Local Urban Space Research Articles

Walk-centric deliberations

This article outlines methods of practice-oriented teaching at universities integrating democracy, sustainability, and learning in adult education.. The methods highlight the potential for democratic innovation in local communities in which diverse perspectives come together to address societal challenges. With a focus on sustainability and the connection among place, space, and pedagogy it introduces ‘Voice-Resonance Walks,’ a deliberative method piloted in Stuttgart, Germany, for social work education. It also highlights pilot deliberations at the district (Mini-Studentlab Deliberative Walks) and cityscape (Public Transport Walks) levels in Hamburg, Germany, involving interdisciplinary student groups in lifelong learning. These examples illustrate how higher education institutions are engaging with the public sphere, with a particular focus on vulnerable groups of citizens and on fostering civic learning. They aim to equip students with the knowledge and skills to become future experts, decision-makers, and active citizens, capable of understanding the challenges facing both their local neighborhoods and diverse urban spaces.

Comprehensive evaluation of carbon sequestration potential of landscape tree species and its influencing factors analysis: implications for urban green space management

BackgroundContinuous increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) has aggravated global warming and promoted urban tree planting projects for many countries. So it’s imperative to select high carbon sequestering landscape tree species while considering their aesthetic values of urban green space.Results32 tree species were selected as test objects which were commonly used in landscaping in Zhengzhou, a typical northern city of China. To assess the comprehensive carbon sequestration potential of landscape tree species in different plant configuration types, we simultaneously considered their daily net carbon sequestration per unit leaf area (wCO2), daily net carbon sequestration per unit land area (WCO2) and daily net carbon sequestration of the whole plant (QCO2) through cluster analysis. Besides that, we found out the key factors affecting carbon sequestration potential of landscape tree species by redundancy analysis.ConclusionPopulus, P Stenoptera, P. acerifolia among large arbors (LA), V odoratissimum, P. Serratifolia, S. oblata among small arbors (SA), and B sinica var. Parvifolia, B. Megistophylla, L quihoui among shrubs (S) were recommended for local urban green space management. Photosynthetic rate (Pn), crown area (CA) and leaf area index (LAI) were the key factors which affected the comprehensive carbon sequestration potential both for LA, SA and S.

The production of urban space and the geography of higher education in Sinop-MT

The city of Sinop has its origins in the occupation of the Brazilian Legal Amazon, encouraged by the federal government in the 1970s. Four decades of political emancipation later, Sinop is the fourth most populous city in Mato Grosso, standing out in the provision of various services. The aim of this study is to understand the centrality of higher education and its consequences in the production of the urban space of Sinop. The theoretical construct of this study was based on discussions pertaining to urban centrality and the production of urban space. Sinop contributes to the structuring of the urban network of the state of Mato Grosso, where the provision of services, specifically the presence of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) such as public universities and also private institutions, provide subsidies for such consolidation of the long-distance network, as well as influence the production of local urban space, modifying the current forms of this production as is the case of private appropriation of the real estate market , in which private spaces overvalue themselves to the detriment of public spaces. It is intended to contribute to the elaboration of policies in local public management and to the research esons that deal with the production of urban space in the regional context.

Local Memory and Urban Space

The paper ponders over the issue of memory and urban space. It shows how these categories have been discussed in the literature and how they are connected to the problem of place identity. The paper also highlights the need to appreciate and assess the physical aspect of objects, which act as memory markers in the urban space. The author argues that what is being memorialised and conveyed as meaning is the past lived experience. As a case in point, two memory acts are analysed in the paper, clearly showing the interdependence of various temporalities in the anniversary celebrations. In the festivities celebrating the 100th (in 1881) and 150th (in 1931/2) anniversaries of the consecration of the Lutheran church in Warsaw, the capital of the Kingdom of Poland in the Russian partition and later the capital of a resurrected independent Polish state after 1918, the different present-oriented needs were mirrored in the narratives and commemorations of the past. Idiosyncratic visions of the past help make the small and vulnerable community of Lutherans in an otherwise primarily Roman Catholic environment more coherent, as its members may lay claim to history and construct and stabilise their identification process as descendants of past generations. Moreover, the material fabric of the church seems to be an indispensable factor. The parishioners’ lived experience appears to be a crucial component of commemorations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Narratives of a lost spatial pattern: a spatial analysis of the distribution of Namo Daoguans in Guangzhou in Republican period

ABSTRACT This study employed a three-layer urban fabric analysis method based on Space Syntax techniques to analyze the spatial distribution of the Zhengyi 正一 Namo Daoguans (Nahm-mouh Daoist halls 喃呒道馆) in Guangzhou City during the Republic of China era in quantitative and qualitative ways. We investigated their relationships with physical geographic elements, population numbers, the spatial distribution of local temples, cultural practices, and urban topological spaces, which reflected the complexity and flexibility of their distribution patterns, as well as the marginal, commercial nature of the ritual industries they operate. Meanwhile, compared to other influencing urban factors, the Normalized angular choice (NACH) of urban streets plays a decisive role in the spatial distribution of most Namo Daoguans. The locations of Namo Daoguans were mainly chosen on the streets that people passed through most often, and the travel distance within 750 meters (about 10 minutes walking distance) could nearly encompass all Namo Daoguans. Finally, we summarize the logic and pattern of site selection for the Namo Daoguans in Guangzhou at that time. These new findings deepen the current understanding of related knowledge and provide a basis for future planning and design assessment of related spaces.

Designing Multifunctional Urban Green Spaces: An Inclusive Public Health Framework.

Evidence of the wide range of health benefits associated with the use of urban green space (UGS) continues to grow. Despite this evidence, many UGS designs do not adopt a community-inclusive approach that utilizes evidence-based public health strategies to maximize potential health benefits. This research focused on testing a multidisciplinary, community-involved public health framework to drive the UGS design process. The aim of this study was to use community feedback and evidence-based public health practices to promote physical health, psychological wellbeing, and social cohesion by creating a multifunctional UGS that enhances nature therapy, natural play, and sports and recreation. Community health assessment data (236 survey responses), community forum and survey feedback (157 survey responses), local urban green space inventory assessment, and environmental assessment and impact data were analyzed to develop a design plan that maximize the greatest potential health benefits for the greatest proportion of the population. Community health data indicated a strong relationship between the availability of places to be physically active in the community and higher ratings of mental (aOR = 1.80) and physical (aOR = 1.49) health. The creation and utilization of the proposed community-inclusive and public health-focused framework resulted in a UGS design that prioritized the needs of the community and provided evidence-informed strategies to improve the health of local residents. This paper provides unique insight into the application of a framework that promotes a more health-focused and functional approach to UGS design.

Active and healthy ageing in urban environments: laying the groundwork for solution-building through citizen science.

SummaryUrban age-friendly initiatives strive to promote active and healthy ageing by addressing urban influences that impact individuals as they age. Collaborative community partnerships with multi-level stakeholders are crucial for fostering age-friendly initiatives that can transform urban community health. Employing a citizen social science (CSS) approach, this study aimed to engage older adults and stakeholders in Birmingham, UK, to (i) identify key urban barriers and facilitators to active and healthy ageing, and (ii) facilitate collaboration and knowledge production to lay the groundwork for a citizen science project. Older adults (n = 16; mean age = 72(7.5 SD); 11 female) and community stakeholders (n = 11; 7 female) were engaged in six online group discussions, with audio recordings transcribed and thematically analysed to present key urban barrier and facilitator themes. Ageism, winter, technology and safety were barriers identified by both groups. Outdoor spaces and infrastructure, transportation, community facilities, and Covid-19 pandemic were identified as barriers and/or facilitators. Older adults identified the ageing process as a barrier and diversity of the city, health and mobility and technology as facilitators. For stakeholders, barriers were deprivation and poverty, gender differences, and ethnicity, whereas age-inclusive activities were a facilitator. Organic and active opportunities for older adults and stakeholders to connect, co-produce knowledge on urban environments and share resources presented foundations of solution-building and future collaboration. CSS effectively facilitated a range of stakeholders across local urban spaces to collaborate and co-produce ideas and solutions for enhancing local urban environments to promote active and healthy ageing.

From global city makers to global city-shapers: Migration industries in the global city networks

Recently, increasing migrant-led diversity of urban spaces can be expected to be especially observed in global cities, where global flows of capital, goods and people are concentrated. Although this connection between the global phenomenon of transnational migration and the local socio-spatial impacts on the cities appears evident, empirical research on the ‘relationship of migrants and cities’ remains underexplored. Discussions on global city makers have focused primarily on global economic actors, and have paid little attention to actors involved in shaping these global cities locally. This paper sheds new light on the role of migration industries in shaping global cities on the local level, being based empirically on qualitative interviews with transnational migrants and service providers in Tokyo. It discusses how the novel constellation of service firms for the transnational migration from above and below, that is, corporate migration industry in contrast to the conventional migration industry of labour migration, not only contributes to the global flow of transnational migrations into specific cities, but also draws them into specific socio-spatial patterns within the local urban space. By bringing these different types of migration industries conceptually together, it illustrates how socio-spatial diversification processes within global cities are embedded in the global economy (global city makers) but also locally directed by intermediary actors of migration industries (global city shapers). Embedding migration industries into the global cities perspective, it bridges the gap on urban transformation from the global to the local.

Excedente español en la Cuba postsoviética: Muerte de un murciano en La Habana (2006)

This essay analyzes the visual strategies used in Muerte de un murciano en La Habana (2006), by Teresa Dovalpage, a novel that parodically interrogates the social impact of economic dynamics in post-Soviet Cuba, based on a scriptural enterprise that uses intertextuality and self-referentiality. The writer deploys a series of postmodern strategies in which both subjects and Spanish Baroque pictorial signs are mobilized and parodied in the same operation as they are relocated onto a specific local urban space: Havana. I propose here that the author includes herself, as Velázquez would do in Las Meninas, not to shed light on representational strategies, but to draw attention to the figure of the migrant writer in a regional linguistic market, who must capture the gaze of Spanish transnational publishers, who exercise a hegemonic control in that market.

Collective actions for reconfiguration of urban space Biały Bór, Poland

Biały Bór is located in the former German territories that came to Poland after the Second World War. The almost complete replacement of the indigenous German and Jewish populations, initially by Polish and soon Ukrainian communities, was the result of the displacement of state borders by the eviction and relocation of millions of people. To do this, the authorities used certain strategies, which brought different approaches and constraints to local communities and urban spaces. The article considers the differences between the declared principles and the actual actions of the authorities in the context of “small stories” of all actors (national communities), as well as the tactics of indirect resistance of the local community to government pressure. Due to the remoteness of the place from the state center and due to its unanimity, the local community becomes the driving force of the spatial development of the city. And since the city is multicultural, the development of public spaces is influenced by the competitiveness (not confrontation) of two local communities. Therefore, the creation of public spaces is considered in the context of the rights of different groups to the city. This paper argues the conditions under which it is the collective actions of local communities that determine the change in the configuration of urban space.

Engaging students in redesigning a local urban space to improve ecosystem services

Ecosystem services are an important, but often invisible component of the urban landscape. Humans have altered the environment in cities, leading to degraded or missing ecosystem services in many cases. To enhance or replace these services, many urban municipalities are integrating green spaces and infrastructure into urban planning. We have designed an activity to help undergraduate students: 1) recognize the importance of urban ecosystem services, 2) identify when they are degraded or missing, and 3) integrate “green” ideas from multiple sources to propose improvements to them. To help students achieve these goals, we asked them to evaluate an underutilized space on their own campus, and propose a redesign of that space to support ecosystem services. While many students struggled initially to link urban ecosystem services with specific proposed improvements, we found that having students work together in groups for a second redesign often improved understanding and also resulted in more creative and interdisciplinary designs. The exercise also helped students to better identify ecosystem services and allowed them to practice integrating multiple viewpoints while proposing solutions to local environmental problems.

Pedestrian Paths as an Indicator of Legibility Aspects of Omani Traditional Settlements

The interest for studying the Omani built heritage is not recent. However, the published research about the subject since the early 1970s, is limited in number and sporadic in topics and territories investigated. Moreover, there was no or little interest in examining this built heritage from the point of view of its urban design typologies. This paper is examining the urban form of these settlements and linking it with legibility aspects. Legibility and its influence on users of urban spaces have been significant for many theorists in urban studies. In their point of view, behaviour patterns of pedestrians are strongly influenced by legibility perception of the spatial patterns in urban spaces. The current research aims at studying the legibility aspects of traditional Omani residential settlements in an objective evaluation represented by numerical approach. Through a descriptive and analytical method, the results will link the influence of urban forms with legibility and behaviour patterns of pedestrians, which are deeply affected by the perception of body and mind. The paper explored paths’ forms influence on legibility perception of pedestrian in some of traditional settlements in Oman that have a strong urban identification. Five case studies representing traditional Omani settlements were chosen and analysed with an innovative quantitative approach capable of discovering, evaluating deficiencies, and suggesting solutions to develop local concepts for paths in any of urban settlements. The findings disclose that the contest to adopt international approaches to solve local urban spaces has created pointless, despicable, and unused spaces, while adopting local patterns, features and solutions will enhance the legible image of local urban settlements.

Perspektywy renesansu publicznego stosowanej pedagogiki społecznej w postindustrialnej przestrzeni

The author takes up a critical approach to several concepts presented in the literature of social sci- ences, on so expected problems of public rehabilitation and revitalisation during the active enggement of such subdiscipline as modern social pedagogy. He analyses the local urban space, opposed to spontaneoulness chaos and anomia accured in public structures. The paper warns againt the relin- quishment in local communities of earlier order and the whole social network. It could becme in each posttransformated cociety during the social change. The aim of the paper was to mobilise on future a public support across education and prophylaxis to avoid a lot of individual and collective traumatic and neurostic feelings.

Moving safely at night? Women’s nocturnal mobilities in Recife, Brazil and Brussels, Belgium

This paper examines the links between women’s un/safety and their night-time mobilities in Brussels, Belgium and Recife, Brazil. While the significance of women’s intersectional identities to the construction of fear and safety in urban space has been well documented in feminist urban geography, we argue that the lens of South-North comparison highlights specific ways in which local urban spaces are implicated in women’s experiences of un/safety. A comparative perspective draws out the spatial and temporal embeddedness of un/safety, while at the same time challenges the framing of particular cities and areas as either safe or unsafe (which is particularly damaging when it reproduces simple global North – global South binaries). The paper draws on mixed-method research combining a questionnaire-based survey and a series of interviews with women in Recife and Brussels. The four dimensions examined include transport modes; situated experiences of un/safety; the accumulation of unsafety feelings over the long term; and the work women perform in maintaining mobility. We find that while unsafety broadly limits women’s access to cities at night, feeling unsafe plays out differently in specific and situated interactions, many of which are recognisable from both Brussels and Recife. Across the two research locations, women’s mobility strategies at night are similar, in that they involve extensive planning, preparation, and drawing on financial and non-financial resources. We conclude with some reflections on the role of comparative research in the feminist geographies of gendered urban mobilities, particularly in relation to previously little-studied cities.

A city as a virtual community — Several perspectives

We are currently dealing with the emergence of cities as virtual communities. They should be considered in terms of a specific relation of the local urban space with the cyberspace and rejection of dichotomy of the territory versus deterritorialization. The article characterizes city as a virtual community from several perspectives: 1) Resurgence of locality and changes in the nature of interpersonal relationships; 2) Changes in the understanding of public and private space; 3) The impact of the city as a virtual community on social capital; 4) The possibilities of big data generated within the virtual community; 5) Possibilities of involving city dwellers in the process of local governance; and 6) encouraging them to social activity. The Internet brings a huge change in the perception and experience of the city and we must do everything to use this change for the benefit of urban residents.

Changes in perceptions of urban green space are related to changes in psychological well-being: Cross-sectional and longitudinal study of mid-aged urban residents.

We used data from 5,014 mid-aged adults in the HABITAT study, across two waves (2009 and 2011), to explore associations between perceptions of quantity of urban green space and psychological well-being. Linear regression revealed that perceptions of urban green space quantity were significantly and positively associated with psychological well-being at both time-points. A longitudinal, fixed effects, two-period difference regression revealed that within-person change in perceptions of green space quantity across two years was positively associated with psychological well-being. All associations remained significant after controlling for age, gender, household income, education, occupation and neighbourhood disadvantage. Our findings indicate that psychological well-being is associated with perceptions of local urban green space. Subjective measures of green space are an important factor that need to be considered when exploring the relationship between green space and mental health. These findings are timely given the growing interest in urban green space interventions for combating increasing mental ill-health rates as well as promoting well-being among expanding urban populations.

The entwined futures of financialisation and cities

AbstractThis article considers the future of financialisation as it is entwined with that of cities. It poses the question of how cities can regulate financialisation. ‘Financialization’ is understood here to encompass the myriad of social, economic, legal and political dimensions of the transition from industrial capitalism to finance capitalism. This transition implicates the financial sector and their motives as well as the new roles that financial ideas play in everyday lives. That new role for finance has been understood to be a ‘normative order of reason’ that informs public decision-making and governance. While the efforts of national and transnational law to regulate the financial sector have been studied, there has been far less focus on local governments. Local governments, however, play a crucial role in how financial capitalism takes hold through their regulation of real estate and urban space (real estate being a key current engine of financial markets). Local governments mediate the ways that finance takes hold in cities and the built environment and the way that those transformations exclude certain populations. In short, they mediate the ‘spatialization’ of finance. This triangular constitution of local governance, financialisation and urban space can be observed in the shrinking of public space. The article first examines the relationship between public space and democracy, and the role of law as the underlying structure that allocates urban space towards the use of the public or the use of private real estate actors. This engagement demonstrates how urban space is a key site of financialisation’s dual dimensionality: as a sector with material accumulation of resources and as a constellation of rationalities and cultures. The article then turns to a discussion of city efforts to regulate the financial sector, and popular resistance to the ideologies of finance. Through that examination, this article hopes to demonstrate that efforts to regulate the financial sector are only one level on which to regulate financialisation. ‘Regulation’ here becomes a complex endeavour, requiring an engagement with the modes of reasoning and culture promulgated by financialisation as well as the financial sector and its activities.

The urban sustainable structure of the vernacular city and its modern transformation: A case study of the popular architecture in the saharian Region

The community vernacular city is the example of the popular architecture in arabmuslim world foundation to create a sense of belonging and attachment to the land. It is a reflection of people’s traditions, culture, aspirations, needs, and their future. In the past, the local community with its beliefs and creative abilities was an integral part of the design and building process. As a result, the architectural product has succeeded in expressing the identity of this community and maintaining elements of continuity and distinction. There is a lot of typical historic Islamic cities, recently its urbanization has been advanced with the demolition of townscape and historic monuments under the modern European style urban planning Today, most design and construction processes are based on imported trends, and the product is foreign and does not express community values, and local urban spaces have lost their identity. This contradiction represents the key issue of the identity crisis in the contemporary Arab city.Arab architecture is suffering from the absence of values and principles derived from the architectural heritage, ignorance of local climate and materials, in addition to the lack of integrating modern technology with local values. Tradition must be respected but development is the key of our existence. Development and tradition could move in parallel. Architectural styles and techniques could also be developed with respect to their original ideals. New road construction has demolished many traditional houses in old town. This paper describes these phenomena in oriental and west world and we based on case study transformation of the city of Bechar during the last 50 years, indicating in particular how the city has moved from an introversion sustainable city (the vernacular tissue or the old ksar) to the ex-colonial and rather provincial city into a urbanisation that is open to and influenced by the financial flows of international capitalism and that is seeking further integration into the world economy. This research targets a deeper understanding of the urban structure and heritage, studying the different causes of tradition remodelling in local urban spaces and find out a way that understanding traditional design principles and sustainability materials, our object is to motivate the architects to conserving the local identity, to find an approach that blends between traditions and modernity to revive the urban sustainable vernacular city.

Developing Criteria and Design Transformation Process in Designing Landscape Elements Based on Nature and Islamic Principles

Elements and materials used in designing urban landscape should reflect the identity of places, particularly the historical sites. There is a lack of consideration in integrating the cultural and environmental resources such as local plants to contribute to the material and design production of local urban spaces. There is a need for a clear understanding on the source of an idea, design process, development and design system. This paper examines the potential of systematic design process in producing designed elements based on the nature and cultural principles, shapes and forms. It looks into the symbiotic relationship between local plants (flower) and the Islamic concept as principles in designing various elements in the built environment and natural setting. The design experiment adopted the researcher's framework of design transformation process first identifies the criteria for the transformation process and then experimenting the manipulation of forms and shapes using the local plants as the source of ideas. Feedback from 159 students with design background from four local universities was gathered through questionnaire survey to identify the functions of the design transformation process and its effectiveness in the producing design variations in shapes and forms of tile design based on plants images. The experiment on tiles design shows that in designing the elements, the importance of the transformation process is emphasized through a systematic transformation process. Supporting the finding, results from the questionnaire survey indicated the importance of systematic design processes in producing variation in the design. These findings will support a more creative system in making urban landscape elements such as floor tiles and l posts that display a unique identity to a place and suit the local environment and culture.

Policies and Practices of Integration: High-Skilled Migrants from India in Singapore

ABSTRACTThe Singaporean government has employed immigration primarily from China and India to boost the country's working age population and contribute to its economic growth. In this paper I examine the integration of high-skilled migrants from India at the national level and in local urban spaces. I study the role of the state, natives and the immigrants in the integration process, as well as the effectiveness of Singapore's integration policies. Challenges to immigrant integration include hostile reactions from natives, differences in cultural mores between immigrants and natives, and a lack of transparency on the effects of government policies on local populations.