Skip to main content
Home / Built Environment, Volume 33, Number 2

The Last Days of Low-Density Living: Suburbs and the End of Oil

Buy Article:

$27.86 + tax (Refund Policy)

Author: Heiman, Rachel

Source: Built Environment, Volume 33, Number 2, 31 May 2007, pp. 213-226(14)

Publisher: Alexandrine Press

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2148/benv.33.2.213

The political economy of everyday life in the United States is entrenched in a low-density landscape that was developed during a time of and is now deeply dependent upon cheap and abundant fossil fuels. The 2004 documentary film, The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream, offers an apocalyptic vision of the near future of the United States as the days of affordable and plentiful petroleum and natural gas come to an end. This article uses the film's cataclysmic imaginings and recommendations for change as a starting point for theorizing the effects of diminishing global energy supplies on the cultural, political, economic, racial, and spatial future of the United States.

Document Type: Research Article

Publication date: 31 May 2007

More about this publication?

  • Built Environment is published quarterly in March, June, September and December. With an emphasis on crossing disciplinary boundaries and providing global perspective, each issue focuses on a single subject of contemporary interest to practitioners, academics and students working in a wide range of disciplines. Issues are guest-edited by established international experts who not only commission contributions, but also oversee the peer-reviewing process in collaboration with the Editors.

    Subject areas include: architecture; conservation; economic development; environmental planning; health; housing; regeneration; social issues; spatial planning; sustainability; urban design; and transport. All issues include reviews of recent publications.

    The journal is abstracted in Geo Abstracts, Sage Urban Studies Abstracts, and Journal of Planning Literature, and is indexed in the Avery Index to Architectural Publications.

  • Editorial Board
  • Subscribe to this Title
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Contact Alexandrine Press
  • Current and Forthcoming issues
  • Previous issues
  • Ingenta Connect is not responsible for the content or availability of external websites

Share Content

  • Access Key
  • Free content
  • Partial Free content
  • New content
  • Open access content
  • Partial Open access content
  • Subscribed content
  • Partial Subscribed content
  • Free trial content