Studying Urban Space and Literary Representations Using GIS

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 457-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Alves ◽  
Ana Isabel Queiroz
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Literary Representations ◽  
City Center ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Literary Space ◽  
The City

This article proposes a methodology to address the urban evolutionary process, demonstrating how it is reflected in literature. It focuses on “literary space,” presented as a territory defined by the period setting or as evoked by the characters, which can be georeferenced and drawn on a map. It identifies the different locations of literary space in relation to urban development and the economic, political, and social context of the city. We suggest a new approach for mapping a relatively comprehensive body of literature by combining literary criticism, urban history, and geographic information systems (GIS). The home-range concept, used in animal ecology, has been adapted to reveal the size and location of literary space. This interdisciplinary methodology is applied in a case study to nineteenth- and twentieth-century novels involving the city of Lisbon. The developing concepts of cumulative literary space and common literary space introduce size calculations in addition to location and structure, previously developed by other researchers. Sequential and overlapping analyses of literary space throughout time have the advantage of presenting comparable and repeatable results for other researchers using a different body of literary works or studying another city. Results show how city changes shaped perceptions of the urban space as it was lived and experienced. A small core area, correspondent to a part of the city center, persists as literary space in all the novels analyzed. Furthermore, the literary space does not match the urban evolution. There is a time lag for embedding new urbanized areas in the imagined literary scenario.

scholarly journals Urban, industrial and technological risks. Synthesis of the elements of vulnerability of the city of Hassi-Messaoud

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lahcene Bouzouaid ◽  
Moussadek Benabbas
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Job Search ◽  
Population Distribution ◽  
Risk Assessments ◽  
Demographic Development ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Specific Factors ◽  
The City

Abstract Today, Algeria is one of the developing countries that are engaging seriously into a new approach consisting of all kinds of combined risk assessments for better prevention them. Note that, this is a fairly important parameter, that is, the safety of people and property. However, the magnitude of the risk, of whatever nature, affects a variety of diversified aspects (Human, economic, technical and environmental). This study presented a case study, which is sometimes paradoxical, seeing that it is the result of the combination of all risk factors and specific factors related to them connected to a fragile urban environment: Hassi-Messaoud. It is well known that Hassi-Messaoud is one of the most important city for Algeria's economy; in which the demographic development is mainly known by incessant flows of immigrants, motivated essentially by job search. This arbitrary of population distribution exposes this city to a certain danger; especially as Hassi-Messaoud is in a zone subject to a probable risk expressed here by being characteristic of an oil zone. Thus, this article aimed to provide elements of risk assessment related to oil activity. This approach could conclude that, through a schematic scale, the different types and levels of exposure and vulnerability could be identified, that is, characteristics of the urban space in question.

THE FREEDOM OF THE AESTHETIC: MONTSERRAT ROIG’S USE OF THE CITY IN RAMONA, ADÉU

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-99
Author(s):  
Caragh Wells
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
The Social ◽  
Catalan Literature ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The City

This article suggests that over recent decades Catalan literary criticism has paid too little attention to the aesthetic attributes of Catalan literature and emphasised the social, political and cultural at the expense of discussions of narrative poetics. Through an analysis of Montserrat Roig’s metaphorical use of the city in her first novel Ramona, adéu, I put forward the view that the aesthetic features of Catalan literature need to be re-claimed. This article provides a critical analysis of the aesthetic importance of Roig’s representation of the city in her first novel and argues that she uses Barcelona as a critical tool through which to explore questions of both female emancipation and aesthetic freedom. Following a detailed discussion of Roig’s descriptions of how her female characters interact with particular urban spaces, I examine how Roig makes subtle shifts in her semantic register during these narrative accounts when her prose moves into the realm of the poetic. I conclude that this technique enables us to read her accounts of urban space as metaphors for aesthetic freedom and are inextricably linked to her wider concerns on the importance of liberating Catalan literature from the discourse of political nationalism.

scholarly journals Application of Urban Geology in Construction Projects (Case Study: Urban Geology of Sarpol-e Zahab, Kermanshah Province, Iran)

2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sajad Afzali ◽  
Faezeh Taheri Sarmad ◽  
Mojtaba Heidari ◽  
Seyed Hossein Jalali
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Urban Geology ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
Horizontal Acceleration ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City ◽  
Financial Losses

Urban geology is a preliminary study for the construction and development of cities, which has been more prominent in recent decades in some countries despite its long application history. It assesses the impact of geological and natural phenomena on urban space and available structures. The earthquake on Nov. 21, 2017, inflicted a lot of damage to the city of Sarpol-e Zahab, west of Iran, including financial losses and casualties. Reconstruction of this city and planning for its sustainable development entail conducting urban geological studies. In the present study, the effect of natural phenomena on Sarpol-e Zahab County was studied by investigating its geology and geomorphology. The results showed that, in addition to the earthquake that habitually affected the city of Sarpol-e Zahab, the hazards of other phenomena are also significant. Recorded horizontal acceleration in the recent earthquake confirmed the high seismicity of Sarpol-e Zahab has.

scholarly journals New Perspectives on the Urban–Rural Dichotomy and Dialect Contact in the Arabic gələt Dialects in Iraq and South-West Iran

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 198
Author(s):  
Bettina Leitner
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Alternative Analysis ◽  
Dialect Contact ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Geographic Context ◽  
Urban Rural

This paper reevaluates the ground on which the division into urban and rural gələt dialects, as spoken in Iraq and Khuzestan (south-western Iran), is built on. Its primary aim is to describe which features found in this dialect group can be described as rural and which features tend to be modified or to emerge in urban contexts, and which tend to be retained. The author uses various methodical approaches to describe these phenomena: (i) a comparative analysis of potentially rural features; (ii) a case study of Ahvazi Arabic, a gələt dialect in an emerging urban space; and (iii) a small-scale sociolinguistic survey on overt rural features in Iraqi Arabic as perceived by native speakers themselves. In addition, previously used descriptions of urban gələt features as described for Muslim Baghdad Arabic are reevaluated and a new approach and an alternative analysis based on comparison with new data from other gәlәt dialects are proposed. The comparative analysis yields an overview of what has been previously defined as rural features and additionally discusses further features and their association with rural dialects. This contributes to our general understanding of the linguistic profile of the rural dialects in this geographic context.

3. Intervening with Agriculture: A Case Study of Guerrilla Gardening in Kingston, Ontario

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Crane
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Community Gardening ◽  
Spatial Justice ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

The purpose of this study was to analyze guerrilla gardening’s relationship to urban space and contemporary notions of sustainability. To achieve this two case studies of urban agriculture, one of guerrilla gardening and one of community gardening were developed. Through this comparison, guerrilla gardening was framed as a method of spatial intervention, drawing in notions of spatial justice and the right to the city as initially theorized by Henri Lefebvre. The guerrilla gardening case study focuses on Dig Kingston, a project started by the researcher in June of 2010, and the community gardening case study will use the Oak Street Garden, the longest standing community garden in Kingston. The community gardening case study used content analysis and semi-structured long format interviews with relevant actors. The guerrilla gardening case study consisted primarily of action based research as well as content analysis and semi-structured long format interviews. By contributing to the small, but growing, number of accounts and research on guerrilla gardening this study can be used as a starting point to look into other forms of spatial intervention and how they relate to urban space and social relations. Furthermore, through the discussion of guerrilla gardening in an academic manner more legitimacy and weight will be given to it as a method of urban agriculture and interventionist tactic. On a wider scale, perhaps it could even contribute to answering the question of how we (as a society) can transform our cities and reengage in urban space.

Edible public space. Experimenting with a socio-environmentally just urbanism

TERRITORIO ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 39-43
Author(s):  
Chiara Tornaghi
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Critical Geography ◽  
Space Project ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

This paper presents an English case of urban agriculture, the Edible Public Space Project in Leeds, contextualised in a context of urban agriculture initiatives committed to social-environmental justice, to the reproduction of common goods and the promotion of an urban planning which promotes the right to food and to the construction of urban space from the bottom up. The case study emerged as the result of action-research at the crossroads between urban planning policies, community work and critical geography. As opposed to many similar initiatives, the Edible Public Space Project is not intended merely as a temporary initiative hidden within the tiny folds of the city, but rather as an experiment which imagines and implements alternatives to current forms of urban planning within those folds and it contextualises them in the light of the ecological, fi nancial and social crisis of the last decade.

scholarly journals On Allotopia: The Spatial Accumulation of Difference in Bixiga (São Paulo, Brazil)

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 387-404
Author(s):  
Jeroen Stevens ◽  
Bruno De Meulder
Keyword(s):  
Urban Area ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
Urban Analysis ◽  
Territorial Claims ◽  
The City

This article will unfold a longe durée spatial biography of the urban area of Bixiga (São Paulo, Brazil) to probe the particular role of space in the conflation of different cultural practices and territorial claims. The extended case study bridges indigenous, colonial, and postcolonial urbanization as they amalgamated an intricate assemblage of material and cultural strata. Combined historical urban analysis and fieldwork allow to uncover how the resulting urban milieu integrates discrepant urban worlds, perpetually iterating between centrality and marginality, innovation and degradation, oppression and resistance. Building on Foucault’s (1984) conception of heterotopia, Bixiga will surface as an allotopia, a place that accommodates, cumulates, and celebrates a multitude of differences. It sheds light, this way, on more insurgent histories of urbanism, where urban space is piecemeal forged through contentious struggles over space in the city.

scholarly journals Housing Preferences of Seniors and Pre-Senior Citizens in Poland—A Case Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 4599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Jancz ◽  
Radoslaw Trojanek
Keyword(s):  
Senior Citizens ◽  
The Other ◽  
Single Family ◽  
City Center ◽  
Housing Preferences ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Family Housing ◽  
The City ◽  
Family House

This article identifies and compares the housing preferences of seniors and pre-senior citizens in Poland. In addition, the attitude of residents of large cities in the Wielkopolskie Voivodeship towards senior citizens’ housing was determined. Surveys were conducted in the two largest cities of this region. The influence of the potential behaviors of this group of society on the development of housing was also examined. Results showed that differentiation of housing preferences was visible primarily when choosing the type of development and size of the dwelling. Seniors preferred smaller units in multi-family housing construction. Pre-senior citizens, on the other hand, were more likely to think about living in a single-family house. The location of a new dwelling was also important. Seniors, more often than people aged 50–59, chose a location in the city center. Pre-senior citizens, in contrast, more often decided to live in a rural area or outside the city center. Moreover, the attitude of seniors towards senior citizens’ housing is undecided, which may indicate that many people may change their housing preferences in the future and decide to move.

scholarly journals Analysis of Green Spaces by Utilizing Big Data to Support Smart Cities and Environment: A Case Study About the City Center of Shanghai

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qi Liu ◽  
Hidayat Ullah ◽  
Wanggen Wan ◽  
Zhangyou Peng ◽  
Li Hou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Smart Cities ◽  
Relative Difference ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Patterns ◽  
City Center ◽  
The Hours ◽  
Spatiotemporal Behavior ◽  
Public Behavior ◽  
The City

Green areas or parks are the best way to encourage people to take part in physical exercise. Traditional techniques of researching the attractiveness of green parks, such as surveys and questionnaires, are naturally time consuming and expensive, with less transferable outcomes and only site-specific findings. This research provides a factfinding study by means of location-based social network (LBSN) data to gather spatial and temporal patterns of green park visits in the city center of Shanghai, China. During the period from July 2014 to June 2017, we examined the spatiotemporal behavior of visitors in 71 green parks in Shanghai. We conducted an empirical investigation through kernel density estimation (KDE) and relative difference methods on the effects of green spaces on public behavior in Shanghai, and our main categories of findings are as follows: (i) check-in distribution of visitors in different green spaces, (ii) users’ transition based on the hours of a day, (iii) famous parks in the study area based upon the number of check-ins, and (iv) gender difference among green park visitors. Furthermore, the purpose of obtaining these outcomes can be utilized in urban planning of a smart city for green environment according to the preferences of visitors.

SPACE AND ITS USE FOR PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC IN CENTER AREAS OF SELECTED POLISH CITIES

2017 ◽  
Vol 67 (0) ◽  
pp. 45-52
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Nosal ◽  
Łukasz Franek ◽  
Sylwia Rogala
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
City Center ◽  
Technical Parameters ◽  
The Public ◽  
Pedestrian Traffic ◽  
Street Furniture ◽  
Pedestrian Infrastructure ◽  
The City

The quality of urban space in terms of walkability can be assessed taking many parameters into account, such as the presence of sidewalks, their density and continuity, appropriate technical parameters as well as the presence of greenery, squares, parks, which create the environment for pedestrian traffic. The lack of travel barriers, the possibility to shorten the route, travel safety and security, the presence of street furniture, shops and services are also significant. This article concerns some of the above described factors and presents selected research results on the use of space in city centers of several Polish cities – Kraków, Gdańsk, Szczecin, Warsaw, Gdynia, Wrocław and Poznań as well as the results of an analysis on the friendliness of this space for pedestrian traffic. The first phase of this study was to determine the share of public space within the analyzed city center areas, and then define areas used as roads, infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists, squares, green areas, parks and public courtyards. The balance of the used space was created for each researched area, and the space dedicated to pedestrian traffic was additionally analyzed in terms of the presence of obstacles as well as sidewalk location. The analysis results prove that that greatest amount of the public space is located in the city center of Poznań, and the smallest in Kraków. Warsaw is characterized by the greatest and Szczecin by the smallest percentage of the pedestrian infrastructure. Szczecin dominates in terms of the share of roads in the downtown area, Wrocław in terms of squares and Gdańsk – public courtyards.

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