scholarly journals Urban debates for climate change after the Kyoto Protocol

Urban Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Tu

From the catalogue of environment-related publications in Urban Studies, this paper identifies and reviews 12 thought-provoking articles that have addressed the issue of climate changes and cities from complementary perspectives. It argues that to advance a holistic understanding of urban environmental issues it is necessary to embrace a broad multi-disciplinary approach, particularly as moving towards low carbon urban living will require integrated social, political and technical adaptation processes. Ultimately, the paper advances a forward-looking research agenda that extends beyond consideration of how to improve urban environmental performance to include evaluation of how urban consumers, firms and local government endeavour to achieve sustainable urban development.

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1333-1342
Author(s):  
Núria Boix Rodríguez ◽  
Marco Marconi ◽  
Claudio Favi ◽  
Giovanni Formentini

AbstractFace masks are currently considered essential devices that people must wear today and in the near future, until the COVID-19 pandemic will be completely defeated through specific medicines and vaccines. Such devices are generally made of thermoplastic polymers, as polypropylene and polyethylene and are single use products. Even if in this period the sanitary emergency must have the maximum priority, the world society should not completely forget the environmental problem that are causing more and more obvious climate changes with correlated damages to ecosystems and human health. Despite the well-known correlation among anti-COVID protective equipment (or more generally medical devices) and environmental issues, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and eco-design-based studies in this field is very scarce. The present study aims to derive the most important environmental criticalities of such products, by using LCA and product circularity indicators of five different common masks. The final aim is to provide eco-design guidelines, useful to design new face masks by preventing negative impact on the environment.


Urban Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004209802098630
Author(s):  
Sophia Maalsen

This commentary advances the ‘hack’ as an urban concept. While the hack transcends existing literatures on the digital and informality, it is a distinctive concept and is being used systematically in new domains. I situate the hack conceptually, outline its empirical and methodological value and propose a framework to research the urban hack. Importantly, it is not just the technologies of hacking but the translation of computational logics to the urban that underpins the importance of the hack, as well as the critical need to set out a research agenda surrounding the hack within urban studies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 324 ◽  
pp. 129244
Author(s):  
Crescenza Calculli ◽  
Angela Maria D'Uggento ◽  
Angela Labarile ◽  
Nunziata Ribecco

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 48-66
Author(s):  
Javier Ruiz-Tagle ◽  
Carolina Aguilera

Although ethnic differentiations began with colonialism, racism was not widely addressed in Latin American social sciences until recently, since class perspectives were predominant. Within this, studies on residential segregation and urban exclusion have ignored race and ethnicity, with the exceptions of Brazil and Colombia. However, these issues have recently become crucial because of the adoption of multiculturalism, the impact of postcolonialism and postmodernism, the emergence of black and indigenous social movements, changes in state policy, and new trends in migration. A review of debates and evidence from Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina shows that persistent colonial ideologies, narratives, and popular perceptions of ethno-racial denial sustain various kinds of urban exclusion in the region. The evidence calls for a new research agenda to decolonize urban studies that adopts a critical perspective on the coloniality of power. Aunque las diferenciaciones étnicas comenzaron con el colonialismo, el racismo no se abordó ampliamente en las ciencias sociales latinoamericanas hasta hace poco, ya que predominaban las perspectivas de clase. Los estudios sobre la segregación residencial y la exclusión urbana han ignorado la raza y el origen étnico, con excepción de Brasil y Colombia. Sin embargo, estas cuestiones se han vuelto cruciales recientemente debido a la adopción del multiculturalismo, el impacto del poscolonialismo y el posmodernismo, la aparición de movimientos sociales negros e indígenas, los cambios en la política estatal y nuevas tendencias en la migración. Una revisión de los debates y evidencia en México, Colombia, Chile y Argentina muestra que las ideologías coloniales persistentes, las narrativas y las percepciones populares de la negación etnoracial sostienen varios tipos de exclusión urbana en la región. La evidencia exige una nueva agenda de investigación para descolonizar los estudios urbanos y adoptar una perspectiva crítica sobre la colonialidad del poder.


Author(s):  
K.S. Savita ◽  
P.D.D. Dominic ◽  
T. Ramayah

The global shift in ecological movement has significant impacts on business operation of manufacturing firms that are located in developing countries. The intense pressure of being environmentally sustainable has caused Green Supply Chain Management (Green SCM) concept to emerge as an important corporate environmental strategy for manufacturing companies. Information technologies and systems have permeated in most business activities, in which, they extend important opportunities to resolve environmental issues. However, many researchers, including manufacturers and government bodies often disregard the green concept of information technologies and systems in minimizing environmental issues. A comprehensive review on Green SCM, Green IT and Green IS for sustainable environmental performance in manufacturing companies is presented using Input-Process-Output (IPO) Theory and Technological-Organizational-Environmental (TOE) theory. In bridging the research gap, a model is constructed to link the aforementioned constructs. Next, the paper reports on the development of survey questionnaire using cognitive interviewing strategies, followed up with semi-structured interview to investigate and obtain preliminary findings on the influential factors, green activities and performance outcomes from implementing Green SCM. Lastly, the finalized survey questionnaire was distributed to 60 ISO14001 certified manufacturing companies located in the region of Perak and Kulim. Out of 60 manufacturing companies, only 32 responses received as the dataset in analyzing for improvements in reliability, measurement error, and validity of measured items. The findings from this pilot study explain that internal and external factors have stronger influence over the implementation of green initiatives in supply chain with substantial outcome on environmental performance. The information technologies and systems being the physical resource, capability and backbone to run a business seamlessly are significantly recognized. But, the green component of IT and IS were poorly attended and disregarded to an extent in the process of greening the processes, operations or entire business. Therefore, further investigations are required in the main study to validate the findings obtained here and other possible association between the factors, practices and outcomes in realizing ecological improvements in the supply chain and firm itself.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 231-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martín José Montero-Martínez ◽  
Julio Sergio Santana-Sepúlveda ◽  
Naydú Isabel Pérez-Ortiz ◽  
Óscar Pita-Díaz ◽  
Salvador Castillo-Liñan

Abstract. It is a matter of current study to determine potential climate changes in different parts of the world, especially in regions like a basin which has the potential to affect socioeconomic and environmental issues in a defined area. This study provides a comparison between several climate change indices trends of two very different basins in Mexico, one located in the northern arid region (the Conchos River basin) and the other in the southern humid area (the Usumacinta River basin). First, quality control, homogenization, and completion of the missing data were applied before calculating the climate change indices and their respective trends for the combined period 1961–1994. A clear warming signal was found for the two basins in addition to an increment in the DTR, in agreement with other studies in Mexico. Also, the Conchos River basin was found to be more humid and the Usumacinta River basin drier, in accordance to a supposed seesaw behavior indicated in previous analysis.


Author(s):  
Sharul Shahida Shakrein Safian ◽  
Hanny Zurina Hamzah

The use of the green concept in the automotive industry as an energy-efficient transport innovation is still regarded as a new technology in Malaysia. It also has the potential to alleviate environmental issues in order to improve environmental performance in the automotive industry context. As such, the significance of green technology has become a growing concern, especially among developing countries. The purpose of this study is to determine consumers’ willingness to pay for green vehicles towards solving environmental issues in Malaysia. In order to achieve this, the consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) and their preferences were examined using the contingent valuation method (CVM) as found in previous studies. Data was gathered using survey questionnaires which were distributed among 445 Malaysians so as to know their preferences in terms of green vehicles and green practices. The data was analyzed using the Economic Valuation Method. The result shows that Malaysians are willing to pay the price increase in road tax by 6.49% maximum level for non-green vehicles as well as all control variables included in the doubled-bounded case. On the other hand, for a single-bounded case, the maximum value is 7.91% which is higher as respondents were given single WTP amount for acceptance compared to the double-bounded case when the initial WTP was followed by another different amount.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 721-731 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diamanto Mintzia ◽  
Fotini Kehagia ◽  
Anastasios Tsakalidis ◽  
Efthimios Zervas

Low-carbon transport is a priority in addressing climate change. Transport is still almost totally dependent on fossil fuels (96%) and accounts for almost 60% of global oil use. Sustainable transport systems, both passenger and freight, should be economically and technically feasible, but also low-carbon and environmentally friendly. The calculation of greenhouse gas emissions in transport projects is becoming a primary target of transport companies as a part of an endeavor for low-carbon strategies to reduce the energy demand and environmental impact. This paper investigates the CO2 impact of construction and operation of the main highway and railway line infrastructure in Greece, which connects Athens and Thessaloniki, the capital and the second biggest city in Greece respectively and provides a comparative analysis in roadway and railway transport.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document