scholarly journals Berlin's construction groups and the politics of bottom-up architecture

Urban History ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 683-711
Author(s):  
FLORIAN URBAN
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Inner City ◽  
Urban History ◽  
Western Country ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Urban Living ◽  
Community Values ◽  
Mainstream Society ◽  
Middle Class Families

ABSTRACT:In the 2000s, Berlin saw the formation of so-called Baugruppen (construction groups) – associations of small-scale investors who pooled their modest capital to commission an architect and construct a multistorey building in which they would own and occupy a flat. They were mostly middle-class families united by a belief in community values and neighbourly contact as well as the qualities of urban living. This article will present the construction groups as an example of bottom-up architecture in an industrialized western country, in which individual initiatives and user-centred design had to be negotiated within a highly professionalized environment, as well as with contradictory political positions. It will show that construction groups brought together various threads of Berlin's recent urban history: the gradual integration of radical post-1968 lifestyles into mainstream society, the ‘return to the inner city’ connected with the increasing popularity of ‘new tenements’, and the evolution of innovative, post-functionalist architecture.

scholarly journals Inner-City Suburbanization – no Contradiction in Terms. Middle-Class Family Enclaves are Spreading in the Cities

2018 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Frank
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Inner City ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Metropolitan Regions ◽  
Inner Cities ◽  
Middle Class Family ◽  
The City ◽  
Middle Class Families ◽  
City Centres

AbstractThe rapid emergence and spread of new housing quarters that specifically address middle-class families is a striking feature of current urban development. Despite being located in or near the city centres, many of these ‘family enclaves’ display social and physical characteristics that so far have been firmly associated with suburban living. Against this background, the purpose of this article is twofold. The first objective is to argue from a theoretical perspective that the notion of ‘inner-city suburbanization’ is appropriate and helpful to capture the hybrid and contradictory nature of these projects as well as of many of the current socio-spatial developments in Western metropolitan regions. For this purpose, the paper draws on newer approaches that conceive of (urban or suburban) ways of living as independent of specific (urban or suburban) spaces or places. The second issue, based on empirical research, is then to sketch the essential qualities of newly built middle-class family enclaves and to highlight their propagation as a major characteristic of urban transformation in Germany. Their continuing expansion is interpreted as an expression and catalyst of ongoing processes of inner-city suburbanization. It is asserted that suburbanism has not only made its mark on the outskirts of the cities but is increasingly conquering growing parts of the inner cities as well.

Sex-Role Specialization in a Transforming Market: Empirical Evidence from Vietnamese Middle-Class Households

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elfriede Penz ◽  
Erich Kirchler
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Sex Role ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Household Consumption ◽  
Household Decision ◽  
Role Changes ◽  
Consumption Decisions ◽  
Middle Class Families ◽  
Role Specialization

Vietnam is undergoing a rapid transformation to a more prosperous society. This article analyzes household decision making in a transforming economy that has undergone modification of the traditional view of the family, from being an autonomous unit to an object of state policy. This is relevant because policy interventions shape household consumption through gender equality programs and thus have an impact on sex-role specialization. The aim of this study is to advance understanding of Vietnamese household consumption decisions and spouses’ current influence patterns by investigating sex-role specialization in Vietnamese middle-class families’ decision making. Overall, no significant sex-role changes were observed. It seems that traditional Vietnamese sex-role specialization does not (yet) differ among age groups. Instead, traditional sex-role segmentation remains predominant across all investigated age groups. While economic and consumption habits change rapidly, middle-class families appear to preserve their traditional influence patterns in purchase decisions.

scholarly journals Aussies, Rogues and Slackers: Simon Hanselmann’s Megg, Mogg and Owl Comics as Contemporary Instances of Rogue Literature

Text Matters ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 137-152
Author(s):  
Ronnie Scott
Keyword(s):  
Inner City ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Legal Restrictions ◽  
Rogue Literature ◽  
Mainstream Society

This paper examines the Megg, Mogg and Owl stories of Simon Hanselmann, an Australian artist whose serialized comics both depict acts of contemporary roguery committed by a group of friends in an inner city sharehouse and test the generic limits of its own storytelling conventions, thereby becoming contemporary instances of “rogue texts.” The paper positions the adventures of Megg, a witch, Mogg, her familiar, Owl, their housemate, and associated characters including Booger and Werewolf Jones as contemporary variations of both the Australian genre of grunge fiction and the broad international tradition of rogue literature. It shows how Megg, Mogg, Owl and their friends use the structure of the sharehouse to make their own rules, undertake illegal behaviour, and respond to the strictures of mainstream society, which alongside legal restrictions include normative restrictions on gender and behaviour. It shows the sharehouse as a response to their economic, as well as cultural and social conditions. The paper then shows how Megg and particularly Owl come up against the limitations of the permissiveness and apparent security of their “rogue” society, and respond by beginning to “go rogue” from the group. Meanwhile, the text itself, rather than advancing through time, goes over the same chronology and reinscribes it from new angles, becoming revisionist and re-creative, perhaps behaving roguishly against the affordances of episodic, vignette form. The paper argues that Simon Hanselmann’s Megg, Mogg and Owl comics can be understood as contemporary rogue texts, showing characters responding to social and generic limits and expressing them through a restless and innovative comics text.

scholarly journals Between gentrification and reurbanisation: The participatory dimension of bottom-up regeneration in Gdańsk, Poland

Geografie ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 120 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maja Grabkowska
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Inner City ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Transformation Processes ◽  
Careful Investigation

Urban regeneration has become a key issue in the development of contemporary cities. The paper discusses bottom-up regeneration practices performed by inhabitants of a decaying inner-city neighbourhood under post-socialist conditions, which differ notably from the widely researched Western European context. Results of a qualitative study in Wrzeszcz Dolny, Gdańsk, have indicated the leading role of newcomers to the area in animating bottom-up regeneration efforts, which in turn translate into an activation and integration of the local community. Thus, it is argued that an in-migration into the inner city, usually interpreted as gentrification, does not necessarily generate losses for the indigenous inhabitants but can also bring a desired social change and significantly contribute to the building of inclusive civil society. The presented case study therefore signals the need for a careful investigation and precise labelling of the post-socialist inner-city transformation processes, as well as demonstrates how increasing participation might be employed as the potential antidote to ills associated with gentrification.

Attitudes toward Classroom Discussions of Death and Dying among Urban and Suburban Children

1976 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Balkin ◽  
Carole Epstein ◽  
David Bush
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Inner City ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Urban Children ◽  
Equal Frequency ◽  
Death Education ◽  
Classroom Discussions ◽  
Frequent Response ◽  
Upper Middle Class

Fifty black inner-city children and fifty white suburban children were asked their views on discussing death in the classroom. The suburban upper-middle class children were significantly more likely to think that death should be discussed in the classroom. The reasons given for not wanting to discuss death also differed between the two groups. In urban children fear of bad things happening and unwanted emotions were the most frequent responses. In suburban children unwanted emotions was the most frequent response. A better understanding of death and preparation for loss were cited with equal frequency as reasons for discussing death by suburban children. The most frequently occurring response among those urban children who were positive toward discussing death was a better understanding of death. Some implications for death education were presented.

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