Showing papers in "Urban Studies in 2012"
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that most regions tend to be more morphologically polycentric than functionally polycentric, which is largely explained by the size, external connectivity and degree of self-sufficiency of a region’s principal centre.
Abstract: Empirical research establishing the costs and benefits that can be associated with polycentric urban systems is often called for but rather thin on the ground. In part, this is due to the persistence of what appear to be two analytically distinct approaches in understanding and measuring polycentricity: a morphological approach centring on nodal features and a functional approach focused on the relations between centres. Informed by the oft-overlooked but rich heritage of urban systems research, this paper presents a general theoretical framework that links both approaches and discusses the way both can be measured and compared in a coherent manner. Using the Netherlands as a test case, it is demonstrated that most regions tend to be more morphologically polycentric than functionally polycentric. The difference is largely explained by the size, external connectivity and degree of self-sufficiency of a region’s principal centre.
308 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a conceptual framework for interpreting the process of urban change in post-communist cities is developed, where the departure from the legacies of the communist past has been effected through mul...
Abstract: This paper develops a conceptual framework for interpreting the process of urban change in post-communist cities. The departure from the legacies of the communist past has been effected through mul...
295 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the geography of three street centrality indices and their correlations with various types of economic activities in Barcelona, Spain and found that the correlation is higher with secondary than primary activities.
Abstract: The paper examines the geography of three street centrality indices and their correlations with various types of economic activities in Barcelona, Spain. The focus is on what type of street centrality (closeness, betweenness and straightness) is more closely associated with which type of economic activity (primary and secondary). Centralities are calculated purely on the street network by using a multiple centrality assessment model, and a kernel density estimation method is applied to both street centralities and economic activities to permit correlation analysis between them. Results indicate that street centralities are correlated with the location of economic activities and that the correlations are higher with secondary than primary activities. The research suggests that, in urban planning, central urban arterials should be conceived as the cores, not the borders, of neighbourhoods.
239 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present findings from a research project that investigate the influence of experience on the design of the built environment on the quality of the experience of a user in a building.
Abstract: Experience is conceptualised in both academic and policy circles as a more-or-less direct effect of the design of the built environment. Drawing on findings from a research project that investigate...
197 citations
TL;DR: This article argued that the problematic of social cohesion is also one of socio-ecological cohesion whereby the urbanisation of nature and its socio-environmentally enabling and disabling conditions are key processes.
Abstract: It will be argued in this paper that the problematic of social cohesion is also one of socio-ecological cohesion whereby the urbanisation of nature and its socio-environmentally enabling and disabling conditions are key processes. By viewing the contradictions of the urbanisation process as intrinsically socio-ecological ones, the terrain of social cohesion is shifted both epistemologically and politically. The paper critically examines three contemporary schools of thought that consider in different ways the relationship between cities, social cohesion and the environment. It begins with a critical examination of the notion of urban sustainability. The paper will then move on to consider two approaches that emphasise issues of (in)equality and (in)justice in the urban environment, those of environmental justice and urban political ecology. The final part of the paper pinpoints four areas of research that urban researchers must examine if we are to understand more fully—and act more politically on—the nex...
190 citations
TL;DR: A shift from monocentric cities to increasingly polycentric urban regions has been widely recognized in recent research literature as discussed by the authors, which refers to the existence of polycentricity in general.
Abstract: A shift from monocentric cities to increasingly polycentric urban regions has been widely recognised in recent research literature. Although polycentricity in general refers to the existence of sev...
163 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors address the increasing socio-spatial inequalities in European cities and their impact on the possibilities for fostering social cohesion, and propose several policy programmes to tackle spatial unevenness.
Abstract: This paper addresses the increasing socio-spatial inequalities in European cities and their impact on the possibilities for fostering social cohesion. Many policy programmes tackle spatial unevenne...
161 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the roles of Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong as financial centres by utilising interview and secondary data to analyse the decision-making of financial and regulatory actors, and the different functional roles of foreign banks in those cities.
Abstract: This paper examines the roles of Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong as financial centres by utilising interview and secondary data to analyse the decision-making of financial and regulatory actors, and the different functional roles of foreign banks in those cities. Their intercity relations demonstrate a complex mix of competition and collaboration that embeds them in evolving networks of interdependence. Empirical findings indicate differentiated markets leading to the distinctive development of Shanghai as a commercial centre, Beijing as a political centre and Hong Kong as an offshore financial centre, with all three financial centres performing distinctive and complementary roles within the regional banking strategies of foreign banks. The analysis first explains Hong Kong’s continued dominance in the region and, secondly, reveals insights into changing intercity relationships between these prominent Chinese cities that contribute to their distinctive development as financial centres.
150 citations
TL;DR: Local welfare systems are defined as dynamic arrangements in which the specific local socioeconomic and cultural conditions give rise to different mixes of formal and informal actors, public or not, involved in the provision of welfare resources.
Abstract: In recent decades, local welfare systems have been emerging in many Western countries as a consequence of bottom–up and top–down transformative pressures. Local welfare systems are defined as dynamic arrangements in which the specific local socioeconomic and cultural conditions give rise to different mixes of formal and informal actors, public or not, involved in the provision of welfare resources. This article presents some of the most important implications related to the emergence of local welfare systems and the challenges they face in seeking to build social cohesion. After a brief description of the reasons that justify a local approach to welfare, an account is provided of the scientific debate on local welfare and an indication given of the possible relations and tensions between the emergence of local welfare systems and the production of social cohesion.
149 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a European perspective on the relationship between differing views of social cohesion and urban policy and how its relation to competitiveness is inherent to contemporary EU cohesion discourse is explored. But the ambiguity of policy orientations that seek an answer to this failing functionalisation is examined.
Abstract: This article aims to clarify the concept of social cohesion by embedding it within a dynamic, multiscalar and complex understanding of socioeconomic development in the city. Section 1 gives a European perspective on the relationship between differing views of social cohesion and urban policy and how its relation to competitiveness is inherent to contemporary EU cohesion discourse. It examines the ambiguity of policy orientations that seek an answer to this failing functionalisation. Section 2 unravels the complexity and multidimensionality of social cohesion as a problematique. It systematises social cohesion as an ‘open concept’, distinguishing between its socioeconomic, cultural, ecological and political dimensions. Section 3 offers ways of accommodating the tensions and contradictions between cohesion and competitiveness inherent in capitalist market economies, and argues in favour of a progressive neo-structuralist approach, capable of laying out policies to make cities more inclusive for all inhabita...
107 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the demographic evolution of cities is not adequately explained by the "stages of urban development" model that tends to consider urban regions as closed systems, and it should rather be analysed by unfolding the underlying mechanisms that include housing consumption as well as in-and out-migration flows.
Abstract: After having lost population for some decades, many cities are experiencing a new growth. This paper addresses this reurbanisation phenomenon in the case of Switzerland. It argues that the demographic evolution of cities is not adequately explained by the ‘stages of urban development’ model that tends to consider urban regions as closed systems. It should rather be analysed by unfolding the underlying mechanisms that include housing consumption as well as in- and out-migration flows. Swiss cities have gained inhabitants since 2000 thanks to international migrants, young adults, non-family households and some parts of the middle to upper class. From a demographic point of view, families’ residential behaviour remains the driving force of suburbanisation so that the population growth is still higher in suburbs than in cities.
TL;DR: The municipal political decision-making dynamic has typically been studied in regard to the provision of locally public goods and services whose benefits, while diffuse, are tied to a particular ge....
Abstract: The municipal political decision-making dynamic has typically been studied in regard to the provision of locally public goods and services whose benefits, while diffuse, are tied to a particular ge...
TL;DR: This paper examined what is meant by conservative and radical interpretations of resilience and how conservative views have come to dominate "recovery" thinking, with elite groups unwilling to accept the limits to the neo-liberal orthodoxies that helped to precipitate the economic crisis.
Abstract: For much of the 1990s and 2000s, the emphasis of urban policy in many global cities was on managing and mitigating the social and environmental effects of rapid economic growth. The credit crunch of 2008 and the subsequent recession have undermined some of the core assumptions on which such policies were based. It is in this context that the concept of resilience planning has taken on a new significance. Drawing on contemporary research in London and Hong Kong, the paper shows how resilience and recovery planning has become a key area of political debate. It examines what is meant by conservative and radical interpretations of resilience and how conservative views have come to dominate ‘recovery’ thinking, with elite groups unwilling to accept the limits to the neo-liberal orthodoxies that helped to precipitate the economic crisis. The paper explores the implications of such thinking for the politics of urban development.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the co-production of urban entrepreneurialism by examining the work of civil society groups in producing mobile models of slum entrepreneurialism and highlight three implications for research on urban entrepreneurship.
Abstract: This paper explores the co-production of urban entrepreneurialism by examining the work of civil society groups in producing mobile models of slum entrepreneurialism. While slums and slum activists have been largely absent from accounts of urban entrepreneurialism, they increasingly play important roles in co-constituting mobile entrepreneurial models and in producing and valuing particular forms of entrepreneurial subjectivity. A focus on the co-production of entrepreneurialism requires attention to both the mobile models that constitute relations between different groups, from states and donors to activists and residents, and the local contexts and histories that shape, translate and differently enact entrepreneurialism. The paper concludes by highlighting three implications for research on urban entrepreneurialism.
TL;DR: Zhang et al. as mentioned in this paper focus on the roles of neighbourly interaction and physical environment, juxtaposing post-reform commodity housing estates against traditional neighbourhoods, and find that residents of commodity housing estate have weak neighbourly interactions but strong neighbourhood attachment, which is based mainly on their satisfaction with the physical environment and less on their neighbourly contacts.
Abstract: The housing reform in urban China since the 1990s and the ensuing spatial and social dynamics gave rise to new kinds of neighbourhoods with new logics of neighbouring and neighbourhood attachment. Meanwhile, neighbourhoods are actively promoted as platforms for policy implementation. Both are reasons to revisit the meaning of neighbourhood attachment in the Chinese context. This article focuses on the roles of neighbourly interaction and physical environment, juxtaposing post-reform commodity housing estates against traditional neighbourhoods. The analysis draws on both qualitative and quantitative datasets from three case studies in Guangzhou and a city-wide survey. Results indicate that, compared with traditional neighbourhoods, residents of commodity housing estates have weak neighbourly interactions but strong neighbourhood attachment, which is based mainly on their satisfaction with the physical environment and less on their neighbourly contacts. Neighbourhoods in China have apparently shifted their ...
TL;DR: The alternative "diverse economies" vision of J. K. Gibson-Graham and supporters regarding how people make a living outside the capitalist framework, lists street vendors and informal economies of...
Abstract: The alternative ‘diverse economies’ vision of J. K. Gibson-Graham and supporters regarding how people make a living outside the capitalist framework, lists street vendors and informal economies of ...
TL;DR: In this article, the relevance of conflict in governance and citizenship practices in cities is revisited, and the importance of social innovation and citizens' practices that incorporate counter-hegemonic ideals as equally important to an effective multi-city government is highlighted.
Abstract: This paper revisits the relevance of conflict in governance and citizenship practices in cities. Europe national urban policies were readjusted in terms of economic policies and state expenditures in the 1980s and then again and more severely after the 2008 financial and economic crisis. Policy discourses in urban policy have emphasised the beneficial consequences of social and political consensus in helping cities to restructure economically as part of ‘good governance’. At the same time, the paradigm of citizenship understood as a system of social and political inclusion based on economic redistribution and political participation has been substituted by one that has the objective to ensure social cohesion in societies. This substitution renounces the objectives concerning social justice, fails to face the tensions of increasing social inequalities and misses the contribution of social innovation and citizens’ practices that incorporate counter-hegemonic ideals as equally important to an effective multi...
TL;DR: In this article, a case study using walk interviews in Birmingham's Eastside district is discussed, and it is concluded that capturing existing place associations can help to create more authentic regeneration schemes which respond sympathetically to landscapes already soaked in affective connections.
Abstract: This paper brings together two previously disengaged literatures on affect and place in order to investigate the importance of embodiment in transforming spaces into places. This brings into sharp relief the mismatch between policy rhetoric on the importance of sense of place and the outputs of regeneration schemes which often seem deliberately to efface these affective connections. The paper outlines the idea of ‘rescue geography’ as a technique for capturing the embodied relationship between communities and urban spaces prior to redevelopment. A case study using walked interviews in Birmingham’s Eastside district is discussed. It is concluded that capturing existing place associations can help to create more authentic regeneration schemes which respond sympathetically to landscapes already soaked in affective connections.
TL;DR: In this paper, a sociological analysis of urban marginalisation in post-riot France is carried out in the Parisian banlieue of La Courneuve, where a discussion of the broad relationship between society and space, drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's relational understanding of social space and how these complexities are inscribed in the urban, is made.
Abstract: Drawing on research carried out in the Parisian banlieue of La Courneuve, this article contributes to the sociological analysis of urban marginalisation in post-riot France Beginning with a discussion of the broad relationship between society and space, drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s relational understanding of social space and how these complexities are inscribed in the urban, it moves on to consider how this relates to Lefebvre’s production of space thesis The main body of the article outlines some of the ways in which territorial stigmatisation is imposed and reproduced Empirical material is treated here as ‘diagnostic’ of the symbolic domination that blights La Courneuve Yet this material is also illuminative of the irregular and scattered forms that resistance to territorial stigma takes It is suggested that the complex relationship between social and physical space is expressed through the construction of symbolic geographies of domination/resistance and negotiated through intricate ‘entanglements of power’
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the impact of accessibility on the growth of employment centers in the Los Angeles region between 1990 and 2000 and found that, after controlling for centre size, density, industry mix, location within the region and spatial amenities, labour force accessibility and network accessibility are significantly related to centre growth.
Abstract: This research examines the impact of accessibility on the growth of employment centres in the Los Angeles region between 1990 and 2000. There is extensive empirical documentation of polycentricity—the presence of multiple concentrations of employment—in large metropolitan areas. However, there is limited understanding of the determinants of growth of employment centres. It has long been held that transport investments influence urban structure, particularly freeways and airports. Using data on 48 employment centres, the effects are tested of various measures of accessibility on centre employment growth: highway accessibility, network accessibility and two measures of labour force accessibility. Access to airports is also tested. It is found that, after controlling for centre size, density, industry mix, location within the region and spatial amenities, labour force accessibility and network accessibility are significantly related to centre growth. It is concluded that accessibility continues to play an im...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the interdependency of households and businesses in post-disaster return following 2008's Hurricane Ike in Galveston, Texas and found that the return of household and businesses are mutually dependent across space.
Abstract: Rapidly urbanising areas along the world’s coasts are exposing greater numbers of households to more frequent and severe natural and man-made disasters. Knowledge gained from disaster situations can provide insight into larger urban forces and play a role in developing and prescribing policies that influence the creation of more resilient communities. This article explores the interdependency of households and businesses in post-disaster return following 2008’s Hurricane Ike in Galveston, Texas. Geocoded data from 980 households and 145 businesses collected in the months after the storm allow the spatial correlation of the household occupancy and business operation, controlling for damage. Findings suggest that the return of households and businesses are mutually dependent across space. The re-opening of businesses can influence nearby households’ decisions to return to their homes and the return of households in the market area will increase the chances for businesses to return.
TL;DR: Li et al. as discussed by the authors used three decades of census data to describe Beijing's spatial development trajectory and a household survey to assess its transport impacts, revealing an overconcentration of urban activities as a result of the featureless expansion of the central built-up area and the absorption of the suburban clusters; and a lengthened commuting time stemming from the observed spatial development pattern.
Abstract: This research aims to inform the compact city discussion with a case study of Beijing, where urban planning has emphasised clustered suburban development in the past half-century. It uses three decades of census data to describe Beijing’s spatial development trajectory and a household survey to assess its transport impacts. The research reveals an overconcentration of urban activities as a result of the featureless expansion of the central built-up area and the absorption of the suburban clusters; and, a lengthened commuting time stemming from the observed spatial development pattern. Beijing’s experience adds to the existing literature by informing the search for good city forms in urban areas of high density. It is essential to differentiate compact development from overconcentration when combating sprawling development. Developing and maintaining suburban nodal characteristics around public transit can reduce travel in high-density urban areas.
TL;DR: This article investigated whether family background seems to have any influence on first-time homeownership and found that parents' homeownership has become a more important predictor of the transition to first time homeownership for those young adults facing increasing problems in the housing market.
Abstract: This paper investigates whether family background seems to have any influence on first-time homeownership. Recent studies have indicated that it has become more difficult to become established in the housing market and such situations may increase the importance of parental wealth. In this study, parental wealth is estimated as family background information on parents’ homeownership, father’s socioeconomic status and single parenting. Unique cohort data for three birth cohorts suggest that there is a significant cohort effect in young adults’ tenure decision. Furthermore, the results imply that parents’ homeownership has become a more important predictor of the transition to first-time homeownership for those young adults facing increasing problems in the housing market.
TL;DR: This article provided evidence on the impacts that students have had on neighbourhoods in five case study cities in the UK and showed how national policy towards higher education had unintended and unanticipated problems for urban policy-makers.
Abstract: This paper provides evidence on the impacts that students have had on neighbourhoods in five case study cities in the UK. Drawing on extensive qualitative interview data in these cities, the paper shows how national policy towards higher education had unintended and unanticipated problems for urban policy-makers. It argues that responses to these problems are shaped by discourses about what is normalised student behaviour and, implicitly, class-based ideologies. These are argued to shape the way in which the problems created by studentified neighbourhoods are perceived and the way in which local actors subsequently respond.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the environmental effects of the triple transition process of marketisation, marketization, and globalization on environmental protection efforts in China and show that environmental degradation is a serious challenge for environmental protection in China.
Abstract: Economic transition has posed a serious challenge to environmental protection efforts in China. This study explores the environmental effects of the triple transition process of marketisation, glob...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors employed time-series analysis to investigate the price dynamics of the house price indices included in the S&P/Case-Shiller Composite10 index and the validity of theripple effect.
Abstract: This paper employs time-series analysis to investigate the price dynamics of the house price indices included in the S&P/Case–Shiller Composite10 index and the validity of the ‘ripple effect’, following the approach outlined by Meen (1999). More specifically, the paper first considers the time-series properties of the capital gain from the sale of houses. That is, it examines whether shocks to the capital gain series produce permanent or transitory changes. In general, the findings lack uniformity and depend upon the assumptions imposed by the testing procedures. Secondly, it considers the time-series properties of the ratio of regional house price indices to the Composite10 index. That is, it examines whether shocks to these house price ratios exhibit trend reversion. The tests of this ‘ripple effect’ also display conflicting evidence.
TL;DR: In this paper, a qualitative study conducted within a municipal project organisation charged with organizing the 50th anniversary of Tapiola Garden City in Finland has been presented, where the decision-makers with an opportunity for re-imagining the Garden City, which in the course of time was seen to have become outdated and in need of symbolic and material rejuvenation.
Abstract: This article discusses contemporary practices of place branding through the concept of the imaginary. Specifically, the aim is to interrogate place branding as a politically constituted process which unfolds in relation to dominant discourses and symbols that are in circulation; how existing material structures inform the process; and what material consequences occur as a result. The process is empirically illustrated by drawing on a qualitative study conducted within a municipal project organisation charged with organising the 50th anniversary of Tapiola Garden City in Finland. The anniversary provided the decision-makers with an opportunity for re-imagining the Garden City, which in the course of time was seen to have become outdated and in need of symbolic and material rejuvenation. In the light of the study, the article examines how place branding contributes to producing discursive privileging and marginalisation of particular values and social groups.
TL;DR: The River Line of southern New Jersey, USA, which broke ground in 2000 and began operating in 2004, is an example of such a project as discussed by the authors. But it is not a railway.
Abstract: Economic benefits are sometimes used to justify transport investments. Such was the case with the River Line of southern New Jersey, USA, which broke ground in 2000 and began operating in 2004. Rec...
TL;DR: A new genre of popular "urbanology" broadcasts The Triumph of the City (Glaeser, 2011) as mentioned in this paper, which choruses the Canadian urban ‘practitioner and thinker’, Jeb Brugmann (2009), his compatriot Doug Saunders' Arrival City (2010), exalting the rise of homo urbanis and the cities where the newest urban migrants gather.
Abstract: A majority of humans now reside in urban settings. The dawn of an ‘urban age’ is now a commonplace of political and popular discussion. A new genre of popular ‘urbanology’ broadcasts The Triumph of the City (Glaeser, 2011). Welcome to the Urban Revolution choruses the Canadian urban ‘practitioner and thinker’, Jeb Brugmann (2009). His compatriot Doug Saunders’ Arrival City (2010) echoes the theme, exalting the rise of homo urbanis and the cities where the newest urban migrants gather. The tendency to futurology is pronounced. Joel Kotkin’s (2010) The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050 predicts a great suburban revival in the US (‘greenurbia’) and a decline in the attractiveness and influence of inner cities. Richard Florida (2011), early sage of the new urbanology, considers The Great Reset, seeing opportunity and urban revival in the wake of global capitalism’s recent calamitous demise. John Kasarda and Greg Lindsay (2011) foresee Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next—a vision of city life as adjunct to an aviation sector that will gladly survive the tempests of global warming, peak oil and terrorism. Almost exclusively, the new urbanology is North American, mostly emanating from journalists, consultants and ‘mediasavvy’ academics in business and economics schools. Most are established as consultants/advisors and, not surprisingly, their works tend to highlight and favour urban entrepreneurship. The political tone is fluid, mixing progressive (for example, sustainability) with libertarian values. Glaeser, the Harvard economist, at one point surprises, intoning that ‘‘We must stop idolizing homeownership’’, but evokes a strongly sanguine view of urban poverty (Glaeser, 2011, p. 15). The new dispensation appears to be reversing, at least in some circles, the long reign of anti-urbanism in North America. Its battle cries have reached the opinion-making, The New Yorker, where Richard Lemann writes
TL;DR: This article explored how young people experience territoriality in six British cities and challenged the prevailing view within existing literature that young people derive important benefits from the territoriality of young people. But, they did not consider the effect of social media on their daily lives.
Abstract: This paper explores how young people experience territoriality in six British cities. It challenges the prevailing view within existing literature that young people derive important benefits from t...