scholarly journals Introduction: Infrastructural stigma and urban vulnerability

Urban Studies ◽  
2022 ◽  
pp. 004209802110556
Author(s):  
Hanna Baumann ◽  
Haim Yacobi
Keyword(s):  
Constitutive Relationship ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Urban Inequality ◽  
Urban Vulnerability ◽  
Public Networks ◽  
Urban Territories ◽  
Global North ◽  
The One ◽  
The City

In this introduction to the Special Issue ‘Infrastructural Stigma and Urban Vulnerability’, we outline the need to join up debates on infrastructural exclusion on the one hand and urban stigma on the other. We argue that doing so will allow us to develop a better understanding of the co-constitutive relationship between the material and the symbolic structures of the city shaping urban exclusion and vulnerability. Positing that stigma is not merely a symbolic force but has significant material effects, we show how urban dwellers often experience it in deeply embodied ways, including through impacts on their physical health. Furthermore, stigma is not only imposed on the built environment through discourse, it also emanates from the materiality of the city; this agentic role of the city is often disregarded in sociologically-informed approaches to urban stigma. When infrastructures become sites of contestation about urban inclusion, stigma can be utilised by stigmatised residents to demand connection to public networks, and the wider symbolic inclusion this entails. Through examining the issue of infrastructural stigma in cities and urban territories across the Global North and Global South, as well as the places in between, the nine articles in this Special Issue pay attention to the global relationalities of infrastructural stigma. Ultimately, our focus on the infrastructural origins of stigma draws attention to the structural causes of urban inequality – a reality which is often occluded by both stigma itself and by prevalent academic approaches to understanding it.

Narratives of Queer Migration

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Gray ◽  
Mike Baynham
Keyword(s):  
The European Union ◽  
Spatial Mobility ◽  
Class Politics ◽  
Depth Migration ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Global North ◽  
Economic Necessity ◽  
The Village ◽  
The City

This chapter considers the phenomenon of queer migration from a linguistic perspective, paying particular attention to the constitutive role of spatial mobility in narrative and its role in the construction of queer migrant identities. The chapter begins by looking at the way in which queer migration has been discussed in the literature and then moves on to address three different types of queer migration in greater depth: migration within national borders from the village/countryside to the city; migration between cities in member states within the context of the European Union; and finally, asylum-seeking within the context of migration from the Global South to the Global North. The chapter concludes by suggesting that queer migration is a complex phenomenon in which the intersection of sexuality, gender identity, desire, affect, abjection, economic necessity, class, politics, and fear for one’s life combine in ways that are unique in the lives of individual migrants.

scholarly journals Citizenship, identity, and education: Re-imagining the Contested Terrain

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anatoli Rapoport ◽  
Miri Yemini
Keyword(s):  
International Education ◽  
Democratic Education ◽  
Shared Vision ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Education Society ◽  
Comparative And International Education ◽  
Pluralistic Societies ◽  
The One ◽  
Citizenship Identity

Every society faces a dilemma of instilling a shared vision of citizenship, on the one hand, and accommodating specific identities, on the other. This Special Issue addresses the problems of citizenship and democratic education in pluralistic societies that face a challenge of accommodating diversity and maintaining social cohesion. This volume is the result of comprehensive joint efforts of scholars from different countries and regions, who are at various stages of their careers, all working in the field of citizenship studies in education. The papers featured in this collection were presented at the symposium Citizenship, Identity, and Education at the 2018 Comparative and International Education Society conference in Mexico City. We hope that the publication of this Special Issue will contribute to the dialogue about the interplay of citizenship and identity and the role of citizenship and democratic education in identity construction, negotiation, and development.

Religion and Constitutional Practices in Asia: Five ‘Cs’ for Reflection

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-225
Author(s):  
Arif A JAMAL
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Comparative Law ◽  
The Other ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Short Commentary ◽  
Five Cs ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual

AbstractIn considering the articles in this Special Issue, I am struck by the importance of a set of factors that, in my view, both run through the articles like a leitmotif, as well as shape the major ‘take away’ lesson(s) from the articles. In this short commentary, I elaborate on these factors and the lesson(s) to take from them through five ‘Cs’: context; complexity; contestation; the framework of constitutions; and the role of comparative law. The first three ‘Cs’ are lessons from the case studies of the articles themselves, while the second two ‘Cs’ are offered as lessons to help take the dialogue forward. Fundamentally, these five ‘Cs’ highlight the importance of the articles in this Special Issue and the conference from which they emerged on the one hand, while on the other hand, also making us aware of what are the limits of what we should conclude from the individual articles. In other words, taken together, the five ‘Cs’ are, one might say, lessons about lessons.

NOT NATURAL, NOR NEUTRAL: THE CULTURAL CONFIGURATIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AFFORDANCES WITHIN CHILEAN INFLUENCER INDUSTRY

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arturo Arriagada ◽  
Ignacio Siles
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Constitutive Relationship ◽  
Spatial Expansion ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Technological Frames ◽  
Global Norms ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
The One ◽  
Technological Frame

This paper explores the configurations of social media’s affordances within the Chilean influencer industry. Chile has a growing number of professional social media influencers who blur global norms and local markets, working with both local brands and international campaigns. We argue for situating affordances within a wider context in which the features of platforms acquire particular meanings. Our analysis focuses on two dynamics. On the one hand, we examine how the Chilean influencer industry is shaped by a technological frame (Bijker, 1995) that structures the valence of affordances. We show that affordances are not “naturally” or “neutrally” imagined by actors but rather culturally located within technological frames that shape the discourses, values, and practices from which they obtain cultural meaning. On the other hand, we analyze how affordances provide a material support for the temporal and spatial expansion of technological frames. Thus, cultural contexts and platforms’ features mutually constitute each other in ways that have not always been recognized in the scholarly literature about affordances. We situate negotiations about what it means to be an influencer in Chile, the role of intermediaries (e.g. branding agencies), communication with followers, and the global influencer industry as part of this mutually constitutive relationship.

scholarly journals TIGHT OR FLEXIBLE? THE DEGREE OF DETAIL OF LOCAL LAW REGULATIONS AND ITS IMPACT ON A QUALITY OF URBAN SPACE – SELECTED CASES FROM POZNAN

space&FORM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2020 (46) ◽  
pp. 165-186
Author(s):  
Wojciech Skórzewski ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Spatial Development ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Development Plans ◽  
Local Law ◽  
The One ◽  
The City

Local spatial development plans, are one of the most important urban landscaping tools. Their goal is, on the one hand, to protect urban space including, inter alia, prevention of creation of illconsidered developments, that are bad to the urban landscape, the environment or the local communities. For this purpose, there is a number of restrictions introduced into local spatial development plans. On the other hand, the role of local plans is also creating the space, so they should be conducive to projects with high-quality architecture, that are often unconventional and innovative, adding new value to the architectural landscape of the city, which could be blocked by too strict regulations. The trick is to create regulations in a way that can help reconcile that two goals.

scholarly journals INFORMAL ECOLOGY: AN EMERGENT APPROACH TOWARDS LANDSCAPE INTEGRATION IN CARACAS, VENEZUELA

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natacha Quintero
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Work ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Urban Informality ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
Systems Perspective ◽  
New City ◽  
The One ◽  
The City ◽  
Method Approach

Intended as a contribution to the debate on inclusive cities, this paper proposes that the re-imagination of new city landscapes lies on the integrative sum of its parts. Considering that knowledge about infor- mal systems continues to be a challenge in achieving integrated land- scapes, this study explores how the linking of the fields of urban ecol- ogy and urban informality can lead to systematic approaches towards understanding urban informal ecosystems. In that way, this think- piece theorises on alternatives to approach the socio-natural processes taking place in informal settlements to demonstrate their capacity to adapt to prescribed ecological frameworks and ease their way into ecological scrutiny. Using a mixed-method approach in which the the- oretical framework and the empirical work functioned in a cyclical manner, the city of Caracas, Venezuela, was investigated. The analy- sis led to the discovery of ties and processes that navigate in and out of the informal city, and revealed that informal areas can be scaled, inventoried, and re-imagined from a systems perspective. The paper therefore recommends a rethinking of the two intersections that play a role in most of the new scenarios of change seen in the contemporary urban hybrids of developing countries. Specifically, the intersection that concerns the formal vs informal dichotomy, exploring the spatial and virtual role of the urban informal in the city, and the one concern- ing the city vs nature dichotomy, and the assumption that as part of the city, the informal is also a constituent of a greater urban ecosystem with impacts and evolutionary capacities.

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF LANDSCAPE COMPONENT IN THE CREATION OF «HUMAN SCALE» URBAN ENVIRONMENT

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 284-288
Author(s):  
Irina Lukina ◽  
Angelina Selivanova ◽  
B. Temirsultanova
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Main Criterion ◽  
Visual Contact ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Human Scale ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Systematic Understanding ◽  
The One ◽  
The City

Excessive increase in the size of the main urban development objects on the one hand, and the creation of abstract volumes of the urban environment that do not have any familiar details comparable to the size of a person on the other hand, creates an architecture completely divorced from people and hostile to them. Therefore, there was a need to justify the use of landscape components to create a medium-scale human environment. The natural environment is that component of the spatial planning structure of the city, which, if properly placed, will absorb the negative psychological effect of the perception of huge undifferentiated abstract arrays of buildings in a re-compacted urban environment. The main criterion for the psychological comfort of a city dweller is the visual contact of a person in the house with the street, the ability to see the details and, most importantly, understand what they are in relation to the person. Along with small architectural forms, such elements will be trees, shrubs, benches, information boards, which have constant and understandable ergonomic dimensions. This is what is always referred to in the term anthropocentrism in architecture. The article proposes to clarify the concept of “human scale” on the basis of a systematic understanding of scale in architecture, and then this category of scale is considered not as a compositional means of aesthetic expressiveness of the urban environment, but as a factor in biological safety and physical survival of a person in conditions of total urbanization.

scholarly journals From the accidental to articulated smart city: The creation and work of ‘Smart Dublin’

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Coletta ◽  
Liam Heaphy ◽  
Rob Kitchin
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
The Other ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Common Framework ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The One ◽  
The City

While there is a relatively extensive literature concerning the nature of smart cities in general, the roles of corporate actors in their production, and the development and deployment of specific smart city technologies, to date there have been relatively few studies that have examined the situated practices as to how the smart city as a whole unfolds in specific places. In this paper, we chart the smart city ecosystem in Dublin, Ireland, and examine how the four city authorities have actively collaborated to progressively frame and mobilise an articulated vision of Dublin as a smart city. In particular, we focus on the work of ‘Smart Dublin’, a shared unit established to coordinate, manage and promote Dublin’s smart city initiatives. We argue that Smart Dublin has on the one hand sought to corral smart city initiatives within a common framework, and on the other has acted to boost the city-region’s smart city activities, especially with respect to economic development. Our analysis highlights the value of undertaking a holistic mapping of a smart city in formation, and the role of political and administrative geographies and specialist smart city units in shaping that formation.

scholarly journals The university, the city and the clown: A theological essay on solidarity, mutuality and prophecy

2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan De Beer
Keyword(s):  
Public University ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Public ◽  
The One ◽  
The University ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City ◽  
Liberation Theologian

This essay is informed by five different but interrelated conversations all focusing on the relationship between the city and the university. Suggesting the clown as metaphor, I explore the particular role of the activist scholar, and in particular the liberation theologian that is based at the public university, in his or her engagement with the city. Considering the shackles of the city of capital and its twin, the neoliberal university, on the one hand, and the city of vulnerability on the other, I then propose three clown-like postures of solidarity, mutuality and prophecy to resist the shackles of culture and to imagine and embody daring alternatives.

Urban Magic: Concluding Remarks

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yannis M. Ioannides
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Urban Infrastructure ◽  
The Other ◽  
Urban Networks ◽  
Social Fabric ◽  
The One ◽  
The City

This chapter considers the prospect of a deeper understanding of social interactions in urban settings as well as their significance for the functioning and future role of cities and regions. It introduces broader sets of tools for exploring the properties of urban networks, from the lowest microscale up to the highest levels of aggregation. Graph theory, for example, offers a promising means of elucidating the urban social fabric and the interactions that define it, and more specifically the link between urban infrastructure and aspatial social networks. The chapter also compares individuals and their social interactions to an archipelago, a metaphor that offers a picture of the magic of the city. It concludes by emphasizing the interdependence between the creation of cities over physical space, on the one hand, and the urban archipelago and its internal social and economic structures, which are man-made, on the other.

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