Urban Sociology Research Articles

A search for new urban narratives in the era of globalization: The case of urban sociology in Japan

This article aims to describe the recent changes in urban sociology in Japan, especially by focusing on dominant urban narratives and their historical background. Japanese cities have rushed through a compressed modernity since the early 20th century. The sweeping crisis in the 21st century can be regarded partially as one of its consequences. New urban crises such as disparity and poverty, loss of habitat, internal populism, and various risks are emerging. At the same time, various challenges unique to cities are also rising. Incremental and contingent restructuring has been urged through a process of both merging and colliding of ‘the persistent’ and ‘the newly generated’ factors inside of cities. How do we imagine a sustainable form of cities through repositioning them in an uncertain future? More incisive urban research is now demanded to explain the relation between the social, political, cultural, and material factors in a city.

Introduction: Tokyo's Gentrification in Context

This is the first special issue written in English in any academic journal that features the of Tokyo Takashi Machimura, who is no doubt the most famous of Japanese urban sociologists and now is the president of the Japan Sociological Association, has coined another expression - gentrification without gentry - as the answer to why weren't the Jiage phenomena described as gentrification? While these discussions deepened over time, the definition of was enlarged to include rural and suburban areas, and even was applied to tourism, retail and wilderness (Lees and Phillips, 2018) [Extracted from the article] Copyright of International Journal of Japanese Sociology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use This abstract may be abridged No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract (Copyright applies to all Abstracts )

Digital Networking in Home-Based Support of Older Adults in Rural Areas: Requirements for Digital Solutions

Given the increasing numbers of elders in need of support living at home, digital solutions are developed to ensure good home-based care and support. From a perspective of qualitative urban sociology, the presented study aims to provide an overview of existing technologies for communication as well as networking social support for older adults especially in rural areas, as well as requirements for their dissemination. The focus is on digital networking via apps and platforms in Germany that provide digital support in the areas of participation/communication, mutual aid and/or professional services for older adults. For this purpose, interviews with representatives of 12 projects as well as workshops were conducted. Support mediated via the digital solutions was not always accepted as expected, not even during the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure a sustainable and long-term use of the digital solutions, it is necessary to take into account the digital skills of the users, to deploy a supervisor and local networker, to find a suitable spatial dimension, to create an awareness of existing problems on site and to anchor the support in suitable structures.

Toward a Global Urban Sociology: Keywords

Many cities in the Global South are structurally different from the Northern, particularly American, cities on which much of urban sociology’s conceptual apparatus has been based. Thus, depicting them in terms of a standard urban vocabulary risks imposing an inappropriate way of seeing. We need a vocabulary that is able to accommodate their different urban experience. This special issue contributes to the work of building that vocabulary. We select five keywords in urban sociology— eviction, segregation, suburbs, violence, and gentrification—and reconstruct them in light of the places we study (India, China, Mexico, the Philippines, and South Africa). Our aim is to produce a set of keywords better equipped to travel South and, in the process, advance a truly global urban sociology.

Globalizing the Sociology of Gentrification

How can the gentrification scholarship of US urban sociologists be enhanced by expanding beyond the confines of the Global North to include empirical and theoretical analyses of Southern gentrifications? This article engages the debate around the utility of the gentrification concept outside of postindustrial Northern cities. It argues that, in contrast to geographers and other interdisciplinary urbanists, many US-based sociologists have unduly overlooked or minimized two aspects of gentrification that may be more clearly observed in the Global South: the roles of local political-economic forces and the state. This article also notes what the discipline of sociology can add to apt explorations of gentrification in the Global South. It marries the oft-disparate discourses of sociologists of gentrification primarily in North America and Western Europe with geographers and other urbanists conducting gentrification research in the Global South in order to globalize the sociology of gentrification.

Suburbs and Urban Peripheries in a Global Perspective

Herbert Gans’ classic book, The Levittowners, has inspired generations of urban sociologists studying American suburbs, but it has also confined the field’s focus to studies of the local community. At the same time, however, outside the discipline of American urban sociology, an interdisciplinary field of global suburban studies has flourished. Global suburban studies address a wider range of topics that extends to infrastructural provision, governance, and popular resistance. By introducing the key debates in global suburban studies, this essay argues that it is time for American urban sociologists to broaden their analytical focus beyond community institutions and power relations, and that much can be gained by adopting an international and comparative perspective to learn about urban peripheries elsewhere in the world. A comparative vantage point can help U.S. sociologists better situate socio–spatial transformations in American suburbs among a world of cities (and suburbs), and mine new insights on topics involving poverty, segregation, and community life that have been at the center of suburban research in American sociology.

Social Behavior of the City Government and Citizens of the Metropolis during a Pandemic (for Example St Petersburg)

Introduction. The coronavirus has become a serious test for national and regional power and management systems. Many systems have demonstrated their effectiveness and flexibility, competence and coherence. But there were also cases when erroneous decisions were made at the regional and even national levels. The purpose of this article is to determine the main trends in changes in the social behavior of the city government and citizens of St Petersburg in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.Methodology and sources. The article is based on classical and modern theories of urban sociology, sociology of the formation and functioning of public spaces and public life in a modern city, data from urban statistics on COVID incidence and empirical observations.Results and discussion. From the very beginning, the city government of Saint Petersburg became the center of coordination and mobilization of all city resources to overcome the pandemic. However, it is not always possible to manage the available resources correctly and effectively. One of the reasons for the inefficient use of available resources was that the government did not define a strategy to combat the coronavirus pandemic from the very beginning. Decisions were made situationally, sometimes inconsistently. It is worth noting that, despite the restrictions imposed, the social behavior patterns of a significant part of citizens have not changed significantly, but have only been transformed into hybrid social practices.Conclusion. The study described the existing normative and hybrid models of social behavior of the government and citizens in the public space of the city in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, identified the most affected types of social relations (local-local) and local spaces (trade, entertainment, etc.) in which new social norms are most often violated.

Spatial Relationship Between Eviction Filings, Neighborhood Characteristics, and Proximity to the Central Business District: A Case Study of Salt Lake County, Utah

ABSTRACT There has been an increasing body of literature analyzing eviction in different cities and contexts in urban studies, public health, sociology, geography, and housing studies. Still, little has been known about the underlying spatial point process of how housing evictions are generated. After geocoding eviction filing cases in Salt Lake County in 2015, this study analyzed factors affecting the intensity of eviction using the inhomogeneous Poisson point process (IPP) model. The IPP model result identified demographic, economic, and housing covariates associated with the high intensity of eviction filings. This study also found a significant relationship between eviction filings and the built environment characteristics—such as proximity to central business district (CBD) and light rail transit stations, intersection density, and land use mix score. Particularly, this study found that the intensity of housing evictions is negatively associated with an increase in the distance to CBD when CBD was transformed into gentrified areas led by new high-end apartment constructions during the housing boom since 2000. The article ends with some recommendations for policymakers, including the implementation of an “anti-eviction zone” in CBD areas to reduce the high intensity of housing evictions led by new high-end apartment constructions.

COVID-19 –global transition to a new architecture and urban development paradigm of the environment?

New trends in the social life at crucial points mean applying to the past experience and looking for new development models. COVID-19 has marked a global transition to a new architecture and urban planning paradigm of the environment in accordance with the sanitary, hygienic requirements and rational forms. In accordance with the current challenges it becomes necessary to reevaluate the concepts of urbanism and disurbanism redefining urban planning, existing typology, structural and functional organization as well as to search for new ways of architecture and urban development. Urban structures and sociology are expected to be reconsidered leading to reduced capacity of all public buildings, disappearance of some of them and replacement by recreation zones. Inexhaustible ideas and resources of past design approaches may be featured in the buildings styles. We could predict appearance of significant signs of new ethics in the new aesthetics which will mark the arrival of the third global «superstyle» which features have been already seen in the rigid construction approaches, in the social movements activities. Methods of architecture education are expected to be modified: in particular, the importance of advanced techniques in the educational process will increase and teamwork in the architecture projects will became vital.

Patrick Geddes: at the origins of urban sociology and urban studies

Patrick Geddes: at the origins of urban sociology and urban studies

“The right to the post-Soviet city”: Analysing communication gaps in the public space

The paper investigates the communication gaps in the public spaces of post-Soviet cities (from the perspective of business-government-society interaction) through the spatial paradigm lens of urban sociology coupled with the perspective of communications studies. The author analyzes the particularities of the spatial organization of post-Soviet cities; describes the main features of their urban public space; and examines their impact on the patterns of social interactions. The paper presents the results of empirical research into the government-business relationship, using the case of Minsk, the capital city of Belarus. The author specifically focuses on the instances of communicative dysfunction (i.e. communication gaps) as the manifestation of social distance, exploring its nature from the perspective of the concept of “a Stranger”. The findings point at a need to supplement the local communities with local public communication channels and content.

Formation of urban planning thinking as one of the priority areas of activity of the Department of Urban Planning and Urbanism

The article covers the history of the creation and development of the Department of Urban Planning and Urbanism of the Kharkov National University of Civil Engineering and Architecture. There is a retrospective of the long-term work of the department staff timed to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the university. The interpretation of the formation of the urban planning format of thinking, as a powerful lever for the training of architects and urban planners, is demonstrated in different areas of scientific, educational, methodological and professional work of the department.
 The main task of the pedagogical work of the department was the preparation of specialists of a new formation for work in many areas related to urban planning and architectural design, this is the training of specialists of educational qualification levels "Bachelor" and "Master" in specialty 191 "Architecture and Urban Planning".
 Scientific research of the department staff is carried out in the following areas: urban sociology, transport systems, urban ecology, urban systems, streamlining engineering and transport networks of urban systems, urban development management, the introduction of systemic and synergetic approaches in the formation of urban planning systems, rational methods of building and reconstruction of cities and villages in Ukraine.
 Within the framework of the topic of improving the architectural environment and urban planning space of modern cities, studies are being carried out on the formation of the planning structure and spatial composition of Kharkov during the period of industrial and post-industrial development and the analysis of the implementation of urban planning concepts in the microdistrict development of Kharkov.
 The development of urban planning thinking, as the formation of a special structure of professional consciousness, is one of the main tasks of the work of the team of the Department of Urban Planning and Urbanism of KNUSA.

The Urban Digital Platform: Instances from Milan and Amsterdam

The article interrogates the concept of the urban in relation to digital platforms designed for citizen-based initiatives and local projects. We must broaden our scope as urban scholars to include this vast undergrowth of ‘other’ platforms and study how they intersect with the social and material fabric of cities. Drawing from media and internet studies, urban sociology, and digital geography, I introduce the novel concept of ‘urban digital platform’ (UDP). I do so theoretically by using a digital geography body of work and the level of abstractness proposed by Bratton (2016), in ‘the stack,’ which are entry points to define any kind of digital platform. While global and for-profit digital platforms exploit density, size, and diversity, extracting resources into a data-driven form of governance and computational production of space. UDPs benefit from the urban as a front to (re)organise citizen-based, mutual-aid initiatives, and solidarity actions. The core of the UDP concept lies in the ambiguity of the role of the urban government, media literacy, and techno-biases as basic requirements for citizens to access the platform, its services, and goods. Those claims are supported by instances and empirical findings of two analysed platforms in Milan and Amsterdam.

Theorizing urban social spaces and their interrelations: New perspectives on urban sociology, politics, and planning

This paper proposes a new theoretical perspective for understanding urban social spaces and their interrelations. In an effort to understand these multifaceted, complex relations, an inquiry committed to a flat ontology was deployed. Accordingly, we draw our theorization on the Lacanian ontological lack, Harman’s object-oriented ontology, and Laclau and Mouffe’s discursivity of social reality. Thus, we propose that urban social spaces are discursive and real entities with real and sensual qualities and constituted through specific relations. They are located within discursive social relations, where each urban social space has a “differential position” in an urban system of relations. Each urban social space has an “identity,” defined by its specific mixture of social groups and its specific real and sensual qualities. These qualities construct a sensual object with a specific sensual identity within the web of different urban social spaces. Therefore, urban social spaces are being made through multiple interrelations and are constituted through their location in a nexus of positions. The proposed framework that captures the interrelations among urban social spaces is based on three interrelated logics: the logic of difference, the logic of equivalence, and the fantasmatic logic. Understanding the relations of urban social spaces through these logics offers multifaceted social, political, psychological, and spatial illumination, details, and a more nuanced and flexible investigation of the formation and change of these spaces. Hereby, the city is conceived as comprised of spatiotemporal configurations where social spaces have social and political relations ranging from harshly antagonistic to inclusive and equivalent. This proposed framework informs both sociological and political realms of planning theory. It provides planning theory with new perspectives for understanding the city as a web of interrelated social spaces. Furthermore, it allows a more critical understanding of urban reality by illuminating inequality, injustice, antagonism, and the formulation of “otherness.”

The Vacant Urban Space: Problems, Possibilities, Processes

Cities are dynamic entities in perpetual evolution. Through this process, vacant spaces tend to appear under different circumstances. Certainly, empty and abandoned lots in a dense urban fabric are easily locatable. That their state persists over a considerable period is what makes them remarkable. This phenomenon may be viewed from different perspectives by urban planners, architects, geographers, economists, environmentalists, sociology academics and policymakers. Therefore, multiple data, parameters and definitions are in play. This multidisciplinary combination could quickly create a terminology issue in the scientific body related to urbanism and open space design. This paper presents an overview of the definitions of urban vacant spaces, taking into consideration the various perspectives. While following the timeline and the changes in the interpretations of the vacant urban space, it becomes evident how this phenomenon came from a problem of failed urban design to a possible place of resistance and finally an accepted possibility for temporary urbanism.

On the verge of the tactile. A conversation with Richard Sennett

In his London studio at Shaffron Hill, Richard Sennett shares his current concerns, from the transformation processes taking place in our cities, to the very future of our planet. The scope of Sennett’s thinking – encompassing everything from buildings themselves, to cities, to territories – focuses in this conversation around issues such as gentrification, tourism, urban borders and boundaries, and his desire for a more ‘tactile’ urbanism. His reflections attract the attention not only of architects but also of urban designers, sociologists, geographers and environmental engineers, addressing as they do, key themes such as the dangers of social homogenization, the forces of capitalism and the consequences of climate change. The interview clearly illustrates the shift in Sennett’s interest from urbanism per se, to the broader question of climate change and environmental sustainability.

Kamusallığın Gelişimi ile Kamusal Alanların Nitelikleri Arasındaki İlişki

Throughout the urban history, public spaces that have appeared through various forms based on the priorities and expectations of the socities have witnessed different uses according to their ontologies. While some of them have been to meet the expectatitions that impacted the development of public life, the rest are manifest of situations that occured as a result of the recent. On the other hand, it is possible to say that public spaces are the reflection of ages long socio-cultural lifestyle of the societies. The relationship between these spaces and the culture and lifestyle of the society is an example of the relationship that is reciprocal and long lasting. If assessed from this perspective, as much as public spaces are element of planning, they are also an element of urban sociology and studies in this field require not only physical planning but also sociological planning. In order to get to know and to make sense out of a place it is necessary to understand the societal expectations and the conditions of the time composed it. In this study, public spaces have been evaluated based on the societal expectations and priorities that led them them emerge rather than being a physical urban element. The core aim of the study that covers the period from Ancient Greek until today is to determine to what extent these expectations have turned to be in use.

The racial and colonial dimensions of gentrification

AbstractIn recent years, studies of gentrification have added a deeper political economic, political, and cultural understanding to this process by demonstrating how it can be understood as not only driven by the physical displacement of working‐class residents but also by the political, cultural, and physical displacement of poor and working‐class Black, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous populations. In this study, I review these recent key works in urban sociology, geography, and urban history which examine the specifically racial and colonial dimensions of gentrification. These works provide invaluable insights to the political economic, political, and cultural dimensions of gentrification, but are still constrained by not developing a deeper historical analytics of the racial and colonial structures which shape gentrification. Because of this, the foundations of anti‐Black and anti‐Indigenous racism which make possible the commodification of space and devaluation and dispossession of people that gentrification requires, remain obscured. I argue the alternative frameworks of settler colonialism, internal colonialism, and coloniality—developed largely separate from urban sociology—can provide a sharper analysis to the study of gentrification by helping to more explicitly name and explain the racial and colonial structures, logics, and subjectivities which shape gentrification.

Jean-François Augoyard, an explorer of the sensory world

Presentation de Jean-Francois Augoyard et de ses domaines de recherche. Ses travaux principaux portent sur la perception de l’espace et les conduites sociales en ville, sur la methodologie interdisciplinaire de l’environnement sensible (son, lumiere, odeurs), sur la theorie des ambiances architecturales et urbaines et sur l’experience esthetique en milieu urbain

Una mirada crítica al modelo de ocupación planteado por el Plan de Ordenamiento Territorial de Villavicencio

El Plan de Ordenamiento Territorial de Villavicencio -Acuerdo 287 de 2015- desde su propósito y visión de ciudad planteó un cambio en el modelo de ocupación. Pasar de un modelo monocéntrico a uno policéntrico, con el fin de mejorar la capacidad, cobertura, tiempos de desplazamiento y transporte. La creación de centralidades alternas al centro histórico planteó la necesidad de proyectar una estructura urbana soportada en la armonización con múltiples componentes de la ciudad como; la movilidad, los usos del suelo, las infraestructuras de soporte urbano, los tratamientos urbanísticos, el componente ambiental y las nuevas centralidades. El objetivo de la investigación fue la evaluación del cambio de modelo de ocupación, la valoración y reconocimiento de elementos estructurantes que modifican la estructura urbana de Villavicencio, a partir de la revisión documental del Acuerdo 287 de 2015 y sus documentos técnicos de soporte, además del seguimiento a las acciones realizadas por parte de la Administración Municipal en el primer cuatrienio de aplicación del cambio de modelo. Asimismo, y con base en el análisis documental se abordaron tópicos con el fin de examinar los fenómenos que desde los enfoques de la sociología urbana y la economía urbana pueden modificar la estructura urbana, acotando los aspectos con aplicabilidad para Villavicencio. Con lo anterior y la interpretación de los resultados del diseño metodológico para el reconocimiento de las preferencias, frecuencias de desplazamiento y percepciones de accesibilidad, se estableció la evaluación y reconocimiento de los elementos estructurantes que modifican y dan soporte a la estructura urbana.