Sustainable and Resilient Communities: A Comprehensive Action Plan for Towns, Cities, and Regions (Wiley Series in Sustainable Design)
by Stephen Coyle

Having embarked on a sustainability plan without the aid or foresight of any type of guidebook or comprehensive strategy, I am extremely supportive of the effort that author Stephen Coyle has undertaken in compiling Sustainable and Resilient Communities. This book should be the “Read Me!” document for anyone looking to engage in sustainability planning efforts from a government or community perspective.  It’s not the first book that I’ve read on how to engage in sustainability efforts (honestly such titles are beginning to become “a dime a dozen”), but it is the first book I've read that breaks the mold and focuses intenselyon how to create an action plan to make a community more sustainable (rather than simply focusing on successful efforts in other areas).  Coyle manages to provide realistic strategies that can easily be worked into the political context of almost any community without crossing into the fringe of developing technologies or antiquated reductionist themes.

“It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than by oppression and discrimination half a block from home.”

- Carl T. Rowan 

When we look at professions that reinforce social convention or contribute to social change, planning is particularly powerful field of practice. Recently, I have done some research into planning as a force of oppression/discrimination and I was amazed exactly how much power the profession has to contribute to these forces. Planning is seemingly innocuous in many ways, but a deeper examination reveals that it is in fact a major driving force in the way that we carry out our lives. What lies at the center of this issue is a need to evaluate whether planners are cognizant of the true implications of their work. Equally important is the need to conduct an assessment of the educational and professional tools that enable them to understand how their actions play out across various sectors of society.