Urban Development Programs Research Articles

Historic centres of Syrian towns ruined by the war: restoration through urban planning

Introduction. Urban development of historic centres of towns, destroyed by man-induced disasters, means finding the balance between the preservation of the cultural environment and development of a new medium capable of meeting present-day challenges. These problems can be effectively tackled in respect of architectural ensembles, monuments of history and architecture having the status of world heritage sites, as they are restored through the efforts of the world community. This problem is particularly acute in the historic cities of Syria that suffered from warlike operations at the outset of the 21st century.
 Materials and methods. The system approach was employed by the co-authors to develop and present a historic and genetic model and to set the borders of territories that can be qualified as historic landmarks. Processed aerial imagery and on-site examination of buildings have enabled the co-authors to assess the extent of destruction of buildings and structures, located within the borders of urban historic centres, identified by means of urban zoning techniques.
 Results. The co-authors have ranked the buildings and structures in the districts of Homs, Syria, using the extent of destruction as a criterion. They also propose a definition for the notion of cultural heritage sites (“CHS”), as well as the typology of CHS or “landmarks” in the Syrian Arab Republic. The co-authors offer a methodology for the examination of localities, destroyed during the war, needed to develop their restoration roadmaps. They have also substantiated the need to regenerate the urban environment in the Bani Sibhaa community, to restore the historic centre of Homs to its initial appearance due to its status of a special cultural heritage site, as it has fragments of historic urban planning and ancient buildings.
 Conclusions. The damage assessment of buildings, structures, and items of historic and cultural heritage, performed using qualitative values, helps to assess the condition of the cultural environment, resources and valuables available in the historic centre; it also serves as the basis for urban zoning and setting boundaries of historical sites. The approach, developed by the co-authors, encompasses prerequisites and a set of instruments to be used to develop reconstruction strategies for the areas previously exposed to military operations, as well as urban development programmes, that will boost cultural processes capable of producing positive impact on urban and regional economies through job generation, travel industry development, and revival of folk crafts. The findings will be contributed to the conceptual design of multiscale cultural policy events that can boost the development of local areas.

Olympic Legacies

AbstractExpectations of urban upgrading projects in light of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro oscillated between hopeful prospects and pessimistic anticipation. The different opinions were clearly interwoven with stark socioeconomic inequalities and urban segregation. While authorities spread a celebratory narrative of improvements for the whole city, critics depicted a dystopian vision of spatial interventions that would violate the poor’s right to the city. We side with those critics who foresaw the uneven consequences of these sports mega‐events. Nevertheless, we also think that the experiences and narratives of poor residents themselves often get lost in such struggles. This photo essay provides insights into the displacement that took place against the backdrop of these mega‐events. In both text and images, it zooms in on the consequences of an urban development program that was carried out in the run‐up to the Olympics in two favelas bordering Rio’s affluent South Zone. It shows residents’ diverse ways of dealing with the intervention and its aftermath. It demonstrates how their displacement entailed decreased notions of collectivity, neighborliness, and security, and how it gave rise to new expectations, grievances, and claims on authorities.

Karataş Tarihi Yerleşimi'nin Dönüşümü Üzerine Bir İnceleme

There is growing evidence that heritage conservation carries benefits in many areas of the urban environment. Local authorities, decision makers, institutions and authorities involved in urban development programs have recognized the urgent need to preserve their cultural resources and assets. The scientific community and research activities have brought to attention the development of methodologies, technologies and tools to guide, forecast, monitor and assess old buildings. The concept of historical environments is first drawn in Venice Charter as “urban or rural setting”. It is defined as “the evidence of a particular civilization, a significant development or a historic event” (ICOMOS, 1964). According to this charter, monuments should be evaluated with its environment. Ahunbay (2011) stated that historical environments are open-air museums that reveals how people have live in the past. Historical environments are educational places in terms of lifestyle, construction techniques, social life and culture. Washington Charter (1987) defined the elements, which is constituted of the historical characteristics of the historical settlements as follows: economic and social development, urban and regional planning should be integrated to the conservation of historic towns and urban areas. Urban patterns, open space, green space and buildings relationships, scale, size, style, construction technique, material, colour and decoration of the buildings, surrounding of the setting and its relationship between the urban area, various function has acquired over time. Burra Charter (2013) provides guideline for conservation and management. Conservation defined as retain cultural significance of a place. It is part of management of places of cultural significance. First step of conservation is understanding of cultural significance, then development of policy and management of the place should be developed. In accordance with these ideas, the conservation of the historical site approach is developed. To conserve characteristics of the cities and preserve its identity, conservation of a region (instead of conservation a single building) should be done (Radoslav et al, 2012). Historical settlements are one of the important elements that determine the identity of the cities. These environments have many values including art, architectural, historical and documentary. They provide information about historical settlements and lifestyle. It is important to conserve these environments, to sustain these values (Ahunbay, 2011). They make cities more attractive and it promote the economy at the same time. This idea increased the attention to historic settlements to manage sustainable urban development (Radoslav et al, 2012). Historical environments should be evaluated with strategies that have a holistic and participatory approach. The study focuses on Karataş (Quarantine) historical settlement, once occupied by Jewish, Armenian, Greek and Turkish families during the 19th Century Ottoman Period. They built buildings to support their communities’ needs. Some of these buildings are still standing with same or different building functions. Many of them with the help of the restoration projects, survived to emphasize the cultural identity of their period. After the intrusion of modern apartments, mass road constructions, seaside fills and incline in population, Karataş area had transformed rapidly. The aim of this study is to evaluate current approaches to the Historical Karataş region and defining new strategies to conservation of the site.

Showcasing Relationships between Neighborhood Design and Wellbeing Toronto Indicators

Cities are the keystone landscape features for achieving sustainability locally, regionally, and globally. With the increasing impacts of urban expansion eminent, policymakers have encouraged researchers to advance or invent methods for managing coupled human–environmental systems associated with local and regional sustainable development planning. Although progress has been made, there remains no universal instrument for attaining sustainability on neither regional nor local planning scales. Previous sustainable urbanization studies have revealed that landscape configuration metrics can supplement other measures of urban well-being, yet few have been included in public data dashboards or contrasted against local well-being indicators. To advance this sector of sustainable development planning, this study had three main intentions: (1) to produce a foundational suite of landscape ecology metrics from the 2007 land cover dataset for the City of Toronto; (2) to visualize and interpret spatial patterns of neighborhood streetscape patch cohesion index (COHESION), Shannon’s diversity index (SHDI), and four Wellbeing Toronto indicators across the 140 Toronto neighborhoods; (3) to quantitatively assess the global collinearity and local explanatory power of the well-being and landscape measures showcased in this study. One-hundred-and-thirty landscape ecology metrics were computed: 18 class configuration metrics across seven land cover categories and four landscape diversity metrics. Anselin Moran’s I-test was used to illustrate significant spatial patterns of well-being and landscape indicators; Pearson’s correlation and conditional autoregressive (CAR) statistics were used to evaluate relationships between them. Spatial “hot-spots” and/or “cold-spots” were found in all streetscape variables. Among other interesting results, Walk Score® was negatively related to both tree canopy and grass/shrub connectedness, signifying its lack of consideration for the quality of ecosystem services and environmental public health—and subsequently happiness—during its proximity assessment of socioeconomic amenities. In sum, landscape ecology metrics can provide cost-effective ecological integrity addendum to existing and future urban resilience, sustainable development, and well-being monitoring programs.

Understanding competing and conflicting interests for peri-urban land in Ethiopia’s era of urbanization

Understanding the competing and conflicting interests in peri-urban land is crucial for informed decisions and well-managed urbanization. These interests in peri-urban land in Ethiopia are explored from a political economy perspective, using desk review and case study research. The findings show that the state, the private business sector and the local community are the three main sets of players with competing interests in peri-urban land, which has resulted in the rapid conversion of farmland into built-up urban property. The more land is expropriated by government agents, and the more land is developed by developers, the more revenues are collected by the government and the more profit is realized by developers and dealers, but with less opportunity and security for local communities in the peri-urban areas. Therefore, urban spatial expansion and development programmes in urban fringe areas require purposeful intervention of the government in a way that can accommodate the interests of all parties without conflict.

Veterans' assignment to single-site versus scattered-site permanent supportive housing.

To address homelessness among Veterans, a growing proportion of permanent supportive housing units supported by the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program are allocated to programs where multiple Veterans with a history of homelessness live in a particular building, referred to as single-site housing. This mixed-methods study-including administrative data from Veterans who moved into HUD-VASH housing and qualitative data from focus groups with services providers at 10 single-site programs-describes the characteristics and needs of Veterans who moved into single-site HUD-VASH programs, the rationale for developing single-site HUD-VASH programs, and the services provided in single-site programs that are responsive to Veterans' needs. Based on quantitative analyses, Veterans who were older and had chronic medical and mental health conditions and sought related care were at increased odds of receiving single-site housing. Qualitatively, we found that HUD-VASH programs developed single-site programs for two reasons: to ensure that the most vulnerable Veterans remained housed through the provision of supportive services and to increase housing options for hard-to-house Veterans, including those who require more support because of medical, mental health, or substance use disorders; physical disabilities; or lack of ability to live independently for other reasons. Due to the high needs of Veterans served by single-site programs, development of these programs should consider both space and staffing needs. Future research should assess the relationship between assignment to housing type and health and housing outcomes for participants as well as service enhancements to address Veterans' needs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Can Urbanization Improve Household Welfare? Evidence from Ethiopia

Despite evolving evidence that Africa is experiencing urbanization in a different way, empirical evaluations of the welfare implications of urban-development programs in Africa remain scant. We investigated the welfare implications of recent urbanization in rural areas and small towns in Ethiopia using household-level longitudinal data and satellite-based night-light intensity. Controlling for time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity (across individuals and localities) and exploiting intertemporal and interspatial variation in satellite-based night-light intensity, we found that urbanization, as measured by night-light intensity, was associated with significant welfare improvement. In particular, we found that a one-unit increase in night-light intensity was associated with an improvement in household welfare of about 2%. Much of this was driven by the increase in labor-market participation in the non-farm sector, mainly salaried employment, induced by urbanization. Other potential impact pathways, such as an increase in consumer prices or migration explained little (if any) of the change in household welfare. Finally, our quantile and inequality analyses suggested that the observed urbanization had a negligible effect on the distribution of household welfare. Our results can inform public policy debates on the consequences and implications of urban expansion in Africa.

Citizenship at the Margins: Exploring Participation as ‘Right to the City’ in Vizhinjam, Kerala

This article explores the nature of urban citizenship among fishers in Kerala, one of the state’s most marginalised communities, by analysing their participation in a centrally sponsored slum rehabilitation programme—Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY)—in Vizhinjam, Thiruvananthapuram. The ‘right to participate’ is considered an integral part of the ‘right to the city’, and the inability of the fishing community to participate in the decision-making processes of urban development programmes that directly affect their lives reveals the exclusionary nature of their citizenship. In a state that is renowned for its achievements in human development and governance, the fishing community continues to be marginalised and lack collective power to influence policies. Participatory meetings in such contexts become tokenistic, and their transformative capacity is undermined. The inefficiency of participatory meetings organised under RAY also stems from the powerlessness of local governments to alter urban programmes designed by national governments.

Real innovation in urban planning? Assessing the institutional capacity in the frame of the integrated sustainable urban development programmes

ABSTRACT Since the 1990s, the EU Urban policy has provided several opportunities to explore innovation at local level. This policy is based on the so-called Integrated Sustainable Urban Development (ISUD) approach. This paper explores to what extent the URBANA programme, launched by the Spanish government in the frame of the EU Cohesion Policy 2007–2013, has promoted a ‘new way of doing things’ in local administrations. The research addresses three main objectives. Firstly, to identify which abilities are linked to the ISUD approach. Secondly, to understand how urban managers’ capacity has been developed within local administrations in the frame of the URBANA programme. Finally, to assess the effect of URBANA Institutional Capacity (IC) on the local administration. The information has been obtained from the analysis of EU and Spanish official documents, in-depth interviews and a questionnaire targeted to the local technicians. The general conclusion is that there is evidence of an urban Europeanisation in Spain. The mainstream of the ISUD approach is clear at formal level, but also in the level of acceptance of these requirements by the Spanish municipalities. The ISUD approach remains as a ‘way of doing’, even if proposals are not co-funded by EU funds.

Problematising the peacebuilding strategies through embedded and situated research in Pyla

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to use Foucault’s genealogical analysis to problematise the influence of political agreements and resolutions on Cypriots’ social life and to examine spatial practices. At the same time, this paper deals with the implications of the UN’s vision for Pyla in Cyprus as a prototype of integrity and bi-communality. Furthermore, it analyses and problematises the UN mandate system in order to challenge “peace-keeping” strategies.Design/methodology/approachThis investigation has been achieved through the author’s experience of situating and being in the site as well as through conducting site-specific interventions, performances, walking, observations, writing and interviews. Adding to these analytical methods, the involvement of the feminist theories in different ways allowed author to be more critical, reflexive and personal. In addition, the author critically analyses legal documents such as the Cyprus Constitution and the UN’s reports, documents and resolutions in order to understand the connection between politics and accordingly the creation of space.FindingsThis embedded critical spatial research into the in-between village Pyla establishes a new methodological understanding for design interventions that do not target a solution but, by implementing a reflexive practice, they create resistance practices. Focusing on these practices should allow a critical reflection on the previously applied urban development programs and their impact on Pyla and other cities and villages in Cyprus. The findings and outcomes that are presented through this research can be used by different powers for a critical reflection on the role of design in conflict situations.Research limitations/implicationsOne of the limitations of this research has been the lack of direct contact with the Greek Cypriot inhabitants of the village in order to understand their specific views on the conflict and their participation in the everyday life of the village. One of the reasons for this has been the differences in language which has made it difficult to approach the citizens and discuss their struggles as they would not necessarily confine in an outsider. Nonetheless, the author has tried to capture Greek Cypriot views in the circumstances of the UN and authorities meeting and, where possible has relied on literature to guide the understanding of the village life and Greek Cypriot role in it.Originality/valueThe author’s critical reflection on the unification-focused resolution strategies for the divided Cyprus (created by the UN, academics and architects) established the unique strength of this research paper. This research does not perceive the Cyprus conflict and its division as a problem, instead, it recognises the conflict and works within its division in order to understand the hidden political transformations, powers, appreciations and practices which become subordinate to the conflict. Different practices challenge the idea behind the normalisation processes that the UN aimed to achieve and reacts to those who came up with unification strategies; nonetheless, this should open new visions in the negotiations between the different powers.

Affirmation of the Social Approach in the Case of Relocation of Community in Ciliwung Riverbank

Urban development projects often lead to social contraction between the technical-physical approach and the socio-cultural approach. To explain the problem, this paper inspires the concepts of urban anthropology and socio-cultural development. The study was conducted in 2016-2017 in community located in Ciliwung riverbank, Jakarta. The methods used include in-depth interviews, participatory observations, and document analysis. The results of the study show that although river normalization projects and relocation projects have been equipped with a policy framework and technical framework that accommodates the interests of the community, the implementation of the social approach has not been implemented consistently. This condition raises doubts, rejections, and resistance from the community to maintain the social, economic and environmental resources that have been ruled on the riverbanks. This research confirms the importance of affirming socio-cultural approaches in urban development programs and projects that are carried out consistently by fulfilling the prerequisites for freedom in time, financing, and management resources.

Cross-Sector Collaboration in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs): A Critical Analysis of an Urban Sustainability Development Program

In the last years, a shift in the promotion of sustainable development in Higher Education from a focus on universities’ core areas of teaching and research to “whole institution approaches” with an emphasis on the operational management of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) can be observed in different countries. With the aim to foster sustainability, HEIs have increasingly built cross-sectoral networks, involving not only academics but also practitioners in order to relate sustainability not only to research but also to outreach activities. Although there is an increasing body of literature evaluating such initiatives according to supposedly objective management criteria and indicators, there is still a lack of studies that investigate how the social meaning of knowledge production is (re-)negotiated in and through these partnerships. In this article, we analyze how individuals engaged in a cross-sector partnership make sense of the organizational dilemmas and ambiguities that stem from the complexity of working together across sectors in pursuit of an integrative approach to knowledge production. With the term “sector” we refer to the professional affiliations of the individuals involved in the partnerships, e.g., higher education, administration, formal education or non-governmental organizations. We focus on an illustrative cross-sectoral partnership: The Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (ISU), a collaborative project between Malmö University and Malmö’s city administration to facilitate research and planning collaborations between both organizations in respect to furthering sustainable urban (re-)development and higher education in Malmö, Sweden. By employing a constant comparative approach based on Grounded Theory to analyze data collected with focus groups, semi-structured qualitative interviews and document analysis, we claim that rather than entering a partnership with predefined identities, values and sectoral or professional preferences, individuals engage in a narrative struggle about the organizational character of their partnership. Accordingly, an important avenue for investigating cross-sector partnerships is to explore the constructive dilemma of different organizing principles in a cross-sector partnership, and the way people negotiate the boundaries between them. For the cross-sector partnership studied the constructive dilemma for those engaging in it was to separate and link project, organizational and network organizing principles in their work. Implementing whole institutions approaches in order to promote sustainable development in and through HEIs, would accordingly profit much from a deeper analytical investigation of the process of navigating professional identities and organizational narrative(s) in boundary-spanning, cross-sector partnerships.

Shaping of Public Space in Downtown Area on the Example of the City of Częstochowa

The author deals with the evolution of public spaces in the city of Częstochowa over the years. The choice of a medium-sized city such as Częstochowa results from a broader analysis of cities that are important in Polish history and belong to the culture-creating places of the nation. In such places one should expect, above all, urban and architectural solutions that emerge from the uniqueness of the place and its role - a pilgrimage city, an academic and tourist centre. On the basis of collected archival, cartographic and photographic materials, the author presents changes in selected urban spaces from the early 20th century to modern times. Selected examples of urban spaces are located in the key places of the compositional axis of the urban layout of the city and play a vital role in the minds of inhabitants. The first example showing urban changes in downtown areas is the urban park zone near the Jasna Góra monastery. This area stayed at the beginning of the composition canvas for the urban layout of the city of Częstochowa (1826). The location of the area and historical background creates a huge potential of the place attracting city residents as well as tourists and pilgrims. Secondly, The central part of the historical urban axis of the city is Biegański Square. The urban development program developed by the city authorities assumed the elimination of vehicular traffic and the creation of a cohesive public space in the city centre (2011). Thirdly, urban spaces of the city and the Old Market Square are discussed. This is the area closing the historical axis of the Częstochowa urban foundation. This problematic area requires revitalization activities in response to contemporary functional requirements and newly defined social needs. The discussed changes within the urban space illustrate the process of transforming these areas into special places - important for the urban development of the city.

Administrative and Organizational Mechanisms for the Spatial Development of Shrinking Cities

The problem of population decline, economic activity decrease and deterioration of investment attractiveness has become topical on the agenda of sustainable development of industrial or single-industry cities in most developed countries (uSA, Eu, Australia) during the last century. New urban trends are increasing of the economic efficiency of urban areas usage, encouraging restrain of the population, including youth and employable people, and attracting new ones through the creation of required jobs and the formation of comfortable living conditions. All of these demanded the mechanisms and tools development for the social and economic development of cities. world experience has accumulated various approaches to the transformation of shrinking cities — economic and financial instruments supporting the development and provision of partnership of key stakeholders of cities, integrated urban development programs, tools for optimizing the spatial and territorial structure of cities, etc. The paper analyzes the existing practices of application of administrative and organizational mechanisms for the spatial development of shrinking cities in the united States, Britain, Germany, Spain and Australia. Based on the analysis, key conclusions are drawn about the factors that divide the trajectories from decline to the cities restoration. The practical significance of the conclusions lies in the possibility of using them in the development of strategies and programs for the russian cities development that are experiencing a tendency towards a contraction of economic and territorial space.

Assessment of Opportunities and Challenges of Urban Forestry in Nawalparasi District, Nepal

This article highlights a research carried out in Gaindakot municipality of Nawalparasi district, Nepal to evaluate the opportunities and challenges of urban forestry regarding identification of existing policies and documentation of institutions involved in the field of urban forestry. Systematic random sampling method was used for the data collection during household survey. The study revealed that urban forests are governed through the all-size-fits-all forest policies, which are not favorable to urban forestry development. Plantation in the barren lands, park development, social mobilization and awareness raising are the major activities of urban forestry. The research also showed that main opportunities of urban forestry development in the study area are newly formed local government, high level willingness of local people to participate in urban forestry development, and presence of community forests around the city. On the other hand, lack of public space, narrow roads, increasing fragmentation of land, and lack of coordinated and planned efforts are major constraints to urban forestry development. This study recommends that government should take necessary steps to establish the institutional setup to facilitate the urban forestry development programmes. For this, mobilizing social organizations could be an effective tool to promote urban forestry, but a long-term plan for plantation and their management needs to be in place.

PEMBERDAYAAN MASYARAKAT MELALUI PROGRAM CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) MANDIRI BERSAMA BANK MANDIRI DI MRICAN UMBULHARJO

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an important part of a company, because in Indonesia there are laws that regulation of CSR. In addition to complying with the Act, CSR is also carried out because of the company’s awareness in assisting the country in alleviating poverty. One of the companies in the banking sector—Bank Mandiri—has a CSR program with empowerment, namely Mandiri Bersama Mandiri (MBM). This study attempts to describe the concept, implementation and results of the MBM program conducted by Bank Mandiri in Mrican, Giwangan, Umbulharjo, Yogyakarta. The results of this study indicate that the concept of Bank Mandiri’s CSR in the MBM program in broad outline is to build community independence through the utilization of local potential. The implementation of CSR carried out by Bank Mandiri through urban agriculture development programs, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), and the development of public facilities. Meanwhile, the results of physical empowerment are the creation of a clean and beautiful environment in Mrican, the realization of community meeting halls, increased cooking equipment for PKK mothers, savings in expenditure, and the creation of an increase in the community's economy. Non-physical is the formation of public awareness, increased knowledge of the community, the formation of skilled mothers, and the creation of community independence.

From policy community to issue networks: Implementing social sustainability in a Swedish urban development programme

In this article a “sustainable urban development” programme in Sweden (Delegation for Sustainable Cities, 2008–2012) is analysed, with a particular focus on the social dimension, and in the light of a commonly held assumption of a general shift in politics over time “from government to governance”. However, on closer examination the programme comes out as something quite different. Taking “policy community” as our conceptual point of departure the article first portrays how post-war housing policy in Sweden was implemented jointly by a potent central government, strong local governments, public housing companies and major interest organisations. The Delegation for Sustainable Cities, on the other hand, was launched as “a national arena for sustainable urban development” with a multifaceted mission, including the production and dissemination of knowledge through best practice; the promotion of multi-actor dialogue and coordination; and the use and export of green technology. Implementation of the programme was delegated to a small number of projects in selected housing districts. In relation to the narrative “from government to governance”, the Delegation for Sustainable Cities rather indicates the opposite, i.e. government steering by a combination of structural non-intervention, rhetorical flair and selective fragmentation into project-bound issue networks. The sustainability discourse thus turned out to be a perfect umbrella for the fragmented implementation structure of the Delegation for Sustainable Cities programme. Instead of a tight, multi-level, national governance structure (policy community) we thus have a case of governing at some distance by a combination of what in recent literature have been labelled the Regulatory State and the Networked Polity.

India's Modinomics and Korea's New Southern Policy

Since Narendra Modi took the prime minister's office in May 2014, India has grown into one of the fastest growing emerging markets with an annual average economic growth rate of over 7%. Under the vision of sustainable economic growth based on structural reforms and open policy, the Modi government focused on lifting restrictions on investment, building governance, expanding infrastructure, and strengthening international economic cooperation to achieve macroeconomic stability and stimulate investment. Thanks to the government's so-called Modinomics, India's economic growth rate has risen above China's, and the country has grown to become the sixth largest economy in the world as of 2017. This paper evaluates the progress of the core development policies of Modinomics - Make in India, reforms in tax (GST), labor and land acquisition, and the flagship urban development programs (Smart Cities) - and draws policy implications for Korea's New Southern Policy towards India.

La influencia de la iniciativa URBANA 2007-2013 en el desarrollo de la capacidad institucional de la administración municipal

Desde hace años, la Unión Europea viene haciendo especial énfasis en la promoción de la capacidad institucional de las administraciones en el marco de los programas de desarrollo local y urbano. Sin embargo, hasta el momento son pocos los trabajos destinados al análisis de la capacidad institucional entre las administraciones locales españolas como producto de estas iniciativas. Este trabajo se destina al estudio de la promoción de dicha capacidad en las ciudades españolas que han implementado programas de desarrollo, en concreto, la iniciativa URBANA 2007-2013.A través de la administración de un cuestionario entre los ayuntamientos españoles y entrevistas en profundidad con actores clave en el diseño e implementación del programa, se trata de analizar la medida en que dicha capacidad se ha desarrollado, así como la relación entre su nivel de desarrollo y otros elementos del contexto local o institucional, como son la experiencia previa acumulada en programas similares y el modelo de gestión en el marco del cual se implementa el programa. Estos elementos se mostrarán como factores clave en el desarrollo de la capacidad institucional.

Technology and organised crime in the smart city: an ethnographic study of the illicit drug trade

The term “smart city” has circulated across the developed world affecting urban development programmes and government strategies. Such “future cities” are heralded for their efficient networked technologies embedded within the fabric of urban environments that provide new means of social control for the state. These cities are envisioned as a technological fix for the many problems of modern city life, yet emerging technologies are not flawless and have vulnerabilities that can be manipulated by criminal actors. Even so, there is an interesting silence about the issues of security amongst the advocates of smart cities. Furthermore, there remains limited insight into the impact of the smart cities programme from criminologists, particularly in relation to hitherto prioritised threats of organised crime, notably the illicit drugs markets and associated harms. Those who have addressed the impact of emergent technologies have done so through critiques of governmental programmes, drawing largely upon insights from science and technology studies. A key absence in this, as well as the commercial and governmental literature, is the voice of actors involved in the networks that actually constitute threats to urban security, and how they perceive and use emerging technologies for illicit ends. This paper aims to augment but also challenge this treatment of the impact of emergent technologies, by switching the analytical focus towards the principal actor-networks that constitute these threats, with a particular focus on ICT (mobile technologies and internet drug sales). It uses data from a 5-year ethnography to demonstrate how ICT reconfigures and virtually extends illicit drug markets, whilst providing insights into the workings of drug markets of the future.