Digital displaceability in the settler-colonial city: The case of Musrara in western Jerusalem

The King in Lima: Simulacra, Ritual, and Rule in Seventeenth-Century Peru

This article foregrounds urban public space by considering land reclamation in island cities. Land reclamation is nearly ubiquitous in the urban development of coastal cities, and island cities in particular are subject to exceptionally dense urbanisation and thus exceptionally strong conflict over urban space. Drawing upon theories at the intersection of the land and the sea (liquid, archipelago, and aquapelago spatiality), we analyse socially problematic aspects of the creation of new urban space through land reclamation. Land reclamation occurs in island cities such as Bahrain, Copenhagen, Dubai, Hong Kong, Macau, New York City, and Xiamen in order to construct space for urban industrial, residential, and leisure functions while avoiding the social conflict that often accompanies urban renewal efforts. However, whether in the case of publically accessible leisure parks or secessionary island enclaves for the ultra-rich, land reclamation processes serve powerful societal forces and represent the capture of urban space for elite interests. This reduces the prospects for urban public space and limits the horizons for the development of more socially just future cities. The transformation of unclaimed fluid space into solid private space is a relative form of accumulation by dispossession, even if the public has never been aware of what it possessed.

This article presents the results of a scientific study conducted within the framework of an intra-university grant. The work was partially supported by the V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University Development Program for 2015-2024. The analysis of the world experience in the design of biopositive public spaces in various cities of the world is considered, the methods for the formation of a sustainable biopositive urban space are outlined in the theoretical works of leading specialists in various directions. Spaces of Crimean cities, in particular its capital - Simferopol, listed a number of problems of the following public urban spaces : areas, landscape objects, pedestrian streets, embankment, etc., formed as a result of the development and growth of the modern city, the results of surveys conducted by the authors (questionnaires, social questions) among guests and local population of Crimean cities. wishes of the residents of Simferopol city, Alushta city and Chernomorskoye settlement to architectural-planning, composition-landscape and artistic expressive qualities of urban public spaces. A short characteristic of the most popular urban spaces is given, their advantages and disadvantages are indicated. The requirements of residents and guests of these the Crimean cities to the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the material and technical and vegetable content of the urban environment are analyzed. Practical recommendations on the architectural and planning reconstruction of transport and pedestrian units, squares, garden and park facilities, embankments and courtyard spaces, taking into account the principles of biopositivity, are given. Experimental design models are proposed that consider the idea of transforming the existing public spaces of Crimean cities, taking into account modern international standards and information of sociological surveys.

IntroductionMuseums and Monuments: Memorials of Violent Pasts in Urban Spaces Ulrike Capdepón, Aline Sierp, and Jill Strauss Over the last thirty years, there have been ever increasing numbers of memorial projects worldwide that address the histories of mass violence, genocides, recent wars, dictatorships and systematic human rights abuses. Along with the growing numbers of memory initiatives, the theoretical field of memory studies has developed concurrently. Writing on the influence of symbolism and ritual on remembrance in the early 1990s, historian John Bodnar noted the dearth of literature on collective memory in urban spaces.1 Over the next three decades this strand has grown exponentially. In the introduction to their special issue from 2008, “Collective Memory and the Politics of Urban Space,” Reuben Rose-Redwood, Derek Alderman and Maoz Azaryahu argued that the choices individuals and groups make to remember or forget are “embedded within and constrained by particular socio-spatial conditions.”2 Meanwhile, Daniel Levy and Natan Sznaider had already coined the term “cosmopolitan memory” to describe how cultural memory is not limited to localities but, in fact, goes beyond borders. They reasoned that just as individual and collective memories are interconnected processes, so too, local and global memory making are symbiotic.3 Drawing on developments in the field, from local framings of memory to transnational perspectives, this special issue focuses on the role of various memory practices in urban space. When places hold multiple and often opposing memories, the question of whose histories are remembered and publicly shared, or marginalized and excluded, becomes crucial for understanding social dynamics and political change. Coming from the fields of anthropology, communication, history and political science, this interdisciplinary group of scholars presents various case studies of public representation of contested history in cities located in Europe and the Americas to discuss theoretical and [End Page 5] methodological approaches in memory studies. Toward that end, the articles address the following questions: To what extent is there a common thread in the motivation to portray contested history in spaces of public memory display? And related to this, in what ways are memorialization practices informed by transnational perspectives? Finally, how do political forces and civil society activists shape public debates regarding the representation of a contested past in urban space? This collection examines how museums and memory sites construct historical narratives through processes of preservation, education and public exhibition. Aline Sierp’s article on the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism considers how and why Munich, the birthplace of Nazism, was able to avoid for seventy years publicly acknowledging and documenting its role in Hitler’s rise to power. Sierp refers to the influence of transnational memory processes when analyzing the museum that was ultimately constructed and shows how they shaped the museum’s decision to design exhibitions to educate and engage visitors on taking responsibility. Cosmopolitan memory and glocalization—a concept also used to describe how ideas and practices are adopted globally and then adapted to suit the local situation—are employed by Jan Gryta in his article on the history of the creation of the museum in Oskar Schindler’s Factory in Kraków, Poland. In this case, given Schindler’s role in saving the lives of more than one-thousand Jewish internees, memorializing the factory itself was not in question. Influenced by international best practices of museum exhibition design, the museum director and curators envisioned portrayals of the daily lives of all residents of Kraków, but this met with resistance from city officials. The conflict centered on how best to represent the Poles who were both victims and perpetrators in a country unwilling to acknowledge its culpability even five decades later. Whether or not monuments, museums and symbolic acts like street or place names are physically tied to “authentic” places of memory, they often function as powerful political tools. In Buenos Aires, the former clandestine torture and extermination center ESMA, originally the school of the Argentine navy, today houses a memorial museum in the building that was the headquarters of repression and disappearance during the Argentine dictatorship (1976–83). In her article on the Ex-ESMA, Susana Kaiser compares visitor and museum staff experiences of the site...

Emerging discussions on the “settler colonial city” present a new agenda for gentrification research in settler colonial contexts. Accordingly, this paper examines the extent to which the gentrification literature engages with settler colonial dynamics, identifying three overarching approaches. While a small but growing body of literature frames gentrification as a contemporary mechanism of Indigenous erasure, other approaches engage with concepts of settler colonialism in abstraction from contemporary Indigenous life and claims to urban space. The paper argues the persistence of these abstractions undermines the recognition of settler colonial gentrification as Indigenous erasure and limits the current potential for the gentrification literature to contribute to the disruption of settler colonial relations. In response, there is a need for further empirical and theoretical work that attends to the impulse for Indigenous elimination as a unique dimension of gentrification in settler colonial contexts. Insight from literature on the “settler colonial city” underlines the particular importance of extending conceptions of anti‐gentrification resistance to emphasize Indigenous refusal of gentrified futures and examine how (settler‐led) anti‐gentrification responses disrupt or sustain settler colonial relations. These directions provide opportunities to (re)conceptualize gentrification and its responses in ways that address the reproduction of (dis)possessory settler colonial relations while recognizing “the flourishing of Indigenous life” (Dorries, 2019, p. 27).

This paper traces the trajectory of scholarship on the settler colonial city and argues that this literature could pay closer attention to the dynamic circulations, movements, and mobilities that constitute and sustain urban space. It foregrounds the ways that the movement of commodities, capital, and people must be assiduously managed in order to preserve settler colonial relations in the city and beyond. Building on existing work, it argues that “settler colonial urbanism” operates as a regime of spatial management which is connected to other sites of racial capitalist extraction and accumulation across global space.

Purpose This study examines how artificial intelligence (AI) is culturally and commercially framed in outdoor advertising, focusing on billboards in urban centers across New York and California. It analyzes the semiotic strategies used by tech companies and explores how marketing messages sustain the AI hype. Design/methodology/approach The study examines AI-related billboards in New York City and California, combining visual documentation with descriptive content analysis to explore both the visual and textual elements of the advertisements. It adopts a cultural and interpretivist–constructivist perspective to investigate how these messages operate within the broader marketing landscape. Findings The study demonstrates that outdoor advertising reinforces cultural values surrounding technology, emphasizing narratives of innovation, efficiency and inevitability in careers and beyond. AI-related billboards by tech brands promote these values, potentially shaping public perceptions and fueling the current AI hype. Originality/value Based on fieldwork and a technography approach, this article analyzes AI marketing in urban spaces, highlighting how tech companies use outdoor advertising to shape cultural narratives around AI. By combining visual documentation with content analysis, the study provides a focused perspective on the persuasive strategies employed in AI advertising.

Cities in settler colonial states imply a continuous settlement in Indigenous territories and on unceded land. With each layer of colonial enterprises, there is also Indigenous resistance to it, which in turn brings on new interruptions and displacements. Each layer relates to previous ones and, as an urban palimpsest, public spaces become multilayered places, with permanent processes of displacements and dispossession and re-territorialization and re-possession. And if the settler colonial city is a useful framework to understand the multiple layers of colonial processes happening in an urban public space, we suggest that the notion of the palimpsest enlightens also the multiple layers of Indigenous presence and continuous place-making as a resistance to these processes.

The methodological problems of historical urbanism are represented, related to the affirmation of the view on the cultural space of cities not only as a heritage, but also as a resource for sustainable spatial and regional development and the study of urban history in the problematic field of territorial identities. The structural specificity of urbanization processes is analyzed with an emphasis on the social dimensions of urbanogenesis, the factors of transformation of the social space of the city in the process of historical evolution are analyzed. The urban social space as the embodiment of all its transformations and connections is considered as the basis for an in-depth analysis of social reality and forecasting trends and strategies for further changes. The formation of urban identity is understood through the prism of the transformation of "images of cities" under the influence of social shifts. It is noted that the urban mentality is formed by the nature of group representations in the urban space in a specific time period, determined both by modern events and realities, and by the previous history of the city's development. Manifestations and forms of mentality are always determined by spatio-temporal characteristics. It is proven that the direction of modern historical research in the direction of the analysis of urban spatial practices and phenomena, local territorial communities becomes the key to understanding the factors of transformation of social space both in the past and in the present

Kentsel mekân, kent olgusunun ilk varoluşundan günümüze, toplum dinamiklerine bağlı olarak sürekli bir dönüşüm içindedir. Sosyo-kültürel, ekonomik ve siyasi değişimler, kentsel mekânın dönüşümü ve şekillenmesinde önemli rol oynamaktadır. Kentsel mekânın bu gelişim sürecinde, kentsel alana anlam yükleyen mimari ürün konuttur. Dolayısıyla bu süreçten ve değişimin yansımalarından etkilenen büyük kentlerden biri de İstanbul’dur. İstanbul’da 1950’li yıllarla birlikte hızla artan köyden kente göç, sonrasında çarpık yapılaşma gibi etkenler kontrol altına alınamayan kentsel dönüşüme imkân vermiştir. Konut, kentsel, kamusal alanlarla birlikte kurulan ilişkinin en önemli aktörü olmuş, dinamikleri etkisinde sürekli kendini yenilemiştir. Özellikle 1980’lerde imar düzenlemeleri ve konut talebi konut üretimlerinin artmasına neden olmuştur. Köyden kente göç, farklı ekonomik sınıfların belirginleşmesi, yüksek rant, konut piyasasındaki rekabet, sınıfsal ve mekânsal ayrışmayı ortaya çıkarmıştır. Bu sayede yüksek güvenlikli, korunaklı yeni yaşam alanlarının şekillenmesi de kaçınılmaz olmuştur. Kent çeperine yayılan konut alanlarındaki gelişim, kent merkezlerinde yıkıp-yapma ya da dikey yaşam alanları şeklinde büyüme göstermiştir. Bu anlamda yaşanan bu değişim ve gelişim, ekonomik imkânlar çerçevesinde kent merkezinden ayrışan, bireyi sosyal çevreden uzaklaştıran yaşam alanlarına dönüşmüştür. Dolayısıyla içe dönük bir toplum ya da toplum şartlarının ortaya çıkardığı ortak alanlar yeni yaşam merkezi olarak biçim kazanmıştır. İstanbul, yüksek rantlı sosyo-kültürel gelişimin gözardı edildiği konut projeleri ile mekansal anlamda ayrışmayı belirgin bir şekilde göstermektedir. Bu anlamda çalışmada, İstanbulda kent içi, kent çeperlerine yayılan ayrıcalıklı konutların kentsel ve mekânsal değişiminin irdelenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Bu kapsamda, kentleşme, konut sektörü, sosyo-kültürel, ekonomik değişimlerin konut sektörüne etkisi, kent içi, kent dışı konut alanları ve kent mekânının sosyal yaşam çerçevesinde değişimi ele alınmıştır. Özellikle kent merkezi dışında gelişen konut alanlarının oluşum sürecini etkileyen nedenler ve bu alanların İstanbul içindeki yerleşimleri örnekler üzerinden incelenmiştir. Sonuç olarak İstanbul’da toplumsal ve kültürel yaşamın göstergesi olan konutun farklı yaklaşım, üretim biçimlerine rağmen, benzer özellikler ve ticari kaygılarla şekillenen, ayrıcalıklı ve ayrışmayı hissettiren, ekonomik sınıflar arasında kopukluğu ortaya çıkaran yaşam alanlarının belirgin bir şekilde ortaya çıktığı tespit edilmiştir.

In the era of post-modernization, profound transformations in urban spaces have led to significant shifts in the spatial composition paradigms of contemporary urban heritage. Research on this process is crucial for elucidating the spatial pathways and compositional changes in the modernization transformation of urban heritage. This study aims to establish identification indicators and assessment systems for the spatial structure of urban residential environments exhibiting historical characteristics and heritage potential through a comparative analysis of residential urban heritage spatial paradigms in historic cities in China and Japan. First, grounded in space syntax theory, this study selected residential urban heritage in Suzhou’s Pingjiang Historic District and Uji’s Nakauji District as research cases. Utilizing road network data, this study analyzed the Life Integration (Int.VR1000) and Global Integration (Int.VR5000) of urban heritage spaces, thereby constructing a spatial topology system for heritage spaces. Second, the study employed urban spatial entropy indicators, such as architectural density entropy, spatial morphology entropy, and function mixing entropy, to quantitatively describe the spatial structure, consequently establishing a heritage space morphological structure indicator system. Finally, spatial clustering methods are used to integrate the spatial topology system with the morphological structure indicator system, resulting in a feature model for residential urban heritage spaces. The research results indicate that the transformation path of residential space paradigms is mainly influenced by spatial topology, affecting the structure of residential heritage spaces in three aspects: functional layout, building density, and spatial form. This phenomenon, in turn, impacts population distribution and the migration of living spaces. However, at the same time, the “resistance effect” of street and lane spaces and the limitations of architectural forms on spatial functions have protected the integrity and authenticity of the internal space.

In metropolitan areas worldwide, abandoned properties are prevalent, prompting a need for small urban green spaces (SUGS) to meet the growing demand. Understanding residents' preferences and perceptions of transformed spaces is vital for effective urban design. This study delves into residents' preferences and perceptions regarding the transformation of such spaces into SUGS and their impact on psychological well-being. By examining how these preferences and perceived health benefits shape the value of transformed spaces, the research aims to inform effective urban design strategies. The participants underwent visual stimulation, with psychological reactions recorded through Electroencephalogram (EEG) readings and assessed via Questionnaire. Machine learning techniques analyzed EEG sub-band data, achieving an average accuracy of 92.8% when comparing leftover and designed spaces. Results revealed that different types of transformed spaces provoke distinct physiological and preference responses. Specifically, viewing SUGS was associated with significant changes in gamma wave power, suggesting a correlation between enhanced gamma activity and increased feelings of empathy. Moreover, participants also reported enhanced comfort, relaxation, and overall mood, and a strong preference for SUGS over untransformed spaces, emphasizing the value placed on these areas for their health benefits. This research highlights the positive impact of even SUGS on mental health, using EEG data to assess emotional states triggered by urban spaces. The study concludes with a call for further research to investigate the long-term benefits of SUGS on well-being, alongside an exploration of the gamma band as a neural marker for emotional restoration in urban green spaces. This research highlights the crucial role of urban design in fostering psychological well-being through the strategic development of green spaces, suggesting a paradigm shift toward more inclusive, health-promoting urban environments.

In this article, the authors examine the impact of digitalization of architectural and urban planning activities on the transformation of urban space in Kazakhstan. The study and implementation of digital technologies in these areas, taking into account modern challenges and needs of society, can lead to significant changes in urban space and contribute to its transformation, improve design efficiency, improve the quality and safety of construction, reduce construction time and costs, improve infrastructure and to make urban space more functional and comfortable for its residents. The transformation of urban space in Kazakhstan is an important area of ​​urban development, where digitalization can play a significant role. Transparency of processes in architectural and urban planning activities can be significantly increased thanks to information platforms and digital databases. The purpose of this article is to study modern digital technologies and their impact in the transformation of urban space. In this work, the focus is on the use of geographic information systems (GIS), building information models (BIM). In particular, the authors highlight the possibilities of using the geoportal of the state urban planning cadastre of the Republic of Kazakhstan in transforming urban space. Digital databases help increase the transparency of processes, as they provide storage and exchange of information between project participants and contribute to effective data management. The introduction of such technologies makes it possible to monitor the entire construction process, from the initial design stage to the completion of construction and operation of the facility.

Cities all over Africa are undergoing significant transformations. The majority of these transformations, with the exception of the expansion in informal settlements, have involved the sudden emergence of ambitious new city projects. Over 200 new city projects are underway across the continent of Africa, making the past decade the most active city-building period since the colonial era. The advocates and enablers of new cities argue that the development of new urban spaces on a massive scale is necessary for creating modern, world class, smart cities; a precondition for economic competitiveness even though such projects raise concerns regarding their tendency to exacerbate segregation, ecological destruction and the displacement and exclusion of the poor. The new city building trend in Africa is generating considerable scholarly interest, yet the discourses, foreign and domestic actors, governance and the consequences of new city projects for adjoining communities is poorly understood. Within the context of rapidly changing urban spaces in Africa, research which makes sense of the trends, drivers and implications becomes central. Focusing on new city projects in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana (GAR), this thesis analyses: (1) the drivers and rationales for new African cities and the contemporary urban governance regimes that shape them; (2) the social and spatial outcomes which are produced in the process of developing new cities; and, (3) how, with and for whom are planning strategies for new cities mobilised? The overarching research question is: How are contemporary urban spaces produced and transformed in Ghana’s GAR? The thesis deploys assemblage thinking to explore the emerging new city building phenomenon in GAR, the ways in which state intervention and power relations influence the production of new cities, their socio-spatial impacts, and the struggles over access to urban land. This thesis is based on multiple sources of data including in-depth key informant interviews, policy and archival document reviews and Geographic Information System-based spatial analysis. The results of this research are presented as three journal papers (two published and one under review). The findings suggest that the state’s desire to raise the competitiveness of Accra as an international business centre, i.e., a ‘world city’ ideal, and the need to decongest Accra’s central business district and ensure rational land use development were central to the emergence of new cities in GAR. Other explanations include the infertility of farmland, the decision by government to acquire part of the farmland for residential development, and the availability of expertise in building technology. Challenges associated with land transactions in GAR, such as disputes and multiple land sales, and embedded social and cultural factors including the prestige attached to owning a home in Ghana, increased the appeal and uptake of new cities among investors. In terms of new cities’ governance, the findings show the continuing involvement of the state, demonstrating a departure from the privatised governance models that typically characterise scholarship concerning the administration of new cities. The findings further show that the socio-spatial effects of new cities are not given, but are produced through the nature of assemblages that the actors enter and re/constitute. The findings demonstrate that the production of new cities and subsequent transformation of urban spaces in GAR is the outcome of the interactions among specific state and non-state framings of urban development, the nature of land ownership, and both global and local economic, political, institutional, and social conditions. The interactions of these factors create winners and losers in relation to access and use of peri/urban land. While neoliberalism was influential in the transformation of urban spaces in GAR, it was not the only determining factor. The overall findings of the thesis centre contemporary spatial transformation in GAR as emergent, becoming, relational, and subject to a range of determinations. Thus, the findings of this thesis contribute to attempts to post-colonise urban studies and add to critiques of ideas that centre neoliberal logics in contemporary spatial transformation. Recommendations to improve spatial planning outcomes in GAR are proffered. The results of the thesis will be of interest to spatial planners and policymakers, international organisations such as The World Bank and UN Habitat, as well as other sub-Saharan Africa countries seeking to create inclusive and sustainable urban spaces under conditions of rapid transformation. The results will also be of interest to academics interested in African urbanism, urban geography and planning.

‘Urban re-generations' is written as an afterword to the special issue of Australian Geographer on ‘The Politics of Urban Greening in Australian Cities'. The collection prompts a deep questioning of reparative and regenerative work associated with greening, green spaces and green infrastructures. The climate-driven 2019-2020 bushfire crisis and COVID-19 have amplified the visibility of the more-than-human connectivity of our cities and the deep underlying structures of social and environmental inequity underpinning a variety of urban green spaces and agendas. Inspired by the articles in this special issue, the afterword explores how we might call back the grammars and practices of regeneration from their service to the neo-liberal, settler-colonial city and instead nurture reparative de-colonial practices that aid in the collaborative work of re-composing, becoming into better relation with, and working in modes of situated historical and cultural difference, with green and just cities.