{"product_id":"contesting-megaprojects-complex-impacts-urban-disruption-and-the-quest-for-sustainability-hardcover","title":"Contesting Megaprojects: Complex Impacts, Urban Disruption and the Quest for Sustainability - Hardcover","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eGerardo del Cerro Santamaría\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMegaprojects are not merely transformative, but rather, they are inherently disruptive. They are incompatible with any approach to urban sustainability that prioritizes the well-being of urbanites and the boundaries of the Earth system. In fact, megaprojects undermine efforts to tackle the global impacts associated with both the destructive creation of capitalism and the new climate regime.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe reason for this state of affairs is not cost overruns and poor megaproject management, but the disruptive impacts that megaprojects have on urban areas. This book emphasizes the impacts imperative in megaproject planning: the importance of identifying disruptive impacts as a prerequisite for critically assessing whether megaprojects should be built.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDrawing on 18 megaprojects in 16 cities around the world (inter alia, Istanbul, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Barcelona, Boston, New York and Shanghai), \u003cem\u003eContesting Megaprojects\u003c\/em\u003e illustrates urban-regional trajectories over the past fifty years. These trajectories show the coexistence of property development, culture, and iconic architecture, together with a more recent interest in science and technology, innovation, and sustainability as strategies to foster urban competitiveness.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMegaprojects cause massive disruptions everywhere, and the book offers a typology of megaproject impacts: socioeconomic, environmental, spatial, political and geopolitical, financial, cultural and systemic. As a response to this emerging complex web of interrelated megaproject impacts (\u003cem\u003edisruptive complexity\u003c\/em\u003e), the book develops the concept of \u003cem\u003ecomplex sustainability\u003c\/em\u003e, a transdisciplinary approach to urban sustainability, through socioeconomic sustainability and deep sustainability.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe critical outlook of this book contributes to fundamental debates around capitalist development: trickle-down urbanism, spectacularization, high-tech innovation and AI, planetary boundaries, global risks, resilience, the right to the city, geopolitics, democracy, prosperity, and power. \u003cem\u003eContesting Megaprojects\u003c\/em\u003e can help urban scholars and analysts, practitioners, policymakers, and residents of cities better understand the complex impacts of urban megaprojects, their magnitude and consequences, and identify pathways of analysis and action toward a more sustainable and just future.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMegaprojects are not merely transformative, but rather, they are inherently disruptive. They are incompatible with any approach to urban sustainability that prioritizes the well-being of urbanites and the boundaries of the Earth system. The reason for this state of affairs is not cost overruns and poor megaproject management, but the disruptive impacts that megaprojects have on urban areas. This book emphasizes the impacts imperative in megaproject planning: the importance of identifying disruptive impacts as a prerequisite for critically assessing whether megaprojects should be built. Drawing on 18 megaprojects in 16 cities around the world (inter alia, Istanbul, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Barcelona, Boston, New York and Shanghai), \u003cem\u003eContesting Megaprojects\u003c\/em\u003e illustrates the trajectories and transitions in urban-regional political economies over the past fifty years. Megaprojects cause massive disruptions everywhere, and the book offers a typology of megaproject impacts: socioeconomic, environmental, spatial, political and geopolitical, financial, cultural and systemic. As a response to this \u003cem\u003edisruptive complexity\u003c\/em\u003e (the emerging complex web of interrelated megaproject impacts), the book develops the concept of \u003cem\u003ecomplex sustainability\u003c\/em\u003e, a transdisciplinary approach to urban sustainability, through socioeconomic sustainability and deep sustainability.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eContesting Megaprojects\u003c\/em\u003e may be the most essential read since Altshuler and Luberoff's 2003 book detailing the politics behind Boston's Big Dig project.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProfessor \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJohn Landis, University of Pennsylvania\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn this important book, del Cerro shows how \"green capitalism\" is primarily symbolic with limited benefits to the larger population that continues to suffer from environmental degradation and widening inequality.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProfessor Susan Fainstein, Harvard University\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis must-read book has sealed Gerardo del Cerro's reputation as a leading scholar of megaprojects.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProfessor Diane Davis, Harvard University\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eContesting Megaprojects\u003c\/em\u003e is another impressive and thoughtful contribution from one of the most knowledgeable critics of urban megaprojects.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProfessor \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRobert Beauregard\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eColumbia University\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGerardo del Cerro identifies cities as the \"heat islands\" that are mostly responsible for our sustainability crisis, and indicts megaprojects as the main culprits. This book is a must read. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProfessor Mauro Guill?n, University of Pennsylvania\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis book systematically dismantles the convenient fiction that megaprojects are advancing sustainable development as well as economic growth. A must read.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProfessor Tim Bunnell, National University of Singapore\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGerardo del Cerro Santamaría is a Senior Research Scholar, Professor, Author, Mentor and International Advisor in New York. He has taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Skidmore College and The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in Manhattan, where he was Founding Director and Senior Executive Director of Strategic Planning and Innovation and Research Professor of Planning and Megaprojects for twenty-three years. He has also been a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University, London School of Economics and University College London, among other institutions. Del Cerro is a U.S. Fulbright fellow, a former Program Evaluation Director (Gateway Engineering Coalition) at the U.S. National Science Foundation, and a European Union Expert in Regional Policy (Regio Program). He serves at Future Earth Urban Knowledge-Action Network, Earth System Governance Project and Global Land Program, and at the New York Academy of Sciences. Gerardo has authored many scientific publications on various aspects of urbanism and global capitalist development, megaprojects, iconic architecture, technology, innovation, complex sustainability, STEM education, neoliberalism in higher education, robotics and the mathematics of music. He has received several professional recognitions and his work has been featured in the media, in both the United States and Europe. Del Cerro's background is in Science, Mathematical Logic \u0026amp; Philosophy of Science, Political Economy and Music. He holds a Ph.D. in the Social Sciences from the New School for Social Research in Manhattan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 353\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.88 x 9.31 x 6.47 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e November 23, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49034427990265,"sku":"9783031983818","price":121.48,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0789\/2782\/3097\/files\/bnwUY8rZyH9783031983818.webp?v=1789019729","url":"https:\/\/bookscloud.io\/products\/contesting-megaprojects-complex-impacts-urban-disruption-and-the-quest-for-sustainability-hardcover","provider":"BooksCloud Book Dropshipping","version":"1.0","type":"link"}