The Boundaries of Urban Metabolism: Towards a Political-Industrial Ecology
نویسندگان
چکیده
This paper considers the limits and potential of ‘urban metabolism’ to conceptualize city processes. Three ‘ecologies’ of urban metabolism have emerged. Each privileges a particular dimension of urban space, shaped by epistemology, politics, and model-making. Marxist ecologies theorize urban metabolism as hybridized socionatures that (re)produce uneven outcomes; industrial ecology, as stocks and flows of materials and energy; and urban ecology, as complex socio-ecological systems. We demarcate these scholarly islands through bibliometric analysis and literature review, and draw on cross-domain mapping theory to unveil how the metaphor has becomestagnant in each. To reinvigorate this research, thepaperproposes the developmentofpolitical–industrial ecology, using urban metabolism as a boundary metaphor.
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