Processes Of Urban Restructuring Research Articles

Urban restructuring and the location dynamics of P-KIBS in postsocialist Belgrade

ABSTRACT Professional knowledge-intensive business services (P-KIBS) have emerged as one of the core elements of economic recovery and urban restructuring of many large cities during the postsocialist transition in Europe. However, studies about intrametropolitan patterns of P-KIBS in postsocialist cities are largely neglected. Against this backdrop, the aim of this study is to provide a better understanding of P-KIBS intraurban spatial patterns within a postsocialist urban environment by analyzing the location dynamics of P-KIBS in Belgrade. The research methodology includes using a micro-geographic dataset for the period 2011–2019 and distance-based methods, which are becoming increasingly popular in urban geography. The study demonstrates that in Belgrade, P-KIBS are spatially highly concentrated and centralized, with a strong center-periphery gradient as well as pronounced intraurban functional specialization and intrasectoral differences. In the observed period, the spatial reorganization of P-KIBS was characterized by spatially limited decentralization, reflected in the progressive dissolution of the traditional monocentric model and the creation of a centralized duocentric model through the emergence of a secondary CBD in New Belgrade. In particular, the research highlights the influence of the complex process of postsocialist urban restructuring in the shaping of the urban geography of P-KIBS.

Weber and the European City in the 21st century: Still reality or just a concept?

Max Weber has left a 100-page long text that played a main role in his argumentation on the particular development of Europe in contrast to especially Asia. Main difference, according to Weber, is the development of a ‘local society’ where freedom and the association of free citizens laid the ground for a democratic society. In the reception of this text, a critical view on main assumptions on the ‘European city’ has been dominant. In particular, the notions of conflict and inequality have not been integrated into his argumentation. Nevertheless, some sociologists even today, see Weber and his text as a kind of starting point to understand the social and political construction of urban societies in Europe. Firstly, a critical introduction into the core ideas of Weber on the city will be presented. Subsequently, the article discusses whether the ‘European city’ can still be regarded as a meaningful term to explain the process of urban restructuring taking place today. Although not rejecting the Weberian notion of the city, it will be highlighted that his understanding of ‘urban society’ leaves out recent processes of the post-Fordist restructuring of space.

Residents’ territorial cognition and behavior patterns: An inquiry into Kavaklıdere and Çukurambar Districts of Ankara, Turkey

As a part of the recent urban restructuring processes, the spatial layout of residential environments as street-based neighborhoods has left its place to cellular developments in the form of gated communities. This shift in the spatial organization altered the relationship of urbanites with their near-home environments. This research aims to depict the influence of this shift on the cognitive and behavioral patterns of the residents. To do so, it re-interprets the concept of ‘territoriality’ as a critical tool for understanding and regulating the dynamics of human-environment relations at this scale. A model to assess territorial functioning is developed and employed in the Kavaklıdere and Çukurambar Districts of Ankara, the capital of Turkey. Comparative field surveys are conducted in the districts by using interpretative methods, including direct systematic observations and questionnaires with the residents. The districts are selected as prominent examples representing the aforementioned shift. The research findings reveal that, along with other exogenous factors, spatial layouts are the primary factor that promotes and inhibits certain cognitive and behavioral patterns at the residential scale. Both the findings from the case studies and the methodological proposition of the study contribute to the ongoing discussions in the field of urban planning regarding the future design of residential environments, which has regained attention with the multi-functionality of home environments during the COVID 19 pandemic. The study highlights the importance of the spatial design of residential environments on access to resources, the sense of security, identity, and well-being of the residents from the perspective of human-environment relations.

Emotional scapes in Mediterranean port cities: Walking Barcelona, Marseille and Genova

Mediterranean port cities share a number of trajectories that reveal their constitutive interconnectedness. Among the more recent is the process of urban regeneration that many of these cities have undergone over the last two decades. Several studies have analysed the implications of urban renewal from a socio-economic and urban planning perspective. However, the intersection between diverse urban restructuring processes and the emotions that crisscross these cities is still largely underexplored. This article aims to begin filling this gap by identifying possible emotional responses that mirror local concerns in three port cities located on the northern shores of the Mediterranean. More specifically, the article investigates Barcelona in light of the hope that emerges when a city is in crisis, Marseille and the nostalgia that is mobilised to reimagine the city’s national consciousness and Genova with regard to an uncanny feeling when more-than-human balances are altered. Drawing from different disciplines, including ethnography, media, archival and literary analysis, this article argues that emotional trajectories are significant aspects to consider in the urban renewal processes of distinctive spaces like port cities because they allow us to comprehend some of the local reactions to urban transformations and gentrification that go beyond understanding economic and branding strategies in a post-industrial space.

“DALSTON! WHO ASKED U?”: A Knowledge-Centred Perspective on the Mapping of Socio-Spatial Relations in East London

Since the turn of the millennium, Dalston in the London Borough of Hackney has experienced fundamental change through public and private investment in new infrastructure and processes of urban restructuring. This was paralleled by the reform of the national planning system, which aimed to devolve decision-making to the local level and increase the possibilities for residents and stakeholders to participate in planning processes. However, the difficulty of translating local needs and aspirations into policy goals and broadly accepted area action plans resulted in a crisis, which, in 2018, led to the introduction of the Dalston Conversation and subsequently the revision of planning goals. It is in this context that the Relational States of Dalston mapping project generated and assembled local knowledge about the web of socio-spatial relations between different local actors and in this way highlighted the significance and fragility of the communities’ networks and their spatial dimensions. The collection, ordering, integration, and production of knowledge can be seen as part of the core work in urban planning processes and policymaking. Which forms of knowledge are routinely used in planning contexts and define the relationship between planning action and urban transformation? To what extent could the mapping of local community relations add to this knowledge and help to improve decision-making processes in contested spaces of knowledge? In what ways could a relational understanding of space and architectural modes of research and representation contribute to the analysis, conceptualisation, and communication of local community relations? This article engages with these questions, using the mapping project in Dalston as a case study.

Putting Neoliberalism in a Place: A Memory Site, Urban Restructuring, and Property’s Entanglements in Chile

AbstractThis paper analyzes a housing project in Santiago, Chile that now lies in ruins and has become a contested memory site. The project was once an ambitious, modernist project that housed former squatters during Salvador Allende’s socialist presidency (1970–1973) and its demise has subsequently become emblematic of the violent processes of neoliberal urban restructuring that marked the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990). Yet efforts to memorialize the site also contain within them certain silences and elisions, gaps which can help to reveal the complex, embedded nature of liberal property relations in Chile. These relations underscore certain dynamics through which squatters have historically been able to gain housing rights and a foothold in the city. They also provide a key location through which to better understand the specific contours of neoliberalism’s trajectory, including its haunted forms of ruination, its points of tension, its limits, and the making of its counterpublics.

Fractured lives in fractured cities: Towards a critical understanding of urban violence in the context of market-driven urban restructuring processes in Bogotá and Rio de Janeiro

Based on a comparative case study on two neighborhoods in Bogota and Rio de Janeiro (2017–2019) and a comprehensive literature review, this article proposes a critical Public Health approach to urban violence and makes a case for understanding the phenomenon in the context of market-driven urban territorial restructuring processes that assume specific qualities in cities of the Global South. The case studies are based on focus groups and semi-structured interviews with residents, specialists and community leaders. It is argued that urban violence is a key public health challenge, particularly in Latin America, given its dimensions and its impact on the populations’ life and health. In this regard it configures “fractured lives” in what urban scholars have termed “fractured cities” - essentially unequal and polarized cities that are not merely sites of urban violence but, as we argue in this article, fundamentally shape urban violence, its qualities, dynamics and dimensions. The study is informed by a unique theoretical articulation between Latin American Social Medicine and Collective Health, critical (Latin American) geographical theory and authoritarian neoliberalism literature and shows how urban violence is directly implied in the territorial making and un-making of the cities, driven by commodification as well as both legal and illegal capitalist market logics, that include but are not limited to drug trade. The cases reflect the violence implied in permanent threats of eviction and displacement, “necropolitical” police/military interventions and what is described as a silent imposition of a “slow death” on infrastructure, the neighborhood and ultimately also its residents, which “fracture” the lives of significant parts of the urban population, produce “ill-being” and bring about health consequences that are rarely considered in relation to urban violence.

Age-friendly cities, knowledge and urban restructuring

ABSTRACT Age-friendly cities and communities have emerged as a significant policy, participative and governance response to ageing and its spatial effects. This paper argues that it has important benefits in mobilizing older people, placing age on the urban agenda and building recognition across politicians, policy makers and programme managers. Based on the experience of Belfast (UK), the analysis suggests, however, that it needs to be understood within wider urban restructuring processes, the importance of the property economy and how planning practices favour particular groups and modes of development. Drawing on demographic data, policy documents and in-depth interviews, it evaluates the relationship between age and urban regeneration, research-based advocacy and central-local relations in health and place-based care. The paper concludes by highlighting the importance of knowledge in competitive policy arenas and the need to focus on the most excluded and isolated old and where and how they live.

НОВІ ІНСТРУМЕНТИ ДЛЯ НОВОГО МІСЬКОГО ПРОСТОРУ? АНАЛІЗ ІНСТРУМЕНТІВ ПЛАНУВАННЯ, УЧАСТІ ТА ЇХ ДІЄВОСТІ У (ПОСТ)ТРАНЗИТНІЙ ПЕРСПЕКТИВІ

For a long timepost-socialist countries served as a space for interaction between multiple transformations, urban policy changes and urban planning adjustments on the one hand, and challenging institutional and socio-cultural legacy, on the other. What are the outcomes of these interactions and how the urban space is changing? How effective aretraditional (“old”) and newly established planning and participation tools? To what extent does the current system meet the expectations of different stakeholders? These are the main issues to discuss in the paper. For this aim we use the experience of Ukrainian planning system changes in (post)transitional perspective, focusing on several planning and participation tools and their performance both on the national and local level. The impact of the main planning and participation tools on the urban transformations in Ukraine is critically considered in the paper, discussing their outcomes from different perspectives. The local context of using particular tools is discussed through the cases of two cities - Kryvyi Rih and Kherson; this allows to trace the logic of the planning process and practices of urban restructuring, notably by using the tools ofparticipation. Using in-depth interview data,the paper is aimed at revealing how different stakeholders perceive the main planning and participation tools as well as evaluate their effectiveness. Thus, we rethink the changes of planning and participation tools in (post)transitional perspective, their role in urban development processes,their performance in various local contexts and also their compliance with the declared goals and interests of different stakeholder groups.

Cuando los contratistas se vuelven promotores: una mirada sobre las articulaciones entre la producción inmobiliaria y de infraestructuras en la ciudad de São Paulo del siglo XXI

En el período de reciente intensificación de la producción inmobiliaria en Brasil, las grandes compañías contratistas nacionales ampliaron su actuación a la producción inmobiliaria. Constituyéndose como empresas de desarrollo autónomas, establecieron un nuevo nivel de inversiones y ganancias en la producción del espacio, profundizando las relaciones entre bienes raíces e infraestructura. Tomando como desafío teórico la aproximación a estas dos áreas de estudio, el artículo tiene como objetivo comprender la actuación de las contratistas en la producción inmobiliaria y sus articulaciones con la producción de infraestructura, tomando para el análisis el caso de São Paulo. En esa metrópoli, esa actuación repercute de manera decisiva en los procesos de reestructuración urbana, particularmente en las Operaciones Urbanas Consorciadas. El proceso de expansión y colapso de estas empresas se sitúa como objeto central en la interpretación de las disputas en juego en el escenario de crisis económica y política, articulándose con dinámicas visibles en varios países de América Latina, que apuntan hacia una radicalización del neoliberalismo y del predominio financiero.

Abandoned Places and Urban Marginalized Sites in Lugoj Municipality, Three Decades after Romania’s State-Socialist Collapse

The postsocialist process of urban restructuring came with important spatial, social, and economic consequences. This triggered important transformations that remain palpable in the everyday texture of urban life, spatial patterns, and even the internal structures of the city. Every urban settlement was bound to contribute to the state socialist industry so that postsocialist urban transformations also included multiple aspects of dereliction and ruination of the socialist industrial assets. Threatening postsocialist urban formations and sustainability, the most common feature is collective neglect at national, regional, and local scales. The transition from state-socialist forms of production to the current market-based system poses many difficulties. This article specifically investigates the problems of urban industrial ruins in Lugoj—which are typical for medium-sized postsocialist municipalities in Romania. The research draws on qualitative data gathered by the authors through semi-structured interviews, personal communication, and oral histories and continuous infield observation (2012–2019). The findings unveil the production and the reproduction of abandoned spaces in Romanian urban settlements in the absence of specific regeneration programs and policies on urban redevelopment and marginalized areas. The analysis reveals that urban ruins harm the quality of life in local communities, damaging both the urban landscape and local sustainability. Further actions for local urban regeneration are urgently needed.

Fractured lives in fractured cities: towards a critical Public Health approach to urban violence

Abstract Background 43 of the 50 cities with the highest homicide rates worldwide are Latin American. Although the mechanisms through which urban violence is (re-)produced are complex, the inequalities that shape fragmented Latin American urban landscapes and define the patterns of urban violence have been forged by sociopolitical processes including market-driven urban restructuring processes in the realm of “actually existing” neoliberalism. The comparative case study on two neighborhoods in Bogotá and Rio de Janeiro seeks to contribute to the development of a critical Public Health approach to urban violence that moves beyond the description of death registries and the association of discrete risk factors. Methods The case studies are based on qualitative analyses of 4 focus groups and 46 semi-structured interviews with residents and specialists (2016 and 2019) using the Framework Method as well as comprehensive literature reviews. Results Both cases reveal nuanced processes through which urban violence is produced and reproduced by different actors and suggest that violence is inherent in the market-driven territorial making and un-making of increasingly “fragmented” cities. The cases suggest that violence is implied in threats of eviction, “necropolitical” police/military interventions and in the silent imposition of a “slow death” on urban infrastructure and entire neighborhoods, which bring about health consequences that include injuries but also shape other health problems. Both cases provide evidence to suggest selective and contradictory state presence that implies, admits or reinforces violence. Conclusions The cases combat simplistic readings of Latin American urban violence as a phenomenon exclusively related to confrontations between rival drug gangs and the police or aggressive individuals by revealing a great variety of actors and processes involved in (re-)producing urban violence that have serious implications for life and health in Latin American cities. Key messages Need for a critical Public Health approach to urban violence that moves beyond the description of death registries and the association of discrete risk factors. A great variety of actors and processes is involved in (re-) producing urban violence that have serious implications for life and health in Latin American cities.

Generating a critical dialogue on gentrification in Latin America

Studies on gentrification in Latin America currently face two main obstacles. On the one hand, there appears to be a refusal by the academy in Latin America to use the term, regarding it as an expression of cultural imperialism. On the other hand, there has been an excessively flexible and ambiguous use of the term, obscuring political and scholarly debates on the issue. Both obstacles are partly a consequence of the lack of dialogue between the different authors in the field. This article generates a critical dialogue with the most relevant works and researchers on gentrification in Latin America, as well as with those scholars reluctant to use the term. Specifically, the author advocates for a more restrictive and clarifying definition of the phenomena and defends the utility of the concept as a tool to promote the critical analysis of the specific processes in many Latin American cities, as well as in cities outside the region. The paper concludes that, even though it should not be the main political concern for urban researchers in the region, gentrification is a relevant ongoing process in some Latin American cities and its study would contribute to a better comprehension of recent processes of urban restructuring.

Patterns of Eastern European urbanisation in the mirror of Western trends – Convergent, unique or hybrid?

This paper presents a cross-sectional analysis of the urban land use patterns of 230 city regions in 34 European countries and an in-depth longitudinal analysis of 10 selected regions. The guiding question is whether the post-socialist transformation of urban spatial structure in Eastern European regions can be interpreted as an adaption process to Western-style urbanisation and how far a process of ‘mimicry’ has reached. Our empirical approach is based on a model designed to measure binary urban land use patterns with respect to spatial dispersion. As cities and city regions vary in spatial pattern and size, we calculate the dispersion index for three different standardised extents: squares of 25 and 50 km around the defined urban centres as well as city-adjusted accessibility isochrones. Our input layers are binary settlement classifications derived from multi-temporal Earth observation data. For the cross-sectional analysis, we cover entire Europe, and for the longitudinal analysis, we cover a sample of 10 cities for Western and Eastern Europe of predominantly capital cities of different sizes at four time steps – 1975, 1990, 2000 and 2010. We found significant differences between Western and Eastern European city regions as they have entered different stages of urbanisation. Eastern city regions are less populated, less urbanised, more dispersed and denser than regions in the West. Processes of post-socialist urban restructuring have definitely resulted in a change in land use patterns similar to that of Western Europe since the late 1950s. We nevertheless do not think that a ‘catch-up’ growth, leading to full convergence with Western-style urbanisation, will be a realistic future scenario. Eastern European urbanisation can best be characterised as hybrid: cities and city regions simultaneously manifest characteristics of convergent adaptation and path-dependency; they prove typical features of capitalist urbanisation, but relics of the socialist past are still omnipresent.

Una lectura de los conflictos en torno al uso del espacio costero en Vicente López a partir de las nuevas sociologías pragmático-pragmatistas

Este trabajo analiza los conflictos ambientales involucrados en procesos de reestructuración urbana iniciados en 2004 en la ribera de Vicente López, en el Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires, Argentina. El objetivo es analizar los principios de justificación empleados por los distintos actores tanto para defender proyectos de reestructuración urbana como para disputarlos e impugnar los procesos de producción de “geografías injustas” (Soja 2016), a partir del herramental teórico de las sociologías pragmático-pragmatistas. Este abordaje permite seguir a los actores “en situación” y dar cuenta de la dimensión argumentativa de la protesta pública. La información es fruto de revisión bibliográfica y entrevistas en profundidad realizadas en el marco de una investigación doctoral en curso. Como resultado, se sostiene que la coalición de empresas privadas y distintos ámbitos del poder público basa sus “puntos de apoyo morales” en los reclamos ambientales para justificar las modificaciones al perfil urbano costero. Estos hallazgos pretenden contribuir al debate sobre las justicias e injusticias espaciales, a partir de la comprensión de cómo operan los conflictos ambientales, desde una dimensión discursiva, en contextos como el estudiado donde los espacios verdes representan, de modo creciente, un “plusvalor” para la producción neoliberal de la ciudad.Ideas destacadas: artículo de reflexión sobre los principios de justificación empleados en conflictos ambientales ante procesos de reestructuración urbana iniciados en 2004 en un espacio ribereño de Buenos Aires. A partir de una lectura de las sociologías pragmático-pragmatistas se afirma que la gestión urbana en la ribera legitima su accionar en postulados de los reclamos ambientales.

The path-dependency of lowincome neighborhood trajectories: An approach for analyzing neighborhood change

The path-dependency of lowincome neighborhood trajectories: An approach for analyzing neighborhood change

A imagem da Região Metropolitana de Curitiba (Brasil). Fim do século XX

El patrón tendencialmente homogéneo de las imágenes internacionales de ciudades redefinió el papel desempeñado por las políticas de promoción de las ciudades en los procesos de reestructuración urbana a comienzos del siglo. Tal patrón se relaciona con la reestructuración capitalista, que automáticamente implica una nueva estructuración del espacio y un cambio cultural relacionado con la posmodernidad. De esta forma, las acciones y prácticas espaciales de modernización que expresan la tensión entre la rigidez y la movilidad en el territorio, revelan los momentos en que la estructuración espacial pasada se ha convertido en barrera para la acumulación, pasando a ser modificada. Con base en esas constataciones, por medio de la revisión de la literatura, se analiza el caso de la reestructuración productiva ocurrida en la década de 1990 en la Región Metropolitana de Curitiba (RMC, Brasil), donde las alteraciones en la forma de planificación (de carácter estatal -técnico / burocrático - entre las décadas de 1960 y 1980 para estratégico a partir de los años 1990) no alteraron la uniformidad y hegemonía de un conjunto de fragmentos de ciudad, profundizando la desigualdad y las diferencias entre un polo rico y planificado y una periferia circundante con menores condiciones de calidad de vida.

Requalificação Urbana e Novas Centralidades na Cidade de Quelimane, Moçambique

Este artigo analisa a reestruturação urbana decorrente das atividades econômicas que vê0m sendo desenvolvidas por os agentes econômicos na cidade de Quelimane. Nele, fundamentam-se a urbanização e a expansão da cidade; a dinâmica econômica e a produção do espaço urbano, a reestruturação da cidade, a difusão do comércio e dos serviços especializados, bem como as desigualdades e precariedades socioespaciais. O estudo procura demonstrar como são retratadas as questões relacionadas com as atividades econômicas, os agentes e papéis destes intervenientes no processo de reestruturação urbana. Para o efeito, foi usada a pesquisa exploratória com abordagem qualitativa, tendo sido aplicadas entrevistas a respondentes-chaves para obter informação necessárias para a condução da pesquisa. Os resultados da pesquisa revelaram que a reestruturação urbana na cidade de Quelimane no passado recente decorreu de forma informal e espontânea e, ainda hoje, a produção do espaço urbano e as formas de sua expansão, é reflexo da conjuntura dos modelos de ocupação do mesmo; que as atividades econômicas de maior expressão nesse processo são as pequenas e médias empresas do ramo hoteleiro, de fornecimento de bens e serviços especializados, de comércio, de construção civil, de entretenimento e de transportes de passageiros, incluindo os táxis de bicicleta. O estudo sugere que, no processo de reestruturação urbana, o planificador físico seja mais cauteloso, rigoroso e minucioso para acomodar os interesses dos excluídos, bem como que o processo de reestruturação urbana e da expansão da cidade siga os modelos de requalificação urbana definidos não apenas nas normas instituídas no país, mas também os saberes locais, nesta era da globalização para acomodar os sistemas funcionais políticos, culturais e socioeconômicos.

Produção do Espaço e Estruturação da Cidade: o Bairro do Altiplano Cabo Branco “Nobre” em João Pessoa-PB

O artigo discute a produção do espaço urbano contemporâneo, a partir da investigação acerca das transformações recentes ocorridas no Bairro Altiplano Cabo Branco, localizado na cidade de João Pessoa-PB. Este bairro tem sido alvo, nos últimos anos, de intensa produção imobiliária, após alterações na legislação de uso e ocupação do solo de uma área considerada patrimônio ambiental e paisagístico do Estado. A pesquisa está fundamentada na concepção de produção do espaço e dos seus agentes, na investigação da regulamentação do uso e da ocupação do solo do bairro, bem como na análise de documentos -- Registros de Incorporação, Pesquisa de Mercado Imobiliário e Cartas de Habite-se -- que refletem as transformações nele ocorridas. Constatou-se que o processo de caráter eminentemente local, embora viabilizado em parte pelo Governo Federal e pelo capital financeiro, desencadeia processos mais complexos de reestruturação que ultrapassam a escala do bairro e sua produção imobiliária, abrangendo também a escala intraurbana.

Del derecho al consumo al derecho a la ciudad: contradicciones y convergencias

Brazil has experienced the restructuring of the productive sector linked to processes of urban and city restructuring. In this context, population segments of lower acquisitive power have been recently incorporated to the society of consumption. This fact results in changes in the production of spaces and urban sociability. Therefore, the aim of this article is to discuss the dialectical contradiction inherent to the role of consumption in the construction of the right to the city. We consider that consumption must be understood as a matter of alienation, social demobilization and catalyzer of socio-spatial fragmentation as well as it is a potential element for city integration, the establishment of identities and citizenship construction. These are fundamental dimensions for theoretically repositioning and concretely achieving the right to city. The results obtained from fieldwork and interviews with city inhabitants of eight intermediate Brazilian cities allows us to observe the need to understand consumption through citizenship and politics, which is what allows the requalification of the spatial justice question.