cities

Covering a wide geographical range of European countries, the articles in this edited collection investigate urban disasters such as floods, fires, earthquakes, and epidemic diseases.

A collection of essays exploring the production and disposal of wastes in the American city since 1850.

The story of two teenage lovers, Hannah and Elmar, who seek refuge following the breakdown of a nuclear power station in Germany.

This paper explores how an expert body, The Investigation of Atmospheric Pollution, was established in the face of different interests and agendas, the importance (and difficulties) of technical standard-setting with reference to environmental pollution, and, finally, the uses of environmental monitoring.

Using New Zealand as a case study, Beattie demonstrates the strength of settler beliefs in the connections between existing environments, environmental transformation, and their own health.

As Czechoslovakia’s communist planners continually increased norms for power and coal production in the 1950s through 1970s, the sprawling surface mines of the north Bohemian brown coal basin expanded voraciously, swallowing 116 villages and parts of several larger cities by 1980.

In this article Disco describes the repertoires developed by the municipal waterworks of two large Dutch cities, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Two main repertoires are visible: 1) ‘coping’ by means of technical fixes and vigilance and 2) ‘transnational technopolitics’ aimed at institutionalising regulatory regimes to curb pollution.