Urban Dimension Research Articles

The Superego of the City: Integrating Psychoanalytic Theory with Sustainable Urbanization in the Age of Industry 4.0

This article introduces the concept of the "superego of the city" by drawing on Freudian psychoanalytic theory to explore the ethical and moral dimensions of contemporary urbanization. As cities undergo rapid transformation driven by metropolization, digitalization, and environmental challenges, traditional urban analysis frameworks have become increasingly inadequate. The "superego of the city" provides a theoretical framework for understanding how urban spaces preserve cultural identity, foster social cohesion, and promote environmental sustainability amid these ongoing changes. By applying this concept to smart city initiatives—specifically in the realm of healthcare waste management—this study demonstrates how the integration of Circular Economy (CE) principles with Industry 4.0 technologies can align technological advancements with the ethical imperatives embodied in the city's collective consciousness.

Old Age as a “New Frontier” of (Spatial) Justice

Due to ongoing demographic changes, old age is receiving increasing attention, to the extent that it is considered a “new frontier” of justice, with spatial justice being one of the more recent areas of interest within the legal sphere. The article aims to explore the relationships among the elderly, rights, and space, particularly concerning the urban dimension of the latter. The analysis is preceded by a brief account of the historical significance assumed by old age in philosophy and law, at the intersection of which legal philosophy is situated.

Integrating Metro Stations with the Adjacent Urban Fabric Using TOD Principles: A Case of Agargaon Metro Station, Dhaka

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) principles offer a promising framework for integrating metro stations with their surrounding urban fabric, promoting sustainable urbanization and efficient transportation systems. Dhaka, one of the fastest-growing cities globally, faces significant challenges in traffic congestion, air pollution, and urban sprawl. Introducing metro systems offers a promising solution to alleviate these issues and enhance urban mobility. This study presents a case study of Agargaon Metro Station in Dhaka City, examining its integration with the adjacent urban fabric using TOD principles. Through a combination of field observations, spatial analysis, and stakeholder interviews, the study evaluates the current state of Agargaon Metro Station. On-site assessments examined the station's physical infrastructure, accessibility, and connectivity with nearby areas, while Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analyzed spatial data, including land use patterns and transportation networks. Semi-structured interviews with urban planners, government officials, and community members provided insights into the challenges and opportunities for implementing TOD at Agargaon. The findings reveal that the station is underutilized as a TOD hub, with inadequate pedestrian infrastructure and mixed-use developments, leading to poor connectivity and accessibility. The study highlights the necessity of improved land use planning, policy support, and community engagement to enhance the station's role in fostering TOD. These recommendations, if implemented, could alleviate traffic congestion, improve air quality, and create more livable urban spaces, thereby enhancing Dhaka's overall quality of life. Additionally, the research contributes to the social and economic dimensions of urbanization by offering a framework that can be adapted to similar metro stations in Dhaka and other rapidly urbanizing cities.

Are Cities Decisive for Life Satisfaction? A Structural Equation Model for the European Population

The growth of cities is an unstoppable phenomenon that began in the last century and will undoubtedly be one of the challenges of the current century. It is not only a question of urbanization; its implications and consequences extend to the economy, society, culture and the environment. The capacity of cities as engines of change and progress cannot be questioned, and its consequences will alter the lives of their citizens, who will search, in a more liquid world, for the best places to live. Therefore, this study aims to examine the influence of perception of urban quality (PUQ) and social trust and security (STS) on the life satisfaction (LS) of European citizens to find out if these variables are essential for the population living in Europe. The data were selected from the European Urban Audit survey, which covers 40,597 people living in 80 European cities. The analysis in this study is carried out at the city level. The partial least squares structural equation modelling approach was applied to verify the hypotheses. The findings reveal a positive correlation between PUQ and STS with LS, with STS being a mediator between PUQ and LS. These results underline that improving the perception of the urban environment can significantly increase well-being, contributing more than 70% to citizens' life satisfaction. This multidisciplinary analysis highlights the importance of considering various urban dimensions in planning and public policies to foster prosperous and satisfactory urban development.

Urban dimension of Crypto mines dynamics: A spatial approach. USA focus

This work investigates data mining phenomenon in a spatial approach, focused on the United States. The results reveal a predilection of "miners" in areas with low energy costs, but not of a rural type, as it could be expected, but rather in geographical proximity to urban areas where it is easier to reach ICT workers and maintenance and assistance services for data "factories". This closeness, however, often triggers conflictual dynamics.

Adaptive Reuse of Cultural Heritage

This research explores the critical intersection of spatial development and conservation models for regional sustainable development with a focus on the urban dimension of reuse potentiality. Adaptive reuse stands as a vital strategy in the preservation and revitalization of cultural heritage sites worldwide. This paper explores the multifaceted dimensions of adaptive reuse within the context of cultural heritage, examining its significance, challenges, and innovative approaches. Through a comprehensive review of literature and case studies, this study elucidates the diverse methodologies employed in adapting historical structures for contemporary uses while safeguarding their intrinsic cultural value. It investigates the socio-economic benefits accrued from adaptive reuse initiatives, including heritage tourism promotion, community revitalization, and sustainable development. Moreover, the paper addresses the ethical considerations and conservation principles guiding adaptive reuse practices to ensure the preservation of authenticity, integrity and significance of cultural heritage assets. By synthesizing theoretical frameworks with practical insights, this research contributes to the discourse on sustainable heritage management and underscores the imperative of adaptive reuse as a dynamic tool for safeguarding cultural heritage for future generations.

The Impact of Multi-Dimensional Urbanization on CO2 Emissions: Empirical Evidence from Jiangsu, China, at the County Level

Understanding the underlying mechanism of how various dimensions of urbanization affect CO2 emissions could be helpful for achieving the goal of low-carbon cities in China. However, previous research has seldomly examined this relationship granularly in economically developed regions at the micro level, nor did they examine the mediating effects of economic development, industrial structure, and coal consumption. Using the panel dataset of 80 counties from 2002 to 2021 at the county level in Jiangsu, China, this study investigates the direct and indirect effects of population, economic, and land urbanizations on CO2 emissions in Jiangsu province and examines the regional heterogeneity. The findings indicate that population and economic urbanization have positive impacts on CO2 emissions, whereas land urbanization has insignificant effects. This finding is supported by various robustness tests. Population and economic urbanizations are found to have significantly positive impacts on CO2 emissions in the southern and northern Jiangsu regions, whereas none of the three dimensions are significant in the middle Jiangsu region. Economic urbanization contributes the most to CO2 emissions in southern Jiangsu. In addition, our results indicate that multi-dimensional urbanizations affect CO2 emissions through the mediating roles of economic development, industrial structure, and coal consumption. Our analysis shed some insights into the nuanced relationship between multi-dimensional urbanization and carbon emissions, which could contribute to sustainable urban transformation.

The food-gender-cities nexus: a research agenda

ABSTRACT Social sciences are paying increasing attention to the questions of gender equality and food systems. Both topics are recognized to have a strong urban dimension. However, urban sociology has not yet attempted to create a theory on how food, gender, and cities interact with each other. Rather, recent literature is quite rich in studies investigating either the relationship between food and cities, gender and food, or gender and cities. This paper connects the most relevant studies on these relationships with the aim of structuring a research agenda on the threefold intersection that literature already hints at, albeit implicitly, in support of the argument that interdisciplinary research focusing specifically on the food-gender-cities nexus is relevant and might lead to useful insights on how gender roles in food-related duties shape daily lives, on how social formations and food practices shape the urban space and, in turn, how the urban space impacts on social roles and practices, and on the potential of the urban scale for integrated policy intervention on food and gender matters.

The urban political ecology of antimicrobial resistance: A critical lens on integrative governance

The objective of this paper is to integrate Urban Political Ecology (UPE) as a theory for identifying under-exposed urban dimensions of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). A UPE lens allows us to conceptualize urbanization as a ubiquitous socio-ecological process and an interpretive frame that could inform AMR governance strategies across related contexts by: a) situating AMR risks in relation to urbanization processes shaping social and political co-determinants of such systemic threats as climate change; b) aligning UPE scholarship with One Health (OH) approaches that address AMR to reveal the under-exposed link of AMR to environmental threats and broader structural dimensions that influence these threats; and c) identifying shared AMR and environmental governance pathways that inform the rationale for more equitable governance arrangements. We delineate a context in which the speed and scale of human activity in the larger context of urbanization, driven by global market integration strategies, impacts human-animal-environmental health threats such as AMR. We demonstrate how UPE scholarship can be leveraged to offer theoretical depth to approaches considering the interdependencies of AMR and climate change threats. We then propose a strategic approach focused on identifying shared governance pathways and intersectoral accountability frameworks to address upstream structural drivers of AM-Environmental threats. The co-benefits of a UPE-informed framework to human-animal-environmental health that leverages enabling policy environments to foster a more collaborative, equitable and sustainable approach to address systemic global health threats are clarified. Just as the concept of “health in all policies” emphasized taking health implications into account in all public policy development, the integration of UPE in AMR governance arrangements would emphasize the need to take other sectors into account through an intersectoral whole-of-government approach that fosters shared AMR - climate change governance pathways.

The three dimensions of urbanization and the summary and prospect of China’s urbanization path selection

China has implemented the policy of reform and opening up for 40 years. Under the infl uence of this policy, China’s urbanization has made great development and progress. In the index of population urbanization, the most obvious progress has been made, both the number of cities, the number of urban population, and the urban area have greatly increased, changing the face of ‘rural China’ in the past. However, through in-depth and comprehensive analysis, especially the multidimensional analysis of urbanization, we can fi nd that there is a big gap between the quality and quantity of China’s urbanization in the two dimensions of behavioral urbanization and structural urbanization, that is, ‘the quantity is large but the quality is not high’. This is an issue that China needs to pay attention to in the next stage.

Impact of Urbanization on the Sustainable Production of Regional Specialty Food: Evidence from China’s Potato Production

The rapid urbanization process has gradually deepened its role in the sustainable development of agriculture, especially in the sustainable supply of food in poor areas, and has attracted more attention from international academic circles. However, the impact mechanism of different dimensions of urbanization on food sustainability in poor areas has not yet been fully unpacked. Therefore, this study focuses on potatoes as a specialty food mainly grown in poor areas of China, explores the impact mechanism of urbanization on the carbon emission intensity of potato production (CEIPP) with the spatial Durbin model, and compares with the carbon emission intensity of staple grain (CEISG) results. The main conclusions are as follows: the urbanization of main potato-producing areas developed rapidly from 2002 to 2020, which is in line with the decrease in CEIPP. The decrease in CEIPP has a significant impact on slowing down the growth of total carbon emissions and has greater potential for reduction, especially in Central and Western China, which has a large poverty-stricken population. Compared with traditional staple grain, urbanization has become a key factor influencing CEIPP. The results indicate that different dimensions of urbanization have varying degrees of impact on the sustainable production of regional specialty foods in China. The improvement of comprehensive urbanization, population urbanization, and economic urbanization reduces CEIPP, while land urbanization increases CEIPP. Therefore, to reduce CEIPP and promote its sustainable development, it is necessary to improve population urbanization and economic urbanization, properly avoid the disorderly expansion of land urbanization, and improve the quality and level of comprehensive urbanization.

How does decarbonization of the central heating industry affect employment? A spatiotemporal analysis from the perspective of urbanization

This study evaluates the spatiotemporal heterogeneous effects of decarbonizing the central heating industry on employment from the perspective of new-type urbanization based on an innovative theoretical framework. Our average estimated CO2 emission intensity of the central heating industry in China at the city-level decreased from 54.51 tCO2/100 m2 in 2012 to 47.24 tCO2/100 m2 in 2019. Decarbonization of the central heating industry may promote total employment in 72 % of the Chinese cities with the median effect is 0.005 % for each 1 % reduction of the heating carbon intensity. However, the promotion effect may be inhibited by ecological and environmental urbanization, while strengthening through population and land, economic, social, and urban–rural integration dimensions of urbanization. Our findings can provide policy implications for carbon emission control and new-type urbanization planning in cities to achieve stable employment.

Reflection on the Value Characteristics and Protection Modes of Shanghai Shikumen Lilong

Starting from deconstructing the challenges faced by the protection of Shanghai Shikumen Lilong, this study analyzes the value characteristics of Shikumen Lilong and the current main protection modes. The renovation and transformation of Shikumen Lilong have entered a new stage, with the rapid disappearance of Lilong and the increasingly difficult transformation becoming unavoidable dual pressures. However, Shikumen Lilong, bearing the memory of Shanghai and the spirit of its citizens, remain an important part of the city. In practice, there are four typical protection modes, each with its own constraints and shortcomings, making it difficult to provide universal guidance. Therefore, the renovation and transformation of Shikumen Lilong still need to be explored rationally in the long-term historical and overall urban dimensions.

Olympic Games and expectations: The factor analysis model about Olympic Urbanism and Olympic Villages

Editions of the Olympic Games have given rise to an important urban transformation that has opened a new critical perspective on the new urban dimension of the Games, especially in the construction of the three main physical elements: the athletics stadium, swimming facilities and, above all, the «Olympic Village». The study analyses the Winter and Summer Olympic Games in a general way, with particular attention to the relationship between the Olympic spatial dimension and the urban fabric. The relationship of interdependence between the city and the Olympic Games has evolved through new models of development of the Olympic event that have marked the importance of the transformation processes of the city. The lack of previous studies allows us to affirm the importance of the study for the academic debate on the future of the Olympic Village. The study used quantitative factor analysis to investigate the different variables and responses of the Olympic specialists who participated in the sample. The study will observe the perceptions and expectations of respondents through statistical analysis, considering the three elements identified: social, territory and organization.

HERITAGE REQUALIFICATION PROCESS THROUGH SOCIAL PERCEPTIONS: THE CASE OF "HALLE VOLTA" IN ALGIERS

Urban industrial sites in Algeria constitute a colonial heritage that often undergoes a process of degradation and abandonment, leading to ruptures in the urban fabric. The question of their preservation is conditioned by their integration into a contemporaneity useful to the community to which they represent the heritage.
 Therefore, their future cannot be dissociated from the physical and social context they are part of, emphasizing the relationship between the object and the subject. Engaged in their epistemic posi-tions, this article proposes expertise on the heritage potential of Halle Volta, one of the industrial architectural structures from the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Algiers.
 This expertise makes it possible to understand the appreciations and perceptions engaged by a community towards this relic of the past, with the perspective of its management and transformation. This approach highlights the connection between the social and urban dimensions that can be raised by a heritage requalification project. The knowledge gained from this aims to address the issue of the requalification of Halle Volta, and, to a larger extent, the future of urban industrial heritage in Algeria.

Intrinsic mechanisms and spatial effects of multidimensional urbanization and carbon emissions.

Existing studies on urbanization and carbon emissions are mostly based on a single pathway and lack the support of a theoretical framework. This study innovatively integrates Grossman's perspective of environmental effects analysis to develop a new framework to interpret the mechanism of multidimensional urbanization (MU) and carbon emissions (CEs). We first explored the spatial effects of MUs and CEs in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRDUA) and then introduced the "population-land-economic" urbanization variables into the S-STIRPAT model to determine the impact mechanisms of each factor on CEs under different urbanization dimensions. The results show that the spatiotemporal development patterns of MUs and CEs overlap to some extent. The Shanghai-Nanjing line is a high-value area of urbanization with different dimensions, as some edge cities are in low-value areas. However, there are local differences in the different dimensions of urbanization, e.g., population urbanization in the southern area is in a high-value area. CEs show a core-edge structure of "high in the center and low in the north and south". All factors, except for population urbanization, affect CEs locally, and their spillover effects are all positive, except for energy intensity, which has a negative influence on CEs in neighboring regions. Land urbanization has the largest positive impact on CEs, with a total effect coefficient of 0.409; economic urbanization has a coefficient of 0.195, and population urbanization has a coefficient of only 0.070. The findings can help to maximize urbanization growth while minimizing harmful environmental externalities.

Spatial Disparity of Sports Infrastructure Development and Urbanization Determinants in China: Evidence from the Sixth National Sports Venues Census

The improvement of well-being of residents is the core of the people-centred urbanization. Inhabitants’ emphasis on healthy lifestyle draws attention to the provision of sports infrastructure. However, the spatial pattern of sport infrastructure development and in particular the driving forces from urbanization across China have not been examined yet in the literature. This paper aims to explore how the national sports infrastructure in mainland China is driven and scaled by urbanization, using data from the sixth National Sports Venues Census and a multi-scale geographically weighted regression approach. The results revealed strong regional inequality in the development of sports infrastructure in the stage of accelerating urbanization in China, with better provision of sports infrastructure in eastern than in western regions. The three dimensions of urbanization (urban population, public financial expenditure and built-up area) significantly explained the spatial disparity between 289 cities at prefecture-city level. There should be a feedback loop between the accumulative developments of urbanization and sports infrastructure. The contributing driving forces and subsequent regional heterogeneity suggest that sports space theory, the inequality amplification model, and hysteresis effect are comparatively suitable for explaining the spatial inequality characteristics of sports infrastructure development in China. A Sport Inequality Alert was conceptualized as a policy instrument for monitoring regional inequality and governing the development of sports infrastructure. It is argued that sports infrastructure development should be integrated into the national strategy for sustainable New-type Urbanization.

Density and pandemic urbanism: Exposure and networked density in Manila and Taipei

Density has been a key focus in research on the urban dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of this work has debated the role of density in infection rates. In contrast, we develop a comparison of the management of pandemic urbanism in two high density Asian cities with divergent pandemic experiences: Manila and Taipei. To pursue the comparison, we develop two conceptualisations of density: exposure density and networked density. Our approach allows us to examine the nature and consequences, especially for the urban poor, of different approaches to density in the pandemic, and to advance research on urban density.

Seeing the city through the lens of newspaper poetry: An analysis of Milwaukee, 1967–731

There is a strong connection between cities and literature; they inhabit and shape each other. Sociologists have studied the relationship between them, looking at how literary meaning is developed and how it shapes urban and social milieus. While there is a large body of poetry-based research, newspaper poetry remains largely unexplored in the United States. Drawing on discourse and content analysis of a new and never-used set of poems published in Milwaukee’s two major alternative newspapers between 1967 and 1973, this article analyses poetic representations of Milwaukee’s social, institutional and urban dimensions. Additionally, it examines variability and continuity in the focus of these poems, as well as the factors that might shape these patterns. The results show multiple technical and rhetoric mechanisms used by poets when representing that historical period poetically and reveal that even in periods of intense social upheaval, ‘love’ and ‘death’ appear to be the primary themes in which poets focus on. This article also devotes particular attention to the relationship between poetry and the urban space, and the implications of platforms of distribution and consumption in poetic representations of cities’ historical periods and change building on literature on the connections between local environment and cultural production.

The Future of War Is Civil War

This essay discusses the more potent forces driving the West toward a future of war which is civil war centred upon the destruction of ‘global’ cities through exploitation of their intrinsic instability. The first part of this essay will establish the plausibility of its main premise, namely the inevitability of outright, active, and wide-scale civil war in North America and Western Europe. I shall demonstrate that there are well-understood indicators showing that our current societal arrangements are failing at an accelerating rate. The second part will briefly address the strengths and weaknesses of the extant future war literature, focusing mainly upon influential works of fiction rather than the quasi-rigorous outpourings of the ‘futurology’ discipline. In the third part, I will describe the shape or character of the wars to come which, in short form, I expect to exhibit the following: a distinctive rural versus urban dimension; jarring societal splits along the fracture lines of multiculturalism; a ‘hi-lo’ mix of weapons featuring extensive innovative reuse of civil tech for military purpose, particularly attacks on infrastructure; and a ‘shock of the old’ reversion-mutation to savage tactics, notably the use of famine and destruction of shelter as tools of coercion. This last section of the paper is partly based on approximately ten years of examining the darker corners of the internet listening to what incipient revolutionaries, neo-anarchists, and want-to-be militiamen think and talk about.