Race and the construction of city and nature

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (9) ◽  
pp. 1948-1967 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Loughran
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Spatial Dynamics ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Urban Political Ecology ◽  
Urban Theory ◽  
Critical Urban Theory ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The City

Recent scholarship in critical urban theory, urban political ecology, and related fields has emphasized the “hybridity” of urban–environmental systems. This argument is contrasted with the socially constructed “binary” relationship between “city” and “nature” that dominated historical understandings of urban–environmental connections. Despite wide agreement on these issues, the trajectories that precipitated this shift in city–nature boundaries have been understudied. Many explanations position accelerating urbanization or changes in global political economy as driving the decline of the city–nature binary. This paper proposes that this transformation is also a product of the changing cultural and spatial dynamics of “race” between the 19th-century and the present. Drawing on research on urban parks in Chicago, I consider the production of park space at four important historical moments: (1) the mid-to-late 19th-century, when large picturesque parks were built; (2) the early 20th-century, when reform-oriented “small parks” were constructed; (3) the post-World War II period, which was marked by the development of recreation facilities; and (4) the contemporary period, where linear parks like Chicago’s 606 (which I term “imbricated spaces”) bring together built and natural environments in new ways. Through this analysis, I argue that the social construction of “city” and “nature,” as spatialized through urban park development, was co-produced with racialized spaces and symbols and contributed to the creation of metropolitan racial boundaries. Further, I argue that historical shifts in these racialized spaces and symbols have been implicated in the weakening of the city–nature binary and the rise of the hybrid city–nature relationship.

The constitution of the city and the critique of critical urban theory

Urban Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004209802110110
Author(s):  
Allen J. Scott
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Structure ◽  
Special Reference ◽  
Spatial Dynamics ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Urban Theory ◽  
Critical Urban Theory ◽  
Developmental Phases ◽  
The City

A theoretical account of the genesis and internal spatial structure of cities is given. The essence of the urbanisation process is described in terms of the following main developmental phases: (a) the emergence of relationships based on specialisation and interdependence in society; (b) the pre-eminent role of the division of labour within these relationships and its recomposition in dense spatial nodes of human activity; and (c) the concomitant formation of the networked intra-urban spaces of the city. These phases are then contextualised within three intertwined dimensions of urban materiality, namely, an internal dimension (the internal organisation and spatial dynamics of the city), a socially ambient dimension (the relational structure of society at large) and an exogenous dimension (the geographic outside of the city). In light of this account, an evaluative review of what I designate ‘the new critical urban theory’ is carried out, with special reference to planetary urbanisation, postcolonial urban theory and comparativist methodologies. I argue that while every individual city represents a uniquely complex combination of social conjunctures, there are nonetheless definite senses in which urban phenomena are susceptible to investigation at the highest levels of theoretical generality.

scholarly journals Kulturowa artykulacja nowych idei miejskich

2020 ◽  
pp. 321-338
Author(s):  
Ewa Rewers
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Urban Political Ecology ◽  
Urban Theory ◽  
Cultural Approach ◽  
Political Economies ◽  
Critical Urban Theory ◽  
Cultural Turn

The way in which cultural approach operates though disciplines of knowledge and urban theories is a central theme of this article. If cultural approach in urban studies worked largely through cultural turn ideas in the end of 20th century, recently works through reinterpreted and expanded concept of culture as a structure/infractructure of urban life. Reflecting the crisis of cultural turn in urban theory in 21st century some authors and disciplines became more interested in the study of the urban political economies, urban political ecology and critical urban theory. Research seeking to explore recent urban crisis as a result of climate changes, growing social inequality and lack of solidarity in global scale has unsurprisingly been diverse and varied. Analitically this moment is compelling because it emphasizes the weakness of cultural factors in the process of articulation of a new urban ideas. This, however, raises a question with respect to much of the most visible results of urban studies and urban theory: are its proponents inclined to accept again the offer of cultural oriented urban studies in terms of cultural materialism, eco-criticism, eco-philosophy, ethics and aesthetics? Are they ready to rethink the relationship between economic and extraeconomic causality in the conditions of global multilevel crisis? This article is therefore primarily a theoretical attempt to articulate how urban theory might be moulded by global urbanisation in crisis.

Vilna

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mordechai Zalkin
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Jewish Community ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Jewish Population ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
World War ◽  
Gradual Process ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The City

The Jewish community in Vilna began in the middle of the 16th century, when the Polish king, Zygmunt August, allowed the Jews to settle in the city and operate mainly in the commercial sphere. From this stage onward, the local Jewish community developed rapidly, the community synagogue was established and the Jews lived in the space allocated to them, and later became recognized as the Jewish quarter. From the middle of the 18th century Vilna became a community of unique importance in eastern European space, due to the development of a religious scholarly center, the most prominent of which was Rabbi Eliyahu Kremer, known as the Gaon of Vilna. Since the beginning of the 19th century, there has been a significant increase in the city’s Jewish population, which has spread to other neighborhoods in the city. At the same time, various circles among local Jews underwent a gradual process of cultural change, manifested in the absorption of the worldview of the Enlightenment. Several social circles operated in this spirit, among them poets, writers, and educators. The latter initiated the establishment of modern schools, and in the middle of the 19th century Vilna became the most important center of Jewish enlightenment in eastern Europe. In the second half of the century, Vilna became one of the main centers of the spread of nationalist and socialist ideologies, as well as one of the worldly most known center of Jewish books printing and publication. At the beginning of 1880, the first association of Hovevei Zion was organized in the city, and in 1897, the General Federation of Jewish Workers in Russia, Lithuania, and Poland, better known as the Bund, was also established in Vilna. During the First World War many of the Jews of Vilna left the city, and at the beginning of 1920 the city was annexed to Poland. In the period between the world wars, most of the local Jewish population suffered from considerable economic difficulties, and at the same time they experienced a significant cultural and educational flowering. The Institute for Jewish Research, known as YIVO, was established in Vilna in 1925. Likewise, during those years there was an impressive diversity in the local Jewish educational system, both for boys and girls, and especially for those with a Zionist orientation. Hundreds of Jewish students studied at the various faculties of the local university, despite manifestations of hostility and violence by militant groups of Polish students. With the outbreak of World War II, many refugees from Poland arrived in Vilna, and with the German invasion in the summer of 1941, all city Jews were concentrated in two ghettos. During the war, most of the Vilna’s Jews were murdered in Ponary, and other murder sites. After the war, a small Jewish community lives in the city.

Museum Preserves in the Sphere of “Cultural Tourism”: Through the Example of the Cultural Preserves of Tatarstan

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 193-198
Author(s):  
Lyudmila S. Timofeeva ◽  
Albina R. Akhmetova ◽  
Liliya R. Galimzyanova ◽  
Roman R. Nizaev ◽  
Svetlana E. Nikitina
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Art Museum ◽  
Medium Size ◽  
Business Elite ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Tourist Center ◽  
Regional Authorities ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The City

Abstract The article studies the existence experience of historical cities as centers of tourism development as in the case of Elabuga. The city of Elabuga is among the historical cities of Russia. The major role in the development of the city as a tourist center is played by the Elabuga State Historical-Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve. The object of the research in the article is Elabuga as a medium-size historical city. The subject of the research is the activity of the museum-reserve which contributes to the preservation and development of the historical look of Elabuga and increases its attractiveness to tourists. The tourism attractiveness of Elabuga is obtained primarily through the presence of the perfectly preserved historical center of the city with the blocks of integral buildings of the 19th century. The Elabuga State Historical-Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve, which emerged in 1989, is currently an object of historical and cultural heritage of federal importance. Museum-reserves with their significant territories and rich historical, cultural and natural heritage have unique resources for the implementation of large partnership projects. Such projects are not only aimed at attracting a wide range of tourists, but also stimulate interest in the reserve from the business elite, municipal and regional authorities. The most famous example is the Spasskaya Fair which revived in 2008 in Elabuga. It was held in the city since the second half of the 19th century, and was widely known throughout Russia. The process of the revival and successful development of the fair can be viewed as the creation of a special tourist event contributing to the formation of new and currently important tourism products.

The City-Logic of Resistance: Subverting Urbicide in the Middle East City

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 10-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Stanley
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Urban Theory ◽  
Civil Resistance ◽  
Extreme Variant ◽  
Urban Terrain ◽  
Critical Urban Theory ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

Most armed conflict today takes place within urban terrain or within an urbanised context. An extreme variant of such armed conflict is violence perpetrated by external state and non-state forces within the city, known as urbicide. Urbicidal violence deliberately strives to kill, discipline or deny the city to its inhabitants by targeting and then reordering the sociomaterial urban assemblage. Civil resistance within urbicidal violence seeks to subvert the emerging alternative sovereign order sought by such forces. It does so by using the inherent logic of the city in order to maintain/restore the community's social cohesion, mitigate the violence, affirm humanity, and claim the right to the city. This paper investigates the city-logic of civil resistance through examples drawn from the recent urbicidal experiences of Middle East cities such as Gaza, Aleppo, Mosul, and Sana'a. Theoretical insights from the conflict resolution literature, critical urban theory, and assemblage thinking inform the argument.

Historiography of one city: colonialism, colonization, frontir. On the historiography of the history of functioning of the fortress city of the left wing of the Caucasian cordon line on the example of the history of Kizlyar in the first half of the 19th century

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (12-3) ◽  
pp. 250-258
Author(s):  
Mahomed Gasanov ◽  
Abidat Gazieva
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The City

The article is devoted to the analysis of the historiography of the history of the city of Kizlyar. This issue is considered in the historical context of the Eastern Caucasus. The author analyzes the three main theoretical concepts of the problem concerning Russia’s policy in the region, using the example of the city of Kizlyar in the context of historiography.

Afghanistan: Martial Society Without Military Rule

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amin Tarzi
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Central Government ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Military Campaigns ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Military

Since its inception as a separate political entity in 1747, Afghanistan has been embroiled in almost perpetual warfare, but it has never been ruled directly by the military. From initial expansionist military campaigns to involvement in defensive, civil, and internal consolidation campaigns, the Afghan military until the mid-19th century remained mainly a combination of tribal forces and smaller organized units. The central government, however, could only gain tenuous monopoly over the use of violence throughout the country by the end of the 19th century. The military as well as Afghan society remained largely illiterate and generally isolated from the prevailing global political and ideological trends until the middle of the 20th century. Politicization of Afghanistan’s military began in very small numbers after World War II with Soviet-inspired communism gaining the largest foothold. Officers associated with the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan were instrumental in two successful coup d’états in the country. In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, ending the country’s sovereignty and ushering a period of conflict that continues to the second decade of the 21st century in varying degrees. In 2001, the United States led an international invasion of the country, catalyzing efforts at reorganization of the smaller professional Afghan national defense forces that have remained largely apolitical and also the country’s most effective and trusted governmental institution.

scholarly journals A humanistic gift from the Brazilian Emperor D. Pedro II (1825 - 1891) to the Brazilian nation: the first lunatic asylum in Latin America

2013 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio E. Nardi ◽  
Adriana Cardoso Silva ◽  
Jaime E. Hallak ◽  
José A. Crippa
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Key Words ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Lunatic Asylum ◽  
Specialized Treatment ◽  
Key Words Psychiatry ◽  
The Social ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The City

Until the beginning of the 19th century, psychiatric patients did not receive specialized treatment. The problem that was posed by the presence of psychiatric patients in the Santas Casas de Misericórdia and the social pressure from this issue culminated in a Decree of the Brazilian Emperor, D. Pedro II, on July 18, 1841. The “Lunatic Palace” was the first institution in Latin America exclusively designed for mental patients. It was built between 1842 and 1852 and is an example of neoclassical architecture in Brazil, located at Saudade Beach in the city of Rio de Janeiro. In the 1930s and 1940s, the D. Pedro II Hospital was overcrowded, and patients were gradually transferred to other hospitals. By September of 1944, all the patients had been transferred and the hospital was deactivated. Key words: psychiatry, history, madness.

THE CONSTITUTION OF MEDINA: A SOCIOLEGAL INTERPRETATION OF MUHAMMAD'S ACTS OF FOUNDATION OF THE UMMA

2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 555-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saïd Amir Arjomand
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Solid Rock ◽  
Islamic History ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The City

One of the oldest extant documents in Islamic history records a set of deeds executed by Muhammad after his migration (hijra) in 622 from Mecca to Yathrib, subsequently known as “the City [madīna] of the Prophet.” Marking the beginning of the Islamic era, the document comprising the deeds has been the subject of well over a century of modern scholarship and is commonly called the “Constitution of Medina”—with some justification, although the first modern scholar who studied it at the end of the 19th century, Julius Wellhausen, more accurately described it as the “municipal charter” (Gemeindeordnung) of Medina. In 1889, Wellhausen highlighted the text's antiquity, which has been acknowledged by even the most skeptical of contemporary “source-critical” scholars, Patricia Crone, who thinks that, in Ibn Ishaq's Sira, “it sticks out like a piece of solid rock in an accumulation of rubble.”

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