The City as Fac¸ade in Velha Goa: Recognising Enduring Forms of Urbanism in the Early Modern Konkan

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 320-352
Author(s):  
Brian C. Wilson

What do we know of early modern colonial urbanisms in South Asia? Rich archival sources provide meta-narratives of the ‘rise and fall’ of colonial outposts and their spatial projects. This article revisits these histories through the results of an archaeological project conducted at Portuguese Goa. In settings such as Velha Goa, histories of the city are unavoidably structured by elite, top-down understandings of social processes, principally owing to the limits of the colonial archives themselves. Quotidian material transformations, essential to urban process, remain largely unconsidered. In Goa, the archaeological data suggest the dominant historical narratives that characterise this capital of empire as the ̒Rome of the East’ work to substantiate a vision of the city that erases other socialities. The archaeological data allow us to productively think of the colonial early modern urban landscape as both a physical and conceptual façade. Historical tropes of ruination mask rich and varied archaeological evidence of enduring forms of urbanism. The idea of the city as façade allows at once a characterisation of the concealed failures of colonial urban governance and its legacies in perpetuating certain ideals and understandings of urbanism, and it questions narratives of urban decline that still resonate today.

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 4305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefania De Medici ◽  
Patrizia Riganti ◽  
Serena Viola

Regeneration processes activate stable regimes of interaction and interdependence among the architectural, economic, cultural and social sub-systems in settlements. The thesis of this paper is that in order to progress towards sustainable and inclusive cities, urban governance should widen the decision-making arena, promoting virtuous circular dynamics based on knowledge transfer, strategic decision making and stakeholders’ engagement. The historic urban landscape is a privileged la b for this purpose. The paper adapts the Triple-Helix model of knowledge-industry-government relationships to interpret the unexpected regimes of interaction between Local Authority and Cultural Heritage Assets triggered in the late 90es by the establishment of a knowledge provider such as a Faculty of Architecture in the highly degraded heritage context of the city of Syracuse, Italy. Following this approach, the authors explain the urban regeneration happened over the last 20 years in the port city of Syracuse, based on knowledge sharing and resources’ protection that promoted processes of social engagement and institutional empowerment for both new residents and entrepreneurs.


2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 47-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirosława Czerny

The Permanence of Socio-Economically Marginal Structures Within Urban Space: The Example of Bogotá The subject of this paper is an analysis of marginal spatial development processes taking place in Bogotá, one of the largest cities in the Southern Hemisphere. Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, situated on a high plateau (Sabana de Bogotá) at over 2,500 metres above sea-level, has currently approximately 8 million inhabitants. In Bogotá, as in any major South American city, we find the characteristic, highly pronounced diversification of urban space in terms of quality, urban landscape features, and living conditions. Marginal areas in Bogotá, characterised by a low quality of urban space, can be divided into two types, their origin and attributes linked to the general social processes that have taken place here in the 20th century. They are distinguished as follows: (a) marginal districts on the outskirts of the city, resulting from a period of dynamic and unplanned urbanisation, from the 1970s until now; and (b) marginal districts in the centre of the city. This article aims to show the mechanisms that contribute to the formation of and changes in these two types of urban space.


GEOgraphia ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (46) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Alanda Lopes Baptista Martins

Resumo: O que se compreende como rural, em termos de suas instâncias empíricas e conceituais, é, ainda que de forma vaga, altamente carregado do simbolismo. No pensamento sociológico, a ideia de rural é tradicionalmente abordada em articulação direta com seu par oposto, o urbano, tal como um axioma analítico de compreensão da realidade a partir de uma relação entre dois polos. Uma infinidade de obras teóricas vem se dedicando a resolver a dificuldade, imposta pelo desafio deste mesmo axioma, de delimitação de cada uma destas esferas específicas. Seu produto conceitual, que impregna de sentidos o rural, reflete, por sua vez, perspectivas reais de comprometimento de grupos sociais específicos, bem como de suas demandas de reprodução do espaço. O objetivo deste artigo é trazer à tona elementos de tais narrativas históricas sobre o rural, com um enfoque sobre o modo de pensar capitalocêntrico acerca da relação rural-urbano. Defendemos a necessidade de se descortinar a gênese teórica do rural, bem como dos compromissos teóricos estabelecidos a partir de determinadas demandas e circunstâncias sociais, para uma necessária abertura a análises dedicadas a dualidade conceitual rural-urbano que apontem para outros processos sociais, em curso, e não redutíveis a racionalidade capitalista, tal como a experiência, neste texto abordada, do movimento social Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) com sua interface rural-urbano através da construção de estratégias solidárias de produção/distribuição/consumo de alimentos.  Palavras-chave: Relação rural-urbano. Novas ruralidades. Community Supported Agriculture.  HORIZONS OF A NON-CAPITALIST RURAL - URBAN RELATIONSHIP: THE COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE SOCIAL MOVEMENTAbstract: What is understood as rural, in terms of its empirical and conceptual instances, is, albeit vaguely and highly charged with symbolism. In sociological thought the idea of rural is traditionally approached in direct articulation with its opposite pair, the city, as an analytical axiom of understanding of reality from a relation between two poles. A multitude of theoretical works has been dedicated to solving the difficulty, imposed by the challenge of this same axiom, of delimiting each of these specific spheres. Its conceptual product, which impregnates the rural senses, reflects, in turn, real perspectives of commitment, of specific social groups, as well as of its demands of space reproduction. The aim of this article is to bring to the surface elements of such historical narratives about the rural, with a focus on the capital-centric way of thinking about the countryside-city relationship. We defend the need to unveil the theoretical genesis of the rural, as well as the theoretical commitments established from certain demands and social circumstances, to a necessary opening to analyzes dedicated to the rural-urban conceptual duality that point to other ongoing social processes, and not reducible to capitalist rationality, such as the experience in this text of the social movement Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) with its rural-urban interface through the construction of solidarity strategies of production/distribution/consumption of food.Keywords: Rural/urban relationship. New ruralities. Community Supported Agriculture. HORIZONTES DE UNA RELACIÓN RURAL - URBANO NO CAPITALISTA: El MOVIMIENTO SOCIAL COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTUREResumem: La comprensión de lo rural, en términos de sus instancias empíricas y conceptuales, está altamente cargado de simbolismo, aunque de forma vaga. En el pensamiento sociológico, la idea de lo rural es tradicionalmente abordada en articulación directa con su par opuesto, lo urbano, tal como un axioma analítico de comprensión de la realidad, a partir de una relación entre dos polos. Una infinidad de obras teóricas se han dedicado a resolver la dificultad impuesta por el desafío de este mismo axioma, la delimitación de cada una de estas esferas específicas. El producto conceptual que impregna de sentidos lo rural, refleja perspectivas reales de compromiso de grupos sociales específicos, así como de sus demandas por la reproducción del espacio. El objetivo de este artículo es discutir elementos de tales narrativas históricas sobre lo rural, con un enfoque sobre el modo de pensar capitalocéntrico acerca de la relación rural-urbano. Defendemos la necesidad de desvelar la génesis teórica de lo rural, así como de los compromisos teóricos establecidos a partir de determinadas demandas y circunstancias sociales, para una necesaria apertura de los análisis dedicados a la dualidad conceptual rural-urbano que apunten para otros procesos sociales en curso, y que no pueden ser reducidos a la racionalidad capitalista. La experiencia abordada en este texto, el movimiento social Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) con su interfaz rural-urbano a través de la construcción de estrategias solidarias de producción/distribución/consumo de alimentos nos da una oportunidad de abrir este debate.Palabras clabe: Relación rural-urbano. Nuevas ruralidades. Community Supported Agriculture. 


2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 77-94
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Jordan

How do groups of people produce particular markers of the past in the urban landscape? The terrain of markers in a given neighborhood, city, or country can result from the top-down vision of a centralized elite-or the relatively diverse, even contradictory, layers of multiple eras and multiple interest groups and actors. In post 1989 Berlin, the memorial landscape is a heterogeneous collection of statues, plaques, and conceptual memorial projects relating to various eras in the city?s nearly eight centuries of existence. More widely known sites may be created in somewhat top-down ways, and be the responsibility of federal and state officials. But, much memorial work happens at the district level, and in the hands of an array of local activists. This local responsibility clearly indicates the active involvement of both easterners and westerners in local democratic and civic processes in general, and in activities that shape the memorial terrain in particular. Despite the inequality of unification and the extensive institutional transfer that happened in many sectors of the political and economic arenas, many eastern Berliners play active roles in the civic life in general and memorial culture in particular of their neighborhoods and districts. These local practices result from the civic participation (and arguably social integration) of a range of Berlin?s residents, in both the eastern and western halves of the city.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-82
Author(s):  
Leila Tavi

Moscow is a city of a thousand faces, constantly changing over the centuries and its high-rise buildings has been forming the shape of the city for centuries. From the «Third Rome», without stratified urbanization, unlike the Rome it would have liked to emulate at the end of the XIV century, Moscow went through a long period in history in which the innovations and changes made to its urban landscape overlapped the existing structure, erasing the architectural features and, thus, the historical memory. This article focuses on the transformation of Moscow from a Soviet capital to a capitalist mega-city, corroborating the thesis that the «immortalization of memory», through the monumental architecture of the Stalinist era, gave a sense of stability and was meant to be remembered by posterity. After the archetypal Soviet city, which embodied the Soviet Union’s radiant future in the Thirties and Forties of the Twentieth Century, the city was characterized by a new urban appearance, made up of monumental buildings, privilege of apparatchiki (аппара́тчики), who lived in stalinki (сталинки), examples of socialist classicism, characterized by an original layout. Influenced by this Soviet legacy and its nostalgic impulses, Moscow’s contemporary urban governance framework for planning reveals a strong nostalgia for the splendours of the past. The post-Soviet Muscovite experience resembles however more like a hybrid city than a palimpsestic one.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard B. Apgar

As destination of choice for many short-term study abroad programs, Berlin offers students of German language, culture and history a number of sites richly layered with significance. The complexities of these sites and the competing narratives that surround them are difficult for students to grasp in a condensed period of time. Using approaches from the spatial humanities, this article offers a case study for enhancing student learning through the creation of digital maps and itineraries in a campus-based course for subsequent use during a three-week program in Berlin. In particular, the concept of deep mapping is discussed as a means of augmenting understanding of the city and its history from a narrative across time to a narrative across the physical space of the city. As itineraries, these course-based projects were replicated on site. In moving from the digital environment to the urban landscape, this article concludes by noting meanings uncovered and narratives formed as we moved through the physical space of the city.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-35
Author(s):  
Julian Wolfreys

Writers of the early nineteenth century sought to find new ways of writing about the urban landscape when first confronted with the phenomena of London. The very nature of London's rapid growth, its unprecedented scale, and its mere difference from any other urban centre throughout the world marked it out as demanding a different register in prose and poetry. The condition of writing the city, of inventing a new writing for a new experience is explored by familiar texts of urban representation such as by Thomas De Quincey and William Wordsworth, as well as through less widely read authors such as Sarah Green, Pierce Egan, and Robert Southey, particularly his fictional Letters from England.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document