Form and Flow

Kian Goh | 2021, The MIT Press

An examination of urban climate change response strategies and the resistance to them by grassroots activists and social movements.

Cities worldwide are formulating plans to respond to climate change and adapt to its impact. Often, marginalized urban residents resist these plans, offering “counter plans” to protest unjust and exclusionary actions.

In this book, Kian Goh examines climate change response strategies in three cities—New York, Jakarta, and Rotterdam—and the mobilization of community groups to fight the perceived injustices and oversights of these plans. Looking through the lenses of urban design and socioecological spatial politics, Goh reveals how contested visions of the future city are produced and gain power.

Goh describes, on the one hand, a growing global network of urban environmental planning organizations intertwined with capitalist urban development and, on the other hand, social movements that often harness the power of networks.

She explores such initiatives as Rebuild By Design in New York, the Giant Sea Wall plan in Jakarta, and Rotterdam Climate Proof. She discovers competing narratives, including community resiliency in Brooklyn and grassroots activism in the informal “kampungs” of Jakarta.

Drawing on participatory fieldwork and her architecture and urban design background, Goh offers theoretical explanations and practical planning and design strategies.

She reframes the critical concerns of urban climate change responses, presenting a sociospatial typology of urban adaptation and considering the notion of a “just” resilience. Finally, she proposes a theoretical framework for designing equitable and just urban climate futures.

Bibliography

Goh, K. (2021) Form and Flow. Cambridge, MA, US: The MIT Press.