Urban Diversity Research Articles

“That’s the Area of Affluent People Where We Have No Access”: Spatial Inequality, Gated Communities, and the End of Public Space in Dhaka, Bangladesh

ABSTRACT The literature suggests that the rise of gated communities causes a number of problems, creates spatial fragmentation and social exclusion, and works as a barrier to promoting urban diversity. Gated communities have grown in popularity in recent decades in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In contrast to the popular view that gated communities provide an extreme example of residential segregation, this article argues that the rise of gated communities creates a differentiated citizenship by blocking poor people’s access to public space, which is vital for their livelihoods. Weaving together observation and ethnographic research in the Sattola slum in Dhaka and its adjacent gated community, Niketon, this article argues that poor slum residents’ access to public space for livelihoods is regulated—in the name of security and preventing criminal activities—by the local gated community members’ association, which reproduces spatial inequality. The study contributes to the literature on gated communities and social segregation by revealing that private governance takes various forms and is not always separate from local government bodies; rather, local government actors and homeowners’ associations may work together to exclude other groups from gated communities in the name of security.

Flexible Zoning and Mixed Use in Seoul, Korea

Zoning has long been criticized for its negative effects and has been taken for granted that zoning works as a hurdle to urban diversity. Responses in the US have emphasized more fine-grained zoning approaches that plan mixed use. This paper introduces and evaluates Seoul’s zoning system as a possible alternative. While US zoning regulations have relied on distinguishing ever larger numbers of land use zoning categories, Seoul has opted to integrate new land uses into existing classifications, allowing for greater flexibility of use in each zone. Using municipal building records to evaluate land use in three mid-density residential districts, this paper demonstrates that Seoul’s flexible zoning is capable of producing diverse mixed use neighborhoods. It then highlights the potential downside of this approach, showing that flexibility allows for the commercialization and sectoral gentrification of residential districts. It concludes by suggesting that a combination of flexible zones and more fine-grained plans would capture the advantages of both US and Korean planning.

Does decentralization of governance promote urban diversity? Evidence from Spain

ABSTRACT The worldwide trend to decentralize the responsibilities and budgets of governments impacts regional economies in various ways. We use the example of Spain to test empirically whether the decentralization of governance is an important determinant of the sectoral composition of cities in an urban system. Our regression results, exploiting unique firm-level and time-varying transport-cost data, support the hypothesis that governance decentralization and the establishment of regional government headquarters in specific cities have been conducive to a more diverse urban economic structure and a more even city-size distribution in the Spanish urban system during a period of continuous reductions in transport costs.

Assessment of the linkage of urban green roofs, nutritional supply, and diversity status in Nepal

Rooftop garden is growing in popularity and can be seen as a green roof for the local production of crops in urban buildings. This study focuses on the nutritionally important plants grown in the r...

Local Community Perceptions of the Ecological and Socio-Economic Benefits of Spiders in Small-Scale Urban Green Spaces for Conservation Reinforcement

Spiders are among the most ubiquitous arthropods that can dwell on diverse habitats, which include small-scale urban green spaces (UGS). To promote urban diversity, we assessed the awareness of a local community situated within UGS in Davao, Philippines about the ecological roles of spiders. Data were obtained by administering survey questionnaires to 80 households using convenience sampling. The survey revealed that the local community is knowledgeable on the occurrence of spiders in their area (97.5%), in which they are mostly acquainted with spiders of Pisauridae (25%) and Araneidae (20.3%). Also, the community has recognized the important ecological roles of spiders, in which they mostly acknowledged the role of spiders as a significant source of food for other organisms (71.62%). However, a high proportion of respondents also recognized the socio-economic benefits of spiders through spider wrestling (60.81%). Henceforth, the ecological roles of spiders could be subjugated as spider wrestling is practiced in the local community, which could be a possible threat to the spider population. Thus, we highly suggest to involve concerned local communities in urban biodiversity management for the conservation of spiders in the Philippines, which is highly at risk due to its perceived socio-economic benefits.

The fluid city, urbanism as process

ABSTRACT Cities seem solid and static, but are fluid and in motion. Cities in archaeology are often identified and conceptualised through shared characteristics (e.g. irrigation, hierarchy, monuments). The archaeological record reveals that humans live together in a mosaic of diverse ways, too diverse to classify according to a small number of types. Looking at common processes over common features helps us better grasp, explain and explore contextually and comparatively the mosaic of urban diversity. I propose that ‘urban as process’ describes how humans, other species, and things come together in assemblages, connecting and participating to create new combinations and potentials. This process is constant, creative, persistent, generating new possibilities across scales. I examine ‘urbanism as process’ by bringing together recently published archaeological materials, site-plans, aerial-surveys and current research in ecology, first in Southeast Asia at Butuan in the Philippines, Angkor in Cambodia, and then globally at Tenōchtitlan/Mexico City in Mexico, and Liangzhu, China. Understanding ‘urban as process’ is useful because ongoing and future archaeology in all parts of the world will likely discover even more diversity, rather than sameness. Urbanism as process enables us to better understand how urbanism is transforming our planet and all its inhabitants in the long-run.

OLD city space from the perspective of multi community — Take a floating population community in H city as an example

<p>Taking the specific practice of an old city space as an example, this paper distinguishes the positions and practices of three actors in the space: Urban planners, managers and ordinary citizens hold an extreme modernist position, firmly believing that the old urban space needs to be removed and transformed into a new urban order; Citizens living in the old city space hold a more complex and contradictory position. As the bottom group of the city, they pay attention to the exchange value of community space, but it is difficult to change their living conditions, while maintaining the exclusion of the old city space and the floating population; The floating population builds the old urban space into a space for production and life, making it a "settled community" entering the city. Finally, the diverse position and practice of the old city space show its significance of urbanization and its important role in the construction of urban diversity.</p>

“Perception bias”: Deciphering a mismatch between urban crime and perception of safety

Crime and perception of safety are two intertwined concepts affecting the quality of life and the economic development of a society. However, few studies have quantitatively examined the difference between the two due to the lack of granular data documenting public perceptions in a given geographic context. Here, by applying a pre-trained scene understanding algorithm, we infer the perception of safety score of streetscapes for census block groups in the city of Houston using a large number of Google Street View images. Then, using this inferred perception of safety, we create “perception bias” categories for each census block group. These categories capture the level of mismatch between people’s visually perceived safety and the actual crime rates. This measure provides scalable guidance in deciphering the relationship between the built environment and crime. Finally, we construct a series of models to examine the “perception bias” with static and dynamic urban factors, including socioeconomic features (e.g., unemployment rate and ethnic compositions), urban diversity (e.g., number and diversity of Points of Interest), and urban livelihood (i.e., hourly count of visitors). Analytical and numerical results suggest that the association between characteristics of urban space and “perception bias” over crime could be paradoxical. On the one hand, neighborhoods with a higher volume of day-time visitors appear more likely to be safer than it looks (low crime rate and low safety score). On the other hand, those with a higher volume of night-time visitors are likely to be more dangerous than it looks (high crime rate). The findings add further knowledge to the long-recognized relationship between built environment and crime as well as highlight the perception of safety in cities, which in turn enhances our capacity to design urban management strategies that prevent the emergence of extreme “perception bias”.

Urban Development and Complexity: Shannon Entropy as a Measure of Diversity

ABSTRACT Shannon entropy is offered here to establish an urban diversity indicator using the city of Sheffield, UK as an illustrative case. Diversity is calculated for several time periods throughout the city’s evolution and provides a means to evaluate the ‘mix’ of green and urban space throughout its expansion and development. Secondly, three statistics models are developed to open discussion around alternative forms of urban development extrapolating from early settlement origins to the present day; these include an entropic, deterministic, and a hybrid model. Through this approach, the paper aims to aid the hypothetical exploration of urban growth dynamics.

中国城市的职业多样性：测算、基本事实与解释 (Occupational Diversity in Chinese Cities: Measurement, Basic Facts and Some Explanations (in Chinese))

Chinese Abstract: 城市多样性是城市化经济的重要表现。本文创新性地从城市职业类型分布的角度测算了我国的城市多样性，并探讨城市特征对于城市多样性的影响。基于城市集聚经济效应的共享、匹配和学习三类微观机制，文章以中国城镇住户调查数据（UHS）为样本，从城市整体层面、产业（企业）层面和劳动力个人层面三个维度，分析了我国城市职业多样性的发展趋势、基本事实并进行相应解释。研究发现，2002-2009年期间，中国城市职业多样性呈现出小幅度下降趋势，城市规模越大、行政等级越高、经济越发达，所对应的职业多样性越强。本文的研究结论有利于了解我国不同城市的职业分工现状，估算城市的人力资本外部性及其发展潜能，从而为制订促进城市多样性发展的相关政策提供了科学依据。 English Abstract: Urban diversity is an important manifestation of the urbanization economy. This paper aims to measure the diversity of cities from the perspective of occupational types, and discusses some urban characteristics affecting urban diversity. Based on the three micro-mechanisms of sharing, matching, and learning from urban agglomeration economic, we analyze the development trend, facts, and explanations of urban occupational diversity from three dimensions: overall city level, industrial (enterprise) level, and labor level by using Chinese Urban Household Survey Data (UHS). It is found that from 2002 to 2009, China's urban occupational diversity shows a small decline trend. The larger the city scale, the higher the administrative level and the more developed the economy is, the greater the occupational diversity of the city is. The findings of this paper are helpful to understand the situation of the division of labor in different cities, estimate the externality and potential development of human capital in cities, and then provide some scientific basis for formulating policies to promote urban diversity.

‘Strangers amongst us'

The making of cosmopolitan cities necessitates competence to engage and live with difference and diversity. More often than not, diversity is treated as a challenge to social integration especially in urban areas with a short history of and less exposure to diversification. However, such overemphasis on diversity as a challenge overlooks a more nuanced approach to urban diversity that is lived and experienced by migrants and the local population. This paper explores ‘diversity on the ground’ transpiring in ‘mundane’ encounters between Filipino migrants and South Koreans in Seoul. I analyze how ‘taken-for-granted’ migrant-local encounters and the social processes surrounding these intercultural interactions are crucial in facilitating or impeding civility and mutual recognition that are crucial in the cosmopolitanization of a global city. Following Erving Goffman’s theory of social interaction, I interrogate migrants’ and local citizens’ behavior towards each other in public spaces following a social script of ‘getting along’ despite the (in)visibility of differences and otherness. Based on interviews with migrants and Koreans and spatial ethnography of Catholic migrant spaces, I identify two types of encounters: purposeful encounters between migrants and Korean (non)Catholics in given contexts of interactions performing specific interaction rituals, and accidental encounters between Korean public and Filipino migrants when the latter perform both mundane activities and ‘strange’ sociocultural and religious activities in the sacred and public spaces. This paper concludes with some thoughts into how intercultural encounters within religious spaces contribute to the shaping of urban diversity and making of a cosmopolitan city.

Woody plant diversity spatial patterns and the effects of urbanization in Beijing, China

Understanding the spatial patterns of plant diversity in urban areas is essential for urban planners and managers to effectively manage urban forests. However, thus far, in many cities, plant diversity spatial patterns have been limited at an urban scale by sparse and scattered survey data. This study uses these scattered data in the built–up area of Beijing as a case study to provide a new perspective for exploring the distribution patterns of urban plant diversity. The urban diversity pattern of forest woody plants in this area is mapped via Kriging interpolation in ArcGIS, which allows the estimation of woody plant diversity in areas that have not previously been investigated based on a large amount of field survey data. The results clearly indicate the high– and low–value areas of species diversity within the city, This help in deciding priorities for future protection and management at an urban scale. The geographical detector model is then applied to provide a better understanding of the correlation between urbanization characteristics and woody plant diversity spatial patterns. The results will aid in the development and implementation of suitable policies to change uneven distribution patterns in urban areas. Our applied methodology and results can also be employed to improve basic information on urban woody plant diversity and to offer insights on urban green space planning and management.

Visual Pollution In Ankawa Sub District Center

This study dealt with one of the most dangerous environmental pollutants that affect the health of human being indirectly and the human being adapted to live with it. The manifestations of visual pollution in ankawa sub-district center is not the result of today, but several years ago as this area suffers from visual pollution caused by urban expansion and diversity of building materials and the lack of awareness among the population about the seriousness of this phenomenon and also the increasing number of population because this area has important factors for attracting people to live in it, for these reasons, most of the national and international companies and international organizations based in it. This problem became more complicated because of decrease awareness about the important of this problem sometimes, and also by the decisions taken by the competent authorities on the construction regarding the designs and materials that used in building in the other times, with their negligence regarding the beauty of this town, in addition to neglect the opinion of specialists in the field of architects and designers to make the right decisions in these important topics or nowhere to take their advice, in order to define the problem the study included three chapters, chapter one dealt with defining the topic and area of study, chapter two focus on manifestation of visual pollution, as well as the third chapter studied the most prominent solutions needed to solve it with result and suggestions.

Investigating temporal and spatial correlates of the sharp decline of an urban exploiter bird in a large European city

Increasing urbanisation and human pressure on lands have huge impacts on biodiversity. Some species, known as “urban exploiters”, manage to expand in urban landscapes, relying on human resources. The House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) is the perfect example of a human-commensal species. Surprisingly, this urban exploiter has been declining all over Europe over the past decades. The proximate causes of this decline remain poorly understood. We particularly lack understanding about urban habitat characteristics that are particularly unfavourable for House Sparrows. In the present study, we analysed fine-scale habitat characteristics of House Sparrow population sizes and trends using a fifteen-year House Sparrow census (2003–2017) covering the urban diversity of Paris (nearly 200 census sites), one of the densest European cities. We documented for the first time the dramatic decline (−89%) of the species in Paris over the study period. The temporal decline over the whole city correlates with the concomitant increase in the number of breeding Sparrowhawks. We could not detect statistical influences of annual variations in weather conditions and pollution. The decline of House Sparrows is spatially heterogeneous. Indeed, site-scale analyses revealed sharpest declines at sites that initially hosted the largest numbers of sparrows, which are areas with a relatively high proportion of green spaces and new buildings. Further experimental studies are now needed to disentangle the exact impact of specific characteristics of the urban environment on House Sparrow populations.

Cosmopolitanism in exclusionary contexts

AbstractAlthough over time mass migration has brought about de facto cosmopolitan situations in Gulf cities, foreign residents continue to experience segregation and endure exclusionary policies and practices on a daily basis. This article unpacks two sets of internal tensions that characterise cosmopolitanism in the Gulf, through a comparison of cosmopolitan discourses and practices in Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Jeddah. The first tension relates to official discourses and policies: Saudi and Emirati governments design and enforce exclusionary policies and, at the same time, publicly endorse cosmopolitan ideals and projects—consisting in Islamic universalism for Saudi cities and the rhetoric of tolerance for the United Arab Emirates. Such cosmopolitan claims are, moreover, reflected in the aspirations and subjectivities of migrants and local citizens while also generating feelings of alienation. We call this discursive paradox cosmopolitanism in denial. The second tension concerns migrants' everyday practices and modes of consumption in urban spaces. We argue that these are best understood as a form of segregated cosmopolitanism, whereby both Gulf citizens and the various migrant communities explicitly acknowledge, and at times consume, urban diversity but also maintain certain boundaries. Drawing on an analysis of both governmental and individual discourses, as well as on ethnographic observations collected over a decade of fieldwork in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, our research engages with theories of cosmopolitanism from a situated perspective. As such, it moves away from the dominant unitary and normative approach to cosmopolitanism and instead emphasises both the resilience and transience of everyday cosmopolitan situations.

One+One+One=A lot: The cumulative effect of Israel’s flagship urban renewal policy on neighborhood diversity

• This study examines the effect of Israel’s main urban renewal policy (TAMA 38) on urban diversity. • Sporadic renewal can have a cumulative impact and wreak substantial change (1 + 1+1 = a lot). • TAMA 38 has promoted social and housing diversity in the examined area. • Diversity in the wake of TAMA 38 may be short-lived and is likely to be replaced by segregation. • The findings highlight the importance of a local perspective in urban renewal plans.

A Tale of Two Cities: Framing urban diversity as content curation in super-diverse London and Toronto

In major cities across the world policy-makers are searching for new ways to represent and govern their increasingly diverse populations. In this paper we analyse the ways in which authorities in two global cities, London and Toronto, have drawn on corporate, public management, strategies as their principal mode of diversity governance. In both we see a shift in policy making as a conscious attempt to reframe and re-imagine cities as corporate-like structures that can be conceptualised, represented, and managed through the lens of diversity management. In both cities specific representations of the city and its populations are curated to fulfil wider policy objectives. City governments present both as iconic centres of diversity, super-diversity or hyper-diversity, that embody and represent an era of progressive globalisation and new forms of contemporary cosmopolitan living. The presence of diversity is celebrated and seen a key component of ‘success agendas’. This paper is based on empirical evidence derived from a policy-oriented research project in both cities. Policy analysis and critical discourse analysis are conducted in both cities on the basis of review of policy documents at national, local and community scales, and interviews with policy makers. The paper first frames diversity as a technology of description, where we explain how diversity has become a curation strategy in public management within the framework of growing mobility of management frameworks and shifts in framing diversity in urban policies. We will then provide a comparative analysis of London and Toronto.

„Multi-culti“ vs. ”another cell phone store“ – Changing ethnic, social, and commercial diversities in Berlin-Neukölln.

Based on an extensive ethnography of the economic and social life in Berlin-Neukölln, the paper asks how a changing demographic and social structure affects the social life but also the urban renewal on two iconic but contested streets - “the Arab street” Sonnenallee and adjacent Karl-Marx-Straße. The effects of migration - and particularly of the more recent refugee migration - to Berlin are explored through the reshaping and diversification processes of the physical and social spaces of the two streets and their businesses.
 In detail, the paper illuminates the changing ordinary everyday interactions and social and spatial practices in and around local shops and gastronomic facilities and argues that it is the interactions in and around certain shops and businesses that contribute to the everyday practice of urban diversity. The paper further reveals that regardless of the place-and community-making of the local store owners and staff therein, the local urban renewal and regeneration actors have a very different understanding of these spaces and their operators and also aim for a different kind of new “diversity”. The paper thus concludes by also showing how these actors frame and depict the increasingly ethnically diverse businesses on the two streets in the course of urban renewal, including a critical discussion of their perceptions and concrete practices as in contrast to the ethnically diverse business peoples’ perceptions and placemaking practices that often also represent homemaking practices.

Sustainable Green Roof Ecosystems: 100 Years of Functioning on Fortifications—A Case Study

Green roofs have received much attention in recent years due to their ability to retain rainwater, increase urban diversity, and mitigate climate change in cities. This interdisciplinary study was carried out on three historical green roofs covering bunkers in Wrocław, located in southwestern Poland. It presents the results of a three-year investigation of the water storage of these roofs. The study also presents soil conditions and spontaneous vegetation after their functioning for over 100 years. The soils covering the bunkers are made of sandy, sandy-loam, and loamy-sand deposits. This historical construction ensures good drainage and runoff of rainwater, and is able to absorb torrential rainfall ranging from 100 to 150 mm. It provides suitable conditions for vegetation growth, and forest communities with layers formed there. In their synanthropic flora, species of European deciduous forests dominate, which are characteristic of fresh or moist and eutrophic soils with a neutral reaction. Some invasive species, such as Robinia pseudoacacia, Padus serotina, and Impatiens parviflora, also occur with high abundance. Nowadays, historical green roofs on fortifications, although they have lost their primary military role, are of historical and natural value. These roofs can promote the nonmilitary functions of historical fortifications in order to strengthen the ties between nature and heritage. Protecting and monitoring historical green roofs should be included in the elements of the process of sustainable development and the conservation of these structures in order to mitigate climate change in the outskirts of the city. For this, it is necessary to ensure proper conservational protection, which, in addition to maintaining the original structure, profiles, and layout of the building, should include protection of their natural value.

Urban Diversity in Residential Neighbourhoods of Colonial Towns of Little Europe, West Bengal, India

Urban Diversity in Residential Neighbourhoods of Colonial Towns of Little Europe, West Bengal, India