scholarly journals An Urban Revolution Through Age Friendly Cities? The Case Of Toronto

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan Joy
Keyword(s):  
Senior Citizens ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Local Policy ◽  
Public Provision ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Actors ◽  
Policy Program ◽  
The City

This dissertation examines the claim that Age Friendly Cities (AFCs) represents an effective and revolutionary policy approach to population aging. The AFC approach is a placebased policy program intended to enhance the ‘fit’ between senior citizens and their environment. Mainstream accounts of AFCs claim that the program represents a paradigmatic shift in the way we think about aging, to move away from an individual health deficit approach to one that seeks to improve local environments by empowering seniors and local policy actors. However, initial critical literature notes that while AFCs may offer the potential to expand social and physical infrastructure investments to accommodate diverse population needs, they are being popularized in a conjuncture where the public sector is being restructured through narrow projects of neoliberalism that call for limiting public redistribution. This literature calls for further empirical studies to better understand the gap between AFC claims and practice. I heed this call through a qualitative case study of AFCs in the City of Toronto; a particularly relevant case because the recent Toronto Seniors Strategy has been critiqued for being more symbolic than substantive. My research represents a critical policy study as I understand AFCs not as a technical policy tool but as a political object attractive to conflicting progressive and neoliberal projects that use rhetorical and practical strategies to ensure their actualization. My approach is normative as I seek to provide insight for a transformative ‘right to the city’ for senior citizens through the AFC approach. I use literature on citizenship to understand the multiplicity of political projects that seek to expand or narrow the relations between people, environments and institutions through the AFC program. This understanding is based on the meanings 82 different policy actors from local government, the non-profit sector, academia, and other levels of government make of their everyday work in creating age-friendly environments. The broad question I ask is: How do local policy actors understand the rhetoric and practice of AFCs in Toronto and how do these understandings illustrate particular expansive and narrow political projects that affect the development of a right to the city for senior citizens through this policy program? I begin with an initial Case Chapter that scopes age friendly policy work in Toronto from a ‘seeing like a city’ perspective that identifies the complex multi-scalar and multi-actor nature of this policy domain. The Recognizing Seniors and Role of Place Chapters then examine AFCs rhetorically with respect to how local policy actors understand the ‘person’ and the ‘environment’. The Rescaling Redistribution and Restructuring Governance Chapters explore the practice of AFCs, including how local policy actors understand their capacities to design and deliver age-friendly services and amenities and the institutional mechanisms at their disposal to action AFCs. My findings challenge the claim that the AFC policy approach is effective, let alone revolutionary. I learn from policy actors that narrow projects of restructuring work to assemble seemingly progressive rhetoric and practice around active aging and localism to reduce universal public provision, expand the role of private citizens and their families to provide care, and use local policy actors as residual providers of last resort. My research documents how more expansive understandings of senior citizens as rights bearers and the role of the public and non-profit sector to recognize and redistribute on this basis are also in operation. Understanding these political projects more deeply through the AFC policy program helps me to offer policy insight as to what is needed both rhetorically and practically to craft a more effective and revolutionary alternative AFC model based on a right to the city for senior citizens.

scholarly journals An Urban Revolution Through Age Friendly Cities? The Case Of Toronto

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan Joy
Keyword(s):  
Senior Citizens ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Local Policy ◽  
Public Provision ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Actors ◽  
Policy Program ◽  
The City

This dissertation examines the claim that Age Friendly Cities (AFCs) represents an effective and revolutionary policy approach to population aging. The AFC approach is a placebased policy program intended to enhance the ‘fit’ between senior citizens and their environment. Mainstream accounts of AFCs claim that the program represents a paradigmatic shift in the way we think about aging, to move away from an individual health deficit approach to one that seeks to improve local environments by empowering seniors and local policy actors. However, initial critical literature notes that while AFCs may offer the potential to expand social and physical infrastructure investments to accommodate diverse population needs, they are being popularized in a conjuncture where the public sector is being restructured through narrow projects of neoliberalism that call for limiting public redistribution. This literature calls for further empirical studies to better understand the gap between AFC claims and practice. I heed this call through a qualitative case study of AFCs in the City of Toronto; a particularly relevant case because the recent Toronto Seniors Strategy has been critiqued for being more symbolic than substantive. My research represents a critical policy study as I understand AFCs not as a technical policy tool but as a political object attractive to conflicting progressive and neoliberal projects that use rhetorical and practical strategies to ensure their actualization. My approach is normative as I seek to provide insight for a transformative ‘right to the city’ for senior citizens through the AFC approach. I use literature on citizenship to understand the multiplicity of political projects that seek to expand or narrow the relations between people, environments and institutions through the AFC program. This understanding is based on the meanings 82 different policy actors from local government, the non-profit sector, academia, and other levels of government make of their everyday work in creating age-friendly environments. The broad question I ask is: How do local policy actors understand the rhetoric and practice of AFCs in Toronto and how do these understandings illustrate particular expansive and narrow political projects that affect the development of a right to the city for senior citizens through this policy program? I begin with an initial Case Chapter that scopes age friendly policy work in Toronto from a ‘seeing like a city’ perspective that identifies the complex multi-scalar and multi-actor nature of this policy domain. The Recognizing Seniors and Role of Place Chapters then examine AFCs rhetorically with respect to how local policy actors understand the ‘person’ and the ‘environment’. The Rescaling Redistribution and Restructuring Governance Chapters explore the practice of AFCs, including how local policy actors understand their capacities to design and deliver age-friendly services and amenities and the institutional mechanisms at their disposal to action AFCs. My findings challenge the claim that the AFC policy approach is effective, let alone revolutionary. I learn from policy actors that narrow projects of restructuring work to assemble seemingly progressive rhetoric and practice around active aging and localism to reduce universal public provision, expand the role of private citizens and their families to provide care, and use local policy actors as residual providers of last resort. My research documents how more expansive understandings of senior citizens as rights bearers and the role of the public and non-profit sector to recognize and redistribute on this basis are also in operation. Understanding these political projects more deeply through the AFC policy program helps me to offer policy insight as to what is needed both rhetorically and practically to craft a more effective and revolutionary alternative AFC model based on a right to the city for senior citizens.

scholarly journals The Role Innovative Housing Models Play in the Struggle against Social Exclusion in Cities: The Brisbane Common Ground Model

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-70
Author(s):  
Petra Perolini
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Home Ownership ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Public Provision ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common ◽  
Spatial Exclusion ◽  
The City

The history of housing in Australia is a textbook example of socio-spatial exclusion as described, defined and analysed by commentators from Mumford to Lefebvre. It has been exacerbated by a culture of home ownership that has led to an affordability crisis. An examination of the history reveals that the problems are structural and must be approached not as a practical solution to the public provision of housing, but as a reshaping of lives, a reconnection to community, and as an ethical and equitable “right to the city”. This “Right to the City” has underpinned the Common Ground approach, emerging in a range of cities and adopted in South Brisbane, Queensland Australia. This paper examines the Common Ground approach and the impacts on its residents and in the community with a view to exploring further developments in this direction. A clear understanding of these lessons underpins, and should inform, a new approach to reconnecting the displaced and to developing solutions that not only enhance their lives but also the community at large.

GREEN BONDS AS A NEW FINANCIAL INSTRUMENT

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (7) ◽  
pp. 98-102
Author(s):  
M. V. DUBROVA ◽  
◽  
N. N. ZHILINA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Raw Materials ◽  
Financial Burden ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
The Public ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Green Finance ◽  
Non Profit Organizations

The relevance of the article is determined by the fact that in Russia there is no effective mechanism of state support for the activities of non-profit organizations in the field of “green Finance”. The role of non-profit organizations is leveled, which can become a serious help in solving economic problems, in particular, the problems of recycling and processing of secondary raw materials, the placement of industrial waste and household garbage, and landscaping of large megacities. The main financial burden in the field of “green economy” falls on States and large enterprises. Meanwhile, we cannot ignore the important role of non-profit organizations that can not only draw attention to environmental problems to the public, but also offer their own measures to solve environmental problems. In this regard, it becomes relevant to consider the participation of non-profit organizations in the implementation of environmental projects by attracting “green Finance”.

scholarly journals Hindi Print Media Content Analysis Of Bhopal Gas Tragedy: In The Context Of Reflect And Effect Study Of Media On Society

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 01-10
Author(s):  
Armendra Amar
Keyword(s):  
Print Media ◽  
Effect Study ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Industrial Accidents ◽  
Media Content Analysis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Gas Leak ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The City

The 1984 Bhopal Gas Leak tragedy has been classified as one of the World’s major Industrial accidents of the 20th century, recorded post 1919, by a United Nations Report. This tragedy killed thousands of people and maimed thousands. Union Carbide subsidiary pesticide plant released approximately 40 tonnes of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) gas which went on to touch the lives of more than 500,000 people of the city. In a way, even after it immediately killed and maimed in thousands, it is still a continued disaster as the generations exposed to the toxic gases have been consistently showing up signs of physical and mental deformity. This gruesome event’s impacts on society are beyond time and space. The crucial question that renders is that how media dealt with the situation and to what extent it affects the everyday life of masses. This study came into initiation when the researcher visited the Methyl Ico-Cynate gas-affected area of Bhopal. During the pilot study, the researcher saw that people of the affected place were living in inadequate conditions. Thus, a concern piqued the interest of the researcher, and evoked an indispensible question: Is media fulfilling its responsibility as the fourth pillar of society in times of chaos and devastation, towards the public? For examining his queries researcher has taken renowned print media outlet’s articles of Bhopal gas tragedy as the content of the analysis. Hence on the basis of Hindi print media content of Bhopal gas disaster the researcher has taken the initiative to search appropriate answers to questions which examine the role of media after the tragic occurrence has taken place in society.

scholarly journals ARQUITETURA, IDEOLOGIA E PRODUÇÃO: o uso do edifício público como veículo de comunicação no período do “Regime Militar” brasileiro

Revista Labor ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (18) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Eneas de Araújo Arrais Neto
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Military Government ◽  
Specific Group ◽  
The Public ◽  
Design Project ◽  
Architectural Language ◽  
The Military ◽  
The City

Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar os edifícios sedes dos órgãos públicos federais construídos na cidade de Fortaleza durante os anos de vigência do “Regime Militar”. Parte da compreensão de que a arquitetura, enquanto objeto de fruição coletiva, assume o papel de meio de comunicação de massa no espaço urbano e, como tal, foi um dos instrumentos de divulgação ideológica dos governos militares dirigidos aos setores sociais urbanos; veiculando principalmente idéias de modernização, desenvolvimento, racionalidade, onipotência do poder estatal e autoritarismo. Analisa igualmente as influências, neste processo, da cultura de classe do setor burocrático-estatal, e propõe que estas edificações, ao estabelecerem novos padrões estéticos e de utilização de materiais e equipamentos de procedência tecnológica estrangeira, se constituíram em elementos importantes do processo de abertura da economia nacional ao capital multinacional, em particular no que diz respeito ao mercado da construção civil.Abstract This paper presents the arquitectural critique of a specific group of edifications built in the city of Fortaleza during the period of the military governments in Brazil. The character of the architecture developed by the military government in public buildings in this period is common all over the country: the facilities were built to with the intention to occupy the cities as out-doors of the military governments, diffusing images of modernization, rationality, economic development and the power of the state.   Through the use of architectural language, by the means of design, project, materials, forms and other ways, the architecture of the public sector played the role of ideology, besides introducing imported materials and equipment previously unused in the building sector of the country.

scholarly journals Os Dois Lados da Mesma Moeda: Urbicídio e Juvenicídio na Realidade Brasileira

ILUMINURAS ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (47) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovane Antonio Scherer ◽  
Marco Pereira Dilligenti ◽  
Ricardo Souza Araujo
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
The Other ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
The Public ◽  
Resistance Movements ◽  
The Social ◽  
The City ◽  
Two Sides

O  presente artigo articula dois fenômenos aparentemente  distintos, o Urbicídio e o Juvenicídio, enquanto expressões da crise estrutural do capital., que se agrava no Brasil e nos demais países dependentes no atual quadro. A cidade é palco de um modelo neoliberal que segrega a classe trabalhadora dos direitos acessados nos grandes centros urbanos, sendo as periferias desprovidas de equipamentos públicos. As juventudes, mesmo que legalmente reconhecidas comosujeito de direitos, são vítimas da  ausência  de políticas sociais, principalmente nas periferias, territórios violados pelo Estado Penal. As políticas públicas até então constituídas promovem ações limitadas focadas no recrutamento de jovens no mercado de trabalho desassociadas de políticas públicas de proteção social básica, cada vez mais precarizadas. No entanto, as juventudes, plenas de potencialidades, podem protagonizar movimentos de resistência a este projeto societário, que exclui, encarcera e mata.Palavras-Chave: Juventudes, Território, Juvenicídio, Urbicídio THE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN: Urbicide and Youthicide in Brasilian Reality.Abstract: The present article discuss two apparently distinct phenomena, Urbicide and Youthicide, as expressions of the structural crisis of capital, which is aggravated in Brazil and in the other dependent countries in the present conjuncture. The city is the stage of a neoliberal model that segregates the  working class, without right to the city  and  the social services.The youth, even if legally recognized as subject of rights, are victims of the absence of social policies, mainly in the peripheries, territories violated by the Criminal State. The public policies e promote limited actions focused on the recruitment of young people in the labor market disassociated with public policies of basic social protection, increasingly precarized. However, youths, full of potentialities, can carry out resistance movements to this project which excludes, imprisons and kills.Keywords: Youth,Territory,Youthcide, Urbicide

City Boosterism through Internet Marketing

2011 ◽  
pp. 130-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Isabel Huerta-Carvajal ◽  
Luis Felipe Luna-Reyes
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Strategy Development ◽  
City Marketing ◽  
The Public ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Marketing Activities ◽  
The City

Local governments around the world are becoming aware of the importance of identifying and marketing their local assets to promote economic competitiveness. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have proven useful in supporting marketing activities in the private sector, but there is still little exploration on their use in the public sector. However, ICT effectiveness is constrained by institutional arrangements and the coordination of the marketing efforts with other government processes such as urban planning and strategy development. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the strategic scaffolding for ICT as a key component of a city’s marketing strategy using as an example the city of Puebla in Mexico. Although city marketing efforts and ICT use are still at its initial stages in the city, lessons from current efforts in Puebla are related to the key role of stakeholder networks, ICT interoperability, Geographic Information Systems, and government program continuity.

Exercising Power in the City

2020 ◽  
pp. 398-464
Author(s):  
Veronica West-Harling
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
The Public ◽  
Patron Saint ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Sense Of Identity ◽  
The City

This chapter shows the exercising of power in action in the public space. It looks at who ‘owns’ this, the Christianization of it in Rome, and the increasing role of the papacy in appropriating and in running it, revalorizing it as part of Rome’s Christian past and present, expressed through pilgrimage. This appropriation is contested by the secular aristocracy, which in turn appropriates the public space and rewrites the topography of the city in the tenth century. The use of the public space as an area of either social cohesion or conflict is studied, through the ceremonies, elections, oaths, processions, assemblies, justice and defence meetings; but also riots, conspiracies, and contested elections. This space of cohesion or conflict is fundamental to the creation of the unity and sense of identity of the city, especially around the patron saint or, sometimes, around or indeed against an imperial ruler

scholarly journals Perspective trends in financing of housing-and-communal services

2018 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 01050 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Vasilyeva
Keyword(s):  
Urban Development ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Private Partnership ◽  
The Public ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Definite Answer ◽  
The City ◽  
Public And Private Partnerships

The article is devoted to the matters of public-and-private partnerships in the field of housing-and-communal services. The author recognizes, that sustainable urban development requires effective funding with the leading role of municipal finances. At the same time, financing of housing-and-communal sector through the municipal budget only would be too burdensome, while the use of the public-and-private partnership scheme has proved to be the good solution of this problem. However, there is no definite answer: whether the housing-and-communal sector is the most developed zone of public-and-private partnership or, on the contrary, it is an obscure and ineffective zone. The author analyzes the Russian experience of use of the public-and-private partnership scheme in the field of housing-and-communal services and reveals the main problems, which prevent the attraction of the private capital to this sphere. Such rather new trends as so called "box decisions" and "pool" securitization of infrastructure projects are considered in the article. According to the author, the use of these options could contribute to the development of housing-and-communal sector and the city infrastructure as well as the urban development as whole.

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