Disappearing Desert: The Growth of Phoenix and the Culture of Sprawl

By Janine Schipper

Book Overview

Phoenix, Arizona, is one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States. The city's expansion--at the rate of one acre per hour--comes at the expense of its Sonoran Desert environment. For some residents, the American Dream has become a nightmare.

In this provocative book, Janine Schipper examines the cultural forces that contribute to suburban sprawl in the United States. Focusing on the Phoenix area, she examines sustainable development in Cave Creek, various master-planned suburbs, and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Reservation to explore suburbanization and ecological destruction. She also explains why sprawl continues despite the heavy toll it takes on the environment.

Schipper gives voice to community members who have experienced the pressures of sprawl and questioned fundamental assumptions that sustain it. She presents the perspectives of the many players in the sprawl debate--from developers and politicians to environmentalists and property-rights advocates--not merely to document the phenomenon but also to reveal how seemingly natural ways of thinking about the land are influenced by cultural forces that range from notions of a "rational society" to the marketing of the American Dream.

Disappearing Desert speaks to land-use dilemmas nationwide and shows that curtailing suburban development requires both policy shifts and new ways of relating to the land. For anyone seeking to understand the cultural basis for rampant development, this book uncovers the forces that drive sprawl and searches for solutions to its seeming inevitability.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0806139552
• ISBN13: 9780806139555
• Release Date: November 2008
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Length: 165 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.8" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Insightful and important

Smaller government and more freedom for large business? Read how the greedy forces of frontier development are selling the American dream to nightmarish effect.

Packed with important observations key to college-level libraries strong in urban issues and studies

DISAPPEARING DESERT: THE GROWTH OF PHOENIX AND THE CULTURE OF SPRAWL considers the social and cultural forces that contribute to suburban sprawl in the U.S., using Phoenix's experiences as a microcosm of U.S. events. From Phoenix's planned suburbs and Indian reservation to ecological destruction and negative environmental sprawl, DISAPPEARING DESERT is packed with important observations key to college-level libraries strong in urban issues and studies.

The sign of the American Dream turning into a nightmare?

This is a must read for any reader remotely concerned with the seemingly never ending suburban sprawl occurring in virtually every area of the country. To many it is a sign of the American Dream turning into a nightmare. To others it is a sign of free enterprise at its best. The focus of the book is Phoenix, Arizona, one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the United States, expanding at the rate of one acre per hour and the cost associated with such growth on the Sonoran Desert in which Phoenix is situated. Schipper, an Associate Professor of Sociology and Social Work at the University of Northern Arizona, examines the cultural forces that contribute to suburban sprawl and offers reasons why such sprawl continues despite the negative impact it places on the environment. If one is seeking to understand the cultural basis for the phenomenon evidenced by suburban sprawl and read some proposed solutions to its destructive course, this is the place to start.