We all want to understand the city and many of us yearn for an an ideal utopian city – one that works for all its inhabitants – but I doubt this is what real cities do or have ever done – Utopia is a dream – real cities are always on the brink of catastrophe and yet somehow we survive – that’s what makes cities and life exiting.
Read the definitions of some key terms: metabolism, urban metabolism, capitalism.
But further research is needed!
To really understand the role of the state in environmental injustice political economic studies of state restructuring and neo-liberalisation are needed.