scholarly journals Suburban wilderness in the Houston metropolitan landscape

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deanna H. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Urban Development ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
The United States ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Community Activism ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
World Class ◽  
Production Of Nature ◽  
Industrial Landscapes ◽  
Petrochemical Industries

Abstract This article examines the intersections of community activism and wilderness in the sprawling suburban and industrial landscapes of Houston, Texas, in the United States. The Houston metropolitan region's rapid urban development, laissez-faire land use planning, and world-class petrochemical industries provide a critical context to explore the material and conceptual relations of wilderness. Building upon recent debates regarding the production of nature, the article argues that wilderness is and always has been integrated into our everyday suburban landscapes. The empirical data discussed reveals the practices and processes (re)producing wilderness materially and conceptually within the contemporary relations of urban life. It challenges us to envision wilderness as internal to society and society as internal to wilderness. The results suggest that wilderness, instead of being external and in need of protection, is internal to the human experience and therefore internal to our urban landscapes. Key Words: wilderness, urban development, production of nature, community activism, Houston, TX

scholarly journals (re)Weave: Adapting Urban Obsolescence in Syracuse

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Marinic ◽  
◽  
Zeke Leonard ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
The United States ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
World War ◽  
Marked Contrast ◽  
Industrial City ◽  
Interstate Highway System ◽  
Urban Decay ◽  
Highway System

It has been over fifty years since the beginning of the decline of the American industrial city. After World War II, urban life in the United States began to fracture along social, economic, and demographic lines. The rise of the interstate highway system facilitated the simultaneous collapse of downtown retail districts; advancing urban decay stood in marked contrast to a thriving, homogeneous, trans-continental suburban culture. Today, widespread obsolescence has catalyzed and accelerated to embody the future of shrinking cities in the RustBelt.

scholarly journals Meatscapes: Spaces and processes associated to subsistence livestock

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leila Marie Farah
Keyword(s):  
Urban Development ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Historical Maps ◽  
Legal Documents ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Livestock Products ◽  
By Products

How was subsistence livestock linked to architecture and the urban development in the settlement of 17th and 18th century Montreal? This article argues that landscapes and buildings interact with and accommodate the transformation of livestock products and by-products along various stages; and, that these animal parts contribute to defining urban landscapes. The paper presents a novel analytical framework to study foodscapes, and more particularly meatscapes by way of identifying spaces through which animal parts transited, and by spatially mapping them. It does so via a mixed methodological approach, including researching legal documents, travelers’ notes, databases, historical maps and plans dating back to the French period. Examining processes and spaces involving subsistence livestock, their products and by-products as well as individuals related to their transformation provides a new perspective on how ordinary activities shaped the lives and the spaces in a settlement.

scholarly journals International business transformation patteerns of czech enterprises since the velvet revolution and the velvet divorce

1999 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
James D. Goodnow
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Business ◽  
The United States ◽  
Transformation Process ◽  
Business Activity ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Business Transformation ◽  
Velvet Revolution ◽  
World Class

From a macroeconomic standpoint, the Czech Republic has been viewed as a leading example of successful transformation from a state owned to a privatized economy. Yet at the firm and industry levels, the transformation process is still in its early stages. This article focuses on the transformation of outbound international business activities of the country and offers statistical and case study evidence to support four propositions describing the transformation process to date. First, most Czech international business activity is oriented toward its European neighbors. Second, globalization is beginning in a few selected firm and industries. Third, the reliance on low price rather than other international marketing advantages limits the development of world class images of Czech export commodities. Fourth, beginning globalization efforts of Czech firms focus on emerging markets of Asia, South America and Africa and to a lesser extent on the United States but largely exclude Japan.

The Worst of All Worlds

2005 ◽  
Vol 1902 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Eidlin
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Population Density ◽  
Travel Behavior ◽  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Population Distribution ◽  
Housing Prices ◽  
The United States ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Apparent Paradox ◽  
Gini Coefficients

Los Angeles, California, is generally considered the archetypal sprawling metropolis. Yet traditional measures equate sprawl with low population density, and Los Angeles is among the densest and thereby the least sprawling cities in the United States. How can this apparent paradox be explained? This paper argues that the answer lies in the fact that Los Angeles exhibits a comparatively even distribution of population throughout its urbanized area. As a result, the city suffers from many consequences of high population density, including extreme traffic congestion, poor air quality, and high housing prices, while offering its residents few benefits that typically accompany this density, including fast and effective public transit, vibrant street life, and tightly knit urban neighborhoods. The city's unique combination of high average population density with little differentiation in the distribution of population might best be characterized as dense sprawl, a condition that embodies the worst of urban and suburban worlds. This paper uses Gini coefficients to illustrate variation in population density and then considers a number of indicators–-most relating either to the provision of transportation infrastructure or to travel behavior–-that demonstrate the effects of low-variation population distribution on the quality of urban life in Los Angeles. This approach offers researchers, practitioners, and policy makers in Los Angeles and in smaller cities that are evolving in similar ways a useful and user-friendly tool for identifying, explaining, measuring, and addressing the most problematic aspects of sprawl.

A Look Back on 1942 Combatant Production: An Example of Successful Employee Empowerment at Higgins Industries

1995 ◽  
Vol 11 (03) ◽  
pp. 159-170
Author(s):  
Graham Haddock ◽  
Robert Latorre
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Production Planning ◽  
Corporate Culture ◽  
The United States ◽  
Employee Empowerment ◽  
Technical Literature ◽  
Boat Building ◽  
Material Usage ◽  
The Face ◽  
World Class

World-class ship production in the United States will be achieved by shipyards using production planning based on the strengths of their workforce and technology base. While a large portion of technical literature deals with ship production technology, there is a growing awareness that the employee empowerment can realize substantial savings in labor hours and material usage. In 1942 the demands for military landing craft resulted in Higgins Industries opening two new boat building plants in New Orleans. By the cessation of hostilities in 1945, over two thousand 50–56 ft LCM landing craft and one hundred 180 ft FS cargo ships were delivered. The LCM and FS ship production were maintained in the face of wartime shortages in propulsion engines, steel, and a skilled workforce. This paper describes Higgins Industries' production planning and how what is now termed employee empowerment was utilized to achieve reduction in manhours and material usage. This ship production achievement 50 years ago provides many lessons in utilizing the workforce intelligence with a positive corporate culture to achieve world-class shipbuilding in the United States

Evolution of cities in Borneo: a kaleidoscope of urban landscapes for planning future resilient cities

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Kozlowski ◽  
Rahinah Ibrahim ◽  
Khairul Hazmi Zaini
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Urban Development ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Central State ◽  
Unique Region ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
State And Local

PurposeThis study aims to examine the trajectory of the urban growth of Borneo by portraying its resilient settlements in the pre-colonial times, tropical sensitive colonial architecture, the built environment of the post–independence period and finally the contemporary city image. This is followed by a comparative study of its major urban centres and determining how globalisation and neoliberalism impact the traditional urban settlements of this island and poses a threat to its rich biodiversity.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses case study research methodology involving selected cities on the Island of Borneo including Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Miri and Kuching (Sabah and Sarawak, Malaysia), Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei), and major cities of the state of Kalimantan, Indonesia. Data collection includes a literature review, content analysis, field assessment and observations. The major research objectives would address past and current issues in the selected urban environment of Borneo. They address the historical evolution of major cities of Borneo, current urban development trends, the deterioration of the traditional urban fabric as a result of post–independence development and later globalisation.FindingsThis study found that the rich cultural tradition and climate-responsive architecture from the past have been discontinued to pave way for fast track and often speculative development. The results contribute in the convergence of existing shortcomings of cities from three nations on Borneo Island in guiding future sustainable urban planning agenda for achieving a resilient city status while reinstating the character and the sense of place. The study expects the recommendations to become prerequisites for future urban planning in sensitive tropical regions.Originality/valueThis research identified a new “Borneo approach” to urban development. The study strongly recommends top priorities for the central, state and local governments of Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia allowing the planners and decision-makers to establish a new tropical urban planning initiative with the ample design practice for this unique region in Southeast Asia. The results of this study can serve as the guiding principles for other urban environments in fragile and sensitive tropical regions.

Precisionism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Root
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Charles Sheeler ◽  
Georgia O'keeffe ◽  
Ambivalent Attitude ◽  
Industrial Landscapes

Precisionism was a modernist art movement during the 1920s and 1930s in the United States, in which painters produced a ‘‘machine aesthetic’’ by rendering precise, geometrical forms in their works. A group of American painters originally called ‘‘The Immaculates,’’ the Precisionists celebrated new industrial landscapes of skyscrapers, factories, bridges, and other mechanized phenomena. Although they were never a formalized school and worked without a manifesto, Precisionism reflected both the exciting dynamism of the ‘‘Roaring Twenties’’ as well as the streamlined simplicity of the Great Depression. Their images produced an ambivalent attitude toward mechanization, at once praising its efficiency while condemning its dehumanization. Appearing immediately after a host of other influential modernist movements such as Cubism and Futurism, Precisionists merged the impulse toward abstraction with a photographically realistic eye. While no artist worked exclusively as a Precisionist, there were several for whom it was a formative style. Perhaps the most prolific artists who produced Precisionist works were Charles Sheeler, Charles Demuth, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Together, these three painters and several others created a distinctly American brand of imagery that was a celebration of nationhood as much as a celebration of mechanization.

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