scholarly journals Working the urban assemblage: A transnational study of transforming practices

Urban Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004209802110314
Author(s):  
Catherine Durose ◽  
Mark van Ostaijen ◽  
Merlijn van Hulst ◽  
Oliver Escobar ◽  
Annika Agger
Keyword(s):  
Unmet Needs ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Daily Routines ◽  
Urban Neighbourhoods ◽  
Transnational Study ◽  
The City ◽  
Directing Attention ◽  
Empirical Insight ◽  
Cross National

This article places those working for change in urban neighbourhoods at the centre of debates on urban transformation, directing attention to the importance of human agency in the work of assembling urban transformation. Drawing on cross-national qualitative fieldwork undertaken over 30 months shadowing 40 urban practitioners in neighbourhoods across four European cities – Amsterdam, Birmingham, Copenhagen and Glasgow – our research revealed the catalytic, embodied roles of situated agents in this assembling. Through exemplar vignettes, we present practices in a diverse range of socio-material assemblages aimed to address complex problems and unmet needs in the urban environment. The practices we studied were not those of daily routines, but were instead a purposeful assembling that included nurturing and developing of heterogeneous resources such as relationships, knowledges and materials, framed through an emerging vision to inform, mobilise and channel action. This article brings together assemblage-theoretical and practice-theoretical ideas, with rich empirical insight to advance our understanding of how the city may be re-made.

Verdichten mit «Greening», oder was wir von Singapur lernen können (Essay)

2015 ◽  
Vol 166 (4) ◽  
pp. 219-222
Author(s):  
Urs Gantner
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Renewable Resource ◽  
Popular Participation ◽  
Botanical Gardens ◽  
Living Space ◽  
Urban Neighbourhoods ◽  
Mixed Use ◽  
City State ◽  
Vertical Greening ◽  
The City

Densification by greening, or what we can learn from Singapore (essay) Singapore, a city-state with a high population density, wants to give its population, its tourists and its economy a living and livable city and has developed the concept of the Garden City. Parks, nature reserves, forest, green corridors, trees, botanical gardens, horizontal and vertical greening of buildings, as well as popular participation, are all important for this vision of the city. Singapore is counting on dense construction alongside “greening” and biodiversity. Let us be prepared to learn from Singapore's example! Our land is also a non-renewable resource. To protect our ever more limited agricultural land, we should renounce any extension of building land, and free ourselves from the expanding carpets of suburban development. Let us build multiple urban neighbourhoods with mixed use and more biodiversity. Let us develop new types of communal gardens. Urban gardens in the widest sense – from private gardens to garden cooperatives, to parks and botanical gardens – are a part of our living space. The city should be our garden.

Productive engagement and ageing in productivist welfare regimes: questing for an age-friendly city in Hong Kong

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Zhuoyi Wen ◽  
Ka Ho Mok ◽  
Padmore Adusei Amoah
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Active Ageing ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Voluntary Engagement ◽  
Social Provisions ◽  
The City ◽  
Cross National ◽  
Productive Engagement

Abstract The population aged 65 years and above in Hong Kong is projected to rise from 15 per cent in 2014 to 38.4 per cent in 2069. Therefore, the quest for creating age-friendly conditions and the promotion of active ageing has become a priority for the Hong Kong Government and stakeholders in the city. Using a cross-national comparative framework for productive engagement in later life, this article examines the predictors of productive engagement (perceived voluntary engagement) in two districts (the Islands and Tsuen Wan) of Hong Kong – a typical productivist welfare regime in Asia. Data were collected through a social survey to ascertain the perception of an age-friendly city and active ageing in 2016 and 2018 from 1,638 persons aged 60 years and older. The results indicate some differences in the perception of the key determinants in both districts, but the factors associated with productive engagement were consistent, namely social atmosphere, social provisions and the built environment. The findings are discussed within the broader discourse on social gerontology, age-friendly cities and productivist welfare regimes.

scholarly journals The European Green Capital Award—Is It a Dream or Reality for Belgrade (Serbia)?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6182
Author(s):  
Marijana Pantić ◽  
Saša Milijić
Keyword(s):  
Urban Transformation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Transmission Of Knowledge ◽  
Current State ◽  
Transitional Countries ◽  
Great Hope ◽  
Environmentally Responsible ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
The City ◽  
Insight Into

An agreement of cooperation and transmission of knowledge regarding the nomination for the European Green Capital Award (EGCA) was signed between the mayors of Belgrade and Ljubljana (EGCA 2016 winner) in September 2018. The candidacy of Belgrade was finally realized in October 2019. Great hope was placed in this endeavour because internationally recognized awards, such as the EGCA, represent enormous capital for both the city and the state. The EGCA requires serious preparation and significant fulfilment of preconditions. Many economically strong and environmentally responsible cities competed for the award, but did not win. On the other hand, the capital of Serbia does not appear to be an obvious winning candidate, especially as it is differentiated from the previous winners by being a non-EU city and by the fact that it is still undergoing an intense urban transformation, characteristic of transitional countries. Therefore, the main aim of this article is to present a review of the current state of Belgrade’s environmental qualities and its comparison with the EGCA criteria and with Grenoble as one of the winning competitors. The article gives a full overview of the EGCA requirements with certain details on required indicators, gives relevant insight into the procedure, which could be of use for any future candidacy, and discusses potential benefits for winners, losers and repeat candidacies.

Urban commemoration and literature in post-Soviet L'viv: a comparative analysis with the Polish experience

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 637-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uilleam Blacker
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Memory Culture ◽  
Polish Experience ◽  
The City ◽  
Second World

This article analyzes how the Poles and Jews who disappeared from the western Ukrainian city of L'viv as a result of the Second World War are remembered in the city today. It examines a range of commemorative practices, from monuments and museums to themed cafes and literature, and analyzes how these practices interact to produce competing mnemonic narratives. In this respect, the article argues for an understanding of the city as a complex text consisting of a diverse range of mutually interdependent mnemonic media produced by a range of actors. The article focuses in particular on the ways in which Ukrainian nationalist narratives interact with the memory of the city's “lost others.” The article also seeks to understand L'viv‘s memory culture through comparison with a range of Polish cities that have faced similar problems with commemorating vanished communities, but have witnessed a deeper recognition of these communities than has been the case in L'viv. The article proposes reasons for the divergences between the memory cultures of L'viv and that found in Polish cities, and attempts to outline the gradual processes by which L'viv‘s Polish and Jewish pasts might become more widely integrated into the city's memory culture.

Oosterweel – from an underground and even underwater road infrastructure plan to an urban transformation project

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luc Hellemans
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Flow ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Construction Site ◽  
Successful Completion ◽  
Road Infrastructure ◽  
Living Space ◽  
The City ◽  
Made In

<p>For the coming ten years, the heart of Europe will turn into a gigantic construction site for works on one of the largest hubs of the continent: Antwerp. The Oosterweel Link is the project whereby the motorway ring around Antwerp is undergoing a metamorphosis to reinvigorate traffic flow and add living space to the City. The project had come to a standstill for several years as a result of protests by assertive citizens, but was given a second lease of life following a large-scale participation project.</p><p>To ensure its successful completion, unparalleled efforts are being made in the field and in the area of digitization. It is therefore with good reason that in Belgium the project is referred to as “the construction site of the century”.</p>

Urban Transformation and De-Ottomanization in Greece

2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 213-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yorgos Koumaridis
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
The City

AbstractThis article examines the ways in which nationalism transformed Greek urban space during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Through urban planning, architecture, archaeology, the destruction of Ottoman material remains and the promotion of Ancient Greek and (later) Byzantine heritage, urban space was gradually hellenized and cleansed of its Ottoman past. Specific examples, including the case of Thessaloniki, where the strong Ottoman character of the city was gradually effaced, are examined so as to outline the aims and the patterns of this transformation.

Age and gentrification in Berlin: urban ageing policy and the experiences of disadvantaged older people

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meredith Dale ◽  
Josefine Heusinger ◽  
Birgit Wolter
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Socially Disadvantaged ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods ◽  
Everyday Experiences ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

Chapter 5 examines the impact of gentrification processes in Berlin, Germany, on the distribution of older people across the city as well as the everyday experiences of ageing in socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods. The chapter concludes with an overview of developments in the context of political processes, where urban transformation driven by economic interests generates growing conflict and contradiction with the needs of an ageing and increasingly less affluent population.

scholarly journals Representing ‘Place’: City Climate Commissions and the Institutionalisation of Experimental Governance in Edinburgh

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Creasy ◽  
Matthew Lane ◽  
Alice Owen ◽  
Candice Howarth ◽  
Dan Van der Horst
Keyword(s):  
Urban Governance ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Agents Of Change ◽  
Urban Futures ◽  
Key Industries ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City ◽  
Insight Into

Against the backdrop of increasingly fragmented and poly-centric urban climate governance, this article examines the establishment of city climate ‘commissions’ as an experimental means of addressing the challenge of climate change at the city-scale. In doing so it addresses the question: What constitutes diversity in voices and perspectives when trying to represent the city as a place for climate action? To answer this question, the article presents an analysis of the Edinburgh Climate Commission’s establishment, drawing on participatory ethnographic research carried out by a researcher embedded within the project team. The account of how this new mode of urban governance was both conceptualised and then put into practice offers a new institutional angle to the literature on urban ‘experimentation.’ Through our reflective analysis we argue that aspirations to ensure pre-defined ‘key’ industries (high carbon emitters) are accounted for in commissioner recruitment, and an over-emphasis on capturing discernible ‘impacts’ in the short term (by involving organisations already pro-active in sustainable development) hindered an opportunity to embrace new perspectives on urban futures and harness the innovative potential of cities to engage with the multifaceted nature of the climate challenge. Furthermore, new insight into the relationship between local authorities and other ‘place-based’ agents of change opens up important questions regarding how to balance the attainment of legitimacy within the political status quo, and the prospect of a new radical politics for urban transformation.

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