Platformization in the southern city: Entrepreneurial volunteering and the suturing of collective life in Hyderabad

ABSTRACTDespite growing attentiveness to cities in the global south, questions remain as to how to enact a more global urban studies. We analyze five contemporary textbooks as a lens into how southern cities ought to be incorporated in teaching as well as the field of urban geography. We find both separate chapters for southern cities (southern urbanism), and southern cities integrated into existing thematic chapters (a world of cities). We further show that i) the global south is 2–33% of the content; ii) information about the south is typically more general than the north, but never as universal trends iii) representations differ not just in content but in style and iv) the south is exemplar or exception rather than as a source of theory. We suggest that geographers must continue their efforts in thinking about how southern cities should be incorporated in urban geography in and outside the classroom.

Rapidly growing cities in the Global South are characterised by high levels of vulnerability and informality and are expected to bear a disproportionate share of the costs of a changing climate. The confluence of climate change impacts, inequitable urbanisation processes, and under-development emphasise the need for accelerated urban transitions in Southern cities, yet mainstream theories of urban sustainability transitions have been shown to be insufficient for such contexts. This is particularly relevant with regard to urban infrastructure: While mainstream urban theory tends to regard infrastructure as static, centralised, and heavily engineered, infrastructure configurations in cities of the Global South are often heterogeneous, comprising multiple dynamic social and material flows. Drawing on theory from Southern Urbanism and empirical data of unorthodox infrastructures from 14 cities, this article assesses the potential challenges posed by applying a key transitions framework—namely the Multi-Level Perspective—in Southern contexts. The article closes by suggesting a set of theoretical propositions for future conceptual and empirical research that could advance transitions literature more broadly, and highlights the need for all cities to pursue inclusive service delivery models that are responsive to the complex and shifting landscape of climate impacts.

Urban planners are increasingly working with ideas around datafied cities, such as platform urbanism, to understand urban life and changes with technology. This article seeks to assist urban planners in these efforts by analysing and mapping the qualities of platform urbanism. Drawing on a dataset of approximately 100 examples that detail urban data practices, we trace some of the current tendencies that are shaping the nature and dynamics of platform urbanism. While we identify no unifying narrative or overarching pattern to our data, we interpret this as supporting Barns’ (2019) notion of a pivot towards platforms. We argue this through exploring the interoperability between data sources and domains (vertical and horizontal integration), identifying elements of how platforms intermediate urban life through their growth in different sectors and the use of geolocation, and note the different artefacts that contribute to platform urbanism. We also note a concerning dynamic where city administration becomes ‘locked in’ to specific corporate products and interests, and thereby ‘locked out’ from alternatives. We discuss this in the context of social inclusion and what this means for urban planners, including the fragility of corporate platforms and what platforms urbanism means for social relationships in the city.

Urban geography has increasingly considered southern cities as important locations from which to develop urban theory. We build this wider movement and recent scholarship to continue opening urban geography to southern cities, scholars and ideas generated from the south. Here, we draw on the experiences of mentoring and being students from the global south. We think through the strategic importance of the south as a term and a political alliance, as well as some limitations of doing so; we hope for a future in which the term is needed less. We then think through the role of critical analysis and particularly socio-political scholarship and make observations about the difficulties of doing such work in southern contexts. We strive to create and contribute to an urban geography that rigorously develops ideas from anywhere and is mindful of the ongoing significance of the politics of knowledge in and outside the academy.

Studies of infrastructure have demonstrated broad differences between Northern and Southern cities, and deconstructed urban theory derived from experiences of the networked urban regions of the Global North. This includes critiques of the universalisation of the historically–culturally produced normative ideal of universal, uniform infrastructure. In this commentary, we first introduce the notion of ‘heterogeneous infrastructure configurations’ (HICs) which resonates with existing scholarship on Southern urbanism. Second, we argue that thinking through HICs helps us to move beyond technological and performative accounts of actually existing infrastructures to provide an analytical lens through which to compare different configurations. Our approach enables a clearer analysis of infrastructural artefacts not as individual objects but as parts of geographically spread socio-technological configurations: configurations which might involve many different kinds of technologies, relations, capacities and operations, entailing different risks and power relationships. We use examples from ongoing research on sanitation and waste in Kampala, Uganda – a city in which service delivery is characterised by multiplicity, overlap, disruption and inequality – to demonstrate the kinds of research questions that emerge when thinking through the notion of HICs.

The term “global South” (or just “South” or “south”) refers to the diverse range of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America that have a colonial past and are usually characterized by high levels of poverty and informality. The term global South has widely replaced other, similar, terms such as the Third World, developing countries, and low- and middle-income countries. Urbanization, in its narrow sense, refers to an increase in the proportion of the population living in urban areas; in its wider sense it refers to all the social, economic, biophysical, and institutional changes that result from and accompany urban growth, many of which have a profound impact on human health and well-being. The global South is the most rapidly urbanizing part of the world. Since about 2015, more than 75% of the world’s urban population lives in the global South. It is projected that by 2025, the urban population of the global South will be 3.75 billion (54.3% of the total population of the global South). Most of this urbanization is as a result of urban areas having higher natural population growth rates than rural areas, but migration to urban areas also plays a significant role. Although urbanization processes vary considerably across different countries in the global South (e.g., between different regions and between middle-income and low-income countries), there are a number of broad common trends: a rapid increase in the number of megacities (urban agglomerations with a population of more than 10 million), ongoing strong urban–rural linkages and increased blurring of “urban” and “rural,” increased urban sprawl and fragmentation, and growing intra-urban inequalities. There has been much debate about the nature of cities and urban life in the global South, giving rise to a body of literature on “southern urbanism,” characterized by case studies of everyday life. Urbanization processes in the global South have contributed to the growth and complexity of the burden of disease. Infectious diseases have continued at high levels due to poor environmental conditions in many parts of cities, particularly in informal settlements and other types of slums. Noncommunicable diseases are also growing rapidly in the global South, linked to changes in living conditions and lifestyle associated with urbanization. It is anticipated that the burden of disease in cities of the global South will continue to increase as urbanization continues, as a result of increased traffic injuries and respiratory disease resulting from increased numbers of motor vehicles; growing levels of violence due to growing levels of poverty and inequality in many cities; growing obesity as a result of changed lifestyles associated with urbanization; growing numbers of unsafe settlements in hazardous areas; and a high risk of infectious diseases. Climate change is likely to exacerbate these risks.

Introduction: For curbing Covid-19 disease, adequate knowledge, attitude, and practices of both rural and urban population for Covid-19 disease prevention is required along with busting of the associated myths. Objectives: To assess the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of urban and rural residents of Lucknow district regarding covid-19 preventive behaviour and associated myths. Methodology: A community-based study was conducted among 420 rural and 421 urban residents of Lucknow. Multistage random sampling was done to select the study subjects. A pre-designed pretested semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the information regarding the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of the residents for covid-19 disease causes, prevention, and treatment. Further, KAP scoring was done to compare the two groups. Results: The mean age of the rural and urban residents was 31.48 ± 12.05 and 30.93 ± 11.96 years respectively. Only 40.4 % urban and 25.5 % rural people had correct knowledge about social distancing (p<0.0001). Knowledge regarding quarantine for covid-19 disease prevention was less among the urban residents (64.6%) as compared to rural (70.5%) (p=0.035). More than one-third (37.6%) of the rural resident believed in the myth that alcohol can prevent the covid-19 disease (p=0.003). 68.8 and 70.5 percent rural and urban residents had positive attitude towards the Indian government’ efforts in curbing the disease. Majority of the urban (90%) and rural (87.6%) residents wore mask when they went out. Only one-fourth of the urban (24.7%) and rural (22.9%) had correct practices for the duration of hand washing. Conclusion: The knowledge was more among the urban people, attitude and practices were almost similar among both the rural and urban residents while myths were more observed among the rural residents.

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book shows that many studies of African cities have taken definitions of “city” developed from northern scholarly ideas and cities and used them to define what is city in Africa. It demonstrates just how difficult it can be to understand the precise arguments in ongoing debates. The book argues that against a straightforward integration of southern cities into urban studies as it is currently constituted. It examines what urban studies after the southern critique might entail, outlining three distinct and intellectually incompatible potential pathways: southern urbanism as a distinct field, a postcolonial world-of-cities approach which suggests the locatedness and limits of all knowledge and a global urban studies. Contemporary scholars have constructed awkward phrases such as “rural in the urban” that are typically only applied to residents of global south cities.

With the increasingly rise in the elderly population ratio and the gradually severe aging crisis in other countries, our society perceive unprecedented fear of the arrival of aging society. Although the elderly would increase family and society burdens in some respects, the above view may overlook the close social and economic linkage among family members between generations. Therefore, it may neglect or underestimate the social value of the Chinese elderly in providing family care activities and their impacts on the younger generation.According to the existing researches and data availability in CFPS database, we divide the older parents' care-giving activities into taking care of grandchildren and helping children with their housework. Also we divide the adult children's labor supply variable into labor participation and working hours. Then we try to analyze the impact of elderly parents' care-giving activities on their adult children's labor supply. What's more, we also take the differences between male and female, rural and urban residents into account, and get some interesting findings.Our results indicate that the elderly's taking care of their grandchildren can significantly improve their adult children's labor supply. For example, male labor participation rate increases by 6.3%, while women increase by 14.3%. Thus, its impact on women is much greater than men. Otherwise, the influence on rural and urban residents is also quite different; precisely the impact on rural residents' labor participation rate is greater than the urban ones, and the impact on the city residents' labor supply mainly reflects in the work time. Inequality in public services and the differences in employment ability between urban and rural residents are important reasons for the heterogeneity problem.The policy implication of this paper is that, in the context of rapid globalization and urbanization, the government should support and guide the construction of modern families that proceed from national conditions on the basis of maintaining the traditional excellent family ethics and culture. We should take advantage of fiscal and taxation policies to alleviate the economic pressure of childcare and elderly caring on adult children, gradually solve the increasingly serious gender discrimination in the employment market, and progressively eliminate the public service benefits inequality caused by the household registration system.In short, this paper mainly expands the existing research in the following three aspects. First, combining with the particularity of Chinese family culture, we try to explain the contradiction between the increase in the proportion of elderly population ratio and the high level of labor supply of adult children from the perspective of the elderly's role in taking care of grandchildren and helping children with their housework. Second, after fully considering the differences between families in the level of income, property, age, residence and family structure, we empirically analyzes the influence of older parents' care-giving activities on the labor supply of their adult children. Third, we try to solve the endogeneity by using instrumental variables, which would avoid the estimation errors effectively and thus make the estimation results more reliable because it effectively avoids the estimation errors.

Prosocialbehavior is a category of acts that benefits other people and society. However, previous researchers have paid little attention to the study of community prosocial behavior. Accordingly, the present study adopts multiple mediation analysis to investigate how urban residents' life satisfaction influences their prosocial behavioral intentions in the community. This study collects data from an online survey of Chinese urban residents (N = 765) using self-administered questionnaires. Results show the following: (1) a positive association exists between urban residents' life satisfaction and their community prosocial behavioral intentions; (2) multiple mediation analysis reveals that orientation to meaning life, perception of virtuous humanity, and cognitive reappraisal mediated the relationship between urban residents' life satisfaction and prosocial behavioral intentions. These findings suggest that urban residents' life satisfaction may facilitate their community prosocial behavioral intentions via high levels of orientation to meaning life, perception of virtuous humanity, and cognitive reappraisal. This study also discusses certain contributions and limitations.

Air pollution has become a global environmental problem that directly affects the living quality of city residents. It not only does damages to the physical health of the human body but also has adverse effects on mood, outdoor activities, and social interactions, which further reduces the vitality of the city. Dining out is an important way of social interaction for city residents. Using Beijing as an example, this paper aims to study the impacts of different air pollutants on dining-out activities and satisfaction of urban and suburban residents. The results show that: (1) Air pollution can significantly reduce dining-out frequency and satisfaction; (2) Due to differences in environmental and health awareness, the impact of air pollution on dining-out behaviors varies among urban and suburban residents; and (3) O3 pollution has a greater emotional impact on suburban residents than urban residents, possibly because of the differences in defense strategies and levels of pollution exposure in the workplace. The findings imply that improving air quality can obtain not only health benefits but also long-term social and economic vitality. The publicity of environment and health information should be strengthened on key urban air pollutants, especially on particulate matter and O3, and on disadvantaged groups to enhance environmental justice.

Personal inhalation exposure samples were collected and analyzed for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) for 126 selected volunteers during heating and non-heating seasons in a typical northern Chinese city, Taiyuan. Measured personal PAH exposure levels for the urban residents in the heating and non-heating seasons were 690 (540-1051) and 404 (266-544) ng/m(3) , respectively, while, for the rural residents, they were 770 (504-1071) and 312 (201-412) ng/m(3) , respectively. Thus, rural residents are exposed to lower PAH contamination in comparison with the urban residents in the non-heating seasons. In the heating season, personal PAH inhalation exposure levels were comparable between the urban and rural residents, in part owing to the large rate of residential solid fuel consumption in the rural area for household cooking and heating. The estimated incremental lifetime cancer risks (ILCR) due to PAH exposure in Taiyuan were 3.36×10(-5) and 2.39×10(-5) for the rural and urban residents, respectively, significantly higher than the literature-reported national average level, suggesting an urgent need of PAH pollution control to protect human health.

Cities in the Southern United States have experienced dynamic economic and population growth over the past half-century, challenging existing paradigms of urban form, race relations, social movements, and immigration. This review shows how the timing of Southern urbanization—much later than in the Northeast and Midwest—has contributed to Southern cities' distinctive spatial patterns and political and economic structures. Southern cities were crucial to regional transformation, including the Civil Rights Movement and the end of one-party rule in the South. Moreover, Southern cities exemplify key trends of the contemporary political economy: a new relationship to regional industrialization, new forms of entrepreneurial governance, flexible labor markets, the importance of finance and producer services, and “new destination” immigration. I conclude by examining two Southern cities for their relevance to central themes in contemporary social research: Atlanta for the study of the African American experience and New Orleans for the sociology of catastrophe.

While political scientists have long studied citizens' political efficacy as an important indicator of attitudes toward government, less attention has been devoted to the efficacy of rural or urban residents, which is important given the intensifying rural–urban divide in American society. This study fills this gap by analyzing the 2020 American National Election Studies. Using ordered logistic regression, this study finds that (1) city residents tend to believe that small towns and rural areas have too much influence on government; (2) residents of small towns and rural areas demonstrate lower levels of external efficacy than city residents; and (3) people who believe that small towns and rural areas have too much influence tend to demonstrate high external and internal efficacies, a tendency that is clearer in cities than in other community types. These findings reflect mutual in‐group bias and place‐based resentment between rural and urban residents in American society.Related ArticlesPeterson, Holly L., Mark K. McBeth, and Michael D. Jones. 2020. “Policy Process Theory for Rural Studies: Navigating Context and Generalization in Rural Policy.” Politics & Policy 48(4): 576–617. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12366.Shortall, Sally, and Margaret Alston. 2016. “To Rural Proof or Not to Rural Proof: A Comparative Analysis.” Politics & Policy 44(1): 35–55. https://doi‐org.libproxy.usouthal.edu/10.1111/polp.12144.Smith‐Walter, Aaron, Holly L. Peterson, Michael D. Jones, and Ashley Nicole Reynolds Marshall. 2016. “Gun Stories: How Evidence Shapes Firearm Policy in the United States.” Politics & Policy 44(6): 1053–88. https://doi‐org.libproxy.usouthal.edu/10.1111/polp.12187.

Objective To compare the prevalence and correlation factors of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in urban and rural areas in Minhang district of Shanghai through the social economic and clinical data of the elderly population. Methods Jiangchuan Street and Pujiang town were randomly selected to represent the urban and rural population in Minhang district of Shanghai, respectively. Based on the over-60-year old people health examination program, 6151 objectives with complete clinical-epidemiological data and bio-chemical index were investigated. The prevalence of CKD in urban and rural areas was compared, and the correlation factors for the urban and rural CKD were evaluated by multiple logistic regression analysis. Results (1) The survey objectives with an average age of (69.57±7.04) years, including 4345 cases of the city residents and 1806 cases of rural residents, were enrolled. The age structures of urban and rural showed differences, population over 80 years old account for 13.1% of the rural total, significantly higher than 7.4% in the urban population (P<0.001). (2) The prevalence rates of diabetes, hyperuricemia, hyperlipidemia and hyperlipidemia in urban residents were higher than those in rural residents, which were 26.4% vs 13.7%, 9.9% vs 2.3%, 53.7% vs 37.4%, 51.4% vs 15.6% (all P<0.01). The awareness rates of kidney disease and hyperlipidemia showed significant differences in urban and rural areas, which were 32.9% vs 44.2%, 84.6% vs 62.8% (all P<0.01). Compared with those in rural areas, the treatment rates of hypertension and high blood lipids in urban residents were increased (all P<0.01). (3) The prevalence of CKD was 23.4%. Female CKD prevalence was higher than male, respectively 26.3% and 18.5% (P<0.01). In urban CKD prevalence was 22.2%, lower than 25.2% in rural. The prevalence rate of hematuria in urban areas was lower than in rural areas, but the prevalence rate of decline in renal function was higher (all P<0.05). With the increase of age, the prevalence rate of CKD was increased (P<0.01). (4) Age (OR=1.072), smoking history (OR=1.543), previous history of kidney disease (OR=1.351), diabetes (OR=1.373), hyperuricemia (OR=2.498), obesity (OR=1.364), history of interventional therapy (OR=1.896) had positive correlation with CKD in city elderly population, while the higher education (OR=0.676, OR=0.604) and drinking (OR=0.585) had negative correlation (all P<0.05). Age (OR=1.032), female (OR=1.860) had positive correlation with CKD in rural elderly population (all P<0.05). Conclusions CKD has been a common chronic progressive disease of the aged in Minhang district. The prevalence of CKD is higher in urban areas than in rural. Age is a common factor for CKD in urban and rural. Previous smoking, history of kidney disease, diabetes, hyperuricemia, obesity, history of interventional therapy, education and drinking have correlation with urban CKD patients. Female has correlation with rural CKD population. Key words: Renal insufficiency, chronic; Aged; Prevalence; Risk factors; Urban and rural