At Home and in the ‘Countour-Hous’

2020 ◽  
pp. 42-62
Author(s):  
Jonathan Hsy
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environments ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
House Of Fame ◽  
Porous Boundaries ◽  
At Home

This chapter juxtaposes The House of Fame and the Shipman’s Tale to explore two London locations closely associated with Chaucer’s life: his residence above Aldgate, and the customs house on the wool quay. In The House of Fame, Chaucer synthesizes a quotidian portrayal of ‘Geffrey’ at home with imaginative representations of urban life and sounds. The poem not only engages with Latinate poetic traditions, but it also absorbs mixed-vernacular varieties of civic writing. In the Shipman’s Tale, a French merchant’s activities in his ‘contour-hous’ recall Chaucer’s vocation as a customs official for the Port of London, and the tale’s cross-linguistic wordplay suggests the multilingual capacities of Chaucer’s urban readers. In these works, the poet inhabits the polyglot settings of northern French ports and London’s waterfront. Chaucer’s portrayal of accounting practices reflect aspects of everyday medieval life, but more profoundly the poet illustrates the porous boundaries between languages within urban environments.

The Urban Improvise

Design Issues ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 44-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristian Kloeckl
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Interaction Design ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Humanities And Social Sciences

In this article I draw a parallel between the responsive nature of urban environments in today's hybrid cities and improvisation in the performing arts. By drawing on material from the practice and study of improvisation, as well as the humanities and social sciences, I examine the nature of improvisation and its relationship with urban life. Based on this approach, four key positions are proposed as foundational elements for an improvisation-based model of urban interaction design. A brief analysis examines this model in relation to three existing projects, and by using responsive urban lighting as an example, I illustrate how improvisation techniques can be employed to put into action the proposed key positions to guide the design of responsive urban environments.

Human biology and the urban environment

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip James
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
First Century ◽  
Calorie Intake ◽  
Stress Hormone ◽  
Disease Patterns ◽  
Cellular Inflammation ◽  
Health And Well Being

Climate change and the rapid movement of people and goods over great distances are changing global disease patterns. Human health and well-being are also being adversely affected by the absence of biodiverse, vegetation-rich green spaces. The human body adapts poorly to urban life. The result is ill health. A typology of interactions (intentional, incidental, and indirect) between people and nature is set out. Similarly, benefits of contact with nature in terms of physiological, psychological, cognitive, and social factors. The emergent central mechanism linking urban environments to ill health is studied. Urban environments cause chronic, low level stress resulting in the release of cortisone (a stress hormone), decreased physical activity, and increased calorie intake, all of which lead to chronic cellular inflammation and to the life-style diseases of the twenty-first century: depression, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and dementia.

Cycling in the Flattened City: Urban Assemblages and Digital Visual Research

Somatechnics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 246-264
Author(s):  
Oliver J. C. Rick ◽  
Jacob J. Bustad
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environments ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Assemblage Theory ◽  
Visual Research ◽  
Visual Research Methods ◽  
Urban Cycling ◽  
Cycling Event ◽  
Human Actors ◽  
The City

As urban assemblage theory emphasizes a conceptualization of the city as movement, constituted through the processual interactions between different human and non-human actors. This approach has been recognized as potentially valuable for the study of active bodies in urban environments ( Rick and Bustad 2020 ). Moreover, this approach also encourages the development and implementation of innovative methodologies aimed at conveying the complexity of urban life ( McFarlane and Anderson 2011 ). This article contributes to this approach through the use of digital visual research methods while experiencing a monthly cycling event in Baltimore, Maryland. In particular, we discuss how GoPro cameras might be utilized within the study of the embodied experience of urban cycling, and how this experience demonstrates the assemblage of human, machine, and urban environment. Following Sumartojo and Pink (2017) , we describe how GoPro recordings of active urban embodiment work to provide more than second-hand representations of others’ experiences, and instead can serve to collect and analyze ‘traces’ of the assemblages of urban physical cultures.

Scoping and testing rural acute care at home: a simulation analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. bmjinnov-2020-000592
Author(s):  
David M Levine ◽  
Meghna P Desai ◽  
Joseph B Ross ◽  
Natalie Como ◽  
Steve Holley
Keyword(s):  
Acute Care ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Hospital Care ◽  
Simulation Analysis ◽  
Chronically Ill ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Simulation Laboratory ◽  
Proper Patient Selection ◽  
Chronically Ill Patients ◽  
At Home

PurposeHospital-level care provided at home improves patient outcomes, yet nearly all programmes function in urban environments. It remains unknown whether rural home hospital care can be feasibly delivered.MethodsBased on prior stakeholder learning and detailed landscape analyses of various rural areas across the country, we re-engineered the workflows, personnel and technology needed to respond to many of the challenges of delivering acute care in rural homes. We performed a preliminary ‘mock admission’ in a simulation laboratory with actor feedback, followed by mock admissions in rural homes in Utah of chronically ill patients who feigned acute illness. We employed rapid cycle feedback from clinicians, patients and their caregivers and qualitative analysis of participant feedback.FindingsFollowing rapid cycle feedback in the simulation laboratory and rural homes, mock admission, daily rounds and discharge were successfully conducted. Technology performed to laboratory-determined specifications but presented challenges. Patients noted significant comfort with and preference for rural home hospital care, while clinicians also preferred the model with the caveat that proper patient selection was paramount. Patients and clinicians perceived rural home hospital as safe. Clinicians noted rural home hospital workflows were feasible after streamlining remote and in-home roles.ConclusionsRural home hospital care is technically feasible, well-received and desired. It requires testing with acutely ill adults in rural settings.

scholarly journals Evaluating Urban Quality: Indicators and Assessment Tools for Smart Sustainable Cities

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 575 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Smart Cities ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Critical Areas ◽  
Quality Of Urban Life ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Urban Quality ◽  
Neighbourhood Scale

The analysis of urban sustainability is key to urban planning, and its usefulness extends to smart cities. Analyses of urban quality typically focus on applying methodologies that evaluate quality objectives at environmental, urban, and building levels. Research has shown that a system of indicators can be useful for developing qualitative and quantitative descriptors of urban environments. The first step in this study was to formulate a methodology to measure the quality of urban life based on investigative checklists and objective and subjective indicators, aggregated to develop an index to evaluate a city’s level of smart urban quality. The second step was to apply this methodology to evaluate the city of Cagliari (Italy) at the neighbourhood scale, which is considered by literature the most suitable as a self-sufficient spatial unit for showing redevelopment results. In addition to sharing its research findings, this study aims to verify whether the methodology can be applied to similar urban contexts. The main outcomes of this research pertain to opportunities to numerically measure both objective and subjective aspects that affect urban quality. In this way, the most critical areas to be requalified have been highlighted in order to prepare policies congruent with the local context.

scholarly journals Connecting the Centre of Belgrade with the Danube and Sava Riverfronts to Increase Attractiveness

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-28
Author(s):  
Jelena Maric ◽  
Aleksandra Djukic
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Swot Analysis ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Urban Core ◽  
Pedestrian Network ◽  
Pedestrian Networks

Although Belgrade is set on the confluence of two rivers, its riverfronts have never been an integral part of the city, due to the barriers between its historical urban core and the waterfronts. Over the last decade, these areas have come into focus because of their potential for becoming one of the most attractive and important ambient urban environments. In this research, a method for the inclusion of the Sava riverfronts into the urban life of its users was established through an analysis of the quality and intensity of open public spaces and the possibility for improving the pedestrian networks. The area known as Kosančićev Venac has been chosen as a case study, being an important connection between these two sites with its cultural values, tradition and identity. The methods used were observation and content analysis of existing literature, strategies and planning documents. In accordance with a participatory approach, direct surveying of selected stakeholders was developed through interviews and questionnaires and a method of mapping users on social maps. Two main groups of users were included in this research: citizens and tourists. Furthermore, the results were presented in the form of a SWOT analysis showing the main obstacles and barriers, but also the strengths and of open public spaces and a pedestrian network. In conclusion, this paper could serve as a knowledge base for developing future strategies containing specific guidelines for revival and inclusion of riverfront areas, in order for city waterfronts to live up to their full potential.

scholarly journals Platform economies and urban planning: Airbnb and regulated deregulation in London

Urban Studies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (15) ◽  
pp. 3353-3368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara Ferreri ◽  
Romola Sanyal
Keyword(s):  
Urban Governance ◽  
Service Industry ◽  
Sharing Economy ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Economic Practices ◽  
Informal Practices ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Opening Up

The ‘sharing economy’ has become a new buzzword in urban life as digital technology companies set up online platforms to link together people and un- or underutilised assets with those seeking to rent them for short periods of time. While cloaked under the rhetoric of ‘sharing’, the exchanges they foster are usually profit-driven. These economic activities are having profound impacts on urban environments as they disrupt traditional forms of hospitality, transport, service industry and housing. While critical debates have focused on the challenges that sharing economy activities bring to existing labour and economic practices, it is necessary to acknowledge that they also have increasingly significant impacts on planning policy and urban governance. Using the case of Airbnb in London, this article looks at how these sharing or platform economy companies are involved in encouraging governments to change existing regulations, in this case by deregulating short-term letting. This has important implications for planning enforcement. We examine how the challenges around obtaining data to enforce new regulations are being addressed by local councils who struggle to balance corporate interests with public good. Finally, we address proposals for using algorithms and big data as means of urban governance and argue that the schism between regulation and enforcement is opening up new digitally mediated spaces of informal practices in cities.

Administrative Boundaries, Communal Segregation and Factional Territorialisation: The Complex Nature of Urban Boundaries in the Ottoman Empire

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 593-605
Author(s):  
Nora Lafi ◽  
Florian Riedler
Keyword(s):  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Focus Of Attention ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Political Boundaries

AbstractThis article offers an approach to Ottoman urban history that puts boundaries at the focus of attention. It serves as an introduction to four case studies exploring social, communal and political boundaries in different Ottoman cities from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Our understanding of boundaries rests on a theoretical approach that considers urban space as a collection of socially constructed territories whose boundaries have important functions that serve to structure urban life. From a long-term perspective boundaries can also serve as a heuristic tool to examine the transition from the Ottoman to the post-Ottoman period and its effects on urban environments. In conclusion, the article explores in how far Ottoman urban boundaries in their various transformations can explain present-day urban situations.

Exposure to urban life and mortality risk among older adults in China

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danan Gu ◽  
Qiushi Feng ◽  
Jessica M. Sautter ◽  
Li Qiu
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Mortality Risk ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Residential Status ◽  
Family Social Support ◽  
Full Life ◽  
First Interview

We examined whether exposure to urban environments was linked with mortality in a longitudinal survey dataset of nearly 28,000 Chinese adults who were 65 years of age or older in the years 2002–2014. Urban life exposure was measured by residential status at birth, current residential status, and urban-related primary lifetime occupation, which generated eight different categories of urban life exposure: no exposure, mid-life-only exposure, late-life-only exposure, mid-late-life exposure, early-life-only exposure, early-mid-life exposure, early- & late-life exposure, and full life exposure. We also included a measure of migration, whether the respondent lived in the same county/city at birth and at first interview, to further classify these eight categories. Overall, we found that when demographics were controlled for, compared to those with no urban life exposure and no migration, mortality risk was lower for older adults with mid-late life exposure with or without migration and for older adults with full-life exposure with migration; mortality risk was higher for older adults with early-life-only exposure. Once socioeconomic status, family/social support, health behaviors, and baseline health were simultaneously controlled for, only the higher mortality risk for older adults with early-life-only exposure was still significant. Our findings provided valuable information about how urban life exposure at different life stages was associated with elderly mortality in China.

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