scholarly journals DECIPHERING URBAN LIFE: A MULTI-LAYERED INVESTIGATION OF ST. ENOCH SQUARE, GLASGOW CITY CENTRE

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashraf M. Salama ◽  
Adel M. Remali ◽  
Laura MacLean
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
City Life ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The City

An urban space is a vital stage for social interaction and city life.  Measuring the city life is always related to social, economic and cultural conditions of an urban context.  Social gathering increases the quality of urban space and improves economic vitality. This paper aims to explore how successful urban spaces could impact the growth and performance of an urban context, not only as a physical urban reality, but also as a generator of social life.  Utilising St. Enoch Square as a case study, a multi-layered methodological approach constituted in a series of tools was implemented, including behavioural mapping, visual preference survey, walking tour assessment, contemplating settings, and observing physical traces and by-product of use in order to interpret various forms of experiences that take place. Findings reveal various attributes of St. Enoch Square while highlighting different qualities that promote and support the overall vibrancy of the city life. Conclusions are drawn to emphasise that the physical and spatial characteristics of an urban space are critical factors for maintaining social interaction while creating essential opportunities that support the human experience in the public realm.

scholarly journals Re-defining urban space through performance

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Χαρίκλεια Μαρίνη
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Spatial Spectrum ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
City Life ◽  
Tate Modern ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Dynamic Quality

This thesis contributes to discourses concerned with urban space and performancepractice. It identifies ways in which built environments become performative; how thebuilt environment performs meaning(s) within the urban context and how spatialpractices of contemporary performance engage with city-spaces. The programmingand order of urban space tends to fix meanings; increasingly regulated and singlepurposecity-spaces seem unable to react to informal or unplanned activities. However,this thesis suggests that urban space entails inherent opportunities for conceiving andpractising space otherwise and looks at a spatial spectrum – from leftover spaces toLondon’s landmarks. It analyses incomplete presences in the built environment andtheir unexpected (re)uses, which make urban space an arena of ideas, interaction andcreativity. It examines how spatial practices of performance, such as site-specificperformance, audio-walks and installations, inform our (re)thinking of space, itsmeaning and its re-appropriation. It argues that through performative concepts andactions, space manifests a changeable and dynamic quality, rather than motionlessness and inertia.The thesis involves an interdisciplinary approach employing geography, urban,architectural and performance studies. It looks at four types of built spaces that havebeen used for performance purposes; a disused warehouse at 21 Wapping Lane, theconverted power station housing the Tate Modern art gallery, the exterior of theNational Theatre’s building and the London district of Wapping. All of these sites areawaiting, or are undergoing, major alterations in their design or planning, involvingreconstruction and expansion, or total demolition. The uncertain future of these sitesand buildings, the inevitable decay of their material, and the temporality of the builtenvironment invite questions of architectural design and urban planning in terms ofperformance. The examination of these sites at this moment of change and thepotential impact of the redevelopment plans on city life make this research timely,since the thesis emphasises the imperative of re-defining concepts of space, planningstrategies, and design processes so as to imagine a less determinate, more creative urban space.

scholarly journals Urban Public Space of a Small City and the Needs of Residents in Realizing Practices of Socio-Cultural Interaction

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 325-335
Author(s):  
V. Petrova ◽  
V. Dvoinev
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Cultural Interaction ◽  
Sociological Study ◽  
Urban Public Space ◽  
The City

To date, the urban environment is considered as an interesting area of sociological research. Urban space represents a built environment, which includes buildings, streets, squares, parks, embankments, etc. Every day, citizens interact with this public space, build their routes, form impressions and the image of the city, they also evaluate its effectiveness in connection with opportunities for the realization of their needs of socio–cultural interaction. Public spaces are those places where holidays are held, social and economic relations are formed, verbal and non-verbal communications are created. In urban public space take place meetings of friends and acquaintances, the integration of various cultures, social groups with diverse goals, norms and attitudes. Public spaces act as a stage for the social life of individuals when they are a comfortable, accessible and safe environment. The article presents the results of a sociological study of the conformity of public spaces of the city of Vyazma in the Smolensk region with the needs of its population. The study was conducted using observation and interview methods. An analysis of the collected data helped to identify the main purpose of the urban public space as it is seen by the residents, the types of their interactions, to determine the structure, functions and effectiveness, as well as to assess the quality of the content and equipment of the urban public spaces, as well as to identify the most active groups of population and how their activities change in the daily and seasonal cycles. Based on the results obtained, recommendations were developed for improving and developing public space and urban life in general. Recommendations can become the basis for creating design solutions for a comfortable, safe and innovative environment for both small and large cities.

scholarly journals A SNAPSHOT OF HAPPINESS: PHOTO ALBUMS, RESPECTABILITY AND ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY IN DAKAR

Africa ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth Buggenhagen
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Capital City ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Rural Migrants ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The City

ABSTRACTYoung women who live in the improvised urban spaces on the outskirts of Senegal's capital city, Dakar, extemporize their respectability in a time of fiscal uncertainty through personal photography. The neighbourhood of Khar Yalla is an improvised, interconnected and multilayered space settled by families removed from the city centre during clean-up campaigns from the 1960s to the 1970s, by families escaping conflict in Casamance and Guinea-Bissau, and by recent rural migrants. As much as Khar Yalla is an improvised neighbourhood, it is also a space of improvisation. When women pose for, display, and pass around portraits of themselves at key moments in their social life, whether in the medium of social networking sites or photo albums, they reveal as much as they conceal the elements of individual and social life. They index their social networks and constitute their urban space not as peripheral, but as central to the lives and imaginations of their siblings and spouses who live abroad. Photographs actively shape and construct urban spaces, which are often loud, unruly and fraught spaces with vast inequalities and incommensurabilities. How women deal with economic and social disparity, within their own families, communities, and globally, is the subject of this article.

scholarly journals Elderly-Friendly Inclusive Urban Environments: Learning From Ankara

2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasemin Afacan
Keyword(s):  
Elderly People ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Aging Population ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Community Life ◽  
The City

The aging population and their expectations have become a growing concern in Turkey as in other countries. This study aims to investigate interactions/relationships between the needs, demands and expectations of Turkish elderly and inclusive urban design principles. It tries to answer the research question: how the inclusive urban life could improve elderly life and contribute to achieve an active aging process. An exploratory study was conducted with a total of 100 randomly selected elderly between the ages 65-95 (45 female and 55 male) from the City Centre of Ankara. A survey instrument based on the ‘streets for life’ concept (Burton & Mitchell 2006) was developed to gather data. The participants were asked to identify how important inclusive urban design features were in understanding, using and navigating within an urban environment. The findings of the study suggest that an inclusive open environment allows elderly people to feel safer, and thus encourage more regular use of urban space. Overall the results highlight two important insights, first that accessibility is inevitable for increasing the chance of the aging population to participate in the mainstream of community life and second, plain and simple signage is necessary to achieve more liveable urban environments. The study concludes the most important physical requirements and social requirements for elderly people.

Urban Space and Aristocratic Power in Late Antique Rome

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Machado
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
The Social ◽  
Traditional Elite ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

This book analyses the physical, social, and cultural history of Rome in late antiquity. Between AD 270 and 535, the former capital of the Roman empire experienced a series of dramatic transformations in its size, appearance, political standing, and identity, as emperors moved to other cities and the Christian church slowly became its dominating institution. Urban Space and Aristocratic Power in Late Antique Rome provides a new picture of these developments, focusing on the extraordinary role played by members of the traditional elite, the senatorial aristocracy, in the redefinition of the city, its institutions, and spaces. During this period, Roman senators and their families became increasingly involved in the management of the city and its population, in building works, and in the performance of secular and religious ceremonies and rituals. As this study shows, for approximately three hundred years the houses of the Roman elite competed with imperial palaces and churches in shaping the political map and the social life of the city. Making use of modern theories of urban space, the book considers a vast array of archaeological, literary, and epigraphic documents to show how the former centre of the Mediterranean world was progressively redefined and controlled by its own elite.

Marketplaces and central spaces: markets and the rise of competing spatial ideals in Danish city centres, c. 1850–1900

Urban History ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
JENS TOFTGAARD
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Fish Market ◽  
Open Air Markets ◽  
The City ◽  
City Centres

ABSTRACTThe traditional open-air markets on the central squares of Danish cities were thriving in the middle of the nineteenth century. However, the markets were soon challenged by new urban ideals of the city centre as a place for shopping and capital investment. At the same time, urban reformers made efforts to improve the market trade to meet modern standards. The rivalling interests struggled over the question of modernization or relocation of the central square markets and ultimately the definition and use of the central urban space. In particular, this article will examine the struggle over the construction of a fish market hall in Odense as it serves to reveal the different conceptions of the central urban space that affected the fate of the street markets.

Walking through the city soundscape: an audio-visual analysis of sensory experience for people with psychosis

2022 ◽  
pp. 147035722110526
Author(s):  
Sara Merlino ◽  
Lorenza Mondada ◽  
Ola Söderström
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Sensory Experience ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Noisy Environments ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
The City ◽  
The Way

This article discusses how an aspect of urban environments – sound and noise – is experienced by people walking in the city; it particularly focuses on atypical populations such as people diagnosed with psychosis, who are reported to be particularly sensitive to noisy environments. Through an analysis of video-recordings of naturalistic activities in an urban context and of video-elicitations based on these recordings, the study details the way participants orient to sound and noise in naturalistic settings, and how sound and noise are reported and reexperienced during interviews. By bringing together urban context, psychosis and social interaction, this study shows that, thanks to video recordings and conversation analysis, it is possible to analyse in detail the multimodal organization of action (talk, gesture, gaze, walking bodies) and of the sensory experience(s) of aural factors, as well as the way this organization is affected by the ecology of the situation.

scholarly journals АКТУАЛІЗАЦІЯ НАЦІОНАЛЬНОЇ ІДЕНТИЧНОСТІ В УМОВАХ КАРНАВАЛІЗАЦІЇ МІСЬКОГО ЖИТТЯ

2019 ◽  
pp. 29-32
Author(s):  
Міхно Н. К.
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Sociological Studies ◽  
Ukrainian Society

The main attention in this article is focused on the definition of the characteristic features of the processes of carnivalization of urban space in the conditions of modern Ukrainian society. The changes that occur in the space of everyday life against the background of General trends in social life – globalization, virtualization, changes in the specifics of communications, the spread of emotional capitalism. The main functional imperatives of carnival as a form of collective action are fixed. It is determined that in the conditions of carnivalization of urban life there is an actualization of national identity against the background of a number of events of socio-political, economic, national and cultural life of Ukrainian society. The data of sociological studies that record the growth of patriotism, civic responsibility and the level of national identity in recent years. Invited to pay attention to the instruments of incorporation of the symbols of the national community in the process of the ritual of the festive action.

scholarly journals [a] Project for the Sub-Centre

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Grace Helen Salisbury Mills
Keyword(s):  
City Centre ◽  
Urban Structure ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Specific Design ◽  
Architectural Form ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
Cultural Transformations ◽  
Urban Contexts ◽  
A Site ◽  
The City

<p>In the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake, a state of polycentric urbanity was thrust upon New Zealand’s second largest city. As the city-centre lay in disrepair, smaller centres started to materialise elsewhere, out of necessity. Transforming former urban peripheries and within existing suburbs into a collective, dispersed alternative to the city centre, these sub-centres prompted a range of morphological, socio-cultural and political transformations, and begged multiple questions: how to imbue these new sub-centres with gravity? How to render them a genuine alternative to the CBD? How do they operate within the wider city? How to cope with the physical and cultural transformations of this shifting urbanscape and prevent them occurring ad lib? Indeed, the success and functioning of the larger urban structure hinges upon a critical, informed response to these sub-centre urban contexts. Yet, with an unrelenting focus on the CBD rebuild - effectively a polycentric denial - little such attention has been granted.  Taking this urban condition as its premise and its provocation, this thesis investigates architecture’s role in the emergent sub-centre. It asks: what can architecture do in these urban contexts; how can architecture act upon the emergent sub-centre in a critical, catalytic fashion? Identifying this volatile condition as both an opportunity for architectural experimentation and a need for critical architectural engagement, this thesis seeks to explore the sub-centre (as an idea and actual urban context) as architecture’s project: its raison d’etre, impetus and aspiration.  These inquiries are tested through design-led research: an initial design question provoking further, broader discursive research (and indeed, seeking broader implications). The first section is a site-specific, design for Sumner, Christchurch. Titled ‘An Agora Anew’; this project - both in conception and outcome - is a speculative response to a specific sub-centre condition. The second section ‘The Sub-centre as Architecture’s Project’ explores the ideas provoked by the design project within a discursive framework. Firstly it identifies the sub-centre as a context in desperate need of architectural attention (why architecture?); secondly, it negotiates a possible agenda for architecture in this context through terms of engagement that are formal, critical and opportunistic (how architecture?): enabling it to take a position on and in the sub-centre. Lastly, a critical exegesis positions the design in regards to the broader discursive debate: critiquing it an architectural project predicated upon the idea of the sub-centre.  The implications of this design-led thesis are twofold: firstly, for architecture’s role in the sub-centre (especially to Christchurch); secondly for the possibilities of architecture’s productive engagement with the city (largely through architectural form), more generally. In a century where radical, new urban contexts (of which the sub-centre is just one) are commonplace, this type of thinking – what can architecture do in the city? - is imperative.</p>

scholarly journals Gay Subculture and the Cities in India: A Critical Reading of Select Works of R Raj Rao

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sriya Das ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Critical Reading ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Ultimate Objective ◽  
The City ◽  
Indian Penal Code

In delineating the painful experiences of LGBTQ individuals after the introduction of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code R Raj Rao’s works look into the struggle of these people to survive the onslaught of normative sexual discourses. Given the fact that Queer sexuality has been continuously questioned, suspected and tormented prior to its legitimate recognition in 2018, Rao draws attention to the nuances of gay urban life in India. The paper critically analyses the representation of gay subculture in the cities of India as reflected in select works of Rao. It demystifies how gay people share the urban space, manage to make room for their pleasure in the cities, and pose a threat to the dominant understanding of sexuality. The ultimate objective of this paper is to understand the role of the city in the (un)making of a subcultural identity. Textual analysis, with reference to certain theoretical frameworks, would be used as a qualitative research method.

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