scholarly journals Revisiting the Urban Question in the Age of the New Urban Crisis: The (Re)Production of the Regime of Flexible Accumulation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Sternberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Global Capitalism ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Urban Crisis ◽  
Urban Forms ◽  
Flexible Accumulation ◽  
Real Estate Prices ◽  
The City

Scholars have recently remarked upon the emergence of what Richard Florida has termed The New Urban Crisis, a global phenomenon whereby cities are being lumped into winners and losers, with inequality rising in the winner cities where real estate prices are pushing out those who most need access to the opportunities hoarded within. In this article, I argue that the new urban crisis is not a crisis of the city per se but is itself a symptom of greater crises occurring at the level of global capitalism. By revisiting Castells’ The Urban Question, I read the new urban crisis as a product of how the urban social structure fits into the reproduction of capitalism on a global scale, arguing that, under the regime of flexible accumulation, the urban social structure is asked to reproduce two distinct circuits of capital accumulation set loose by the transition to post-industrialism: accumulation via production and accumulation via finance. These distinct circuits of accumulation utilize the elements of urban social structures differentially, often at cross purposes. This produces continued crises in the reproduction of capitalism, as well as continually shifting relations between elements of the urban social structure, producing a plurality of urban forms.

Trafficking

2018 ◽  
pp. 344-358
Author(s):  
Paul Amar
Keyword(s):  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Global Capitalism ◽  
First Century ◽  
Global Studies ◽  
Global History ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Forms Of Violence

This chapter offers a global history, as well as cultural, legal, and political–economic analysis, of “trafficking,” a set of relationships and processes often constituted as the dark mirror of globalization. First, the chapter traces how the term “trafficking” emerged. Second, it examines the evolution of “trafficking” in the context of “drug wars,” from the imperial Opium Wars in China in the early nineteenth century to the twenty-first-century “narco” battlegrounds of Mexico. Third, it surveys how global studies-related research has developed critical lenses for analyzing the politics of “sex trafficking” and “human trafficking.” Finally, it examines the term “trafficker” as selectively deployed along racial and social lines in ways that produce obscuring pseudo-analyses of the violence of global capitalism that preserve the impunity of certain powerful actors, create monstrous misrepresentations of globalizing forms of violence, and stir moral and racial panics on a global scale.

scholarly journals Rat Cities and Beehive Worlds: Density and Design in the Modern City

2011 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 722-756
Author(s):  
Jon Adams ◽  
Edmund Ramsden
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Social System ◽  
Human Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Efficient Operation ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
The City

Nestled among E. M. Forster's careful studies of Edwardian social mores is a short story called “The Machine Stops.” Set many years in the future, it is a work of science fiction that imagines all humanity housed in giant high-density cities buried deep below a lifeless surface. With each citizen cocooned in an identical private chamber, all interaction is mediated through the workings of “the Machine,” a totalizing social system that controls every aspect of human life. Cultural variety has ceded to rigorous organization: everywhere is the same, everyone lives the same life. So hopelessly reliant is humanity upon the efficient operation of the Machine, that when the system begins to fail there is little the people can do, and so tightly ordered is the system that the failure spreads. At the story's conclusion, the collapse is total, and Forster's closing image offers a condemnation of the world they had built, and a hopeful glimpse of the world that might, in their absence, return: “The whole city was broken like a honeycomb. […] For a moment they saw the nations of the dead, and, before they joined them, scraps of the untainted sky” (2001: 123). In physically breaking apart the city, there is an extent to which Forster is literalizing the device of the broken society, but it is also the case that the infrastructure of the Machine is so inseparable from its social structure that the failure of one causes the failure of the other. The city has—in the vocabulary of present-day engineers—“failed badly.”

Associations, Christ groups, and their place in the Polis

2017 ◽  
Vol 108 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Kloppenborg
Keyword(s):  
Social Structures ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
Resident Aliens ◽  
The City ◽  
Civic Institutions

Abstract:Early Christ groups, like Greek and Roman associations, engaged in mimicry of various civic institutions, and for similar reasons: to facilitate the integration of sub-altern groups into civic structures; to create “communities of honour” in which virtue was recognized and rewarded; and to produce small social structures in which the democratic values of autonomy could be performed. While mimicking civic structures, early Christ groups also displayed in varying ways ambivalence toward the city, either declaring themselves to be “resident aliens” or claiming to belong to a different polity.

Movimiento Hip Hop en Ciudad de Punta Arenas. / Hip Hop Culture in Punta Arenas

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (06) ◽  
pp. 67-81
Author(s):  
Pablo Tascón España
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
Current Action ◽  
The Social ◽  
Historical Root ◽  
The City

El presente estudio busca comprender bajo un enfoque naturalista cómo en un periodo denominado por autores de las Ciencias Sociales ( Bajoit, 2009; Sandoval, 2010) de “cambio cultural”, emerge el movimiento Hip Hop y su particular forma de expresión en la ciudad de Punta Arenas. La investigación tiene un objetivo central y busca interpretar la relación entre la expresión contracultural y los jóvenes que son parte de tal, como así también sus significados respecto al ser actores del mismo. La investigación pretende identificar, entonces, la lógica de acción actual de los jóvenes y a su vez dilucidar si existe relación o no con la raíz histórica del movimiento Hip Hop, es decir una expresión de disidencia en razón de la estructura social establecida y las contradicciones que afloran de la misma. The following study aims to understand under the naturalist approach how in a period called for authors of the social sciences (Bajoit, 2009; Sandoval, 2010) of “cultural change”, emerges the Hip Hop movement and its particular form of expression in the city of Punta Arenas. The research has a main objective and seeks to interpret the relation between the expression counterculture and the young people that are part of it, likewise the meaning concerning to be actors of it. The research pretends to identify the logic of current action of the youngsters and at the same time elucidate if there is a relation or not with the historical root of the movement “Hip Hop”, i.e. an expression of dissent aiming with the social structure established and the contradictions that came out from itself.

Tianjin's Worldly Ambitions: From Hyper-Colonial Space to ‘Business Park’

2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 26-38
Author(s):  
Maurizio Marinelli
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Port City ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Global Connections ◽  
World Class ◽  
History Approach ◽  
The City

Between 1860 and 1945, the Chinese port city of Tianjin was the site of up to nine foreign-controlled concessions, functioning side by side. Rogaski defined it as a ‘hyper-colony’, a term which reflects Tianjin's socio-political intricacies and the multiple colonial discourses of power and space. This essay focuses on the transformation of the Tianjin cityscape during the last 150 years, and aims at connecting the hyper-colonial socio-spatial forms with the processes of post-colonial identity construction. Tianjin is currently undergoing a massive renovation program: its transmogrifying cityscape unveils multiple layers of ‘globalizing’ spatialities and temporalities, throwing into relief processes of power and capital accumulation, which operate via the urban regeneration's experiment. This study uses an ‘interconnected history’ approach and traces the interweaving ‘worlding’ nodes of today's Tianjin back to the global connections established in the city during the hyper-colonial period. What emerges is Tianjin's simultaneous tendency towards ‘world-class-ness’ and ‘China-class-ness’.

It is Time for Philosophy to Return to the City

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-216
Author(s):  
Donatella Di Cesare ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Critical Distance ◽  
Global Capitalism ◽  
Critical Reasoning ◽  
The City

Philosophy has been a subversive practice since the time of Socrates. Recognizing no authority other than the persuasiveness of dialectics, philosophy designated a thinking beyond the boundaries of the city: an estranging conception, an elsewhere of thought. It is from this critical distance that philosophy derived its political vocation. In the era of global capitalism, however, philosophy has become institutionalized and lost its subversive potential. To this end, philosophy has accepted that it should no longer pose too many questions, especially the ones which are most fundamental, resulting in a dearth of in-depth public questioning, and the slumber of critical reasoning. Hence, philosophy needs to rediscover its political vocation in order to reawaken consciences and to once again embrace that theoretical and practical commitment which never accepts anything without critical reflection. By doing so, it will be possible to restore philosophy to its original role as a guiding light for the community.

scholarly journals An Environmental GIS-based Variable Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in the City of Recife, Brazil

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Souza ◽  
Caroline Mota ◽  
Amanda Rosa ◽  
Ciro Figueiredo ◽  
Ana Lucia Candeias
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Spatial Regression ◽  
Case Fatality ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Spatial Regression Analysis ◽  
Effective Drugs ◽  
The City

Abstract Background: Given the increasing rates at which cases of people infected by Covid-19 have been evolving to case-fatality rates on a global scale and the context of there being a world-wide socio-economic crisis, decision-making must be undertaken based on prioritizing effective measures to control and combat the disease since there is a lack of effective drugs and as yet no vaccine. Method: This paper explores the determinant factors of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on Recife, Pernambuco-Brazil by performing both local and global spatial regression analysis on two types of environmental data-sets. Data were obtained from ten specific days between late April and early July 2020, comprehending the ascending, peak and descending behaviours of the curve of infections.Results: This study highlights the importance of identifying and mapping clusters of the most affected neighbourhoods and their determinant effects. We have identified that it is increasingly common for there to be a phase in which hotspots of confirmed cases appear in a well-developed and heavily densely-populated neighbourhood of the city of Recife. From there, the disease is carried to areas characterised by having a precarious provision of public services and a low-income population and this quickly creates hotspots of case-fatality rates. The results also help to understand the influence of the age, income, level of education of the population and, additionally, of the extent to which they can access public services, on the behaviour of the virus across neighbourhoods.Conclusion: This study supports government measures against the spread of Covid-19 in heterogeneous cities, evidencing social inequality as a driver for a high incidence of fatal cases of the disease. Understanding the variables which influence the local dynamics of the virus spread becomes vital for identifying the most vulnerable regions for which prevention actions need to be developed.

scholarly journals (Re)discovering Toronto's waterfront: infrastructure and connectivity in a post-industrial landscape

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geordie Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Processes ◽  
Urban Forms ◽  
Industrial Landscape ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Waterfront Redevelopment ◽  
Industrial Use ◽  
Post Industrial ◽  
The Impact ◽  
American Cities ◽  
The City

The transition of waterfront land use from industrial to post-industrial is a global phenomenon. There are several forces that are driving this change, including the advancement of shipping technology and the relocation of industrial processes to areas with greater availability of land. In place of industrial uses, many cities have undertaken, or are in the process of undertaking the redevelopment of their waterfront. As a result of past industrial use, there often exists, a significant amount of transportation infrastructure that isolates the city from the waterfront. This paper establishes the context for waterfront redevelopment, before examining the impact of infrastructure urban forms by using the work of Kevin Lynch as a tool for analysis. Several case precedents are used to examine the course of action that other North American cities have pursued to mitigate the impact of infrastructure forms on the waterfront and how they may influence the way Toronto deals with its waterfront infrastructure.

scholarly journals The automotive sector in emerging economies

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 437-442
Author(s):  
Marco Antonio Martins da Rocha
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Economies ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Elevated Level ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Global Capitalism ◽  
Technological Diffusion ◽  
Market Dynamics ◽  
Automotive Sector ◽  
World War ◽  
Industrial Policies

From the decades that followed the II World War, the automotive sector has been rebuilt as one of the pillars of global capitalism. With an elevated level of concentration and working in global scale, the automotive sector has been a major vector of technological diffusion and it demonstrates a notable capacity to absorb technology from other industries. This paper discusses some conclusions of the book published by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, named The automotive sector in emerging economies: industrial policies, market dynamics and trade unions – trends & perspectives in Brazil, China, Mexico and Russia. ..

scholarly journals Extending the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways at the City Scale to Inform Future Vulnerability Assessments — The Case of Boston, Massachusetts

2019 ◽  
Vol 06 (03n04) ◽  
pp. 2050009
Author(s):  
Jayne Lino ◽  
Guillaume Rohat ◽  
Paul Kirshen ◽  
Hy Dao
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Climate Change Research ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
Vulnerability Assessments ◽  
Neighborhood Scale ◽  
The City ◽  
Neighborhood Level

Climate change will impact cities’ infrastructure and urban dwellers, who often show differentiated capacity to cope with climate-related hazards. The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) are part of an emerging research field which uses global socioeconomic and climate scenarios, developed by the climate change research community, to explore how different socioeconomic pathways will influence future society’s ability to cope with climate change. While the SSPs have been extensively used at the global scale, their use at the local and urban scale has remained rare, as they first need to be contextualized and extended for the particular place of interest. In this study, we present and apply a method to develop multi-scale extended SSPs at the city and neighborhood scale. Using Boston, Massachusetts, as a case study, we combined scenario matching, experts’ elicitation, and participatory processes to contextualize and make the global SSPs relevant at the urban scale. We subsequently employed the extended SSPs to explore future neighborhood-level vulnerability to extreme heat under multiple plausible socioeconomic trajectories, highlighting the usefulness of extended SSPs in informing future vulnerability assessments. The large differences in outcomes hint at the enormous potential of risk reduction that social and urban planning policies could trigger in the next decades.

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