Date Available

8-21-2017

Year of Publication

2017

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Document Type

Master's Thesis

College

Arts and Sciences

Department/School/Program

Geography

First Advisor

Dr. Andrew Wood

Abstract

Although the idea of the entrepreneurial city is nothing new, recent research in contemporary urban geography and related disciplines indicates that the modus operandi of such entrepreneurial endeavors has shifted, as a result of an increasing recognition and acceptance of global climate change, to include and even prioritize sustainable urban development discourses and practices. While these discourses purportedly culminate in the production of the “sustainable city,” they often fail to deliver upon their promise to create a greener, more sustainable city for all. Such practices, in an effort to help cities obtain an urban sustainability fix (While et al. 2004), often lead to the selective uptake and implementation of “sustainable” policies and projects by local governments and members of the urban elite in their efforts to positively market their respective cities to potential residents and investors. The city of Lexington, Kentucky’s ongoing efforts to establish a new downtown park system—the Town Branch Commons—along the route of a once buried stream, is representative of how such a sustainability fix is both conceived of and ultimately produced by urban elites in the contemporary neoliberal city.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2017.379

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