Traditional Neighborhood Research Articles

The Rising Interest in Workplace Spirituality: Micro, Meso and Macro Perspectives

This paper explores the reasons for emergence of the work-place spirituality from micro(individual employee level), meso (organizational level) and macro (societal level)perspective of human aggregation. At the micro or individual employee level increased job insecurity due to business process reengineering, downsizing, mergers and acquisitions, and outsourcing has motivated employees to search for the deeper meaning in life and work. The demise of traditional neighborhood and improved socio-economic conditions amongst younger employees has also led to contemplation on purpose of life and work at the individual employee level. Scholars argue that the organizational leaders need to create organisational climate to facilitate employees' experiences of spirituality at work. They suggest that spiritual climate build around core spiritual values would result in deeper employee engagement and thus, it will increase organizational strength and competitive energy. The interest in workplace spirituality at societal level could be attributed to the deteriorating ecological conditions and social problems due to rapid industrial growth.The paper also discusses the challenges in wider adoption of workplace spirituality in the commercial organisations and how it could be addressed.

Re-defining the traditional neighborhood areas in the historical city center- Saray Sulaimani as a case study

It is widely accepted, that historic urban quarters are coherent entities, which are clearly identified by their traditional character and architectural values and meanings.
 
 These areas have been described as critical areas in the city, because they hold and kept in the same time the identity of the city, and been more decayed day by day due to obsolescence phenomenon which faced these areas continuously. In this regard, Sulaimania city center showed many kinds of developments, which are totally not exceeds the individual buildings oriented. The way that these individual buildings had become as a landmark of the city, because of its richness in holding many historical, architectural, heritage values. The last was the rehabilitation of Sulaimania - Saray building. Examination of successful examples of revitalization projects for historic urban quarters in different cities shows that, aside from the application of effective organizational, legal, fiscal, financial tools, correct identification of the contextual attributes during the analytical stage plays a key role in determining the appropriate strategic approach to revitalization. From this point of view, the problem research derived as the lack of contextualism perspective in revitalization projects in historical traditional areas in the city center leads to what known as building based instead of area-based protection. The study tries to achieve objectives underlying as necessity of treating these areas as one integrative unit which are participating in drawing the context of urban scene, and any effort to separate building from its context leads to fragment the urban tissue specially in the urban center, and of course this whole view can pave the road to re-define these decayed areas in the way described as more widely and sustainable method.

¿Gentrificación en zonas patrimoniales? Estudio de cinco casos en Santiago de Chile

This paper questions the effects experienced by traditional neighborhoods located in the peri-urban area of Greater Santiago as the result of their recognition as Traditional and Scenic Area –as laid out in the National Monuments Act [MINEDUC Act 17,288], which is intended to preserve the historical, aesthetic and architectural features of specific areas. This work specifically seeks to identify if these neighborhoods have undergone processes of deterioration or valuation. To this end different tools of information production are used in order to evaluate the condition of these areas from different perspectives. This research gathers opinions from heritage activists and local inhabitants and analyzes the results of survey of a representative sample of residents from the five typical areas under review. Lastly, it examines the evolution of property prices within and around these areas to identify a possible gentrification process.

The synergistic effect of street canyons and neighbourhood layout design on pedestrian-level thermal comfort in hot-humid area of China

The traditional shophouse neighbourhoods (TSNs) appropriately integrated multiple variables of urban morphology for enhancement of pedestrian-level thermal comfort (PTC) in hot and humid climate zones. Understanding the synergistic effect of these design variables in TSNs on PTC is helpful for urban planners and designers. This research developed a prototype parametric TSN model to investigate the synergistic effect of four main variables: neighbourhood layout configurations, canyon type (alley, arcade street, boulevard), canyon axis orientation and canyon aspect ratio (HW). The data from the in-situ measurements in a TSN of Guangzhou in summer were used as the boundary condition for simulation in ENVI-met V4.3 and validation on the results. The Physiological Equivalent Temperature was adopted to assess PTC in different cases generated by the prototype parametric TSN model. The main findings are as follows: a) both arcade and greening had significant cooling efficiency for pedestrians, especially in East-West oriented streets; b) only the PTC in alleys was sensitive to all design variables; c) favourable PTC was shown in the neighbourhood with long East-West oriented arcade streets and that in square block layout with alleys; and d) the PTC in all boulevards dramatically responded only to HWs higher than 0.67.

There goes our family friendly neighborhood: Residents’ perceptions of institutionally driven inner-city revitalization in Buffalo, NY

ABSTRACTThis article examines residents’ perceptions of inner-city revitalization in legacy cities. The analysis focuses on neighborhoods undergoing revitalization in a legacy city, Buffalo, NY. The article draws from data for a larger research project called Turning the Corner which was sponsored by the Urban Institute. The focus of that project was to identify planning strategies to address negative externalities caused by neighborhood change and heightened risks of displacement due to revitalization. Data were collected through a series of focus groups with residents and stakeholders in working-class, minority neighborhoods which were identified as being in the early stages of revitalization. Two findings emerged from the analysis. First, residents perceived urban revitalization to have a destabilizing effect on traditional neighborhoods. Second, residents perceived revitalization as detrimental to the sustainability of family-friendly neighborhoods. Insights from the analysis are used to prompt planners’ advocacy for revitalization strategies aimed at protecting minority, working-class neighborhoods when institutionally driven revitalization occurs.

Pedestrian Trajectory Prediction in Extremely Crowded Scenarios.

Pedestrian trajectory prediction under crowded circumstances is a challenging problem owing to human interaction and the complexity of the trajectory pattern. Various methods have been proposed for solving this problem, ranging from traditional Bayesian analysis to Social Force model and deep learning methods. However, most existing models heavily depend on specific scenarios because the trajectory model is constructed in absolute coordinates even though the motion trajectory as well as human interaction are in relative motion. In this study, a novel trajectory prediction model is proposed to capture the relative motion of pedestrians in extremely crowded scenarios. Trajectory sequences and human interaction are first represented with relative motion and then integrated to our model to predict pedestrians’ trajectories. The proposed model is based on Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) structure and consists of an encoder and a decoder which are trained by truncated back propagation. In addition, an anisotropic neighborhood setting is proposed instead of traditional neighborhood analysis. The proposed approach is validated using trajectory data acquired at an extremely crowded train station in Tokyo, Japan. The trajectory prediction experiments demonstrated that the proposed method outperforms existing methods and is stable for predictions of varying length even when the model is trained with a controlled short trajectory sequence.

Correlative Impact of Shading Strategies and Configurations Design on Pedestrian-Level Thermal Comfort in Traditional Shophouse Neighbourhoods, Southern China

Traditional shophouse neighbourhoods (TSNs) in southern China respond well to the local hot and humid climate through proper street configurations and the integration of different shading strategies. Investigating the impact of shading strategies and configurations in TSNs on outdoor thermal comfort is valuable for guiding current urban design. Three street canyons in a TSN of Guangzhou with different shading strategies were selected as basic cases for microclimatic measurement in the summer season, i.e., alleys, streets with arcade for pedestrians, and streets with high-density greenery. After validating their simulation models in ENVI-met, five groups of parametric simulations were generated by varying the canyon aspect ratio (CHW), the canyon axis orientation, arcade proportion (AHW), and the tree-covered area (TCA). Using the physiological equivalent temperature (PET) to assess the above results, the correlative impact of different variations on pedestrian’s thermal comfort and their corresponding favourable ranges are summarized. The findings suggest that: (a) only in alleys and arcade streets, the pedestrian-level thermal comfort was significantly influenced by canyon axis orientation. (b) The thermal stress for pedestrians increased dramatically when the CHW was lower than 1.5 in alleys and 0.78 in boulevards (in TCA = 89%), while the CHW higher than 1 indicated a remarkable reduction on the PET for pedestrians in arcades. (c) The pedestrians started losing the protection from shading strategy to thermal stress when the AHW was higher than 1.33 (in canyon with CHW = 1) or the TCA was lower than 33% (in canyon with CHW = 0.78).

The Civic Side of Diversity: Ambivalence and Belonging at the Neighborhood Level

Although diversity has become a cherished ideal for Americans, a growing literature suggests that many are also ambivalent about lived experiences of diversity. Focusing on three historically homogeneous neighborhoods in Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles, this paper explores the “civic talk” used to express this ambivalence through interrelated frames of social order and civic engagement. In all three neighborhoods, long–term residents and neighborhood association members speak fluently about race, class, and other forms of diversity in their neighborhoods. Yet when they assess who “belongs” in the neighborhoods, the discussion is coded in civic terms. This framing enables neighborhood association members to act as gatekeepers, wielding civic discourse in ways that reinforce traditional neighborhood boundaries and social hierarchies, while maintaining structural inequalities.

Unravelling residential satisfaction and relocation intention in three urban neighborhood types in Guangzhou, China

With the deepening of housing reform, housing mobility and residential differentiation in urban China are on the rise. Extant studies on residential satisfaction and relocation intention tend to focus on rural to urban relocation, while little is known about their interactions in the context of urban China. This study attempts to fill this void by offering an updated and detailed account of intra-urban relocation, and by unravelling the complex mechanism and interactions between residential satisfaction and relocation against a general background of residential differentiation. Based on a questionnaire survey in three types of neighborhoods representative of the dominant residential patterns in contemporary Chinese cities, namely traditional inner city neighborhoods, urban villages and commodity housing estates, this paper examines determinants of residential satisfaction and relocation intention in each residential segment. The results from linear regression and multivariate logistic regression models show that residential satisfaction is influenced by different factors in the three types of residential neighborhoods, but is generally shaped by community attachment and the housing facilities. Relocation intention is generated by a combination of various factors that differ from neighborhood to neighborhood. In traditional inner city neighborhoods, residents are less likely to develop relocation intentions, and satisfaction levels tend to go down with the age of the housing estates. The situation is slightly different in urban villages, where residents with a weak sense of community prefer to relocate. The diversified determinants of relocation intention in the three types of neighborhoods are by no means incidental, being closely related, in fact, to the demographic composition, built environment and development history of the neighborhood. This study offers a multilayer explanation of intra-urban relocation and its interactions with residential satisfaction in post-reform urban China.

Interstate 49 Connector: Urban and Sustainable Design

The Interstate 49 Connector project is an approximate 5.5-mile segment of limited access, highway development plan needed for continuous access between an interstate route and a Federal- Aid highway system. The project is part of a proposed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) highway that will connect Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. At present, I-49 transitions into a four-lane highway with little control access. Connecting Interstate 10 and Highway 90 into a continuous arterial will link two economically beneficial interstate routes, and concurrently provide citizens of southern Louisiana with a safe, emergency evacuation route. In 2014, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Community Design Workshop (CDW) was contracted to work with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LaDOTD)/Lafayette Connector Partners (LCP) Team to address the proposed I-49 Connector project in Lafayette, Louisiana. Acting as a think tank to the consultant planning firms, the CDW provided support at community group-work meetings, public meetings and used the studio for uncovering and exploring issues of Urban Design and Sustainable Design. During the past four years, the CDW has run eight graduate studios to study two primary areas designated as the Northern Entry Gateway into the city and the Core Area around the downtown and traditional neighborhoods. Each area, taken from an urban, contextual perspective and environmental perspective, has its own unique character and physical makeup.

The spatial distribution of short-term rental listings in Greece: a regional graphic

ABSTRACTThe home-sharing economy is growing on a global scale, enabling homeowners to short-term lease through online platforms such as Airbnb. These practices bear both positive and negative externalities at both regional and national levels. Positive externalities include job creation, rises in income and in the dwelling supply for touristic purposes, as well as increase in tax revenues. Negative externalities involve disruptions to local communities by raising rental prices and crowding-out long-term tenants, implying income redistribution from homeowners to renters, and the overall ‘touristification’ of traditional neighbourhoods [Gurran, N. (2018). Global home-sharing, local communities and the Airbnb debate: A planning research agenda. Planning Theory & Practice Planning Theory & Practice, 19(2), 298–304]. The regional graphic in this paper illustrates the fact that short-term listings in Greece are unevenly distributed, mainly concentrated in touristic regions and the capital city, but not in continental areas.

REMAKE CITY FORM AND FUNCTION: NEO-TRADITIONAL NEIGHBOURHOOD DESIGN APPROACH IN COALITION WITH LAHORE METRO BUS SERVICE

Developing countries are facing various challenges and mass scale urbanisation; and issues related to urban mobility are few of them. Particularly mega cities are struggling with increased rates of motorisation along with dilapidated conditions of public transport systems. To overcome these mobility hurdles the adoption of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is considered an optimal option for countries with limited financial and technical resources. Likewise, the policy makers of Pakistan introduced the first BRT named the Lahore Metro Bus (LMB) in 2013. This research examines the role of LMB under the lens of urban planning. To determine the potentials of BRT (LMB) in terms of urban development this research paper is organised into two sections. In section one the nature of the executed metro bus service in Lahore is explored and in section two the potentials of this service from the perspective of urban planning are discussed. The methodology adopted in this study is a mixed method research structured on an exploratory sequential framework. Semi structured interviews are conducted with planning professionals of Lahore explaining the role that the service has or ought to have in terms of urban development. These interviews with planning professionals highlight certain discourses, explaining the current planning process of transit service and future policy implications. The study concludes that the metro bus concept is executed as a stand-alone mobility component in Lahore. Therefore, the benefits are limited to move people from one place to another. However, if the metro service were envisioned as a component of urban policy then it could have had a wide potential to impact the urban form of the city. It was further determined that the adapted measures as a part of this concept are narrowly engineering focused towards the technical aspects of this service, while the socio-cultural components of the city are neglected. To enhance the benefits of LMB service from the perception of urban planning, the concept of Neo- Traditionalism is suggested in conjunction with the existing transit facility. The application of Neo- Traditional Neighbourhood Design (NTND) approach would be the first step to turn the transit neighbourhoods into Neo-Traditional communities. These communities appear and function like old styled environment friendly towns. A Neo Transit Lahore Model (NTLM) is derived as an outcome of this paper. This model would curtail the negative impacts of urban sprawl by promoting the use of public transport and non-motorised travel in the transit neighbourhoods of Lahore. In this study the contemporary transit infrastructure is used as a tool to revive the conventional features of Lahore. The parameters of this approach are analysed in three selected neighbourhoods along the LMB corridor. The Neo-Traditional transit model approach will have social, economic and environmental implications. Keywords: New Urbanism, Neo-traditional neighbourhoods, Connection between communities, Lahore Metro Bus Service

How Community-Based Rangeland Management Achieves Positive Social Outcomes In Mongolia: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

Evidence-based policy guidance necessary for addressing mixed outcomes of community-based rangeland management (CBRM) is limited, dominated by case studies, and lacking coverage of diverse ecological settings. In remedy, we studied 65 traditional neighborhoods and 77 formally-organized CBRM groups across four ecological zones and investigated how and when CBRM obtains greater social outcomes than non-CBRM neighborhoods. We measured pastoralists’ social capital, rangeland management practices, and behavior using a mixed-methods approach including qualitative interviews, focus groups, and quantitative questionnaires of 706 herder households. We applied a conditional process analysis method, novel to CBRM studies, to investigate potential mechanisms by which CBRM affects social outcomes.CBRM members used significantly more information sources, had stronger leadership, more opportunities for knowledge exchange, and rules for resource use, which were significantly associated with greater social outcomes including the use of traditional and innovative rangeland and herd management practices, proactive behavior, and social networking. Access to diverse information sources emerged as an important variable related to strong local leadership, knowledge exchange, and setting rules for rangeland use. Ecological context had a strong association with the level of CBRM social outcomes achieved through this process. The statistical effect of CBRM, mediated by information, leadership, knowledge exchange, and rules, was significantly greater on proactive behaviors of desert steppe herders compared to herders in non-desert steppe zones. Further, CBRM mediated by the same four variables, was associated with higher social networking among herders in the mountain and forest steppe, steppe, and desert steppe but not in the eastern steppe. Our findings suggest why CBRM outcomes have been mixed in Mongolia and elsewhere, and point to the importance of accounting for local context in facilitating development of pastoral institutions. Policies to support CBRM should consider prioritizing resource users’ access to diverse information, leadership development, and involvement in elaborating community rules for resource management and local forums for information exchange.

Place attachment and determinants of living arrangement in the family house in Ibadan, Nigeria

Context/Background: There is a dearth of study in identifying the determinants of choice of living arrangement in sub-Saharan Africa and what influences individual’s decision about this. Therefore, this study examined the physical aspects and demographic characteristics that may be significant predictors of attachment to a particularly form of living arrangement in the form of “family house” otherwise called agbo’le . Data source and Methods: The analysis was based on quantitative data from 413 household heads in a traditional neighborhood characterized mainly by agbo’les in Ibadan, Nigeria. Descriptive statistics, chi-square, regression analysis and correlation were used to analyse the data. Results: The results showed that demographic factors including education attained, occupation and nature of work were significant predictors of place attachment rather than the physical structure. Conclusion: The study concluded that the relevance of agbo’le to the lives of the residents and hence its future potentials are more influenced by characteristics of individual residents.

Versatilidad en la morfología urbana de un barrio bohemio de la ciudad de Valdivia, Chile

El barrio Esmeralda, un tradicional barrio bohemio de la ciudad de Valdivia, ha sido incorporado dentro de un programa de gobierno de interés urbano nacional, a fin de convertirlo en un evento cautivador de público para los negocios locales durante el verano. El desafío planteado es abordar el desarrollo local, posicionando aspectos como la identidad y la inclusión dentro de la economía urbana. A pesar de lo anterior, se advierte que el boulevard de verano, como ha sido denominado tal evento en la calle Esmeralda, debe su celebridad no solo a la imagen proyectada por su función y la estética de barrio bohemio, sino también por el principio de diseño urbano de versatilidad del espacio público. La hipótesis de la siguiente investigación es que los atributos de versatilidad del espacio público del lugar, sumados a la función programática y a la estética de la calle, producen el éxito del evento circunscrito a la época estival de la ciudad.Se utilizó una metodología cualitativa que incluyó la observación marginal y la realización de entrevistas, para establecer ciertos patrones, los que mediante el método captura estática de la teoría de Space Syntax, permiten la construcción de una cartografía dentro de los resultados. Se concluye que el barrio posee una versatilidad que es ocasional, pero que está dada no solo por las actividades que se despliegan durante el evento, sino también porque ellas encuentran un emplazamiento pertinente dentro de la morfología urbana del lugar.

Pseudo-label neighborhood rough set: Measures and attribute reductions

The scale of the radius for constructing neighborhood relation has a great effect on the results of neighborhood rough sets and corresponding measures. A very small radius frequently brings us nothing because any two different samples are separated from each other, though these two samples have the same label. If the radius is growing, then there is a serious risk that samples with different labels may fall into the same neighborhood. Obviously, the radius based neighborhood relation does not take the labels of samples into account, which will lead to unsatisfactory discrimination. To fill such gap, a pseudo-label strategy is systematically studied in rough set theory. Firstly, a pseudo-label neighborhood relation is proposed. Such relation can differentiate samples by not only the distance but also the pseudo labels of samples. Therefore, both the neighborhood rough set and some corresponding measures can be re-defined. Secondly, attribute reductions are explored based on the re-defined measures. The heuristic algorithm is also designed to compute reducts. Finally, the experimental results over UCI data sets tell us that our pseudo-label strategy is superior to the traditional neighborhood approach. This is mainly because the former can significantly reduce the uncertainties and improve the classification accuracies. The Wilcoxon signed rank test results also show that neighborhood approach and pseudo-label neighborhood approach are so different from the viewpoints of the measures and attribute reductions in rough set theory.

The Spirit of the City

Place ambiance has a huge influence over how we perceive places. Despite its importance, ambiance has been crucially overlooked by urban planners and scientists alike, not least because it is difficult to record and analyze at scale. We explored the possibility of using social media data to reliably map the ambiance of neighborhoods in the entire city of London. To this end, we collected geo-referenced picture tags from Flickr and matched those tags with the words in a newly created ambiance dictionary. In so doing, we made four main contributions: i) map the ambiance of London neighborhoods; ii) ascertain that such a mapping meets residents' expectations, which are derived from a survey we conducted; iii) show that computer vision techniques upon geo-referenced pictures are of predictive power for neighborhood ambiance; and iv) explain each prediction of a neighborhood's ambiance by identifying the picture that best reflects the meaning of that ambiance (e.g., artsy) in that neighborhood (e.g., South Kensington---the richest and most traditional neighborhood---and Shoreditch---among the most progressive and hipster neighborhoods in the city---are both 'artsy' but in very different ways). The combination of the predictive power of mapping ambiance from images and the ability to explain those predictions makes it possible to discover hidden gems across the city at an unprecedented scale.

Pola Tata Ruang Kampung Adat Wologai di Desa Wologai Tengah Kabupaten Ende

This article aims at exploring the characteristic of spatial pattern of Wologai Settlement, a unique traditional neighborhood of Ende-Flores. It studies the natural setting; customs and traditions; as well as spatial uses and functions. These elements are considered as encompassing elements conferring to spatial traits that characterize this Wologai Settlement. This research is a qualitative research and mainly uses a field survey method for its data collection. The article has three main parts. The first explains the existing Kampung Wologai and its unique physical natural setting. The second describes fundamental physical and non-physical elements determining the spatial formation of Wologai Settlement. And lastly, the third part presents discussion over intrinsic attributes imbedded within Wologai's spatial pattern. This study construes that the prominent circular spatial pattern of Kampung Wologai, on the one hand symbolizes a strong connection with a unique concept of kinship that creates a resilient society. And it is also a product of adaptation to terraced natural topography as well as a customary concept of orienting its neighborhood toward a mountain as a sacred natural feature, on the other.
 Keywords: Wologai settlement, spatial pattern, space, customs

Type II assembly line balancing problem with multi-operators

In this paper, we present a practical line balancing problem: multiple-operator assembly line balancing problem II. The formulation of the proposed problem is novel in terms of investigating the operator assignment from a different perspective. In order to solve this problem, we develop a simulated annealing (SA)-based two-stage solution procedure, where a new neighborhood generation and a search method are designed and demonstrated to be more efficient than the traditional neighborhood search method. In theory, we prove the original neighborhood generation method is not efficient than the proposed one. Computational experiments on some benchmark cases have been conducted to validate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm compared to the traditional SA approach. Our work also has some practical merits. In the managerial situation, a factory may have already recruited some workers that cannot be dismissed. Our problem describes that the production manager allocates different number of workers to the workstations to minimize the cycle time.

Heritage values: towards a holistic and participatory management approach

PurposeIn other fields, like natural resources, a wide range of participatory methods have been applied, criticized and adapted trough practice. Areas such as anthropology, history or architecture have contributed to the identification of heritage values. Semi-structured interviews and cultural mapping are examples of qualitative and participative methods that have been applied already in the conservation field. Nevertheless, no framework exists to assess the effectiveness of such methods and little experience has been built up in actor’s integration within the heritage value identification process. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework to recognize heritage values incorporating multidisciplinary and multi-actor perspectives.Design/methodology/approachThe socio-praxis approach, which is the outcome of an articulation of diverse methodologies that aim to support social processes from a bottom-up approach as a tool for decision making and community planning, was implemented in the present research. In this context, it supported the identification of heritage values incorporating multidisciplinary and multi-actor perspectives of two traditional neighborhoods of the city of Cuenca in Ecuador.FindingsThe results show that the identification of heritage values from multidisciplinary and multi-actor perspectives allows a more comprehensive vision of the existing values and the process reveals a greater involvement of the neighbors in heritage issues. The importance of structuring organized group of neighbors and positioning them as living experts has showed the complexity of cultural heritage conservation process but at the same time the significance for heritage management has been demonstrated. Therefore, this experience can be considered as an invaluable tool for heritage sites managers.Originality/valueStakeholder involvement in heritage conservation management has been widely discussed on international forums in the ultimate decades. While the importance of actor perceptions and priorities for sustainable heritage conservation is recognized, little has been said about the ways to reveal – non-expert – heritage values in such a way that people get involved in the heritage value assessment. In this perspective, the present research represents an invaluable tool for heritage sites that aim to implement a long-term management plans.