Catastrophe, Technology, Limits, and Localism
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
Charles C. Mann's The Wizard and the Prophet, published earlier this year, is a fabulous book. Not a perfect book; sometimes, in order to bulk up this two-pronged thesis, he will throw in supplementary material that threatens to bog down his central investigation. But that investigation comes through loud and clear all the same, and it is one worth looking at closely.
What Do Farmers Want?
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
The clearest point which comes through Wuthnow's thoughtful engagement with the dozens of farmers he and his assistants interviewed, and with the reams of data about rural populations, farm economics, and more that they assessed, is simply this: most American farmers, most of the time, are not agrarians.
Naftzger Park, Planning, and the Problem of “Growth”
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
We live where we do, and we become what we are through that lived environment, organically. If there is a consequence to it, it might be best, at the very least, that it not be one already determined by a planning board, because however well-meaning, their logic is likely not to be wholly their own.
What Wendell Berry’s Brush Teaches Us About Capitalism, Community, and “Inevitability”
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
The Art of Loading Brush: New Agrarian Writings, the latest collection of writings by Wendell Berry, isn't a perfect book, nor the perfect expression of his powerful vision of what constitutes a good life or a good community.
Learning from The Left Behind
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
Robert Wuthnow's new book, The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America, is the best book I've read on the rural-urban divide in the United States in years. It may, in fact, be the best book I've ever read on the topic, and I've read a lot of them.
After Trump 1: Getting Urbanists and Localists Together
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
So, as one small effort to try to organize my thoughts about politics in the Trump era, let me see if I can make the case for why urbanism should, and usually does, comport with localism, and thus why urban-sympathetic conservatives and radical and democratic localists, as we all face 2017, have much in common.
Regional Cities and the Curse of “Glocality”
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
One of the essential themes in my continuing study of and reflection upon the character and dilemmas of mid-sized cities is their "regional" character, and the temptation which exists for such cities to pretend that they--or to aspire to convince themselves and others that they are about to become--players in the global economy.
Why I Strongly Support Bike Paths, Which I Basically Never Use
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
The past week or two have been good ones for bicycling in Wichita.