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London: A Multi-Century Struggle for Sustainable Development in an Urban Environment

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  • Clark, William C.

Abstract

In this paper I sketch key episodes in the two thousand year history of interactions between society and environment that have shaped the City of London and its hinterlands. My purpose in writing it has been to provide an empirical puzzle for use in teaching and theorizing about the long term coevolution of social-environmental systems and the potential role of policy interventions in guiding that coevolution toward sustainability. I undertook it because while a lively body of theory has begun to emerge seeking to explain such coevolution, rich descriptive characterizations of how specific social-environmental systems have in fact changed over the long time periods (multi-decade to multi-century) relevant to sustainable development remain relatively rare. One result is that the field of sustainability science lacks a sufficient number of the rich empirical puzzles that any field of science needs to challenge its theorizing, modeling and predictions. This paper reflects the beginning of an effort to provide one such characterization on a topic central to sustainability: the long term development of cities and their hinterlands.

Suggested Citation

  • Clark, William C., 2015. "London: A Multi-Century Struggle for Sustainable Development in an Urban Environment," Scholarly Articles 22356529, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
  • Handle: RePEc:hrv:hksfac:22356529
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    File URL: http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/22356529/RWP15_047_Clark-1.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Romola Davenport & Leonard Schwarz & Jeremy Boulton, 2011. "The decline of adult smallpox in eighteenth‐century London," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 64(4), pages 1289-1314, November.
    2. Peter Razzell, 2011. "The decline of adult smallpox in eighteenth‐century London: a commentary," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 64(4), pages 1315-1335, November.
    3. Huck, Paul, 1997. "Shifts in the Seasonality of Infant Deaths in Nine English Towns during the 19th Century: A Case for Reduced Breast Feeding?," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 368-386, July.
    4. John Knodel & Hallie Kintner, 1977. "The impact of breast feeding patterns on the biometric analysis of infant mortality," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 14(4), pages 391-409, November.
    5. Levin, Simon A. & Clark, William C., 2010. "Toward a Science of Sustainability," Scholarly Articles 9774654, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sam, Aflaki & Syed Abul, Basher & Andrea, Masini, 2019. "Is your valley as green as it should be? Incorporating economic development into environmental performance indicators," MPRA Paper 97081, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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