RECONFIGURING THE “MIXED TOWN”: URBAN TRANSFORMATIONS OF ETHNONATIONAL RELATIONS IN PALESTINE AND ISRAEL

2008 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Rabinowitz ◽  
Daniel Monterescu
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Old City ◽  
Urban Transformations

Studies of Middle Eastern urbanism have traditionally been guided by a limited repertoire of tropes, many of which emphasize antiquity, confinement, and religiosity. Notions of the old city, the walled city, the casbah, the native quarter, and the medina, sometimes subsumed in the quintessential “Islamic city,” have all been part of Western scholarship's long-standing fascination with the region. Etched in emblematic “holy cities” like Jerusalem, Mecca, or Najaf, Middle Eastern urban space is heavily associated with the “sacred,” complete with mystical visions and assumptions of violent eschatologies and redemption.

scholarly journals A Study on Urban Furniture: Nicosia Old City

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Mine Kuset Bolkaner ◽  
Selda İnançoğlu ◽  
Buket Asilsoy
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
The South ◽  
Urban Identity ◽  
South Side ◽  
The North ◽  
North Side ◽  
Old City ◽  
Street Furniture ◽  
The City

Urban furniture can be defined as aesthetics and comfort elements that reflect the identity of a city and enable the urban space to become livable. Urban furniture is an important element of the city in order to improve the quality of urban life, to create a comfortable and reliable environment and to meet the needs of the users in the best way. For designing these elements, the social, economic, cultural and architectural structure of the city should be considered and evaluated. It is important to adapt the urban furniture to the urban texture and to the cultural structure achieving an urban identity, in order to ensure the survival and sustainability of the historical environments. In this study, a study was carried out in the context of urban furniture in Nicosia Walled City, which has many architectural cultures with its historical texture. In this context, firstly the concept of urban identity and urban furniture was explained and then, information about urban furniture was given in historical circles with urban furniture samples from different countries. As a field study, a main axis was determined and the streets and squares on this axis were discussed. These areas have been explored starting from Kyrenia Gate in North Nicosia; İnönü Square, Girne Street, Atatürk Square, Arasta Square, Lokmacı Barricade and on the south side Ledra Street and Eleftherias Square. In this context, the existing furniture in the North and South were determined and evaluated in terms of urban identity accordingly. As a result, it can be suggested that the existing street furniture equipments, especially on the north side, do not have any characteristic to emphasize the urban identity. According to the findings, it was determined that the urban furniture in the streets and squares on the north side is generally older and neglected, and does not provide a unity with the environment, whereas on the south side, these elements on the street and square are relatively new, functional and environmentally compatible.Key words: urban furniture, historical environment, urban identity, Nicosia Old City

scholarly journals Isolated or integrated? Evaluation of ageing-friendly communities in Old Beijing City based on accessibility, social inclusion and equity

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fang Wang ◽  
Peiwen He ◽  
Congcong Yuan ◽  
Shunyi Wang
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Evaluation System ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
World Health ◽  
Ageing Population ◽  
Beijing City ◽  
Public Facilities ◽  
Old City

Due to a rapidly growing ageing population, China is experiencing a rapid urbanisation, resulting in the uneven construction of public facilities. Therefore, the elderly have disproportionate access to public facilities and services. These problems are much more serious in old cities because of a fierce contradiction between society and land use. However, elderly populations are significant to the old city because they are the soul of the old city. Importantly, the old city is a container of memories of their lives as well as an environment they are acquainted with and unwilling to leave. Therefore, whether the urban space in the old city is ageing-friendly and whether the elderly are isolated or integrated in the current urban environment are questions addressed by this study. Based on the World Health Organization’s concept of an elderly-friendly city, this study constructed an elderly-friendly urban space evaluation system based on accessibility, social inclusiveness and equity and analysed four types of ageing facilities in 25 blocks of Old Beijing City. The results showed that the ageing resources in Old Beijing City are insufficient and uneven, and revealed that the development of the old city has a positive impact on the construction of an elderly-friendly community.

From Mahalla to Xiaoqu

Inner Asia ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sawut Pawan ◽  
Abiguli Niyazi
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Urban Residents ◽  
Autonomous Region ◽  
Old City ◽  
Urban Transformations ◽  
Chinese Scholars ◽  
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region ◽  
Southern Xinjiang

Owing to high rates of economic growth and increased urbanization efforts, China raised the country’s urbanisation rate to 50 per cent in 2012. ‘Old town renewal’—an important component of urbanisation—has significantly affected the lives of urban residents throughout China. This article focuses on urban transformations in the old city of Kashgar in southern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. While more and more Chinese scholars are concerned with how effectively to implement the project in the old town itself, only a few are concerned with the resettlement actions caused by the renewal. This paper focuses precisely on this and analyses the challenges related to relocation, changes in the old town community and adaptation strategies in new residential compounds.

For the Love of God: Care-giving in the Middle East

2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nefissa Naguib
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Charitable Giving ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Care Giving ◽  
Old City ◽  
Longue Duree ◽  
Longue Durée ◽  
Love Of God ◽  
The 1960S

AbstractIn Jerusalem in the 1960s two nuns belonging to the Polish Order of the Sisters of St. Elizabeth experienced a calling to help relieve the suffering among children living around the walls of the old city. With the help of a loan and a 'miracle' Sister Raphaela and Sister Kryspina managed to finance the building of an orphanage 'The Home of Peace' on Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Today 'The Home of Peace' is managed by fifteen nuns who do the washing, cleaning, feeding, tutoring and caring for approximately thirty children, mostly girls, under the age of eighteen years. This paper sketches aspects of long-term daily charitable giving, rescue, protection, shelter and gestures of kindness which are forgotten aspects in Middle Eastern research. This is an attempt to get at the often neglected story of compassion and care-giving in the Middle East. À Jérusalem, pendant les années 60, deux sœurs de l'ordre polonais des Sœurs de St. Elisabeth ont ressenti la vocation de soulager la souffrance des enfants vivant en dehors des murs de la Ville Sainte. Avec l'aide d'un emprunt et grâce à un « miracle », Sœur Raphaela et Sœur Kryspina ont pu financier la construction d'un orphelinat sur le Mont des Oliviers à Jérusalem, le'Foyer de la paix'. Aujourd'hui le 'Foyer de la paix' est dirigée par 15 sœurs qui nourrissent, lavent, instruisent et prennent soin d'une trentaine d'enfants, pour la plupart des filles de moins de 18 ans. L'article se penche sur des questions souvent laissées de côté dans la recherche sur le Moyen Orient de nos jours telles que le don charitable au quotidien sur la longue durée, le secours, la protection, l'abri et les gestes de gentillesse. Ceci est une tentative d'aborder l'histoire souvent oubliée de la compassion et du soin au Moyen Orient.

scholarly journals Visual Analysis as a tool for Urban Intervention Comparative Studies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Elena Builes ◽  
Leonardo Correa ◽  
Diana Carolina Gutierrez
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Design Development ◽  
Urban Dynamics ◽  
Methodological Triangulation ◽  
Urban Intervention ◽  
Urban Transformations ◽  
Photography Analysis

In the past few years’ urban design development has been a topic that in some of Latin America cities such as Medellin, Mexico City and Córdoba, has been evolving under the shadow no longer far from concepts as social innovation and social urbanism, a situation that generates new perspectives and concerns about the impacts that this transformations bring to the cities and its communities. The aim of the collaborative research project was to acknowledge the impacts of urban transformations on five different cities and comparing them to find similarities and differences. A comparative analysis of multiple cases was proposed, along with a methodological triangulation that contained observation, photography analysis and the production of graphics accompanied by interviews in order to arouse an approach to the perceptions of the community residing the space and their affective bonds with it. Inquiring about this process and impacts, and the inhabitants’ relation with their newly transformed space, researchers used graphic research methods that allowed collecting, evaluating and establishing comparative criteria and identifying reiterating impacts caused by urban interventions. Different graphic and visual tools such as drawings, photography and graphic reconstruction were used as a tools to identify the urban and architectural strategies through which a connection between urban space and its inhabitants in each city in order to compare with the other four cities. These tools where used in order to define a recurrent method creating an effect of distance, which increases the effect of designation and shows urban dynamics to articulate submerged realities in opposition with the images created through the visual tools, so a closer relationship between research and representation is made.

Neoliberal Urban Transformations in Indian Cities: Paradoxes and Predicaments

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soumyadip Chattopadhyay
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Urban Transformations ◽  
And Shifts ◽  
Modes Of Governance ◽  
Elected Representatives ◽  
Indian Cities

This article attempts to understand state practices of restructuring of urban space and modes of governance, the role and strategies of the different actors involved and their participatory implications related to neoliberal urban transformation in Indian cities. Intergovernmental competition and inter-party conflict have constrained India’s attempts towards ‘state rescaling’, marked by incomplete devolution of authority and resources to the cities. In contrast to decentralization, a new networked form of local governance restructures and shifts the authority and resources from the municipality to the private sector, civil society groups or other agencies or branches within governments. These forms have institutionalized highly insulated and discretionary processes of decision-making to serve interest and priorities of upper-and middle-class population. Powers of the municipal officials and elected representatives have been weakened. Such political discursive processes and practices have rendered urban poor and their interests invisible within transformative cities. All these necessitate grounded deeper evaluations of such policies that are celebrated as technically sound and efficient or promote ‘good governance’.

scholarly journals Ways to improve the environmental safety of the urbanized environment in connection with the Covid-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 41-55
Author(s):  
Тetiana I. Kryvomaz ◽  
Dmytro V. Varavin
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Quality Criteria ◽  
Environmental Safety ◽  
Temperature Treatment ◽  
Building Management ◽  
Environmentally Safe ◽  
Urban Transformations ◽  
Environment Parameters ◽  
Modern Technologies

Pandemics of the past have caused all major urban transformations and have affected architecture, design, and infrastructure. The built environment is formed under the influence of diseases and precautions designed to ensure the population's health, hygiene, and comfort. Construction trends have always reflected the ability to evolve after the crisis, and in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the most vulnerable to the risk of infection was densely populated cities. Creating an environmentally safe environment to withstand epidemics and other possible emergencies requires a radical overhaul of planning theories and new urban space models. It is necessary to increase the spatial functionality and decentralization of megacities by increasing the potential of micromobility and new transport strategies. Emergency modeling with the help of digital technologies allows for creating an operational system of response and forecasting various scenarios of development of ecologically dangerous situations. High-quality criteria for the built environment parameters, which are used in green construction, aimed at preserving human health, are becoming relevant. Strategies include increasing natural light, improving ventilation, eliminating hazards from the air and surfaces, using natural materials, and landscaping. Modern technologies provide various automatic cleaning strategies with the use of built-in devices for sanitary spraying, disinfecting lighting, and temperature treatment of premises, contactless building management technologies.

scholarly journals POST-CATASTROPHIC CITY TEXT: THE CITY READING IN THE CITY IN THE POSTWAR EAST AND CENTRAL EUROPE

2020 ◽  
pp. 45-53
Author(s):  
Uilleam Blacker
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Traumatic Experience ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Literary Practice ◽  
Urban Transformations ◽  
The City ◽  
Second World ◽  
Practice Literature

In the material, the author addresses a multidimensional memory problem - not only as a constituent of social life but also as a feature of its functioning in urban space. The author presents the interpretations of memory against the background of urban transformations. The complexity and multidimensionality of this phenomenon are emphasized not only in the usual methodological field but also in literary practice. Literature acts as a means of accumulating memory despite the disappearance or destruction of one or the other in urban space. The traumatic experience is of particular importance. The example of the twentieth century reflects the various cases of the existence of memories of the tragic past. Kyiv, Lviv, Wroclaw, Kaliningrad and several other cities during the Second World War have faced the transformation of the usual landscape. That was both the realities of time and the policies against certain groups who have been harassed and destroyed. The practice of work and interaction with one or another component of the past, measures of governmental bodies are analyzed. After these tragic periods, the memory in a peculiar manner was lost. The cities in the region in one way or another came to return and actualization of this experience in the modern world. Critical in this process is the literary practice that "returns" and "opens" the memory of urban space. Complex topics require the involvement of a large number of disciplines in order to form an objective vision of the urban past.

scholarly journals Segregación Espacial por Renta. Concepto, Medida y Evaluación de 11 ciudades españolas

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Alvira Baeza
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Spatial Segregation ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Redistributive Policies ◽  
Current State ◽  
Urban Transformations ◽  
The One ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Residential Projects

La Desigualdad Socio Económica (DSE) ha sido fundamental en el nacimiento y evolución de las sociedades humanas. En esencia alude al reparto diferenciado de derechos y obligaciones (y la legitimidad de dicho reparto / diferencias) en cada sociedad. Se vincula por tanto inextricablemente a la Declaración Fundamental de Derechos Humanos.Dentro de las posibles manifestaciones de DSE, en este texto nos centramos en revisar aquella que implica la segregación en el espacio urbano de los habitantes según su nivel de renta, que designamos como Segregación Espacial por Renta (SER)El estudio individualizado de la SER es interesante para los arquitectos porque es posible actuar sobre ella en casi todas las escalas de trabajo; desde normativas que regulan las ciudades hasta proyectos residenciales de escala reducida, pasando por planes urbanísticos o transformaciones urbanas de diferente tamaño.Y el objetivo con este texto es proponer indicadores y un procedimiento relativamente sencillos para valorar diferentes estados de SER de las áreas urbanas, de forma que las intervenciones urbanas habituales puedan diseñarse para dirigir las ciudades hacia niveles óptimos de SER.Previamente a explicar los indicadores, revisamos brevemente el estado del arte diferenciando entre cuestiones generales de Desigualdad Socio Económica y específicas de la Segregación Espacial. Esto nos permitirá saber cuándo hay que actuar en el campo urbanístico y cuando poner el énfasis en medidas de otra naturaleza; e.g., mejora de la gobernanza corporativa; limitación de especulación en vivienda; políticas fiscales redistributivas,...Adicionalmente, utilizamos los indicadores explicados para revisar 11 ciudades españolas, tanto para validar su diseño como para obtener una visión del estado actual de la SER en España. Este análisis nos permite proponer algunas estrategias para mejorar la situación actual de las ciudades españolas y prevenir escenarios futuros no deseados.ABSTRACT:Socio-Economic Inequality [SEI] has been of fundamental importance in the birth and evolution of human societies. It alludes to the different distribution of rights and obligations [and the legitimacy of such distribution/differences] in each society. It is therefore inextricably linked to Article 01 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.Within the possible forms of SEI, in this text we focus on revising the one that implies the segregation in the urban space of the inhabitants according to their levels of income, usually designated as Spatial Segregation by Income [SSI].Individualized study of SSI is interesting for architects because it is possible to act on it from almost all scales of architects’ work. From codes that regulate cities to small scale residential projects, through urban plans and different sizes of urban transformations.Our objective with this text is to propose easy indicators and procedure for assessing SSI in urban areas, so usual urban transformations can be designed in a way that always directs our cities towards optimum levels of SSI.Previously, we briefly review the state of the art in Inequality and Segregation, differentiating between general issues regarding SEI and specific issues of Spatial Segregation. This allows us knowing when it is necessary to act in the urban planning/architectural field and when it is more convenient to implement other type of strategies: e.g., improving corporate governance; limiting housing speculation; redistributive policies...Additionally, we use herein explained indicators to review 11 Spanish cities, both to validate indicators’ design and to obtain an overview of current state of Spatial Segregation by Income in Spain. This analysis allows us to propose some strategies to improve Spanish cities’ current situation and prevent non-desired scenarios in the future.

scholarly journals Intimidation, reassurance, and invisibility

Focaal ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (75) ◽  
pp. 14-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erella Grassiani ◽  
Lior Volinz
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Public Security ◽  
Occupied Territory ◽  
Security Personnel ◽  
Old City ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Deliberate Strategy ◽  
East Jerusalem

Jerusalem is a city of extremes, where tourists and pilgrims come to see the sights and pray, but where violence is also a daily affair. In the square kilometer called the Old City, which is part of East Jerusalem and thus considered by the international community as occupied territory, the tensions accumulate as (Jewish) Israeli settlers move into houses in the middle of the Muslim and Christian quarters. In order to secure them, numerous cameras have been installed by the police that show all that happens in the narrow streets of the quarter and private security personnel are stationed on many roofs to watch the area. Furthermore, undercover police officers patrol the streets and at times check IDs of Palestinians. In this article, we focus on policing strategies that Israeli private and public security agents use to control this small and controversial urban space. We argue that the constant presence and movement of police, security personnel, and their surveillance technologies in and through the heart of the Muslim quarter should be analyzed within a colonial context and as a deliberate strategy to control and discipline the local population and to legitimize the larger settler project of the Israeli state. This strategy consists of different performances and thus relationships with policed audiences. First, their (undercover) presence is visible for Palestinians with the effect or intention of intimidating them directly. At the same time they also serve to reassure the Israeli settlers living in the Old City and when in uniform foreign tourists. Both Palestinians and settlers will recognize agents and other security arrangements through experience and internalization of the Israeli security mentality, while tourists see them only when in uniform. However, simultaneously, when undercover, their presence remains largely unseen for this third “audience”; the tourists who are not to be alarmed. By showing their presence to some while remaining invisible to others, security actors and technology “perform” for different audiences, manifesting their power within urban space and legitimizing the Israeli occupation.

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