Kind Of City Research Articles

Urban sustainability and the limits of classical environmentalism

Translating environmental concern into social debate and public policy is one of the notable achievements of industrial societies over the past generation. Yet the process that has emerged in rich countries does not appear to be simply transferable, or even tenable, over time. The search for sustainable development may, accordingly, require practical models of social change that have yet to be invented or imagined. In this paper, the problems of applying the existing model of environmentalism to two kinds of cities are analyzed: poor cities, in which population is growing faster than income, and rich cities, whose local environmental problems have been largely solved, but whose residents make consumption and investment choices with distant environmental impacts that are hard to perceive.

Chapter 1 The Idea of ‘Sun cities’ in the Context of Globalising Processes

This chapter discusses the ways in which the ideological imposition of the Utopian Socialist vision of the city was fundamental to the Communist project of ‘moulding’ the new man for the new political system. It is suggested that the idea of this kind of city flourished in situations of economic, environmental and ecological crises. Starting from an analysis of Campanella's ‘Sun City’, it shows how in the twentieth century a romanticised conception of the Utopian city translated, in reality, into a system of cruelty, violence and infringement of moral norms. Firmly convinced of their pedagogic mission, the authorities ultimately denied people's (the proletariat's) participation in the political process through the implementation of such a devious project. The human resources involved were either recruited by means of ideological mobilization or came from the forced labour of the imprisoned dissidents who did not believe in such a mission.

発掘資料解釈と景観復元によるジュルファルの都市的性格検証

Julfar is a well researched archaeological site located in the Arabian Gulf. The name of Julfar is found in old documents, printed maps after the 16th century and indeed remains the name for the modern local area. The city of Julfar was founded in the middle of the 14th century and became a large city in the latter half of the 14th century, declining in the middle of the 15th century. The size of its residential area was the largest in the region at the time.We have some questions concerning the urbanization of Julfar. What kind of city was it? Why was it established? Why did it suddenly collapse? How did the people live there? These questions are discussed in this paper by using the change in settlement plans and combination of finds excavated from seven stratigraphic horizons at the site. Topographic data is also used to help reconstruct the layout of the city.Huge amounts of ceramics, such as Chinese blue & white and green ware, Myanmar green ware, Iranian glazed ware and local unglazed earthenware demonstrate the developed urban life of Julfar and its connections with long distance maritime trade. Palm houses were built on the coast in layer 7, the lowest earliest layer. Mud brick houses densely covered the area in layer 6 a, showing the establishment of a crowded city. This declined gradually afterwards, as can be seen from the house plans in layers 5 to 1.The daily subsistence of its inhabitants was obtained from a combination of marine resources and domestic livestock, supplemented by food cultivated in farms in the vicinity. The discovery of ornament and metal workshops shows that industrial activities were also carried out. Julfar became famous for pearling. Trade with Hormuz seems to have influenced the development and subsequent decline of Julfar.

In the tracks of Comparative Urbanism: Difference, Urban Modernity and the Primitive

In a globalizing world, the importance of appreciating the wide range of different kinds of cities around the world is becoming increasingly apparent to urban scholars. However, this paper argues that if urban studies is to engage with this diversity of cities, some of the core assumptions which frame urban theory need to be challenged. The concept of urban modernity, for example, has assumed a privileged link between modernity and certain kinds of cities, and relegated other people and places to the category of the "primitive" or the nonmodern. Instead, this paper argues that we could re-activate some resources in the tracks of comparative urbanism, prominent in the middle decades of the 20th century, to provoke a more cosmopolitan account of urban modernity which can learn from the diverse tactics of urban living around the world, and which is more appropriate for contemporary analysis of cities in a globalizing and interconnected world.

Urbanisierungstendenzen in Entwicklungsländern

The world's population is growing tremendously. Most affected are developing countries where strong migrations have lead to unprecedented urban growth. The sprawling cities of Africa, Asia, and Latin America cause a series of environmental, social and economic problems for their inhabitants. Often, the authorities are unable to steer the development, most of all in the so-called mega-cities. But urbanization also brings opportunities for sustainable urban development. Fast growing but still relatively small cities (sub-mega-cities) should take advantage of these chances before the problems become unsolvable. For these kind of cities, based on case studies on Johannesburg, Santiago de Chile, and Gaborone (Botswana), the AGS-sponsored project Designing, Implementing and Measuring Sustainable Urban Development (DIMSUD) has analyzed the challenges and opportunities for action and offers recommendations to science and local decision-makers on how to achieve a more sustainable urban development.

Art Education and Urban Aesthetics

The widespread problem of visual illiteracy prevents people from perceiving the aesthetic quality of their surroundings. This inability represents a barrier to full participation by the public in debates over the kinds of cities they want to live in, and yet the physical qualities of the environment strongly affect the social and psychological well-being of its inhabitants. This article argues that art educators have an important role in fostering the awareness, understanding and appreciation of urban aesthetics. It then recounts the author's field study, which investigated the effectiveness of three instruments for developing understanding of urban aesthetics. The article concludes with some suggestions for art educators interested in developing programs for studying the urban environment.

Conflicting rights to the city in New York's community gardens

In the mid-1990s, New York City initiated what would prove to be a long, highly visible struggle involving rights claims related to property, housing, and public space in the form of community gardens. The competing discourses of rights were part of a struggle over the kind of city that New York was to become, and more specifically, whether it would be one in which difference is accepted and in which access to the city and the public realm would be guaranteed. Using interviews with participants in the conflict over community gardens, we evaluate how the resolution to the gardens crisis, which in part occurred through the privatization of what are often taken to be public or community rights to land, transform not only the legal status of the gardens but also, potentially, their role as places where different `publics' can both exercise their right to the city and solidify that right in the landscape.

Modelling the post-industrial city

A new kind of city is emerging: globalized (connected to other cities in global networks); tertiarized and even quaternarized (dependent almost entirely for its economic existence on advanced services); ‘ informationalized’ (using information as a raw material); and polycentric (dispersing residences and decentralizing employment into multiple centres or ‘edge cities’). The question is how we can adapt the urban and transportation models, which originated in the very different world of the 1960s, to these conditions, and what kind of model would then result.

Love, Lust, Life and Landscape

Brisbane is the kind of city that if it did not exist would have to be invented — and indeed it has by many of its writers. Its history of settlement and its political conservatism of the slash, burn and bulldoze variety has urged writers like Sam Watson in his novel The Kadaitcha Sung to depict it as a place of punishment, violence, racism and red-necked parochialism. The same sense of oppression informs David Malouf's mixed nostalgic references to the city as a place of beauty and boredom, a city you can love and hate in Johnno. In similar vein, Jessica Anderson in Tirra Lirra by the River, Angelika Fremd in The Glass Inferno and Janette Turner Hospital in both short stories and novels, depict Brisbane as a place one needs to leave but also a place where epiphanies are possible, and where the past haunts the present with a ferocious insistence. For novelists Rosie Scott, Janette Turner Hospital and Venero Armanno, Brisbane is simultaneously Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. Many writers depict Brisbane as a great place to grow up in but you wouldn't want to live there — unless you are Hugh Lunn. Brisbane has been, and arguably still is by some writers, seen both favourably and unfavourably as a provincial backwater, unsophisticated and straight — still a frontier town in the popular and literary imagination if not in reality, a place where it is likely that you will know somebody who knows somebody you know. This is pointed out repeatedly by John Birmingham, author of the whimsical He Died With a Felafel in his Hand, by way of a distinguishing feature of flat life in Brisbane in contrast to other (Southern) capitals. In Brisbane, Birmingham writes:
 
 Everyone's stories intersect, crossing over and through each other like sticky strands of destiny and DNA. (Birmingham, 42)

Istanbul between civilisation and discontent

If the global city represents the tail‐end of our civilisation, then what kind of city and civilisation could be established as an alternative? This question lies at the root of the dilemmas encountered by the global city but it rarely surfaces in the public arena. The question is now being posed, however, in Istanbul and steps towards the realisation of an alternative are under way. What is at issue? What can we learn?

Mesocosm: Hinduism and the Organization of a Traditional Newar City in Nepal

Mesocosm is a study of Hinduism in its most fully realized form as a symbolic system for organizing the life of a particular kind of city - what the author terms an archaic city. The work is a detailed description and analysis of the symbolic world of Bhaktapur, a unicultural city in the Kathmandu Valley, a city which is perhaps the last surviving example of a type of organization once widespread in the ancient world.Robert Levy views Bhaktapur as a structured mesocosm, mediating between the microcosm of individual self-conception and the macrocosm of the culturally conceived larger universe. The city is a bounded entity, grounded on a minutely divided and interrelated sacrilized space. It uses that space, roles assigned by an elaborate caste system, a semantically differentiated pantheon, and the tempos and forms of the festival year and rites of passage to construct a civic dance, a web of communication and instruction which deeply affects the experience of Bhaktapur's citizens. Levy investigates the meaning of the community to the people who live there and suggests how the religious forms that have challenged Hinduism in South Asia - Christianity and, above all, Islam - are profoundly antithetical to Hinduism as the organizing principle for cities such as Bhaktapur. Mesocosm is a groundbreaking contribution to anthropology, social and religious history, and Indian and Nepalese studies.

Istanbul between Civilization and Discontent

In the context of economic globalisation and the new international order taking shape after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Istanbul is assuming a new and strategic prominence in the world. What kind of city is Istanbul likely to become in its next phase of existence? What can we say of the urban culture and of the sense of urbanity that are now developing there? There are those who maintain that the new Istanbul is again becoming a cosmopolitan city, a cultural mosaic. What strike us most forcefully are the forces that are working to inhibit and undermine any such ideal. First, we consider the contemporary transformation in urban form, and then we shall go on to explore the changing cultural identity of the city.

住宅地の特性と音環境評価手法に関する研究

When one notices “sounds” in cities as one of the considerable perceptual qualities, what kind of cities does one desire? The goal of this study is to find a clue by investigating the actual condition in residential areas. On this research, we select four residential areas in Tokyo, and at three points each on three time zones (morning/noon/evening) we record sounds there to measure A-weighted sound pressure level, equivalent noise level, frequency with noise meter, and sound pressure level by using an oscilloscope, taking account of sound source, activity of each area, and surrounding conditions. The results are as follows: noise level has wider range in high class residential area; noon is the most silent in opposition to the environmental standards; interceptive effect by residences is approved. The conclusion can be made into three aspects. Firstly there is room for further consideration about environmental standards of sounds, especially a period of time. Secondly it is necessary to introduce environmental education to people to concern about sourrounding sounds. Thirdly city planning should consider structual elements to make good sound environments.

Dinámica demográfica del crecimiento urbano en México : 1940-1980

"In this article, the author analyzes the relationship between growth rates and the sizes of cities [in Mexico] to determine what kind of cities are the most dynamic ones in terms of their demographic growth during the 1940-1980 period. [His findings contradict] the widespread belief that in Mexico, as of 1970, there has been a process of 'metropolitanization' and of 'growth of intermediate cities'." He proposes changes to current population policy, which attempts to control urban growth through regulation. (SUMMARY IN ENG)

The modernist city: an anthropological critique of Brasilia

The utopian design and organization of Brasilia-the modernist new capital of Brazil-were meant to transform Brazilian society. In this sophisticated, pioneering study of Brasilia from its inception in 1957 to the present, James Holston analyzes this attempt to change society by building a new kind of city and the ways in which the paradoxes of constructing an imagined future subvert its utopian premises. Integrating anthropology with methods of analysis from architecture, urban studies, social history, and critical theory, Holston presents a critique of modernism based on a powerfully innovative ethnography of the city.

Innovation in urban systems: The interrelationships between urban and national economic development

The theoretical basis for analysing the role of innovation in economic development is assessed, as is the application of such theories to urbanisation processes. It is concluded that innovation lies at the heart of economic development and that urban development has important feedback effects on national economic development. Analysing these feedbacks requires a sophisticated data set allowing the analysis of input-output relationships in urban systems over time. In the absence of such data, industry employment classifications are used as a proxy for economic structure in an analysis of United States and Australian cities. Particular kinds of cities in the urban hierarchy can be analysed in terms of their economic structure and this can then be related to national economic development trends. The contributions of categories of city (particularly by size class) to economic development can then be explored. Obviously, results will vary with the era of economic development covered by the data. However, in all eras, certain kinds of cities will emerge as leaders in the process of urban economic development and will also play a crucial role in national economic development.

The return of aesthetics to city planning

I n Space, Time and Architecture, Sigfried Giedion noted that town planning, as he called it, was the last department of architecture to take form in any period. Baroque planning, for example, with its emphasis on ceremonial promenades, central focal points, and axial perspectives, remained dominant during the nineteenth century, long after industrialization had radically changed not only everyday life but the structure and surface of the city as well. The same could be said today: city planning lags far behind the architectural and structural changes occurring within our cities: changes such as the gentrification of vast areas of the central city, historic preservation in control of larger and larger fragments of the city, the rise of entertainment zones, or the mallification of downtown shopping streets. There are other changes as well, such as the rise of world-class cities, the service centers of late capitalism which reflect the specifc needs and spatial politics of multinational corporations. Many of these cities have simultaneously lost or reduced their industrial base. Another transformation is apparent in the development of the polynucleated metropolitan region, an occurrence that makes obsolete the old center-periphery location theories of urban growth. What does the theory of city planning have to say about all of these changes? There are apparent rumblings in spasmodic fashion that something should happen, that city planning might return to focus on its physical form. Tokyo planners may be taking the lead. If Paris was the capital of the nineteenth century; and New York that of the twentieth century, then Tokyo, they proclaim, as the first high-tech city will be the capital of the twenty-first century. On a man-made island in Tokyo Bay a $12 billion teleport of office buildings, cultural halls, and telecommunication stations is being built. A bridge is under construction from this island to the shore where a selfcontained village. River City. is being erected, containing hotels, shopping malls, theaters, and high-rise condominiums for 7,500 people. Another 177 projects are on the drawing boards, most of them to be located in Tokyo Ba3: All of this is reminiscent of Kenzo Tange's ~'Tokyo 1960" city plan in which he foresaw that cities of the 10 million population class were becoming consumption cities, their per capita income was already far beyond that which was necessary to satisfy basic needs. These cities were organized by invisible networks of communication, information, and energy channels; and consequently it became the task of architects and planners to provide the visible structure for this information society. In New York City, the consumption capital of the twentieth century, some architects are beginning to call for at least a reevaluation of the building boom of the last decade and a return to ethics that should lie at the core o f the profession. Critical of the postmodern void that looms at the heart of the profession, they see a self-serving architecture of gigantic monumentali ty which is dramatically out of scale with the rest of the city. Representative of corporate egotism and the vapidness of luxury development, this "decotecture" is the result of the municipal government's promotion of real estate development whatever be the cost to the social and physical fabric of the city. Nobody within the government or architectural profession, much less among city planners, asks what kind of city do we want and why? Recently, The New Yorker announced the resuscitation of Lewis Mumford's old column "Sky l ine ." which he wrote for some thirty-odd years, because it is believed that New York City is currently in a much more perilous condition than it was in 1931. The city government has been giving the city away: through zoning bonuses to real estate developers that do not deserve or need them; by a passive city planning commission whose infrequent actions tend ignorantly to promote development in the wrong parts of town; by a onesided development game in which the tax base is always the winner and light, air, circulation, and the pedestrian, the continual losers. In short, neither the profession of architecture nor that of city planning has any concept or theory to deal with the city as an entity, rather than fragmented into bits and pieces: and neither hold out any vision of what the city might be as it enters the last decade of the twentieth century.

If Baseball Can't Save Cities Anymore, What Can a Festival Market Do?

Festival markets have recently begun to appear in cities all over the United States, but there is little analysis yet of their purpose or their impact. This essay attempts to distinguish festival markets from other sorts of retail centers, and to trace their evolution over the past 20 years. It raises some questions about the festival market phenomenon: Are there limits to the kinds of cities in which such efforts can succeed? How many such marketplaces can any one metropolitan area support? How really unique or unusual are festival markets? How does the presence of such efforts benefit American cities?

Improving Policy Making in Public Transportation

During the past 20 years, government officials and urban planners have become increasingly aware that transportation system initiated by one generation is one of the most important legacies handed down to the next generation.' Academicians state that . . (T)he kind of city we live in today is largely a product of the transportation system.2 Even though policy makers and academicians suggest that transportation is of utmost importance, our public transportation systems are in shambles. Pott, a researcher of transportation policy making, states, By any standard index the transit mode is a failure as a utility. Its usage is declining, except in scattered instances. Its percentage in the daily travel market has declined to insignificance.I Another public transportation expert calls urban mass transit policy making Mockery of Ad Hoc-ery.4 This situation demonstrates the urgent need for more efficient and effective policy making in the public transportation area, which can only be done with greater communication among policy makers, leaders of commuter groups, and concerned and informed citizens. Yet the type of systematic communication that is needed does not really evolve in the public hearing setting. These meetings often result in shouting matches between policy makers and commuter groups. Policy makers accuse commuters of not being realistic, suggesting that commuters want good service but are unrealistic about its cost and unwilling to pay for it. Commuters accuse policy makers of not being sensitive to the horrendous conditions of most public transportation systems because they never use them. A third group, the academicians involved in public policy evaluation, analyze the situation and offer suggestions for improvement that are rarely taken seriously. Many policy makers visualize the academicians as ivory tower, absent-minded professors, who do not understand the reality of policy making. This lack of communication and cooperation, exacerbated by rapidly increasing fares and deteriorating service, leads to less rather than more effective policy making. Policy makers, commuters, academicians, and other informed citizens must understand each others' views and communicate in a more systematic manner in order to solve our mass transit problems. Policy makers are becoming aware that survey research quite effectively serves this purpose. In an article entitled Survey Research for Public Administrators, which appeared in a recent edition of The Public * Our concerns over energy, the urban crisis, and our unhealthy environment have demonstrated the urgency of a new commitment of human energy and resources to public transportation policy making. This research was designed to obtain systematic input from academics, policy makers and leaders of commuter groups on how various policy alternatives being considered by county, state and federal transit policy makers would probably affect public transportation usage in the New York metropolitan region. Some of these policies have already been implemented in other areas of the nation. Others are currently under consideration. Respondents to a mailed questionnaire were asked to predict how each of these policy alternatives, if implemented in the New York metropolitan region, would probably affect public transportation ridership in general, as well as their own use of public transportation. They were also asked whether they approve or disapprove of these policies given the probable costs. Thus, the results highlight the differences and similarities among the groups concerning both the political feasibility and probable impacts of the policy alternatives.

Airport Access Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

A cost-effectiveness analysis of alternative airport access systems is described. The purpose of this study is to help define a national policy for airport development. Based on an extensive assessment of costs and travel times, optimal modes are defined for different values of travel time for different kinds of cities, ranges of airport traffic volumes and of airport distance from the center city. Highway modes appear most cost-effective, whether private autos for those who have them, or busways, taxis or limousines for the other half of the traffic. Highspeed railroad and VTOL systems are seen to be cost-ineffective except for very special cases.