Scripting Mamlūk Cities: Insider's Look. Explorations into Landscape Narratives

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 271-279
Author(s):  
NIMROD LUZ
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Travel Literature ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Travel Narratives ◽  
Spatial Arrangement ◽  
Spatial Dimension ◽  
Memorial Lecture ◽  
Michel De Certeau ◽  
Personal Understanding ◽  
The City

AbstractIn a memorial lecture for Charles Beckingham, David Morgan1 evoked one of this prolific travel literature scholar's astute observations: “[T]he study of travel narratives, especially travel narratives about a culture quite different from the traveller's own, can be very revealing, not only about the culture he observed, but about the culture to which he belonged”.2 This insight indeed undergirds my own approach to the descriptions of cities by both insiders and outsiders. Narratives of cities, indeed of any landscape, are but interpretative and hermeneutics texts which can be surely used to narrate the very landscape, but also as texts which may be used to understand the culture and perceptions of the narrator. Over the course of this paper, I examine two accounts (texts) of residents of Mamlūk provincial cities in al-Shām. These texts will be placed under the scrutiny of the data and the existing literature of those cities. In other words, the ‘conceptualised city’ as narrated by the sources will be compared with the ‘tangible city’. The latter we may unearth from various other sources (mostly texts) as well as the city's built environment. Thus, this chapter examines the ways in which Mamlūk cities of al-Shām were scripted and narrated by two local ‘storytellers’ and ‘image-makers’ of the city.3 In this context, ‘storyteller’ is an umbrella term for those who left us with a narrated legacy of their city. I decided to call them storytellers for the purpose of accentuating their inherent subjectivity. Informed and accurate as some of these narrators may have been, all of their experiences with and accounts of the urban landscape were guided by a personal understanding and their own cultural background. Since each of these texts is about spatial practices and spatial arrangement (landscape) of the city, the argument can be made that they all fall under the heading of travel writing.4 What is more, any narrative with a spatial dimension (Michel de Certeau would argue that there is no such thing as a narrative without one) is a story that organises space. Against this backdrop, the objective of this chapter, above and beyond presenting ‘spatial stories’ of cities of Syria, is to demonstrate the complexity of the reading landscape and particularly the ways landscape descriptions need always be taken as subjective, culture-based, culturally constructed, and a constant negotiation between the traveller/story-teller/source narration, the ‘actual’ built environment and the political context.

scholarly journals The Inner Geographies of a Migrant Gateway: Mapping the Built Environment and the Dynamics of Caribbean Mobility in Manchester, 1951–2011

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Brown ◽  
Niall Cunningham
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Urban Policy ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Housing Stock ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Ethnic Segregation ◽  
Areal Interpolation ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

Between the 1960s and 1990s a series of urban redevelopment projects in Manchester radically transformed ethnic settlement in the city. The ward of Moss Side, which had been a gateway for Caribbean and African immigrants, experienced repeated slum clearances in which whole communities were relocated and large tracts of housing stock were demolished and redesigned. The relationship between these physical and demographic changes has been overshadowed by the persisting stigmatization of Moss Side as a racialized “ghetto,” which has meant that outsiders have constructed the area as possessing a fixed and homogenous identity. This article uses geographic information systems in conjunction with local surveys and archival records to explore how the dynamics of immigrant mobility within Moss Side were shaped by housing stock, external racism, family strategies, and urban policy. Whereas scholarship on ethnic segregation in Britain has focused on the internal migration of ethnic groups between administrative areas, using areal interpolation to connect demographic data and the built environment reveals the intense range of movements that developed within the variegated urban landscape of Moss Side.

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY IN SAFEGUARDING THE HISTORY OF DENPASAR

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-205
Author(s):  
Ni Ketut Ayu Siwalatri
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Spatial Arrangement ◽  
Cultural Character ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City ◽  
Economic Capacity

Denpasar has a variety of heritage assets that are still used by the people. Living Culture or intangible cultural heritage refers to the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, and skills owned by the local community. Globalization and information technology are factors that influence people to change and reinterpret their traditions that have been carried out for generations. This paper aims to explore the role and rights of the community in safeguarding their architecture and the built environment. From this study can be concluded that the changes made to the architecture and built environment are mostly carried out by following the current trends as a representation of the economic capacity of the owner and sometimes ignoring the rules and knowledge/tatwa and norm/susila that were previously used by the community for the spatial arrangement of their environment. In the past, knowledge was possessed by Brahmins in the power of the king, and the people only carry out traditions with little knowledge of the meaning contained in it. The knowledge stored in artifacts needs to be socialized or published so the changes made are still rooted in the local cultural character and can maintain the identity of the city of Denpasar.

scholarly journals Creative Practices of Contemporary Art in Daily Life of Jakarta. SOIJST Vol. 1(1):37-58

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeong-ok Jeon
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Physical Structure ◽  
Space And Place ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
Traditional Markets ◽  
Michel De Certeau ◽  
The City

Jakarta is a fascinating location for both artists and art curators. This paper attempts to show how the city serves as a cultural open stage where ordinary dreams unfold through the practices of contemporary art in the daily lives of citizens. Utilizing the philosophical inquiries of Michel De Certeau, on the relation between ‘Space’ and ‘Place’, a qualitative study was conducted based upon data about Jakarta’s expansion, in terms of its urban physical structure and demographics; data analysis was also carried out on the contemporary art present in the daily life of the city. Through a phenomenological experience of and investigation into the artistic phenomena in Jakarta, three conclusions have been drawn: (1) Jakarta is a city of collaboration with local marginalized communities, (2) Jakarta is responding to its urban landscape and (3) Jakarta unwittingly has become the host of an alternative space in one of its ordinary traditional markets.

Singapore Songlines Revisited

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark R. Frost
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Official Ideology ◽  
Independence Era ◽  
The City

This essay revisits Rem Koolhaas’s classic meditation on Singapore’s natural and built environment in the post-independence era. Building on Koolhaas’s provocative depiction of Singapore as an architectural and environmental tabula rasa, it delves deeper into the twentiethcentury modernist conditions which produced the post-independence city state’s decontextualized urban landscape. Singapore’s city-making state policies have resulted from more than an official ideology of pragmatism; rather, they contain within them an official poetics with which independent creatives in the city must contend and negotiate. An analysis of these poetics, embodied in Singapore’s official image of itself, reveals a pervasive preoccupation with ‘the global’ and a wilful desire to liberate Singapore from the constraints of history through creative urban destruction.

scholarly journals Urban Crime Occurrences in Association with Built Environment Characteristics: An African Case with Implications for Urban Design

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 3056 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrik Silva ◽  
Lin Li
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Environmental Design ◽  
Spatial Arrangement ◽  
Urban Crime ◽  
Correlation And Regression Analysis ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The City ◽  
Neighborhood Level

Empirically, the physical spatial arrangement of places provides us with a clue about the likelihood for crime opportunities based on the principles of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). Although we know that the quality of the urban built environment influences people’s behavior, its measurement as a variable is not an easy task. In this study, we present and develop a set of urban built environment indicators (UBEIs) based on two datasets: building footprints and road networks at the neighborhood level in the city of Praia, Cape Verde. We selected the four most relevant UBEIs to create a single urban built environment indicator (CUBEI), and then, explored their relationships with five types of crime (i.e., burglary, robbery, mugging, residential robbery, and crimes involving weapons) using correlation and regression analysis. Our results showed a consistent and statistically significant relationship between different types of crimes with both the UBEIs and CUBEI, suggesting that a poor urban built environment is associated with an increase of all types of crimes investigated in this study. Thus, to minimize crime incidents, urban planners should rehabilitate or design neighborhoods from the earlier stage, considering the principles of CPTED and broken window theory (BWT).

Deindustrialization and the Changing Spatial Structure of Hong Kong, China

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paavo Monkkonen
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Public Housing ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Spatial Dimension ◽  
Neighborhood Change ◽  
Central Cities ◽  
Housing Projects ◽  
New Towns ◽  
Time Period ◽  
The City

Deindustrialization and the rise of the service economy have altered the urban landscape in many countries, and are generally associated with redevelopment in central cities and gentrification. This paper examines the spatial dimension of the transformation of the economic geography of Hong Kong at the turn of the 21st century, asking specifically how the relative centralization of employment and steepening of the bid rent curve has affected the residential location of different income groups. The Hong Kong case is noteworthy due to the speed of deindustrialization, the centralization of employment during this time period, and extensive urban growth due in part to the construction of public housing projects in outlying new towns. The paper describes changes in the distribution of jobs over space and sectors from 1986 to 2006, and analyzes the changes by distance to city center and at the neighborhood level using census, geographic, and administrative data for 150 neighborhoods. Wealth is found to be centralized though this centralization has declined. This decline stems more from an increase in incomes in outlying areas, however, than from a change in incomes in central parts of the city. Public housing plays an important role in limiting income change, as residents of public housing move infrequently, and government investments do not have a significant impact on neighborhood change at the scale measured. The implications for Chinese cities are explored in the conclusion.

Modernism, Space and the City

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Thacker
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Joseph Conrad ◽  
Jean Rhys ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
European Cities ◽  
Blaise Cendrars ◽  
Stephen Spender ◽  
Christopher Isherwood ◽  
The City

This innovative book examines the development of modernism in four European cities: London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. Focusing upon how literary and cultural outsiders represented various spaces in these cities, it draws upon contemporary theories of affect, mood, and literary geography to offer an original account of the geographical emotions of modernism. It considers three broad features of urban modernism: the built environment of the particular cities, such as cafés or transport systems; the cultural institutions of publishing that underpinned the development of modernism in these locations; and the complex perceptions of writers and artists who were outsiders to the four cities. Particular attention is thus given to the transnational qualities of modernism by examining figures whose view of the cities considered is that of migrants, exiles, or strangers. The writers and artists discussed include Mulk Raj Anand, Gwendolyn Bennett, Bryher, Blaise Cendrars, Joseph Conrad, T. S. Eliot, Christopher Isherwood, Hope Mirlees, Noami Mitchison, Jean Rhys, Sam Selon, and Stephen Spender.

Emplacing Berlin: Digital Itineraries and Short-term Study Abroad in the City

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard B. Apgar
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Study Abroad Programs ◽  
Term Study ◽  
Digital Maps ◽  
Short Term Study ◽  
The City

As destination of choice for many short-term study abroad programs, Berlin offers students of German language, culture and history a number of sites richly layered with significance. The complexities of these sites and the competing narratives that surround them are difficult for students to grasp in a condensed period of time. Using approaches from the spatial humanities, this article offers a case study for enhancing student learning through the creation of digital maps and itineraries in a campus-based course for subsequent use during a three-week program in Berlin. In particular, the concept of deep mapping is discussed as a means of augmenting understanding of the city and its history from a narrative across time to a narrative across the physical space of the city. As itineraries, these course-based projects were replicated on site. In moving from the digital environment to the urban landscape, this article concludes by noting meanings uncovered and narratives formed as we moved through the physical space of the city.

‘Otherwise in London’ or, the ‘Essence of Things’: Modernity and Estrangement in the Nineteenth-Century Cityscape

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-35
Author(s):  
Julian Wolfreys
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
William Wordsworth ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Thomas De Quincey ◽  
Urban Centre ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Urban Representation ◽  
Robert Southey ◽  
The World ◽  
The City

Writers of the early nineteenth century sought to find new ways of writing about the urban landscape when first confronted with the phenomena of London. The very nature of London's rapid growth, its unprecedented scale, and its mere difference from any other urban centre throughout the world marked it out as demanding a different register in prose and poetry. The condition of writing the city, of inventing a new writing for a new experience is explored by familiar texts of urban representation such as by Thomas De Quincey and William Wordsworth, as well as through less widely read authors such as Sarah Green, Pierce Egan, and Robert Southey, particularly his fictional Letters from England.

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