Urban Development Practices Research Articles

Ratchet-Rasquache Activism: Aesthetic and Discursive Frames within Chicago-Based Women-of-Color Activism

Abstract Extending the rich literature about women-of-color activism, this article analyzes the ways Chicago-based Chicanas and Black women maintain, build, and expand low-income residents’ access to and ownership of the city. I draw on 30 months of community-engaged, ethnographic fieldwork within high-poverty Mexican- and African-American neighborhoods and on interviews with 22 women-of-color activists across Chicago. Combining the cultural signifiers “ratchet” and “rasquache,” I highlight the strategic use of discursive and aesthetic frames to disrupt negative narratives of these women’s activism and their often-vilified communities. As a framework, ratchet-rasquache activism counters urban development practices that marginalize Black and Chicana/o/x communities. Emerging from African-American communities, “ratchet” connotes unruliness and low-class behavior. In Mexican communities, “rasquache” similarly connotes negative or low-class behavior but also means making the most with the tools one has. Both concepts, rooted in working-class sensibilities, can subvert narratives of racial uplift and reject normative whiteness as the standard for both activism and community development. Deploying “ratchet” and “rasquache” as positive attributes, Chicago-based women-of-color activists used nonhierarchical community-organizing tactics to operate as neighborhood strategists. Acknowledging the strength and expertise within marginalized, impoverished communities, they embraced a working-class, asset-based, ratchet and rasquache strategy, while striving to build something from something.

Research on Practice of Sustainable Urban Development–Since the Early Twentieth Century to Contemporary Trends

Background: This study investigated the evolution of planning since the Garden city movement and trends in contemporary eco-city practices. Creating more dialogues between the past and present is essential for clarifying the context of neighborhood planning to that of sustainable urban development and their potential future trends. Objectives: This study referenced the evolution of major neighborhood planning movements to address the requirements of urban sustainability since the early twentieth century, namely the garden city, neighborhood unit, modernism, Neo-traditionalism, and Eco-urbanism. We divided these into the categories of “premodernism” and “postmodernism” in our analysis. Methods: First, the secondary data research method was used for the literature review. Second, acase study was conducted to analyze the planning of SSTEC. Third, we adopted six codesto investigate SSTEC issues and performed a correlational analysis based on the key criticisms of five neighborhood planning movements. Results: The results show that SSTEC as positive or negative aspects of sustainable development and found that all correlations were negative in the premodernist period, whereas planning movements in the postmodernist period represented significant progress. Conclusion: (a) the omission of public participation represents the highest potential risk for the planning movement; and (b) lessons can be learned from modernism and through noticing bilateral collaborative trends.

Foreigners, fakes and flycatchers: stereotypes, social encounters and the problem of discomfort on the street in Arusha, Tanzania

PurposeThis paper aims to contribute to research on the interrelations between urban tourism, travelling and landscapes. It shows how young visitors to the tourism-reliant city of Arusha, northern Tanzania, experience and interpret discomfiting encounters with street sellers by drawing on stereotypes circulating in guidebooks, online forums and in the tourism industry. In turn, such re-interpreted encounters are increasingly seen as problematic for the city’s development of urban tourism.Design/methodology/approachThe author draws on extensive ethnographic fieldwork with tourist-product street sellers in Arusha and Moshi, Tanzania in 2015–2017. With detail-oriented focus on social interaction and communication, the author has used participant observation and interviews to understand the perspectives and actions involved. Complementing this, the author draws on interviews with tour companies and local authorities to connect everyday occurrences with broader political, economic and urban transformations.FindingsThis paper explores the interrelation between changing urban landscapes, gentrification and burgeoning urban tourism by highlighting not only how streets are created and sought to be re-created but how also re-interpreted stories and stereotypes fundamentally influence how it is understood by local authorities. As the consumption of place, shopping and foreigners’ experiences take centre stage in Arusha’s urban development project, practices and people that are re-interpreted as causes of discomfort, become objects of ordering and discipline.Originality/valueThis paper emphasizes that the social encounters beyond dichotomies of host–guest relationships are a fruitful and important means of investigating how “encounters” connect space to power, the street to urban planning and mundane on-the-street interactions to processes of transformation and gentrification. This paper presents a reading of “landscapes” not as a text, but as a series of encounters that catch our attention when and where they break our norms, or the norms of others.

Cities as transnational climate change actors: applying a Global South perspective

The term ‘cities of the Global South’ has become an increasingly popular reference in urban studies and urban development practice. Notwithstanding, the term remains underexplored and the majority of research does not address whether the Global North/Global South dichotomy is a useful theoretical framework for urban studies. This article provides a more detailed analysis of the term Global South in urban research and presents benefits and pitfalls of applying a Southern perspective. Using the research field ‘cities as transnational climate change actors’ as an example, I highlight both advantages and problems of categorising urban areas as ‘cities of the Global South’. Structural differences between Northern and Southern cities regarding climate change action do exist, and theory building on cities as transnational actors is well advised to consider those differences in order to avoid a Global North bias. However, the categories Global North/Global South are only one possibility to analyse cities as transnational climate change actors and – depending on the research question – should be accompanied by analytical attention to additional factors such as geographical location, city size or political regimes.

Urban landscape in sustainable transformation: cultural heritage and contemporary architecture integration within urban area

Since the debates on the New Heritage Paradigm for Managing Change in 2000s, the polemics on “cultural heritage/urban preservation” vs. “urban development”, challenges of integrating contemporary architecture within historic urban area and gaps between theory and practice still occur despite the adopted Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach in 2011. The article provides a research aimed at finding current trends in theory and practice concerning the comprehensive assessment of cultural heritage preservation and urban development practice, critical views on HUL approach and development of new alternative approaches & strategies, including the search of the new forms of urban heritage as contemporary architecture, and the best practices in integration of cultural heritage sites with contemporary architecture within urban area. It contributes to the further researches and discussions on the form, direction and capacity of contemporary architecture integration within historic urban landscape to ensure managing urban changes for sustainable urban development.

Compact city planning and development: Emerging practices and strategies for achieving the goals of sustainability

The compact city is one of the leading paradigms of sustainable urbanism. Compact city planning and development has, over the last 30 years or so, been the preferred response to the challenges of sustainable development. It is strongly promoted by global and local policies due to its positive outcomes in terms of contributing to the economic, environmental, and social goals of sustainability. This paper examines how the compact city model is practiced and justified in urban planning and development with respect to the three dimensions of sustainability, and whether any progress has been made in this regard. To illuminate this urban phenomenon accordingly, a descriptive case study is adopted as a qualitative research methodology where the empirical basis is mainly formed by the official plans and documents of two Swedish cities: Gothenburg and Helsingborg, in combination with qualitative interview data and secondary data. This study shows that compactness, density, diversity, mixed land use, sustainable transportation, and green space are the core design strategies of compact city planning and development, with the latter being contextually linked to the concept of green structure, an institutional setup under which the two cities operate. Moreover, at the core of the compact city model is the clear synergy between the underlying strategies in terms of their cooperation to produce combined effects greater than the sum of their separate effects with respect to the benefits of sustainability as to its tripartite composition. Further, this study demonstrates that the compact city model as practiced by the two cities is justified by its ability to contribute to the economic, environmental, and social goals of sustainability. However, the economic goals dominate over the environmental and social goals, notwithstanding the claim about the three dimensions of sustainability being equally important at the discursive level. Nevertheless, new measures are being developed and implemented to strengthen their influence over urban planning and development practices towards balancing the three goals of sustainability.

Urban environmental justice movements in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

ABSTRACT Environmental justice oriented movements have emerged in various cities throughout the world in response to environmental hazards impacting urban residents. This article draws on a case study from Yogyakarta in Indonesia and refers to environmental justice movement theories in chronicling protests from local civil society actors in regard to scarcity of water resources and the demands for urban development policies and practices that are based on environmental justice regarding fairness in distribution, recognition of diverse participants, and public participation. The civil society actions in Yogyakarta are focused on demanding equal access to water resources, recognition of the voices and aspirations of citizens, and the provision of adequate space for the participation of urban residents. This article argues that civil society actors have the capacity to create platforms for environmental justice and resistance to inequitable and unsustainable urban development practices.

GEOPOLITICAL FEATURES OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDIVIDUAL RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT OF KYRGYZSTAN

The article discusses the emergence and typology of "individual housing development", which formed the basis of the current state. Their structures are investigated by regional features in the urban development practice of Kyrgyzstan. The influences of historical, architectural, ethnic, and regional data are revealed. It touches upon the problems of the current state of individual housing development.

EU Smart City Lighthouse Projects between Top-Down Strategies and Local Legitimation: The Case of Hamburg

The concept of the smart city has become increasingly popular in recent years and a large number of cities globally follow smart city strategies. By awarding subsidies in the Horizon 2020 programme, the European Union (EU) has taken on an influential role in how smart city projects are conceived and implemented in European municipalities. Using the example of the smart city pilot project mySMARTLife in Hamburg, the purpose of this article is to examine the area of tension between strategically pursuing own objectives and adjustment to external provisions of the EU funding framework. In a qualitative single case study, the article analyses what implications the project mySMARTLife has on urban development practice and local governance arrangements in Hamburg. Examining current literature on smart cities from the perspective of multi-level governance and presenting the current state of research dealing with EU smart city projects, a theoretical framework is developed. The analysis reveals that, due to the EU funding framework, precise project contents are contractually defined at an early stage when local stakeholders have limited involvement in this process. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the EU smart city funding in the project mySMARTLife is more limited to the implementation of individual interventions than to a comprehensive smart city strategy. As a result, this article considers EU-funded smart city initiatives as experimental fields that enable cities to gain experiences that can be incorporated into local strategic development objectives.

Smart Eco-City Strategies and Solutions for Sustainability: The Cases of Royal Seaport, Stockholm, and Western Harbor, Malmö, Sweden

Sustainable urbanism is seen today as one of the keys towards unlocking the quest for a sustainable society. As a central paradigm of sustainable urbanism, the eco-city is promoted by global and local policies as one of the preferred responses to the challenges of sustainable development. It is argued that eco-city strategies are expected to deliver positive outcomes in terms of providing healthy and livable human environments in conjunction with minimal demand on resources and thus minimal environmental impacts. As such, it is pertinent to examine how the eco-city model and especially its three sustainability dimensions is practiced and justified in urban planning and development at the local level. This is motivated by the increased interest in developing sustainable urban districts. In this light, this study seeks to answer the following two questions: What are the key strategies of the eco-city district model, and in what ways do they mutually complement one another in terms of producing the expected tripartite value of sustainability? To what extent does the eco-city district model support and contribute to the environmental, economic, and social goals of sustainability? To illuminate the phenomenon of the eco-city district accordingly, a descriptive case study is adopted as a qualitative research methodology, where the empirical basis is mainly formed by urban planning and development documents in two eco-city districts—Royal Seaport, Stockholm, and Western Harbor, Malmö, Sweden—in combination with qualitative interview data, secondary data, and scientific literature. This study shows that the eco-city district models of SRS and Western Harbor involve mainly design and technology, supported with behavioral change, as key strategies and solutions for achieving urban sustainability. Design encompasses greening, passive solar houses, sustainable transportation, mixed land use, and diversity. And technology comprises green technologies, energy efficiency technologies, and waste management systems. Design contributes to the three goals of sustainability, and technology contributes mostly to the environmental and economic goals of sustainability. Behavioral change is associated with sustainable travel, waste separation, and energy consumption. Moreover, at the core of the eco-city district model is the clear synergy between the underlying strategies in terms of their cooperation to produce combined effects greater than the sum of their separate effects with respect to the benefits of sustainability. Further, this study demonstrates that while the environmental, economic, and social goals of sustainability are represented in eco-city district strategies on a discursive level, institutionalized planning practices show that the environmental goals remain at the core of planning, while the economic and social goals still play second fiddle. Nevertheless, new measures have recently been implemented in Western Harbor that are expected to strengthen their influence over urban development practices, whereas the Royal Seaport program mainly focuses on the environmental and some economic aspects, which is a shortcoming that should be recognized and dealt with.

Transformation and sustainable development of sanitary engineering systems in the cities of the future

The transformation of the sanitary engineering systems is constant and closely connected with the development of urban development theory and practice. It is also influenced by scientific and technological progress in other areas of human activity. The initiators of the revival and further development of the movement to build cities-gardens in the near future are engineers working to create a model for the sustainable development of urban sanitary improvement. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the paradigm shift in the field of city sewerage construction technologies is due to the resumption of the search for resource-saving technologies that reduce the emission of pollutants into the environment due to the introduction of promising technological solutions for the separation of household wastewater into separate streams for the purpose of production of secondary products from wastewater components. A list of the main research directions on the modified technologies development that will ensure the sustainable sanitary systems development in the cities in the future was proposed based on a generalization of conceptual solutions for the transformation of the sewerage systems of cities and settlements.

Features Functional Planning Organization and Composition of the Coastal Territories of the Central Part of Novokuznetsk

A review of the current state of world practice in urban coastal development showed increasing interest in coastal zones as cities grew. Coastal areas are considered as contact areas of cultural (urbanized) and natural landscapes. The study identified the main urban planning problems related to the development of coastal territories, outlined the directions of effective use of the coastal zone of the center of the Siberian city of Novokuznetska. The article analyzes the evolutionary development of the planning structure of the city of Novokuznetska, noting the stages of its historical formation over two centuries. The requirements for the comfort of the city and the prospects for its further planning changed over time, and as a result, there was a need for urban planning reconstruction with appropriate changes to the earlier completed and approved draft master plans.

Urban planning ideas and concepts that influenced the development of New Urbanism movement

New Urbanism is an urban planning concept aimed at creation of a comfortable urban space, oriented towards human and environment that satisfies the communication needs of citizens, while retaining function of city as a system of effective  development, distribution and augmentation of resources, as well as the impact upon social structure through creation of conditions for communication between people. An ideal city for the adherers of New Urbanism is the one, where is the streets and public spaces are the center of social activity, and environment is adequate to a person. The article explores the urban planning concepts and ideas of the XX century: garden cities movement of Ebenezer Howard, regionalism of Patrick Geddes and Lewis Mumford, idea of neighborhood and superblock of Clarence Perry and Clarence Stein, impact of urban development practice of Jane Jacobs, Léon Krierm, Kevin Lynch and Donald Appleyard, as well as the factors of emergence of the Congress for the New Urbanism. The author examine the fundamental principles of each concept, their key representatives, as well as legacy or rejection of the ideas by the New Urbanism movement. Overall, the concept of New Urbanism suggests the approach towards city planning that is aimed at creation of comfortable urban environment oriented towards people. The New Urbanism movement is called to lay the foundation for sustainable development of urbanized territories, and establish such city planning principles and rearrangement of urban environment, which would be able to ensure high quality of life without damaging the natural framework.

A load-carrier perspective examination on the change of ecological environment carrying capacity during urbanization process in China

Urbanization has prompted a dramatic social and economic development during the past decades in China. As a long-term national strategy, urbanization can only be implemented effectively with sufficient and sustainable ecological environment resources. By appreciating that the ecological environment carrying capacity (EECC) is a yardstick for guiding the practice of sustainable urban development, it is therefore pressing to examine the change of EECC adequately, so that the sustainable urbanization can be addressed appropriately. This paper develops a new method from load-carrier perspective to explore the change of EECC performance in the rapid urbanizing China. The EECC performance on water, land, atmosphere and overall perspectives were measured for 30 provinces in China based on the established method. The results show that most provinces in China are experiencing an improving EECC performance during the urbanization process, particularly with an obvious progress in land dimension. In referring to the spatial difference of overall EECC performance, the gap between 30 provinces has been narrowing during surveyed years. However, few provinces including Chongqing, Shandong and Jiangxi have undergone a degradation in overall EECC performance. The EECC performance in atmosphere dimension is still considered as a challenge faced by most provinces, evidenced by high level of PM2.5 concentration. These research findings provide valuable references not only for Chinese governments to formulate effective policy instruments and strategy measures for improving ecological environmental carrying status, but also for researchers to further study in the ecological environment carrying capacity in the context of other countries.

Effects of Elevated Sea Levels and Waves on Southern California Estuaries During the 2015\u20132016 El Ni\xf1o

The 2015–2016 El Niño provided insight into how low-inflow estuaries might respond to future climate regimes, including high sea levels and more intense waves. High waves and water levels coupled with low rainfall along the Southern California coastline provided the opportunity to examine how extreme ocean forcing impacts estuaries independently from fluvial events. From November 2015 to April 2016, water levels were measured in 13 Southern California estuaries, including both intermittently closed and perennially open estuaries with varying watershed size, urban development, and management practices. Elevated ocean water levels caused raised water levels and prolonged inundation in all of the estuaries studied. Water levels inside perennially open estuaries mirrored ocean water levels, while those inside intermittently closed estuaries (ICEs) exhibited enhanced higher-high water levels during large waves, and tides were truncated at low tides due to a wave-built sand sill at the mouth, resulting in elevated detided water levels. ICEs closed when sufficient wave-driven sand accretion formed a barrier berm across the mouth separating the estuary from the ocean, the height of which can be estimated using estuarine lower-low water levels. During the 2015–2016 El Niño, a greater number of Southern California ICEs closed than during a typical year and ICEs that close annually experienced longer than normal closures. Overall, sill accretion and wave exposure were important contributing factors to individual estuarine response to ocean conditions. Understanding how estuaries respond to increased sea levels and waves and the factors that influence closures will help managers develop appropriate adaptation strategies.

Anchoring Urban Development: Globalisation, Attractiveness and Complexity

Since the work of Hoyt in the 1930s, economic theories of urban development have stressed the primacy of manufacturing because of the existence of a regional multiplier effect. This model was extended to traded services and, in the last 10 years, to the residential and presential economy, taking into account the fact that mobile consumers and residents also bring monetary flows into regions. The city today is both a productive agglomeration and a place of living, for both local and extra-local consumers, heralding the end of the primacy of manufacturing. In this article, we go a step further and consider the primacy of other kinds of export, either based on selling competitive goods or on attracting consumers. Due to changes in globalisation and to the rise of interurban competition for spending, incomes earned on exports are less and less likely to be spent locally, and instead flow out, progressively invalidating the multiplier effect. Consequently, the hypothesis of this article is that the main issue for urban development theories and practices is combining competitiveness in terms of exports with attractiveness to local as well as to external consumers. In this article, we call complexity the idea of pushing aside the focus on exports in order to understand the tensions and synergies between all activities and populations present within the urban space. In order to formulate new research questions, we build a typology of urban income flows and activities.

Integration of landslide hazard into urban planning across Europe

An enquiry-based and participatory analysis approach is carried out to identify the strengths and weaknesses in the heterogeneous legislations across Europe that regulate the integration of landslide hazard into urban planning. Twenty one national and eight regional Geological Surveys (GSs) have participated in the analysis. The GSs report almost 4000 recent (2015–2017) damaging landslides events resulting in 39 fatalities and 155 injuries, destruction to housing, infrastructure and properties. In addition, 11 countries report 18 MORLE events over the past 10 years responsible for 150 fatalities and severe economic impacts. Results also reveal almost 48 million people living in areas with high and very high degrees of landslide-susceptibility (around 1 million km2 according to ELSUS v2). This work shows that almost half the participating countries (10 countries) have no legal guidance in the National Land Bill to stipulate consideration of landslides in urban planning practices, and mapping tools are often not adapted to a standard required to inform sustainable development. Furthermore, there is a wide range of laws and a large heterogeneity of mapping methods, scales and procedures. A relevant deficiency detected in many countries is the lack of landslide maps at a detailed resolution for urban planning. Additionally, some case studies of suboptimal urban development practices in areas of known instability have been discussed; they are found to be related to weak rule of law and/or absence of good governance. This paper shows inconsistencies across Europe in the handling of landslides and proposes a series of key actions to improve this situation, highlighting the need for a common regulatory framework to deal with this geohazard appropriately.

Importance of tangible and intangible heritage of the core area of Chowk, Lucknow

The tangible and intangible heritage of a country in a mélange of epitome created during various phases of history. The heritage core city areas of many South Asian countries are losing their original identity because of the rampant globalization and modern development. The conservation and preservation policies of such heritage core city areas need attention towards its holistic integration with urban development practices which can bridge a gap between the old and the new developments of the cities. Almost all the heritage core city areas have historical, religious, social, cultural, spiritual, and scientific or aesthetic significance. There is multiple layer of historical importance which give unique identification of heritage built up areas. The built-up heritage of the core areas is based on the typology of buildings, historical importance, architectural character in terms of plan and ornamentation, the socio-cultural lifestyle of people, economy, geographical location, governance, etc. This paper is an abstract from the research work of the author, where there is an attempt to discuss the way in which conservation is integrated with the urban development and in turn its possible contribution to the urban development of core city area of Chowk, Lucknow. The paper concluded with establishing a relationship between the tangible and intangible assets of the heritage of the core area of Chowk, Lucknow. It proposes a methodology towards conserving the cultural heritage of Chowk in today’s context.

Waste and Metropolitan Governance as Vehicles of Eviscerating Urbanism: A Case from Ankara

ABSTRACT The scholarship on waste governance tends to consider it a standalone policy area. This article seeks to enrich this scholarship by attending to relationships between waste governance, the transformation of waste spaces, and capitalist urban planning and development practices. I draw on the notion of eviscerating urbanization to argue that metropolitan and waste governance act as mechanisms to capture value from waste and land simultaneously. I present original research from Ankara, Turkey, and I narrate the evolving relationship between the waste disposal system and urban transformation in the early 2000s. The findings reveal the strategic role and agency of metropolitan governance in the processes of value production.

A REVIEW OF THE EFFECTS OF LAND-USE CHANGE ON SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY IN AN EMERGING ECONOMY

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to review the quest for physical development and economic viability which has overshadowed the social aspect of sustainable development that produces a liveable urban settlement in many emerging economies. Many of the urban areas of developing countries are characterized by sporadic/unguided land-use changes as a result of urbanization coupled with poor planning and management of land-use. Unfortunately, these changes are impacting negatively on the social fabric of sustainable and this calls for urgent attention.
 Methodology: The study is based on an extensive review of literature on land-use changes and social sustainability in both the developed and emerging economies in order to identify gaps in practice and management of urban land development.
 Main Findings: The results showed that although a considerable investment has been made and enormous efforts geared towards achieving sustainable development in Nigeria urban areas, little or no attention devoted to social sustainability in the planning and execution of these projects has rather led to unsustainable development. Many developmental projects and planning were politicized and thereby jettisoned social sustainability in the process.
 Implication: It is important that urban land-use change should be appropriately monitored, purposively driven, and stakeholders must be responsive to promoting social sustainability to achieve a wholesome urban development.
 Novelty: This study to the best of our knowledge is the first attempt that links urban land-use change and social sustainability especially in Nigeria. It has also provided information to guide the land-use planners, the policymakers and other stakeholders towards achieving a wholesome urban land-use development.