scholarly journals Living and Planning on the Edge: Unravelling Conflict and Claim-Making in Peri-Urban Lahore, Pakistan

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Cermeño

In Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city, high population growth rates, decades of rural-urban migration, and rampant land and real-estate speculation have contributed to the rapid urbanization of peri-urban land and the engulfing of pre-existing rural settlements. Lahore’s spatial transformation goes hand in hand with an increasingly complex urban governance framework. Historically shaped by colonial planning institutions and decades of political instability as power alternated between military and civilian regimes, Pakistan’s governance practices have contributed to increasing levels of urban segregation and inequality. This raises questions around the in- and exclusionary role of planning in fostering or constraining residents’ access to housing and services. Comparing three vignettes and drawing upon insights gained from extensive fieldwork, this article employs the concept of ‘access-assemblages’ to analyze how access to urban resources—i.e., land, housing, and services—is experienced, disputed, and negotiated in the rapidly urbanizing peri-urban fringe of Lahore. The cases represent different spatial and socio-political configurations brought about by a variety of actors involved in the planning and development of the city’s periphery as well as in contesting development: private developers, the army, the city development authorities, and the residents of affected villages. The analysis unpacks the planning rationalities and mechanisms that reinforce inequalities of access and exclusions. Unfolding practices that enable or hinder actors’ ability to access resources sheds light on the complex layers assembled in urban planning in Lahore and serves as a basis to rethink planning towards a more inclusive approach.

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 424
Author(s):  
Jia Xu ◽  
Makoto Takahashi

Many disaster studies in the social sciences have so far pointed out that contemporary urbanization catalyzes the transformation of actual and potential risks into disasters. Compared with the greater attention paid to the losses of disasters, there is inadequate recognition of the roles of deep-seated social factors in addressing environmental changes and risks. In addition, very few discussions about social vulnerabilities have paid attention to China, even though they focus on developing countries. In the past four decades, China’s rapid urbanization, urban expansions, and large-scale rural-urban migration have led to increasing difficulties in urban management, generating a large number of marginalized populations and spaces that are often called urban villages. The current marginalization problems are connected with economic poverty, sustained exclusion, and social inequality under state-managed urbanization. This study aims to provide a valuable discussion on the relationship between rapid urbanization and urban marginalization to identify the underlying causes of social vulnerability from the perspectives of institution, space, and urban governance, reviewing the experiences of China’s urbanization. This study concludes that urbanization-induced marginalization has adverse impacts on structural resistance to external pressures such as natural disasters.


2021 ◽  
pp. 239965442110021
Author(s):  
Ratka Čolić ◽  
Đorđe Milić ◽  
Jasna Petrić ◽  
Nataša Čolić

In 2019, Serbia adopted its first national urban policy. This document was established through a communicative process during 2018–2019, formally encouraging urban governance as a practical innovation in Serbia’s planning doctrine. The main aim of this research is to explore institutional capacity development within a live setting of the policy formation process. The participants of this process are the primary subjects of the research. Data was collected through participatory events in four instances during the process. The concept of institutional capacity development is used in this paper as a basic framework to assess knowledge, relational and mobilisation capacity for urban governance. The main contribution of this paper is providing an understanding of the challenges and potentials for establishing urban governance practices in a post-socialist country planning context. Findings indicate an increase in the participants’ knowledge and understanding of governance instruments such that coordination and cooperation are continually unfolding. The identified challenges relate to the mobilisation capacity and fragility of institutions and resistance to change, while a need to deal with complexity and uncertainty remains present.


2019 ◽  
pp. 145-164
Author(s):  
Shuxiang Cai

Compared with the gradual and long exploration processes typical of European and American countries, China experienced a period marked by extremely high-speed modernisation and urbanisation, following the Land Reform. This is exemplified by a great number of urban reconstruction projects which have changed the traditional fabric of most cities. Yet, following the trend of cultural consumption since the late 1990s, numerous integrated restoration projects for historic districts were implemented to promote tourism as a promising industry to sustain economic growth. As a consequence of growth-oriented urban entrepreneurship, public spaces in these historic urban areas have also been perceptibly privatised. To a large extent, the capital and the authority of the local government directs the future prospect of the historic urban landscape in Chinese cities. On the other hand, development-oriented urban construction stimulates a rise in awareness of the need for protection strategies to conserve historic urban fabric. On a global scale, the public sector has begun to introspect on urban governance under the spirit of entrepreneurship. The urban renewal has now been extended to urban regeneration and the previous public-private partnership has been substituted with a multi-sectoral cooperative model. In recent years, the Chinese central government has proposed the core concept of “Seeing people, Seeing things, Seeing life”, which is re-orientated towards historic-city regeneration as a way of promoting “Micro-renewal and Micro-disturbance”. Among such activities, the use of exhibitions as a strategy for simultaneous spatial transformation and activation has gradually formed a common path, encouraging many cities to regenerate historic urban areas. This article is based on on this reorientation, taking Quanzhou as an example, making a critical observation on the new form of public space it has produced, and digs into the operational mechanism behind it as well as the possibility for publicness.


2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-300
Author(s):  
Abhinav Alakshendra ◽  
Arjun Kumar ◽  
Simi Mehta

India is urbanizing at an alarming rate and the impact of climate change is becoming more visible each passing day. The rapid urbanization and climate change have severe direct and indirect consequences, such as increasing poverty, inequality, massive displacement, public health concerns, and challenges of urban governance, among others. This paper identifies some of the most pressing issues faced by urban India in the context of climate change. It also details the interventions undertaken at the local, national, and international levels to counter the effect of the climate change. In addition, it critically evaluates the role of government organizations, especially in terms of undertaking regulatory and planning functions. The paper argues that the implementation of institutional reforms would enable the government to reach out to the private sector to improve urban service delivery. It also provides examples of best practices from India and the world in combating climate change through adaptation and mitigation approaches.Abstrak. India mengalami urbanisasi pada tingkat yang mengkhawatirkan dan dampak perubahan iklim menjadi terlihat setiap hari. Urbanisasi yang cepat dan perubahan iklim memiliki konsekuensi langsung dan tidak langsung yang parah, seperti antara lain meningkatnya kemiskinan, ketimpangan, pengungsian besar-besaran, masalah kesehatan masyarakat, dan tantangan tata kelola kota. Makalah ini mengidentifikasi beberapa masalah paling mendesak yang dihadapi oleh perkotaan India dalam konteks perubahan iklim. Makalah ini juga merinci intervensi yang dilakukan di tingkat lokal, nasional, dan internasional untuk melawan dampak perubahan iklim. Selain itu, secara kritis makalah ini mengevaluasi peran organisasi pemerintah, terutama dalam menjalankan fungsi pengaturan dan perencanaan. Makalah ini berpendapat bahwa pelaksanaan reformasi kelembagaan akan memungkinkan pemerintah menjangkau sektor swasta untuk membantu meningkatkan pelayanan perkotaan. Makalah ini juga memberikan contoh praktik terbaik dari India dan dunia dalam memerangi perubahan iklim melalui pendekatan adaptasi dan mitigasi.Kata kunci. Urbanisasi, perubahan iklim, keterkaitan, tata kelola kota, mitigasi.


Author(s):  
Heba Soliman ◽  
◽  
Mohab El-Refaie ◽  

Were studied in this paper, from the Angle of entropy and dissipative structure, sustainable urban metabolism strategies on rapid urbanization in China's eastern coast and the Beijing and Tianjin areas, explored urban development path from the incremental urban to the flow urban and stock urban: on the one hand, with the concept of ecological again, repair damaged in urban natural environment and landscape, improve the ecological environment quality. On the other hand, with the concept of renewal and mending, urban facilities, space environment and landscape features are restored to enhance urban characteristics and vitality.


2021 ◽  
Vol 06 (01) ◽  
pp. 51-69
Author(s):  
Christian Odefadehan ◽  

Smart city is a major discussion in metropolitan planning and governance as it involves using technology to create livable spaces for the present and the future; it also considers issues of mobility, governance, economy and energy production. The innovation of smart city initiative can be beneficial to urban planning and policies for house provision. The housing challenge is a prominent issue in Lagos, the economic capital of Nigeria with more than 20 million inhabitants. Despite the attempts by the Lagos state government to create low-cost housing for citizens living and working in the city, there are still enormously high housing deficits because of the city’s overpopulation and limited resources. The city still lacks adequate infrastructures for mobility, networking and affordable housing as some people come from other states to work in the state; this has increased the urban carbon emissions. Yet, emerging discourses on housing infrastructure have rarely engaged the smart city question in urban governance of Lagos. Although there is a plethora of literature interrogating urbanization processes and housing, there are feeble attempts at explaining the notion of the smart city as the panacea for infrastructural inadequacies and urban development. This research examines the concept of smart city and its implication for urban governance structures and affordable housing in Lagos, drawing information and data from interviews and relevant secondary sources. The relevance of this study is to the government, private sector and architectural community is formulating policies through the application of the smart city concept in a megacity in a developing country like Lagos.


1979 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Hordern

With the progress of civilization cities, many of which originally developed in Mesopotamia and Egypt, spread northwards into Europe to proliferate there and, later, in the New World. The Industrial Revolution, a predominantly British phenomenon, was the original stimulus to Western urbanization, a process that continues to this day. City living has many advantages, but also many drawbacks including increased mortality and urban stress; psychiatry has had to concern itself with many of its difficulties. Rural-urban migration is also currently taking place in Asia, Latin America and Africa; in these continents the problems of urbanization, exacerbated by indigenous factors, have proved to be considerable. Some remedies for overurbanization are considered, as is also city development in the future.


2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 50-54
Author(s):  
Yin Pan ◽  
Tiejun Zhou

Due to the rapid urbanization in China, the living environment in urban areas improves considerably, while that in rural settlements does not improve remarkably, or even worsens. The purpose of the research is to propose an organizational approach to the improvement of the living environment in the poverty-stricken rural settlements and an architectural design pattern under a variety of requirements in the context of China’s rapid urbanization and socio-economic development in the redevelopment of rural settlements in Yongsheng Village, Lizhuang Town, Yibin City of Sichuan Province in Southwest China. In this redevelopment project, the architects, as the important third party, are not just architects in the traditional sense in that they are involved in the organizational process and architectural design throughout the whole project. The redevelopment project has been completed, and is aimed at providing a scientific redevelopment model and a design method for other rural residents by guiding them in the improvement of their living environment under a variety of restrictions.


2018 ◽  
pp. 1505-1526
Author(s):  
Umar G. Benna

Africa is experiencing triple processes of high population growth, rapid urbanization, and digital transformation. The undercurrents of these processes suggest that the continent is turning from rural majority to urban majority, and this situation raises the question of where will this majority work? Arab Spring and the turbulent situation in the Middle East suggest what could be the result of inaction. This chapter attempts to answer this question by using exploratory research method to highlight the potential role of mainly young entrepreneurs to define, through online questionnaire responses, their preferred terrain of workplace creation in local areas, cities, rural areas and in the diverse regions of Africa as well as on the ubiquitous online work environment extending from home to anywhere in the continent. The chapter ends with a review of the observations and suggestions about future research.


2018 ◽  
pp. 1197-1214
Author(s):  
Innocent Chirisa ◽  
Aaron Maphosa ◽  
Lazarus Zanamwe ◽  
Elmond Bandauko ◽  
Liaison Mukarwi

The central focus of this chapter is to analyse the urban population growth–urban management nexus in Zimbabwean cities. These cities are registering rapid population growth rates, due mainly to massive rural to urban migration and natural increase. Ideally, rapid urban population growth rates should be proportionate to urban infrastructure, facilities and services. This is not in the case in Zimbabwean cities, where the development of informal settlements, rising urban poverty, dilapidated urban infrastructure and other urban developmental challenges are rampant. Drawing from Malthusian theory, the current conditions in Zimbabwean cities represents that stage where the positive and negative checks are expected. In putting together this chapter, we used archival sources such as newspapers, government reports and other secondary sources. We conclude that planning initiatives and population control measures need to be used in Zimbabwean cities to address inefficiency and urban management challenges, which may be compromising urban sustainability. This study provides evidence-based information that urban local authorities may use to formulate policies to manage urban problems.


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