Showing papers on "Urbanism published in 1996"

Cities as movement economies

Abstract: This paper is taken from the forthcoming book, "Space is the Machine" (CUP 1996) which brings together some of the recent developments in applying configurational analysis to issues of architectural and urban theory. The paper reports a fundamental research finding: that movement in the urban grid is, all other things being equal, generated by the configuration of the grid itself. This finding allows completely new insights into the structure of urban grids, and the way these stuctures relate to urban function. The relation between grid and movement in fact underlies many other aspects of urban form: the distribution of land uses such as retail and residence, spatial patterning of crime, the evolution of different densities and even the part-whole structure of cities. The influence of the fundamental grid-movement relation is so pervasive that cities are conceptualized here as 'movement economies', in which the structuring of movement by the grid leads, through multiplier effects, to dense patterns of mixed use encounter that characterize the spatially successful city.

THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF CITIES: Imagining and Theorizing the City

Abstract: ▪ Abstract This review considers the following questions: Why is the city undertheorized in anthropology? Why is an anthropological voice rarely heard in the urban studies and urban policy discourse? Anthropological literature published since 1989 is reviewed, with an emphasis on contributions to urban theory and the locating of anthropological studies within the broader context of urban studies. The city is found not to be absent in anthropological theory, but it has had no major theoretical impact. The images of the ethnic city, divided city, deindustrialized city, and global city have been most influential, as has research in the areas of racism, migration, poststructural studies of conflict and resistance, and critiques of architecture and urban planning. The literature continues to focus on the links between the experience of individuals and sociopolitical and economic processes as well as on the cultural meaning of the urban environment. The newest areas of inquiry include the study of urban space a...

Design of Urban Space: An Inquiry into a Socio-Spatial Process

Abstract: PERSPECTIVES IN URBAN SPACE. Understanding Urban Space. Structural Frameworks of Urban Space. People in the City. THE MAKING OF URBAN SPACE. Urban Design Process. Production of the Built Environment. Regulating Urban Form. Images of Perfection. Design of Urban Space. Bibliography. Index.

The Politics of Gay Rights in American Communities: Explaining Antidiscrimination Ordinances and Policies

Abstract: Theory: The adoption of local gay rights ordinances and policies is approached from two broad theoretical frameworks-the urbanism/diversity approach and alternative perspectives rooted in social movement theory. Hypotheses: The adoption of gay rights ordinances/policies is a function of: (1) the level of urbanization and social diversity; (2) the social and political resources of the gay and lesbian population; (3) the political opportunity structure in the community; and (4) the balance between traditionalist and liberal religious groups. Method: Multivariate logistic regression analysis is used on a data set comprising 126 cities and counties with gay rights ordinances/policies and 125 localities chosen at random. Results: Consistent with urbanism theory, population size is the single largest factor differentiating the two types of communities. In addition to urbanism, the prospects for including sexual orientation as a protected category are influenced by the extent of political and organizational mobilization among the gay and lesbian community, the political opportunity structure in the locality, and the presence of morallytraditional religious groups. These findings reinforce the value of incorporating cultural themes and social movement theory in the study of policy outcomes.

The urbanization of injustice

Abstract: Written by David Harvey 20 years ago, "Social Justice and the City" linked power and justice in the geographical field, and it had an influence in many related disciplines. But during the two decades since its publication, great changes have taken place in political and urban life. Urban areas are now characterized by the omnipresence of the homeless, by huge disparities in wealth, by a growing underclass and by the exponential increase in people suffering from the effects of AIDS and hard drug use. The contributors are from both sides of the Atlantic, including Harvey himself, they analyze these changes and reconsider the character of urbanism and social justice. They push for an intellectual agenda that rallies around the development of socially just urban practices. The contributors include: Marshall Berman on rap and social justice in America; Doreen Massey on space and identity tensions in the city; and Edward Soja on social justice and the new cultural politics.

Imagineering Atlanta: The Politics of Place in the City of Dreams

Abstract: In the age of decentralization, instant communications, and the subordination of locality to the demands of a globalizing market, contemporary cities have taken on place-less or a-geographic characters. They have become phantasmagorical landscapes. Atlanta, argues Charles Rutheiser, is in many ways paradigmatic of this generic urbanism. As such, it provides a fertile ground for investigating the play of culture, power and place within a "non-place urban realm". Rutheiser uses the mobilization for the 1996 Olympics to talk about the uneven development of Atlanta's landscape. Like other cities lacking any natural advantages, Atlanta's reputation and built form have been regularly reconfigured by generations of entrepreneurs, politicians, journalists and assorted visionaries to create a service-oriented information city of global reach. Borrowing a term from Walt Disney, Rutheiser refers to these successive waves of organized and systematic promotion as linked, but not always well-co-ordinated acts of urban "imagineering". Focusing on the historic core of the metropolitan area, Rutheiser shows how Atlanta has long been both a test bed for federal urban renewal and a playground for private capital. The city provides an object lesson in internal colonization and urban underdevelopment. Yet, however illustrative of general trends, Atlanta also represents a unique conjunction of universals and particulars; it exemplifies a reality quite unlike either New York or Los Angeles - two cities to which it has often been compared. This book thus adds an important case study to the emerging discourse on contemporary urbanism. It goes beyond providing another account of uneven development and the "theme-parking" of a North American city: Rutheiser reflects on how contemporary American society thinks about cities, and argues that, ultimately, despite the ever-increasing virtualization of day-to-day life, the obliteration of locality is never complete. There always remains some "here", if only deep beneath the "urbane disguises", in the interstices of social activity, in the contradictions of experience and in the residues of individual and collective memory.

Disquiet on the waterfront: reflections on nostalgia and utopia in the urban archetypes of festival marketplaces

Abstract: Festival marketplaces have been developed in many cities of the United States under public-private partnerships as a means to promote urban revitalization in historic downtowns, and especially on waterfronts. While some critics have welcomed the return of public life and collective narratives in these new retail landscapes, others have lamented their exclusionary nature, ideological manipulations, and formulaic aesthetics. This paper critically examines these claims and argues that festival marketplaces are profoundly ambivalent places, which in their rhetorical commitment to Utopian values of urbanism open up opportunities for urban politics that both critiques ignore. This is demonstrated through a review of four archetypes of ideal urbanness that are reproduced in these forms, namely public space, the marketplace, street theater, and the waterfront. The archetypes are articulated through powerful narratives of nostalgia, and I draw on Walter Benjamin to argue that the festival marketplace is a dream-ho...

Keeping House in Lusaka

Abstract: This book pens a window on the experiences of urban people living through one of Africa's most dramatic economic declines in the postcolonial era by focusing on such broad themes as household dynamics, gender politics, and informal economy in Mtendere. The author argues that African urbanism is not purely a product of colonialism but a result of a wide variety of influences both local and foreign.

New (Sub)Urbanism: Countersprawl or repackaging the product∗

Abstract: (1996). New (Sub)Urbanism: Countersprawl or repackaging the product. Capitalism Nature Socialism: Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 49-64.

Beyond the Great Wall : urban form and transformation on the Chinese frontiers

Abstract: Introduction 1. The Chinese frontiers 2. The historical development of the five cities 3. The functions of cities on the frontiers 4. Chinese urbanism and the frontiers 5. Non-Chinese urban traditions on the frontiers 6. City forms on the frontiers 7. Monumental architecture in multicultural contexts 8. Environment, regionalism, and vernacular architecture 9. The persistence of traditional forms in the contemporary city 10.Contemporary transformations and restructuring Conclusion Appendix: survey of pre-1949 city shapes Notes Bibliography Index.

Identities, Citizenship and Power in the Cities

Abstract: In this introduction to selected papers from the Tenth Urban Change and Conflict Conference (UCC), held at Royal Holloway University of London in September 1995, we offer some thoughts on the contemporary health of urban studies. UCC conferences have always been characterised by their commitment to analysing the social relations of (political) oppression and domination which underpin the dynamics of cities. This has entailed some commitment to political economy yet, in recent years, the so-called 'interpretative' turn has challenged the relevance of political economy approaches to the study of cities. However, the papers presented at the Tenth UCC conference point towards the importance of (re)engaging with political economy and with recognising the ways in which a political economy of urbanism is able to capture the complexities of contemporary social and economic life.

The Magic Square: Cities in Ancient China

Abstract: "The Magic Square" is the first complex presentation of the development of Chinese urbanism in a Western language. Equipped with extensive source material and accurate modern maps, the author was able to apply metrological methods. This was the first time that this had been done in Chinese urban studies. In the course of the work some unexpected results surfaced, which yielded new insights into the concepts and methods of traditional urban planners and their masters. For a better understanding of the social, cultural, political and historical context of these concepts, the book includes about 300 drawings, prepared by the author after original Chinese graphics, pictures and paintings, in addition to the more than 150 maps. A large number of black and white and color photographs show what can be seen today. The main body of the book is divided into four chapters, which present four millennia of the urban history of China under the following headings: The beginning of sedentary settlement, when the different Neolithic culture groups merged into what may be called the beginnings of the typical Chinese civilization; Antiquity, the formative period of urbanism, culminating in the first planned city, the Holy City of Chengzhou (Luoyang), at the beginning of the Zhou dynasty (ca. 1000 BC); The Middle Ages, the time of the imperial court culture of the Han and Tang dynasties; And the modern time, the time of the urban culture and its enemies. Economic development after 1000 AD changed Chinese society and created what may be called urban culture connected with international trade. This urban civilization was highly endangered by the increasingly destructive attacks launched by nomadic warrior tribes from northern Central Asia. Eventually it was almost completely destroyed at the hands of the Mongols, who in turn founded a new capital, the present-day Beijing, using the sacred Magic Square concept. The fifth chapter deals with the structure of Chinese cities and towns in general. It adds an overall view of the urban life and culture that existed in the traditional society of late Imperial China.

City lives and city forms : critical research and Canadian urbanism

Abstract: Focusing on a series of pivotal issues confronting Canadian cities and city-dwellers today, this volume address key themes in urban studies:the interaction between social relations and urban landscape, the status of the city in the new world economy, and the sociocultural complexity of urban populations. The fifteen essays presented here reflect the current preoccupations and perspectives of critically oriented urban researchers in Canada. The essays in Part 1, 'People, Places, Cultures,' examine the nature of urban space and the links between this space and social relations, illustrating the fundamental principle that urban spaces are 'built values' and 'built politics' - physical expressions of social process. Part 2, 'The Economy of Cities,' explores recent fundamental shifts in the economic character of Canadian cities, whose effect on the social and physical landscapes has been as dramatic as the explosive onset of industrialism was in the last century. Part 3, 'Urban Social Movements,' focuses on the practices of social movements, including those oriented to gender, race, and the environment. Consisting largely of applied case studies, rather than broad thematic essays, City Lives and City Forms presents an overall argument for focused critical research in the urban field and suggests possible directions for the future.

The urbanist revision of development

Abstract: Refashioning towns and cities to achieve a revitalized sense of ‘urbanism’ has gained popular momentum. Proponents hail this as one means of achieving a more sustainable urban spatial form and a greater sense of place and community responsibility. But is their particular vision of urbanization an innovative model appropriate to the twenty-first century or is it regressive nostalgia? To address this, the paper asks who is advancing the change, why, how and with what implications. Two advocate bodies are the Urban Villages Group in Britain and the Congress for New Urbanism in the USA. The paper details the origins, tenets and agendas of these bodies, and some of the questions that their alternatives raise. Three very different attempts at urbanist development are also outlined. Each clearly demonstrates the strong emphasis that these groups have on urbanist vernacular aesthetics, Utopian notions of community, mixed land use, mixed tenure, collaborative processes and promoter-based development. But other issues are also raised relating to the long planning processes involved, the extent of public funding required, the plausibility of replicating such development options, the effectiveness of the participatory process, the degree of nostalgia evident, and the innate social relations. The paper concludes that the instigators of urbanist change examined in this research are elite groupings within society who are seeking to preserve idealized aesthetic and social orders with an indulgent understanding of the complexity of the contemporary urban condition.

Denenchōfu: Building the Garden City in Japan

Abstract: This article attempts to identify the fundamental physical and ideological elements that shape Japanese urbanism. It examines the development of the suburb of Denenchōfu near Tokyo as an example of Ebenezer Howard9s garden city idea and shows how it met the needs of a new social order during the period of modernization. Denenchōfu was planned and developed outside of Tokyo at the beginning of the twentieth century by a group, led by Meiji period developer Eiichi Shibusawa, that was inspired by Howard9s urban planning ideas. Like most garden cities. Denenchōfu was transformed over time into a relatively conventional suburb. Nevertheless it became one of the most successful planned developments in Japan. Part of this success stems from its timely completion, which coincided with the huge population exodus from Tokyo following the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 as well as from its prime location on the rapidly developing suburban railway network. Drawing from Japanese sources, this analysis traces the planning process of the project. It also examines the role of design guidelines and continuities with premodern forms in shaping the overall urban plan and individual houses.

Introduction: Cities, Texts and Paradigms

Abstract: In the early 1980s, a prominent urban sociologist spelt out what he saw as the distinguishing features of a new paradigm in the study of the city, that had become established over the previous decade. Variously described as ‘the new urban studies’ or ‘urban political economy’, the approach was characterised by a number of assumptions: urbanism (and urbanisation) could not just be taken for granted but required definition and explanation, since they took various forms under various modes of social and economic organisation and political control. The approach was concerned with the interplay between relations of production, consumption, exchange and the structure of power manifest in the state. Urban processes — whether community organisation, class and ethnic politics (or physical and spatial urban form), had to be understood in terms of their structural bases, or how they are conditioned by the larger economic, political and socio-cultural milieu. The approach was connected with social change and this was seen as growing out of conflicts among classes and groups. Changes in the economy were socially and culturally generated and mediated.3

Maya cities and the character of a tropical urbanism

Abstract: In Forests, the Shadow of Civilization, Robert Pogue Harrison (1992) vividly conjures up the fear and wonderment of the forest that prefigure Western civilization’s urban imperative – an experience that has been confrontational, in which the terms are all-or-nothing: we win, the forest goes = city; it wins, we go = wilderness. In the paragraphs that follow I suggest that alternative historical and environmental relationships developed between trees and people in the humid tropics, and these relationships constitute the conditions for an ecology of urbanism in humid tropical regions around the globe.

Ideology and urbanism during the Early Republican Period: Two master plans for Izmir and scenarios of modernization

Abstract: 'Urbanism', 'that new science of town building', was fighting for its legitimization in Western countries at the beginning of the twentieth century; it would con­ stitute an excellent tool for the young Republic of Turkey for the creation of a physical urban frame, the setting of a network, equipment and symbols, and an urban image that would support the modern society that the Republic aimed to achieve. Different planning models developed in the West would serve that purpose; particularly, the French and German models clashed with each other several times, as in the case of planning competitions for Ankara and Istanbul, in the search for a proper model for the modern Turkish city. While planning of the new capital, Ankara, was confided to a German planner, Hermann Jansen, the French urbanist Henri Prost was finally appointed for the planning of Istanbul.

Global and Local Spheres: The Diversity of Southeast Asian Urbanism

Abstract: Urbanism in Southeast Asia is often depicted as a process involving the struggle of different actors attempting to consciously shape the city or make an impact through their daily activities. With the rapid expansion of business centres as a result of globalization, the value of land has increased rapidly. It becomes difficult to justify the use of prime land for cheap accommodation, and the eviction of squatters is now a common occurrence in all larger Southeast Asian cities. Responses by the people and the organization of resistance against eviction attempts differ quite markedly among Southeast Asian cities. They vary according to the political and administrative environment as well as the economic, social, and cultural organizational networks existing in kampung and slum areas. Additionally, they are also affected by the processes of globalization, specifically by the emergence and growing importance of the middle class and demands for democratization. In this regard, the analysis of conflicts related to eviction provides an insight into the dynamics of urban politics. As will be shown, this is closely linked to the social organization of slum and kampung communities. Such an analysis highlights the specifics of primate cities in Southeast Asia, which forms an important aspect of urban change often neglected in studies of urban management and urban planning.

Thinking space/seeing space: Thamesmead revisited

Abstract: It has become fashionable in the 1990s to speak about the importance of spatial form. This paper explores what we might learn about policy by looking at the design of Thamesmead. It argues that by looking at spatial design attitudes otherwise hidden are made manifest. It also suggests that neither modernist nor postmodernist have any monopolistic claim to understanding their import, and that we need to think not only about how we might understand space but how, by looking at our spatial practices and the spaces we produce, we can understand ourselves.

Archetypes of urbanism : a method for the esthetic design of cities

Abstract: Over the past decade there has been a growing understanding that the aesthetic attributes of our cities and towns have been spoiled in many cases, and that the quality of our surroundings have much to contribute to our well-being. This has given rise to the evolution of what is now called urban design theory. This book presents a holistic approach to the aesthetic renewal of our cities and towns. The author stresses that visual quality control is especially important in the case of new construction, where aesthetic planning must be based on a clear description of the existing city structure.

Consumption and urban space in post-Soviet Moscow.

Abstract: This thesis is based on field research conducted in Moscow in 1992-1993. It addresses a theoretical literature on urbanism, and examines the consumption and interpretation of space by urban social actors. The hypothesis is that a particular social context, in this case a post-Soviet city, can only be understood by examining the meanings of the city as these are constructed by its inhabitants. It is an analysis of the ways in which these meanings are constructed through practical experience as people consume things, spaces, and interactive moments as they move through the city in pursuit of individually intended, cooperatively negotiated and institutionally directed projects. It is suggested that the resultant meanings are the product of partial and contingent knowledge, of interpretations of the physical landscapes of the city, and of the socio-emotive face to face interactions that characterise distinctive places and spaces in the city. The thesis is also concerned with elucidating the nature of social change in the specific context of post-Soviet transition. The transition to the Market is examined through analysis of the ideas and practices of the city's inhabitants. The thesis concludes with an examination of the differences between Soviet urbanism and the urbanisms described by authors interested in cities of the capitalist world. These differences and their effects on urban culture, are imported to give a sense to the ways in which Muscovites consume and interpret the new socio-economic phenomena which attend the transition period. The thesis attempts to elucidate the links between abstract and changing social, political and economic forces and their operationalisation in everyday life. I argue that attention to the interactive moment illuminates the point of articulation between structural forces and embodied or internalised identity. These moments are cued by the specifics of different socio-spatial contexts, which in turn inform the ways in which social actors interact with and construct the meaning of post-Soviet urbanism.