This new volume draws from provocative discussions on the urban social contract among policy makers, researchers, public intellectuals, and citizens at the 2015 UIC Urban Forum. Michael A. Pagano presents papers that emphasize political agreements, disagreements, challenges, and controversies on health, energy, and environmental policies. Authors explore the substantive and philosophical changes in the urban social contract and offer proposals for remaking it in the new century. Topics range from big-picture analyses to specifics covering areas like public services, the smart cities movement, and greening strategies.

Contributors: Alba Alexander, Megan Houston, Dennis R. Judd, Cynthia Klein-Banai, William C. Kling, Howard A. Learner, David A. McDonald, David C. Perry, Emily Stiehl, Anthony Townsend, Natalia Villamizar-Duarte, and Moira Zellner.

| Cover Title Page Contents Preface and Acknowledgments Part One: Overview "The Social Contract: A Political and Economic Overview" / David C. Perry and Natalia Villamizar-Duarte Part Two: White Papers "Back to the Future? The Curious Case of 'Public' Services" / David A. McDonald Discussant: "The History of U.S. Municipal Service Delivery: Pragmatism Trumps Ideology" / Dennis R. Judd "Green Gadgets? The Smart-Cities Movement and Urban Environmental Policy" / Anthony Townsend Discussant: "It Is Easier to Be Smart than to Be Green" / Moira Zellner "Social Contract Theory and the Public's Health: A Vital Challenge Past and Present" / William C. Kling and Emily Stiehl Discussant: "Social Contracts and the Problem of Asymmetries" / Alba Alexander et al. "Repowering Chicago: Accelerating the Cleaner, More Resilient, and More Affordable Electricity Market Transformation / Howard A. Learner Discussant: "Energy Networks: How Do We Power a City?" / Cynthia Klein-Banai Part Three: Synthesis "Health, Energy, and the Environment: We Are All in This Together" / Megan Houston List of Contributors |"A provocative and enlightening vision of our rapidly changing societal expectations for energy, environment, and health, the foundations of the social contract we implicitly make with government, corporate, and entrepreneurial leaders."—George W. Crabtree, Director of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research
|Michael A. Pagano is Dean of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs and professor of public administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). He is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, faculty fellow of UIC's Great Cities Institute, and editor of The Return of the Neighborhood as an Urban Strategy, Metropolitan Resistance in a Time of Economic Turmoil, and Technology and the Resilience of Metropolitan Regions.