Urban History Research Articles

Innovative Research on the Protection of Urban History, Culture, and Residential Environment: A Case Study of Tanhualin Street in Wuhan City

With the acceleration of urbanization and the promotion of economic development, the balance between historical building protection and modern urban renewal has become an important issue faced by many cities. As an important component of urban cultural heritage, historical buildings not only have unique historical and artistic value, but also carry rich cultural memories and social significance. However, with the pressure of urban development and the demand for resource utilization, historical buildings often face the risk of destruction, loss, or even abandonment. With the rapid development of urbanization, old buildings and streets are also being updated simultaneously, but in the mainstream trend, streets and urban buildings are gradually converging with little distinctive features. Based on the protection of historical buildings and living environment, this article takes Tanhualin Street in Wuhan as an example to integrate local culture into the architecture and environment, and create a Wuhan street with local characteristics.

A tale of the city of Kolkata through the eyes of the “common women"

This paper focuses on working-class women from the informal settlements of Kolkata, India and their precarious relationships with the city. Their existence at the margins of society (socially, spatially, historically, and sometimes even geographically) tends to make them invisible actors in the production of contemporary urban spaces of Kolkata. This paper examines the role of class, caste, and gender in informing the spatial practices of these minoritized women that occur in the city’s liminal landscapes. These practices are quite distinct from those of women from middle- and upper-classes in Kolkata. Terms like “public women” or “bad women” or chhotolok (a common Bengali term used for people from lower classes or castes) have been used to represent and mark these working-class, lower caste women as deviant bodies in terms of their class, caste, and even sexualities. These labels are important to understand how these women have been represented historically in the urban history of Kolkata. By analyzing secondary literature, archival texts, songs, films, poems, and photographs, the paper investigates the following interrelated questions. First, how has the spatial organization of urban Kolkata historically determined the ways in which these women have navigated, engaged with, and attempted to overcome a wide array of structural and systemic constraints? And second, how have these women produced and applied various forms of situated spatial knowledge in the city’s liminal landscapes? In terms of the paper’s structure, I start by analyzing the existing literature on gender and urban space in India. Thereafter, I lay a theoretical groundwork to elucidate the importance of adopting an intersectional lens to understand overlapping regimes of power that affect the life-worlds of minoritized bodies; in this case, the working-class lower caste women of Kolkata. Finally, I use a chronological approach to examine the changes in Kolkata’s urban fabric and its material culture that have significantly added to the precarities faced by these minoritized and marginalized women. In other words, I trace an alternate urban history of Kolkata through the eyes of these “common women.”

How a high-modernism project in South Korea failed: Sewoon Sangga (1966–1972), the first experimental modern planning

PurposeThis study defines and critically analyzes Korean high modernism using the Sewoon Sangga project as a case study, as it has significant value in Korea's urban and architectural history.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology applied for this study was a theory-interpretive analysis. This study examines the modernization process of Seoul based on the concept of “high modernism,” in that the theory-interpretive analysis method analyzes historical phenomena centered on a specific concept.FindingsAs a form of national belief, the various ideas that give birth to modern cities are defined as “high modernism.” As a Korean megastructure, the Sewoon Sangga project is significant in the history of Korean urbanism and architecture because it is the archetype of Korean high modernism and is representative of South Korea's compressed economic growth. However, soon-to-be-demolished Sewoon Sangga signifies the failure of Korean high modernism. This study identified the critical characteristics of Korean high modernism through the Sewoon Sangga project.Originality/valueThis study analyzed a representative Asian city through the specific concept of high modernism. It transpired that high modernism, which played an important role in the birth and development of modern cities, should be transformed for future cities and architectural development. This study has significance in that it expands the study of the history of urbanism and architecture centered on the West to the same in Asia.

From Books to Airplanes: The Materiality of Global and Urban Entanglements

The articles in this special section employ histories of cities to examine the relationship between human ambitions and the transformation of space, the development of power discrepancies, and unequal access to material and natural resources. They also reveal the relevance of this quintessential human creation to global dynamics on our planet by unveiling the complex and often messy intersection between urban trajectories, local, imperial, or national histories and longue durée global developments. More than a case study, each article delves into the details of the materiality of the urban history they examine to explain how cities exist in the world, or in Richard Harris’s words, “how cities matter” to our shared planetary past and present. In this manner, they answer the call for new conversations about the historical relationship between our urban past and our broader global reality.

Bibliography of urban history 2023

Bibliography of urban history 2023

Nonprofit Neighborhoods: An Urban History of Inequality and the American State

Nonprofit Neighborhoods: An Urban History of Inequality and the American State

Expelled from public memory: Cato Manor and the segregation of memory in South Africa

ABSTRACT Expulsions of populations from ancestral land were a cornerstone of apartheid rule and urban planning. This article explores the multiple layers of expulsions of both African and Indian populations that occurred in and around Cato Manor, a large centrally located area in Durban, South Africa, throughout the twentieth century. Bloody conflicts that engulfed the area between 1949 and 1959 led to the removal of all residents in the early 1960s. Two antagonistic constructions of memories of those dramatic events – an Indian narrative of loss, an African narrative of loss and subsequent repossession – still frame public perceptions of the area. The haunting of the expulsions of the past remains a stumbling block for establishing shared urban history and memories in Durban.

Assessing the macro-scale patterns of urban tree canopy cover in Brazil using high-resolution remote sensing images

This study creates a 0.5 m resolution urban tree canopy (UTC) cover dataset using high-resolution remote sensing images based on the deep learning method to clarify urban tree-cover characteristics in Brazilian cities. The results revealed that the UTC cover of Brazilian cities is spatially heterogeneous, ranging from 5% to 34%. There was a difference in UTC coverage between the old and new urban areas, with the average largest difference near 5%. More than 76% urban population exposure to UTC coverage of 0∼0.2. Most cities have a relatively high inequality in human exposure to urban tree-covered spaces, especially in northeastern and southeastern Brazil. Results from the geographical detector models show climatic factors play a major role in determining the UTC cover patterns in Brazilian cities, followed by socioeconomic, geographical, soil, and urbanization factors. This study suggests the Brazilian government pay more attention to greening renovation projects in old urban areas and formulate effective urban tree irrigation policies for cities with limited autumn and winter rainfall. The study also suggests follow-up research on UTC cover patterns that consider the effects of race, urban history, city structure, land use, and local government policy factors to further support the goals of sustainable development in Brazilian cities.

Malda: The Birth and Growth of a Small Town in Mughal-Period North Bengal

Bengal had a long tradition of emergence, growth and decline of towns from the earliest times to the present century. During the rule of the independent Sultans of Bengal, a list of capital towns appeared in the urban history of early medieval Bengal. The trend of urbanisation also continued in Bengal under Mughal rule. But the European companies’ trade with Bengal also contributed. How the factory of the English at Malda during the seventeenth century contributed to the growth of a manufacturing and trade centre is a key issue in this study.

The contribution of archaeoparks to cultural heritage awareness: The case of Bursa Hisar

The pressing need to protect archaeological sites amidst rapid urbanization is a global concern. These sites, vital to our cultural heritage, face threats from advancing urban development, especially in historically layered cities. Accurate understanding and contextualization of artifacts from various eras are crucial. Preservation efforts must extend beyond physical continuity and relics to include integration into urban socio-economic and socio-spatial contexts. This holistic approach aids in interpreting layered cities and promoting heritage awareness. This study focuses on the ArchaeoPark initiatives in the Hisar Region, a significant part of Bursa’s cultural landscape. It serves as an example highlighting the importance of preserving archaeological sites and their original artifacts within urban environments. This preservation and display within the city enhance the awareness and understanding of both residents and visitors regarding these valuable cultural assets. Public participation in heritage conservation fosters greater recognition of the importance of these sites, leading to more sustainable preservation efforts. Bursa and its surroundings are key archaeological sites in Anatolia, showcasing a layered urban history. The chosen Hisar region has the potential to unveil this history, becoming a vital cultural heritage area in Bursa. After stressing the importance of urban archaeological heritage conservation, the study delves into pertinent conservation methods. It introduces Bursa as a significant cultural landscape, emphasizing ArchaeoPark activities and excavated artifacts in the Hisar region. Lastly, it offers recommendations to boost the role of Hisar ArchaeoPark in cultural heritage awareness and preservation. This study aims to contribute to efforts focused on increasing cultural heritage awareness, which is a vital aspect of heritage conservation and management, despite being a time-consuming process. The conservation and presentation of archaeological sites within urban areas, exemplified by the ArchaeoPark in the Hisar Region, play a pivotal role in safeguarding our cultural heritage for future generations.

Architectural Strategy Development Through Evaluation of the Spatial Themes Prominent in the Formation of Istanbul's Identity from 1923 to the Present: Proposal of a Model

The core of the study is to capture a commonality between the themes that determine the spatial character of Istanbul and to present the change in the prominent spatial themes from the foundation of the republic to the present and to propose a model for developing an architectural strategy with the help of this change. This change was shaped by spatial preferences, class differences, socio-economic and cultural variables of the period and played a major role in determining the settlement of residences, industry-education-health structures and social areas. The scope of the study consists of the works of leading figures working on the construct ion of the thematic identity of metropolises and urban history. The method of the study consists of literature research that will make these studies and the effective links between them visible, and a data analysis that will provide a breakdown of prominent themes, based on twenty-year periods, and aiming to present the relationships between related thematic words. The findings of the study show that industrialization, housing supply and demand, squatting, socio-cultural life, urban population planning, interaction areas, imported designs and approaches have both an autonomous and interrelated place in the construction of Istanbul's hybrid urban identity. Separate thematic areas such as industrialization and housing trigger processes that directly affect each other's development. As a result, it is seen that the breaking processes of the transformation of the prominent spatial themes in Istanbul offer some forms of association that can provide references for future design products. Sharing comprehensive inferences about these processes with institutions for development and diversification will play an active role in developing new themes that can contribute to Istanbul's urban identity and increasing the agility of relating the current urban identity with contemporary possibilities.

Earthquake and War-Damaged Trees in Urban History: Non-Destructive Tree Diagnosis Using Sonic Tomography

It has been a century since the Great Kanto earthquake and 78 years since WWII, both of which were catastrophic events in Japan’s history. Preserving memories of urban disasters is essential for preventing future tragedies, and while survivors’ testimonies hold great power, their numbers dwindle over time. However, trees which bear the scars of disaster can also serve as valuable storytellers. This study investigates earthquake and war-damaged trees, including 11 Gingo trees, 1 Chinquapin, and 1 Japanese nutmeg tree, located at the Yushima Seido Temple in Tokyo, and highlights their importance in preserving memories. The trees were measured using a sonic tomography tree internal diagnosis device, resulting in a total of 41 cross-sections that captured their conditions in images. The results indicated an ideal measurement method for trees located on slopes, as well as identifying a new type of classification shape for measurement cross-sections. The results of this research should primarily be of benefit to tree owners, but it is hoped that the benefits can also extend to a wider audience by increasing awareness about the significance of trees with unique urban historical narratives, aiding the preservation of urban green space, aiding in disaster preparedness, and promoting the role of such tress in peace education.

Infrastructure and the ethnographic-cartographic production of urban bird species richness

The qualitative bio-geographies of human geographers and the quantitative mappings of biogeographers share a goal: how to understand living with non-human life. Yet they rarely bridge the conceptual and methodological gap between them. This article theorizes how the concept of infrastructure can bridge this ethnographic-cartographic divide. Infrastructure is not just inert shell. It is also a system of relation, a dynamic patterning of socionatural form emerging out of experiences and affective moments of its constituents. As proof of concept, we quantified and compared urban bird species richness and frequency for Tallahassee, Florida over a 17-year period (2000–2017) for two co-occurring observational infrastructures, eBird and a wildlife rehabilitation center that serves the city. Species common to both infrastructures comprised 94% of all eBird observations and 99% of all rehab records. Their differences reflected contrasts in how the motivations for experiencing birds intersected with bird habitat preferences, behavior, and contingencies of urban history and development. eBird observations had a higher species richness (295 spp) and reflected the growing popularity among birds and a small number of active birders for visiting stormwater retention lakes recently modified to improve bird habitat. Rehabilitation records had a lower richness (194 spp) and exhibited a much more even distribution of bird encounters among individual residents as well as community institutions like schools, universities, law enforcement, and other government organizations. Infrastructural perspectives convey how affective and individualistic encounters with the non-human can link to emergent biogeographic mappings and how urban biodiversity is relationally and heterogeneously produced rather than simply contained in cities.

Introduction: The Sokol Movement between State and Society in Interwar East Central and Southeastern Europe

Abstract This special issue is the result of the three year-long collaboration between the contributors and a larger group of scholars on the topic of Sokol and analogous organizations and phenomena mainly in East Central Europe in the modern era. Our goal was to examine such organizations from multiple perspectives, including the history of political thought, the history of knowledge production, military history, art history, youth history, urban history, the history of religion, history of sports, as well as the history of medicine and eugenics. To that end, we organized three events whereby we identified key themes and workshopped the contributions to the prospective special issue, as well as situated our findings within broader disciplinary and theoretical frameworks.

City Sediments in Beirut: An Urban Ecology Perspective

Cities are products of urbanization processes, economic changes, technology and climate change. Adversely, in specific contexts, they are affected by wars’ enduring physical effect, long after armed conflicts are over. Hence cities are perceived as dynamic organisms, in continuous change of spatial abandonment, neglect and regeneration process, unfolding a continuum of space and time. In tandem between urban ecology and the urban history specificities, this paper addresses Beirut as a case study in its actual condition, and the different representations of the informal resurgence of green areas. It follows a methodology of identification and mapping of the different urban sediments which constituted over time potential reservoirs for urban ecology. These include previous war demarcation line, train tracks traces, cemeteries, destroyed wheat silos following the 2020 port explosion and other liminal spaces. This approach brings in a new perspective for approaching urban ecology differently according to the urban contexts historiography

Urban development & street-network sprawl in Tokyo

ABSTRACT This paper uses Tokyo, Japan as a case study to explore the processes of urban development and sprawl through the lenses of street connectivity and historical development. Tokyo is a highly connected city in terms of its street network, but also offers a unique urban experience of global renown. This study develops a novel time series that shows the evolution of patterns of connectivity across the urban region. We then qualitatively analyze this time series in the context of Tokyo’s urban history to identify the historical and present-day influences that have shaped its street connectivity. We find that streets in the Tokyo metropolitan region have always been remarkably connected by international standards, and that this connectivity has persisted throughout different periods of economic and governmental systems in addition to both natural and anthropogenic disasters.

Recognizing Traces of Colonialism and Coloniality in a South African Mining Region: Surfacing the Past in Regional, Ethnographic and Well-Being Research

Recent discussions on colonialism and coloniality in academic and community contexts have not been fully informed, only understanding the past from a present-day context. This article provides a deeper, more experiential understanding of this culturally complex phenomenon by combining three research methodologies: structured regional research, ethnography informed research and multidisciplinary wellbeing research. The article examines traces of colonialism in the Far West Rand area of South Africa, at a time of expanding mining operations when it was rare for people to think of themselves as ‘colonists’ with a colonial vision. Yet, structured regional research points to a history of immense urbanisation, linked to immigration and strong, almost dominant, features of colonialism. Two other, totally different, research methods have also observed the same phenomenon, adopting a more experiential angle to communities in the Far West Rand. These community experiences relate more closely to a coloniality imagery manifested primarily in ideas and opinions about contemporary service delivery, poverty and land use issues.

Opening Up

This article analyzes photographs of the city of Nanjing collected in the last years of the nineteenth century by Robert Löbbecke (1852–1910), a German military captain and engineer working in service of Chinese military reforms by leaders of the Self-Strengthening Movement. Spanning almost three decades and including the earliest known dated photos of Nanjing, more than half of the large albumen prints in this collection can be attributed to Chinese photographers, including the local branch of Ouyang Shizhi's (1857–1932) Powkee studio. They offer rare insights into both the early work by this famous studio and early Chinese photography of place, focusing on a city that stood at the center of struggles over China's political and economic survival. As such, this collection offers exceptional terrain to explore relations of photography to place, identity, and power in nineteenth-century China. To unpack these relations, I analyze Löbbecke's collection as part of photography's multivalent encounters with the city in nineteenth-century China. I start with the photographic encounters with the Chinese city in the work and writings of Jules Itier (1802–1877) and John Thomson (1837–1921), and then explore what the Löbbecke collection reveals about the visions its photos made possible for their expatriate collector and for their Chinese makers and audiences, with a special focus on Ouyang Shizhi's Nanjing studio enterprise. I conclude with a reflection on a more recent moment when the photos collected by Löbbecke returned home a century after their making to participate in the telling of new kinds of urban histories.

Rural-urban migration in Rangpur city: A sociological study

The phenomenon of rural-to-urban migration has a long history. People’s attempts to move from rural areas to cities originated in ancient times. In this context, the migration history to Rangpur is brief. The history of urbanization in Rangpur began not too long ago, with people from various villages in the surrounding districts settling in the city. Through the lens of economic and socio-cultural perspectives, multiple factors have directly and indirectly influenced migration from rural areas to this city. Therefore, understanding its intricate meanings is only feasible by discussing rural-urban migration through a sociological research approach.

ARCHITECTURAL AND SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OSTROG THE END OF THE 18TH CENTURY – 20S OF 20TH CENTURY

The article is an attempt to generalize the available old cartographic sources in the shape of fixing and projecting plans of Ostrog town, which are describing its site development and spatial structure from the 18th to the begin of 20th centuries. 
 History of an old Ukrainian town of Osrtog was reflected in numerous written documents. However, its urban cartography is represented by a small number of primary sources. Nevertheless, several historical maps of this town allow a more detailed assessment of specific social and landscape factors that influenced the formation of its urban identity. The earliest of them is from 1760s. A significant array of more accurate and detailed, although also inaccurate, fixation plans of Ostroh, like other cities of Volhyn, was formed almost immediately after its entry into the Russian Empire. A new stage in the history of mapping of Ostrog Town (from 19th century) was associated with the use of technically more advanced, and therefore much more accurate, methods of topographical surveying. Of special interest are Ostrog's plans of a design direction rather than a fixation. Significant role in the study of old urban history of this town belongs to the first project plan from 1845, which provided for the introduction of significant changes in the development of the town on a regular basis and mass utilitarian construction. Such plans were implemented for other towns of the Volyn Governorate (e.g. Rivne, Lutsk, Starokostiantyniv, Kovel, Dubno, Kremenets). These and other innovations of the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries were recorded in great detail in the topographical plan of 1926. 
 This publication aims to substantiate a kind of summary of the multi-year process of spatial and planning evolution of Ostrog Town over nine centuries, starting from the first mention of it in chronicle sources, was made. 
 The relevance of the research topic is determined by an array of cartographic sources that are currently inaccessible to Ukrainian scientists and researchers in general.