scholarly journals Urban Megaprojects as Disorderly and Unruly Endeavors

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Gerardo Del Cerro Santamaría
Keyword(s):  
Economic Life ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Wealth Creation ◽  
Local Networks ◽  
Urban Economic ◽  
Planning Project ◽  
Economic Survival ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Urban Transformations ◽  
Construction Operation

Megaprojects have multiplied around the world as an urban response to the pressures of neoliberalism and globalization in favor of development, competitiveness and innovation. The protagonists of the megaprojects adopt a narrative of international competitiveness, framing a discourse dominated by the rhetoric of economic survival. The response has been urban transformations in which governments and private sector actors have struggled to position their cities and services within a global socio-political division of labor, production and consumption, and to coordinate their local networks with the requirements perceived or real aspects of an increasingly deregulated and neoliberal international economic system. It seems clear, then, that the phenomenon of megaprojects is intrinsically linked to the logic of growth, development, qualitative urban transformation, wealth creation, competitiveness and prosperity. One of the consequences of this overall framework is that megaprojects usually evolve from an orderly planning project to a disorderly an unruly endeavor. The complexities of construction, operation, management and governance of large projects entail a series of stochastic processes where risk and unpredictability become fundamental components of urban economic life.

scholarly journals Role of Creative Industries in the Post-Socialist Urban Transformation

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tadeusz Stryjakiewicz ◽  
Michał Męczyński ◽  
Krzysztof Stachowiak
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Creative Industries ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
The West ◽  
Local Networks ◽  
The Past ◽  
Path Dependent ◽  
Basic Features

Abstract Over the past two decades the cities in Central and Eastern Europe have witnessed a wide-ranging transformation in many aspects. The introduction of a market-oriented economy after half a century of socialism has brought about deep social, economic, cultural and political changes. The first stage of the changes, the 1990s, involved the patching up of structural holes left by the previous system. The post-socialist city had to face challenges of the future while carrying the ballast of the past. Rapid progress in catching up with the West transformed the city a great deal. Later on, the advent of the 21st century brought a new wave of development processes based, among other things, on creativity and innovation. Hence our contribution aims to explore the role of creativity and creative industries in the post-socialist urban transformation. The article consists of three basic parts. In the first we present the concept of a ‘creative post-socialist city’ and define the position of creative industries in it. We also indicate some similarities to and differences from the West European approaches to this issue. In the second part, examples from Central and Eastern Europe are used in an attempt to elucidate the concept of a ‘creative post-socialist city’ by identifying some basic features of creative actions /processes as well as a creative environment, both exogenous and endogenous. The former is embedded in different local networks, both formal (institutionalised) and informal, whereas the structure of the latter is strongly path-dependent. In the third part we critically discuss the role of local policies on the development of creative industries, pointing out some of their shortcomings and drawing up recommendations for future policy measures.

Islamifying the Economy

2020 ◽  
pp. 197-214
Author(s):  
Fanny Bessard
Keyword(s):  
Daily Life ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Weights And Measures ◽  
Urban Economic ◽  
Economic Behaviour ◽  
Economic Significance

Until the late seventh century, there was a definite continuity in the system of regulation and administration of urban economic life; the monitoring of transactions and the control of prices, weights, and measures being carried out by rabbis and Christian priests. By contrast, from the early eighth and ninth centuries, the evolving status of trade and craft in Near Eastern cities and the conscious Islamification of daily life encouraged changes to the established practices. This chapter discusses the mechanisms by which Islamic religious norms came to govern general economic behaviour. It looks at the increasing influence of Islamic worship, religious institutions, and authority in the regulation and administration of trade, retail, and crafts from 700 to 950, in the context of the Islamification of daily life, and its economic significance.

Tourism and urban economic growth: A panel analysis of German cities

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 519-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bart Neuts
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Causal Relationship ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
Tax Revenue ◽  
Wealth Creation ◽  
Urban Economic ◽  
Real Gdp ◽  
Local Business ◽  
Business Tax ◽  
German Cities

Even though cities are among the most important tourist destinations, research on tourism as a vehicle for economic growth – most often approached via the tourism-led growth hypothesis (TLGH) – has predominantly been limited to countries. This study explores the validity of the TLGH in an urban context. Panel data were collected for 89 German cities on different indicators of urban economic growth. Pedroni panel cointegration confirmed a long-term equilibrium between tourism, local business tax revenue, income tax revenue and real GDP, indicating that even for cities within a strong, developed economy, tourism contributes to wealth creation. A Panel Granger causality analysis established a one-way Granger causal relationship from tourism to local business tax and income tax and a bidirectional relationship between tourism and real GDP. This causal relationship was stronger for cities with a high to medium tourism intensity.

scholarly journals Protecting Half the Planet and Transforming Human Systems Are Complementary Goals

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen Crist ◽  
Helen Kopnina ◽  
Philip Cafaro ◽  
Joe Gray ◽  
William J. Ripple ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Nature Protection ◽  
Conservation Policies ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Main Engine ◽  
Global Population ◽  
Do So ◽  
Urgent Action ◽  
Human Systems

The unfolding crises of mass extinction and climate change call for urgent action in response. To limit biodiversity losses and avert the worst effects of climate disruption, we must greatly expand nature protection while simultaneously downsizing and transforming human systems. The conservation initiative Nature Needs Half (or Half Earth), calling for the conservation of half the Earth's land and seas, is commensurate with the enormous challenges we face. Critics have objected to this initiative as harboring hardship for people near protected areas and for failing to confront the growth economy as the main engine of global ecological destruction. In response to the first criticism, we affirm that conservation policies must be designed and implemented in collaboration with Indigenous and local communities. In response to the second criticism, we argue that protecting half the Earth needs to be complemented by downscaling and reforming economic life, humanely and gradually reducing the global population, and changing food production and consumption. By protecting nature generously, and simultaneously contracting and transforming the human enterprise, we can create the conditions for achieving justice and well-being for both people and other species. If we fail to do so, we instead accept a chaotic and impoverished world that will be dangerous for us all.

scholarly journals O Pontal do Estaleiro: estudo etnográfico da memória do trabalho na cidade de Porto Alegre, RS

ILUMINURAS ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (30) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Paula Marcante Soares
Keyword(s):  
Work Experience ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Work Practices ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Porto Alegre ◽  
Urban Transformations ◽  
The City

A partir da experiência etnográfica no contexto urbano da cidade de Porto Alegre, RS, propõe-se refletir a dinâmica espaço-temporal da memória do trabalho apoiando-se em narrativas biográficas de ex-trabalhadores de um antigo Estaleiro. Com base no estudo das redes de trabalho vinculadas à territorialidade da região da Orla do rio Guaíba, próximo ao Cristal, em Porto Alegre, RS, propõe-se investigar a rítmica e ressonâncias do fluxo das transformações urbanas nas suas relações com práticas de trabalho operário. Trata-se de pensar as continuidades e descontinuidades do tempo vivido de uma experiência de trabalho tida como singular sob o contexto de conformação e transformação dessa região da cidade. Pretende-se refletir sobre as transformações urbanas propostas recentemente para o Pontal pelo viés de trajetórias de trabalho e das dimensões simbólicas e materiais que esse território evoca. As reflexões aqui propostas perpassam as tensões representadas pelo fenômeno de crise experienciada pela comunidade de trabalho do Estaleiro com o encerramento das suas atividades e a recente destruição de suas ruínas. Palavras chave: Trabalho Operário. Memória. Cidade.   Pontal do Estaleiro (Shipyard Point): an ethnographic study of the memories of employment work in the city of Porto Alegre, RS   Abstract  The study aims at reflecting the spatial temporal dynamics of the memories on work based on the ethnographic experience in the urban context of Porto Alegre – RS according to the biographic narratives of former workers employed at an extinct shipyard. Based on the work networks linked to the area of the Guaiba River waterfront, in the Cristal suburb of Porto Alegre, RS, the proposal is to investigate the rhythm and resonance of the flow of  urban transformation in its relationship with work practices. It is a matter of thinking of the continuities and discontinuities of time seen through a work experience which was considered singular in the context of the conformation and transformation of this part of town.  The idea is to reflect on the urban transformations that have been recently proposed for the Pontal, through work trajectories and the symbolic and material dimensions evoked by this area. The reflections proposed herein go beyond the tensions represented by the phenomenon of the crisis the Shipyard’s labor community was subjected to at the time it was closed down, and the recent razing of its ruins. Keywords: Work Labor. Memory. City.

Urban transformation in football: from Manchester United as a ‘global leisure brand’ to FC United as a ‘community club’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Poulton
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Moral Claim ◽  
Subsequent Formation ◽  
Football Club ◽  
Urban Economic ◽  
Football Fans

This chapter analyses urban economic transformation through fieldwork among a group of football fans, who in 2005 formed a breakaway club ‘FC United of Manchester’ in response to a transnational debt-leveraged buy-out of Manchester United Football Club. Notions of locality and community had become increasingly politicised amongst these fans in recent decades. With Manchester United’s ability to trade in many different markets and with a fan-base across the country and internationally, it was perceived that Manchester United no longer necessarily needed a relationship with its local fan-base. In response, these fans increasingly articulated a moral claim about Manchester United’s responsibility to its local ‘community’ which the analysis relates to anthropological theories of gifts and commodities. This analysis contextualises the subsequent formation of FC United and its enduring reciprocal obligations to its ‘community’.

Genova, dalle Colombiane a Capitale Europea della Cultura. Grandi eventi e processi di rigenerazione urbana

TERRITORIO ◽  
2009 ◽  
pp. 103-109
Author(s):  
Francesco Gastaldi
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
City Centre ◽  
The Past ◽  
European Capital Of Culture ◽  
Urban Transformations ◽  
The City ◽  
Historical Centre

- Major events have played a crucial role in the urban transformations that have taken place in Genoa over the past 15 years, both for the huge investments they require and for the way they have redefined the city's image. Urban transformation, upgrading and maintenance, all of which have affected the historical centre and the waterfront, have contributed decisively to the reversing of the process of physical, economic and social degradation which had been devouring many parts of the city centre. 2004 was the year Genoa became European Capital of Culture and this was a turning point in the endeavour to relaunch and consolidate the role of the city in the tourist and cultural panorama of both Italy and Europe.

Neoliberal Urban Transformations in Indian Cities: Paradoxes and Predicaments

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soumyadip Chattopadhyay
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Urban Transformations ◽  
And Shifts ◽  
Modes Of Governance ◽  
Elected Representatives ◽  
Indian Cities

This article attempts to understand state practices of restructuring of urban space and modes of governance, the role and strategies of the different actors involved and their participatory implications related to neoliberal urban transformation in Indian cities. Intergovernmental competition and inter-party conflict have constrained India’s attempts towards ‘state rescaling’, marked by incomplete devolution of authority and resources to the cities. In contrast to decentralization, a new networked form of local governance restructures and shifts the authority and resources from the municipality to the private sector, civil society groups or other agencies or branches within governments. These forms have institutionalized highly insulated and discretionary processes of decision-making to serve interest and priorities of upper-and middle-class population. Powers of the municipal officials and elected representatives have been weakened. Such political discursive processes and practices have rendered urban poor and their interests invisible within transformative cities. All these necessitate grounded deeper evaluations of such policies that are celebrated as technically sound and efficient or promote ‘good governance’.

scholarly journals Urban rent at risk: the point of viewof private investors [Rendita urbanaa rischio: la prospettiva degli investitori privati]

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 5-18
Author(s):  
Alessandra Oppio ◽  
Francesca Torrieri ◽  
Emanuele Dell’Oca
Keyword(s):  
Essential Element ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Complex Processes ◽  
First Results ◽  
Urban Transformations ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
Multi Stakeholder ◽  
Perceive Risk ◽  
Private Investors

Urban transformation and regeneration interventions are complex processes in which a multitude of actors act in order to generate an overall value higher than the investment and proportional to the risks, related to each phase of real estate development process. The trade-off between risk and return is one of the essential element in investment decisions, even more in the context of urban transformations projects characterized by long-term time horizons, hence the difficulty for investors to predict the future. In this context, the paper proposes a reflection on the relationship between return and risk in urban transformation and regeneration interventions, focusing on the private investor’s perspective. A first questionnaire was proposed to a selected panel of experts, as pre-test, in order to highlight how the different actors involved in development processes perceive risk and how their adversity varies due to their role and the development phase. The first results of the pre-test phase have pointed out interesting aspects that deserve an in depth investigation through a survey extended to a larger sample, such as the importance of the involvement of private operators and the use of multidimensional and multi-stakeholder models to support risk management.

Biopolitics of Transnational Private Law – Sovereign Debt Crises, Market Order and Human Rights

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 1571-1578
Author(s):  
Alessandro Somma
Keyword(s):  
Market Economy ◽  
Sovereign Debt ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Economic Behavior ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Market Failures ◽  
Market Economies ◽  
Market Order ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Direct Market

A market economy is not a product of free economic behavior but rather, of an order requiring the fulfillment of systemic tasks by market operators. Their performance needs to be guided by rules imposing competition as a political tool to functionalize their action, in such a way that market failures can be avoided. This is not only the case for coordinated market economies, typically making use of direct market regulations, but also for liberal market economies, even if these latter ones prefer an indirect regulation of economic life, by having to condition individual behavior. Different modes of regulation may be used to stabilize the same accumulation regime, which is understood as patterns of production and consumption reproducible over a long period. In other words, liberal market ideology, as well as liberalism, is anything but a theory on unlimited freedom: it “needs freedom”, but also needs to “consume” this freedom as a condition of historical and social possibilities for a free market economy. Even if differences may involve the way of assuring those possibilities, the necessity to force economic behavior into functionalizing schemes must be seen as unavoidable.

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