Dhagavan) can alter the effects of karma. Ultimate redemption demands consciousness that full liberation (moksa, nirvāna) is open only to those who transcend samsāra, the karmic realm of merit and demerit (Green 2005, 6188). Yet, like Christians, Hindus have split

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over whether liberation is divinely bestowed or attainable through moral effort or ritual (Beck 1999, 19). A general view is that the bestowal is primary and human initiative secondary, though such initiative facilitates the bestowal.6

Healing, Conversion, Redemption Some philosophers, through inclination or conversion, have engaged the theological in interpreting grace. The pragmatist, William James (1842–1910), wrote in The Varieties of Religious Experience about the healing effects of gradual or instantaneous conversion attendant upon grace. Repentance promoted psychological cleansing and purgation, a spiritual revival toward mental well-being (Rowe 1994, 37). Such themes were pursued from the chair of medieval literature at Oxford by the eminent convert, C.S. Lewis (1898–1963), who demonstrated much interest in the means of grace to be found in expiation, redemption and atonement (Beck 1999, 12–17). From this angle, it could be drawn that a City of Grace would inherently have to reject some of the more overbearing elements of current urbanization.

Contemporary Interpretations Mainly within the Christian fold, writers in the last 40 years have continued to grapple with the mysteries and manifestations of grace. As they refine or parse the historical precepts outlined above, certain viewpoints support our present urban interests. To Dreyer (1990) and Gorringe (2011, 49), grace is above all a community affair. The latter writes (#239) that, ‘in grace we see ourselves as peers, not only with all peoples, but with the earth itself. Grace leads us to the insight that the goods of the earth belong to everyone [original italics] and to the actions that put flesh and blood on that insight.’ Introducing grace as ‘our last best word,’ the American editor and author, Philip Yancey (1997, 13, 26, 41–42), nevertheless remarks that it has been ‘leached of meaning,’ perhaps by ‘graceless Christians.’ Just as Christ preached grace through parables, Yancey uses stories. One is that,

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while God loves us, our (sinful) behavior repulses him (#64–65). While many people search for ‘common grace’ through faith and good works, it is ultimately bestowed freely and without obligation on those who, with ‘empty hands’ to quote St Augustine, have in no way earned it (#180). Consequentially, they might become grateful but, at least initially, find that they have no one to thank or worship. Others will experience grace ‘like a visitor to a foreign country who notices what the natives overlook’ (#45). Here, we might tentatively ask, ‘would that visitor happen to appraise the world’s cities along the way?’ Huebsch (2009), reflecting a Catholic tradition, suggests that grace embodies a spirituality of wholeness, which could likely translate to a holistic view of the quality of life. It exposes guilt, one interpretation of which is that people can be locked into self with little consideration of other or wider entities (Conway 1992, 247).7 Maybe through the fascinans, grace can energize us to be our real and full selves and to take back responsibility for our lives (Huebsch 2009, 37–41). Hereby, it strips away veneers to seek core goodness in the human psyche. In its many boundless forms, it will infiltrate the ordinariness of the everyday to convey new meaning, push our limits, or suggest wider possibilities. Given certain facilitations, those opportunities might permeate an urban setting.

Grace and the Ascetic In theorizing grace, other philosophers rely more on ascetics and the intellect. From this school, Daujat (1959, 12) excludes Jean Paul Sartre ‘whose abyss of nothingness among men is a world without grace.’ Karl Marx’s struggle also fails since, even in things material, the quality of grace incorporates love. As Finch (1999, 53) remarks, the revolutionaries were as obsessed with accumulation (profits) as were the bosses they repudiated—hardly the realm of grace.

Freedom Reinterpreted More prospectively and as part of the German idealist movement, Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) followed Immanuel Kant in defining free-

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dom (of the will) as the prerogative of the acting subject, the generative force of the world. Yet, freedom also denotes the exact opposite: the achievement of independence from the (disordered) world so created. Whereas the first sense is sinful, the second connotes a return to an unblemished and inchoate state. This move accordingly represents an exercise of grace, leading to Schopenhauer’s thesis that ‘freedom is the realm of grace’ (Roberts 1988, 180). This interpretation is congruent with liberation in theology (Stevens 1963, 68) and relevant to the interests of the present urban project.

Truth and the Intellect This strand progresses in the ascetics of the French philosopher, Simone Weil (aka Emil Novis) (1909–1943).8 Her complex and short life sought grace in the intellect as part of a gnostic appreciation of supernatural reason. Racked by long-term illness and experiencing a Christian conversion from her original agnosticism/Judaism, she abandoned the body to an inner world of vacuity in which the trappings of ego and society were silenced and the spirit was able to move freely (thus assisting the transition from an encompassing human ‘gravity’ to ultimate grace) (cf. Yancey 1997, 271). Her final prayer, that she become physically and mentally paralytic as a vessel of God’s will, is regarded by her critics as ‘particularly horrifying’ (Finch 1999, 125–26). Only through detachment into mystic nothingness (via what she read as an act of grace9) was she able to discern the truth about important things. More theologically oriented to the cause and condition of grace is the proposition that ‘God consented through love to cease to be everything so that we might be something: we must consent through love to cease to be anything so that God may become everything again’ (Gustav Thibon in Weil (1947, 1963, xxi, xxxiii; cf. Stevens 1963, 71)). Death was, to Weil, ‘the instant when, for an infinitesimal fraction of time, pure truth, naked, certain and eternal, enters the soul.’10 Seemingly, this experience parallels the process of separation, which theologians understand as sanctification.

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Grace and the Aesthetic The two final points of the WordReference definition, seemliness or gracility, etc., have attracted philosophers probing beauty, aesthetics and the pragmatics of everyday life, the last theme linking with discussion of happiness and utility in contemporary psychology and economics (Schwartz 2005, 33–34). Again, a voluminous literature, traced from antiquity in Volume 2 of Bayer’s (1933, 570–79) L’Esthétique de la Grâce, must, with help from Dickie (1971, 1–32), contract into a few keynotes. Aesthetic writings take the high (cognitive, philosophical or transcendental) or low (geometry, measurement, proportion, etc.) road. Of the former, Daujat (1959, 11) begins strongly by asking what grace might add to beauty, given that beauty is everything which pleases or attracts. The answer lies in the giving of the self. Quoting directly: ‘a beautiful woman is gracious when she has a manner of bearing herself, of behaving, that adds to her beauty. All that is gracious suggests something given or superadded, and beneath this external giving we sense the deep reality of love. Where there is no real love, there is only a false grace.’ Hence, to external parties, The City of Grace should reflect more than a graceful form: it also needs to demonstrate graciousness of function.

Platonic Form This view resonates with the philosophy of Plato (428–348 BC) in The Symposium, that beauty is the object of love. Appreciation should begin at an early age, starting with one’s own body, generalizing that other bodies can also be beautiful and then discovering the beauty of the soul. The spiritual level is to find beauty in practices and customs, moving to various kinds of knowledge. At the final transcendental stage,11 the Platonic Form of Beauty is found in abstract and intangible entities. This aspatial, atemporal ‘intelligible world’ is one of aesthetics and lies beyond the experience of the physical senses (Dickie 1971, 3–5).

Pleasure, Calming Desire While St Augustine perpetuated the Platonic stance, St Thomas Aquinas followed the view of Aristotle (384–322 BC) that there is but one tangi-

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ble world. Herein beauty has both subjective (of the subject) and objective (of the object) properties. In the former sense, beauty pleases or calms desire. To Aquinas, its three objective conditions included: perfection or unimpairedness; proportion or harmony; and brightness or clarity. From a methodological stance, we shall recall these qualities later, conducting an empirical search to see if a City of Grace already exists on earth.

Measuring Beauty, Locating Taste The philosophy of beauty in the 1700s became contested. The artist, satirist and writer, William Hogarth, ‘with a view of fixing the fluctuating ideas of taste,’ attempted in The Analysis of Beauty ([1753] 1997) to bring beauty and grace to the common person by outlining the constituent or objective qualities of fitness, variety, regularity, simplicity, intricacy and quantity. Thinkers of the time were influenced by the medieval doctrine of mental faculties.12 Taking a subjective approach, some British philosophers subsumed the experience of beauty under a sensory faculty as a phenomenon of taste; some thought that they had discovered a new ­faculty; and others found beauty could be handled by the cognitive and affective faculties functioning in an unusual way involving powers of association (Dickie 1971, 10–11).

The Criterion of Disinterest An actual faculty of taste was argued by the Earl of Shaftesbury (1671–1713). It operated as both a moral sense for making judgments about behavior and as one to determine whether beauty did or did not exist. The Earl made two other contributions. First, he pioneered the notion that, to be moral, an actor must exhibit other than self-interest. In one of his examples, the contemplation of human beauty must reject any concomitant desire for sexual possession. Thereafter, an attitude of interested desire has been held incompatible with aesthetic appreciation (Dickie 1971, 14–15). Second, Shaftesbury added to the analysis of beauty the concept of the sublime based on the vastness and incomprehensibility of creation.

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The Sublime The sublime, as a category distinct from beauty, is explained in Edmund Burke’s 1770 Philosophical Enquiry. ‘Absolute’ pleasure (putatively, grace) adjoins beauty through the medium of love, whereas delight or ‘relative’ pleasure results from the removal of actual or anticipated pain. If we can contemplate obscure objects, or those of great size, without feeling threatened, we experience delight and thus regard the objects as sublime rather than necessarily beautiful. Such elevation would clearly set a high bar for architecture in any city claiming a quality of grace.

Empirics of Beauty The Scotsman, David Hume (1711–1776), in a 1740 essay on ‘The Standard of Taste’ proposed an Enlightened empirical solution to the problem of beauty. While the existence of taste in the appreciation of beauty cannot be disputed, Hume finds its origin not in intuition or rationality but in experience, which varies among people. The only way to define beauty is through a survey of those who could demonstrate perfect serenity of mind, recollection of thought and due attention to an object. In this way, the influences of fashion, ignorance and envy, adding little to the ‘delicacy’ of taste, can be discounted and judgment can apply to certain, unspecified qualities of objects. Differences in evaluation will occur among subjects of the experiment because of factors like age and temperament (Dickie 1971, 23–25). From this contribution, it can be taken that a City of Grace would require an intrinsic delicacy of form, which eschews both preciousness and precocity. It would best emerge as an organic creation endowed with humility and a lack of self-absorption before any hint of self-aggrandizement. These criteria would rule out a number of contemporary urban candidates.

Continental Rationalists Along with the mediating influence of the picturesque (Williams 2004, 27), ‘aesthetics’ (credited to the German rationalist, Alexander Baumgarten

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(1714–1762)) helped overcome paradigmatic instability in the philosophy of beauty created by the sublime. For his compatriot, Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), the aesthetic constituted the first of three mental faculties (others being the theoretical and the practical) within his wider theory of knowledge (Scruton 1979, 1). Unlike Hume and the British empiricists who held that no knowledge could be certain, Kant argued that, since the mind contributes to our structuring of experience, we have certain seminal knowledge such that events presuppose causes. Hence, his analysis of taste deals with foundational knowledge which leads to common judgments about beauty. One such foundation, pleasure, cannot inhere in the object of beauty and thus must pertain to the subject.13 Kant postulates that, unlike other sensations, pleasure can be regarded as stable if associated with four conjunctions: disinterest; universality; necessity and the form of purpose. As to disinterest, he maintains that pleasure follows judgment of an object, rather than being something intrinsic to it. Employing cognitive rather than affective elements, disinterest allows the possibility of universality among humanity in the estimation of beauty. However, with respect to aesthetic determinations, the free play and harmonious union of imagination and understanding produce pleasure (cf. Singer 2001, 117). Universality necessarily means that all people will appraise a selected object as beautiful and thus find pleasure.14 Kant insists that each determination is a separate act and that there can be no rules of beauty, as the empiricist Hume might have held. In the ‘purpose of form’ argument, the need is to specify exactly what activates the aesthetic faculty. Kant cannot nominate the purpose of an object since to do so would take the assessment past immediately experienced qualities and invoke objective rather than purely subjective concepts. ‘Purpose’ connotes the concept according to which an object was created, rather than its actual characteristics. Kant thus nominates the form of the purpose of the object in creating an impression of beauty. Form involves shape, arrangement, rhythm, spacing and so on, rather than sensible content such as color and tone since the latter is related to the agreeable and thus to interest. All this exposition notwithstanding, Kant is a philosopher regularly cited in debates about architectural form and aesthetics.

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Challenging Kant Responses to Kant arose from (Johann Christoph) Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805) and Georg Hegel (1770–1831). The former’s 1795–1801 Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man challenged Kant’s division of the faculties of understanding and imagination (reason and passion), arguing that ancient Greece, which demonstrated simplicity, refinement, culture, wisdom and unified character, revealed no such divorce of spirit, mind and body. To restore balance in human nature and social organization,15 Schiller urged a revival of the aesthetic though general education because ‘it is only through beauty that man makes his way to freedom’ (O’Connor and Mohr 2006, 231; Singer 2001, 118–19). Hegel responded that the task of restoring harmony was one for philosophy, not education, because the beauty of art16 lies in its sensuous revelation of truth. Fine art becomes true art in its freedom alone and, in that state, acts as a depository for the insights and spirit (Geist) of the society in which it was produced. Hegel wrote in his posthumous 1835 Lectures on Aesthetics that religion and philosophy had eclipsed art in their ability to represent truth—hence, his ‘death of art’ thesis (O’Connor and Mohr 2006, 262–63). Kantian propositions on aesthetics were also disputed by those like Nietzsche and Freud who saw art (beauty) as related to the will; by Marxists who regarded cultural production as characteristically political; and by expressionists who viewed all art as subject to affective responses (Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, n.d., 7–8).17 Having sketched relevant philosophy from Plato to the present, this summary of aesthetics can now be tendered (Dickie 1971, 32): before 1700, exploration of the claims of beauty was the focus; the eighteenth century grappled with taste; and, with that topic exhausted, attention turned to the newly created and wider field of aesthetics.

Grace and the Material In The Theory of Moral Sentiments ([1759] 1976), Adam Smith (1723–1790), ‘the sage of Kirkaldy,’ dwells ‘On the Effect of Utility upon the Sentiment of Approbation.’ Skillfully following his ‘ingenious and

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agreeable’ countryman David Hume and the ‘form of purposes’ of Immanuel Kant, he sees (#180) utility as the principal source of beauty. With possible reference to the aforementioned William Hogarth, he states ‘that the fitness of any system or machine to produce the end for which it was intended, bestows a certain propriety and beauty upon the whole, and renders the very thought and contemplation of it agreeable, is so very obvious that nobody has overlooked it.’ The connotation is that of elegance within a model. Fast-forwarding, Smith preempts a crucial equation devised by the leading environmental economist, Herman Daly (1977, 36), regarding the utility of assets. Engaging systems principles and the rational choice model, it defines the use-value of everyday items or larger goods which could make up the fabric of a city. The key is to regard an asset (stock) in terms of its level of service (output) relative to the throughput (input) required to maintain it:

Service / Throughput = [Service / Stock ] × [Stock / Throughput ]



By this reasoning, which might underpin a city’s ‘robustness,’ appraisal of tangible or intangible assets is properly undertaken on a benefit/cost basis. By extension, grace might rely not solely on taste or the aesthetics of form but, much more fundamentally, on the function and rational use of resources (Goudzwaard 1979, 24) and on the efficiency of purpose.18 Smith reinforces his point by citing an indolent servant who leaves chairs in the middle of a room. The master troubles himself to set the chairs against the wall, achieving the ‘conveniency’ of a functional arrangement which ‘bestows upon it the whole of its propriety and beauty.’ As opposed to this kind of beauty in order,19 people stuff their pockets with frivolous trinkets, such that ‘the whole utility is certainly not worth the fatigue of bearing the burden.’ Trinkets come in other than small packages and so can delude all but the astute. In words echoing down through the years20 to confront contemporary neoliberal aspiration, Smith (#181) enlarges his assessment to consider the drive for riches of a poor man’s son who leads a life of desperation, albeit not a quiet one.

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He judges that a numerous retinue of servants would save him from a great deal of trouble … It appears in his fancy like the life of some superior rank of beings, and, in order to arrive at it, he devotes himself for ever to the pursuit of wealth and greatness … He submits in the first year, nay in the first month of his application, to more fatigue of body and more uneasiness of mind than he could have suffered through the whole of his life from want of them. He studies to distinguish himself in some laborious profession. With the most unrelenting industry he labours day and night to acquire talents superior to all his competitors. He endeavours to bring those talents into public view, and with equal assiduity solicits every opportunity of employment. For this purpose he makes his court to all of mankind; he serves those whom he hates, and is obsequious to those whom he despises. Through the whole of his life he pursues the idea of a certain artificial and elegant repose which he may never arrive at, for which he sacrifices real tranquility that is at all times in his power, and which, if in the extremity of old age he should at last attain to it, he will find to be in no respect preferable to that humble security and contentment which he had abandoned for it. It is then, in the last dregs of life, his body wasted with toil and diseases, his mind galled and ruffled by the memory of a thousand injuries and disappointments … that he begins at last to find that wealth and greatness are mere trinkets of frivolous utility.

Having thus exposed the tyranny of the self, Smith (#183) reprises his argument as a ‘splenetic’ philosophy, which deprecates the great objects of human desire. The palaces and practices of the rich seduce the masses with ‘the order, the regular and harmonious movement of the system, the machine or the oeconomy [sic] by means of which it is produced.’ It is fitting that nature imposes on humanity in this manner since the land is thereby cultivated, industry maintained, houses built, cities and commonwealths created and the arts and sciences pursued. Yet, the wealthy man is also deceived since the capacity of his stomach bears no proportion to the immensity of his desires … The rich only select from the heap what is most precious and agreeable. They consume little more than the poor, and in spite of their natural selfishness and rapacity…divide with the poor the produce of all their improvements. They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly

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the same distribution of the necessities of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants… . (#184–85)

Along with these collected passages, Daly’s equation hints that reason and moderation should anchor the order and beauty on which grace is founded. Enforcing the case is a terse update on the material by theologian, Paul Zahl21 (2007, 219–24), entitled ‘Grace at the Mall.’ Within Reich’s (2007, 209) supercapitalism, the anthropology of grace finds humans extremely vulnerable to the ‘plethora of products and services pandering to our basest desires.’ Hence, for Zahl, ‘if ever there were an axiomatic principle of grace in relation to everyday life, it would be this: destroy the mall if you can; stay away if you cannot; and contest commercialism in a systematic and finally ideological way.’ The mall must go for two reasons. First, it appeals to the young even more than to adults. As they ‘hang out’ in a place designed to bring out ‘the most self-serving emotions possible,’ ‘phalanxes’ of security guards are required to keep enough control so that ‘the show can go on.’ Second, as an enterprise of (high-entropic) ‘graven seduction,’ the mall ‘captures boldly and explicitly the continuing original sin and total depravity’ which exist below the surface in all people. Zahl’s ‘Luddite’ solution is to validate those forums of exchange which buy and sell, provide and distribute ‘in a normal and necessary way.’ By contrast, the materialistic edifices across America and elsewhere are ‘the crematorium of the young and the beguiler of all,’ a ‘suburban happy land’ whose long-term habitué(e)s ‘start to feel depressed and unclean.’ Apart from contrarians such as Hitchens (2018), Zahl would no doubt be applauded by iconoclastic economists like Hamilton (1994, 187) and Diwan (2000), as well as the Islamic writers, Ahmad et  al. (1997, 113). MacLeod and Ward (2002, 162–63) see ‘fortified cathedrals of consumption’ as an equity issue, luring those with, and doing everything possible to repel those without, money. Harvey (2000, 168) regards them as ‘“bourgeois” commercial utopias’ signaling ‘the end of history’ in the TINA terms of there being no alternative. They are the apotheosis of neoliberal capitalism (cf. Georgescu-Roegen 1980, 53). If grace and unfettered material consumption are antithetic, Zahl and his associates could not make the point more clearly.

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Leads in Modeling Theological, ascetic, aesthetic and material constituents will likely be necessary and sufficient in conceptualizing The City of Grace (Table 3.1). Regarding urban applications, the mainstream theological literature relates mainly to function, emphasizing attitudes and behavior. Interestingly, it links individual and social expression, ending up with ideas of holism and community. The ascetic field is understandably thin but points to the discipline needed to lead a gracious life. Yet, both independence and orderliness could relate usefully to urban function (F1) Table 3.1  Themes surrounding grace Literary field of study Theological

Ascetic

Favor (gratuitous) F1

Independence Beauty F2 F1 Perfection F2 Orderlinessa F1, F2 Unimpairedness F2 Giving of the self F1 Proportiona F2 Harmonya F1, F2 Brightness F2

Charm F1, F2 Elegance F1, F2 Kindness, beneficencea F1 Sanctifying F1 Beguiling, attractive F2 Liberation, freedom F1, F2 Responsibilitya F1 Repentance, atonement F1 Expiation, redemption F1 Well beinga F1 Gratitude F1 Good worksa F1 Holistic outlooka F1 Communitya F1, F2

Aesthetic

Clarity F2 Fitnessa F1, F2 Varietya F1, F2 The sublime F1 Disinterest F2 Universality F2 Necessity F1, F2 Simplicitya F2 Refinement F1, F2 Culture F1 Unified charactera F2 Freedom F1

Emphasis toward: F1 = urban function; F2 = urban form a Core theme

Material Utilitya F1, F2 Efficiency of purpose F1, F2 Tranquilitya F1 Ordera F1, F2 Harmonya F1, F2 Reasona F1, F2 Moderationa F1, F2

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and form (F2) (as per Table 3.1). By contrast, the aesthetic field is profuse, starting with ‘cheerful’ elements of beauty easily relatable to city form, including more disciplined ideas such as necessity, simplicity and refinement and latterly considering the instantiation of meaning and purpose, as in a coherent view of the world (Gorringe 2011, 46). In these concepts, we sense Haggett and Chorley’s (1967) call for ‘elegance’ in modeling: that is, to reduce concepts to the essentials and work on this basis. This more parsimonious theme is repeated in the material account of grace. It relegates the frivolous in what can be benefit/cost terms and instead looks to efficiency, reason and moderation as operational keynotes. They could offer The City a regularity which might avert wild swings in one direction or another. Moreover, if it is to feature beauty in form, it will be of a quiet and reserved kind, not flamboyant. Having searched the general literature, we must complete the situation audit around grace by investigating whether, in terms of modeling leads and reputable project management, there is still ‘low hanging fruit’ to be picked. The following chapter will canvass any remaining empirical avenues, and leads emerging from urban references distinct from those assessed so far.

Notes 1. The latter include Schelling, Hegel and Marx (O’Meara 2005, 3646). Perceptive readers might already be asking the meta-question: why should the current paper on grace be necessary at all if an omniscient and omnibenevolent God had created a perfect world? Alternatively, why should so powerful a God opt for a less than perfect world? For answers, consult the philosophers Brown and Nagasawa (2005). 2. For a contemporary reprise to Bakker’s (1916) article, see the extended online debate among Robert Sievers (2015) and other contributors, essentially around whether it is God’s grace which leads to faith and works (as per Christianity), or faith and works which lead to Allah’s grace (as per Islam). 3. As quoted on the Quora website accessed June 2019: https://www.quora. com/What-is-the-difference-between-grace-and-mercy-in-Christianity.

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4. This sense of grace is charismatic, from the original Greek charis (O’Meara 2005, 3644). Some image of the same force appears in Islamic teaching. 5. Accounts of grace within Islam are scarce, at least in non-Arabic sources. Some initial, but perhaps not unbiased, explorations come from Bakker (1916), Boyd (1923) and Maréchal (1923). About 40 references in the Koran variously suggest that God’s grace consists chiefly in revelations to Mohammed, so that those who sin against the Islamic laws and prohibitions (the Decalogue) can be redirected to the true path to paradise (the Koran) through God’s mercy and compassion (rahma). God has given some people an inner commitment to himself, encompassing the submission and peace from which Islam draws its name. Interpreted as the sovereign act of an almighty power, the basis of this gift of ‘resignation’ to the umma, or cohort of Muslim believers, does not lend itself readily to further interpretation (Boyd 1923, 154–55). 6. In probing the theologies of grace, the assistance is gratefully acknowledged of Dr Rick Strelan, Dr Chris Kang, Roxanne Marcotte, Studies in Religion, and Michael Whiteway, senior librarian, all at The University of Queensland. 7. In the postmodern world, self-focus to expiate guilt is an intriguing concept, implying a measure of humility. It would have to differentiate itself from the self-focus of neoliberal individualization, in which the theme would be of hedonistic satisfaction and/or successful daily negotiation within Ulrich Beck’s (1992) ‘risk society.’ 8. I am indebted to Bruno Spandonide, a doctoral student at The School of Geography and Environmental Studies, The University of Tasmania, Hobart, for pointing out both the work of Simone Weil and the anthology of Françoise Choay (1965). From his studies in Paris of l’urbanisme, he also recalled iconic and utopian settlements relevant to The City of Grace. Many are described (in French) at: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Cit%C3%A9_id%C3%A9ale, accessed August 2018. 9. This position resembles the monasticism in eastern Christianity of the second and third centuries, in which grace was viewed as a God-bestowed contemplative outlook, which fostered not visions but ‘apophatic faith in touch with the darkness of the divine essence’ (O’Meara 2005, 3645). 10. Quoted by Finch (1999, 117) and taken from Simone Weil’s Waiting for God ([1951], 1973, trans. E. Craufurd, New York: Harper and Row). 11. Note the hierarchical form, similar to Maslow’s ([1954] 1987) analysis of needs.

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12. The vegetative, the locomotive, the rational and the sensory. 13. Kant shares this interpretation with the British philosopher, Francis Hutcheson (1694–1746), whose 1725 Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue in Two Treatises is interpreted and reprinted by Kivy (1973). 14. Vernacular test: how many times do we hear people say, as if seeking affirmation: ‘isn’t that beautiful?’ or ‘that’s so cute!’ etc. We rarely expect refutation of such judgments. 15. An interesting parallel to attempts, Third Way or other, to restore harmony between the neoliberal market, governance and the interests of society at national or global levels. 16. In Hegel’s system, paralleling that of Simone Weil, truth is attained through philosophy, religion and art. 17. In this résumé of thought on aesthetics, the excellent lead of Dickie (1971) is, once again, acknowledged. 18. Vernacular test: an objet d’art could have a high capital cost, underscoring its value (‘pain’ in acquisition), relative exclusivity and rarity. Thereafter, it delivers great efficiency, in terms of very low operating costs relative to the high psychic income one attains from viewing it. Service relative to throughput is thus maximized as a facet of beauty. 19. Beauty in order which, incidentally, would appeal to those who see town planning as an end in itself, rather than as a means to an end. 20. And possibly channeling the Old Testament’s Ecclesiastes 2: 22–23. 21. Paul Zahl, in the end pages to his Grace in Practice, is introduced as Dean and President of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, Ambridge [PN], in which post he assumes the roles of scholar, academic, churchman and preacher. His argument largely follows that of Diwan (2000, 309) on addictive over-consumption in America.

References Ahmad, A., Hashim, M.H.A., and al Hachim, G. 1997. Islam and the environmental crisis. London: Ta-Ha Publishers. Bakker, D. 1916. Sin and grace in Mohammedanism. The Muslim World 6 (4), 394–400. Bayer, R. 1933. L’esthétique de la grâce: Introduction à l’étude des équilibres de structure (2 vols.). Paris: Librairie Félix Alcan.

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Beck, C.J. 1999. Christian grace as seen in western literature, music, and art (M.A. thesis, California State University, Dominiguez Hills). Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Dissertation Services. Beck, U. 1992. Risk society: Towards a new modernity. London: Sage. Boyd, J.O. 1923. Sin and grace in the Biblical narratives rehearsed in the Koran. The Muslim World 13 (2), 139–59. Brown, C. and Nagasawa, Y. 2005. The best of all possible worlds. Synthese 143 (3), 309–20. Choay, F. 1965. L’urbanisme: Utopies et réalités. Paris: Editions du Seuil. Conway, R. 1992. The rage for utopia. St Leonards, NSW: Allen and Unwin. Daly, H.E. 1977. Steady-state economics: The economics of biophysical equilibrium and moral growth. San Francisco: Freeman. Daujat, J. 1959. The theology of grace. London: Burns and Oates. Dickie, G. 1971. Aesthetics: An introduction. Indianapolis, IN: Pegasus. Diwan, R. 2000. Relational wealth and quality of life. Journal of Socio Economics 29 (4), 305–40. Dreyer, E. 1990. Manifestations of grace. Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier. Finch, H.L. 1999. Simone Weil and the intellect of grace. New York: Continuum. Georgescu-Roegen, N. 1980. Economics and mankind’s ecological problem. In Entropy and the economic process: A seminar. Ed. Science Council of Canada. 13–70. Ottawa: Council Publication. Gleason, R.W. 1962. Grace. London: Sheed and Ward. Gorringe, T.J. 2002. A theology of the built environment: Justice, empowerment, redemption. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Gorringe, T.J. 2011. The common good and the global emergency: God and the built environment. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Goudge, H.L. 1932. Some notes on grace. In The doctrine of grace. Ed. W.T. Whitley. 321–32. London: Student Christian Movement. Goudzwaard, R. 1979. Capitalism and progress: A diagnosis of Western society. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. Green, R.M. 2005. Morality and religion. In Encyclopedia of religion (Vol. 9, 2nd ed.). Ed. L. Jones. 6177–89. Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference. Haggett, P. and Chorley, R.J. 1967. Models, paradigms and the new geography. In Models in geography. Eds. R.J.  Chorley and P.  Haggett. 19–41. London: Methuen. Hamilton, C. 1994. The mystic economist. Fyshwick, ACT: Willow Park Press. Harvey, D. 2000. Spaces of hope. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Hitchens, P. 2018. The abolition of Britain: From Winston Churchill to Teresa May. London: Bloomsbury.

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Hogarth, W. [1753] 1997. The analysis of beauty. Ed. R. Paulson. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Holt, S.C. 2007. God next door: Spirituality and mission in the neighbourhood. Brunswick East, VIC: Acorn Press. Huebsch, B. 2009. Grace: God’s greatest gift. New London, CT: Twenty-Third Publications. Inge, J. 2003. A Christian theology of place. Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate. Journet, C. 1960. The meaning of grace. London: Geoffrey Chapman. Kivy, P. 1973. Frances Hutcheson: An inquiry concerning beauty, order, harmony, design. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. MacLeod, G. and Ward, K. 2002. Spaces of utopia and dystopia: Landscaping the contemporary city. Geografiska Annaler B 84 (3–4), 153–70. Maréchal, J. 1923. Le problème de la grâce mystique en Islam. Récherches de Science Réligieuse 13, 244–92. Maslow, A.H. [1954] 1987. Motivation and personality (3rd ed.). New  York: Harper and Row. O’Connor, B. and Mohr, G. 2006. German idealism: An anthology and guide. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. O’Meara, T. 2005. Grace. In Encyclopedia of religion (Vol. 6, 2nd ed.). Ed. L. Jones. 3644–48. Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference. Reich, R.B. 2007. Supercapitalism: The transformation of business, democracy and everyday life. New York: Knopf. Roberts, J. 1988. German philosophy: An introduction. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International. Rowe, C. 1994. The architecture of good intentions: Towards a possible retrospect. London: Academy Editions. Schwartz, B. 2005. The paradox of choice: Why more is less. New  York: HarperCollins. Scruton, R. 1979. The aesthetics of architecture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Sievers, R. 2015. Grace, faith and works. In the blog, https://unravelingislam. com/grace-faith-and-works/Unravelling Islam. Accessed May 2018 at https:// unravelingislam.com/grace-faith-and-works/ Singer, P. 2001. Hegel. In German philosophers: Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. Eds. R. Scruton, P. Singer, C. Janaway and M. Tanner. 105–214. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Smith, A. [1759] 1976. The theory of moral sentiments. Eds. D.D. Raphael and A.L. Macfie. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

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Stevens, P.G. 1963. The life of grace. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Weil, S. 1963. Gravity and grace (La pesanteur et la grâce, 1947, Trans. E. Craufurd). London: Routledge. Whitley, W.T. (Ed.). 1932. The doctrine of grace. London: Student Christian Movement Press. Williams, R.J. 2004. The anxious city: English urbanism in the late twentieth century. London: Routledge. Yancey, P. 1997. What’s so amazing about grace? Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. Zahl, P.F.M. 2007. Grace in practice: A theology of everyday life. Grand Rapids, MI: William Eerdmans.

4 Modeling The City of Grace

We start this chapter by asking whether there can there be collective, as opposed to individual, grace in human affairs (cf. Dear 2000, 263)? Why should anyone want to live in a City of Grace? Some, like monks and ascetics, are spiritually inclined, while the faithful could see mortal life leading to an afterlife. On a lower road, we might be seeking merely to parry the burgeoning demographics and compounding problems of neoliberalism. Having now established the dimensions of grace, a real-world and extended literary search for the city which embodies it can begin. Yet grace, as a quality bestowed, presumably cannot be either hurried or manufactured. Hence, in this chapter, we proceed in a measured way through the preliminaries, approaches, framework, precepts and strategies involved in modeling.

Preliminaries Adopting Cartesian principles, it is important that all prior evidence bearing on grace, as in real-life places and supplementary urban literature, be fully explored. After this excursion, solid conceptual foundations can be laid for a working model. © The Author(s) 2020 D. Wadley, The City of Grace, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1112-7_4

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Searching in the Real World If grace is a worthy construct, the pragmatic route is to discover whether it already pertains anywhere in world urbanism. Could a City of Grace be found, by name or reputation? In Australia, the Brisbane suburb of Graceville is well-heeled and amply supplied with eateries, but otherwise undistinguished. Less appetizingly, Gracemere, near Rockhampton in Queensland, boasts ‘the largest cattle saleyards in the southern hemisphere.’ Gracetown in Western Australia is a coastal resort claiming an immaculate right-hand surf break while, inland, Lake Grace is a serenely beautiful but empty saltpan playa. North America fares a little better. Apart from the suburb of Notre Dame de Grâce (NDG) in Montréal, Canada’s leading light is Gracefield, Québec, named after its original businessman, Patrick Grace, and home in 2011 to 2355 inhabitants. No US city over 100,000 in population has ‘grace’ in its name. Grace City ND in 2010 had 63 inhabitants: more substantial is Grace ID with an estimated 2016 count of 910.1 The late Elvis Presley’s 14-acre Graceland Mansion in Memphis TN is perhaps a little ostentatious. Alternatively, there are actually ‘cities of grace’ in Little Rock AR, Nashville and Murfreesboro TN, Canton and Columbus OH, Las Vegas ND and Sacramento CA,2 but they are individual churches, not entire cities. Overlooking other countries and error caused by nescience, this inquiry by name appears unprofitable. Maybe the quest should identify religious sites since, according to Kostof (1992, 82), ‘whenever in any region of nuclear urbanism in the Old or New World we trace the characteristic urban form back to its origin, we arrive at a ceremonial centre.’ As temple cities, he cites: Olympia and Delphi in Greek antiquity; Mayan settings of Uxmal, Chicen Itza and Palenque; and, in Asia, Benares (India), Anuradhapura (Sri Lanka) and ‘the great landscapes’ of Angkor Thom (Cambodia), not overlooking Medina (‘the radiant city’) and Mecca in Saudi Arabia. This urban form has historically promoted a division between sacral and secular power. While, of the former, some monastic settlements continue to reflect theological and ascetic strands of grace, most are small, below the threshold of modern urbanism. Otherwise, over time, housing and other

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city functions congregated around an original shrine, separating church and state to the benefit of secularism in all but the most fundamental or theocratic regimes. Hence, ‘religion is now a matter of conscience, not law’ (Kostof 1992, 91). It might be that cathedral and other religiously inspired centers around the world have a head-start, but, as will be demonstrated, today they would need to meet some strict secular criteria to qualify as cities of grace. Their case should remain open pending further research. A non-eponymous possibility could be Paris, appraised by David Harvey (2006). The City of Light, la ville-lumière, achieved renown as a center of learning and philosophy, along with its early adoption of street lighting. Many admire Paris’ architecture and form, enhanced through a decision after 1958 to validate the past by transposing modernist and postmodern additions to a new northwestern edge city of La Défense, now one of France’s key business centers. However, as the culmination of a difficult postwar settlement history (Sandercock 1998, 168–69), Paris has also been marred by endemic social and employment upheavals in which infrastructure and precincts have been torched. Its concorde might now be more of form than function: its claims to grace have receded. Likewise, those of American cities: the view of Jan Morris (1987, 12), shared by the emeritus geographer James Vance, is that they had their ‘moment of grace’ in the 1950s. Johns (2004, 1–6) paints the scene. Before their industry and governance were ‘hollowed out’ by globalization and neoliberalism (Wadley 2008, 665), urban areas exhibited clear purpose, Adam Smith’s industriousness and sense of achievement. They hosted and nurtured homegrown businesses. Over the twentieth century, a rational consistency in city form developed. Districts had a distinct character, unbroken by elevated freeways, railways or massive urban redevelopment projects. With appropriate decorum, people left their vital, close-knit neighborhoods, where local business flourished, for social visits downtown, ‘the hub and nerve’ of the metropolis. Johns (2004, 5–6) recalls: an overall cultural coherence … a nearly blind faith in progress, a strong sense of patriotism, a forward-looking attitude that lacked nostalgia, a prevailing dress code, a homogeneous mass market for consumer goods, and a

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process of assimilation so absorbing that writer Philip Roth remembers it as a period of “fierce Americanization.” The coherence of the ‘50s looks especially foreign from the perspective of today’s society, which affords nearly unlimited personal freedoms, places little trust in government, and relies heavily on the past for ideas, images and styles.

Apparently, manifesting Schopenhauer’s idealism, mid-twentieth-­ century urban development involved integrity of function and form. Yet, Johns also documents dark forces and downsides such that those impressions in the United States were ‘momentary,’ less than sufficient for an encompassing grace (cf. Harvey 2000, 170; Fainstein 2005, 11). At that time, Mumford ([1956] 1968, 108–09) noted ‘car-choked streets, the blank glassy buildings, the glare of competitive architectural advertisements, the studied monotony of high-rise slabs in urban renewal projects; in short, new buildings and new quarters that lack any esthetic identity and any human appeal except that of superficial sanitary decency and bare mechanical order.’ In The Australian Ugliness, architect Robin Boyd (1961) reported much the same as regards Antipodean cities reveling in a new trend of commercial ‘featurism.’ Against such backdrops, the most likely clues available to present-day searchers are the ‘best city’ league tables, covering retirement, tourism and general community amenity.3 Leading the community analysts, Sperling and Sander (2007) focus not on grace but on economy and jobs, cost of living, climate, education, health, crime, transportation, leisure, arts and culture, and quality of life. All these criteria are a good start and ones which, as will be seen, leave room for a crowd-sourced conclusion to the present inquiry. With grace missing in action, why not simply substitute bliss? Such a quest has occupied ‘the grumpiest man on earth,’ veteran correspondent Eric Weiner (2008). His 413-page chase for happiness includes such disparate places as the Netherlands, Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova, Thailand, Great Britain, India and America. Though devoid of academic reference, Weiner’s contribution makes a valid point for present purposes: barring a higher path to grace, even a little happiness would not go astray in an apparent ‘age of absurdity’ (Gorringe 2002, 9; Foley 2010; Osborne 2018). Helpfully, Montgomery (2013, 43) lists its keynotes. A

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happy city would be: healthy, maximizing joy and minimizing hardship, affording personal freedom, resilient, fair, sociable, communal and co-operative. Lacking the omniscience of homo economicus, hope of revealing a real-­ world exemplar of The City of Grace now appears slim. The search thus turns to the more pragmatic theological texts which have actually considered the worldly concept of ‘place’ within urban function and form.

Outreach on the Street As shown, grace and beauty are well theorized, and Beck (1999) has widened the account to western literature, music and art. Yet, apropos urbanism, the trail remains austere. A web search for ‘The City of Grace’ reveals the usual multi-million links, none exactly ideal. The US Library of Congress matches 625 of its 162 million holdings to relevant subject/title search descriptors, principally identifying the work of Johns (2004) and, ephemerally, Bernard (2004). The latter author contributes to a tradition that commenced over 50 years ago with Harvey Cox’s ([1965] 2016) The Secular City. This seminal book, which attracted a large audience and lively debate (Callahan 1966), argued that secularization (as opposed to an ideologically rigid secularism) frees people from theocratic dogma and widens their ethical and spiritual positions. God is not confined to some special divine realm, nor to established institutions, and people of faith need not spurn a seemingly godless world. While endorsing such tolerance, Putnam and Campbell (2010, 493, 520) nonetheless note that not all expressions of religion advance the human spirit. Considering that grace is offered gratuitously, Timothy Gorringe (2002, 2) provides its debtors with a ‘theological reading of the built environment.’ His Trinitarian approach4 would eliminate the pre-­ Christian distinction of the spiritual and secular, even though sacred and domestic spaces are regularly demarked in respect of the ‘great’ and ‘little’ traditions of architecture (#9). Contrasting with Old Testament experience, religious attention has focused on the retreat and ascendancy offered by holy buildings, leaving the rest of the city as a venue for evangelism or

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to fend for itself. Some reaction to this position arose in the optimistic secular city theology of the 1960s. It regarded the vernacular as a rightful domain of God, though its stance was challenged for its assumption that humanity had come of age, as well as for its muted critique of urban modernism. To Gorringe (2002, 23–24), the subsequent liberation theology of the environment sought to call the world ‘home,’ but the systemic demographic and economic changes explained earlier called its homeliness into question. Cities can be regarded as places of creativity and heightened spirituality but also sin, violence and hubris—Jerusalem or Babylon, as it were. As part of this theological dialectic and reprised secularity, cities act as a genius loci to integrate purpose, meaning and ideas in a ‘creative spirituality’ and transcendent purpose without which, historically, they have died (#140, 161). ‘The built environment reflects not just ideologies but … spiritualities. Profound, creative, grace-filled spiritualities produce grace-filled environments; banal, impoverished, alienated spiritualities produce alienating environments’ (#24).5 Consequentially, urban centers are places where people can sin and isolate themselves to neglect God. As per liberation theology, cities could act redemptively to help the poor but, in reality, those unfortunates might be better off in rural poverty— minus urban pollution and crime. Inge (2003) takes a religious lens to city planning’s interest in place-­ making. In establishing what makes a place holy, he concurs with Gorringe (2002, 1) that theological literature on place is ‘sparse,’ a surprising point for several reasons. Theorizing of place and space has evolved from Plato and Aristotle. Yet, after the late thirteenth century, space became the ascendant quantity, its infinity coming to represent the omnipresence of God. This conception complemented the discoveries of Galileo and, later, Isaac Newton, for whom places simply constituted a portion of absolute space. For its part, drawing on the philosophies of Descartes, Leibnitz and Kant, space subsequently deferred to time as the fundamental parameter in physical processes (Inge 2003, 8–9). In the modern era, geographer Yi Fu Tuan (1977, 3) reasserted that space and place are, after childhood, the basic components of the lived world. Rather than validating this association, contemporary western society demonstrates a dehumanizing loss of place; precincts are

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­ enetrated and interrupted by far-distant influences, localities belong to p investors not inhabitants, and space and time are fused by electronic media (Inge 2003, ix, x, 1–12; Gorringe 2011, 72). Implicit in concepts of instantaneity, the ‘global village’ and Thomas Friedman’s (2005) flat world6 is the death of geography, distance and space (Martin 1996; Cairncross 1997). Yet, the scriptures point otherwise, Genesis 2 assuming a three-way relationship among God, humanity and place. In the New Testament, places host meetings of God and the world. Thus, from both a relational standpoint and the biblical paradigm, there is a case to regard such places sacramentally, many distinguishing themselves since medieval times as sites of pilgrimage or as an eschatological sign of God’s future. Arguably, churches are significant places in elevating human experience. ‘Community and places each build up the identity of the other. This is an important insight in a world in which the effects of globalization continue to erode people’s rootedness and experience of place’ (Inge 2003, x, 1). In overlooking place, Inge (2003, 32) argues that theologians have ‘remained wedded to the norms of modernity which are being questioned in other disciplines.’ While placelessness is one thing, the counter applies that too effusive, conscious (neoliberal) place-making can be not simply inauthentic but culturally insensitive and profane (Gorringe 2011, 75). Another theologian who has not forsaken place or, more specifically, the neighborhood, is Simon Carey Holt (2007). Pursuing Matthew 22: 39, he questions what it means to ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ Wherever you are situated in the world—and whether you like it or not—your neighborhood is yours, with its own history, immediacy, atmosphere and built environment (#7). Neighborliness is about people living not anonymously or ambivalently, but close to others, ideally as ‘insiders’ feeling ‘at home’ with what Anthony Giddens (1984) calls ‘ontological security.’ With the basics secured, an upbeat liberation could develop. Thus, the secular resident might celebrate some fulfillment and self-actualization (‘soul’), while the religious have the opportunity to convert their spirituality to outreach and mission (Gay 1991, 75). Porteous (1996, 9) greatly advances these analyses via a model of ‘being in place,’ which links attachment with aesthetics, ethics and spirituality at spatial scales from home to environment (Fig. 4.1).

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Fig. 4.1  Intangible relationships with the environment. (Source: After Porteous 1996, 9)

Constructively, Holt (2007, 25) appraises the city by way of four criteria, each with up- and downsides. Regarding the latter, its size can make for superficial relationships compared with those embedded in a rural village. Density can cause urban residents to withdraw as a necessary facet of psychological survival (cf. Mackay 2018, 44, 48). Diversity can cause suspicion and mistrust, fostering retreats into protective subcultures which neoliberalism, given its individualizing outlook, could scarcely dispute. Commercialism can render most daily encounters instrumental and mercantile (Gay 1991, 75). Among these contingencies, ‘the ever-­ changing demographics of our cities say much about the way we naturally cluster with people of like culture, lifestyle and economic resources’ (Holt 2007, 28). Kaleidoscopic interchange can produce perpetual hybridization, ontological instability and little authenticity (Toffler 1970). Those looking for local ‘networks’ and ‘connection,’ or seeking ‘belonging’ and, ultimately, ‘community’ must navigate these realities. To the urban-oriented theologian, modern suburbia demands its own analysis. Having framed it as ‘as much a state of mind as a place to live’

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(cf. Healy 1994, xiv), Holt (2007, 34–39) quotes Marion Halligan’s (2004, 15) endorsement; namely, ‘one of the great achievements of the human spirit.’ With Gorringe (2002, 132–34), his view is more equivocal, variously settling upon the suburbs’ inception as an escape from the excesses of nineteenth-century industrialization; their friendly face to the mid-twentieth century created by front verandahs and porches which welcomed civic interaction; and the current incarnation of small lots supporting large (‘trophy’) dwellings fronted with multi-car garages and backed by manicured barbeque areas. Hereby, collective privacy has ceded to a neoliberal, inward-looking reserve (cf. Ehrenhalt 1995, 254–55; Mackay 2018, 56–59). An overlay of public regulation and developer covenants acts to eliminate an experience of difference, creating placelessness by any other name. Though identity, ownership, space and family are all on offer, intrinsic feelings of homelessness and estrangement can imbue a place with a lack of soul. It is echoed in the 1990s tomes probing The Geography of Nowhere (Kunstler 1993; Eberle 1994). Kunstler (1993, 5), a journalist and novelist, maintains that ‘all places in America suffered terribly from the way we chose to arrange things in our postwar world. Cities, towns, and countryside were ravaged equally, as were the lesser orders of things within them—neighborhoods, buildings, streets, farms—and there is scant refuge from the disorders that ensued. The process of destruction … is so poorly understood that there are few words even to describe it.’ Eberle (1994, 19), a Mid-west academic, is concerned for people to find themselves in the postmodern world in which ‘incoherence, loss of center, and the relativity of virtually everything have been seen as the norm rather than as an aberration.’ Ironically, this passage was scripted before the virtual world had fully emerged: it speaks to Beth Milroy’s (1991) notion of postmodern ‘weightlessness,’ Douglas Porteous’ (1996) analyses of spatial anomie, Michael Foley’s (2010) age of absurdity, and the worries of Natalie Osborne (2018) about the contemporary Australian psyche. Mackay (2010, 35) nails the matter by way of three pointed questions about ‘my place,’ namely: ‘where do you come from?’; ‘where do you live?’ and ‘where do you feel most at home?’ Seppo Kjellberg (2000, 142) contends that the initial meeting between divinity and humanity occurred in the Garden of Eden, whereas the

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s­ubsequent contact was focused on the New Jerusalem (i.e. Jesus’ coming). ‘Thus the old—and partly even biblical—distrust of cities has to be abandoned. What Creation is aiming for, as far as humankind is concerned, is pictured as a city, an urban Paradise on Earth.’ With this backdrop, Kjellberg pursues themes of stewardship and meaningfulness in a Christian alternative to the anthropocentric city. The anthropocentric view presupposes two life systems, the paramount one for humans (‘speciesism’) and the other for non-human life. The former system would reflect Genesis 1: 26 in that ‘man’ has dominion over the rest of creation, while the latter builds on a less prominent scriptural injunction urging  co-existence and respect for nature (#140) (cf. Platt et  al. 1994, 2006). Another dualism distinguishes shallow ‘anthropocentric sustainability’ from ‘cosmological holism.’ It turns on issues such as whether the city: is a machine or an organism; exists for economic growth as distinct from equitable distribution; is about personal freedom versus the unity of all living creation; and sponsors élites’ versus inhabitants’ power (Fainstein 2010). People might maintain their private religiosity and environmental outlooks, but the ecological impacts of urbanism are collective and require a common ethic. In this regard, Kjellberg’s positioning in ‘ecotheology’ is situated as per Table 4.1 and the purpose of his (2000, 142) text is to portray: a city which practices emancipatory koinonia7 in its total life process, where non-compulsive dialogue forms the basis of decision-making, where an interconnectedness of all beings is accepted, where maximal pluralism is promoted, where a moderate and just division of the total economic resources is the ideal, where shalom8 describes the contract between nature and man, and where aesthetics, ethics and religion are integrated in an existential understanding of what being a city implies. Man’s existence on Table 4.1  Differentiating types of environmentalism View/origin

Human-originated (anthropocentric)

Nature-originated (ecocentric)

Divinity-originated (theocentric)

Narrow view Broad view

Techno-ecology Deep ecology

Ecofascism Evolutionism

Natural mythology Ecotheology

Source: Adapted from Kjellberg (2000, 13)

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earth should above all be a humble enterprise, with man being aware of his own trespasses. Likewise, humility is the ideal form of existence for a city [original italics].

Approaching the Modeling Though scientific method has been employed, searches in the real world and specialized literature have not pinpointed The City of Grace. Kjellberg’s (2000) theological account is, however, revealing: it places the present (secular) project in the anthropocentric fields of environmentalism and within St Augustine’s civitas terrena, rather than the heavenly civitas caelestis. Other elements of his thesis will prove useful as now, sufficiently informed by earlier chapters, we turn to deductive modeling of what will be a secular, centrist, ‘eco-tech’ city (Bogunovich 2002).

Model Foundations Grace is a summative concept that pertains at the highest levels of systemic resolution. In this sense, most of the literature reviews conducted so far have dealt with lower-scale constituents. So much becomes apparent when contemplating the arrangement by economist Herman Daly (1977, 19) of academic disciplines in a linear (Aristotelean) sequence based around human means and ends (Fig. 4.2). We have, in the realm of physics and engineering, ultimate means in matter and energy, which are converted into intermediate means (useable resources) through entropy change. Resources satisfy our intermediate ends, assisted by studies in economics, planning and sociology. More elevated are the humanities and arts (philosophy, ethics and religion) which concern possible ends of human existence. Many facets of prior city building have aspired to embody these ultimate elements. Daly introduces the idea that materials, creating the form of cities, can be transformed through energy systems to facilitate urban functions and represent the higher ideals of humanity, one of which could arguably be grace.

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Discipline

Means-ends continuum

Religion, theology

Ultimate end (?)

Ethics

Architecture

Aesthetics Planning Economics

Intermediate ends (health, comfort, education etc.) Intermediate means (power, artifacts, labor)

Technology

Physics

Ultimate means (low entropy matter energy)

Fig. 4.2  The spectrum of the disciplines. (Source: Adapted from Daly 1977, 19)

Embracing those of faith, Gorringe’s (2002, 161) theological and teleological positioning to urban development sits high on Daly’s means-­ ends spectrum. However, Gorringe explains that perfection will never be achieved on earth, another rationale for a secular approach. Such a stance aims to address an entire populace, improving upon a life of ‘quiet desperation’ for non-believers, and providing an aspirational platform for the faithful. The motive, seemingly ‘redemptive’ in Gorringe’s calculus, offers Paretian improvements and can meet Rawlsian welfare criteria (improving the lot of the worst-off in society).

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Model Components Like any other settlement, The City of Grace will reflect an interactive model in which the challenge is adequately to articulate the interdependencies. Its structure is as follows. The deliverables or aspirational outputs are produced by its internal system ‘mechanisms’ acting upon inputs, which consist of human, financial, environmental (natural) and manufactured (infrastructure, plant and equipment) capital. As in Fainstein’s (2010) acclaimed model, the processing applies to a settlement’s function assisted by its built form. Despite justifiable debate, such ordering first reflects the reality that structures are mostly functionally inspired and purpose-built: an assembly of them comes to constitute urban form.9 Second, as Banfield (1970, 8) remarks, ‘one has only to read Machiavelli’s history of Florence to see that living in a beautiful city is not in itself enough to bring out the best in one.’ To manifest grace, the assumption is made that the City’s function will be gracious and its form graceful, as determined by both public and private enterprise. Construction of the model involves not only specification of its outputs but also necessary and sufficient conditions of achievement among the inputs. • Supporting a vision and a mission, the necessary conditions involve three foundational precepts. • They underpin six strategies collectively sufficient to organize urban function and form to achieve a gracious and graceful product. • The strategies provide the entropic means by which The City will, as a system, avert chaos and deliver desired results. The approach nominated, more formal and technical than those characterizing the urban modeling recounted earlier, can follow the grounded methods of strategic planning and project management.

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Framework of the Model Aspirational Outputs With theoretical and procedural foundations under control, we can nominate the primary outputs of The City of Grace. Reference is to the telos or meaning (Kjellberg 2000, 71), or, to refashion Daly’s (1977, 19) nomenclature, ‘ultimate ends.’ Just as an important one of Mackay’s (2010) 10 human desires is for ‘something to believe in,’ Hamilton (2003, 46) argues that ‘a sense of meaning and purpose is the single attitude most strongly associated with life satisfaction.’ At this level of discussion, an incursion into existential philosophy is a possible option. More economical for present purposes is to ask readers to indicate their highest level of engagement in Daly’s (1977) spectrum of the disciplines (Fig. 4.2). Though some will undoubtedly choose the upper realms, the present secular account, for its part, will not broach Daly’s ultimate ends. It puts aside theological intervention, transcendence or some imagined utopia for the lesser but realistic aspirations of self-actualization, well-­ being and an agreeable standard of living founded in personal motivation. These ends rest on three supporting constructs. The first is that of Abraham Maslow ([1954] 1987), whose quest for self-actualization involves a hierarchy of human needs easily relatable to general systems theory (Boulding 1956, 204–06) (Fig. 4.3). At the base are the ultimate means of survival—the physiological imperatives of food, shelter and so on. Next comes need for safety. As we ascend Daly’s spectrum of disciplines (Fig. 4.2), we move from tangible economic to intangible or non-pecuniary needs. We thus reach the ontologically secure level of belonging, affiliation and socialization, involving partners, family, friends and associates, leading on to a settlement, community or city (Mackay 2010, 151–76). Getting involved with people, rather than the self, promotes a desire for esteem and recognition among peers and the inevitable experience which can benefit cognition to allow a wider appreciation of aesthetics. Finally, we attain the highest (or ‘being’) plane of self-actualization, the locus of elements like morality, acceptance,

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Transcendence (helping others to self-actualize) Self-actualization (personal growth, self-fulfilment) Aesthetics (beauty, balance, form etc.) Cognition (knowledge, meaning, self-awareness) Esteem (achievement, status, responsibility, reputation) Belongingness and love (family, affection, relationships, work group etc.) Safety (protection, security, order, law, limits, stability) Biology and physiology (life needs, food, drink, water, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep etc.)

Fig. 4.3  Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. (Source: Adapted from http://www.iloveulove.com/psychology/maslowhon.htm)

problem-solving and conceptual skills, what John Friedmann (2002, 110) might label ‘flourishing.’ The second construct has various strands. Assuming that self-­actualized people can maintain reasonable material standards, they have the basis for personal well-being and high quality of life. British philosopher, G.A. Cohen, wrote in the journal Ethics of 1989 that welfare, henceforth read synonymously with ‘well-being,’ can represent an agreeable state of consciousness (hedonic welfare) and/or a measure of the number of preferences a person is able to achieve (welfare as preference satisfaction).

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Influenced by Ghandian economics, Diwan (2000, 315–18) advances Cohen’s position. He defines quality of life as a state in which a person is at peace with: her/himself; nature or the environment; and society, in a narrow or broad sense (cf. Mackay 2018). He accepts that happiness or success depends on having a purpose and maintaining strong relationships with others, a condition termed ‘relational wealth.’ ‘Having’ a supply of private and social material goods and services primarily defines a standard of living, whereas quality of life involves ‘being’ and is associated with non-material values (Porteous 1996, 7). ‘For want of a better term, there is a certain order of spirituality in this idea. It also involves a life of voluntary simplicity’ (Diwan 2000, 316). At this point, we have gone beyond needs to satisfy wants or, alternatively, have overcome the need for wants. Popularly called ‘fulfillment’ rather than ‘greatness,’ such a post-material state might engage some of the divers constituents of grace. The third supporting schema is self-determination theory.10 Developed by Richard Ryan and Edward Deci (2000a, b, 2017), it interprets motivation through the elements of regulatory style, the perceived locus of causality of events and relevant regulatory processes (Fig.  4.4). At an extreme are amotivated individuals whose regulatory style is, in fact, non-­ regulation. The relevant locus of causality (‘why things happen’) is impersonal or non-attributable and the regulatory processes are non-intentional, non-valuing, incompetent and lacking any (self ) control. It is, nonetheless, possible that a person would be amotivated toward a certain issue or

Behavior

Non self-determined

Motivation

Amotivation

Regulatory style

Nonregulation

Perceived locus of causality Relevant regulatory processes

Self-determined

Intrinsic motivation

Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic regulation

External regulation

Introjected regulation

Impersonal

External

Somewhat external

Somewhat internal

Internal

Internal

Non-intentional Non-valuing Incompetence Lack of control

Compliance, external rewards and punishments

Self-control, egoinvolvement, internal rewards and punishment

Personal importance, conscious valuing

Congruence, awareness, synthesis with self

Interest, enjoyment, inherent satisfaction

Identified regulation

Integrated regulation

Fig. 4.4  States of amotivation, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation according to self-­determination theory. (Source: After Ryan and Deci 2000b, 72)

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development simply because s/he lacked knowledge of it and so exhibited no related attitudes or behaviors. Longitudinally, an amotivated subject can acquire elements of motivation, beginning with regulation external to the self and possibly ending up self-determined. • External regulation, the first of four extrinsic types, involves compliance based on rewards and punishments emanating from other than the self (e.g. imposed ‘carrot and stick’ planning incentives). Top-down planning systems proposing edict before choice will likely elicit only extrinsic motivation. • Introjected regulation introduces some internal motivation and relies on self-control, ego-involvement and internal rewards and punishments (e.g. a self-administered regime of standards and values based around self-esteem) (Moller et al. 2006, 105). • Identified regulation involves a ‘somewhat internal’ perceived locus of causality. It evokes personal importance (i.e. things or issues significant to the individual) and conscious valuing, the latter behavior different from non-valuing amotivation. For a person in a planning context, greater awareness of civil society or civic issues might emerge by way of ‘returning something to the organizations which have supported me.’ • Integrated regulation is the consummate point of extrinsic motivation, in which causality is seen as internal to the individual (i.e. a proactive rather than reactive position). Signature behaviors are those of congruence, awareness and self-synthesis as a person approaches self-­ determination. Place attachment and self-reliance to improve things would be anticipated, manifest in civic engagement. Ultimately, intrinsic motivation is accompanied by intrinsic regulation, all fully internalized. Characteristic behaviors are those of interest, enjoyment and inherent satisfaction. Deci and Ryan suggest informally that children absorbed in play offer the most obvious demonstration of self-determination. Proactive citizens, willing carers and active community volunteers are their probable adult counterparts. Theorists within this school of psychology acknowledge that people have basic but imperative demands such as those for food, shelter and

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security (Deci and Ryan 2000; Ryan and Deci 2000a, b). Assuming these physical requirements are met and also that people can raise their view beyond excessive materialism (Hamilton 2003, 104), conceptualization can concentrate on issues leading to personal or public mental health and, on a more elevated plane, well-being. Human behavior and experience convey meaning to people in their attempts to satisfy needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness. Thus, as an outcome dependent on these three independent variables, ‘well-being’ should constitute a key, higher level, pre-condition for a satisfactory quality of life. Extending Cohen’s (1989) view, Deci and Ryan (2000) relay two views of well-­ being—hedonic and eudemonic. The former is of well-being as happiness or a positive mood. Eudemonic well-being is more complex and involves the Aristotelian concept of a fully integrated person within society. Self-determination theory asserts that success under external regulation results in hedonic, but not eudemonic, well-being. The hedonic path, more typical of top-down strategic planning, involves extrinsic aspirations such as wealth, but resultant happiness is often transitory and lacking fulfillment. Hedonism can effectively short-change intelligent people’s ontological security and quality of life. The pursuit and attainment of meaningful relationships, personal growth and community contributions align more closely with competence, autonomy and relatedness, which promote the fuller well-being represented in eudemonia. It is associated with vitality and self-actualization, producing personal growth, life purpose and self-acceptance, linked with the absence of anxiety, depression and somatic symptoms. The theory thus relates to conditions, such as those characterizing city planning and development, which optimally support human development. As individuals enhance their competence, autonomy and relatedness, they engage in self-determination which could aggregate to community level. Having elaborated the three constructs underpinning the conceptualization of The City of Grace, we can now consider its operationalization. The components of the model include a vision and mission, allied with foundational precepts constituting necessary conditions for development. They are backed by strategies which badge the City and are sufficient to foster its existence.

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Vision and Mission As psychological as well as physical entities which concentrate human minds, most towns and cities have organically supported a vision, whether conscious and articulated or not (Batty and Longley 1994, 9). Mercantilism undergirded the typical settlement, capitalizing upon a river ford, trail junctions, a break-in bulk (entrepôt) port and so on. Statements of urban visions and missions can be easily accessed: Stanley et  al. (2017, 19–43), for instance, consider those of Vancouver, Melbourne, London, Malmo (Sweden), Freiburg (Germany) and Portland (United States). At its high level of systemic resolution, The City of Grace envisions individual and communal self-actualization, backed by intrinsic motivation, in seeking happiness and a standard of living supporting purposefulness, a worthwhile environment and quality of life. The vision presumes a concerted mission toward an agreed ethos offering hedonic welfare and enabling individual preference satisfaction. The City’s mission must engage committed people concerned about their life today and legacy tomorrow. They would have tested and found concepts of goodness and greatness wanting, and now, in ‘bonds of community,’ feel called, capable and vocationally responsible to current and future citizens for urban function and form (cf. Mackay 2018, 15, 26).11 This mission could engender debate. Libertarians will decry any collectivist involvement exceeding that for defense and maintenance of the (neoliberal) market. The rebuttal, invoking Schopenhauerian freedom, is that individuals might freely choose, bottom-up, to effectuate the mission, thus sidelining allegedly oppressive or imposed regulation (cf. Schoon 2001). Liberals might also dispute implied coercion or, otherwise, argue for various fancied and allocative ends. While Rossiter (2006) contributes a withering psychoanalysis of the liberal standpoint, the short response à la Grace is that undue liberalism, internal differentiation, identity politics and virtue signaling could produce ‘paralysis by analysis,’ defy consensus and fail to see the wood for the trees. Anarchists will meanwhile disparage any attempts at concerted and unitary action unless it advances their favored ends (or non-ends). However, there is little historical or

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­ hilosophical relationship between such chaos and a state of grace (cf. p Byrne 1997). Considering the environmental exigency outlined in Chap. 1, it is improbable that anarchic hedonism would appeal. As per Table 2.1, the City’s focus would need to be more mature and resolute as might attract replication in urban settlements elsewhere.

Necessary Processing Elements: Precepts With the outputs, vision and mission established, the mechanics of the model need closer attention. Preliminary ideas permeate foregoing accounts of ‘good’ cities, a comprehensive example being that of Stanley et al. (2017, 16–19). As ‘outcome goals,’ these authors call for increasing economic productivity, a reduced environmental footprint, greater social inclusion and intergenerational equality, and reduced inequality. Their ‘process goals’ cover wide community engagement and governance which supports integrated land use and transport planning.12 Yet, on the fundamental but complex matters of how to sustain a successful economy, they are less than forthcoming. In all such modeling, the devil resides not only in the detail but also in arranging elements (i.e. Daly’s (1977, 19) ‘means’) mutually and recursively to support each other toward the desired ends. Conscious of this requirement, the present formulation, as necessary conditions for gracious function and graceful form, prefers three foundational precepts, buttressed by several operating strategies sufficient to effectuate the mission and deliver the City’s vision.

First Precept: A Rational Context Mention of anarchy inversely introduces the first precept necessary to the City’s operation, the embrace of rationality. Though usually unaddressed because of its problematic nature, the existence of rationality is seminal to, but simply assumed in, social science modeling. Recognition is lacking in both the urban literature and in current urbanism: Kjellberg (2000, 24) advises that ‘in the current so-called postmodern times there is strong

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skepticism toward rational, holistic thinking.’ More prospectively, Gorringe (2002, 147) affirms that ‘the supreme human goal is the exercise of our rationality.’ It must fulfill three requirements. The first is in orienting people to commit to action which they or others judge to be ‘rational.’ The second and third look at what those rational undertakings might entail both procedurally (what it takes to be judged ‘rational’) and substantively (the focus of behavior). Apropos committing to action, Schmid (2007) writes that general (as opposed to political) philosophy has mostly been concerned with ego cogito, namely, individual, rather than nos cogitamus, collective, intention. Raimo Tuomela (1995, 2002a, b), Margaret Gilbert (1989), John Searle (1990) and Michael Bratman (1999) lead this more communal analysis. In graduating from individual free will to a person’s decision freely to concur with a group, one must relegate the idea of co-operation (well theorized) for that of co-ordination (Gardiner 2011, 88). The latter has escaped attention in microeconomic models of the single producer or consumer and remains less conceptualized because it ostensibly depends on known conventions. The question, then, is how individuals might adopt a common strategy (involving, for example, a substantive application of rationality) (cf. Ehrenhalt 1995; Gleeson 2010). According to Gauthier’s (1975) interpretation, rational players who seek to maximize their utility but who do not know of any conventions will choose randomly between two strategies. If a condition within this decision-making is deemed ‘salient,’ the alternatives are to choose or ignore it, even though, for two players, the salient choice would provide a co-ordination equilibrium and a ‘payoff dominant’ or rational outcome. Yet, now, in an alternative sense, the existence of a non-salient solution makes that non-salient strategy also salient, though it is Pareto inferior. This development renders the initial salient course ‘weakly dominant.’ It will, however, prevail as the best ‘collective’ equilibrium if every person involved is (a) concerned with individual utility maximization, while (b) concurrently assuming that everyone else is likewise rational. This conclusion not only nestles comfortably within the rational choice model in economics but, empirically, could explain results as diverse as recruitment of support around corporate plans in business (dissenters

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choosing to quit the company), as well as the onset of intentional communities as in kibbutz living, religious orders, eco-hamlets and retirement villages. Shared aims and mutual beliefs infuse  such ‘team’ applications. They operate at a higher conceptual level than that of the individual decision-making underpinning orthodox economic models. They similarly depart from the individualization inherent in the neoliberal, ‘me’ society (Mackay 2018, 56). Conversely, they raise a specter of the ‘group mind.’ Historically, and at the extreme, it has totalitarian connotations and philosophical quandaries as to the possibility, beyond scriptural and Cartesian individual free will, of its actual existence. Various attempts have been made to accommodate this matter. Schmid’s (2007, 175) ‘strong’ conception is that collective intentionality does not have a single subject. Intentions have many subjects. ‘Thus the group mind is nothing we should be afraid of. It is merely a distorted individualistic image of a non-individualistic, holistic concept of the mind.’ It might also be less contentious if groups oriented themselves to objectives recognized to be effective, efficient and equitable as per welfare interests within microeconomics (Pindyck and Rubinfeld 2001). On this note, we can move on from mutual commitment to the second and third epistemological considerations surrounding rationality. Starting from ground zero, Wikipedia relays the Kantian stance that a state of being rational depends on aligning one’s beliefs and actions with reasons to believe and act. These reasons need to be free-standing in regard to empirical contingencies; that is, to abstract from an individual’s particular circumstances and also withstand the critical scrutiny of others (d’Agostino 2011, 183). Yet, to the Dublin philosopher, Paul O’Grady (2002), a strong test must apply to the information behind a decision: rationality cannot be relativistic, as in simply running with the crowd. Action must first be goal-directed, that is, exhibiting agency. It is proactive rather than reactive (the latter state denoting, rather, that something has just ‘happened’ to someone). For O’Grady, the core elements of procedural rationality must be universal to avoid the travails of competing or relativist politics. This position has positive resonances within general systems theory. He (#239–42) thus proposes four principles derived from two arguably universal components of rationality, namely, coherence and the use

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of evidence. The first principle requires avoidance of contradiction within a proposition. The second mandates inferential and evidential consistency. The third is non-avoidance of available evidence. It combines with the fourth, intellectual honesty, which would force a person to maximize the use of evidence pertaining to a case or decision. If a person thinks and behaves according to these rules, s/he could be said to be exhibiting rationality in decision-making or, otherwise, approaching a subject in a rational way. Upon reflection, it will be seen that this script is exactly that employed in law to determine the background to a case. It is, therefore, not only philosophically derived but also practical in everyday life. Prominent in the social sciences are Max Weber’s (1864–1920) prescriptions regarding rational social action, outlined (rather briefly) in the first volume of his 1922 Economy and Society (Weber 1978, 24–26). He differentiates four forms, the first pair individually and the latter pair group-oriented. Instrumental rationality is conditioned by an agent’s expectations of a situation or behavior of others. It reflects appropriate adjustment to these elements. Value-rational action applies consciously to express an overriding commitment to a position or cause independent of any prospects of success. Affectual (especially emotional) rationality is determined by an actor’s specific affects and feeling, while traditional rationality accrues from ingrained habituation. It thus characterizes bureaucracies in which individual action follows customary, general rules, even though they might not reflect universal maxims. Rationality then becomes substantive when such institutions function effectively to meet publicly defined objectives (i.e. demonstrating allocative efficiency as in economics). Despite this pairing, O’Grady’s approach appears procedurally purer than that of Weber (1978, 25), who regularly leans toward social substance (e.g. as in nominating values such as ‘duty, honor, the pursuit of beauty, a religious call, personal loyalty or the importance of some “cause” no matter in what it consists’). This last criterion echoes the inherent relativism of an allegedly ‘rational decision’ in city planning—‘one for which persuasive reasons can be given’ [original italics] (Taylor 1998, 70). Contrariwise, O’Grady’s case demands that (substantive) the focus of rationality be universal. Similarly, Alessandro Vercelli (1998, 261) disputes the alleged rationality of both ‘rational economic man’ and that

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discipline’s rational choice model. These formulations become inapplicable whenever time is irreversible and, alternatively, strategic learning is relevant but bears importantly on the state of entropy and onset of chaos. Incorporating relativism, they do not fulfill O’Grady’s conditions of procedural sufficiency. The required philosophical universality might, therefore, be elusive, but could obtain when high-level instances of systemic resolution confront humanity. Such events include war, epidemics, a nuclear holocaust or collisions with space elements such as asteroids, each occasioning massive loss of life. Today’s emerging environmental crisis is relevant since ‘climate change is a truly global phenomenon’ (Gardiner 2011, 24). As outlined previously, the planet faces anthropogenic warming which could threaten its population (Dunlop 2013). While the risk is not necessarily one of complete human annihilation, death is certainly absolute for individuals. The environmental context involves recognition of systematic mistakes only ex post, hard uncertainty about direct cause-effect relations and the fixity of major decisions in the past (Vercelli 1998, 259). Time has seen the extinction of many sub-human species and, should anthropogenic activity generate system-wide and irreversible natural phase shifts, homo sapiens need not be immune (Goodrich 2014). Apocalyptically, we might not need to bother about heaven or hell in future urbanism: we would just peer out from a city to see environmental mayhem gliding into view. Gleeson (2014, 112–13) offers a scenario of how everything might actually occur. In sum, the second and third conditions of rationality consist of a strict procedural approach toward a universal substantive focus.

Second Precept: Sustainability From this platform, a quite different and ‘alter-Weberian’ stance to rationality can be justified, namely, the application of individual and communal cognition to prospective species survival. This co-dependency unites singular and collective intention (Schmid 2007; Gleeson 2010). It can fulfill O’Grady’s strict criteria, and it differentiates humans from other forms of life which simply evolve, rather than being able to act rationally

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toward their own perpetuation. It also follows the kindred logic of the economist, Armen Alchian (1950), who maintained that neo-­classical economic profit maximization was chimeric since its locus could not be established under uncertainty. The definitive position in real-world business is a realized result around zero dollars. This breakpoint where profits meet losses signals survival, if only for the time being, and survival is the first-order desideratum for most unimpaired individuals and organizations. Logically, survival underpins sustainability, though this nexus escapes most of the literature, perhaps being taken as given. Neo-classical economists conventionally define sustainability in terms of the maintenance or increase of utility over generations. But, writes Daly (2005, 103), that interpretation is useless since utility is an experience, not a thing, and it cannot be bequeathed. Cross-sectionally and longitudinally, sustainability connotes the environment’s capacity to supply resources (natural capital) and to absorb wastes from the production and usage of goods and services (i.e. entropy change created by man-made capital or stocks of assets). Today, human activity is constrained not by any lack of industriousness, but by the supply of natural capital and, potentially, by the earth’s ability to eliminate wastes (especially GHGs and pollution). Other assistance is forthcoming from Leach et al. (2010). Sustainability involves managing environmental risk, as in addressing the non-­ problematic or problematic likelihood and consequence of events. If consequences are non-problematic, non-problematic likelihood involves ‘risk,’ whereas its problematic variant produces ‘uncertainty.’ If consequences are problematic, non-problematic likelihood involves ‘ambiguity,’ while problematic likelihood results in ‘ignorance’ (aka ‘unknown unknowns), a condition which the social sciences are mostly loathe to admit. In superb graphic models, the authors analyze change via: its temporality (acute change or a ‘transient disruption’ producing shock, while chronic variants or ‘enduring shifts’ result in stress); and the style of action (tractable situations eliciting proactive control, while intractable conditions require an ex poste response). Tractable shock produces the condition of ‘stability,’ tractable stress elicits ‘durability.’ The response to intractable shock is called ‘resilience,’ while that applying to intractable stress is ‘robustness’ (cf. Hall 2015). Sustainable management i­ ncorporates all the above-mentioned facets of complexity and possible chaos (Fig. 4.5).

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Shock

(transient disruption)

Sustainable Management

Temporality of Change

Stress

(enduring shift)

Control

Respond

(tractable drivers)

(intractable drivers)

Style of Action Fig. 4.5  Dynamic properties of sustainability. (Source: After Leach et al. 2010, 62)

On balance, survival leading to sustainability can provide an acceptable substantive focus for procedural rationality. Viewed from the economic, social and environmental triple bottom line, it denotes the high level of systemic resolution implicit in Ehrlich and Holdren’s (1971) IPAT identity. Whereas twentieth-century modeling, usually around individual decision-making, was instrumentally facilitative and extended the frontiers of knowledge, circumstances in the natural environment now demand elevated thinking. Survival and sustainability play to either a virtuous or vicious circle. If the former prevailed, humanity would be tackling its impending problem with ‘Mother Nature.’ Either way, though, inhabitants of The City of Grace should act with survival in mind—and that could mean forsaking certain behaviors permeating neoliberal society (cf. Gleeson 2010; Mackay 2018, 23).

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Third Precept: Low Entropy To some readers, the discussion will have already taken a Calvinist turn. Sustainability can surely be taken for granted: now hosting hundreds of definitions, is it not a concept approaching its use-by date? Why not get into something more relevant and, most importantly, ‘vibrant’ in the neoliberal sense (Wadley 2008, 650)? Rather than a series of sectoral booms and busts, low entropy indicates a system acting in an orderly manner, accepting its constraints (Mackay 2018, 11; Alexander and Gleeson 2019). It would eschew John Maynard Keynes’ ‘animal spirits’ or Alan Greenspan’s ‘irrational exuberance’ steadfastly to follow its objectives. Rational policy and decision-making should ensure that potentially disruptive positive feedbacks will be counteracted by negentropy to keep operations steady (i.e. accessing the tractable approach of Leach et  al. (2010)). Many outsiders, weaned on media hype, political spin and sensationalism, would regard Leachean stability or durability as unfathomable, but businesses might welcome a largely predictable domestic milieu. The outlook would be neither boring nor sclerotic since certain kinds of growth and differentiation in both function and form would occur within system capacities. Substantial information about creating urban sustainability and continuity is available. With suitable strategies, it might be possible to overcome uncertainty, insecurity and placelessness by raising levels of co-ordination, trust and conviviality among the populace.

Sufficient Processing Elements: Strategies Six related strategies can offer sufficiency toward achieving the desired outputs and vision for The City of Grace. Without individual, social and civic health, little can be achieved. Wealth is likewise pivotal to positive agency in almost any settlement and corresponds with innovation (creativity) as a generative strategy. Important to grace are two distributive strategies, altruism and stewardship which combine with the final one,

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Health

Exclusivity/ moderation

Wealth

Stewardship

Innovation

Altruism

Fig. 4.6  Key interactions among strategies, The City of Grace. (Source: Author)

exclusivity/moderation. The strategies will ideally be intrinsically, not extrinsically, motivated and are interlinked as per Fig. 4.6.

First Strategy: Health Health and wealth, the first two necessary strategies for the development of The City of Grace, present a chicken and egg problem. Both are indispensable but which is the primary one? Health underpins the Maslovian hierarchy and, since the days of Hippocrates, its importance has been singularly obvious. The bedrock of good health and sufficient well-being, both physical and mental (Friedmann 2002, 113), can be absent in poverty, signaling the need for at least enough wealth to provide relevant

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services. As the healthy city authors have remarked, good health is not simply about science and technique but also about popular access to quality provision, preferably assisted by a low entropy setting in which shock and mental stress are contained.

Second Strategy: Wealth ‘What is wealth?’ asks the British economist, James Ball (1992). He refers to Adam Smith ([1759] 1976) in The Wealth of Nations, only to find ‘wealth’ rarely mentioned. Though not consistently applied, the historical sense is of income per capita or overall productivity. Smith also draws a distinction between wealth and money (the latter, in the 1700s, gold and silver). He intertwines the concepts of wealth and ‘opulence’ (as a state of economic well-being) and, finally, distinguishes ‘productive’ from the ‘unproductive’ labor undertaken by menial servants, soldiers and entertainers. Ball (1992, 5–6) responds that, today, wealth is understood as an asset stock yielding a flow known as income. Economic and general well-being should not be confused, indicating that there is more to life than the dollar. Accordingly, a fundamental problem remains that of determining whether an individual or society is ‘better off’ between two points in time—for example, would income per capita, disposable income, or net assets be the appropriate measure? Moreover, is the public or private sector the more efficacious in increasing wealth, income and well-being? For balance, we leave this elevated discourse for the vernacular of Gordon Gekko’s ‘greed is good’ pronouncement in the 1987 film Wall Street. Though widely panned, it raises prospective leads in that ‘greed captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.’ Later, Gekko advises that: ‘Sure, now what’s worth doing, is worth doing for money. If it’s a bad bargain, nobody gains, and if we do this deal, everybody gains.’ Less enthusiastically, Susan Fainstein (2010, 5) realizes that the capitalist system will not disappear overnight. Nor is she attracted by David Harvey’s prescription of perpetual conflict to overthrow it. As in her Just City and in Gay’s (1991, 98–99) reference

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to St Luke’s account of the shrewd steward, the requirement is to bargain the terms surrounding The City of Grace within the present global capitalist project. The only alternative is to model a rudderless utopia, akin to Michael Gunder’s (2014) reports of Auckland planning practitioners forced to pursue a discourse of fantasy. So who can say a good word for poverty? Few in the real world except recluses would welcome it and theoretical modeling has emphasized its alleviation, not advancement or perpetuation. Hence, The City of Grace will not become an ascetic and introspective coma, hanging off some mountain cliff: rather, it must compromise with an environment of potentially chaotic capitalism. Gekko’s utterings can be dignified by advice contained in two venerable newspaper reports. First, channeling St Matthew’s parable of the talents, Brisbane’s former Anglican archbishop (and Governor General of Australia), Peter Hollingworth, advances that a sound Biblical approach is not antagonistic to the creation of wealth (Moodie 1993). It is a question of its uses and abuses. Wealth should help achieve a social vision which prioritizes benefits for the vulnerable and generates enough jobs for those who wish to work and live productive and creative lives. The four essential, collateral values are justice, sustainability, participation and efficiency. Second, partially following Gay (1991, 96), the Melbourne philosopher, John Armstrong (2010), pursues this argument with insights about wealth ideally translating into worthiness: What do people want a lot of money for? Many decent people aspire to earn large sums of money for reasons that are entirely respectable—they want long-term security for themselves and their families; they want personal freedom; they want to own fine things; they may, along the way, wish to contribute some of their wealth to good causes. Wealth is pursued as a means towards individual flourishing—that is, to being a finer, more complete, more worthy version of oneself. Wealth is not a necessary condition of being a good person, but wealth can be a condition for carrying out noble private projects … The ethic of wealth is not just to do with the value for money process by which it is accumulated; nor is it only to do with its the social utility. Ultimately, the ethic of wealth lies in self-regarding actions. Resources are a means of individual flourishing, of exercising the

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virtues of taste, wisdom and generosity on a large scale, with access to the finest products of human intelligence and imagination.

These views correspond with both commonsense, motivation theory and the rational choice model. In globalization’s unending migrations, people speak with their feet: they know that little can be achieved in poverty and so wealth is preferred whenever available. As Margaret Thatcher succinctly put it, ‘no-one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions; he had money as well.13’ Wealth is thus the prerequisite not only to health but, further up Maslow’s hierarchy, also to altruism. It enables the adequate housing, remunerated work and social provision featured in John Friedmann’s (2002, 113) prescription of the Good City. Sustainable wealth could be the key to the beneficence inherent in grace. It confers the ability to assist those who might not have even asked for help. Altruism can meanwhile bestow gifts on the giver (Mackay 2018, 69).

Third Strategy: Innovation Broadly, wealth first arises as the retention of the profit component of an income flow to organizations which engage in transactions. These exchanges occur in both the financial and the real economy.14 If not simply speculating, or arbitraging in markets, organizations normally create the comparative advantage required to produce a surplus either by becoming more efficient (i.e. increasing their productivity) or through innovation (as implied in Gekko’s advocacy of greed). Inevitably, the constitution of The City of Grace must embrace advances in goods and services as having unique potential to improve living standards and quality of life. Breakthroughs and cutting-edge technology offer people new capacities and benefits. Gorringe (2002, 149) opines that creativity requires a balance between stability and anarchy since where there is perfect order (i.e. system equilibrium) there is death. He quotes Peter Hall’s (1998, 285–86) view that creative cities feature social relationships, values and views in transformation. Immigration (of talent) and cosmopolitanism are thought to

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c­ontribute to ‘continual renewal of the creative bloodstream.’ Clearly, these orthodoxies will need balancing with the precept of low entropy.

Fourth Strategy: Altruism Drawing on love, modern concepts of gracility suggest positive regard for welfare and equity, a generosity which might extend beyond, as well as within, city limits (cf. Fainstein 2010). As shown, wealth is improved when allied with (voluntary) worthiness, especially if the latter is applied effectively and efficiently. The City would rely on rules and laws, and individual and collective good works from its inhabitants. Recursively, they would attain opportunities for Maslovian self-actualization. The philosophies of Hume and Kant suggest the possibility of agreement on desirable qualities of life, such that inclusion, concord and civility could characterize social function.

Fifth Strategy: Stewardship Since the Brundtland report, responsible stakeholders have recognized environmental preservation and enhancement as critical to human occupancy of the planet (World Commission on Environment and Development 1987). Various multilateral accords have instigated national attempts to limit negative economic and social externalities. If resource depletion and biophysical changes are as serious as experts have long maintained (International Energy Agency 2008; World Meteorological Organization 2008), there is no goodwill in denial, free-riding, chiseling, reneging, despoiling the commons or other forms of poor global citizenship (Doucet 2007). Though relegated by the 2008 GFC, ecologically sustainable development needs reassertion as more than rhetoric (Coyle 2011, 275). Current deliberation between mitigating, and adapting to, the effects of climate change might be academic. In Australia, Birrell and Healy (2008) insist that the government’s proposed 60 percent carbon cuts by 2050 will simply be annulled by the consumption of a wealthier population projected as 50 percent larger than in 2008. Such is the

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s­ ystemic applicability of the IPAT identity. With the relevant models predicting major environmental change well before 2100, quality of life will rest upon the sustainability generated by cities’ economic, political and social functions. Despite localized green agendas (Racine 1993, 213), twenty-first-­ century urban grace should rely unequivocally on (macro) planetary stewardship.15 Today, its counterpoise is idleness, notwithstanding a need to remediate. In the west, satisfaction appears driven by strong materialism, which, with all its environmental overheads, could be difficult to change (Kjellberg 2000). Further, such is the power of globalization that investigation of serious alternatives has been thwarted by threats or fears of a significant loss of national socioeconomic welfare. The neoliberal agenda has fostered ideologies which, save for TINA admonitions, people might have disputed. Invoking the quality of gracility, the thrust in the City is whether any personal relief might be possible through different sociopolitical objectives. These two basic facets, planetary accountability combined with individual utility, could be sufficient not only for the sustenance of urban life but the eventual accession of grace. Without environmental responsibility, we have no place worth living in. Without some utility, existence would be vapid (Kao 2007, 16). Accepting these essentials, our task is to investigate their achievement, first within the function, and then the form, of the City. Assisted by theory and practice, the analysis seeks the fulfillment created by divergence from both conventional urbanism and the less appetitive elements of global neoliberalism.

Sixth Strategy: Exclusivity/Moderation The wellsprings of grace lie not in assumption but in endowment and incorporation. Its creation and maintenance in urbanism would be subject to exclusivity or ‘moderation,’ the latter derived from the Aristotelian ethical ideal of metron (Kjellberg 2000, 92). These concepts incorporate allied ideas of love, truth, order and freedom, which, along with foundational ones like trust and O’Grady’s (2002) evidential honesty, are far from universal. Life in the City would involve both intellect and effort as,

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for example, attempts to theorize atonement or the geometry of beauty have each demonstrated. Given the role of moral disinterest, if grace were not fully realized by its inhabitants, at least they would be able to retain humility or innocence. Initiatives to reduce public stress could attenuate domestic disruptions. Moderation and exclusivity, it should be emphasized, do not presuppose ‘exclusion’ since there need not be just one City of Grace in the world. Leonie Sandercock (2003, 405) has written that ‘the completely profane world, the wholly desacralized cosmos, is a recent deviation in the history of the human spirit.’ The quality of exclusivity suggests that the City would, at least in some ways, be separated and redeemed (liberated) from totally encapsulating neoliberal mercantilism. Corroboratively, European urbanism prior to the Enlightenment strove to impart sanctification and salvation to its inhabitants, as illustrated by Johann Valentin Andreae’s 1619 Reipublicae Christianopolitanae Descripto (Hansot 1974, 79–92; Kohane and Hill 2001, 69; O’Meara 2005, 3646). As Racine (1993, 67) writes, ‘merchants founded cities to undertake commerce but the church reacted: was not the true purpose … to develop the Christian life?’ Some observers might therefore find more grace in medieval than in contemporary cities. Elsewhere in the world, the nexus of religion and the state remains unbroken and religiosity exists in the public domain. This practice reflects the NeoPlatonic view of one world in which the divine and secular intertwine (O’Meara 2005, 3645). If, today, The City of Grace were to be defined teleologically, it could lie outside the west. If reserved, responsible, contrite and grateful, the City could appropriate some of Thomas Aquinas’ seven cardinal virtues16 and, likewise, avoid the seven deadly sins which date from the papacy of Gregory I (590–614 AD). Less relevant ones include: gula (gluttony), ira (wrath) and invidia (envy).17 More potent could be luxuria (extravagance, later lust), avaritia (greed), superbia (pride) and acedia (sloth). All are known to sap individual and civic morale. Adam Smith (1976, 184–85) dealt convincingly with luxuria. The downsides of Gekko’s avaritia and its alter ego, fear, castigated in the GFC of late 2008, need little elaboration. Superbia appears in political posturing and hubris and is arguably a facet of neoliberalism as it attempts to recolonize the world with its distinctive mores (Wadley 2008, 656). Acedia represents the listlessness, flaccidness

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and enfeeblement gripping the West as it grapples with events hubristically unexpected at ‘the end of history’ and the edge of chaos (Fukuyama 1993; Buchanan 2002). Several orientations would be averted. From foregoing readings, the City will shun the ordinary or Pelagian mediocre. Given Banfield’s (1970) exposé of the unheavenly city, its form would not be physically ugly or uninviting. There will inevitably be insiders and outsiders, as with existing democracies and the presently bordered nation-state (Flint 2003, 54; Ross 2004, 7, 104–05; Blackwell 2013, 284–87). Hopefully, with its precepts and strategies, the settlement can reflect a unified character, undertake good works and offer senses of tranquility, order, harmony and reason so as to demonstrate purpose. It might afford more certainty than the neoliberal world beyond. Grace revolves around quality, rather than quantity, and chooses measure, efficiency and elegance over extravagance. Acknowledging the ascetic but avoiding its excesses, a workable perspective could be informed by the steady-state economics of Herman Daly (1977), the theses of E.F. Schumacher (1973) and other studies which controversially dispute neoliberalism to claim that nature, people or the world actually matter (e.g. Short 1989; Poirrott 2005; Nelson 2006). In all these ways, moderation would contribute to the critical principle of managing urban entropy, an overarching condition of sufficiency in the model proposed.

Leads in Modeling In foregoing chapters, construction of The City of Grace has been explicitly situated in a non-utopian, secular context. Its empirical backdrop is a world of unrelenting demographic growth, globalizing, expansive neoliberalism, a destabilizing natural environment and fast-paced urbanization. Given the dynamism and uncertainties, employment of general systems and chaos theories as central explanatory tools is essential. The literary lineage of the proposed model includes a wide array of themed and general urbanist texts. The focal component, grace, has been explained in its theological, ascetic, aesthetic and material expressions.

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Table 4.2  Aggregate process model of The City of Grace Inputs

+ Intermediaries

Processing mechanism

Outputs (objectives)

Capital: • human • financial • environmental • manufactured

Concepts of Grace: •  as per Table 3.1 Precepts: • rationality • sustainability • entropy Strategies: • health • wealth • innovation • altruism • stewardship • exclusivity/ moderation

Urban: • function • form

States of: • actualization • motivation • welfare

This chapter, having searched unsuccessfully for a real-world City of Grace, reviewed more specialized literature, and then set out the model’s foundations. First came the desired outputs. Maslow advanced that basic needs must be addressed before people can turn to higher-order ones and eventually undertake a move to self-actualization. Cohen defined two conditions of human welfare or well-being and Diwan added prerequisites of inner contentment and the constituents of a meaningful quality of life. Ryan and Deci emphasize autonomy, competence and relatedness as routes to the intrinsic motivation which underpins psychological fulfillment. Autonomy could be a particularly important quality since City organization would need to be seen as legitimate and assented to by the populace. In this way, citizens’ engagement would be volitional, not imposed. These threefold desiderata preceded the statement of a vision and mission, backed by necessary and sufficient conditions to the achievement of grace. They involve the three precepts and six strategies articulated in Table 4.2. The next steps must be to model the City’s function and form in such a way as to produce the desired outputs.

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Notes 1. All data for these settlements sourced in Wikipedia, May 2018. 2. Another ‘City of Grace’ church exists in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England (Redeemed Christian Church of God RCCG). 3. Retirement options (e.g. the magazine America’s 100 Best Places to Retire) and tourism possibilities (e.g. Time magazine, ‘100 Greatest Places,’ 3 September 2018). 4. A Trinitarian approach involves a theological assumption, which today, in denominational and statistical terms, can reflect only a minority position in global urbanism. Gorringe (2002, 18–19) submits that living with the gift of grace ‘puts an end to all notions of “rebuilding the kingdom,”’ as portrayed in William Blake’s 1810 poem. ‘Building Jerusalem, the city of justice, peace and beauty, is a project which will never be completed this side of the kingdom, but it is a project to which we are called by the kingdom, by grace abounding in the lives of sinners.’ See also an informative tabulation of Trinitarianism in the built environment (Gorringe 2011, 16). 5. Note some congruence here with the treatment of motivation in self-­ determination theory in psychology. 6. References to the death of geography have since been regarded as misplaced, not least in the information, communication and technology industries. See, for example, Flecker (2016) and Flecker and Schönauer (2016). 7. Kjellberg (2000, 69) explains koinonia as a metaphor for the transcendent telos of the Kingdom of God. It represents an eschatological end point in the struggle between good and evil as depicted in St Augustine’s civitas terrena and civitas caelestis. ‘That the good will win in the end is a matter of faith.’ 8. Kjellberg (2000, 107) explains shalom as perfect peace, the telos or ultimate meaning in the conciliar processes aimed at justice, peace and the integrity of Creation. 9. This short explanation can be expanded with reference to a much more extensive debate associated with the onset of modernism in architecture and the emergence of industrial design in the interwar period. For an accessible summary, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Form_follows_ function, accessed August 2018.

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10. In the author’s view, all metropolitan strategic planning involves large-­ scale public motivation, one reason why the latter concept is integral to this project. 11. Analogously, Steven Garber (2014, 9, 12) notes that a calling stands above a career, as does a vocation an occupation. 12. This initiative could be replicated in many cities. In Brisbane, Australia, for example, over 15,000 ideas were generated from a massive 100,000 replies to a 2018 City Council survey on future urbanism—indeed, one in five households responded. The eight leading ‘principles’ formulated were: a city of neighborhoods; protection of greenspace; ‘more to see and do’; protecting backyards and the unique city lifestyle; best practice design; engaging and empowering residents; quicker and safer travel options; and more housing choice. This particular mix of elements of function and form is not seminal in city building and makes various assumptions about underlying economy, governance and environment. The precepts behind The City of Grace are more foundational than Brisbane’s popular level of analysis. See: https://www.brisbane.qld. gov.au/planning-building/planning-guidelines-tools/brisbanes-futureblueprint, accessed January 2019. 13. Citing here Margaret Thatcher’s interview with Brian Walden for London Weekend Television’s Weekend World, 6 January 1980. The Thatcher Foundation, accessed July 2018: https://www.margaretthatcher. org/document/104210. 14. The financial economy deals in foreign exchange, interest rates and stock prices whereas the real economy is concerned with profits, growth in gross product and employment levels (Samuels 2011). 15. This viewpoint is corroborated by Islamic authors, Ahmad et al. (1997, 114), who write that ‘we have seen so far that all the three natural gifts of the creation—land, water and air—are seriously polluted by the various known and unknown activities of mankind. Pollution has reached a catastrophic stage, so if not URGENTLY [sic] stopped it may bring total collapse for everything and every being on our planet Earth.’ These writers leave no doubt that it is Christians and their successors, liberal secularists, who bear most responsibility for the situation. According to ‘The Muslim Declaration on Nature,’ the Muslim’s role is that of a khalifah, Allah’s steward. The earth and its paradisiac forms belongs to Allah, not to humankind to do with it as it pleases (Naseef 1998, 12). From another angle, Benstein’s (2006, 209) position is that historical exile, diasporas

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and nomadism have alienated Jews from the natural world, leaving a feeling of planetary rootlessness. 16. Faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. See these sites, accessed August 2018: http://www.naciente.com/essay83. htm and http://changingminds.org/explanations/values/seven_virtues. htm. 17. Gluttony and obesity have some bearing in contemporary western cities, while Hume and, latterly, John Rawls (1971, 530–41) well anticipated the role of envy. Various global examples of urban wrath are cited by Wadley (2008).

References Ahmad, A., Hashim, M.H.A., and al Hachim, G. 1997. Islam and the environmental crisis. London: Ta-Ha Publishers. Alchian, A.A. 1950. Uncertainty, evolution and economic theory. Journal of Political Economy 58 (3), 211–21. Alexander, S. and Gleeson, B. 2019. Degrowth in the suburbs: A radical urban imaginary. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. Andreae, J.V. 1619. Reipublicae Christianopolitanae descripto. Argentorati: Sumptibus Laeredum Lazari Zetneri. Armstrong, J. 2010. It’s okay to be wealthy: The trick is also to be worthy. Australian Financial Review, 15 January, 55. Ball, J. 1992. The creation of wealth. In The economics of wealth creation. Ed. J. Ball. 4–30. Aldershot, Hants: Edward Elgar. Banfield, E. 1970. The unheavenly city: The nature and future of our urban crisis. Boston, MA: Little, Brown. Batty, M. and Longley, P. 1994. Fractal cities: A geometry of form and function. London: Academic Press. Beck, C.J. 1999. Christian grace as seen in western literature, music, and art (M.A. thesis, California State University, Dominiguez Hills). Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Dissertation Services. Benstein, J. 2006. The way into Judaism and the environment. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing. Bernard, D. 2004. City impact: How to unify, empower and mobilize God’s people to transform their communities. Grand Rapids, MI: Chosen Books.

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Birrell, B. and Healy, E. 2008. Labor’s greenhouse aspirations. People and Place 16 (2), 1–14. Blackwell, A. 2013. Shenzen: Topology of a neoliberal city. In Shaping the city: Studies in history, theory and urban design (2nd ed.). Eds. R. El-Khoury and E. Robbins. 278–311. London: Routledge. Bogunovich, D. 2002. Eco-tech cities: Smart metabolism for a green urbanism. In The sustainable city II: Urban regeneration and sustainability. Eds. C.A. Brebbia, J.F. Martin-Duque and L.C. Wadhwa. 75–84. Southampton, Hants: WIT Press. Boulding, K.E. 1956. General systems theory: The skeleton of science. Management Science 2 (3), 197–208. Boyd, R. 1961. The Australian ugliness. Melbourne: Cheshire. Bratman, M.E. 1999. Faces of intention: Selected essays on intention and agency. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Buchanan, P.J. 2002. The death of the West: How dying populations and immigrant invasions imperil our country and civilization. New York: St Martin’s Press. Byrne, D. 1997. Chaotic places or complex places? Cities in a post-industrial era. In Imagining cities: Scripts, signs, memory. Eds. S.  Westwood and J. Williams. 50–70. London: Routledge. Cairncross, F. 1997. The death of distance. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Callahan, D. (Ed.). 1966. The secular city debate. New York: Macmillan. Cohen, G.A. 1989. On the currency of egalitarian justice. Ethics 99 (4), 906–44. Cox, H. [1965] 2016. The secular city: Secularization and urbanization in theological perspective. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Coyle, D. 2011. The economics of enough: How to run the economy as if the future matters. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. d’Agostino, F. 2011. Rational agency. In The Sage handbook of the philosophy of the social sciences. Eds. I.C.  Jarvie and J.  Zamora-Bonilla. 182–99. London: Sage. Daly, H.E. 1977. Steady-state economics: The economics of biophysical equilibrium and moral growth. San Francisco: Freeman. Daly, H.E. 2005. Economics in a full world. Scientific American 293 (3), 100–07. Dear, M. 2000. The postmodern urban condition. Oxford: Blackwell. Deci, E.L. and Ryan, R.M. 2000. The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self- determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry 11 (4), 227–68. Diwan, R. 2000. Relational wealth and quality of life. Journal of Socio Economics 29 (4), 305–40.

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Doucet, C. 2007. Urban meltdown: Cities, climate change and politics as usual. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers. Dunlop, I. 2013. Climate change—Beyond dangerous: Emergency actions and integrated solutions. In Sustainable futures: Linking population, resources and the environment. Eds. J. Goldie and K. Betts. 138–52. Collingwood, VIC: CSIRO Publishing. Eberle, G. 1994. The geography of nowhere: Finding one’s self in the postmodern world. Kansas City, MO: Sheed and Ward. Ehrenhalt, A. 1995. The lost city: The forgotten virtues of community in America. New York: Basic Books. Ehrlich, P.R. and Holdren, J.P. 1971. Impact of population growth. Science: American Association for the Advancement of Science 171 (3977), 1212–17. Fainstein, S.S. 2005. Cities and diversity: Should we want it? Can we plan for it? Urban Affairs Review 41 (1), 3–19. Fainstein, S.S. 2010. The just city. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Flecker, J. 2016. Introduction. In Space, place and global digital work. Ed. J. Flecker. 1–8. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Flecker, J. and Schönauer, A. 2016. The production of ‘placelessness’: Digital service work in global value chains. In Space, place and global digital work. Ed. J. Flecker. 1–30. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Flint, C. 2003. Geographies of inclusion/exclusion. In The geographical dimensions of terrorism. Eds. S.L.  Cutter, D.B.  Richardson and T.J.  Wilbanks, 53–58. New York: Routledge. Foley, M. 2010. The age of absurdity: Why modern life makes it hard to be happy. London: Simon and Schuster. Friedman, T.L. 2005. The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century (2nd ed.). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Friedmann, J. 2002. The prospect of cities. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minneapolis Press. Fukuyama, F. 1993. The end of history and the last man. New York: Avon Books. Garber, S. 2014. Visions of vocation: Common grace for the common good. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books. Gardiner, S.M. 2011. A perfect moral storm: The ethical tragedy of climate change. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gauthier, D. 1975. Coordination. Dialogue 14, 195–221. Gay, C.M. 1991. Cash values: The value of money, the nature of worth. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. Giddens, A. 1984. The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

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Gilbert, M. 1989. On social facts. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Gleeson, B. 2010. Lifeboat cities. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. Gleeson, B. 2014. The urban condition. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Goodrich, R.E. 2014. From earth to oblivion: The passing of mankind. Minneapolis, MN: Mill City Press. Gorringe, T.J. 2002. A theology of the built environment: Justice, empowerment, redemption. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Gorringe, T.J. 2011. The common good and the global emergency: God and the built environment. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Gunder, M. 2014. Fantasy in planning organisations and their agency: The promise of being at home in the world. Urban Policy and Research 32 (1), 1–15. Hall, P. 1998. Cities in civilization: Culture, innovation and the urban order. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Hall, T(ony). 2015. The robust city. London: Routledge. Halligan, M. 2004. The taste of memory. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin. Hamilton, C. 2003. Growth fetish. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin. Hansot, E. 1974. Perfection and progress: Two modes of utopian thought. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Harvey, D. 2000. Spaces of hope. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Harvey, D. 2006. Paris, capital of modernity. New York: Routledge. Healy, C. 1994. Introduction. In Beasts of suburbia: Reinterpreting cultures in Australian suburbs. Eds. S.  Ferber, C.  Healy and C.  McAuliffe. xiii–xvii. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. Holt, S.C. 2007. God next door: Spirituality and mission in the neighbourhood. Brunswick East, VIC: Acorn Press. Inge, J. 2003. A Christian theology of place. Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate. International Energy Agency. 2008. World Energy Outlook 2008. Paris: International Energy Agency. Johns, M. 2004. Moments of grace: The American city in the 1950s. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Kao, R.W.Y. 2007. Stewardship-based economics. Singapore: World Scientific. Kjellberg, S. 2000. Urban ecotheology. Utrecht: International Books. Kohane, P. and Hill, M. 2001. The eclipse of a commonplace idea: Decorum in architectural theory. Architectural Research Quarterly 5 (1), 63–77. Kostof, S. 1992. The city assembled: The elements of urban form through history. London: Thames and Hudson. Kunstler, J.H. 1993. The geography of nowhere: The rise and decline of America’s man-made landscape. New York: Simon and Schuster.

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Leach, M., Scoones, I., and Stirling, A. 2010. Dynamic sustainabilities: Technology, environment, justice. London: Earthscan. Mackay, H. 2010. What makes us tick? The ten desires that drive us. Sydney: Hachette Australia. Mackay, H. 2018. Australia re-imagined: Towards a more compassionate, less anxious society. Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia. Martin, P. 1996. The death of geography. The Financial Times, 22 February. Maslow, A.H. [1954] 1987. Motivation and personality (3rd ed.). New  York: Harper and Row. Milroy, B.M. 1991. Into postmodern weightlessness. Journal of Planning Education and Research 10 (3), 181–87. Moller, A., Ryan, R.M., and Deci, E.L. 2006. Self-determination theory and public policy: Improving the quality of consumer decisions without using coercion. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing 25 (1), 104–16. Montgomery, C. 2013. Happy city: Transforming our lives through urban design. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Moodie, A-M. 1993. Greed isn’t good but wealth is, says cleric. The Australian, 4 August, 4. Morris, J. 1987. Manhattan ’45. New York: Oxford University Press. Mumford, L. [1956] 1968. The urban prospect. New  York: Harcourt, Brace and World. Naseef, A.O. 1998. The Muslim declaration on nature. In Islam and the environment. Ed. H.A. Haleem. 12–15. London: Ta-Ha Publishers. Nelson, J.A. 2006. Economics for humans. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. O’Grady, P.M. 2002. Relativism. Chesham, Bucks: Acumen. O’Meara, T. 2005. Grace. In Encyclopedia of religion (Vol. 6, 2nd ed.). Ed. L. Jones. 3644–48. Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference. Osborne, N. 2018. For still possible cities: A politics of failure for the politically depressed. Australian Geographer 50 (2), 145–54. Pindyck, R.S. and Rubinfeld, D.L. 2001. Microeconomics (5th ed.). London: Prentice Hall International. Platt, R.H. 2006. Epilogue. In The humane metropolis: People and nature in the 21st century. Ed. R.H.  Platt. 315–22. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press. Platt, R.H., Rowntree, R.A., and Muick, P.A. (Eds.). 1994. The ecological city: Preserving and restoring urban biodiversity. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press.

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Poirrott, J. 2005. Capitalism: As if the world matters. Sterling, VA: Earthscan. Porteous, J.D. 1996. Environmental aesthetics: Ideas, politics and planning. London: Routledge. Putnam, R.D. and Campbell, D.E. 2010. American grace: How religion divides and unites us. New York: Simon and Schuster. Racine, J.-B. 1993. La ville entre Dieu et les hommes. Arare: Presses Bibliques Universitaires et Anthropos. Rawls, J. 1971. A theory of justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Ross, D. 2004. Violent democracy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Rossiter, L.H. 2006. The liberal mind: The psychological causes of political madness. St Charles, IL: Free World Books. Ryan, R.M. and Deci, E.L. 2000a. The darker and brighter sides of human existence: Basic psychological needs as a unifying concept. Psychological Inquiry 11 (4), 319–38. Ryan, R.M. and Deci, E.L. 2000b. Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development and well-being. American Psychologist 55 (1), 68–78. Ryan, R.M. and Deci, E.L. 2017. Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness. New York: The Guilford Press. Samuels, K. 2011. The real economy vs. the financial economy. Seeking Alpha. Accessed July 2019 at https://seekingalpha.com/article/297878-thereal-economy-vs-the-financial-economy Sandercock, L. 1998. Toward cosmopolis: Planning for multicultural cities. Chichester, Sussex: Wiley. Sandercock, L. [1998] 2003. Towards Cosmopolis: Utopia as a construction site. In Readings in planning theory (2nd ed.). Eds. S.  Campbell and S.S. Fainstein. 403–07. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Schmid, H.B. 2007. Rationalizing coordination: Towards a strong conception of collective intentionality. In Economics and the mind. Eds. B. Montero and M.D. White. 159–79. London: Routledge. Schoon, N. 2001. The chosen city. London: Spon. Schumacher, E.F. 1973. Small is beautiful: A study of economics as if people mattered. London: Blond and Briggs. Searle, J.R. 1990. Collective intentions and actions. In Intentions in communication. Eds. P.R.  Cohen, J.  Morgan and M.E.  Pollack. 405–15. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Short, J.R. 1989. The humane city: Cities as if people matter. Oxford: Blackwell. Smith, A. [1759] 1976. The theory of moral sentiments. Eds. D.D. Raphael and A.L. Macfie. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

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Sperling, B. and Sander, P. 2007. Cities ranked and rated: More than 400 metropolitan areas evaluated in the U.S. and Canada. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Stanley, J(ohn), Stanley, J(anet), and Hansen, R. 2017. How great cities happen: Integrating people, land use and transport. Cheltenham, Gloucestershire: Edward Elgar. Taylor, N. 1998. Urban planning theory since 1945. London: Sage. Toffler, A. 1970. Future shock. London: Bodley Head. Tuan, Y.-F. 1977. Space and place: The perspective of experience. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Tuomela, R. 1995. The importance of us: A study of basic social notions. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Tuomela, R. 2002a. Joint intentionality and commitment. In Social facts and collective intentionality. Ed. G. Meggle. 385–418. Frankfurt am Main: Hansel Hohenhausen. Tuomela, R. 2002b. The philosophy of social practices: A collective acceptance view. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Vercelli, A. 1998. Sustainable development, rationality and time. In Sustainable development: Concepts, rationalities and strategies. Eds. S.  Faucheux, M. O’Connor and J. van der Straaten. 259–76. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Wadley, D. 2008. The garden of peace. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 98 (3), 650–85. Weber, M. [1922] 1978. Economy and society: An outline of interpretive sociology. Reissue Eds. G.  Roth and C.  Wittich. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Weiner, E. 2008. The geography of bliss: One grump’s search for the happiest places in the world. London: Transworld Publishers. World Commission on Environment and Development. 1987. Our common future. Oxford: Oxford University Press. World Meteorological Organization and United Nations Environment Program. 2008. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Fourth assessment report. Geneva: IPCC.

5 A City Gracious in Function

Conceptual and empirical aspects have now been melded into the philosophical and practical conditions undergirding a City of Grace. The next move is to outline three (economic,1 political and social) expressions of urban function which should address uncertainty and relieve its inhabitants from contemporary imperatives.2 As to ‘something to believe in,’ the vision is one of self-actualization and intrinsic motivation, leading to gains in welfare and livability. With these outputs, the teleological approach is to nominate gracious ends (delivering effectiveness) and a seemly means of achieving them (producing efficiency). Deductive modeling favors clean slates. According to von Wright’s (1963, 8–10) interpretation of scientific method, the broad concern in depicting urban graciousness is to avoid any superfluity. In building a theoretical construct, no immediate specification is therefore needed of the four city-forming forces identified by Heikkila (2004, 379): culture, markets, geography and history. Clearly, though, the national and regional context of the City’s macro and micro-economy will require some simplification. Such assumptions help in answering the logical question posed by Doreen Massey (2007, 10): ‘what does a place stand for?’

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Economic Function A primary response to Massey’s query would have a ‘place’ attaining a viable and acceptable modus operandi. The present aim is not to theorize poverty and urban dysfunction because they are immediately observable across the world. Likewise, the depiction of a wholly dependent jurisdiction would be pointless. The City will require sufficient autonomy with which to differentiate itself. The concept must be of a settlement which is price-making, hence largely able to establish its own modes and rules, and bargain on its own terms. It would be tedious, and of dubious worth, to model much less. Acknowledging current TINA realities and the Chap. 2 rehearsal of Fainstein’s (2010) just city, this study of gracious function has to assume a surrounding capitalist milieu—constrained to deflect the moral hazard and rent-seeking ‘typically associated with remote and irresponsible élites’ (O’Keefe 2004, 25–26). Supporting the vision and mission, economic activity acknowledges the formative precepts recently outlined, namely, rationality, sustainability and low entropy. The urban culture should include decentralized decision-making, involving monopolistically competitive and (homegrown) oligopolistic market forms. The economy will primarily feature private and public health delivery, and wealth creation driven by innovation, all under the aegises of stewardship and moderation. Second-order altruism will be important, avoiding gula, invidia and acedia, to ensure an equitable economy. For convenience, this discussion adopts the terminology of production, distribution and allocation normal within economics. Regarding the first two categories, it distinguishes macro and micro ends and means.

Production and Distribution Macroeconomic Ends The macroeconomic ends in pursuit of the vision and mission of The City of Grace are simply to minimize externality and transaction costs, and to maintain or enhance wealth.

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Macroeconomic Means It is assumed that only if functioning as an independent city state will The City of Grace will have unlimited access to the four macro ‘levers,’ namely, monetary, fiscal, exchange rate and wages policies. Contemporary wisdom would have monetary policy supporting a reasonable level of real interest rates based on low inflation. The fiscal stance would seek surpluses and minimal long-term metropolitan debt to provide for present needs and unburden future generations. If innovation were prominent, a fairly assertive exchange rate could be achieved through market forces. Wages policy would likely be confined to a statutory minimum sufficient to provide recipients with at least a basic lifestyle. It would be assisted by demographic stability and the need for employers to engage in labor training. Corporations would be restrained from engaging in unfair work practices, sham contracting, wages theft, laundering, phoenix rebirthing, and reliance on gig economy mechanisms. On these bases, we can move on to more specific ways which the City can adopt toward its macroeconomic ends. First, the precept of sustainability and strategies of innovation, stewardship and moderation require its economic entities to address negative spinoffs and improve environmental performance. The concerns are to manage the urban metabolism and shrink the ecological footprint (Miller 2005, 10–11, 568–70; Victor 2008, 95–97). Consideration and communality in production and distribution demand attention to biophysical bases and accounting founded, inter alia, upon embodied energy, lifecycle costs including waste disposal, and carbon impacts (Imura 2010, 37–41; Heinberg 2011). Still beyond textbook orthodoxy is how actually to achieve ‘decarbonization’ of energy sources on the path to true sustainability (International Energy Agency 2008, 37). As to exclusivity, The City of Grace could potentially be assumed an inland settlement, thereby having fixed water storages. Under IPAT logic, removing the option of desalinization will constrain its size. Reversing orthodox, anthropocentric thinking which treats the earth as a business in liquidation, natural resources should, wherever possible, be consumed only on a sustainable (usufruct) basis (with proper ecological accounting). Resource-wise, there are no more free goods (Platt 1994).

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The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) posits that development initially increases pollution due to the growth in the scale of economic activity. There comes a point at which greater wealth and shifting preferences force policy makers to arrest emissions, which thereafter decline on a per capita basis (Kahn 2006, 30–31; Russell 2011, 233–34). Following this schema, ecological impact and the urban footprint can in part be reduced through technology applied to city function. Examples regarding flows might concern taxes on energy use (derived from fossil fuels) and subsidies for conservation and recycling. In respect of stocks, incentives could be offered for the installation of highly rated, green infrastructure and the employment of more efficient processing and transport machinery. Many other ‘stock’ applications exist in the creation and maintenance of city form. Second, to improve ecological performance and demonstrate stewardship, the City will require individual and corporate enterprise, revenue, profit, value added and other wealth generated through economic activity. These elements are essential. Globally, people lacking capital and/or collateral are often hamstrung, unable to exercise much choice or to organize themselves to effect projects and plans. In IPAT terms, they rate low on (T)echnology. In so far as capability defines quality of life (Sen 1992, 39–40), such people are disadvantaged and can experience considerable depredations. Russell (2011, 233) offers the sensible ‘lesson’ that countries can grow in wealth without growing in population and, by implication, without increasing consumption. Accordingly, in a different take on ‘decoupling,’3 the City’s core business is, rationally and sustainably, to stabilize population while maintaining or increasing real per capita income as one measure determining a quality of life. Laypeople today are increasingly wary of a demographic free-for-all, but not so the world’s political and academic élites, who rightly should be supporting not simply their own, but the common, good. Nor does restraint captivate most business operators, who appear either self-engrossed or fail to recognize Henry Ford’s wisdom that workers need sufficient wages subsequently to achieve a disposable income (see Gore 2013, 41). Such will not be achieved with either a glut of labor or unsupportable taxation. The breaking of the conventional lockstep of population and gross product is both a radical notion and a

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tough call. Sustainable per capita income can become a source of civic satisfaction and motivation. Within these bounds, measured accession of wealth approximates the steady-state system of Herman Daly (1977): operations must remain economic and not progress into diseconomies of scale or disutility which would raise entropy. ‘Growth’ itself connotes quantitative expansion (i.e. an increase in physical artifacts or capital deepening), whereas ‘development’ is qualitative. The latter is usually achieved through technological advances, which deliver quality improvements, stronger service to throughput ratios, greater benefits to costs and, overall, productivity enhancement as a vital component in wealth creation. Daly emphasizes the use of renewable human rather than scarce natural capital, thereby favoring a brains-before-brawn, ‘knowledge’ economy (cf. Montgomery 2007, 38). This script, though direct and facilitating grace, could be challenging since it implies a high wage compact in a period of potentially chaotic demography and capitalism threatening a race to the bottom. Differentially, Dasgupta (2001) views sustainable development through wealth accounting. As an index of well-being over time, wealth is a measure of the social worth of an entity’s overall asset base, including human, natural and manufactured capital, and public knowledge. Interest attaches to the wealth effects of net changes in these stocks, rather than to GDP or other flow measures of well-being.4 Dasgupta (2001, 156–61), paralleling Daly (2005, 106), claims that, since 1970, countries with higher demographic growth have generally lost wealth. If World Bank statistics comprehensively reflected contingent valuation of all natural resources, it would probably transpire that the entire world has been getting poorer since that time (cf. Diwan 2000, 319). In other words, technological change and expanded human knowledge have not outweighed the gross consumption of natural resources attendant upon population increase. Some related ideas can be drawn from the work of Victor and Rosenbluth (2007) and Victor (2008) based on the Canadian macro-­ economy. Victor’s (2008, 13) case is that only in the postwar period has growth become the crowning objective in economic management, ­producing a ‘culture of numbers’ (Wachtel 1989, 84). His alternative would: redistribute employment (recognized as being in excess), so tack-

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ling poverty and work/life imbalance; effect transfers from private positional to public consumption goods and services; restrict demographic increase and balance labor force needs through taxation and a range of welfare measures; divert excessive investment in infrastructure and equipment; convert productivity gains to leisure; and constrain exports to allow improved living standards in the developing world. Since the GFC, these themes have been advanced by prescient economists such as Coyle (2011) and Dietz and O’Neill (2013) and are available for further consideration.

Microeconomic Ends In recognition of its precepts and strategies, particularly those of (economic) sustainability, low entropy and wealth, The City of Grace will focus on output/input relationships (i.e. efficiency) in production and distribution and the maintenance of a durable mix of firms and industries. An emphasis on innovation could produce start-up businesses which assist the monopolistically competitive segment of industrial structure. As explained below, the issue will be to retain such firms once they are successful.

Microeconomic Means Recognizing advances in twenty-first-century ecological economics, an ordered route for The City of Grace can be plotted. It repudiates ascetic subsistence or retrogression (Montgomery 2007, xxii). Yet, the microeconomics of future global production and distribution will require all of Adam Smith’s industriousness and much hard work—‘lifters not leaners,’—to quote a former Australian federal Treasurer. Thus, Friedmann’s (2000) ‘common good’ would revolve around intellectual and material goals to generate the wealth needed for subsequent aims in allocation, sociality and stewardship. Foci on competition, quality and productivity provide for gains in gross product.5 They can be enabled by agglomeration of enterprises, encouraging resilience in industry-based (as per

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northern Europe) or group-based (South Korea and Japan) co-ordination (Hall and Soskice 2001, 34). Also facilitative in dealing respectively with endogenous and exogenous risk can be: internal scale economies and those of localization; spatial clustering with exchange of inputs and outputs to lower transaction costs; sharing of urban infrastructure and overheads; local partnerships and networks; community consultation; hedging, urban information systems and industry support; and networks and strategic alliances (Stimson et al. 2006, 293–95). For inhabitants to achieve broader Maslovian ends (Victor 2008, 216), the bounded rationality and ‘satisficing’ of the behaviorist Herbert Simon (1955, 1957, 1959) and other heterodox economists would outweigh the commodification and narrow maximizations of neo-classicism within what Head (2003) terms ‘the ruthless economy.’ Important would be Webber’s (1969, 8) venerable interpretation of business sustainability in imperfect competition: (a) low probability of bankruptcy; (b) large but not supernormal profits; (c) relatively safe profits; and (d) information costs taken into account. Diwan (2000, 320) has modeled an inclusive human welfare function which neatly summarizes the above ideas, while Kao’s (2007) revisionary economics exchanging (mortal life) ownership to achieve (intergenerational) stewardship is also helpful. In city building, an important distinction of basic and non-basic industries is routinely observed. The former are export-oriented; the role of the latter is to provide urban services to them, their employees and dependents. Since most cities have similar non-basic activities, the extent of which is effectively capped by local demand, the point is to differentiate urban areas by way of their basic sector, which generates external revenue and thus pays for imports. Basic operations in The City of Grace are now pictured. In business orientation, the global offer is increasingly constrained. One route is finance, the proclivity in the era of monetarism of advanced Anglo economies and certain tax havens.6 Another is low-value, high-­ volume mass production, captured by China (‘manufacturer to the world’), India (collectively, ‘Chindia’), and newly industrializing countries tendering cheap labor and often managed economies and currencies. A third is that of research, development and commercialization of both

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new and existing producer and consumer goods and services. Which would offer both a sustainable and gracious orientation for the City? For financial dealing, New  York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Dubai, together with the Gnomes of Zurich and their foreign acolytes, have the play pretty well sewn up in enabling holding of reserves, low taxation and disclosure (Altman 2011, 192–99). More conventional business services, however, could form part of the urban economic base. Rather than excessive speculative activity, the woes of Iceland, Hungary and Ireland within the volatility and opaqueness of the virtual casino during the GFC recommend resort to the real economy. As to the second and third possible foci for the City, unless energy or other factor costs rise strongly, participation in global mass production of mature, everyday goods and services could indeed propose ‘giving of the self ’ to the economic system, an ascetic and humble existence, but, viewed differentially, Pelagian ordinariness, mediocre margins, precariousness, and a shortfall in Adam Smith’s ‘efficiency of purpose.’ In Australia, such a course was relegated some years ago by former Treasurer, Peter Costello (Murphy and McNicoll 2004).7 Still, it behooves analysts to consider the application of high and low technology to outputs and production processes. A 2 × 2 matrix can be imagined. Clearly, low-­ technology goods and services created by low-technology means afford little scope. High-technology products combined with low-technology production is likewise problematic, suggestive of the ‘screwdriver’ contract plants, which mushroomed in the developing world from the 1980s onward. More attractive opportunities lie in either low- or high-­ technology offerings resulting from high technology (capital intensive) processing and assembly. Leads into this field have been provided by Professor Harmut Hirsch-­ Kreinsen (2008) from the Technische Universität, Dortmund. Onto the product/production matrix outlined earlier, he superimposes other dimensions: research and development intensity; and propensity to innovate. Each could be low or high, with the latter generally preferable, given an aim of wealth generation. Further, it must be recognized that products and services have: different degrees of trade exposure; and both low and high value-added variants, of which the latter are again the more desirable.

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From this categorization, Hirsch-Kreinsen’s (2015) first grouping of ‘high technology’ industries obviously exercises appeal for aspiring urban areas. It includes industries such as air- and spacecraft, information and communications hardware and software, medical and scientific instruments, industrial ceramics and coatings, nano- and micro-technologies, and pharmaceuticals. ‘Medium to high’ technology covers transport equipment, sundry chemicals, energy and solar products, development of standard and bespoke production machinery, health care and mining services. ‘Medium low’ technology incorporates refining activities, rubber products, plastics, building and repair activities, aquaculture, biomass, lifestyle goods and services, and environmental industries. ‘Low’ technology connotes the manufacture of food and beverages, textiles, leather and footwear, wood products, paper and printing, materials recycling and mass tourism.8 Into which categories could The City of Grace fit, assuming that its charter was to pursue innovation as a matter of course? Most relevant would be concentration, if possible, on non-discretionary offerings, those with inelastic demand functions, or on producer goods permitting efficiency breakthroughs. Of course, this analysis of the goods economy is not meant to exclude exportable services, which could include provision in architecture, construction, medicine, law, management, health care, the arts and other professional areas. First, market-oriented fields such as engineering and large-scale assembly, food and chemicals production, and materials fabrication could be hosted for domestic and perhaps some export applications. Second, openings for innovation might exist at the high end of a range of low-­ technology products such as domestic tools, luggage, tracking and shading systems, irrigation and plumbing requisites and motor accessories. Third, though, to underwrite an advanced economy and to sustain, say, 15–20 percent of its gross metropolitan output, the City’s thrust would need to be toward high-value-added fractions of the medium-high and high-technology categories with generous research and development to match outside competitors (Simmie 2001). This positioning assumes rock-solid global protection of intellectual property rights across the secondary and tertiary sectors.9 As products and services become more information-intensive, clustering of hardware and software suppliers, system integrators, specialized subcontractors and final customers becomes

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ever more important. In an era of intense digitization, the keynotes of sustainable management are agility, flexibility and cautious specialization (Fig. 4.5). Robertson (1989, 137–52) depicts an economy which purposefully minimizes undue dependence (i.e. ‘price-taking’) and ecological impact. With such positioning, solutions to environmental problems certainly afford a means to grace, co-opting the industriousness and design capability exhibited by energy-efficient, small and medium enterprise in postwar Germany, Japan,10 Scandinavia and various technopoles around the world. Best practice, cleaner and lifecycle production would involve maximal orientation to renewable resources, with miniaturization of form and weight-loss guiding materials usage. Production costs should be internalized, and environmental as well as economic metrics employed. This route would not necessarily involve a wide sectoral spread of goods and services production, because a smaller city could need to focus to achieve critical mass. The key is not to follow academic orthodoxy, emphasizing niche, low-­ tech, ephemeral fields (urban arts and crafts, media or showpiece events) which can falter in a global neoliberal downturn. Rather, in assemblies of kindred enterprises, the intent should be to reconceive and reengineer imperative, environmentally friendly and financially defensive products and services to provide compelling value propositions across life’s necessities and discretionary spending. Developments in materials, information and biotechnologies provide ready examples, including those of the American companies in the FAANG group (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and [Alphabet’s] Google). Some successful Australian startups include FBR, Fastbrick Robotics, which has pioneered a robotized bricklaying system; Atlassian, with its innovative tracking and storage software; Afterpay, a company offering installment opportunities; and WhiteHawk, delivering cyber security solutions. Advanced medical product development and high-end tourism, postgraduate and professional education, specialized defense and space applications, hardware and software development, computing research, energy innovations, and instrumentation are possible complements. Guides to urban entrepreneurship are common in the business press (Manhattan Institute for Policy Research 2000; Leigh and Blakely 2017).11 However, such

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e­ nterprise could involve delayed gratification, consisting of the reinvestment of profits in business development as opposed to immediate largesse to stockholders. The shape of a future Industrial Revolution, incorporating products, processes and ways of looking at material needs, was charted some years ago by Hawken et al. (1999). For startups and commercialization, the City would need the more grounded and altruistic of Richard Florida’s (2002) ‘creative class,’ not simply visionaries and inventors but, additionally, developers, venture capitalists and organizers to move ideas from basic to applied research, through development stages, and then into brand-managed markets (Ache 2000).12 Readings on the entrepreneurial city could offer directions (Hall and Hubbard 1998). The desirability of retaining startups in the City relates critically to the criterion of sustainability. In manifesting the (aesthetic) virtue of variety and in actively managing entropy, economic durability could obtain not only in diversification across divisions of a standard industrial classification but also, in an extension of Vernon and Wells’ (1966) product lifecycle model, through a mix of fledgling and mature companies, goods and services. Finance theory urges such portfolio structuring for resilience, producing diversification both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Hence, apart from the maintenance of mature lines, process and product breakthroughs in ‘sunrise’ industries would be pursued so as to create incremental, radical variations, leading to what Dicken (2015, 76) calls ‘system-­embracing’ innovations. The Holy Grail would be to send another Kondratieff wave through Daly’s (1977, 19) ultimate means to create new energy sources, the chief need of fossil-dependent humankind today (cf. Fig.  4.2 and Montgomery 2007, 8–9, 27). Given ongoing innovation, a worthy strategy of altruism could outsource particular elements of production once past the early stages of the product life cycle (Vernon and Wells 1966; Vernon 1979). Restricted in size, the City should, as its trademark, export not only products and services but also ideas, contracts and selected jobs, the latter group underscoring the imperative of continued innovation to a sustainable economic equilibrium. From Danish experience, this inflow–outflow process is well understood and could demonstrate both goodwill and graciousness as long as bespoke intellectual property (IP) was not infringed. The other

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benefit of externalizing business activity, as in a conventional high-­ technology incubator, would be to free up limited space for new indigenous enterprises and appropriate foreign direct investment. One of the City’s ongoing issues with direct or portfolio investment would be management of exogenous takeovers which could spirit expertise prematurely from the production complex.57 On occasion, regulation or support might be required to uphold the common interest. A systemic weakness of many economies is their lazy reliance on demographic growth to provide an annual ‘base load’ market expansion 1–2 percent. It is ironic that neoliberalism emphasizes individuality and user-­ pays systems but will frequently assist its own perpetuation by socializing (subsidizing) family reproduction. With population growth, real GDP figures must always increase or, ceteris paribus, per capita ratios and wealth will fall (Victor 2008, 23–24). Higher entropy thereby beckons. In assuming demographic stability for environmental and other ends, steady-state economies raise the bar.13 Their progress rests on development (i.e. production and productivity gain from factor inputs), not growth (an increase in the quantum of factor endowment, including labor, generating greater output without necessarily involving productivity gains). Constrained in its form, The City of Grace should remain small enough that workers, who choose to live there (cf. Schoon 2001), could actualize themselves as long-term, cohesive teams making a global contribution mainly through endogenous initiative and innovation (viz. the conventional Japanese workplace model). In short, positive annual accounting gains are welcome, derived not from demographics but from capital enhancement, technology and factor productivity. These elements provide the basis for the process of allocation outlined below. Balancing supply and demand to create orderliness and constrain entropy, the City would promote local capital and labor to avoid an inefficient under-engagement of resources. Restrictive trade policies are not generally facilitative, since they ‘provide incentives for additional migration flows by discouraging labour demand in labour intensive sectors in the sending regions and fostering it in the destination countries’ (Rossi 2003, 135). It would be better to manage labor dynamics by non-trade means. Constraints upon the extent of built form, as in both workplaces and domiciles, could act to let property price mechanisms filter the

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­ arket. As far as possible (i.e. excluding cases of high-level occupational m specialization), the steady-state city workforce would be indigenous, not composed of guest workers who can: disrupt local, first-time labor market entrants; relieve local corporations of their training and apprenticeship obligations; affect wage rates (Blair 1995, 112); and pressure housing markets. Maybe language issues could play a conditioning role. Based on a population of 400,000,14 the City’s workforce should number around 190,000, assuming participation of roughly 65 percent. Structural, demand-deficient or hidden unemployment would also be guarded against and frictional expression restrained to a natural rate of around 5 percent (Armstrong and Taylor 2000, 175–76). Precarious employment would likewise be checked. In these ways, working poverty and homelessness would be controlled—with Schoon (2001), thereby avoiding problems of emigration before they are created. That result (‘good work’) alone would take the City a long way, probably further than would undue regulation, toward the justice sought by Fainstein (2010). Grace is also unlikely to accompany situations of excess demand, congestion and inflationary overheating. They could be addressed by outplacement within a steady-state framework. In its external dealings, again reflecting exclusivity, the City might invest, fund, and trade selectively with (democratic), IPAT-oriented entities pursuing best practice ecological production techniques (as in the current mode of ‘ethical investing’). While a technological orientation should foster export of education, an important adjunct reflecting gracility would be continued capacity in humanities and social science to reorient wider thinking about neoliberalism and the importance of a more sustainable approach to world economics, demography and the environment (Freestone 1993).15 In contemporary social media language, the City could become an ‘influencer.’

Allocation Ends In allocation, the devil is in the detail of attaining a fair process and just outcome (Fainstein 1999, 253–60). Resource scarcity relative to human

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needs and wants, the foundation of economics, has existed since time immemorial. Even a partial solution would bestow civic grace, leading to a Maslovian gain. Paretian improvement is another matter, as many advanced nations see their Gini indices rise and significant inequalities abound. Possibly, fairness of opportunity combined with an ethos, instilled since childhood, of personal advancement are among the few ways of derailing the invidia, which can thwart intrinsic personal motivation and polarize communities. Resolution of what might constitute appropriate pecuniary ends in urban contexts has occupied Fainstein (2010) in an entire book-length treatment: it is not likely to be resolved in a paragraph here. Readers are thereby directed to her account of The Just City, which, in several case studies (and with a leaning toward Amsterdam), reveals the potential of psychic satisfactions as an objective of urban life. This position would be endorsed among the psychological precepts and related strategies of The City of Grace, underpinned by the condition that sufficient economic and social provision for the poor would have to exist for any sense of graciousness to prevail. Hopefully, it would eliminate homelessness.

Means Despite inherent difficulties in economic allocation, some progress is conceivable. Behavioral economics and happiness studies have made headway over the last 20 years, leading today to subfields such as neuro-­ economics. As a seminal example, Easterlin (1995) draws on the logic of both Adam Smith and Herbert Simon in finding that individuals experience increases in utility with gains in income to a point of sufficiency16: thereafter, only relative position within society is effective (see Clinton 2007, 21; Montgomery 2013). The economic tradition of Thorstein Veblen and John Kenneth Galbraith argues that levels beyond sufficiency constitute over- or hyper-consumption of material goods and services, which is often associated with declines in relational wealth and the onset of anomie and dissociative behavior (Furnham and Argyle 1998, 153–76; Lipovetsky and Charles 2005, 33; James 2008, 43–117). In advanced countries, close personal relationships, good health and job contentment are far more instrumental to happiness (Hamilton 2003, 39). These

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(non-pecuniary) findings should notably influence dispensation in the City. They correspond with Ryan and Deci’s prescription of competence, autonomy and relatedness, which could be advanced as a counterpoise to the money, power and status which, in the neoliberal mindset, underpin ‘relative position.’ Maybe the invidia which these social markers invoke could be reduced by a greater emphasis on the three psychological elements as pivotal to human motivation and eudemonia. The issue remains to find a practical and socially acceptable way to reflect graciousness in allocation. Among several means in welfare economics, outlined by Pindyck and Rubinfeld (2001, 577), to share desirable wares, Susan Fainstein (1999, 251), in the spirit of Edward Bellamy’s (1897) earlier urban thesis, has argued for ‘material equality.’ The parable of the talents (Matthew 25: 14–30) notwithstanding, it might satisfy some aspects of grace. Yet, presently, we cannot reliably equalize opportunity and it is unlikely that human nature would favor equality of outcome (egalitarianism) as the key mode of allocation. Irrespective of Marxist or theological reasoning, it might thwart motivation for income-­ based mobility or merit-based precedence and can overlook the significance of relational wealth (Diwan 2000, 318). Rawlsian (1971, 303) enhancement of the lot of the worst-off in society relies on compassion which is hardly a universal private good. Neoliberal followers of the Austrian or Chicago schools would urge pure market solutions. Apart from emerging global wealth disparities, the expansion of such a system indicates the potential for notable downsides, which threaten social stability. Accordingly, utilitarianism, the greatest good for the greatest number, is likely to complement Easterlin’s position and remain the most viable method of welfare determination on the path to urban grace. It can incorporate many of the more specific equity issues outlined by Sandercock (1998, 184).17 Utilitarian economic allocation, a partner to philosophical hedonism, links naturally with democracy in political determination and communal social orientation. Within its aegis, reward should accrue to achievement based on effort, providing incentive and a means to self-actualization through vocational and social success. While, absolutely and relatively, this arrangement might serve City residents, it would nevertheless be insufficient in demonstrating the beneficence or goodwill revealed in foregoing studies of grace. Economic satisficing and moderation could,

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on one hand, assist environmental sustainability. On the other, individual or collective achievement of material surplus should prompt grateful altruism and the extension of welfare to people less fortunate locally and elsewhere in the world, what self-actualization theorists have called a Gemeinschaftsgefühl (cf. Sturgess 1999, 3; Schwartz 2005, 230). These steps are non-negotiable to offset the exclusivity argued as part of grace.18 However, the targeting of recipients should recursively draw upon the same strategy of exclusivity. Selection would not be based upon reciprocity, empathy or pity (Furnham and Argyle 1998, 236–37) but, more realistically, upon beneficiaries actively addressing environmental constraints, especially in their demography. Otherwise the City’s charitable resources could be wasted on corrupt agents, bottomless pits, lost causes, or Ponzi structures with scant prospect of real welfare gains. Public–private partnerships to administer such arrangements on an inter-urban (i.e. city-to-­ city or sister city) basis might offer the best targeted chances of success. In extenso, they could instigate a global community of environmentally minded urban settlements. A lead worth extending is the personal and corporate philanthropy now undertaken by businessmen like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett,19 and various media personalities (cf. Clinton 2007). Through their actions, which Gates (2008) calls ‘creative capitalism,’ Seattle, WA20 and Omaha, NB can chalk up some claims to grace.

Political Function Apart from strongly supporting economic and social agendas, the aim of governance must be to avoid ira, invidia and avarita, (conflict, envy and greed), in pursuing the City’s objectives in its quest for graciousness. The application includes both external and internal affairs.

External Affairs Ends Just as with von Thünen’s ([1826] 1966) Isolated State and today’s non­EU Switzerland and Norway, The City first needs at least local jurisdic-

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tional autonomy to effectuate meaningful political function (cf. Friedmann 1987, 387).

Means To foster greater global choice, Wadley (2008, 670) has explored the potential for fragmentation of some existing nations. In consequence, the optimal geography for the current proposal would be a city state, allowing control over movements of capital and labor. Even though there is no pressure to create a global magnet for investment and immigration, the City would require a significant buffer to deflect the gravitational force of neoliberal settlement and to pursue its own compact development. In one possible incarnation, island status or inhospitable surrounding terrain would support its sovereignty. Reykjavik in Iceland, Perth or Darwin in Australia, or Honolulu in Hawaii are the sort of locations which might theoretically qualify.

Internal Affairs Ends Structures and processes of governance aim to enable the City to pursue its chosen pathways as efficaciously as possible. They need to be comprehensive, ex ante and accessible to inhabitants, so as to secularize the human responsiveness, participation and good works suggested in the theological treatises reviewed.

Means In any governance, six facets of conduct appear to facilitate grace via its precepts of stewardship and individual utility (cf. Friedmann 2000, 470, 2002, 116). The first is inspired political leadership. Collins’ (2001, 39) study of corporate greatness endorses this quality, requiring of chief executives personal humility and professional will, modesty, understatement,

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drive and diligence—each a gracious trait of the ‘servant leader’ (cf. Diwan 2000, 333). The second element is public accountability, followed by transparency, inclusiveness, responsiveness and nonviolent conflict management. John Rawls’ (1971, 11–17) conceptualization of fair processes producing just outcomes again usefully packages the points. Additionally, Diana Coyle (2011, 147) notes that, without trust, nothing in an economy (or society) will function properly. Kavaratzis and Ashworth (2005, 510) find it difficult to ‘brand’ or unilaterally characterize cities. By way of political corroboration, Susan Fainstein (1999, 249–50) adds that the left, center and right could each veto any meaningful agreement about the conduct of urban life. In that governance in The City of Grace will extend beyond libertarian minimalism, it will involve post-material values, which can potentially fracture social solidarity. Highly individualized people have trouble agreeing on the ‘greater good,’ in reciprocating trust, and in validating hierarchical institutions such as trades union and religious organizations. They prefer to pick and choose interests and values in a form of ‘smorgasbord politics’ (Sturgess 1999, 3). However, just like a gated estate, an eco-village or a gay resort (cf. Hubbard 2006, 215–16), the settlement will signal precepts, strategies and its modus operandi. They will attract the like-minded (Schoon 2001) and point others to the more straightforward but potentially risky offerings of global capitalism. Without a compact among inhabitants to guide long-term planning and development, graciousness would simply fail to materialize (cf. Friedmann 2002, 108–09). Likewise, there is scant requirement for politicians whose chief interests appear remote from those of their constituents (e.g. an obsession with international organizations or ‘causes’). Their personal desire for engagement or redemption should not obligate a populace. The City will not seek to encompass or impose upon the entire world. It would rather ‘mind its own business’ (sustainability and exclusivity) and (rationally) not buy into others’ seemingly intractable and cumulating problems on the edge of chaos. ‘Utility not futility’ could be its realist maxim. Friedmann explores three political stances to interrelate ends and means. Democratic proceduralists believe that differences among urban stakeholders are relatively minor and that, in the long run, everyone gets a turn. They oppose Kantian idealists, for whom good intentions are suf-

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ficient in themselves to define what is good. The third position characterizes those so self-assured that they pursue chosen ends by any available means. This is the Bismarckian ‘might is right’ view in which transformative change necessitates revolution: some people will have to move aside, or be moved, for a presumed greater utilitarian good which could include self-actualization (cf. Fukuyama 2007, 11). These three standpoints need to be appraised in terms of alternative political structures. A failed state could offer plenty of anarchic or warlord-sponsored force, but little grace. Some graciousness could exist if a feudal system, totalitarian régime or dictatorship were to show beneficence toward its own (and other) people, a distant and positive proxy being the industrial company towns of the nineteenth century. In fact, conscious of the failings of city and local governments, which ‘have rarely …intervene[d] enough to prevent the unpalatable kind of growth which typifies our larger American urban areas,’ Raymond Vernon (1964, 97) held that ‘if a major object of our existence were to create great cities of beauty and grace, there would be something to be said in favor of dictatorship.’21 This is certainly a step beyond the liberal and coordinated governance, which characterizes OECD countries (Hall and Soskice 2001, 19–21). Also relevant is Robertson’s (1979, 44) doubting of whether authoritarian controls would be sufficient to handle not only the economic but also the social, psychological, institutional and conceptual limits to continued human expansion. Maybe Vernon’s call could be recast as supporting a ‘managed economy,’ within which some urban areas, including lesser-­ known examples such as Astana, the new capital of Kazakhstan, have done quite well in the last 70 years. Alternatively, Kjellberg (2000, 85) notes that participatory planning is often seen as the only ecologically correct kind, while Short (1989, 78) writes that ‘good cities are those which encourage the engagement of citizens in political discourse.’ The Democratic Peace Clock website22 claims that democracies have the least foreign and internal violence and do not fight each other (the Kantian ‘democratic peace’ (Zakaria 2003, 115)). Strife being far from gracious, the City might assume some form of democracy, representative, pluralist or populist (McConnell 1981: 112–13; Fainstein 2010). It will need to be combined with a realist outlook toward the bounds of liberalism because, as the conservative Australian historian John Hirst (2008, 14)

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has succinctly put it: ‘liberal principles work well in a well-ordered, law-­ abiding, self-reliant society….When society loses these characteristics, liberalism simply adds to the decline through its stress on individual rights.’ Effectively, the transition is back to the quiet desperation of many neoliberal contexts or, worse, toward one or another form of chaos. Once established, the policies of a democratic city state government could range from center-left to center-right without creating the disillusion or disengagement found on the respective political wings. Both extremes deliver utopia for adherents and dystopic concern among the masses. Prompted by the 2008 GFC and attendant worldwide advances in state equity holdings or subventions, it is likely that the pendulum will swing back from laisser faire to the center. For now, articulations of the ‘ensuring state’ (Schuppert 2003) or ‘regulatory capitalism’ (Braithwaite 2008) offer prospective directions. While all this might not be saying much novel, what could be innovative in the digital age would be greater use of referenda on key issues, in order to deflect populism with a more embracing, Swiss-style form of direct democracy.

Social Function Ends To support its economic trajectory and, functioning effectively as an intentional community, The City of Grace will need not only steadfast political foundations, but also the creation of a particular culture involving a civil society and enduring forms of social capital so that its citizens experience Giddens’ (1984) ontological security and Holt’s (2007, 2) ‘neighborliness.’ Following Europe’s first urban psychology summit in London in June 2019, these concepts today contribute to a ‘therapeutic city’ (Boyle et al. 2019). Its authenticity should avoid ‘anxiety,’ caused by a lack of cohesion and shared purpose (Sturgess 1999; Williams 2004, 19). At the base level, it will, with Shaftesbury and Weil, disavow many pretensions of ego and individualism (luxuria and superbia) applauded today in the West, and look instead to Kjellberg’s (2000, 142) humility and Diwan’s (2000) relational wealth23 as lodestones toward a quality of life. Contesting the neoliberal trajectory, the most expansive and ironic

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aim would be to allow people to live in a society, rather than an economy (Baldwin 1995, 32; Dufour 2008), one which offers some certainty as against the tribulations of titanic and mindless expansion. Beyond physical beauty, grace connotes love (Daujat 1959, 11). Within macro-urban social function, it should manifest as harmony and kindliness, in line with the City’s baselines of personal utility and social welfare. Theological or ideological régimes demanding strict observances risk a life of submission and limited agency, both of which can sap initiative. More modest secular happiness which does not disadvantage others would suffice.24 In this connection, John Friedmann (2002, 110–11) identifies a foundation of a ‘good’ city, namely, that each inhabitant has the opportunity fully to develop his or her intellectual, physical and spiritual capabilities. This criterion supplements the quest for utility, corroborates the thrust of Maslow’s hierarchy, supports the intrinsic motivation of self-determination theory, and complements Diwan’s theorizing. It implies broad access to educational and other formative systems. It also presumes that inhabitants blend the common focus with a commitment to each other and to the City at large. In this way, grace can manifest in Schopenhauer’s idealistic freedom from dissonance and disorder, and facets of gratitude and thankfulness could emerge.

Means Achievement of appropriate ends, pictured above, requires the development of several social elements. The populace requires economic supports to enable sociability, health and well-being. It must look beyond purely materialistic motives to achieve relational wealth. Steps to achieve social and moral capital will involve demographic stability, place attachment, altruism and a realistic outlook toward diversity and pluralism. These matters are now handled sequentially.

Economic Supports While The City of Grace presumes a well-waged economy to support its vision and mission, it will face external suppliers offering far lower remuneration (Dicken 2015, 123). Its first challenge must be to achieve high

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hourly rates, not nominally but effectively, in the industrial relations terms of actual time on the job and resultant work-life balance. Globalization has endowed many advanced economies with scant promise of enduring leisure but, instead and most markedly in financial services, law, and other professional fields, excessively long (‘billable’) hours at work. They do little for broader interaction, conviviality, graciousness, or the building blocks of civic trust. Socialist parties in France responded to this situation in the 1990s by introducing mandated maximum working daily and weekly working hours. Elsewhere, discussion has moved on to identify ‘phantom vibration syndrome,’ as in one’s mobile phone allegedly ringing all the time with work calls, and the consequent need for a ‘digital detox’ (Fleming and Rhodes 2019). Watch this workspace.

Urban Health and Well-being Both strategic and structural expressions of city planning have much to do with psychology. Despite emerging studies of emotional geographies and place identity, this link in its broad form has been under-recognized and under-researched. Now physical and mental health issues among populations (aka ‘ego-systems’) are gaining increasing attention. Ideas of precarity and vulnerability are working their way into public policy applications to create situations which heal, rather than harm (Boyle et  al. 2019). Simons (1995, 63) writes that ‘“economic man’s” emphasis on self-interest for the creation of wealth and satisfaction of insatiable wants lamentably ignores the existence of human motivations and values which are necessary for the cohesiveness of any society.’ In this regard and to support its market positioning, the City would straddle Heikkila’s (2004, 384) traditional and transformational categories of urban settlement. In the traditional category, it could stably be defined by place, as is Rome, the Eternal City. Self-actualization would occur, but not from constant renewal and transformation, which Heikkila (2004, 386) claims characterize the City of Angels, Los Angeles, CA, or Phoenix, AZ. Instead it would emerge from demographic and social stability, contravening the often rudderless backdrops of the globalized neoliberal model. As a system, The City of Grace would be less than totally open and permeable, so

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as to exclude detrimental influence, manage entropy, and underwrite its survival. With foundations established in self-actualization and self-­ determination theories, it would be well positioned as part of its social function and graceful form to contribute positively to health and well-­ being outcomes.

Social and Moral Capital Haidt (2012, 290–93) addresses the issue of social and kindred forms of capital. In connoting norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness, the focus in on the relationships within which people are embedded. For example, positive links can reduce transaction costs and promote competitiveness. Needed additionally, though, is regard of the ‘complete environment’ in which relationships occur—in other words, an ‘ethical profile.’ Haidt’s animates this profile by contrasting a small community in which people might leave their bicycles unlocked, with a large, anonymous one in which ‘if you only lock your bike frame, your wheels might get stolen.’ The end point is a definition of ‘moral capital’ as the degree to which a community possesses interlocking sets of values, virtues, norms, practices, identities, and technologies that mesh well with evolved psychological mechanisms and thereby enable the community to suppress or regulate selfishness and make cooperation possible.

Despite its elevated positioning and apparent desirability, such capital does not automatically lead to fairness or equality of opportunity. It could also be fragile: extrapolated to the scale of nations, ‘the challenge is extraordinary and the threat of moral entropy is intense.’ Ways are thus needed to access the advantages of this form of relatedness while avoiding the downsides.25

Demography The demographic stability advocated for the City could assist. Benefits relate first to its positive environmental impact and sustainability. In the

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last 15 years, Brisbane and Cape Town have run critically short of potable water, with Mexico City, Jakarta, Sao Paulo, Beijing, Cairo, Bangalore, Tokyo and London potentially threatened (Sykes 2018). Australian26 and Californian coastal cities check their expensive desalination plants, while France and Israel, among other countries, constantly monitor the water demands of their primary and energy industries (cf. Rifkin n.d.). The Tibetan plateau is the source of major rivers upon which various downstream countries in southeast and central Asia depend.  All this is not Malthusian nonsense: to rational observers, aware that 60 percent of the world’s fresh water is found in just nine countries and that global demand is doubling every 20 years (Gorringe 2011, 27), it must appear that stewardship, the precautionary principle and overarching IPAT logic have, through time, been jettisoned. In a ‘boiled frog’ syndrome of at least temporary over-population, contingency water plans, especially for inland cities, can be hard to conjure at the last minute. On a far less critical front, Kotler et  al. (1993, 5–7), citing cases of Orlando, FL, Seattle, WA and Philadelphia, PA, show how either urban population growth or decline can lead to a rise in local taxes. Long-term demographic equilibrium (equating gains and losses over some years) might actually offer an easier future (cf. Banfield 1970, 43). It would moderate requirements for repeated, lumpy forward expenditure for infrastructure, along with the difficult fiscal and NIMBY (not in my back yard) trade-offs entailed. Emphasis would be on productive maintenance and recycling rather than expensive new construction. The City’s share of fixed asset expenditure on property would thereby fall and could be allocated to innovation support. Solutions, preferably advanced ones, could be implemented without the burden of extending significant equity to enlarged future generations (viz. moderation and exclusivity). There would be no need for a substantial, low-technology building and construction industry (Victor 2008), the fortunes and failures of which, through strong multipliers, can unsettle a much wider economy. Resources could be employed elsewhere in markets where greater trade exposure would necessarily boost productivity and offer higher yields. They could be used adequately to remunerate labor, its supply contained to avoid falling real wage levels. Apart from ideological contentions (e.g. the alleged importance of transience or diversity), critics will argue that the difficulty with demographic stability is that of workforce renewal and seniors’ support. This

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position appears somewhat rhetorical given lags in macro-modeling of population and fiscal contingencies. Stability could be manageable by combining a small regular demographic inflow and outflow balanced with top-level communications connectivity, proper pension, financial and infrastructural provision and planning. Within Third Way schemata, Denmark’s high tax, ‘compassionate capitalism,’ which blends job flexibility with security (‘flexicurity’), might offer some insights (Kuttner 2008). As likewise advocated for The City of Grace, that nation has exported routine jobs and retained high-end knowledge and engineering roles. This pattern can promote shared effort toward real achievement, rather than the financial paper-shuffling, ‘moving and shaking,’ or ­perpetual restructuring of the neoliberal and managerial workplaces. From Australia, an outstanding example of perseverance is Professor Ian Frazer’s (2006) twenty-one-year initiative from humble beginnings to develop a cervical cancer vaccine, lately commercialized and accepted by millions worldwide. Such practical welfare breakthroughs, offering the possibility of individual, team and community self-actualization, signpost one among many paths to grace.

Place Attachment Reflecting the City’s steady-state ethos and development controls, maybe 2 or 3 percent of the population would turn over each year through emigration and immigration, offering calibrated, intercultural opportunities as advocated by Wood and Landry (2008). In this way, supporting the strategy of exclusiveness, duration of residence would lengthen,27 people would grow up, get to know, work with, and support each other, so that ‘feeling at home,’ ontological security and longer-term social capital could deepen (Downs 1994, 203; Holt 2007, 27; Häkli and Minca 2009). Benstein (2006, 207) comments that the values of rootedness and territoriality are somewhat out of fashion in social thought, because they are seen as reactionary and irredentist, and are part of a range of problems and very few solutions. For environmentalists, however, belonging, in spatial as well as social terms, is the source of

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responsibility and caring, and therefore can be the basis for progressive activism.

The case here is to create a locus one can actually call home, a livable abode with some predictability as opposed to the ‘unmooring’ of the postmodern (Dear 2000, 263) in which the metaphor of the airport (i.e. constant arrivals and departures) is often called to mind. Benstein’s is not an isolated viewpoint. The artist, Christian Nold, using GPS and polygraph (galvanic skin response) technologies, has constructed emotional maps of various cities as a basis for participatory models of communal representation.28 John Urry (2005, 78–79) also studies the emotions of place—how ordinary land can transform into ‘landscape’ infused with symbolic meanings, how places can become associated with production or consumption, how they acquire positive or negative connotations, and the fact that they are linked with human relationships. Urry emphasizes, though, that to have appeal, places must retain a distinctive identity against ‘the domination of the world economy with huge, homogenizing capitalist corporations.’ At a more general epistemological level, Eva Illouz (2007) has undertaken an analysis of the strong public and private emotionality locked onto material relations within capitalism.

Altruistic Outreach Following the Hebrew ‘hen’ and ‘henan,’ altruistic social outreach from the City to other cities and nations could also embrace assistance regarding problematic population growth. Much impetus has been lost after early calls of Ehrlich and Ehrlich (1980) and the World Bank’s Clausen (1984) for remediation. Keekok Lee (1989, 147–50) argues that ‘family planning’ will not solve population problems consensually and nor, by itself, will economic growth. ‘A drop in population in a country already overpopulated may be a prerequisite for a rise in the level of wealth, rather than a rise in the level of wealth is [sic] a necessary and sufficient condition for a fall in the birth rate.’29 For ‘the common good,’ means are needed to establish ‘population control,’ initially by ensuring demographic stability and then achieving a desirable scale (Daly and Cobb

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1989, 240–42). Though Zovanyi (2013, 187–88) urges a ‘one or none’ birth ethos, conscience would likely be insufficient to its achievement: coercion enters the arena (Hardin 1968, 1246; Moller et al. 2006; Dietz and O’Neill 2013, 83). Using the rational choice model, the least-worst and still partly ‘carrot’ approach would raise the opportunity (and probably the actual) costs of successive births so as at least to privatize rather than socialize procreation (cf. Landsburg 2007, 153–55). Daly and Cobb (1989, 243–44) alternatively propose a quota (‘far less harsh than the Chinese plan’) with transferable reproduction rights. Jeremy Rifkin (n.d.) has sensibly suggested that extension of electricity supply would improve vocational ­opportunities for women and so constrain reproduction. Alexander and Gleeson (2019, 192) call for a global fund to minimize unplanned pregnancies and, simultaneously, the abolition of all incentives toward population growth. However formulated, the City’s charitable external program would proceed as long-term material and consulting aid. In IPAT terms, it could achieve more than many other measures to help lower entropy, relieve population pressure and ensure the stability of local societies. Correspondingly, one can ask (a) whether China’s rise from poor-house to powerhouse would have occurred had it not constrained demographic increase and (b) what, if any, social utility another three billion people will add to the planet by 2100? Prudence would again sidestep creating or buying unnecessarily into potential problems.

Managing Diversity Traditionally, communities have, more or less successfully, incorporated differences of class, wealth, gender, politics, religion, sexual orientation, weight and age. Globalization is changing this template with swift and irreversible processes which introduce forceful new dimensions of mixing and temporality (Wadley 2008, 671–72). Despite some scholarly enthusiasm and the calls of amiable idealists, rent-seekers, and boosters for cosmopolitanism,30 frequently toward some assumed social justice, the extent and intent of human diversity have been only recently understood (Fainstein 2005, 9–11; April and Shockley 2007). Insufficiently recog-

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nized is that diversity involves social effort and invokes contentious issues of values and interests common in international relations.31 Encouraged for its own sake (Blaine 2007), it adds little to anything except population numbers,32 the possibility of identity politics, potential grievances and the virtue signaling of sponsoring (and posturing) élites. Complicating notions of the ‘common good’ (Gorringe 2011, 10), it can be more process- than product-oriented and might necessarily cede to imposed managerialism or authoritarianism. Goodrich (2014, 216) thus rebrands diversity as ‘cultural complexity,’ which, he argues, is producing diminishing returns. Advocates of diversity appear to assume that the initial directions in any project are taken for granted and that additional voices will produce more strategies and solutions so as to enhance productive efficiency. If preliminaries are not settled, allocative efficiency (aka effectiveness) could cede to a multitude of viewpoints, especially if backed by vested interests. Perhaps the dissipative niceties at last need to be called out. The best scenario toward positive corporate endeavor is intellectual diversity, involving original thought, creativity and flexibility from everybody working as one around a shared goal in the spirit of traction, not fraction. Creativity and innovation might not result from purely physical diversity which, accompanied by an overburden of ideology, could hinder adaptation in a turbulent environment. Rossi (2003, 130) writes that ‘integration is a process, not an event, and it can take more than a generation to achieve.’ Still critically unclear is whether societies will insist on forced or voluntary assimilation (both situations presumably requiring perpetual integration and ongoing demographic renewal to keep diversity alive), or whether diversity might acceptably persist to produce a social mosaic. Further on is ontological differentiation of the desirability of diversity, transience and ephemerality.33 These concepts find relevance in Martinotti’s (1999, 165) recognition of a ‘transnational middle class living not in a city but rather in cities or between cities’ [original emphases]. As sociologist Don Edgar (2001, 85) points out in The Patchwork Nation, ‘most people do not have the skills or resources to operate in such an autonomous and fearless fashion, so they construct defensive identities around communal or tribal princi-

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ples, hence the rise and rise of identity politics and of political appeals to special interest groups.’ In some countries, urban social development is thus proving problematic due, in part, to the plurality encouraged extemporarily by capitalists, cosmopolitans and liberals, no group acknowledging risk or financially underwriting its preferences or actions. In such a context, possible economic downswings would only create social pressures on liberal governance as imagined by Hirst (2008, 14). The negative claim raised by Stocker (1990, 166) is that ‘there can be no sound way to compare [really different values] and no sound way to make judgements about situations which have mixtures of plural values.’ Intense demographic turnover is unlikely to allow time for adequate adjustment, leaving globalized cities, the omnipolises of the future, in constant flux (cf. Putnam 2007) and facing impending gains in entropy. At a broad level, Fukuyama (2007, 11) has observed that ‘societies with significant ethnic, religious, or sectarian cleavages or minorities have always been more difficult to consolidate as states.’ Kahn (2006, 107–08) posts an unenthusiastic résumé of engineered diversity, arguing that it could: weaken any environmental consensus; increase anomie; reduce social cohesion and the chance of solving collective-action problems; diminish civic engagement and the provision of public goods; and erode support for redistribution. Transience might intensify these contingencies and require much stronger controls than currently imagined, particularly if participants were to demonstrate uncertain purpose or self-actualize dissonantly.34 In an extended position, Jonathan Haidt, during a mid-2019 speaking tour of Australia, deemed it delusional to believe that liberal, secular and multicultural democracy is a natural condition for human nature. In augmenting his 2012 theorizing of moral capital, he said it was ‘a miracle’ that it had emerged in a state of diversity and that it is far more fragile than we realize. In fact, he anticipated a ‘catastrophic collapse’ of the American system of governance within 30 years (Kelly 2019). In one view, neoliberal régimes have sponsored material over-­ consumption as a fob to the breakup of communities (Diwan 2000, 327). Other reactions are emerging in the public surveillance required in globalized settings, along with growing acceptance among people of like

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mind and aspiration of the ‘absolution and security’ of gated residential retreats (also termed ‘private cities’ or ‘privatopias’) (MacLeod and Ward 2002, 160; Glasze et al. 2005). These moves support Fukuyama (2007, 12–13), in that a certain demographic homogeneity must underwrite successful state-building. That quality might not be material but, instead, could signify unity of purpose and civility minus any parading, preciousness or exceptionalism. Thus, apart from civic functions, excessive on-­ street class consciousness, ethnicity and religiosity would be discouraged in The City of Grace in what, as the price of some manageable diversity, might come to be a post-ideological society. While some constructive applications of diversity might nevertheless facilitate graciousness (cf. Rossi 2003, 120), conflicting and unfocused expression could abet the ability of neoliberal individualism to devalue social capital and trust (cf. Fainstein 2005, 13). In the previously cited Woman’s Own magazine interview, Margaret Thatcher (inadvertently) opined that ‘there is no such thing as society.’ Lipovetsky and Charles (2005, 31) concur that ‘even social classes and class cultures are fading away before the principle of autonomous individuality.’ To skirt any problems and meanwhile facilitate social planning, the City, in its hallmarks of sustainable development, initiative and utilitarianism, would presuppose among different peoples a low-entropy universe of shared creative purpose before a fluid and expanding multiverse of objectives, identities, clientèles and choice (cf. Dear 2000, 263; Schwartz 2005, 99–116, 221–36). Gleeson’s (2010) ‘solidarity,’ historically a rallying word, would need to be resuscitated in order to reinforce the City against the cascading global competition foreseen by Wadley (2008, 666–67). Appropriate community development could replace Tofflerian disconnectedness with commitment, conviviality, inclusiveness and a need to achieve (cf. Baldwin 1995; Simons 1995, 64). This path would also underwriter the ‘relatedness’ element of individual and social welfare nominated within self-determination theory (Ryan and Deci 2017, 293–316). Urban mental health should thereby benefit. Diwan (2000, 319, 325) urges democratic communitarianism based on relational wealth and involving shared meanings and values. Adapting it to the present context, residents would embrace a lifestyle of physical and psychic achievement with evidentiary ‘grace’ and, following Johns (2004, 5–6), hold firm con-

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cepts of order, involvement, responsibility, citizenship and a civil society. Dare to be similar: as Diwan (2000, 316) observes, ‘quality of life flourishes in a family environment that can be sustained only if there is community. Community is only possible at a particular place. That is why Ghandi emphasized swadeshi: a term that translates as “my place.”’ These ideas mirror those regarding ‘place’ of the more urban-inclined theologists, Inge (2003) and Simon Carey Holt (2007), and correspond with the recent emergence of neighborliness as pivotal to urban response in normal and disaster-impacted times. They also corroborate emerging political ideas about overlooked, soft terms such as ‘kindness,’ which could proxy as a practical, everyday manifestation of grace.

Modeling Outcomes What does a place stand for? Pursuing its objectives and precepts, the City’s overall strategy has followed a market framework but with significant deviation from the excesses of contemporary capitalism. As a variant of the ecological writings of Platt et al. (1994, 2006) and Gleeson’s (2010) lifeboat cities, and with an eye-PAT in an age of potential chaos on Hardin’s (1974) lifeboat ethics, its remit is to replace learned helplessness, failing dogma and ideology with rational measures, if necessary at times involving degrowth (Alexander and Gleeson 2019), to ensure its own long-term sustainability and entropy management. Realistically, its economic function will have to assume an eco-tech orientation with concerns to minimize the ecological footprint and, against this constraint, to enhance wealth. Setting aside financial arbitrage and low-end, mass manufacturing, the mainstay will consist of advanced production and distribution involving research, design and higher technology in the delivery of goods and services. The City will clearly understand the economic distinction between creditable development (gains in per capita income achieved through its chosen avenues and enterprise) and less worthy demographic and other forms of growth. Domestic allocation will follow utilitarian principles, with egalitarian interventions as necessary, employing conventional resourcist safety nets. Particular provisions would assist external allocation through targeting of sister and other cities needing

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support by way of commercial spinoffs, contract work or charitable aid, especially that related to population control. Political mechanisms will underwrite the City’s economic and social functions. A city state arrangement would be the most facilitative to allow national-level determination and macroeconomic capacity. Despite the apparent attractions of a muscular, managed democracy in ‘getting things done,’ a bottom-up variety would likely reflect more graciousness in outlook and operation. Given a basically centrist modus operandi, more popular referenda by electronic means are suggested to allay agitation from either end of the political spectrum. Social gracility requires the City to maintain its low-entropic, systemic properties to facilitate self-actualization and intrinsic motivation. Key themes are stability in population numbers and low turnover to promote team-building, shared responsibility and the intergenerational creation of social and moral capital. Trust should apply not only locally among neighbors but also from a populace to their political leaders who should act within and not outside their remit. Moderate and exclusive strategies will redirect funding from perennial infrastructure and other built environment  construction to altruism, venturing and the startups upon which progress depends. Innovation will require intellectual rather than the now-orthodox physical diversity. Sociality will be overarched by the common purpose represented in the City’s precepts and strategies. It will deal with functional problems, which will inevitably emerge but will not seek, by its own actions, to add to them, as often seems to occur through vicarious cross-border and international meddling today.

Notes 1. This account has to start somewhere among the three functions. A rather determinist position is taken: economic functions are treated first since they are regarded as critical to the health and wealth and have the greatest external impact beyond the urban boundary. Their focus and direction become the aim of the political apparatus and can provide the wherewithal for altruism and stewardship in social functioning. It is

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acknowledged that other modelers might have approached the elements of urban function in a different order. 2. The ground has been well traversed by Susan Fainstein (1999, 252) who writes that recently ‘theorists have sought to deal with the difficulties of offering prescriptions for urban betterment without falling into the absolutism that characterized their much-criticized predecessors. In so doing, they have responded to the postmodern attack on Enlightenment thought. For some thinkers, the effort at escaping a totalizing discourse and rule by an élite has resulted in the definition of the good city as a process rather than a particular outcome. For others, most notably David Harvey, ­ultimate condition matters more than how it is achieved.’ Proposal of a summary set of urban processes and outcomes to instigate grace could therefore be a hiding to nothing, open to criticism from all quarters. The less palatable alternative is to procrastinate or not to propose, and let neoliberalism (or some other system) dispose. 3. ‘Decoupling’ is frequently employed to refer to the separation of economic growth and its concomitant carbon emissions. See, for example, Smith (2010). 4. Former US Vice President, Al Gore (1992, 188–89), has written that, to exclude inconvenient facts from economic measures, as he claims occurs in GDP accounting, is a form of philosophical dishonesty akin to the moral blindness in racism. In O’Grady’s (2002) terms, it constitutes a lack of procedural rationality. 5. Reference to gross product is made for sake of convention and convenience. Some net figure based around a measure like the Genuine Progress Indicator is really implied. Further details are available from the Washington DC-based NGO called Redefining Progress, accessed July 2019: https://community-wealth.org/content/redefining-progress. 6. In its preoccupations with the virtual financial economy and the brawn-­ based route of demographically-inspired market expansion, the west is gradually losing to other nations the option of development focused on high technology. Given relative costs of capital and labor, few other prospective economic avenues (e.g. mass production) remain. See Wadley (2008, 679, endnotes 35 and 40). 7. The hollowing out of mass manufacturing from advanced nations has proceeded apace until US President Donald Trump has latterly drawn attention to it. The process might have begun simply enough with brands from advanced nations seeking low-cost, offshore, contract manufactur-

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ing, but now indigenous production in developing countries has the capability to introduce its own process innovations. Trump’s aspirations and discussion of ‘global production networks’ aside, whether bulk operations can ever return to advanced nations is a moot point. Dicken (2015) offers a masterly overview of the situation, his p. 38 map especially revealing. 8. Hirsch-Kreinsen’s (2015) listing elaborated with suggestions from Beer et al. (2003, 114). 9. Note belated (2017–18) recognition by Washington DC about the critical importance of such protection. 10. Hardt and Negri (2000, 286) remark that Anglo economies have de-­ industrialized and moved toward financial and so forth services, while the tertiary sectors of Germany and Japan continue to reinforce their remaining manufacturing. 11. This orientation is a subset of the fully ‘creative’ and more discretionary outlook of John Montgomery (2007). With Adam Smith, grace is seen to lie in the techne of doing something innovative, patentable, industrious, tangible and lasting to enrich life. The thought is of the unsung heroes who, in the realm of goods, for example, developed dynabolts, pop rivets, Teflon tape for plumbing, i-Pods, cell phones, low-energy light globes, turbochargers—the list goes on. 12. This brief reference to Florida (2002) is not intended to overlook the research and debate he has generated: for examples, see Clifton (2008), Houston et al. (2008) and Pratt (2008). 13. Daly (1977, 56–61) deals rationally with the control of natural demographic reproduction. On this too infrequently traveled path, there is also a note by Miller (2005, 94–96) about ‘population stabilization.’ Consider also the closing words about the married woman by Germaine Greer (1971, 320) in The Female Eunuch. The world has ‘no urgent need of her increase’ by way of children. 14. Compared with (2018 estimates) Edinburgh (531,000), Canberra (452,000), Wellington (413,000), Halifax (411,000), Victoria (BC), 382,000 and Port Moresby (375,000). Data accessed July 2019 from World Population Review, World City Populations 2019. http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/. 15. Notwithstanding the economic functions suggested, there is no reason why a City of Grace could not be built more narrowly around religious auspices (see Racine 1993, 275–93 on a New Jerusalem). In this mode,

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it would have to observe the environmental and other precepts of grace, pursue its role with diligence and, in addition, ensure that it did not turn into a theme park, pitched more to the money-changers than the temple. Such often appears to be outcome for possible venues in Europe and Asia. See Urry (2005, 78). 16. By this reckoning, excessive executive and other salaries would not distinguish The City of Grace, where they could infringe its strategy of moderation. To counter, some welfare economists recommend substantial marginal tax rates (e.g. 50–70 percent) at high-income levels, presumably following the Nash equilibrium logic that, in terms of utility, a certain absolute loss might impact a wealthy earner far less than the commensurate gain would benefit a worker on a low wage. Meanwhile, regarding the desperation of the top office, Yeates (2019) writes of the dilemmas of chief executive officers (CEOs) in scheduling annual vacations, let alone long-­service leave. The salary of a typical CEO of a Top 100 company on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) is quoted at $4.36 million p.a.—for what might be an unrelenting 60 hours, week in, week out. Not to gainsay these CEOs’ dedication, one can scarcely imagine what ‘ordinary’  employees might make of a regular $AUD 1,580 for each of the 2,760 hours worked per annum. 17. Maximization of current or cross-sectional utility also raises intergenerational equity issues, however. For an account at the highest level of systemic resolution, see Georgescu-Roegen (1980, 59–60). 18. The provisions outlined here develop from the custom of alms-giving in various religions and, more particularly, the Third Pillar of Islam (a tax for the poor). Libertarians and orthodox economists would scoff at any suggestion of an enlarged, state-sponsored international welfare program: to them, the market is the most potent force in dispensing equity. Any philanthropy lies beyond it and should be undertaken exclusively at the discretion of individuals. A different orientation in The City of Grace would, from the outset, send signals to dissuade those holding such views. Note also Furnham and Argyle’s (1998, 220–52) analysis of charity-giving and, in particular, the thought on p. 245 that, as a rationale for the provision of assistance, the poor could be seen as ‘blessed.’ 19. Given 75 questionable years of foreign development assistance, a new emphasis on private rather than state-to-state aid arrangements will probably improve efficiency.

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20. Given its demographic size of around 725,000, Seattle WA, must rate as one of the world’s exemplar cities, being home to headquarter or major production facilities of at least Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Boeing, Amazon, Nordstrom, Expedia and Starbucks. 21. Vernon’s is an interesting historical reference given rumblings about ‘proto-totalitarianism’ in the West, where surveys have shown Millennials apparently ‘giving up on democracy’ in the hope of seeing governments actually achieve something (Howe 2017). Far less explored is the capacity of democracies efficiently to govern highly pluralistic and individualistic neoliberal societies deliberately created as a result of their precepts and policies. 22. The Democratic Peace Clock, accessed December 2018 at http://www. hawaii.edu/powerkills/DP.CLOCK.HTM. 23. This concept might seem obscure, but Japan and various Pacific small nations still show some semblance of it. 24. The sweeping assumptions behind these pragmatic lines are recognized. Constructive critics can resort to philosophy to challenge them or can, instead, go and live in cities where happiness takes a back seat to other desiderata. If mortal life is short, maybe people do not need happiness. Maybe, for exactly the same reason, they do. See Montgomery (2013). 25. On his speaking tour of Australia in mid-2019, Jonathan Haidt decried the culture war between (American) progressives and conservatives and a descent into tribalism exacerbated by social media. 26. Sydney in New South Wales, Australia, is currently considering raising the height of its main Warragamba Dam, thereby to flood further areas of the Blue Mountains World Heritage area. Environmental impacts will be considered by the World Heritage Committee established under international agreements dating from 1972. This proposal arises as a direct consequence of the nation’s expansive population strategy. At the time of writing, other sizeable inland towns elsewhere in eastern Australia are under threat of running out of potable water within months. 27. Official collection of duration of residence data at different spatial scales appears limited. For instance, no regular survey or census is undertaken in Australia, where the only immediate reference is that of Bell (1996). Note the relation of duration of residence data to the Lyotardian concept of ‘presentist’ temporality: no past, no future, but an overarching here and now and living for the moment (Lipovetsky and Charles 2005, 35). 28. For details of Christian Nold and his bio-mapping: see http://www.softhook.com and http://www.biomapping.net/, accessed August 2018.

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29. Note that this view challenges the received logic of the demographic transition. 30. This literature effectively piggybacks fairly uncritically on the trends of global capitalism. This disjunction is surprising, given the political o­ rientation of many of its proponents. By the same token and without much appreciation among contemporaneous authors, moves argued in 1960s feminism had the longer-term effect of supporting capitalist development. 31. Refer here to Putnam and Campbell (2010, 494) who write of religion that ‘to be high in both devotion and diversity…is a potentially volatile mixture.’ 32. In any event, high-end tourism could provide a transient, cosmopolitan population. 33. Beyond this group lies meaninglessness, a condition which a theological grace seeks to allay. There is no lack of meaning, however, in this assertion by Ahmad et al. (1997, 112): ‘Thinly populated countries like Canada, the USA, Australia, Arabia and Russia could accommodate more population from overcrowded regions. But that is a matter that does not require central planning for the world’s poor have already thought about it and are heading in unstoppable droves across the world’s borders into these spheres of affluence. The throwaway and surplus wealth of the prosperous can economically and socially be shared with others.’ This sentiment aligns with Hardt and Negri’s (2004, 25) recognition of the neoliberal reassertion of the power of the individual and their (2000, 400) insight that ‘global citizenship is the multitude’s power to reappropriate control over space and thus to design the new cartography.’ 34. A quotation from Sandercock (1998, 182–83): ‘We need to see our city and its multiple communities as spaces where we connect with the cultural other who is now our neighbour. If the city is a coming together, a being together with strangers…what holds it together? How does a city with a plurality of cultures, a highly differentiated city, hold itself together?’ If that is a kind of question worth asking, it would be definitely worth answering—assuming the competitive neoliberal régime allowed sufficient time to construct a reasonable reply.

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Hall, T(im). and Hubbard, P. (Eds.). 1998. The entrepreneurial city: Geographies of politics, regime, and representation. Chichester, Sussex: Wiley. Hamilton, C. 2003. Growth fetish. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin. Hardin, G. 1968. The tragedy of the commons. Science 162 (3859), 1243–48. Hardin, G. 1974. Living on a lifeboat. Bioscience 24 (10), 561–68. Hardt, M. and Negri, A. 2000. Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Hardt, M. and Negri, A. 2004. Multitude: War and democracy in the age of empire. New York: Penguin Press. Hawken, P, Lovins, A.B., and Lovins, L.H. 1999. Natural capitalism: The next industrial revolution. London: Earthscan. Head, S. 2003. The new ruthless economy: Work and power in the digital age. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Heikkila, E.J. 2004. What is the nature of the 21st century city? Planning Theory and Practice 5 (3), 379–87. Heinberg, R. 2011. The end of growth: Adapting to our new economic reality. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers. Hirsch-Kreinsen, H. 2008. “Low-tech” innovations. Industry and Innovation 15 (1), 19–43. Hirsch-Kreinsen, H. 2015. Low-tech innovations. Slide presentation. Accessed July 2019 at http://www.manufacturingnz.org.nz/__data/assets/pdf_ file/0009/102969/LMT-Innovations.pdf Hirst, J. 2008. Howard suited to his times. The Australian, 29 October, 16. Holt, S.C. 2007. God next door: Spirituality and mission in the neighbourhood. Brunswick East, VIC: Acorn Press. Houston, D., Findlay, A., Harrison, R., and Mason, C. 2008. Will attracting the “creative class” boost economic growth in old industrial regions? A case study of Scotland. Geografiska Annaler B 90 (2), 133–49. Howe, N. 2017. Are Millennials giving up on democracy? Forbes, 31 October. Accessed January 2019 at https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2017/10/31/are-millennials-giving-up-on-democracy/#63bf816a2be1 Hubbard, P. 2006. City. London: Routledge. Illouz, E. 2007. Cold intimacies: The making of emotional capitalism. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Imura, H. 2010. Eco-cities: Re-examining concepts and approaches. In Towards a liveable and sustainable urban environment: Eco-cities in East Asia. Eds. L.F. Lye and G. Chen. 19–45. Singapore: World Scientific. Inge, J. 2003. A Christian theology of place. Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate.

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International Energy Agency. 2008. World Energy Outlook 2008. Paris: International Energy Agency. James, O. 2008. The selfish capitalist: Origins of affluenza. London: Vermilion. Johns, M. 2004. Moments of grace: The American city in the 1950s. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Kahn, M.E. 2006. Green cities: Urban growth and the environment. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. Kao, R.W.Y. 2007. Stewardship-based economics. Singapore: World Scientific. Kavaratzis, M. and Ashworth, G.J. 2005. City branding: An effective assertion of identity or a transitory marketing trick? Tijdschrift voor Ecoomische en Sociale Geographie 96 (5), 506–14. Kelly, P. 2019. ‘Very good chance’ democracy is doomed in America. The Australian, 20–21 July, 5. Kjellberg, S. 2000. Urban ecotheology. Utrecht: International Books. Kotler, P., Haider, D.H., and Rein, I. 1993. Marketing places: Attracting investment, industry, and tourism to cities, states and nations. New York: Free Press. Kuttner, R. 2008. The Copenhagen consensus: Reading Adam Smith in Denmark. Foreign Affairs, 87 (2), 78–97. Landsburg, S.E. 2007. More sex is safer sex: The unconventional wisdom of economics. New York: Free Press. Lee, K. 1989. Social philosophy and ecological scarcity. London: Routledge. Leigh, N.G. and Blakely, E.J. 2017. Planning local economic development: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Los Angeles: Sage. Lipovetsky, G. and Charles, S. 2005. Hypermodern times (Trans. A.  Brown). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. MacLeod, G. and Ward, K. 2002. Spaces of utopia and dystopia: Landscaping the contemporary city. Geografiska Annaler B 84 (3–4), 153–70. Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. 2000. The entrepreneurial city: A how-to handbook for urban innovators. New York: Institute Publication. Martinotti, G. 1999. A city for whom?: Transients and public life in the second-­ generation metropolis. In The urban moment: Cosmopolitan essays on the late 20th century city. Eds. R.A.  Beauregard and S.  Body-Gendrot. 155–84. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Massey, D. 2007. World city. London: Polity Press. McConnell, S. 1981. Theories for planning: An introduction. London: Heinemann. Miller, G.T. 2005. Living in the environment: Principles, connections, and solutions (14th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks Cole.

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Moller, A., Ryan, R.M., and Deci, E.L. 2006. Self-determination theory and public policy: Improving the quality of consumer decisions without using coercion. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing 25 (1), 104–16. Montgomery, C. 2013. Happy city: Transforming our lives through urban design. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Montgomery, J. 2007. The new wealth of cities: City dynamics and the fifth wave. Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate. Murphy, K. and McNicoll, D.D. 2004. End nigh for mass producers: Costello. The Australian, 22 December, 2. O’Grady, P.M. 2002. Relativism. Chesham, Bucks: Acumen. O’Keefe, D. 2004. Introduction. In Economy and virtue: Essays on the theme of markets and morality. Ed. D.  O’Keefe. 25–33. London: The Institute of Economic Affairs. Pindyck, R.S. and Rubinfeld, D.L. 2001. Microeconomics (5th ed.). London: Prentice Hall International. Platt, R.H. 1994. The ecological city: Introduction and overview. In The ecological city: Preserving and restoring urban biodiversity. Eds. R.H.  Platt, R.A.  Rowntree and P.A Muick. 1–17. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press. Platt, R.H. (Ed.). 2006. The humane metropolis: People and nature in the 21st century. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press. Platt, R.H., Rowntree, R.A., and Muick, P.A. (Eds.). 1994. The ecological city: Preserving and restoring urban biodiversity. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press. Pratt, A.C. 2008. Creative cities: The cultural industries and creative class. Geografiska Annaler B 90 (2), 107–17. Putnam, R.D. 2007. E pluribus unum: Diversity and community in the twenty-­ first century. Scandinavian Political Studies 30 (2), 137–74. Putnam, R.D. and Campbell, D.E. 2010. American grace: How religion divides and unites us. New York: Simon and Schuster. Racine, J.-B. 1993. La ville entre Dieu et les hommes. Arare: Presses Bibliques Universitaires et Anthropos. Rawls, J. 1971. A theory of justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Rifkin, J. n.d. The third industrial revolution: A radical new sharing economy. Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), Australia. On Demand documentary. Accessed January 2019 at https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/ 1165831747733/the-third-industrial-revolution

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Robertson, J. 1979. The sane alternative: A choice of futures. Minnesota, MN: River Basin Publishing. Robertson, J. 1989. Future wealth: A new economics for the 21st century. London: Cassell. Rossi, N. 2003. Managed diversity. In The progressive manifesto: New ideas for the centre-left. 120–36. Ed. A. Giddens. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Russell, J.S. 2011. The agile city: Building well-being and wealth in an era of climate change. Washington, DC: Island Press. Ryan, R.M. and Deci, E.L. 2017. Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness. New York: The Guilford Press. Sandercock, L. 1998. Toward cosmopolis: Planning for multicultural cities. Chichester, Sussex: Wiley. Schoon, N. 2001. The chosen city. London: Spon. Schuppert, F. 2003. The ensuring state. In The progressive manifesto: New ideas for the centre-left. Ed. A. Giddens. 54–72. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Schwartz, B. 2005. The paradox of choice: Why more is less. New  York: HarperCollins. Sen, A. 1992. Inequality re-examined. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Short, J.R. 1989. The humane city: Cities as if people matter. Oxford: Blackwell. Simmie, J. (Ed.). 2001. Innovative cities. London: Spon. Simon, H.A. 1955. A behavioral model of rational choice. Quarterly Journal of Economics 69, 99–118. Simon, H.A. 1957. Models of man. New York: Wiley. Simon, H.A. 1959. Theories of decision-making in economics and behavioral science. American Economic Review 49, 253–83. Simons, R.G. 1995. Competing gospels: Public theology and economic theory. Alexandria, NSW: Dwyer. Smith, M.H., Hargroves, K., and Desha, C. 2010. Cents and sustainability: Securing our common future by decoupling economic growth from environmental pressures. Sterling, VA: Earthscan. Stimson, R.J., Stough, R.R., and Roberts, B.H. 2006. Regional economic development: Analysis and planning strategy (2nd ed.). Berlin: Springer. Stocker, M. 1990. Plural and conflicting values. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Sturgess, G.L. 1999. Faultlines in post-industrial society. People and Place 7 (3), 1–6. Sykes, S. 2018. Eight major cities running out of water. Euronews, 12 February. Accessed July 2018 at https://www.euronews.com/2018/02/11/8-majorcities-running-out-of-water-cape-town

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6 A City Graceful in Form

While urban grace can flow from both function and form, the latter has been argued as secondary and, considering materiality, investment and repurposing, the easier to manipulate.1 Even so, form can mediate fair processes and just outcomes (Rawls 1971), while the gracefulness, humaneness and livability of a city will owe much to its layout, facilities and amenity (Platt 2006a). The problem with form lies in interpretation. Fundamentally, it involves the social license to build a structure reflective of some beauty and order, duly to create the conditions which ‘humans need to thrive’ (Gorringe 2011, 68). Writ large, this license involves scale—blending the micro of individual structures, with the meso of precincts, to the macro of an entire city. Australian architecture and social commentator Elizabeth Farrelly (2017) throws open the whole question of form with these remarks: I’m ‘thwarted by the fact that built grace, once almost ubiquitous, is now rare to the point of extinction. Why? Have we lost the art? Or the perception? Or just the capacity to give a damn?’ … How can we infuse metaphysical dreamings into physical reality? How can buildings offer this thing I call grace? (And why, actually, isn’t this Architecture 101?). Theologians will scoff, but to me grace sits between dignity and gratitude. Dignity

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s­ uggests form (physical traits like proportion, material and light) but gratitude suggests relationship—connectivity with time, nature and the changing human dynamic.

In response to this cri de coeur, it should be appreciated that the present book is no coffee-table edition on architecture or city planning, and readers so accustomed will regret the absence of drawings and plans. Instead, as per reference to modeling practice, a deductive, step-through approach is taken. To achieve anything resembling grace, the form of the City must support its function through the precepts of rationality, sustainability and low entropy, and strategies involving health, wealth, innovation, altruism, stewardship and exclusivity/moderation. Several issues interpose. First, at the micro-level of individual architectural structures, very few accounts tender workable definitions or potential causality of gracefulness. Indeed, Bayer ([henceforth Vol. 1] 1933, 223) ventures blankly that, in built form, grace might exist irreducibly in and of itself. Second, how a recognizably ‘graceful’ building should interact with like structures is not blueprinted in terms of an encompassing architectural propriety or ‘decorum.’ Some original theorizing will be required at the level of structures and precincts, remembering the City’s precept of entropy understood functionally and visually. The second and third resolutions concern meso-level, areal harmonization to create macro-scale gracefulness, and specific measures to accord with the City’s charter. Both strategic and physical town planning is implicated. On one hand, that discipline has made much of its ‘rational’ method (as opposed to disjointed incrementalism or ‘muddling through’) and, for the last 30 years, has championed ‘sustainability.’ It has also produced some famous master-planned settlements such as Brasilia (Brazil), Canberra (Australia), Nay Pyi Taw (the capital of Myanmar) and the British New Towns. On the other hand, and probably unfortunately from the viewpoint of social scientific method, planners have seldom (or never) assumed functional control of cities, either in taking up political office, or overriding politicians and senior bureaucrats. Mostly they work without much indicative economic planning, and foresight only applies to infrastructure and capital works. Manipulation of urban entropy

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­ ormally remains a bridge too far. Planners are left to deal with growth or n decline only through the stock and flow of urban form. With these backdrops, analysis in this chapter proceeds from micro architectural, through meso precinct, to macro city scale, turning later to the manifestation of the precepts and strategies of The City of Grace in the context of its physical form.

Micro-Scale: Architectural Form2 Ends Value or virtue could scarcely emerge from structures individually judged graceless, though they abound in reality. The aim is therefore to imbue the spatial and corporeal expression of architectural form with yet more beauty and some grace if, in this field, such qualities are definable. Effort is worthwhile, since discord around structures begets conflict and augurs poorly for grace in the larger scale built environments to be considered.

Means Form in architecture is beset with epistemological quandaries, which pervade the design process and influence the public experience of a building. Issues range from Scruton’s (1979, 4) deliberations over architectural versus other philosophical aesthetics, to individual tastes surrounding ornamentation on particular buildings. The debates were not resolved in the last, nor are likely to be settled in the present, millennium. This micro-­ scale study of means can do no more than tour a theoretical construction site—‘work in progress’—around quandaries, ornamentation and style toward a synthesis of standpoints.

Broad Quandaries While Jim Collins (2001) could define corporate greatness around the tangible metric of money, in architecture and city planning, as in philoso-

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phy and art, the first query is whether there are any absolutes, or whether, with Kant, all expression is relative. In the latter instance, theories of good form, indeed the notion of ‘good’ itself, become tenuous. Anyone, architect or not, would be able to build whatever, wherever, whenever and however. Tempered presumably by common law liability, this position accommodates a laisser faire and neoliberally inclined worldview of ‘to each his/her own’ or ‘anything goes.’3 Encountering the situation, a contested and underdeveloped strand of aesthetics must account for both the material and immaterial elements of form as a ‘shared way of architecturally treating things’ (Connah 1998, 19–20). This call for ‘sharing’ questions what is acclaimed and what is neglected, the latter eventuality occurring either because a snapshot consensus of opinion finds in a building nothing of quality, or because its latent qualities remain unacknowledged (in a particular era). Thus, form is socially, politically and also historically contextualized, since market and audience needs and views, to say nothing of economic scale and technological capacity, change over time. Attempts to relate grace to architecture reflect the enduring English belief that the discipline embraces social, moral and philosophical conditions, as opposed to the Hegelian German (architecture as the Zeitgeist or spirit of the age) or French interpretations (the rational, technological exercise of architectural science) (Watkin 1977, 3). All this deliberation relates to where architecture might fit within Daly’s (1977, 19) spectrum of disciplines (Fig. 4.2). Art or science? To the extent that architecture represents art, a primary problem is that buildings are usually so large that it is impossible to appreciate them as a whole: the experience must be ambulatory and fuse a set of successive perceptions. Additionally, whereas other art forms take up space, architecture actually displays it. Interpretation must therefore be of physical shapes and the voids they create (Weber 1995, 131). Architecture’s provision of space and shelter is unique among most other aesthetic media, which, save costume, have no immediate function. To some critics, intended function largely determines the form of a building and, despite claims that the beauty of architecture lies in that mutual accommodation, many human activities require structures which ask little of beauty, let alone grace.4 Only a small minority of new buildings actually represents the work of architects: in this way design can lack a

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common language or schooling (Gorringe 2011, 102, 259). Hence, with Adam Smith, Scruton (1979, 6, 19) posits that a building’s value lies primarily in its utility, with aesthetic considerations possible but not necessarily present. This outlook produces diametrically opposed upshots in The City of Grace: first, it can be ethically challenged, given that any building will impose a local visual monopoly; second, it can be supported, since the more generically designed a structure is and the more generic space it offers, the more likely it is to be useful in the long-term, so amortizing its embodied energy and sunk costs in a more robust and sustainable way (Hall 2015).

Ornamentation and Style The quandaries are whether architecture (i.e. a structure) is a vehicle for sculpture (an idea) or whether sculpture is simply an ornament of the architecture. It is classically addressed in Ruskin’s (1880) Seven Lamps of Architecture. One of them is Beauty, viewed in philosophy as a precursor of grace (Daujat 1959). ‘Derived chiefly from the external appearances of organic nature,’ it can be ‘engrafted upon architectural design’ (Ruskin 1880, 134–35). With nature as the basis, it should be possible to evaluate what is and what is not ornament and whether any such ornament is ‘ugly.’5 Following Aristotle, beauty in architecture fundamentally demands proportion and abstraction (while Kant might have added shape, rhythm and spacing). The first quality appears intuitive, in that ‘the man who has eye and intellect will invent beautiful proportions, and cannot help it’ (#164).6 Second, all art is abstract in its beginnings, since it expresses a fraction of the qualities of the object represented. Ruskin’s (#178) advice is to design everything in severe abstraction and then, if appropriate and with ‘stern reference,’ to determine where ‘high finish’ would be ­admissible. Artfully ornamented, an assembly of urban houses, even the smallest, can convey an architectural impression to rival that of the palace (Choay 1965, 166). In all cases, only natural forms should be imitated lest ‘nobility’ be lost. Foreshadowing modern environmental consciousness, Ruskin (#180) advises that chosen colors should be those of com-

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mon stones, ‘more durable…more perfect and graceful.’ Finally, he (#192) nominates a single building to exemplify his Lamp of Beauty (and also that of Power), namely, the fourteenth-century Campanile (bell tower) of Giotto at Piazza del Duomo in Florence. How could such a building possibly relate to the apparent austerity of modernism and functionalism, which, aided by new construction technologies, revolutionized architecture from about 1920 till the mid-1980s? To Scruton (1979, 10), these movements mark an attempt to reassert architectural against sculptural values. In the process, they reduced the vocabulary of style and decorative features available to the designer. Influenced early in the era, Raymond Bayer (1933, 223–356) produced an analysis of grace (rather than beauty) under four headings: mass; structure; surfaces and functions; and scale. In an application of minimalism, grace is reflected in a diminution of massing. Density can be reduced by lightness in material choice and usage. Also important are the entry of light, spaces and openwork in form and ornamentation. Structure is enveloped by the aesthetics of risk, focused in the elasticity, elegance and delicacy of form. Surfaces acquire grace through their nuances and reflections, evoking floral and human sensibilities, while the quality also pertains in the way ornamentation supports function. As to scale, the role of grace is fundamentally nihilistic in negating the monumental by means of understatement. These ideas have some resonance with the virtue of ‘elegance’ in scientific model-building.

Toward a Synthesis Such individual, affective determination could proceed indefinitely. At root is the Kantian question of whether aesthetic appreciation emanates from a building’s intrinsic qualities, in which case they could be categorized, or from a viewer’s cognitive and affective disposition, which, in some way, needs to be activated by the object’s properties. Faced with major historical disparities in built form, Weber (1995, 107) employs general deductive psychological theory to argue that architectural value emerges in the appropriateness of a stimulus pattern to the brain’s capacity for perceptual organization (nature) and from a sensory-motor satisfaction (nurture) derived from the perception of such forms. Searching

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for an ‘architecturally successful’ form, he asserts that judgments of perceptible objects are based on presentational properties and that values established in the internalization of form must be embedded in the overall merit assigned to any object. A stimulus requires some, but not excessive, heterogeneity to arouse interest. ‘Organismic satisfaction’ (i.e. possible perception of beauty) results from a deconstruction of the object into suitable structure and orderliness. To compose is to arrange unequal things and, as to the dependencies, to determine which is to be the principal one by size, office or interests. Compositional order does not equate to style. Until the beginning of the twentieth century, and with generally smaller scale in the built environment, there were numerous examples of how different styles could, through similarities in materials, color and shape, coexist without loss of order. Optimal information processing lies in an entropic domain between a homogeneous (orderly) stimulus field with no structure, and a heterogeneous field devoid of orderliness (Weber 1995, 113–22). Aristotle, in fact, defined beautiful things as ones which could be understood as a unity through a single act of synoptic perception. Wholes, namely self-contained and bounded configurations, best fulfill conditions of perceptual appropriateness since, as with any model, they allow parsimonious, hierarchical and complete organization of a complex field (Haggett and Chorley 1967). Wholeness thus emerges with a degree of figural regularity and with interdependence between the complexity of a structure and the number of possible relationships of its parts. Given differing styles, scales and purposes, architectural form poses a vexing challenge in building and refurbishing The City of Grace. It is worth taking, however, if one believes Friedrich von Schiller’s thesis that beauty leads the way to perfection. Within architecture, compilers of checklists have been regarded not as artists but as theorists or stylistic ideologues. This appellation makes some sense: the advocates of the past cannot all be right and there can, in the long run, be no single aesthetic (Scruton 1979, 4). Hence, Weber’s (1995, 243) resolution of good architecture as ‘perceptually appropriate form’ has apparent worth. Yet these abstract formulations could frustrate the layperson still seeking answers to problems of virtue. To satisfy that vernacular need, there might emerge rough consensus around four general classes of structures: those, for one

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reason or another, designated ‘graceful’ or ‘beautiful’; those portraying a rugged or rustic allure in their honesty and humbleness; the artless (some condemned by function such as an abattoir, refinery or auto repair works, others defying any generally accepted principles of architecture); and the pretentious, which attempt but fail to demonstrate positive qualities in their execution7 (Boyd 1961). Much can be said at the design stage of a project for engaging qualified architects, as against technicians or building practitioners. However, the former need (a) artistic intuition or sound training in aesthetics and (b) a commitment to community before their own artistic predilections or ego. As Le Corbusier reportedly said, ‘it is always life which is right, the architect who is wrong’ (quoted by Boudon 1978, 405). Acknowledging the many lacunae but supported at least by these provisions, discussion can move to other issues. Beyond these strategic design considerations lie tactical ones of facility operation. It can be advantaged by sensible provision regarding building height and bulk. In line with municipal design briefs and to reduce ecological impact, there could be a preference for low maintenance exteriors (e.g. vegetation-screened, tilt-slab concrete), which could avoid periodic repainting. Solar paneling or fencing for hot water provision, electricity generation and even simple direct heating and cooling (via specialized collector panels with downdraft fans into ceilings) would be encouraged. Domestic battery storage, thermal glazing, waste management advances and numerous other innovations are pending in construction technology and energy-efficient building management. They could attract innovation and manufacturing interest and foster commitment to stewardship in The City of Grace.

Meso-Scale: Architectural Decorum Ends Evidencing Kantian commonality and rational intent, structures in a precinct should present some coherence or legibility via the quality of architectural decorum or propriety. Conversely, the concern is to avoid clutters of forms, masses and styles which suggest a high-entropy environment

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created without any particular process, foresight or thought of a graceful effect.

Means Decorum conveys two senses in architecture. The first is broad, explained simply by Scruton (1979, 11) in that ‘we expect an architect to build in accordance with a sense of place, and not to design his building—as many a modern building is designed—so that it could be placed just anywhere.’ Patently cool toward the ‘international’ modernist style (explained by Datu (2013, 159) but which Porteous (1996, 155, 157) variously dubs ‘anywhere’ and ‘nowhereland’), this view argues for regional and local expression. The narrow interpretation refers to the appropriateness of a building’s design and the eloquence of its relation to both its purpose and its audiences: architecture as the art of the ensemble. Though decorum became a central tenet of practice from the fifteenth century and certainly accords with Schopenhauer’s ideals of unity, its importance in the modernist era has been displaced by aesthetic consideration of ornament. Kohane and Hill (2001, 65) remark that ‘the ethical dimension of architecture was [thereafter] located not in the broader civic realm but within individual buildings and their relationship of outward form to inner structure.’ Though this argument echoes Adam Smith’s idea of beauty residing in ‘utility,’ these reinterpretations diminish claims of architecture (the erstwhile ‘queen of the arts’ ([Peter] Smith 2003, 3)), to mediate a city well-ordered from the physical, social and civic standpoints. They are noteworthy given previous suggestions that beauty is founded on order and that grace allies with consistency and popular sensitivities. Attention thus retrogresses to Edward Lacy Garbutt’s 1850 Rudimentary Treatise on the Principles of Design in Architecture, which advocated a traditional but potentially lasting decorum. For Garbutt, architecture should reflect ‘distinct expression’ and ‘politeness’ in meeting the needs and expectations of urban inhabitants. The latter quality is embodied in ornament and can raise the standard of a building beyond plain utility.8 It speaks well of the owner and can erase any negative externality inevitably

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created when a structure encloses a portion of land. Designers have ethical obligations to elevate a building above the level of private property to that of the commonwealth. The ‘poetry’ of such architecture incorporates previously outlined constituents of grace such as concord, altruism, fitness and refinement. Such thoughts are reiterated in a chapter by Richard Fleischman (1982) on (what should be) ‘enduring elements’ of urban design and architecture. His point is that the necessary principles and contexts for creating appealing environments are well established in terms of plan, elevation and volumetrics. The issue is that even the most proficient architect is seldom charged to design an integrated precinct ab initio except in the case of broad-hectare, low-rise, greenfield residential or industrial estates. Given relevant scales and the need to insert new buildings into existing settings, the price of freedom appears to be eternal vigilance. The rein of Garbutt’s ‘distinct expression’ is shortened by Sir John Summerson ([1949] 1998, 175) in a denunciation of the church design of the ecclesiastical British architect William Butterfield (1814–1900)—‘the glory of ugliness…a calculated assault on the sensuous qualities latent in the simplest building items.’ Smith (2003, 37) joins the attack in decrying the ‘concrete eruption’ of Christ’s College into medieval King Street, in Cambridge, England. Since a planned redevelopment of the street failed to materialize, the structure became discordant in style, scale, massing and execution. None of this is ‘politeness.’ Yet, Smith (2003, 20) stresses that politeness does not signify blandness. Beauty in the development of precincts depends on harmony, which traces back to the Greek belief in the relation of order and complexity. Since the 1700s, aesthetic pleasure has been recognized in our ability to resolve pattern in apparent chaos or randomness—finding ‘clarity in multiplicity,’ to echo the idealist philosopher Alexander Baumgarten. In instilling order and continuity in variety, there should emerge the harmony, which at once avoids mediocrity and heralds a physical grace. The point suggests a baseline strategy of spatially grouping similar architectural styles together for better effect, though more adept practitioners would support Scruton’s (1979, 11–12) case, elaborated by Fainstein (2005, 9–11) and illustrated by the church of St Eustache in Paris and streetscapes in Amsterdam, that decorum can still be achieved in diversity.

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In pursuing Sassen’s (1999, 88) question ‘whose city is it?,’ much could be achieved in architectural decorum if, through a restricted supply of sites within a compact urban form, the balance of control were restored to planners and the public rather than individual developers (Wadley 2004). Master planning appears to offer more opportunity for integrated development than lot-based, piecemeal projects, which should be subject to tighter planning and design review since, even at the level of detached, single-story housing, clashes in styles and materials can ruin entire streetscapes unless they are treed into obscurity. In contrast to the inception in the twentieth century of fully laid out (or ‘predestined’) cities, a completely atomistic approach will seldom create a cohesive built environment (Hall 2015). This view must, however, contend with postmodern architectural and property development. It emerged in the early 1970s, reacting to earlier postwar restrictions in building resources and the totalizing of modernist practice. Harvey’s (1989) appraisal is instructive. Postmodern urban design follows prevailing neoliberalism in reflecting market preferences. Product and aesthetic differentiation is the keynote, with collage and fragmentation often consciously embraced (#82). As Datu (2013, 156) has sensibly written of ‘global’ cities: a work of architecture or indeed an entire architectural landscape project is something deliberately constructed by those who commission and design that architecture, and is intended to communicate specific messages to a remote target audience by the transmission of those images through various media.

New elements of the built environment thus convey an owner’s ‘symbolic capital.’ Such capital, however, can be transitory, as tastes in art and urban living change. Architecture thus adopts disparate discourses, the historical reference being a soothing, cliché-ridden, expression of collective memory, and the alternative acknowledging a fast-moving society with new technologies, materials and ideologies. While the pastiche might attempt to recreate heritage, the latter style will pick up influences from around the world, ‘a pot-pourri of internationalism that is in many respects more startling, perhaps because more jumbled, than high inter-

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nationalism ever was’ (Harvey 1989, 87). At the extreme, such a mélange could come about through a neoliberal alliance of creative flair (or indulgence) on the part of the architect and a client’s excessive desire for individualization—and to hell with the neighborhood! Here, we should record Hitchens’ (2018, 338) lament that ‘the view of London from the top of Primrose Hill, already blighted by modernist cuboids of the 1990s, is now a disturbing prospect of Mammon unchained.’ Equally contestable are manufactured, high-surveillance, neoliberal showpiece resorts or developments in inner areas. While Harvey (#92) excuses them as offsets to grim de-industrialization and restructuring besetting advanced cities, Gleeson and Low (2000, 63) label them ‘urban spectacles,’ to Fainstein (2005, 6) they are ‘inauthentic…a simulacrum rather than the real thing,’ while MacLeod and Ward (2002, 155) censure the ‘experience economy.’ Particularism, hand-wringing, flaccidity and official helplessness are not going to build a great setting. Inhabitants should enforce their democratic right to the grand vista, participate in city planning and back it with appropriate fiscal means to enhance common visual assets. Functional stability and entropy management in The City of Grace should check perpetual construction of the built environment and reduce the chance of architectural indecorum. The Chap. 9  Postscript to this book highlights this theme.

Macro-Scale: City Dynamics Ends Today’s reality is that stewardship and minimization of environmental impact can display the function of graciousness to neighbors and the world at large. Correspondingly, the strategic end in city planning would be to create a distinctive, ecologically sustainable development affording a high quality of life. The structural end is to achieve a plan which implements best practice urban design and operational principles through a graceful arrangement of natural and built form. Complementing the City functions, such form would endow a place with meaning (Gay 1991, 75; Montgomery 2007, 269).

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Means In IPAT terms, a city’s current and intergenerational impact is related to its population size, attitudes, consumption and technology.9 While all elements affect (perception of ) the quality of life, demography has more absolute, the latter ones more relative, bearing (Kahn 2006, 93). The characteristics of the built environment and organization of urban activities can significantly influence material and energy use and environmental outcomes. Discussion should therefore proceed top-down from a desirable city size, to operational measures, and then to physical planning provisions.

City Size Function in The City of Grace will revolve around quality, rather than quantity. Despite neoliberal claims that opposition to ‘progress’ is ‘childish,’ unhelpful (cf. Mitchell 2004, 36, 134–35) or even undemocratic, it is environmentally critical that overall size and growth be restricted both demographically and spatially. In systems terms, entities require boundaries if entropy is to be managed. There is a theoretical literature on optimal city size, usually based on population. Microeconomic textbooks examine individual utility, not via environmental metrics, but as worker income less the value of leisure time lost through commuting (O’Sullivan 2007, 56–57). In matching demographic size with such utility, graphing can show where marginal benefit equates marginal cost to inhabitants. Assumed in this formulation are agglomeration economies and the counts of functions and functional units, which cities of certain sizes can offer (Richardson 1973). Demography, though, underwrites neither prosperity nor prominence. For example, the African city of Kinshasa has over 13 million inhabitants but few foreigners likely know much about it. Other calculi overlie these metrics. The first might concern the contingent valuations and quality of life preferences of urban inhabitants based on their normal requirements for goods and services. Second, there is little suggestion that citizens of mega cities can meaningfully access the

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many options on offer. Psychologist Barry Schwartz (2005) has argued that excessive choice promotes not utility but an unhealthy disutility (‘paralysis by analysis’). Third, within general systems theory, it has long been appreciated that, as organizations increase in size, the ratio of their service to throughput drops and they require relatively more resources with which to undertake their functions (Robertson 1979, 41; Bailey 2005, 312). As an urgent research agenda, the urban optimality literature needs reviving around such new behavioral and environmental insights, addressing not only economies but also diseconomies of scale. Portney’s (2003) sustainability index for US cities is a step forward. Adopting the triple bottom line of ecologically sustainable development and the precepts argued previously, The City of Grace would have a stable complement of 400,000 inhabitants. That size should deliver the health (care) benefits suggested by Sarkar et al. (2014). In system terms, a small settlement will still be ‘self-organizing,’ though its micro-elements might now be more amenable to unified management. This capability could modify the role of ‘attractors,’ which can sway individual functions or parts of the urban area to endogenous or exogenous chaotic outcomes (e.g. as in traffic flows) (Sardar and Abrams 2013, 132–33). Defensible in IPAT terms, a constrained size could reduce complexity but will nevertheless require a diversified functional base and certain economies to address risk in a turbulent external environment. While fostering sufficient internal competition, a small city has the means, if matched with appropriate population densities and urban design and planning, to offer solidarities and a human element often lacking in larger metropolises (Holt 2007, 27). Self-actualization and intrinsic motivation could emerge. Since no paper has been found which discovers grace in anomie, this scale becomes important to conviviality and social capital. Ellis and Andrews (2001, 10–11) suggest that large and primate cities inflate housing prices. Outlays (on around 150,000 dwellings) in the City are likely to be reasonable, since land prices and distances to urban nodes can be contained. The permanent residents would have to be factored alongside tourist counts (Martinotti 1999, 163). Indeed, European cities such as Venice, Rome, Palma and Barcelona are already resisting tourist overload (Abend 2018) while, in Goa and Kerala, protests have attempted to preserve local culture (Gorringe 2011, 74). In the City,

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business and professional visitation via conventions and professional meetings would be applauded, as would consular representation and the placement of international commissions and agencies. By contrast, mass tourism is a low technology and transient activity which can often be externally invested. It would not be promoted: far better that City residents travel elsewhere to collect ideas and impressions. The challenge for planners weaned on growth would be to accept the small demographic and spatial size of the city and the idea that functional and welfare success would have to be achieved within that fixed frame. Effectively, the paradigm would require a new mindset, patchily supported by the literature (see, however, Bell and Jayne’s (2006) readings). Physical size would be maintained not by fiat or fencing, as in the case of early Shenzen (cf. Blackwell 2013, 284–87), but by spatially limiting headwork infrastructure provision and connection (especially of water), by strongly taxing building on hitherto undeveloped land, and by enforcing development control at the urban edge. Such measures appear in Patrick Abercrombie’s postwar plans for Plymouth (England) (Gorringe 2011, 106), Portland, OR (Abbott and Margheim 2008), and some Australian jurisdictions (Lowe 2005, 85). The City boundary would be hard (Power and Houghton 2007, 165), consisting ideally of water bodies (Singapore), of Low Countries high-value/high-technology ­horticulture, or of Thünean forests priced either for their sustainable production of rare and fine timbers or in carbon metrics which could perform aggressively in bid rent terms.

City Layout and Features Cities must balance immovable building stocks with enabling movement flows. Robertson (1989, 144) thinks that, rather than fixing on ‘mobility,’ the negotiation should be around access achieved by environment-friendly land use layout. Following concepts developed by Dantzig and Saaty (1973), Burgess (2000) and Nelson et al. (2008), the inner City would feature compact development in human-scale buildings with appropriate podiums or setbacks from interestingly lit and deciduously treed boulevards (cf. Adelaide, Paris). Both dwelling and demographic density needs

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careful management (Skovbro 2002; Ng 2010). Small business, workshops, local parks and venues would be important components of the milieu promoting conviviality (Baldwin 1995, 32). Moderation in the City would likely eschew the essential but often concocted ‘vibrancy’ of neoliberal urbanism to prioritize some places of reflection, peace and quiet (Kjellberg 2000, 93; Wadley 2008, 650). They need not be large or ostentatious. One thinks of botanic gardens, the Avon River parkland in Christchurch, New Zealand, or philosophers’ walks in Kyoto, Japan, and Toronto, Canada. While such spots can escape the bustle of local traffic, urban overflight by light, civil and military aircraft, helicopters, hot-air balloons, drones and, potentially, individual human jetpacks and hover-­ boards will also need regulation.10 These craft take intra-urban transportation into a third dimension, a vast space awaiting commercial exploitation and first-mover appropriation. Beyond mere grossness, the unregulated potential for cacophony and chaos would seem omnipresent. More distant suburban areas would be subject to architectural design control and convivial planning of free-standing dwellings (Gorringe 2002; Holt 2007). Given demographic stability, the no-growth and degrowth literature would be of primary relevance (Zovanyi 2013; Alexander and Gleeson 2019). However, useful principles could still be applied from smart growth writing around infill planning, r­ edevelopment, open-space conservation, enhanced livability and efficient infrastructure management (Porter 2002). There is ample advice as to how to condition and constrain urban form. Portland, OR is a classic case (Power and Houghton 2007, 167; Abbott and Margheim 2008), but Boulder, CO has actually placed limitations on business development, as would implicitly occur in The City of Grace via its fostering of commercial spinoffs, outsourcing and offshoring. Management of the supply of public infrastructure is a blunt but effective instrument in shaping a settlement’s footprint, while price signals can provide efficiency and tailoring at the margin. There is no particular need to elaborate these aspects here, nor grounds for surprise at the strategy of moderation: would one, for example, suggest that an architecturally-polite city like old Venice should be ‘improved’ with tunnels, high-rise and freeways?

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City Operation As to operational measures, the first need is to tune the urban metabolism and minimize the ecological footprint consistent with an acceptable quality of life. While the Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development (2004) has compiled eco-strategies of 19 countries, an emerging literature about smaller ‘ecotopias’ could likewise assist (Miles 2008, 91–130). For the individual, it implies the rearrangement of human aspirations and behavior toward sustainability as a facet of self-­ actualization—to recreate what Benstein (2006, 27) terms a ‘natural’ person (i.e. of nature, in tune with the ecosphere). It proceeds to consider major and minor communal scientific and engineering solutions such as: reuse of wastewater for industrial purposes, urine-separating toilets for fertilizer production; biogas for fuel; reticulated collection of pre-sorted waste; cogeneration; and so forth. In terms of infrastructural and procedural planning, the City would tackle its carbon signature by measures including efficient transport and other facilities, staggered work hours and use of maintainable, storm- and crime-resistant, water-efficient vegetation in private and public spaces. The Brazilian city of Curitiba and the Stockholm suburb of Harmmarby Sjöstad have been recognized as important eco-examples, though some environmental nongovernmental organizations now see them as ‘mainstream’ (Miller 2005, 563). Downs (1994, 124) recommends attention to several corroborative elements of structure. Any vision should be internally consistent and not allow one of its elements to block others. Arrangement of land uses should improve the efficiency of personal and business activities, appeal to the self-interest of inhabitants, be culturally acceptable and, naturally, offer adequate safety (Wekerle and Whitzman 1995). In existing urban situations, patterns proposed must be capable of adjoining current development without undue expense, disruption or loss of architectural politeness. One obvious key to success is not to subscribe to elements which, in other urban areas, have proven problematic (Montgomery 2013). Following Downs (1994, 125–40), builders of The City of Grace would therefore question the inherent value of artifacts such as land uses contributing to sprawl, excessive private transport, scattered and disjointed

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workplaces, self-governed communities (counties) and social housing, to see if different models and solutions could be generated.

Physical Planning A key element of analysis concerns physical planning, read as process and pattern controlled by municipal statutes. Practice is moving increasingly toward performance-based schemes, involving desired environmental and other objectives, designated land use areas (not statutory zones), overlays and policies to be followed, and stipulated levels of project assessment in relation to clear definitions of building and development. Urban form is protected by planners’ initial design codes, while function is safeguarded via stipulations of operating performance monitored through compliance measures devised by planners or environmental managers. For the sake of procedural fairness, it is important that such planning schemes maintain transparency in their automatic and discriminatory measures, rather than allowing senior bureaucrats or politicians repeatedly to propose discretionary ‘spot’ zonings to favored developers, which render the statutory arrangements ineffectual (cf. Wadley 1986, 64). To Gorringe (2011, 120–25), grace in planning would consist of five elements: beauty, justice, human scale, sustainability and community. The stones can figuratively speak for themselves: written around ‘goodness,’ urban designers have responded with attention to the physical and psychological elements, which make a place desirable. The necessary criteria are discussed by Rogerson (1999) and easily accessed in the 12-point list of Montgomery (2007, 268). Likewise, urban environmental quality indicators have been available for some time (Sarmento et al. 2000). In structural planning, the present short text must defer to more complete and adept compilations now readily available, such as Batty and Longley’s (1994) Fractal Cities and Hall’s (2015) Robust City, which comprehensively explore layout. More texturally, Smith (2003, 162) remarks that cities, namely ‘architecture plus space and time,’ concentrate aesthetic and symbolic possibilities. However, they cannot escape the dolor of entropy in that ‘as visuality has become central to the experience of place, so it has turned into an abstracted, disembodied quality or capacity. There

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is thus a tendency for all places in the end to become cosmopolitan and nomadic’ (Urry 2005, 81). According to Smith, those which counter this trend and generate deep satisfaction miraculously blend thousands of individual contributors in a final form which exceeds the sum of the parts. Among other authors, Parfect and Power (1997) convincingly demonstrate quality through physical design in the urban environment. Focal areas such as a central business district, office boulevards, high-class residential and natural spaces should reflect grace axiomatically, employing the available architectural insights. It is in low-touch, ‘soulless’ areas such as suburban industrial and commercial districts and in affordable housing precincts where the struggle must be won on behalf of the City as a whole. Here, the economic program outlined earlier would promote efficiency in operations. Demographic stability should help to maintain occupancy levels, thus countering ephemerality, blight and the dystopian effects rehearsed by MacLeod and Ward (2002, 154). Even so, only strong planning, attended by best practice demonstrations, competitions or even public subsidy, will attenuate the most cheapskate expressions. Problematic manufacturing, including noxious and hazardous types, should be located in the City’s buffer zone along with other functions such as an airport, utilities, bulk goods sales and stadia. All these ­broad-­scale elements could fortify its physical boundary by deterring vicarious spatial expansion. As in Curitiba, Brazil, they could be accessed by regular public transport with local distributors. By retaining these difficult land uses instead of simply exporting them to poorer countries (Gray 1998, 81), noise,11 air and water pollution and also light, heat, vibration and radiation emissions can be addressed with advanced technology. Along with featurist visual mélanges of commercial architecture and advertising signage (Boyd 1961), these seven externalities do nothing for grace and should focus significant public and private efforts at elimination.12 In small communities, complementing useful prescriptions from Power and Houghton (2007, 175–85), Nelessen (1994, 134) recommends: practice through human scale; pedestrianism based on compactness; open space; a community focus; attention to streetscape; variation; mixed uses; employment of a design vocabulary; and the need for lifecycle maintenance of infrastructure and property. Platt (2006b) advocates

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local pathways to foster the humane metropolis. The Brisbane engineer, Robert Goakes (1987), has set out ten design aspects behind the aesthetics of townscape. They include: the creation of unity; simplicity; sound organization of space; hiding the ugly and highlighting the pleasant; maintenance of order and variety; deception; retaining balance; creating accents; proportion and scale; and repetition, rhythm and sequence. Kazimee (2002) backs this list up with 25 ‘simple things’ to make an urban neighborhood sustainable. Lillebye (2000) depicts the sustainable streetscape. Smith (2003, 159–219) provides a checklist to cap his appraisal of urban appeal from the architectural viewpoint, while Porteous (1996) convincingly deals with environmental aesthetics. Kjellberg (2000, 123), mirroring the ecological approach of Platt et  al. (1994, 2006a), reminds us that undisturbed nature often has an intrinsic beauty of its own, requiring no embellishment. Natural landscapes of temperate East Asia spring to mind. The most detailed guide to city form has been produced by Kevin Lynch (1981, 1984). Recognizing that ‘the quality of a place is due to the joint effect of the place and the society which occupies it’ (1981, 111), he makes ‘a general statement about the good settlement, one relevant and responsive to any human context, and which connects values to specific actions’ (1981, 1). Lynch (1981, 116–17) holds that ‘that settlement is good which enhances the continuity of a culture and the survival of its people, increases a sense of connection in time and space, and permits or spurs individual growth: development, within continuity, via openness and connection’ [italics added]. His thesis is built upon a set of performance dimensions, identifiable and universally measurable characteristics of cities derived primarily from spatial qualities. Partly channeling Adam Smith, the five outlined below offer the best hope for achievement of gracefulness in urbanism. • Vitality: the degree to which the form of the settlement supports the vital functions, the biological requirements and capabilities of its inhabitants or, in other words, the survival of the species; • Sense: the extent to which the settlement can be clearly perceived and mentally structured in time and space by its residents and to which their constructs connect with their values and concepts;

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• Fit: the degree to which the form and capacity of spaces, channels and equipment in a settlement match the pattern and quantity of actions in which people customarily engage or want to engage or, in other words, the adequacy and adaptability of behavioral settings; • Access: the ability to reach other persons, activities, resources, services, information or places in the settlement; and • Control: the degree to which the use and access to spaces and activities, and their creation, modification, and management are controlled by those who use, work or reside in them. Lynch’s work catalogues patterns, textures, circulation media, open space configurations and temporal organization which effectuate these principles. Overall, therefore, contrasting with the situation surrounding architectural form, city planning exhibits degrees of consensus and significant direction as to how to co-opt design as a means toward grace. It should relegate haphazard, individualistic and, ultimately, civically hedonistic development (cf. Batty and Longley 1994, 8–9). Improving form can assist attempts to adjust the functional elements bearing on the IPAT identity (cf. Power and Houghton 2007, 188–90). In this context, recall of the City’s necessary and sufficient formative criteria, as outlined earlier, is appropriate.

Manifesting Precepts and Strategies Acknowledging the first of its precepts, the quest in The City of Grace is to employ function to retreat from the edge of chaos and allow rationality to pervade urban form. With appropriate room for self-adjusting adaptation, the ensuing stability will contribute, inter alia, to qualities such as well-being, an holistic outlook, a sense of community, proportion, unified character and efficiency of purpose. It will ensure foremost that demographic size is bounded, whereas economic performance is not. The City will, for the most part, plan functionally for its temporal continuation, rather than for spatial expansion elsewhere as is common today. In smoothing out the ‘geometry of the irregular’ (Batty and Longley 1994, 17, 234), such structural planning as is required will necessarily have less

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to do with edges, boundaries and horizontal dimensions and more to do with volumetrics and view lines. Human scale, quoted as a dimension of grace (Gorringe 2011, 51), will apply in an office sector in central (podium) buildings of up to 20 storys supported by several science, technology and business parks. Inner-city residential land use would consist of four-to-six-story apartment blocks (preferably of fewer than 50 units each) and more distant freehold dwellings. Among these stocks, the key issue would naturally concern flows of people and goods by way of intra-­ urban transportation. Public provision would be more important and also capable of coping with the static demography. Streetcars and aerial tramways would feature in the mix, but so would far larger railway gauges than are common today (i.e. ‘wide-bodied’ and certainly permitting double-­ decker carriages). Computerized movement systems would assist. One innovation might include exterior moving walkways as presently found inside pedestrian transport hubs. With appropriate ingress and egress, CCTV backup and weather cover, these conveyors could be installed on major sidewalks to service areas up to four kilometers from the central district.  They could be safer than the electric scooters and skateboards presently taking to (or taking up) urban arterials and sidewalks. The City’s second precept, sustainability, would follow demographic stability and obviate eternal sprawl. The construction sector would be constrained to maintain, refurbish and, if necessary, replace a building stock with an assumed 50–100-year lifespan (Pyhrr et al. 1989, 47; Hall 2015). Many cities in Europe and Asia retain sustainable cores without the imperative to obliterate their defining heritage. This approach appears validated in contemporary higher-end visitor interest. Predictability in population and employment should allow sustainability in property occupancy without the surges and crashes unsettling the developed world. If managed as per the model of Leach et  al. (2010), built form can help realize lower entropy, the third precept in modeling the City. Efforts can be assisted by informative readings such as those of Wheeler and Beesley (2009) and the trilogy of Brebbia et al. (2000, 2002) and Marchettini et al. (2004). Concerning the built environment’s relation with the City’s six strategies, health is paramount. It is hard to picture grace in settlements which lack adequate water, other utilities, safety and sanitary and waste disposal, as did many developed world cities until 1900 (when average American life expec-

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tancy was only 47 years) (Stiglitz and Walsh 2002, 569). ‘Health’ includes the management of density and reduction of commuting distances in the interests of work-life balance and mental well-being. It needs also to address fitness and obesity in a constructive manner. Proximity among residences, work places and a range of amenities will reduce costs, stress and entropy. Apart from air, land and sea, it was mentioned earlier that capitalism has colonized time 24/7, as in New York, the ‘city which never sleeps.’ A relaxing and reflective option, seen as ‘old-­fashioned’ in work-intensive communities but understood in ‘slow cities’ (Russell 2011, 235), would be a day or, could we beg, half a day, per week in which most stores were closed to allow family and recreation time other than that spent in compulsive browsing and shopping (Zahl 2007, 219–24). Though it might be hard to believe, such provisions can exist: they were more common a quarter century ago. Wealth is rationally preferred to other alternatives. For individuals, it can assist a long, healthy and happy life and, communally, stable urban management. Wadley (2018, 30) recalls once receiving hardened advice from a businesswoman that ‘you don’t not know the meaning of wealth until you have lost it.’ This caution might also apply to those who waste scarce public resources (i.e. other people’s money) in ego-driven or folly prone governance. A settlement’s prosperity can be amply reflected in better and more substantial building stock for the common good. Ostentatious but now valued examples include the Victoriana in country Bendigo and Ballarat in Australia. Grace could, however, equally infuse the utility, refinement and simplicity of less notable structures, which are effectively stewarding and supporting local community welfare. Innovation would be accepted in the City’s building stock or form, though structural efficiency and environmental accommodation would precede decoration, style or featurism. The idea is not for a return to 1940s functionalism born partly out of shortages. The approach would revolve more around renewable energy sources and storage, natural cooling and heating, and overall thermal efficiency. Today, carbon neutrality, legibility, reduction of externalities and systems integration are among the worthy aims of aware, contemporary architecture, at least that more oriented to fundamentals than posturing design extravagance (aka ‘starchitecture’) (Wadley 2016), or corporate power plays (Gleeson 2010, 189). An abundant green urbanism literature is steered by Steffan

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Lehmann’s (2010) architectural tour de force. Fosket and Mamo (2009) portray life in eco-communities, Alexander and Gleeson (2019) call for degrowth via a popular, planned economic contraction, while Gabor Zovanyi (2013) consummately explains the necessary structural planning. Urban and development institutes frequently run study tours of world-class, best practice examples; such professional visitation to the City would be ample endorsement. Form would permeate function via a population which was aware and proud of the grace evident in (how it had created) the built environment. It could instill place attachment and constitute a step toward self-actualization and intrinsic motivation as per the stated metropolitan goals. Altruism would ensue from the foregoing strategies regarding urban form. Resources not wasted on building renewal or elevated vacancy rates could be turned to more productive and charitable uses, one being the demonstration effect just mentioned, and another practical application involving advanced construction engineering and planning research for wider benefit. Altruism could incorporate aesthetic and material aspects of grace including simplicity, industriousness, efficiency and order befitting a model city. It could fuse into stewardship, in so far as the urban metabolism reflects low entropy, maximizing service to throughput in line with rational choice principles and those of bio-economics (Daly 1977, 36–39; Simpson et  al. 1997). The drive to create an ‘eco-city’ would, wherever possible, engage urban form to: minimize water use, toxicity and pollutants; maintain biodiversity and reduce degradation through land management of environmentally sensitive and other areas; emphasize renewable and environmentally benign materials and energy; engage low-impact design and means of conservation; and employ building mass to optimal effect (University of Technology, Sydney 1992). Exclusivity and moderation, comprising the final strategy, suggest that, in the interests of grace, built form will normally be ‘sufficient unto the day,’13 but invariably with an ecological focus. It would have no pretensions, nor call attention to itself, apart from some elements, which could infuse gracefulness through aesthetic brightness, clarity, beauty and perfection in architectural and urban design. Here, most likely, subjectivity will prevail, since the secular criteria mentioned span through time, space and style. Those creations long recognized as outstanding have a natural

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head-start. Among their successors, the task is to separate ‘famous’ exemplars from those in which the virtue of architectural, construction, design and planning principles can be clearly articulated and appreciated (even if as a learning exercise). These cases might appeal to the cognoscenti who could recognize the elegance behind an operating model (cf. Haggett and Chorley 1967).

Modeling Outcomes Assisted by urban form, place identity and attachment are currently important themes in general and environmental psychology, with clear bearing on well-being and, accordingly, the goals of The City of Grace (Scannell and Gifford 2017). This discussion has adopted them as the basics of self-actualization and intrinsic motivation, in the sense that grace subsumes greatness and goodness to create a situation, which, in their individual ways, people come to love. The prescription for such a quality of life, however, proved harder to pin down, sorting the vagaries and subjectivity of architectural preference in structures. The analysis moved to meso-scale matters of politeness or decorum in the precinct, producing in the intersection of urban design and planning a ‘civility,’ which unites the private and public realm and reflects a certain urban morality (Williams 2004, 136–37). At a higher level of systemic resolution, the management of macro-scale dynamics can assist these desiderata, the most important relating to the City’s demographic and, thus, spatial size, and the focus and resoluteness of its people. Its form will not be that of ‘the strip’ and sprawl in urban planning but something more intelligent, drawing on high technology and ecologically sustainable development. Most significantly, in its emphasis on entropy management, its citizens will be spared the perhaps subliminal but yet stealthy stress of continual expansion in demographics and the built environment. The chapter continued the necessarily abridged account to integrate the City’s precepts and strategies into discussion of its physique. To the extent that form and function might have appeared to merge, it could be argued that an integrated model is taking shape, though function prop-

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erly prevails. Even so, a rational form is vital in establishing an holistic place in which people feel related, integrated and confident. In The City of Grace, it will not involve forever chasing growth on a price-taking basis, but in seeking wealth- and environment-enhancing development through resolution and persistence.

Notes 1. This comment betrays a potential weakness of any strategic planning schemes which lack sufficient economic input. Regional science seems better equipped than city planning to deal with urban function. To scope the issue, see Ache (2000). 2. Help in  this section from  Dr. Andrew Leach of  the  former School of Geography, Planning and Architecture, the University of Queensland, is appreciated. 3. Readers will recognize the implied reference to Houston TX, which, for many years, eschewed formal planning and building regulations. 4. For present purposes, the online encyclopedias offer an adequate initial account of the impact of modernism in architecture from 1920 to the mid-1980s. See the following sites, accessed August 2018 at http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernist_architecture; http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Form_follows_function. 5. This view bears congruence to a September 1936 statement to architects in the Transvaal from the modernist Le Corbusier. ‘How can one’s powers of creation be enhanced? Not surely by taking out a subscription to an architectural review, but by setting out on a voyage discovery into the inexhaustible riches of the natural world. That’s the real lesson in architecture: grace, first and foremost. Yes, the suppleness, the precision, the inevitability of the couplings that nature offers to our gaze, always.’ Quoted by Jenger (1996, 120). 6. Reference here could be to the golden section or ratio represented as the square root of five minus one, all over two (i.e. GS = (√5 − 1)/2 = 0.6180), which divides a line unevenly so that the ratio of the smaller to the longer section is the same as that of the longer section to the whole length. It has been known for many years that people express preference for this and other architectural axioms, including phi rectangles (Smith 2003, 82–87).

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7. In the author’s view, the brutalist architecture of the 1950s to 1970s, presumably a cost-cutting strategy on so many university campuses, stands in another category all of its own. 8. For a pictorial demonstration, see Kohane and Hill (2001, 65). 9. As to energy technology, Georgescu-Roegen (1980, 46) points out that, since humanity cannot mine the sun, no generation can deprive a latter one of that source of energy. The known stock of fossil fuels amounts to two weeks of global sunlight. 10. The first mover initiative of Uber Air’s aerial taxi services by manned drones in major cities targets Los Angeles, CA, Dallas, TX and Melbourne, Australia. Commercial operations are planned for 2023. See Australia’s Channel 9 Today Show, accessed June 2019 at: https://www. facebook.com/iwakeupwithtoday/videos/449625442487656/. Astute readers will meanwhile recall that Uber’s initial public offering in New York valued the company at the close on 10 May 2019, at $US 69.7 billion though, in its short history, it had yet to report a profit. 11. See Vancouver’s Right to Quiet Society. Accessed August 2018 at http:// www.quiet.org/index.htm. 12. The planning scheme of Australia’s capital, Canberra, is a stand-out in this regard. See these sites, accessed August 2018: a statement of strategic direction at http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/ni/2008-27/copy/56644/ pdf/2008-27.pdf (Section 2.17, p. 6) and the following Signs General Code: http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/ni/2008-27/copy/56699/pdf/ 2008-27.pdf. 13. Here channeling the Bible, Matthew 6: 34.

References Abbott, C. and Margheim, J. 2008. Imagining Portland’s urban growth boundary: Planning regulation as cultural icon. Journal of the American Planning Association 74 (2), 196–208. Abend, L. 2018. The tourism trap. Time 192 (5–6) [6 August], 26–32. Ache, P. 2000. Vision and creativity: Challenge for city regions. Futures 32 (5), 435–49. Alexander, S. and Gleeson, B. 2019. Degrowth in the suburbs: A radical urban imaginary. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. Bailey, D. 2005. General systems theory. In Encyclopedia of social theory. Ed. G. Ritzer. 310–15. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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Baldwin, D. 1995. Creating community. In America’s cities: Problems and prospects. Ed. R.L. Kemp. 29–38. Aldershot, Hants: Avebury. Batty, M. and Longley, P. 1994. Fractal cities: A geometry of form and function. London: Academic Press. Bayer, R. 1933. L’esthétique de la grâce: Introduction à l’étude des équilibres de structure (2 vols.). Paris: Librairie Félix Alcan. Bell, D. and Jayne, M. (Eds.). 2006. Small cities: Urban experience beyond the metropolis. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Benstein, J. 2006. The way into Judaism and the environment. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing. Blackwell, A. 2013. Shenzen: Topology of a neoliberal city. In Shaping the city: Studies in history, theory and urban design (2nd ed.). Eds. R. El-Khoury and E. Robbins. 278–311. London: Routledge. Boudon, P. 1978. Utopicités. In Le discours utopique. Direction M. de Gandillac and C. Piron. 403–16. Paris: Union Génerale d’Éditions. Boyd, R. 1961. The Australian ugliness. Melbourne: Cheshire. Brebbia, C.A., Ferrante, A. Rodriguez, M., and Terra, B. (Eds.). 2000. The sustainable city: Urban regeneration and sustainability. Southampton, Hants: WIT Press. (See below for a later volume). Brebbia, C.A., Martin-Duque, J.F., and Wadhwa, L.C. (Eds.). 2002. The sustainable city II: Urban regeneration and sustainability. Southampton, Hants: WIT Press. (See also Marchettini for a later volume in this series). Burgess, R. 2000. The compact city debate: A global perspective. In Compact cities: Sustainable urban forms in developing countries. Eds. M.  Jenks and R. Burgess. 9–24. London: Spon. Choay, F. 1965. L’urbanisme: Utopies et réalités. Paris: Editions du Seuil. Collins, J. 2001. Good to great: Why some companies make the leap…and others don’t. Sydney: Random House. Connah, R. 1998. Grace and architecture. Helsinki: The Finnish Building Centre. Daly, H.E. 1977. Steady-state economics: The economics of biophysical equilibrium and moral growth. San Francisco: Freeman. Dantzig, G.B. and Saaty, T.L. 1973. Compact city: A plan for a liveable urban environment. San Francisco: Freeman. Datu, K. 2013. The architectural dimension. In Global city challenges: Debating a concept, improving the practice. Eds. M.  Acuto and W.  Steele. 155–69. Houndmills, Hants: Palgrave Macmillan. Daujat, J. 1959. The theology of grace. London: Burns and Oates. Downs, A. 1994. New visions for metropolitan America. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institute.

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Ellis, L. and Andrews, D. 2001. City sizes, housing costs, and wealth (Research Discussion Paper 2001–08, Economic Development Branch). Canberra: Reserve Bank of Australia. Fainstein, S.S. 2005. Cities and diversity: Should we want it? Can we plan for it? Urban Affairs Review 41 (1), 3–19. Farrelly, E. 2017. When did we stop yearning for grace? Sydney Morning Herald (News Review), 20–21 May, 30–31. Fleischman, R. 1982. Enduring elements of urban design and architecture. In Cities in the 21st century. Eds. G. Gappert and R.V. Knight. 249–70. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Fosket, J. and Mamo, L. 2009. Living green: Communities that sustain. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers. Garbutt, E.L. 1850. Rudimentary treatise on the principles of design in architecture as deducible from nature and exemplified in the works of the Greek and Gothic architects. London: John Weale. Gay, C.M. 1991. Cash values: The value of money, the nature of worth. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. Georgescu-Roegen, N. 1980. Economics and mankind’s ecological problem. In Entropy and the economic process: A seminar. Ed. Science Council of Canada. 13–70. Ottawa: Council Publication. Gleeson, B. 2010. Lifeboat cities. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. Gleeson, B. and Low, N. 2000. Australian urban planning: New challenges, new agendas. St Leonards, NSW: Allen and Unwin. Goakes, R.J. 1987. How to design the aesthetics of townscape. Brisbane, QLD: Boolarong Press. Gorringe, T.J. 2002. A theology of the built environment: Justice, empowerment, redemption. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Gorringe, T.J. 2011. The common good and the global emergency: God and the built environment. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Gray, J. 1998. False dawn: The delusions of global capitalism. London: Granta Books. Haggett, P. and Chorley, R.J. 1967. Models, paradigms and the new geography. In Models in geography. Eds. R.J.  Chorley and P.  Haggett. 19–41. London: Methuen. Hall, T(ony). 2015. The robust city. London: Routledge. Harvey, D. 1989. The condition of postmodernity: An enquiry into the origins of cultural change. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. Hitchens, P. 2018. The abolition of Britain: From Winston Churchill to Teresa May. London: Bloomsbury.

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Holt, S.C. 2007. God next door: Spirituality and mission in the neighbourhood. Brunswick East, VIC: Acorn Press. International Institute for Sustainable Development. 2004. National strategies and initiatives for sustainable development: A 19 country analysis of strategic and co-ordinated action. Winnipeg: Institute Publication. Accessed November 2008 at http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2004/measure_nat_strategies_sd.pdf Jenger, J. 1996. Le Corbusier: Architect of a new age. London: Thames and Hudson. Kahn, M.E. 2006. Green cities: Urban growth and the environment. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. Kazimee, B.A. 2002. Sustainable urban design paradigm: Twenty five simple things to do to make an urban neighborhood sustainable. In The sustainable city II: Urban regeneration and sustainability. Eds. C.A.  Brebbia, J.F.  Martin-Duque and L.C.  Wadhwa. 31–41. Southampton, Hants: WIT Press. Kjellberg, S. 2000. Urban ecotheology. Utrecht: International Books. Kohane, P. and Hill, M. 2001. The eclipse of a commonplace idea: Decorum in architectural theory. Architectural Research Quarterly 5 (1), 63–77. Leach, M., Scoones, I., and Stirling, A. 2010. Dynamic sustainabilities: Technology, environment, justice. London: Earthscan. Lehmann, S. 2010. The principles of green urbanism: Transforming the city for sustainability. London: Earthscan. Lillebye, E. 2000. The sustainable street: Major premises for street design. In The sustainable city: Urban regeneration and sustainability. Eds. C.A.  Brebbia, A.  Ferrante, M.  Rodriguez and B.  Terra. 361–70. Southampton, Hants: WIT Press. Lowe, I. 2005. A big fix: Radical solutions for Australia’s environmental crisis. Melbourne: Black. Lynch, K. 1981. A theory of good city form. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Lynch, K. 1984. Good city form. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. MacLeod, G. and Ward, K. 2002. Spaces of utopia and dystopia: Landscaping the contemporary city. Geografiska Annaler B 84 (3–4), 153–70. Marchettini, N., Brebbia, C.A., Tiezzi, E., and Wadhwa, L.C. 2004. The sustainable city III: Urban regeneration and sustainability. Southampton, Hants: WIT Press. (See also Brebbia for earlier volumes in this series). Martinotti, G. 1999. A city for whom?: Transients and public life in the second-­ generation metropolis. In The urban moment: Cosmopolitan essays on the late 20th century city. Eds. R.A.  Beauregard and S.  Body-Gendrot. 155–84. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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Miles, M. 2008. Urban utopias: The built and social architectures of alternative settlements. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Miller, G.T. 2005. Living in the environment: Principles, connections, and solutions (14th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks Cole. Mitchell, K. 2004. Crossing the neoliberal line: Pacific rim migration and the metropolis. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Montgomery, C. 2013. Happy city: Transforming our lives through urban design. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Montgomery, J. 2007. The new wealth of cities: City dynamics and the fifth wave. Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate. Nelessen, A.C. 1994. Visions for a new American dream: Process, principles, and an ordinance to plan and design small communities. Chicago: Planners Press. Nelson, A.C., Dawkins, C.J., and Sanchez, T.W. 2008. The social impacts of urban containment. Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate. Ng, E. (Ed.). 2010. Designing high density cities for social and environmental sustainability. London: Earthscan. O’Sullivan, A. 2007. Urban economics. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Parfect, M. and Power, G. 1997. Planning for urban quality: Urban design in towns and cities. London: Routledge. Platt, R.H. (Ed.). 2006a. The humane metropolis: People and nature in the 21st century. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press. Platt, R.H. 2006b. Epilogue. In The humane metropolis: People and nature in the 21st century. Ed. R.H.  Platt. 315–22. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press. Platt, R.H., Rowntree, R.A., and Muick, P.A. (Eds.). 1994. The ecological city: Preserving and restoring urban biodiversity. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press. Porteous, J.D. 1996. Environmental aesthetics: Ideas, politics and planning. London: Routledge. Porter, D.R. 2002. Making smart growth work. Washington, DC: The Urban Land Institute. Portney, K. 2003. Taking sustainable cities seriously; Economic development, the environment, and quality of life in American cities. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Power, A. and Houghton, J. 2007. Jigsaw cities: Big places, small spaces. Bristol, UK: The Policy Press. Pyhrr, S.A., Cooper, J.R., Wofford, L.E., Kapplin, S.D., and Lapides, P.D. 1989. Real estate investment: Strategy, analysis, decisions (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley and Sons.

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Rawls, J. 1971. A theory of justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Richardson, H.W. 1973. The economics of urban size. Farnborough, Hants: Saxon House. Robertson, J. 1979. The sane alternative: A choice of futures. Minnesota, MN: River Basin Publishing. Robertson, J. 1989. Future wealth: A new economics for the 21st century. London: Cassell. Rogerson, R. 1999. Quality of life, place and the global city. In Urban quality of life: Critical issues and options. Eds. L.L. Yuan, B. Yuen and C. Low. 13–31. Singapore: National University of Singapore. Ruskin, J. 1880. The seven lamps of architecture. New York: Thomas Crowell. Russell, J.S. 2011. The agile city: Building well-being and wealth in an era of climate change. Washington, DC: Island Press. Sardar, Z. and Abrams, I. 2013. Introducing chaos: A graphic guide. London: Icon Books. Sarkar, C., Webster, C., and Gallacher, J. 2014. Healthy cities: Public health through urban planning. Cheltenham, Gloucestershire: Edward Elgar. Sarmento, R., Zorzal, F.M.B., Serafim, A.J., and Allmenroedr, L.B. 2000. Urban environmental quality indicators. In The sustainable city: Urban regeneration and sustainability. Eds. C.A. Brebbia, A. Ferrante, M. Rodriguez and B. Terra. 95–102. Southampton, Hants: WIT Press. Sassen, S. 1999. Globalization and the formation of claims. In Giving ground: The politics of propinquity. Eds. J.  Copjec and M.  Sorkin. 86–105. London: Verso. Scannell, L. and Gifford, R. 2017. The experienced psychological benefits of place attachment. Journal of Environmental Psychology 51, 256–69. Schwartz, B. 2005. The paradox of choice: Why more is less. New  York: HarperCollins. Scruton, R. 1979. The aesthetics of architecture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Simpson, R., Stimson, R., Mullins, P., and Western, J. 1997. Urban metabolism as a framework to monitor and evaluate metro-regional performance: The south-east Queensland case study. In Urban metabolism: A framework for evaluating the viability, liveability and sustainability of south-east Queensland. Eds. D.  Kemp, M.  Manicaros, P.  Mullins, R.  Simpson, R.  Stimson and J.  Western. (Research Monograph No. 2). Brisbane, QLD: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. Skovbro, A. 2002. Urban densification: A sustainable urban policy? In The sustainable city II: Urban regeneration and sustainability. Eds. C.A.  Brebbia,

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J.F.  Martin-Duque and L.C.  Wadhwa. 517–27. Southampton, Hants: WIT Press. Smith, P.F. 2003. The dynamics of delight: Architecture and aesthetics. London: Routledge. Stiglitz, J.E. and Walsh, C.E. 2002. Economics (3rd ed.). New York: Norton. Summerson, J. [1949] 1998. Heavenly mansions and other essays on architecture. New York: Norton. University of Technology Sydney. 1992. Creating eco-cities: A discussion paper. Sydney: (School of Design), UTS. Urry, J. 2005. The place of emotions within place. In Emotional geographies. Eds. J. Davidson, L. Bondi and M. Smith. 77–83. Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate. Wadley, D. 1986. Restructuring the regions: Analysis, policy model, prognosis. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Wadley, D. 2004. Good development, better planning: The nexus revisited. Planning Practice and Research 19 (2), 173–93. Wadley, D. 2008. The garden of peace. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 98 (3), 650–85. Wadley, D. 2016. The architecture/planning interface. Architectural Science Review 59 (6), 445–48. Wadley, D. 2018. Employment, income and (in)equality: Planning issues hidden in plain sight. In Australian handbook of urban and regional planning. Eds. N. Sipe and K. Vella. 21–32. New York: Routledge. Watkin, D. 1977. Morality and architecture: The development of a theme in architectural history and theory from the Gothic revival to the modern movement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Weber, R. 1995. On the aesthetics of architecture: A psychological approach to the structure and the order of perceived architectural space. Aldershot, Hants: Avebury. Wekerle, G.R. and Whitzman, C. 1995. Safe cities: Guidelines for planning, design and management. New York: van Nostrand Reinhold. Wheeler, S.M. and Beesley, T. 2009. The sustainable urban development reader (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. Williams, R.J. 2004. The anxious city: English urbanism in the late twentieth century. London: Routledge. Zahl, P.F.M. 2007. Grace in practice: A theology of everyday life. Grand Rapids, MI: William Eerdmans. Zovanyi, G. 2013. The no-growth imperative: Creating sustainable communities under ecological limits to growth. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

7 A Graceless Age: Roadblocks and Pathways to Progress

Beyond their physical properties, cities represent theaters of human motivation, fully psychological constructs. While much received wisdom has, to this point, been incorporated, the exigency of twenty-first century contradictions and constraints must feature in appropriately tempered and tested urban modeling (cf. Ache 2000, 440; Bennett 2001; Osborne 2018). The arrival of the outright egregious cannot be discounted (Davis and Monk 2007). It represents the turbulence, pictured at the outset, as the neoliberal environment dices with upholding order and the threat of unraveling (Walmsley 1972, 48; Sardar and Abrams 2013, 56). To Philip Yancey (1997, 83), ‘ungrace plays like the background static for families, nations and institutions. It is, sadly, our natural human state.’ American musician, Don Henley, captures the same spirit lyrically:      These times are so uncertain      There’s a yearning undefined      … People filled with rage       We all need a little tenderness       How can love survive in such a graceless age?1

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Reflection upon the human condition should not deal in optimism or Schopenhauerian pessimism but, rather, and always, in realism and reason. Though, obviously, many minor circumstances could affect The City of Grace, the big picture counts more. Significant roadblocks thus comprise charges of utopianism, popular acceptance, and the possible denouement of capitalism. By contrast, rationality in future affairs could create a pathway to progress. We move to expose and deal with these themes.

Utopianism and Acceptance While utopianism usually posits an ideal, upside condition, the present account is more constrained to avoid significant downsides. And, whereas the relevant utopianism of Mumford’s (1922) historically respectable type has been acknowledged, it should be explicitly distinguished from that of the lazy, hazy 1960s—with epithets such as ‘imagine all the people living for today’ and ‘all you need is love’ and so forth. Such sentimentality can segué into listlessness (acedia), indecision (such that if you believe in everything, you believe in nothing) or learned helplessness. This soggy embrace could suffocate any sustained modeling and should find no favor with realists. A levelheaded compromise invokes John Friedmann’s (2002, 103–04) critical and constructive vision: ‘utopian thinking [is] the capacity to imagine a future…radically different from what we know to be the prevailing order of things.’ The City of Grace is only somewhat different and, to that extent, achievable. Robertson (1989, 20) writes of valuing people and the earth, a plaintive call, were it not echoed by authors like Schumacher (1973), Daly and Townsend (1993), Nelson (2006) and Coyle (2011). So, is The City of Grace dependent, as in the past, on illustrative narratives, or could it be a metaphor for energization and a different epistemology of prospective urbanism? Its secular and industrious intent has been painted as exclusive, but positively so. Some will deem it not worthwhile; others will see a hard life in its resolute communitarianism. For hedonists, libertarians, anti-regulationists, perpetual adolescents and anarchists, a large and lively realm beckons outside. It is both germane and non-utopian to posit this worldly trajectory, if only in the default setting that ‘if you don’t like

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“grace”, sample the graceless and potentially chaotic alternatives.’ In this regard, what could be defined as  popular, business-as-usual  capitalism, incorporating global neoliberalism? In fairness, picturing it could offer observers a basis of choice (cf. Freestone 1993; Schoon 2001).

The Future of Capitalism Alexander and Gleeson (2019, 6) submit that ‘capitalism has run aground on the reefs of contradiction and overreach.’ To expand their littoral analogy by enlisting chaos theory, the neoliberal compact appears as a pressured system, represented by a surfer attempting the Quasimodo.2 The approaching wave of unchecked population growth forces the board (capitalism) along. The move involves the rider (humanity) bending forward with hands upraised and head down, passage uncertain, a wipeout or collision ever possible. Indeed, the last 30 years have seen not simply a retreat of socialism but repeated, synchronized, worldwide contortions of capitalism3 in the 1987 market crash, the 1997 Asian meltdown, the 2001 dotcom bubble, the 2008 GFC and later quantitative easing. Australian businessman, Tim Hughes (2008), chides that the weakest companies must be saved because they are deemed too big to fail4: ‘the old Politburo warhorses must be laughing in their graves to see capitalism get its comeuppance.’ Even so, people lost their shirts, jobs, partners, dogs and pick-up trucks in these crises. Others lost their lives in the global war on terror, assorted epidemics, and human or natural disasters. In a modern take on the life of desperation, Cooper (2004, 77) resignedly observes that ‘we may not be interested in chaos but chaos is interested in us.’ Apart from the transaction of physical (solar) energy (Daly 1977, 19), global capitalism essentially represents a singular, closed system, determined by irreversible, foregoing conditions (aka ‘the signature of chaos’) and unstable, aperiodic behavior (Goudzwaard 1979, 152–53). Though Gore (2013, 35–35) muses about a ‘sustainable capitalism,’ Alexander and Gleeson (2019, 14) identify ‘a convulsive instability at the heart of human prospect [sic] that contradicts the predictive confidence of popular urban commentary.’ Alternatively, The City of Grace could offer an

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outpost of relative stability, its precepts and strategies capable of checking entropy. To probe this contrast, we must consider two possible crises, environmental and internal, which capitalism could create through its own devices.

Capitalism’s Physical Environment The first worry is whether capitalism will sooner or later destroy its natural environment. The IPAT effects of unhinged demographic and economic growth along with degradation of species and nature5 raised in the first chapter need elaboration for, as Harari (2011, 466) has observed: We are more powerful than ever before, but have very little idea what to do with all the power. Worse still, humans seem to be more irresponsible than ever. Self-made gods with only the laws of physics to keep us company, we are accountable to no one. We are consequently wreaking havoc on our fellow animals and on the surrounding ecosystem, seeking little more than our own comfort and amusement, yet never finding satisfaction.

In the journal, Futures (2015), Australian authors, Melanie Randle and Richard Eckersley, asked respondents, ‘in your opinion, how likely is it that our existing way of life will end in the next 100 years?’ and, further, ‘how likely is it that humans will be wiped out in the next 100 years?’ In Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, 54 percent believed that there was a 50 percent or greater probability of experiencing the end of ‘our existing way of life.’ An average 24 percent foresaw the same chance of the elimination of humanity within a century. First, ‘our way of life’ could refer to the viability of the western order. Relevant literature includes warnings by former US presidential nominee, Patrick Buchanan (2002) about immigration and ennui transforming America and Europe, recently rehearsed by Murray (2017), and more broadly pursued in Goodhart’s (2017), Frank’s (2018) and Hitchens’ (2018) polemics about those continents’ current politics. They bow to the geographically wider ‘provocation’ of Singaporean commentator, Kishore Mahbubani (2018). He criticizes ‘suicidal’ war engagements, the operational ­blindness

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of élites, and running on ‘autopilot’ underpinned by naiveté and ideology. ‘It is inevitable that the world will face a troubled future if the West can’t shake its interventionist impulses, refuses to recognize its new position, or decides to become isolationist and protectionist’ (#91). A troubled world is not helpful to constructs such as a City of Grace. Randle and Eckersley’s second inquiry about ‘the elimination of humanity’ ups the ante. Today, even an institution as traditional6 as the Catholic Church has misgivings. The 2015 papal encyclical, Laudato Si (see bibliography entry ‘Francis’), written to all humanity and not just adherents, rightly asks, ‘what kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up?’(#160). It acknowledges a crisis around climate, water, loss of biodiversity, declining quality of life, societal breakdown and global inequality. Of human settlement, it observes (#44): Nowadays, for example, we are conscious of the disproportionate and unruly growth of many cities, which have become unhealthy to live in, not only because of pollution caused by toxic emissions but also as a result of urban chaos, poor transportation, and visual pollution and noise. Many cities are huge, inefficient structures, excessively wasteful of energy and water. Neighbourhoods, even those recently built, are congested, chaotic and lacking in sufficient green space. We were not meant to be inundated by cement, asphalt, glass and metal, and deprived of physical contact with nature.

Pope Francis argues that today’s global interdependence requires universal plans and reforms (cf. Rifkin’s (n.d.), ‘biosphere consciousness’ as opposed to ‘geopolitics’). Yet, who is inclined to listen? Although, as posted by Evans (2019), the chief executive of the large global miner, BHP, has latterly warned that dependence on fossil fuels poses an ‘existential risk’ to the planet, authors Mazutis and Eckhardt (2017) generally chastise business for dismissing climate change on account of several inbuilt cognitive biases, those of perception, optimism, (ir)relevance and volition. Their experience with industry appears to corroborate Hamilton’s (2010, xii) earlier lament that ‘after a decade of little real action, even with a very optimistic assessment of the likelihood of the world taking

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the necessary action and in the absence of so-called unknown unknowns, catastrophic climate change is now virtually certain.’ In these circumstances, the United Nations (2013) compiled a register of six hazards potentially impacting the world’s 633 cities with populations over 750,000 in 2011. The climate-related instances covered: floods, affecting 224 settlements with 663 million inhabitants; drought, 134 cities, 278 million; cyclones, 68 cities, 229 million; and landslides, 6 cities, 12 million people. The figures quoted are only those for settlements in the eighth to tenth most exposed deciles: many more could be less severely affected. Moreover, some areas face multiple natural hazards. The report (#24) identifies 205 cities of over a million population subject to one type of hazard, sixty-one facing two, and seven exposed to three. Africa and Europe are the continents least affected. As to future population gains, and consequent outcomes from climate change, these data generated from historical sources can only be regarded as baseline or speculative. Moriarty and Honnery (2015) take the results beyond immediate damage and destruction into important second-order impacts such as those affecting health. Former energy industry executive, Ian Dunlop (2013, 139, 142), escalates the case. He maintains that two degrees of warming will, over time, result in six to seven meters of sea-level rise, while four degrees could produce seventy meters following significant polar and tundra melting. Thus: Political and business leaders glibly talk about adapting to a 4° C world with little idea of its implications. It is a world of one billion people or less [sic], not seven billion, caused by a combination of heat stress, escalating extreme weather disasters, sea level rise, food and water scarcity, with consequent social disorder and conflict.

By this reckoning, comfortable calls from planners, environmentalists and the commentariat for climate change ‘mitigation,’ the more so, ‘adaptation’ appear illusory. Recall that as early as its fourth (2007) report, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted a possible temperature rise of six degrees Celsius with a best estimate by 2100 of 4.5 degrees (McFague 2008, 10). Gore (2013, xxiii) observes

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that ‘the future…now casts a shadow upon the present.’ Wheeler (2009) contributes a snapshot taken in 2270 of a flooded world caused by sea-­ level rise. It complements the aforementioned ‘collapse’ titles (Ahmad et al. 1997; Diamond 2011), recalled for the historical case of Rome by the Toronto academic, Thomas Homer-Dixon (2006, 57–60) and reprised relative to climate change by Gardiner (2011). More striking are the lamentation of Osborne (2018) and the thesis on ‘the passing of mankind’ by Ross Goodrich (2014), who contests the exceptionalism characterizing the human psyche (‘cannot happen to us’). The case can be closed with a quotation from a United Nations report affirming that climate change is every bit as alarming as any of the threats facing humanity, and probably more alarming than most, because—without drastic change—its impacts appear certain. So …its effects matter fundamentally to everyone: what is at issue is not comfort, or lifestyle, but survival. (Kirby 2008, 23) [italics added]

Alexander and Gleeson (2019, 49–51) warn of ‘the moral hazard of possible technological solutions,’—that is, in following optimists like Matt Ridley and the late Herman Kahn to place faith in the (T) of the IPAT identity (Ehrlich and Holdren 1971). The (2019) authors’ argument should not be read as being anti-technology per se, nor disputing the utility of innovation as favored in The City of Grace. Rather, it applies to hope of ‘technological solutions’ at large saving humanity from a situation of its own making. Both economic and physical lenses can be applied. Economically, in determining total factor productivity (TFP) in national accounting, the influence of technology is usually calculated as any component of gross product existing after acknowledging the contributions of labor and capital (Stiglitz and Walsh 2002, 583–85). To achieve an effect in mediating environmental impact (I), this measure of technological or quality change would have to outweigh the multiplicative influences of (P), population stocks and growth, and (A), affluence sometimes also interpreted as ‘attitude.’ Assume that, worldwide, the product of (P) ∗ (A) amounted to 3 percent per annum: technological advance would then have to better that rate to achieve any TFP. Yet the

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focus here is upon aggregate technological progress, not all of which would be oriented to, or have any ameliorating effects upon, the environment. A total of 3 percent is also a prodigious annual rate of growth in TFP.  Population and affluence are likely to be far more powerful than technology in influencing the human condition. For positive and realistic consequences, control of population is the pivotal variable. The physical case closely corroborates such an interpretation. It draws on the work of Arto and Dietzenbacher (2014) in analyzing drivers of growth in global GHG emissions between 1995 and 2008.7 The period recorded a net rise of 8.9GT of CO2e, which can be calibrated in IPAT terms and with the previously referenced data of Goldie (2014, xxiii). The writers present a global carbon balance sheet consisting of aggregate gains of 18.8 GT and reductions of 9.9 GT. Structurally, there emerged: • +14 GT CO2e from increased per capita consumption (A, affluence in the IPAT identity) • +4.2 GT CO2e from population growth (P, as above) • (−)8.4  GT CO2e from increases in efficiency and technological improvements (T, as above) • (−)1.5 GT CO2e from changes to the composition of consumption (A) • +0.6 GT CO2e from changes to trade structure (T, technology, possibly a result of globalization) Overall increases in carbon dioxide emanating from consumption thus exceed efficiency gains by 5.6 GT CO2e, or an additional 66.66 percent above the 8.4  GT CO2e technology offset (5.6/8.4  ×  100). Including emissions consequent upon population growth, the gap rises to 9.76 GT CO2e, or 116 percent of the total reduction. From this evidence, Alexander and Gleeson’s (2019) caution about ‘moral hazard’ again looks justified. To conclude this sorry section, global leaders meeting in Davos, Switzerland, recently rated ‘failure of climate change adaptation and mitigation’ as the second of ten global risks in terms of both likelihood and impact on humanity (World Economic 2019). All these sentiments render somewhat anodyne and complacent the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development definition of sustainability—not doing

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anything now to impact the welfare of future generations. ‘Physician, heal thyself ’: the global population 30 years ago was 5.02 billion!

Capitalism’s Internal Dynamics The second worry,8 also bearing on population issues, concerns the systemic viability of so-called late capitalism. Karl Marx’s critique in Das Kapital has attracted many authors, a frontrunner being David Harvey (1982, 2014 inter alia). His appreciation of spatial and temporal unevenness, along with class struggles, has encouraged diverse inputs including the 1996 works of Gibson-Graham, and Webber and Rigby. Other than fundamentally ideological objections also exist, such as Albert’s (2003) advocacy of a participatory economy, Davis and Monk’s (2007) exposé of neoliberalism’s ‘evil paradises…in former mob hideouts,’ and Piketty’s (2014) celebrated analysis of capitalism’s structural inequalities. How might things play out? The concern here is not with consumption and overproduction, as trouble Gleeson (2014) and Alexander and Gleeson (2019, 8–10). Instead it relates to the factor input mix. Dicken (2015, 322–23) records that the world’s labor supply quadrupled between 1980 and 2005. From 1995 to 2025, he cites a prediction that only 1 percent of its growth will occur in developed countries, leaving the International Labor Organization to fret over a supply-side crisis ‘of massive proportions’ as 46 million people per year enter global employment markets. Economic activity, the basis for human survival, involves a complex system of land, labor, capital and management. Unsurprisingly, capitalism is about capital and, since the Industrial Revolution, technological progress has orchestrated its substitution for labor in the factor mix. Finn Bowring (2002) of the University of Cardiff has gone as far as to claim that the objective of the most efficient organizations is the elimination of work (i.e. by humans). Six trends buffeting labor include: the accessing of internal and external scale economies in production; ongoing product and service development incorporating simplification, modularity, weight loss, miniaturization and multi-functionality; digitization, robotization and augmented/ artificial intelligence; outsourcing and offshoring; casualization and

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c­ ontracting; and shadow work in which corporations inveigle consumers to undertake free work for them. Heeding early lessons about contemporary risk relayed by Hacker (2006, 60–85), labor issues in parallel with its overall demography would be closely watched in The City of Grace. It could be noted that proactive management of labor force dynamics is effectively a radical idea given the general slackness applying in rich nations where capital calls the shots. Currently, various pundits, including some of the world’s largest business service firms, are debating whether the aggregate demand for labor in advanced countries will rise or actually fall, especially in light of potentially revolutionary ‘system-embracing’ technological changes such as quantum computing (cf. Dicken 2015, 76). The implications extend beyond a single city, nation or factor share. After five Kondratieff waves, humanity could be reaching a new technological asymptote, making it difficult to imagine many meaningful, labor-absorbing, new products and services and thus tilting toward Hamilton’s (2003, 80) and Russell’s (2011, 221–22) anticipation of a post-consumptive environment. As to Gore’s (2013, 5) suggestion that ‘the world has now emerged as a single economic entity that is moving quickly towards integration’ [original italics], European sociologist, Zygmunt Bauman (2007, 28, 30) adds the alarming observation that: the volume of humans made redundant by capitalism’s global triumph grows unstoppably and comes close now to exceeding the managerial capacity of the planet; there is a plausible prospect of capitalist modernity (or modern capitalism) choking on its own waste products which it can neither reassimilate nor annihilate….As for the ‘redundant humans’ who are currently being turned out in the lands that have only recently jumped under (or fallen under) the juggernaut of modernity, such outlets [i.e. new spatial frontiers] were never available; the need for them did not arise in the so-called ‘premodern’ societies, innocent of the problem of waste, human or inhuman alike. [original italics]

If ‘sustainability,’ either presently or for future generations, is to characterize The City of Grace, it will need to address job creation and retention in a more contingent way than that of various developed economies

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chasing growth through labor immigration as if the future were simply a linear continuation of the past. Notwithstanding the calls of Rifkin (n.d.) for a third industrial revolution and the provocative work of Bregman (2017), few writers have broached the content just cited. Contrarians at least have the spine to accommodate it. Some, to be sure, have pictured contemporary capitalism as a giant pyramid or Ponzi scheme (Creative by Nature 2014; Harvey 2014; Australia’s Science Channel 2017; Civics Nation 2018), desperately seeking new demographics with disposable income to increase revenue, value added and, ultimately, profits. Ah, Prospero, the magic and the sophistry!9. The cited potentials and portents of global capitalism as a high-entropic and relatively closed system challenge civilization Gleeson (2014). Yet, they simultaneously explain why: • modeling the function and form of The City of Grace takes a precautionary and defensive position (cf. Bailey 2005, 310); • despite its elevated systemic level, the model is not utopian but, instead, anti-dystopian; and • it might act as a constructive alternative to neoliberal development, even though existence of the latter is assumed for the sake of realism. The City puts forward an intentional future involving a known agenda and potential certainty, as against the lack of teleological direction, or maybe, pernicious misdirection, of prevailing market forces. There is no guarantee, however, that a single City, or even a cohort of Cities of Grace, could overturn current trends or that there would otherwise be a positive ‘transformative crisis,’ to quote Gleeson (2014, 112). Consequentially, it is relevant to consider any alleviation potentially accompanying the application of rationality in urban development.

The Pathway to Rational Progress Ensconced in philosophy and psychology, rationality and its alternatives lie among the supreme ends in Daly’s (1977, 19) scaling of the disciplines. They also propose the highest level of systemic resolution in world affairs: as follows, if the word ‘rational’ is to mean anything, its ­application

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must extend beyond the individual such that collective conduct is either rational or not. That important dichotomy can be understood by considering procedural and substantive senses of rationality as they influence management of urban and other environments. In his book on Relativism, O’Grady (2002) argues that a procedurally rational action should be judged around a minimal list of non-relativist criteria and also by its treatment—how one acquires it, integrates it with other beliefs and by what one does with it. Core elements of rationality must be universal, whereas localized ones need not be. ‘Universal’ could signify maxims, which are consensually affirmable, free-standing in relation to empirical contingencies and independent of an individual’s particular circumstances. As to substantive rationality, it is certain that, under current auspices, the natural environment upon which we depend will, in the absence of remarkable technological change (e.g. overcoming the second law of thermodynamics), feature irreversibility and irreplaceability. The context is one of depletion of non-renewable resources, extinctions of species and loss of biodiversity. Systemically, it is both deterministic (in that impacts can cumulate over time) and also stochastic (meaning that maverick variables can produce random occurrences of differing likelihood and consequence). With positive feedback, there can be tipping points or phase shifts, which can accelerate and cause structural or aggregate changes. Nonlinear, dynamic systems host vast numbers of independent variables interacting in multitudinous ways and producing unintended consequences (Novak 1982, 89), yet complex systems are able to balance order at the ‘edge of chaos.’ This margin of transition hints at a phase shift between stability and a high-entropic slide into total dissolution, as has happened periodically to human societies (Sardar and Abrams 2013, 15, 82). With this backdrop, rational action and survival appear linked because, in their absence, there is no human context to superimpose upon the natural one. This position has the advantage, rare in philosophy, of absolutism, since it is about life and death. Hence, in a poorly recognized way, our oft-cited, much-touted ‘sustainability’ must somehow depend upon human rationality. Individually, but, more significantly, collectively and

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at the highest level of systemic resolution, we should redefine sustainability as the application of rational action toward anthropogenic survival. Motivation and belief mechanisms infuse this prescription. Ken Wilber (2001, 224–25) segments ‘rationality’ within an ontology of consciousness (Fig. 7.1). • Reflecting a symbolic world view, the pre-rational, sub-conscious realm has ‘archaic,’ ‘magic’ and ‘mythic’ levels relating respectively to: animism, pantheism and orgiastic modes; rituals and, enchantments; and the energies of nature, the essence of humankind and semi-­ divinity. It corresponds with Maslow’s physiological needs. • The trans-rational, super-conscious realm in its ‘causal,’ ‘subtle’ and ‘psychic’ levels lies atop Daly’s (1977, 19) spectrum of disciplines as it taps clairvoyance and intuition, the divine and enlightenment, and eschatology and dreams. It reflects Maslow’s belongingness and self-­ actualization/transcendence needs. • Self-conscious rationality, correlated with Maslow’s self-esteem needs, at once involves a level of reason, analysis and measure in a framework of morals and ethics. It helps create the institutions of the modern Rational

Rational (self-conscious)

Mythic

Magic

Pre-rational (sub-conscious)

Archaic

Psychic

Trans-rational (super-conscious)

Subtle

Causal

Fig. 7.1  Realms and levels of consciousness. (Source: After Wilber 2001, 225)

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world and pursuit of science and technology. However, it is also associated with dysfunctional compulsions and obsession with self-­conceived truths and perfection of standards. While Hamilton (1994, 122) endorses elements of the pre-­ Enlightenment organic worldview (as in the contemporary rise of environmentalism and validating of indigenous cultures), Conway (1992, 227–36) charges that modernism has locked advanced societies too strongly into self-conscious rationality. It stresses instrumentality at the expense of other realms and worldviews (which might question pure materialism and relate somewhat more to grace). Three refrains apply. First, the objectification and metrication of contemporary capitalism illustrate the downsides in pursuing self-conscious rationality too strongly. As Martin Buber ([1937] 1970, 109–10) remarked, ‘the capricious man does not believe and encounter…he only knows the feverish world out there and his feverish desire to use it…he cannot perceive anything but unbelief and caprice, positing ends and devising means. His world is devoid of sacrifice and grace, encounter and presence….’ Second, this self-conscious rationality can explain neoliberalism’s compulsion toward growth. Third, for these reasons, what Conway (1992, 228) calls ‘the rational ego’ will require some calibration and management in its involvement with The City of Grace, lest qualities such as charm, beauty, beneficence and selflessness retreat (Table 3.1). In modeling urban grace, two questions ensue. If the City can, in fact, survive by achieving procedural and substantive rationality, where does that leave the rest of the world, given its lack of unified leadership and potentially chaotic neoliberalism? Further, have we reached such a stage of (dis)illusion and hubris that the desires to be rational and sustainable should be dismissed as dissociative and ‘utopian’?

Summation The roadblocks and pathways to The City of Grace relate to its possible utopianism, uncertain acceptance, the state of its surrounding neoliberal environment, and the potential for rational decision-making.

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Regarding utopianism, it should be remembered that human settlement inevitably follows models. Early types of organization evolving into feudalism were adequately appraised by Karl Marx. The Industrial Revolution begat thinkers like Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill who fostered classical liberalism, transformed from the 1940s in the work of F. A. Hayek, Anthony Fisher, Milton Friedman and others as the neoliberalism of today. In that it represents the world as we know it, neoliberalism is not usually (and probably for good reason) seen as utopian, but it remains a model with its own system dynamics. Despite becoming a ‘solid fact’ in Mumford’s (1922, 14) terminology and notwithstanding the claims of Frances Fukuyama, it might not after all represent ‘the end of history.’ Should it and its libertarian backers fail, neoliberalism could, in the hindsight of those who survive it, appear more conceptually utopian than the moderate City of Grace. Grace might have benefits beyond goodness and greatness but, as with everything in life, comes at a cost. Its prospectus will not attract everyone. For the present, there are plenty of alternatives for the ‘ecologically illiterate’ and dissenters to maintain their ‘apparently innocent’ interest in ‘beliefs and value systems that would seem to place apparently irrational and dogmatic restrictions upon the programme of practical improvement’ (Gay 1991, 79; McFague 2008, 56). The City has been situated in a capitalist environment which, contrariwise, will influence its success. Therefore, as roadblocks, two macro-level failure modes of capitalism have been examined. As neoliberalism evolves, they are not assured but, recalling the principles of scenario-building, nor are they fanciful (Hirschhorn 1980, 181). They are plausible and might contain chaotic elements of surprise, which could produce dramatic change if either of the cited sequences occurs. Rationality pervades the construction of The City of Grace but, in the real world, is a contested and far from a free good. From the author’s theorizing of its individual and collective expression, it can be defined as the application of reason to human survival. Like Gleeson’s (2010) urbanism, the City aims to survive in an environment of arguably increasing entropy. As a secular rather than a theological construct, maybe it can employ rationality as a negentropic force.

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Notes 1. Don Henley, ‘The Heart of the Matter’ from The End of Innocence, 1989. 2. Quasimodo move in surfing, see https://surfing.wonderhowto.com/howto/perform-quasimodo-surfboard-263877/, accessed August 2018. 3. Just looking at capitalism today in a slowing world economy, one might reflect that the system has, of itself, failed to stimulate demand through a large, private advertising industry. The public sector is now pressured to assist consumption by way of quantitative easing and interest rate reduction in monetary policy and special rebates or reduced income tax rates for consumers. There are many variables, which capitalism cannot control, two obvious ones being the birth rate and migration as they affect the long-term labor supply. 4. Or so big as to create failure elsewhere in financial systems. See the comprehensive denunciation by Katarina Pistor (2019) of the current proposal by Facebook of an omni-currency, Libra. Evidence of mounting official resistance to this disruptive crypto startup is chronicled by Michaels and Davidson (2019). 5. To some involved in social research, it might appear that colleagues in the physical and natural sciences have leverage in grant applications by virtue of their attempt to save some species, or the last known colony of such and such. While this allocation reflects dire necessity, it could arguably be addressing symptoms rather than causes of a much wider malaise, which, ultimately, is to do with human motivation. Inquiry into population dynamics and policies could be an alternative, long-term focus. 6. In IPAT terms, the Catholic push for procreation has been retrograde but no more so than the current exhortations of certain recalcitrant regimes to their citizens to reproduce—allegedly ‘for the national good.’ 7. For drawing this 2014  article and calculations to my attention, I am indebted to Kelly d’Alessandro, a doctoral student in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. 8. These ‘worries’ are not intended to gainsay the positive initiatives of philanthropists such as Bill Gates (2008), an advocate for ‘creative capitalism.’ 9. The reference being to William Shakespeare’s 1610–1611 play, The Tempest.

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References Ache, P. 2000. Vision and creativity: Challenge for city regions. Futures 32 (5), 435–49. Ahmad, A., Hashim, M.H.A., and al Hachim, G. 1997. Islam and the environmental crisis. London: Ta-Ha Publishers. Albert, M. 2003. Parecon: Life after capitalism. London: Verso. Alexander, S. and Gleeson, B. 2019. Degrowth in the suburbs: A radical urban imaginary. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. Arto, I. and Dietzenbacher, E. 2014. Drivers of the growth in global greenhouse gas emissions. Environmental Science and Technology 48, 5388–94. Australia’s Science Channel. 2017. Ponzi’s ecology, a loaf of bread and late capitalism. Accessed September 2018 at https://australiascience.tv/ ponzis-ecology-a-loaf-of-bread-and-late-capitalism/ Bailey, D. 2005. General systems theory. In Encyclopedia of social theory. Ed. G. Ritzer. 310–15. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Bauman, Z. 2007. Liquid times. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Bennett, O. 2001. Cultural pessimism: Narratives of decline in the postmodern world. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Bowring, F. 2002. Post-Fordism and the end of work. Futures 34, 159–72. Bregman, R. 2017. Utopia for realists: And how we can get there (Trans. E. Manton). New York: Little, Brown. Buber, M. [1937] 1970. I and thou (W. Kaufmann, new translation, prologue and notes). Edinburgh: Clark. Buchanan, P.J. 2002. The death of the West: How dying populations and immigrant invasions imperil our country and civilization. New York: St Martin’s Press. Civics Nation. 2018. Is modern capitalism a Ponzi scheme? Civics Nation. Accessed August 2018 at https://www.civicsnation.org/2018/06/29/ modern-capitalism-ponzi-scheme/ Conway, R. 1992. The rage for utopia. St Leonards, NSW: Allen and Unwin. Cooper, R. 2004. The breaking of nations: Order and chaos in the twenty-first century. London: Atlantic Books. Coyle, D. 2011. The economics of enough: How to run the economy as if the future matters. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Creative by Nature. 2014. Capitalism is a pyramid scheme. Creative by Nature. Accessed August 2018 at https://creativesystemsthinking.wordpress. com/2014/10/26/capitalism-is-a-pyramid-scheme/

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Daly, H.E. 1977. Steady-state economics: The economics of biophysical equilibrium and moral growth. San Francisco: Freeman. Daly, H.E. and Townsend, K.N. 1993. Valuing the earth: Economics, ecology, ethics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Davis, M. and Monk, D.B. (Eds.). 2007. Evil paradises: Dreamworlds of neoliberalism. New York: The New Press. Diamond, J. 2011. Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed. New York: Penguin. Dicken, P. 2015. Global shift: Mapping the contours of the changing world economy (7th ed.). Los Angeles: Sage. Dunlop, I. 2013. Climate change—Beyond dangerous: Emergency actions and integrated solutions. In Sustainable futures: Linking population, resources and the environment. Eds. J. Goldie and K. Betts. 138–52. Collingwood, VIC: CSIRO Publishing. Ehrlich, P.R. and Holdren, J.P. 1971. Impact of population growth. Science: American Association for the Advancement of Science 171 (3977), 1212–17. Evans, N. 2019. BHP warns of ‘existential climate risk. The Australian, 24 July, 17, 20. Frank, T. 2018. Rendezvous with oblivion. Brunswick, VIC: Scribe. Freestone, R. 1993. Introduction: Hans Westerman and planning for options. In Spirited cities: Urban planning, traffic and environmental management in the nineties. Ed. R. Freestone. 1–12. Annandale, NSW: Federation Press. Friedmann, J. 2002. The prospect of cities. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minneapolis Press. Gardiner, S.M. 2011. A perfect moral storm: The ethical tragedy of climate change. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gates, B. 2008. How to fix capitalism. Time, 11 August, 24–31. Gay, C.M. 1991. Cash values: The value of money, the nature of worth. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. Gleeson, B. 2010. Lifeboat cities. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. Gleeson, B. 2014. The urban condition. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Goldie, J. 2014. Introduction. In Sustainable futures: Linking population, resources and the environment. Eds. J.  Goldie and K.  Betts. xix–xxv. Collingwood, VIC: CSIRO Publishing. Goodhart, D. 2017. The road to somewhere: The populist revolt and the future of politics. London: Hurst. Goodrich, R.E. 2014. From earth to oblivion: The passing of mankind. Minneapolis, MN: Mill City Press.

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Gore, A. 2013. The future. New York: Random House. Goudzwaard, R. 1979. Capitalism and progress: A diagnosis of Western society. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. Hacker, J.S. 2006. The great risk shift: The assault on American jobs, families, health care, and retirement and how you can fight back. New  York: Oxford University Press. Hamilton, C. 1994. The mystic economist. Fyshwick, ACT: Willow Park Press. Hamilton, C. 2003. Growth fetish. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin. Hamilton, C. 2010. Requiem for a species: Why we resist the truth about climate change. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin. Harari, Y.N. 2011. Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. London: Vintage Books. Harvey, D. 1982. The limits to capital. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Harvey, D. 2014. Seventeen contradictions and the end of capitalism. London: Profile Books. Hirschhorn, L. 1980. Scenario writing: A developmental approach. Journal of the American Planning Association 46 (2), 172–83. Hitchens, P. 2018. The abolition of Britain: From Winston Churchill to Teresa May. London: Bloomsbury. Homer-Dixon, T.F. 2006. The upside of down: Catastrophe, creativity and the renewal of civilization. Melbourne: Text Publishing. Hughes, T. 2008. The system is sick at heart. The Courier Mail (Queensland), November 15–16, 78. Kirby, A. 2008. Kick the habit: A UN guide to climate neutrality. United Nations Environment Program. Accessed August 2019 at http://www.unesco.org/ education/tlsf/mods/theme_c/img/grid/kick_full_lr.pdf Mahbubani, K. 2018. Has the West lost it? A provocation. London: Allen Lane. Mazutis, D. and Eckhardt, A. 2017. Sleepwalking into catastrophe: Cognitive biases and corporate climate change inertia. California Management Review 59 (3), 74–106. McFague, S. 2008. A new climate for theology: God, the world and global warming. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. Michaels, D. and Davidson, K. 2019. Facebook confronts crypto resistance. The Australian, 17 July, 22. Moriarty, P. and Honnery, D. 2015. Future cities in a warming world. Futures 66, 45–53. Mumford, L. 1922. The story of utopias. New York: Boni and Liveright. Murray, D. 2017. The strange death of Europe: Immigration, identity, Islam. London: Bloomsbury.

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Nelson, J.A. 2006. Economics for humans. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Novak, M. 1982. The spirit of democratic capitalism. New  York: Simon and Schuster. O’Grady, P.M. 2002. Relativism. Chesham, Bucks: Acumen. Osborne, N. 2018. For still possible cities: A politics of failure for the politically depressed. Australian Geographer 50 (2), 145–54. Piketty, T. 2014. Capital in the twenty-first century (Trans. A.  Goldhammer). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Pistor, K. 2019. Facebook’s Libra must be stopped. Australian Financial Review, 22–23 June, (Perspective) 16. Randle, M. and Eckersley, R. 2015. Public perceptions of future threats to humanity and different societal responses: A cross-national study. Futures 72, 4–16. Rifkin, J. n.d. The third industrial revolution: A radical new sharing economy. Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), Australia. On Demand documentary. Accessed January 2019 at https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/ video/1165831747733/the-third-industrial-revolution Robertson, J. 1989. Future wealth: A new economics for the 21st century. London: Cassell. Russell, J.S. 2011. The agile city: Building well-being and wealth in an era of climate change. Washington, DC: Island Press. Sardar, Z. and Abrams, I. 2013. Introducing chaos: A graphic guide. London: Icon Books. Schoon, N. 2001. The chosen city. London: Spon. Schumacher, E.F. 1973. Small is beautiful: A study of economics as if people mattered. London: Blond and Briggs. Stiglitz, J.E. and Walsh, C.E. 2002. Economics (3rd ed.). New York: Norton. United Nations. 2007. Climate change 2007: Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. United Nations. 2013. World population prospects, the 2011 revision. New York: (Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division), United Nations. Walmsley, D.J. 1972. Systems theory: A framework for human geographical enquiry. Canberra, ACT: Australian National University (Publication HG/7, Department of Human Geography, Research School of Pacific Studies).

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Wheeler, S.M. 2009. The view from the twenty-third century. In The sustainable urban development reader (2nd ed.). Eds. S.M.  Wheeler and T.  Beesley. 389–92. London: Routledge. Wilber, K. 2001. Eye to eye: The quest for the new paradigm (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Shambhala. World Economic Forum. 2019. The global risks report 2019. Davos: WEF.  Accessed February 2019 at https://www.weforum.org/reports/ the-global-risks-report-2019 Yancey, P. 1997. What’s so amazing about grace? Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

8 Conclusion: Grace and Urban Well-being

Despite the threat of Cold War nuclear annihilation, the older generation of advanced societies grew up believing in ‘progress.’ Given neoliberal positivity, they eschewed desperation and had to admit that ‘things were getting better all the time.’1 So much was also the hope of those in developing lands. Surely, then, the emergence of grace in an urban milieu should not foreshadow socioeconomic decline? Nor, unless one could find virtue in secular asceticism, should it presage a loss of welfare. Yet, to enable other progressive outcomes, the proposal to maintain a high-wage urban economy will clearly entail difficulties.2 What sort of an agenda might conclude the present project?

Conspectus Observers of complexity suggest that, via hundreds of years of applied science, humanity has largely resolved the low-hanging conundrums involving simply linear determinism. Professional consultants and academics, however, continue to probe outlying and difficult instances involving particular uncertainties, risks and value judgments. Further out, among nonlinear and complex phenomena, we encounter © The Author(s) 2020 D. Wadley, The City of Grace, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1112-7_8

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­ igh-­stakes, ‘post-normal’ science in which facts can remain indetermih nate, values are disputed, and decisions appear urgent. This context underscores the need for interdisciplinary communication and the use of general systems theories among social and other scientists (Boulding 1956, 199). Sardar and Abrams (2013, 150, 156–57) rightly nominate climate change as a pressing matter involving unknown unknowns and high-level systemic resolution. Within chaos theory, it is not clear whether the global régime has undergone a definite anthropogenic phase shift or is just revolving around one part of its phase-space (periodic trajectory). Hence, these writers hold that the style of discourse can no longer be demonstration, as from empirical data to true conclusions. Rather it must be dialogue, recognizing uncertainty, value-commitments, and plurality of legitimate perspectives. These are the basis for post-normal science.

Sardar and Abrams suggest a ‘feral’ element to nature, impervious to humanity’s endeavors to create a technosphere (Daly 1977, 177). These attempts are neither innocent nor vicarious: they are wholly intentional and, at least since the Industrial Revolution, have been justified on a reward-to-effort basis. Currently, despite the patronizing counter-claims by the global caste of beneficiaries, we find ourselves inviting chaos as more of our practices and programs promote setbacks and unintended, or worse, unimagined, ‘black swan’ consequences (cf. Taleb 2010; Gleeson 2010, 2014). People nevertheless have access to, and can act upon, the IPAT identity to improve their collective lot, as have certain economies in the last 50 years. To achieve more sustainable outcomes, not just reflecting rhetoric but directed toward species survival, there must exist responsibility and a collective will, directed both effectively and efficiently (McFague 2008, 21; Huebsch 2009, 37–41; Gore 2013, xxxi). Easier said than done: regarding cities, what can be drawn from the present exercise, which claims a very high level of systemic resolution and alleges that grace exists above goodness and greatness? The City of Grace offers a salutary model of urban development, combining a defensible vision with a manageable focus. Unlike other urban theorization, it recognizes from the outset the prospect of sys-

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temic failure and the lure of chaos. It maintains that learned helplessness, flaccidness or encroaching high entropy can be challenged and argues  the application in human affairs of rationality—a remarkable idea today. The script is radical both in advocating a less crowded world living within its resource capabilities and in outlining the emergence of a settlement which seeks to stabilize its domestic population. It asserts that municipal function and form should complement each other and that adoption of precepts and strategies must integrate the two facets. As Daujat (1959, 11) remarked, beauty alone cannot bestow grace; likewise, despite sustained green urbanist efforts such as those of Steffen Lehmann (2010), altering form alone cannot solve the problems of contemporary urbanism. It has proven incapable of addressing functional shortcomAltering form alone cannot ings in transport congestion and solve the problems of encompassing density, and is contemporary urbanism now falling short in the infrastructure and resource arenas, as in water and power supply. Planners and other scholars who, in a partial approach, pin their hopes on form will be disappointed and mislead their audiences, as will those who would adjust existing socio-technological landscapes (e.g. justice, ‘climate adaptation’) without addressing fundamental social drivers.

Points of Reference Function is overwhelming form in many cities. Despite self-serving denial (aka spin, dreaming and stardust), the overarching perversity, eclipsing even symptomatic climate change, is population expansion, insouciantly probing the limits to growth (Georgescu-Roegen 1980, 49). It is that which cannot be mentioned in debate or reports, too politically incorrect, too hot to handle. Yet, in the long run, a species which cannot environmentally regulate its own population dynamics is renouncing its vaunted ‘free will’ and is no more advanced than the ‘lesser’ animals it devours to sustain itself. Despite the existence now of diet-specific estimates of the earth’s ‘carrying capacity’ (Cohen 1995), few seem to know or care

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whether demographic destiny will be positive or negative. Yet, globally, there is every chance that it will, in desperation, blindside the IPAT identity. We need to recognize how, in a TINA compact, national(istic) ethoses of growth have infused and beguiled our lives at many levels. The overarching perversity is As Susan Fainstein (2010) writes population expansion. on the very first page of The Just City, ‘increasingly, urban régimes have focused on economic growth as their objective, essentially claiming that growth-promoting policies result in the greatest good for the greatest number.’ Political élites, in what has become an unthinking manta, have linked economic growth to population gains, seemingly over-influenced within national accounting by final demand and household consumption in the expenditure approach to gross domestic product. Hamilton’s (2003) Growth Fetish and Gore’s (2013) The Future pick up many economic, but fewer demographic, manifestations. The dimensions of ‘growth’ have been detailed by Teune (1988), but its origins merit further reflection. Does it represent psychoanalytic regression, mimicking children who value their natural growth in endowing them with greater capacity en route to adulthood? Why do people not celebrate the end of their physical growth, given the human-scale spaces they will inhabit? By analogy, why cannot we all regard relentless anthropogenic colonization of a finite earth as irrational or aberrant? Just as Daly (1977, 99) criticizes ‘growthmania,’ the Dutch economist, Goudzwaard (1979), has acknowledged an ‘idolization of progress’ infusing modern ideologies such as liberalism, Marxism, socialism and nationalism. The legitimizing emphasis on technological materiality excludes other actualizing aspects of human existence (Gay 1991, 77; Wilber 2001, 224–25). In many jurisdictions, ongoing demographic increase requires economic growth to avoid inhabitants becoming poorer per caput.3 Otherwise, growth might represent a substitute secular faith to offset falling religiosity (cf. Kjellberg 2000, 27) or shield us from mortal decline and death. Possible interpretations, however, do not make this pathology any more gracious, or conducive to long-term species survival (Hamilton 2010).

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As economism outguns sociality, today’s TINA world seems far from capturing Edmund Burke’s ‘delight,’ still less the ‘sublime.’ Yet, having analyzed system dynamics, environmental phase shifts, turbulence and chaos, the present book, via the generative potential of ‘grace’ as no longer a latent but a living metaphor, argues a somewhat brighter (but possibly vainglorious4) alternative to Eberle’s (1994) postmodern anoExpiation and holistic revival mie. Involving expiation and around positive aspirations and holistic revival around positive mental well-being aspirations and mental wellbeing, it underlines Gleeson’s (2010) emphasis on restraint, sacrifice and solidarity. It also relates to consciousness of the environment (Dreyer 1990, 239), prevailing utility, and participation in a comprehensible socioeconomic milieu which conserves natural and physical, and advances human and social, capital. In this way, it fulfills the first (and probably much of the second) of Cohen’s (1989) welfare criteria. The City should simultaneously exhibit Adam Smith’s idea of beauty in advancing a goal-oriented, effective and efficient package. Surely there is nothing wrong with a clear purpose backed by industriousness? Given the necessary and sufficient conditions behind urban grace, explored here for the first time, people could ascend the hierarchy of needs to access Schopenhauer’s concept of ‘freedom’ within which desirable personal characteristics materialize (Holt 2007). Ever since the early writings of Kurt Goldstein (1939), humanistic psychologists have understood the importance of ongoing motivation and fulfillment of potential. Connoting both material and relational wealth, Maslow (1987, 105) called the good society one which so organizes its institutions as to ‘give its members the greatest possibility of becoming sound and self-­actualizing human beings.’ That condition is associated with spontaneity, a lack of prejudice and an embrace of facts and reality. The actualized are autonomous and enjoy Diwan’s (2000) relational wealth. They are likely to ­overcome shock and stress, exhibit interpersonal and collective trust, enjoy good mental health and exercise a positive influence on others. Theirs is a collaborative and civil society, surrounded by moral capital (Haidt 2012, 292) and experiencing the prospect of long-term survival as

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opposed to a corrosive uncertainty. As in Maslow’s (1987, 121) psychological utopia which he called Eupsychia, many people will have ethical or religious interests, which need not create social incompatibilities if pursued considerately (Putnam and Campbell 2010, 520). This Actualized people enjoy autonsituation suggests that Platonic omy and relational wealth. beauty might revolve more around function than form in The City of Grace. These psychological attributes are equally endorsed in Ryan and Deci’s (2017) self-determination theory which regards the innate needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness as the foundations of welfare. It reaches beyond the ‘carrot and stick’ of extrinsic stimuli to argue for energy, direction, persistence and equifinality as products of intention and activation. People need opportunities to make real and meaningful contributions, ones which create individual and community self-­ determination and intrinsic motivation. If location could affect their lives, what type could help? Our empirical search for urban grace on earth faltered, and limited success could reward Weiner’s (2008) pursuit of ‘bliss.’ Recalling Hans Westerman’s ideal of inspired and people-­ sensitive choice (Freestone 1993), and channeling Simone Weil, a better first move for interested parties would be stand back, take time out, and simply conceive remission from current negative urban externalities, and the diseconomies, dis-utilities and distractions which can thwart worthwhile objectives (Harvey 2000, 257–58; Wadley 2008, 651–52). The second could be to seek companions looking for personal and group fulfillment. As in Reformation theology, the third is to find the Remission from urban negative place and faith (in humanity) to externalities, and diseconomies, make a stand. Connah (1998, 14) dis-­utilities and distractions opines that grace ‘is a word sorely in need of revisiting.’ Given problems with still-­comfortable alternatives and accepting the inevitable trade-offs, the world might yet find 400,000 individuals prepared to take the necessary steps—perhaps people of the ‘sane, humane and ecological’ orientation applauded by Robertson (1979, 120–22).

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Forty years ago, Banfield (1970, 35) wrote that ‘at some future time— a very distant one perhaps—the logic of metropolitan growth will have to change ‘lest eventually the supply of vacant land run out.’ Today that singular logic needs embellishment for more pressing reasons. Linking demographic stability, innovation and continued productivity, the search for grace represents a reaction against the coercive strictures of ebullient demography and neoliberal capitalism. It recasts conventional or monocular urban geography around a little-explored, elevated and challenging concept. Pursued across human means and ends in disciplines from architecture to theology, grace teases with sidetracks and detail, and questions sacred secular nostrums. Far less totalizing than the TINA edict (Gray 1998), the case does not conscript but targets volunteers, leaving existing situations for gainsayers. Capitalism has clearly spread out In neoliberalism, epistemology spatially but the choices it offers, rises no higher than the level of now to some 230 nations and the market. dependencies, reside in the material, and often amount to small variations on a theme. In a postFoucauldian thesis, Dufour (2008, 157) argues that neoliberalism is deinstitutionalizing and de-symbolizing society to ensure that future epistemology rises no higher than the level of the market (cf. Wadley 2008, 671–72). As Maslovian horizons thereby fade and the opportunity for conceptual transcendence recedes, the timespan to propose contrarian courses could be shrinking (cf. Doucet 2007; Hitchens 2018). The current project adheres more strongly to scientific method, especially in deductive conceptualization, than most foregoing urban modeling. It has adopted the psychological, organizational and systematic advantages of theory-building identified by Haggett and Chorley (1967). With sound foundations established, the necessary conditions for urban grace were located first in communal precepts of rationality, triple bottom line sustainability, and low entropy, each to be overlooked with peril in potentially chaotic future urbanization. An adjunct lies in individual utility, tailored to post-materialist ends which accentuate relational well-­being to provide some meaning as opposed to mere metrics in life (Nelson 2006, 30; Russell 2011, 221–22). Several strategies—health, wealth, innovation, altruism, stewardship and moderation—were found sufficient to foster

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secular grace. Thereafter, a simple expositional structure operationalized graciousness and gracefulness, respectively, in the economics, politics and sociology of urban function, and in the architecture, civic decorum and strategic and structure planning associated with urban form. In the end, the resultant construction is no kallipolis, Plato’s haunt of the philosopherkings. Despite its unusual focus, the process and outcome of The City of Grace are contemporary, pragmatic and achievable within the policy-analytic settings exemplified in the work of John Friedmann. The project criticizes but still necessarily involves capitalism as a systemic framework (cf. Short 1989, 133; Giddens 2003, 9) and raises the natural environment to a position it will probably have to attain anyway by 2050, should species survival be of passing interest. Indeed, if efforts were made, meaningfully involving moderation and stewardship, to alter the global trajectory, people would also be changed in their interactions and new connections. In this way, grace would come to exert a form of relational agency. Just as cogent as environmental problems are socioeconomic ones, in that the contemporary model of globalization (for that is all it is) (cf. Novak 1982, 240; Hamilton, 2003, 13; Kaletsky 2010, 184–85) champions ideological but unproven paradigms without fallback positions. Right now, there appears no Plan B, and flexibility and transience are lauded (Toffler 1970). Apart from material gain, the ends of urban existence blur as people spend more time countering uncontrollable forces. Those wearied by quiet desperation might seek a sea or tree change, a downshift, a slowdown or access to a private community. Notwithstanding the postmodern retreat of the meta-narrative (Lipovetsky and Charles 2005, 36), others still validate wide-angle academic models. These paradigms have often relied on entrenched ideologies, such that the means (e.g. progressivism and neo-Marxism) can overshadow the end which once, presumably, had something to do with utility or equity. Deontology thus trumps consequentialism. A few realists and pragmatists, like Herman Daly, Peter Victor, Richard Heinberg, Samuel Alexander and Brendan Gleeson eschew the intellectual straightjacket to propose radical and realistic macro-analyses which might just work out, were humanity prepared to reduce its impact on the sole planet presently inclined to support it. The antithesis of superbia, their work provides a new dimension to grace: namely, on the edge of chaos, it becomes a concept conducive to, and reliant upon, human survival which, in turn, depends on the global exercise

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of rationality. This collective interpretation has been grounded in the strict universalist criteria proposed by O’Grady (2002). The logic indicates that attributing substantive foci to, and relying upon, the so-called rational choice model in economics is once more problematic, since it is imprisoned not only by over-determinism but also by assumptions regarding the multidimensional and, eventually, relativist concept of utility (Frederiks et al. 2015, 1386). For The so-called rational choice his part, Kaletsky (2010, 186) model in economics again falters. greatly extends this heterodox observation in that ‘the academic economics of the past twenty years have been comparable to pre-­ Copernican astronomy….’

Objections Though Peter Sale’s (2011) warns about ‘our dying planet,’ it would be supremely hubristic and ironical to advance the model of The City of Grace as a TINA proposition. Certain objections can be anticipated.5 Customarily, and since there is nothing to lose, dissenters will raise charges of élitism. In that their substantive case might dispute a quest for wealth, it can be handled differentially by suggesting that élitism would pertain should academicians study poverty, yet fail in systems terms to analyze the high entropy which produces it. On the other hand, the objection could be acknowledged at a process level, since it is an uncommon privilege to peer beyond ‘desperation’ to alternatives at the edge of global socioeconomic chaos.6 As to the product, the City proposes exclusivity and moderation precisely to avoid dystopian disarray Ideologues are followers, not which, of course, remains availleaders, of original thinking able for those who prefer it. Today, generating contingency plans is more conceptually demanding than denouncing ideas for purely tribal, ideological or habitual reasons. Almost by definition, ideologues are followers, not leaders, of original thinking.

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Critics would do better to pursue Haggett and Chorley’s (1967) lead and test the model for technical flaws. Any weakness lies not in its political and social props, nor a lack of 400,000 recruits for the first of, prospectively, a set of intentional communities. For creative settings, ‘smart cities’ and developed nations, the flaws lie primarily in the precarity inevitable in startups and technological transformation. As a covert aspect thereof, pirating of brand and proprietary techniques will clearly Pirating of brand and propriethreaten the City. If these practary techniques will clearly tices are not expunged by effecthreaten the City tive multilateral enforcement, never-ending industrial espionage and defense will prevail at firm and national level. Some today claim that we have actually commenced the Third World War—in cyberspace. As products and services increasingly represent brain before brawn, Gore (2013, 75) comments that ‘value continues to migrate online.’ In extenso, IP theft challenges global enterprise and economic development as we have known it since 1750. It matters not whether one is a capitalist or a socialist: barring some paradigmatic change (Rifkin n.d.), why risk pursuing technological advance if breakthroughs are simply spirited away? While there could obviously be other approaches from the one chosen in this project to address looming issues in global urbanization, they could require adherents to: ignore Adam Smith’s parable of the poor man’s son; join the sunny throng of writers unfussed about population issues (though pilloried by the contrarians O’Connor and Lines 2008); sing the uncertain paeans of neoliberalism and its garland of expanding global cities (cf. Glaeser 2011); or, in an allegedly TINA neoliberal world, pose other drivers for urbanism, arguably more radical, progressive or facilitative than those forwarded here (cf. Harvey 2000, 164, 257–81). They could be scenario-based, or propose alternative avenues for future research. Yet, despite calls for the humane, just, creative, or green city, along with variations offered by Hubbard (2006) and the warnings of Barry Schwartz (2005), there is little chance in a convergent milieu of being overwhelmed by alternatives. If anything, real choice could recede as oligopolies tighten, mergers and acquisitions continue, production

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scale and barriers to entry rise, technologies are standardized, procedures and protocols are globalized,7 and languages wither. These eventualities are hardly what planners Leonie Sandercock (2003, 405) or Hans Is the urban ‘edge of chaos’ Westerman conjured in a ‘spirabrupt, or a slippery slope? ited’ city, or one of hope (Freestone 1993, 2, 12). Nor is there much appreciation of whether the urban ‘edge of chaos’ is abrupt, with definable triggers or phase shifts, or a slippery slope down which movement is almost imperceptible but retreat impossible (Vercelli 1998). The latter, ‘boiled frog’ variant, relying upon collective complacency and ignorance, is the more insidious (‘all our own work’).

Prospectus So, what of grace itself? Various theologians have blended their deep scholarship with observation of, and practical means to address, urban and environmental conditions.8 Their thoughts are not addressed to the Ship of Fools. Rather, for believers, they offer ideas to access divine grace, to the extent that it can be. For mortals, more deontologically inclined toward Daly’s (1977, 19) spectrum of disciplines, there remains Secular grace emanates as the the chance of secular bestowal of dawning upon humanity of the grace founded upon realism virtue of philosophical rationality about anthropogenic limitations. Its emergence would likely depend on self-help, as in the dawning upon humanity of the virtue of philosophical rationality, which could be applied to stewardship of our blue planet. Here, then, is a manifesto, to supplement those of Harvey (2000), Gleeson (2006) and Gore (2013, 315, 369). The modeling of grace proceeds in a measured way, emphasizing a common purpose and outlook. These elements underpin the cohesion necessary to economic innovation as conducive to the end of wealth cre-

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ation, without which little of ecological or social value might be achieved. It is not going to be easy to maintain a high-wage urban economy,9 even for only several hundred thousand people. At the corporate level, the case favors sharing and Humanity’s top priority, sooner in situ development, both for the or later, will be its own survival City and poorer regions it might within a destabilized natassist. It applies the precautionary ural system environmental principle to the physical and social milieu and, in this and other ways, departs from foregoing portrayals of urbanism. Just as Collins (2001) found that the road to corporate greatness was hard but worthwhile, there is a lot involved in moving toward a sustainable and actualized urban future. Yet the way is open to all and, with best practice demonstration, there could, down the years, be more than one City of Grace, again confounding potential charges of exclusivity. Setting aside distracting conflicts about territory and trade, humanity’s top priority will, sooner or later, not be about urban equity (cf. Fainstein 2010) but the greater matter of survival within a destabilized natural system. Grace, inhering rationality, sustainability and system dynamics, offers a way to counter the hubris and, often, benightedness, which destroyed prior civilizations (Diamond 2011). Yet, as a counterpoint to everything written here, the question remains: given their inherent nature, are humans actually capable of creating a City of Grace, even in a secular sense? To close, apologies are due, first, for the unavoidably condensed treatments of themes in this interdisciplinary study and, second, for the lack of a straight answer to the initial question about discovering a candidate city. This deductive approach centered on necessary and sufficient conditions, rather than listing real-world venues. Validating what is still called ‘regional geography,’ the author salutes Lonely Planet writers who could perhaps invite travelers’ input or crowdsourcing, and, from the criteria here, pursue the search10 for grace with a web-based, urban league table. As well, he would encourage goodly souls to build this City, rock by rock, from the ground up. Grace will arrive, hopefully soon in a second Enlightenment, an IPAT age of reason replacing self-destructive with self-determined behavior.

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Notes 1. The Beatles, ‘Getting Better’ from Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967. 2. Difficulties already observed as many workers in advanced nations undertake unpaid overtime which, despite apparently high absolute wage rates, reduces their hourly income. Note also the stagnant wages growth through much of the developed world where inhabitants are having to work longer and harder to maintain (the metrics of ) their standard of living. 3. The author relays the inverted logic of a nameless politician who proclaimed of southeast Queensland that ‘we have to keep on creating jobs for all the people who want to come and live here.’ 4. Vainglorious? Interpreting human nature, and following the contentions of Dunlop (2013), Randle and Eckersley (2015) and Hitchens (2018), the author guesses that it will take a full-blown crisis to generate a remedial response which might well be too little, too late, for most people. The present account offers a bet on the precepts of The City of Grace or, instead, running with the crowd in the race of contemporary global development. 5. Some objections might come from the ground up. The mere idea of lifetime grace for the eco- high-tech rich could cause revulsion among people at the bottom of the heap who might settle for grace for just a day. 6. Egalitarianism is one thing, but it is barely distinguishable from anarchy and nihilism when survival is the objective. Those who wish to go down with the Ship of Fools are free to do so, despite Brendan Gleeson’s (2010) already having pointed the way to the (life) boat deck. 7. For leading-edge trends in domestic and international ‘regulatory capitalism,’ see Braithwaite (2008). Also accessed December 2018 at: http:// www.csdila.unimelb.edu.au/sis/Sustainability_Theories/Natural_ Capitalism.html. 8. And the current journeyman’s text certainly lacks their nuanced and discursive interpretations of urban phenomena. 9. Globalization fosters the equimarginal principle, which posits continuing economic development until returns to factor inputs are equalized among regions. Globalization, assisted by common languages, might in the short term (e.g. 50 years) benefit high-wage nations by giving them access to lower product prices from developing countries but could

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simultaneously weaken them by hollowing out their production of goods and services. In the absence of premium-creating (price-making) technological innovation, the long-run effect could be to equalize income levels across nations, seen by some as an ideal equilibrium state. 10. To assist in the search, Power and Houghton (2007, 165) usefully point out that, owing to the longevity of property, ‘70% of the homes and urban infrastructure that we will have in 2050 already exist.’

References Banfield, E. 1970. The unheavenly city: The nature and future of our urban crisis. Boston, MA: Little, Brown. Boulding, K.E. 1956. General systems theory: The skeleton of science. Management Science 2 (3), 197–208. Braithwaite, J. 2008. Regulatory capitalism: How it works, ideas for making it work better. Cheltenham, Gloucestershire: Edward Elgar. Cohen, G.A. 1989. On the currency of egalitarian justice. Ethics 99 (4), 906–44. Cohen, J.E. 1995. How many people can the earth support? New York: Norton. Collins, J. 2001. Good to great: Why some companies make the leap…and others don’t. Sydney: Random House. Connah, R. 1998. Grace and architecture. Helsinki: The Finnish Building Centre. Daly, H.E. 1977. Steady-state economics: The economics of biophysical equilibrium and moral growth. San Francisco: Freeman. Daujat, J. 1959. The theology of grace. London: Burns and Oates. Diamond, J. 2011. Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed. New York: Penguin. Diwan, R. 2000. Relational wealth and quality of life. Journal of Socio Economics 29 (4), 305–40. Doucet, C. 2007. Urban meltdown: Cities, climate change and politics as usual. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers. Dreyer, E. 1990. Manifestations of grace. Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier. Dufour, D.-R. 2008. The art of shrinking heads: On the new servitude of the liberated in the age of total capitalism (Trans. D.  Macey). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Dunlop, I. 2013. Climate change—Beyond dangerous: Emergency actions and integrated solutions. In Sustainable futures: Linking population, resources and the environment. Eds. J. Goldie and K. Betts. 138–52. Collingwood, VIC: CSIRO Publishing.

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Eberle, G. 1994. The geography of nowhere: Finding one’s self in the postmodern world. Kansas City, MO: Sheed and Ward. Fainstein, S.S. 2010. The just city. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Frederiks, E.R., Stenner, K., and Hobman, E.V. 2015. Household energy use: Applying behavioural economics to understand consumer decision-making and behaviour. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 41, 1385–94. Freestone, R. 1993. Introduction: Hans Westerman and planning for options. In Spirited cities: Urban planning, traffic and environmental management in the nineties. Ed. R. Freestone. 1–12. Annandale, NSW: Federation Press. Gay, C.M. 1991. Cash values: The value of money, the nature of worth. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. Georgescu-Roegen, N. 1980. Economics and mankind’s ecological problem. In Entropy and the economic process: A seminar. Ed. Science Council of Canada. 13–70. Ottawa: Council Publication. Giddens, A. 2003. Neoprogressivism: A new agenda for social democracy. In The progressive manifesto: New ideas for the centre-left. Ed. A. Giddens. 1–34. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Glaeser, E. 2011. Triumph of the city: How our greatest invention makes us richer, smarter, greener, healthier and happier. New York: Penguin Press. Gleeson, B. 2006. Australian heartlands: Making space for hope in the suburbs. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin. Gleeson, B. 2010. Lifeboat cities. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. Gleeson, B. 2014. The urban condition. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Goldstein, K. 1939. The organism: A holistic approach to biology, derived from pathological data in man. New York: American Book Company. Gore, A. 2013. The future. New York: Random House. Goudzwaard, R. 1979. Capitalism and progress: A diagnosis of Western society. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. Gray, J. 1998. False dawn: The delusions of global capitalism. London: Granta Books. Haggett, P. and Chorley, R.J. 1967. Models, paradigms and the new geography. In Models in geography. Eds. R.J.  Chorley and P.  Haggett. 19–41. London: Methuen. Haidt, J. 2012. The righteous mind: Why people are divided by politics and religion. London: Allen Lane. Hamilton, C. 2003. Growth fetish. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin. Hamilton, C. 2010. Requiem for a species: Why we resist the truth about climate change. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin. Harvey, D. 2000. Spaces of hope. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

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Hitchens, P. 2018. The abolition of Britain: From Winston Churchill to Teresa May. London: Bloomsbury. Holt, S.C. 2007. God next door: Spirituality and mission in the neighbourhood. Brunswick East, VIC: Acorn Press. Hubbard, P. 2006. City. London: Routledge. Huebsch, B. (2009). Grace: God’s greatest gift. New London, CT: Twenty-Third Publications. Kaletsky, A. 2010. Capitalism 4.0: The birth of a new economy in the aftermath of crisis. New York: Public Affairs. Kjellberg, S. 2000. Urban ecotheology. Utrecht: International Books. Lehmann, S. 2010. The principles of green urbanism: Transforming the city for sustainability. London: Earthscan. Lipovetsky, G. and Charles, S. 2005. Hypermodern times (Trans. A.  Brown). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Maslow, A.H. [1954] 1987. Motivation and personality (3rd ed.). New  York: Harper and Row. McFague, S. 2008. A new climate for theology: God, the world and global warming. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. Nelson, J.A. 2006. Economics for humans. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Novak, M. 1982. The spirit of democratic capitalism. New  York: Simon and Schuster. O’Connor, M. and Lines, W. 2008. Overloading Australia: How governments and media dither and deny on population. Sydney: Enviro Book. O’Grady, P.M. 2002. Relativism. Chesham, Bucks: Acumen. Power, A. and Houghton, J. 2007. Jigsaw cities: Big places, small spaces. Bristol, UK: The Policy Press. Putnam, R.D. and Campbell, D.E. 2010. American grace: How religion divides and unites us. New York: Simon and Schuster. Randle, M. and Eckersley, R. 2015. Public perceptions of future threats to humanity and different societal responses: A cross-national study. Futures 72, 4–16. Robertson, J. 1979. The sane alternative: A choice of futures. Minnesota, MN: River Basin Publishing. Russell, J.S. 2011. The agile city: Building well-being and wealth in an era of climate change. Washington, DC: Island Press. Ryan, R.M. and Deci, E.L. 2017. Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness. New York: The Guilford Press.

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Sale, P.F. (2011). Our dying planet: An ecologist’s view of the crisis we face. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Sandercock, L. [1998] 2003. Towards Cosmopolis: Utopia as a construction site. In Readings in planning theory (2nd ed.). Eds. S.  Campbell and S.S. Fainstein. 403–07. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Sardar, Z. and Abrams, I. 2013. Introducing chaos: A graphic guide. London: Icon Books. Schwartz, B. 2005. The paradox of choice: Why more is less. New  York: HarperCollins. Short, J.R. 1989. The humane city: Cities as if people matter. Oxford: Blackwell. Taleb, N.N. 2010. The black swan: The impact of the highly improbable. New York: Random House. Teune, H. 1988. Growth. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Toffler, A. 1970. Future shock. London: Bodley Head. Vercelli, A. 1998. Sustainable development, rationality and time. In Sustainable development: Concepts, rationalities and strategies. Eds. S.  Faucheux, M. O’Connor and J. van der Straaten. 259–76. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Wadley, D. 2008. The garden of peace. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 98 (3), 650–85. Weiner, E. 2008. The geography of bliss: One grump’s search for the happiest places in the world. London: Transworld Publishers. Wilber, K. 2001. Eye to eye: The quest for the new paradigm (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Shambhala.

9 Postscript: A Southern Saga

As foreshadowed, The City of Grace has ended as no more than a beginning. Rather than pinpointing exactly where to visit, it finished with the proposal of a real-world search based on a set of deductive criteria— investigations to be assisted by pragmatic travel writers and journalists. Some reflection on the outcome could be helpful. Regional studies regularly rate economic development issues in terms of their importance and strength (Stimson et al. 2006, 299–300). Thus, in commencing the quest, the problems devolve upon which of the components of grace identified in the present work should be regarded as core, and how strongly they are exhibited in any settlement. Most probably, all towns and cities have certain elements of gracious function and graceful form, a basis at least from which empirical investigations can begin. If places have some such attributes, it follows that, over time, they could add to or lose them, or have to safeguard them. In this regard, the case of Hobart is instructive. As one of the five global gateway cities to Antarctica1 and viewed by some as positioned at ‘the edge of nature,’ it lies at 42 degrees south on the Australian island of Tasmania. The population of just over 200,000 enjoys an outstanding environment, a natural amphitheater backed by Kunanyi, Mount Wellington, reaching 1271

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Plate 9.1  Architect’s impression, Fragrance Tower, Hobart. (Source: http://xsa. net.au/project/fragrance-davey-street-hotel/)

meters above current sea level. As the country’s smallest state, Tasmania’s population numbers around 515,000. According to October 2016 reports in The Mercury newspaper, X-Squared architects, a local practice, was commissioned by leading Singaporean hoteliers, the Fragrance Group, to design a 158-meter high, six-star hotel for Hobart (Plate 9.1). Including other Fragrance projects, total direct foreign investment of $AUD250 million was anticipated, creating 1200 construction jobs and up to 1000 fulltime jobs once operational. A director suggested that the company would undertake extensive marketing to expand visitation to Tasmania. These facts were duly noted in a small state until recently described as ‘mendicant’ within the national

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economy (Leyonhjelm 2014). In July 2017, the hotel’s overall height was raised on the drawing-board to 210 meters whereas the largest structure in the city was (and remains) an elderly suburban casino/hotel of 73 meters (18 stories). Such outbreaks of scale and lively growth had not been fully envisaged in Hobart’s planning scheme at that time. The inner-city Fragrance plan, however, neighbored an historical precinct with a statutory height limit of 18 meters, though the central business district (CBD) proper allowed 45 meters. Popular opposition soon broke out. A veteran Hobart commercial developer2 defended the iconic waterfront area, saying that ‘you don’t build a tower right in the middle of the things everybody’s come to look at.’ In creating Plate 9.2 and charging that the state government ‘put international property developers first’ (cf. Inge 2003, ix, x, 1–12), the Tasmanian Conservation Trust3 warned that the Fragrance group was ‘completely out of touch with everything that makes our cities unique.’ It urged citizens to ‘keep fighting so that Hobart and Tasmania are not ruined [sic] for good.’ Property development involves significant financial risk. Participants seek out the first-mover advantage inherent in apparently overlooked contexts. Herein, the Singapore proponent looked afar to a country wedded to foreign investment and saw the chance to erect an iconic structure which could benefit from the significant positive externalities (ambience and views) of its immediate situation. Its actions parallel those of Uber, which aims to appropriate urban airspace in various cities to launch an

Plate 9.2  Superimposition of Fragrance Tower upon the Hobart waterfront and hinterland. (Source: Tasmanian Conservation Trust)

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aerial taxi service by 2022. Few firms can resist such enticing opportunities since, if they do not take them up, the competition soon will. The general public, however, can see things differently. Due to widespread disquiet, plans for the major hotel tower were shelved in March 2018. Conscious that its urban planning needed updating, the City Council commissioned a thoroughgoing review of building height standards for the CBD and the surrounding area. Completed in June 2018 by Hobart architect and planner, Leigh Woolley (2018), the report argues that ‘cities are sheltering places within larger landscapes.’ Further, ‘in contrast to many cities that celebrate a capacity to overcome geography by diminishing topographic diversity, in Hobart the opportunity still exists to celebrate and acknowledge the fundamental symbolic and ecological significance of the regional landforms and their peculiarities, from the centre of the urban settlement.’ An important and unusual aspect is that Hobart’s topography allows many residents to look down on the CBD and inner-city so that the composition of the built environment is readily viewable. Hence, the report is not just about height but also the quality of urban form and the provisions and value of ‘townscape’ understood in spatial and historical senses. This orientation, recognizing physical scale and employing different layers of interpretation, taps into the heart of a shared place attachment, as analyzed in the present book. Within the discipline of urban design, Woolley’s document forms a groundbreaking, high-technology analysis combined with broad aesthetic appreciation. In includes assessment of a ‘landscape horizon,’ and critical view lines, cones and shafts around the city, also identifying non-­ conforming development (Plate 9.3). In fact, overwriting existing zoning allowances by reference to topographic data, Woolley found that the CBD basin area behind the waterfront could, without adverse visual impact, accept buildings to 75 meters in height, 30 meters above the Council standard.4 By the time of finalizing this book, there is a dearth of councilors backing the raised elevation for fear of dismissive public opinion, if anything now more vociferous than before. It manifests in a lobby group called Hobart not Highrise Inc.5 which, in a poll, found 88 percent of electors in favor of limiting CBD building heights. Its theme song, ‘Don’t get tall’ suggests that folks on the southern edge of the world have realized what architectural decorum and community are all about.

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Plate 9.3  Expansive urban design: situating built environment components (center and portside) within the natural landscape, Hobart, Tasmania. (Source: Woolley 2018, 21)

Woolley’s vision of integrating an urban area with its macro-landscape has wide applications elsewhere. Hobart is not a well-known city, but now with greater state and local planning integration, is trying to preserve what it has, some of its saving graces. The popular initiative could be thwarted by a state administration strongly disposed to growth exercising ministerial discretion, or enacting major projects legislation and a state planning framework without an established settlement or an urban design policy. Based on historical precedent toward metropolitan development, federal intervention is unlikely, despite evidence of a sluggish national economy. As it remains, the situation extends beyond Australia’s southernmost state to query, more broadly, whether inhabitants’ preferences can be permitted, or whether, in the spirit of TINA, local contrarianism must be curtailed for a wider neoliberal good. In one of the world’s richest democracies, perhaps now more price-taking than commonly imagined, can even slight diversity of expression survive the incessant drive for maximal capital accumulation? This southern saga shows that the ­fundamental issue, self-determination, is liable to emerge unpredictably at different levels of systemic resolution.

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Notes 1. The other four being Cape Town (South Africa), Christchurch (New Zealand), Punta Arenas (Chile) and Ushuaia (Argentina). 2. Australian Broadcasting Corporation news, 14 July 2017. Accessed July 2019 at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-14/hobart-skyscraperheights-increased-plans-reveal/8710496. 3. Tasmanian Conservation Trust. Stop the Fragrance Towers. Accessed July 2019 at: http://www.tasconservation.org.au/support-tct/stop-thefragrance-tower. 4. This provision was problematic, of course, in potentially conferring a planning gain upon existing landowners in the designated area. It is also relevant to note that contemporary computer-assisted design (CAD) modeling can act to diminish the visual impact of buildings. 5. Hobart not Highrise official website. Accessed July 2019 at: http://www. hobartnothighrise.com.au/. Backcloth Draft In this sweeping appraisal of the urban condition, David Wadley argues that anything less that high-level systemic resolution in modeling the well-being of inhabitants is wasting precious time. Humanity is encountering the obstacles of its own making, related principally to unsustainable economic and demographic expansion. Backed by systems and crisis theories, The City of Grace counters these forces by picturing gracious function and graceful form in a human-scale settlement. Its interdisciplinary context incorporates works in architecture, economics, business management, geography, urban planning, sociology, politics, theology and philosophy. In an attempt to salvage things lost over the last 100 years in the teleology of urban development, 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 occupying 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.

References Inge, J. 2003. A Christian theology of place. Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate. Leyonhjelm, D. 2014. Tasmania—A province of Victoria. Australian Financial Review, 7 March. Accessed July 2019 at https://www.afr.com/news/politics/ national/tasmania-a-province-of-victoria-20140307-ixmvn

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Stimson, R.J., Stough, R.R., and Roberts, B.H. 2006. Regional economic development: Analysis and planning strategy (2nd ed.). Berlin: Springer. Woolley, L. 2018. Building height standards: Review project. Hobart: Hobart City Council. Accessed July 2019 at https://www.tec.tas.gov.au/Local_ Government_Elections/ElectorPolls/HobartCity2019/PDF/BuildingHeight-Standards-Review-L-Woolley.pdf

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