Connecting financialization and urbanization: the changing financial ecology of urban infrastructure in the UK

Airports are located at the core of the production process, but can they also be where the “revolutionary subject” is hidden? We know what airports stand for nowadays, but have we pushed for what they could possibly stand for? Can airports, as a form of urban technology, be reimagined beyond their current roles of a “space technology nexus” driving capital movement? Can we imagine, idealize, and locate them somewhere else in a period dominated by the economy of time, where speed and accessibility matter the most? In this framework, this provocative essay aims to frame airports as a protest and public expression venue. Drawing inspiration from recent examples, such as the Stansted Airport protests in the UK, the Occupy Airports protests that occurred all around the United States, and touching upon the divergent example of Turkey’s 15th of July night protests in 2016, I provide a glimpse of an alternative prospect for this key urban infrastructure.

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Digital curation: the development of a discipline within information science

Journal of Documentation ◽

10.1108/jd-02-2018-0024 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 74 (6) ◽

pp. 1318-1338 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Sarah Higgins

Keyword(s):

Information Science ◽

Theoretical Models ◽

Digital Information ◽

Content Type ◽

Digital Curation ◽

The Usa ◽

The Uk ◽

Financial Ecology

Purpose Digital curation addresses the technical, administrative and financial ecology required to ensure that digital information remains accessible and usable over the long term. The purpose of this paper is to trace digital curation’s disciplinary emergence and examine its position within the information sciences domain in terms of theoretical principles, using a case study of developments in the UK and the USA. Design/methodology/approach Theoretical principles regarding disciplinary development and the identity of information science as a discipline are applied to a case study of the development of digital curation in the UK and the USA to identify the maturity of digital curation and its position in the information science gamut. Findings Digital curation is identified as a mature discipline which is a sub-meta-discipline of information science. As such digital curation has reach across all disciplines and sub-disciplines of information science and has the potential to become the overarching paradigm. Practical implications These findings could influence digital curation’s development from applied discipline to profession within both its educational and professional domains. Originality/value The disciplinary development of digital curation within dominant theoretical models has not hitherto been articulated.

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‘Deal or no deal?’ Governing urban infrastructure funding and financing in the UK City Deals

Urban Studies ◽

10.1177/0042098018757394 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 56 (7) ◽

pp. 1448-1476 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Peter O’Brien ◽

Andy Pike

Keyword(s):

Local Government ◽

Local Governments ◽

Urban Governance ◽

Urban Infrastructure ◽

International Investment ◽

National State ◽

Institutional Settings ◽

Administrative Culture ◽

The Uk ◽

Political Economic

How urban infrastructure is funded, financed and governed is a central issue for states at the national, city-regional and city scales. Urban infrastructure is being financialised by financial and state actors and transformed into an asset in the international investment landscape. Local governments are being compelled by national state and financial institutions to be more entrepreneurial in their infrastructure funding and financing and to reorganise their governance arrangements. This article explains the socially and spatially uneven unfolding and implications of urban infrastructure financialisation and local government attempts to implement more entrepreneurial practices and governance forms. The empirical focus is the City Deals in the UK: a new form of urban governance and infrastructure investment based upon negotiated central–local government agreements on decentralised powers, responsibilities and resources. The continued authority of the highly centralised UK national state, its managerialist institutions and conservative/risk-averse administrative culture have constrained urban infrastructure financialisation and entrepreneurial urban governance in the UK City Deals. Situated in their particular spatial, temporal, political-economic and institutional settings, financialisation is understood as a socially and spatially variegated process and urban governance is interpreted as the articulation and mixing of new entrepreneurial and enduring managerialist forms.

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Restoration challenges for urban rivers

Water Science & Technology ◽

10.2166/wst.2007.065 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 55 (3) ◽

pp. 1-7 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

B.J. D'Arcy ◽

T. Rosenqvist ◽

G. Mitchell ◽

R. Kellagher ◽

S. Billett

Keyword(s):

Best Management Practices ◽

Management Practices ◽

Urban Infrastructure ◽

Future Research ◽

Research Needs ◽

Best Management ◽

Persistent Pollutants ◽

Receiving Waters ◽

The Uk ◽

Pollution Loads

Urban sources account for significant quantities of important diffuse pollutants, and urban watercourses are typically badly polluted. As well as toxic metals, hydrocarbons including PAHs, and suspended matter, priority urban pollutants include faecal pathogens and nutrients. Can urban watercourses be restored by sufficient reductions in pollution loads? Case studies in the UK and Sweden provide insights and some grounds for optimism. A major trans-Atlantic review of the performance of best management practices (BMPs) is informing BMP planning. New approaches such as the maximisation of self-purification capacity in the receiving waters may also need to be developed, alongside BMPs at source. Other initiatives in Europe, USA and China, including collaborative projects, are trying to address the intractable issues such as persistent pollutants from transport and urban infrastructure. The challenge is daunting, but there are clear ways forward and future research needs are evident.

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Fixing urban infrastructure in the London global city-region, undermining the rest of the UK?

Financialising City Statecraft and Infrastructure ◽

10.4337/9781788118958.00013 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 231-268

Keyword(s):

Urban Infrastructure ◽

Global City ◽

City Region ◽

The Uk

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Bringing the Multiplex to Antwerp: A Battle of Two Giants

TMG Journal for Media History ◽

10.18146/2213-7653.2018.339 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 76

Author(s):

Kathleen Lotze

Keyword(s):

Urban Infrastructure ◽

Specific Time ◽

Film Exhibition ◽

The Us ◽

Key Players ◽

The Uk

This article investigates the introduction of the first multiplex in Antwerp, Belgium. Within Europe, Belgium has traditionally been a leader in multiplex developments. Despite Antwerp’s powerful position in terms of national film exhibition and distribution, the city’s first multiplex arrived relatively late. By investigating the struggles of two major exhibitors in the late 1980s and early 1990s, this case of Antwerp connects to findings for other countries (particularly the UK and the US) concerning the effect of multiplexes on local exhibition structures and cinemagoing practices. In addition, it demonstrates how the specific time and location of the introduction of the city’s first multiplex were dictated by the particularities of the local exhibition market, including its structure, its economic and political key players and its integration into the city’s urban infrastructure.

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