The hack: What it is and why it matters to urban studies

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.

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 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.


Urban Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004209802110241
Author(s):  
Pablo Fuentenebro ◽  
Michele Acuto

With billions worth of funding to city-based projects, urban dwellers and city leaders the world over, philanthropy is no small matter. It might shape the form, politics and direction of urban development worldwide, yet little discussion of its role is present in urban studies. In this commentary, we call for urban scholars and practitioners to become more explicitly conversant in its investment dynamics in cities and their impact on urban governance. We highlight a two-pronged research agenda focused on institutions and individuals. First, we argue that we need to understand the impact of philanthropic institutions not just generally on cities but specifically on urban governance. Second, we call for nuanced attention to the philanthropy of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and its relationship to urban policymaking and wealth redistribution in cities. Third, we highlight the value of a more ‘global urban’ outlook onto the landscape of philanthropic funding in cities, starting with greater attention to philanthropic practices beyond the Global North. We conclude by sketching possible empirical steps towards an action research agenda, whilst underlining the necessary reflexivity that urban scholars should have in their positioning vis-a-vis philanthropy and its engagement in urban academia.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (0) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Luis Vergara ◽  
Gonzalo Salazar

Non-metropolitan cities are subject to growing attention in Latin American urban studies. However, there is no research that critically analyses the territorial, epistemological and methodological approaches that have been adopted within this line of academic work. This article deals with this knowledge gap, arguing that specialised literature tends to approach non-metropolitan places as mini-metropolises that replicate urban phenomena observed in large cities on a lesser scale or as unique places that are unexplained by existing urban theory. We refer respectively to these two tendencies as ‘trickle-down urban theory’ and ‘singularisation theory’, and examine their impact on Latin American urban studies in spatial, epistemological and methodological terms. The article ends by suggesting a research agenda based on comparative studies of cities of differing sizes as a way to generate a more integrative urban theory.


Urban Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (6) ◽  
pp. 1203-1222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas A Phelps ◽  
Cristian Silva

Processes of urbanisation can hardly be considered without reference to the spaces that lie between developments. However, the literature on such interstitial spaces is fragmentary. In this paper we draw together insights from the extant literature into a research agenda on urban interstices. We propose a research agenda centred on four themes: the multiple geographic scales at which the interstitial spaces of urban sprawl might be analysed; the pending nature of such spaces; their planned or unplanned character and their relational properties. We develop these themes, briefly illustrating them with reference to the case of metropolitan area of Santiago de Chile. In conclusion, we emphasise some of the implications of interstitial spaces for theories of urban politics and their value in forcing inter-disciplinarity in urban studies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 512-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Castriota ◽  
João Tonucci

The notion of planetary urbanization has recently mobilized different strands in the field of urban studies and has generated extensive debates. This emerging research agenda aims to revise inherited concepts and produce a new vocabulary of urbanization through the construction of an ex-centric perspective that dislocates the focus of analysis from its conventional center: the city. The idea of extended urbanization is thus an imperative concept for it operationalizes this theoretical decentering and permits the exploration of urban questions beyond city-centrism, while encompassing urban agglomerations. This article discusses the conception of extended urbanization. We examine its vital insertion into the contemporary agenda of planetary urbanization and present its original formulation in and from Brazil, developed by Roberto Monte-Mór in the 1980s. In order to foster a productive dialogue between these formulations, we discuss the contradictions embedded within the process of extended urbanization and highlight Monte-Mór’s main theoretical and empirical contributions – particularly regarding urban politics and extended citizenship in the Brazilian Amazon. We contend that extended urbanization as formulated in and from Brazil offers important developments and goes far beyond a mere interesting empirical case in and from Brazil. Instead, it illuminates contemporary questions regarding planetary urbanization.


Urban Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (16) ◽  
pp. 3540-3555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Davidson ◽  
Lars Coenen ◽  
Michele Acuto ◽  
Brendan Gleeson

Networked urban governance is emerging as a major feature of metropolitan strategy and activity. The field of urban studies is yet to deeply engage in the debates on the new forms of cross national networking that are potentially framing and reframing urban governance and strategy. Yet this dimension of urban governance can no longer go unnoticed. In this article we draw together insights from the extant literature into a research agenda on reconfiguring urban governance. We propose a research agenda centred on three themes: the political economy of ‘new-gen’ networks, especially in relation to the role of economic power in determining participation and influence; the knowledge dynamics in city networks in understanding the socio-spatial configurations that are underpinning the decision-making processes and outcomes; and the implications of city networks for traditional institutions that have in the past shaped cities’ strategies, development and government. Our commentary considers and links these emergent themes, noting how these bear serious and urgent consideration for mainstream urban studies.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Oliver Westerwinter

Abstract Friedrich Kratochwil engages critically with the emergence of a global administrative law and its consequences for the democratic legitimacy of global governance. While he makes important contributions to our understanding of global governance, he does not sufficiently discuss the differences in the institutional design of new forms of global law-making and their consequences for the effectiveness and legitimacy of global governance. I elaborate on these limitations and outline a comparative research agenda on the emergence, design, and effectiveness of the diverse arrangements that constitute the complex institutional architecture of contemporary global governance.


2002 ◽  
Vol 117 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha M McKinney ◽  
Katherine M Marconi ◽  
Paul D Cleary ◽  
Jennifer Kates ◽  
Steven R Young ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 292-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Wenzel ◽  
Marina Lind ◽  
Zarah Rowland ◽  
Daniela Zahn ◽  
Thomas Kubiak

Abstract. Evidence on the existence of the ego depletion phenomena as well as the size of the effects and potential moderators and mediators are ambiguous. Building on a crossover design that enables superior statistical power within a single study, we investigated the robustness of the ego depletion effect between and within subjects and moderating and mediating influences of the ego depletion manipulation checks. Our results, based on a sample of 187 participants, demonstrated that (a) the between- and within-subject ego depletion effects only had negligible effect sizes and that there was (b) large interindividual variability that (c) could not be explained by differences in ego depletion manipulation checks. We discuss the implications of these results and outline a future research agenda.


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