scholarly journals Refugees Hosting Other Refugees: Endurance and Maintenance of Care in Ouzaii (Lebanon)

Author(s):  
Batoul Yassine ◽  
Howayda Al-Harithy ◽  
Camillo Boano

Abstract This article examines the socio-spatial mechanisms that emerge when refugees host other refugees. It argues that there is an underlying social infrastructure of care that impacts the refugees’ choice of destinations and modes of survival. When refugees host other refugees from close networks of relatives and neighbours, they create their own spatial clusters. In the process, the social infrastructure of care offers one mode of security to vulnerable refugees. Care as a concept and an approach is related to ideas of endurance and maintenance. It facilitates multiple dimensions, from space, to affection and to the everyday. It is able to reconfigure a life possible, life-enduring and a life meaningful in an urban setting. We focus on Ouzaii in Beirut, Lebanon. Ouzaii has been a destination for multiple displaced groups over different periods of time. Ouzaii currently hosts an approximate 10,000 Syrian refugees. They chose Ouzaii as their destination after they were helped by existing refugees who offered shelter and access to jobs. The resultant socio-spatial practices, flourishing businesses and leisurely facilities are evidence of successful social networks that form an infrastructure of care. They also play a role in the reconstitution of Ouzaii itself. We conclude with reflections on how urban informality may offer refugees an alternative right to the city while allowing them to escape the gaze of the humanitarian-aid apparatus that can signify their vulnerability by reducing them to only being aid recipients. Instead, they form protective socio-spatial networks that have proved to be powerful in sustaining their livelihoods, guarding them from possible social discrimination or political threats.

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-181
Author(s):  
Liska Chan

Abstract This article is a proposal to address visual mapping as a means to reveal the interrelationships between a place represented, a place lived and a place perceived. A form of critical cartography called hybrid-mapping is used to interrogate the combined sociocultural and biophysical legacies of the continually changing landscape. This approach expressly facilitates a focused interpretation of the everyday lives of urban dwellers and the nuanced connections between landscape, history and culture. Offering to a larger conversation about landscape representation, this article introduces, situates and analyses the application of hybrid-mapping in a creative research project entitled Chinatown Invisible about Manhattan's Chinatown. The Chinatown Invisible project uses hybrid-mapping to interrogate the quotidian practice of 'making-do' to adapt existing urban structures to fulfil everyday needs. Capturing and understanding making-do is vital because it sheds light on the ways in which residents informally claim space and how they shape the ongoing physical evolution of their neighbourhood, establishing their 'right to the city'. Chinatown Invisible shows how hybrid-mapping unveils the dynamics between culture and landscape in an urban setting, bridging critical geography and landscape representation to examine multiple ways in which we can interact with the processes of real, imagined and perceived space.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Татьяна Андреевна Водчиц

В предложенной статье поднята на рассмотрение общераспространённая проблематика напряженного состояния социальной инфраструктуры города на примере Москвы. Также берется к рассмотрению тот факт, что растущая инфраструктура – одна из глобальных проблем мегаполиса. Выявлены основные причины формирования дисбаланса городской среды. Предложен ряд способов возможного решения данной задачи.In the proposed article, the widespread problems of the tense state of the social infrastructure of the city are raised for consideration. Also taken into consideration is the fact that the growing infrastructure is one of the global problems of the metropolis. The main causes of the imbalance of the urban environment are revealed. A number of possible solutions to this problem are proposed.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sujayita Bhattacharjee ◽  
Sanjukta Sattar

PurposeThe lives of the poor in the urban spaces of India are filled with hardships. They live amidst poverty and struggle to survive within other problems such as insecure jobs, lack of proper housing, unsanitary conditions and low levels of health immunity. This vulnerable section of the population has been rendered furthermore vulnerable by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in ways that were never imagined before. Taking this into consideration, the purpose of this article is to examine the vulnerability of the poor in the urban settings of India with special reference to Mumbai in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology adopted in the study is based on the analysis of secondary data and content analysis of the existing literature. In addition to this, the study also makes use of certain narratives of the urban poor in Mumbai that have been captured by various articles, reports and blogs.FindingsThe findings of the study reveal how the urban poor of India, with special reference to Mumbai, the financial capital of India, has emerged as the worst sufferers of the socioeconomic crisis caused by the social distancing and lockdown measures imposed for combating the pandemic.Originality/valueThe study tries to explore the reality of the urban poor's right to the city in the wake of the pandemic.


2020 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 06019
Author(s):  
Rukhsana Badar ◽  
Sarika Bahadure

The global cities of the world are witnessing a visible disconnection of everyday life. In India the Smart City guidelines acknowledge the need to counter the growing social detachment and intolerance by encouraging interactions. They go further in identifying that preserving and creating of open spaces must be a key feature of comprehensive urban development. Most social relations are cemented within open spaces at the neighbourhood level. Previous studies examine the association between the attributes of neighbourhood open spaces and social activity but neglect to view the issue comprehensively. The present study turns to Lefebvre’s Unitary Theory which states that open space is a result of three forces; 1) perceived space which is the physical dimension and material quality identifiable by the senses; 2) conceived space created by planners and other agents as plans and documents; and 3) lived space which is shaped by the values attached and images generated through user experience. For open space conducive to social interactions these three aspects must work in tandem. With this consideration a framework of criteria and indicators is developed and used to measure and compare the open spaces in select neighbourhoods in Europe and India. The investigation thus reveals differences in all three aspects of neighbourhood spaces. It also reveals a discrepancy between the planning standards formulated and employed by the city authorities in providing the spaces and the actual needs of the community. The research aims to address this gap. The study of the Indian cases lays foundation for the use of the framework to measure open spaces in association with social cohesion and thereby contribute to the enhancement of the social infrastructure of the City.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Nazzal ◽  
Samer Chinder

In Lebanon, the social connections are undeniable and crucial. However, meeting places remain private such as houses, restaurants, malls, and beach resorts. This is mainly due to the shortage of public spaces in Lebanon resulting from lack of planning, regulations and awareness around the right to the city and the importance of public spaces. In main cities where land prices are so expensive, common practice has prioritized the use of land in real estate development, thus trumping other uses such as public and communal spaces.In the late 1990s, Lebanon saw the emergence of malls, which have arguably acted as alternatives to public spaces. Malls, with their wealth of food courts, restaurants, cinemas, and play areas, have become the new downtown for a portion of the Lebanese population. They are also considered safe, which is another important factor.In 2015, the percentage of green spaces in Lebanon has decreased to less than 13%. While the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a minimum of 9m2 of green space per capita (UN-HABITAT, 2016), Beirut has only 0.8m2.


ILUMINURAS ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (47) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovane Antonio Scherer ◽  
Marco Pereira Dilligenti ◽  
Ricardo Souza Araujo

O  presente artigo articula dois fenômenos aparentemente  distintos, o Urbicídio e o Juvenicídio, enquanto expressões da crise estrutural do capital., que se agrava no Brasil e nos demais países dependentes no atual quadro. A cidade é palco de um modelo neoliberal que segrega a classe trabalhadora dos direitos acessados nos grandes centros urbanos, sendo as periferias desprovidas de equipamentos públicos. As juventudes, mesmo que legalmente reconhecidas comosujeito de direitos, são vítimas da  ausência  de políticas sociais, principalmente nas periferias, territórios violados pelo Estado Penal. As políticas públicas até então constituídas promovem ações limitadas focadas no recrutamento de jovens no mercado de trabalho desassociadas de políticas públicas de proteção social básica, cada vez mais precarizadas. No entanto, as juventudes, plenas de potencialidades, podem protagonizar movimentos de resistência a este projeto societário, que exclui, encarcera e mata.Palavras-Chave: Juventudes, Território, Juvenicídio, Urbicídio THE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN: Urbicide and Youthicide in Brasilian Reality.Abstract: The present article discuss two apparently distinct phenomena, Urbicide and Youthicide, as expressions of the structural crisis of capital, which is aggravated in Brazil and in the other dependent countries in the present conjuncture. The city is the stage of a neoliberal model that segregates the  working class, without right to the city  and  the social services.The youth, even if legally recognized as subject of rights, are victims of the absence of social policies, mainly in the peripheries, territories violated by the Criminal State. The public policies e promote limited actions focused on the recruitment of young people in the labor market disassociated with public policies of basic social protection, increasingly precarized. However, youths, full of potentialities, can carry out resistance movements to this project which excludes, imprisons and kills.Keywords: Youth,Territory,Youthcide, Urbicide


ZARCH ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 138-153
Author(s):  
Lorena Bello Gómez

Using Mexico City (CDMX) as a paradigmatic example of seriously unbalanced water regimes, our project Resilient Code helps strengthen and communicate CDMX’s government efforts toward risk reduction and water resilience in marginal communities. Our project does so by bridging otherwise separate agents in the government towards a common goal: equitable resilience. Resilient Code provides design solutions that link the social infrastructure of PILARES (a network of 300 vocational schools distributed throughout the city) to CDMX’s environmental and risk reduction initiatives, including their Risk Atlas. This strategic program of design-based solutions began with “water resilience” as a Pilot to repurpose public space throughout underserviced barrios as a network of “water-commons”. Resilient Code helps partners in CDMX implement projects to reduce environmental risks and complement socio-economic programs, fostering growth of the “water-commons”. Resilient Code is socialized through a participatory game-based workshop, and through an online Atlas of Risk Reduction.


Author(s):  
Harvey Cox

This chapter describes the shape of the secular city, illustrating two characteristic components of the social shape of the modern metropolis: anonymity and mobility. Not only are anonymity and mobility central. They are also the two features of the urban social system most frequently singled out for attack by both religious and nonreligious critics. The chapter demonstrates how both anonymity and mobility contribute to the sustenance of human life in the city rather than detracting from it, why they are indispensable modes of existence in the urban setting. It also shows why, from a theological perspective, anonymity and mobility may even produce a certain congruity with biblical faith that is never noticed by the religious rebukers of urbanization.


Author(s):  
Charles Porwal ◽  

A good public space must be accommodative for everyone including the marginal, the forgotten, the silent, and an undesirable people. With the process of development, the city leaves behind the marginalized section of the society especially urban poor, who constitute about 20-30 percent of the urban population and are majorly involved in informal settlement like congested housing typologies and informal economy in which they face the everyday social, physical and economic exclusion. Thus, the informal sector and the marginalized becomes the forgotten elements in urban space. ‘Cities for the Citizen’ a slogan described by Douglas address the same issues of democratization, multicultural/gender difference between humans. Though these people have strong characteristics and share a unique pattern and enhances the movement in the city which makes a city a dynamic entity. The lack of opportunities and participation to such section leaves the city divided and generates the negative impacts in the mind of victims which further leads to degradation of their mental health and city life because of their involvement in crime, unemployment, illiteracy and unwanted areas. The physical, social, cultural and economic aspects of space should accommodate the essential requirements for the forgotten and provide them with inclusive public environment. It is very necessary that they generate the association and attachment to the place of their habitation. We can easily summarize that the city which used to be very dynamic and energetic is now facing the extreme silence in the present pandemic times. The same people are returning back to their homes after facing the similar problems of marginalization and exclusion even during hard times where they had no place to cover their heads. So, we have to find the way in which they can be put into consideration and make them more inclusive and self-sustaining. With the economic stability, social stability is also equally necessary for the overall development of an individual. So, the paper tries to focus upon the idea of self-sustaining livelihood and social urbanism which talks about development of cities aiming to the social benefit and upliftment of their citizen. The social urbanism strategy in any project tries to inject investment into targeted areas in a way that cultivates civic pride, participation, and greater social impact. Thus, making the cities inclusive and interactive for all the development. The paper will tries to see such spaces as a potential investment in term of city’s finances and spaces to generate a spatial & development toolkit for making them inclusive by improving the interface of social infrastructure.


Author(s):  
J. K. Shnekeev ◽  

It is natural that all modern small towns move to the level of megacities. The city of Nukus is trying to accept this status on the basis of its socio-demographic process, but it is natural that the bigger the city, the more problems. The main challenge for the rise of Nukus to the level of a megalopolis is to determine the evolutionary demographic growth of the population, to study the climatic conditions, to identify and improve the social infrastructure of the population. The climate of the urban nature, the social infrastructure of the population, the areas and shortcomings of each sector were studied. The result of the active movement of sectors to implement the state program in all areas of the city will serve to prepare for the level of the megalopolis.


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