Modernism, Space and the City

Author(s):  
Andrew Thacker

This innovative book examines the development of modernism in four European cities: London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. Focusing upon how literary and cultural outsiders represented various spaces in these cities, it draws upon contemporary theories of affect, mood, and literary geography to offer an original account of the geographical emotions of modernism. It considers three broad features of urban modernism: the built environment of the particular cities, such as cafés or transport systems; the cultural institutions of publishing that underpinned the development of modernism in these locations; and the complex perceptions of writers and artists who were outsiders to the four cities. Particular attention is thus given to the transnational qualities of modernism by examining figures whose view of the cities considered is that of migrants, exiles, or strangers. The writers and artists discussed include Mulk Raj Anand, Gwendolyn Bennett, Bryher, Blaise Cendrars, Joseph Conrad, T. S. Eliot, Christopher Isherwood, Hope Mirlees, Noami Mitchison, Jean Rhys, Sam Selon, and Stephen Spender.

Author(s):  
Andrew Thacker

This chapter explores the affective pull that Paris exerted upon modernist writers and artists, attracting outsiders from around the globe to experience its cultural institutions and openness to creative experimentation. The chapter first discusses the writers T. S. Eliot, Guillaume Apollinaire, and Blaise Cendrars as ‘outsider-insiders’ (in Peter Gay’s terms), figures who come to the city as outsiders but who, by virtue of status or identity, are able to function as insiders within its cultural geography. The second group of writers discusses include Hope Mirrlees (in her poem Paris), Jean Rhys (in novels such as After Leaving Mr Mackenzie and Good Morning, Midnight), and Gwendolyn Bennett (in her story ‘Wedding Day’), female modernists who remain marked as outsiders in the city. The chapter discusses how all of these writers engaged affectively with various aspects of the technological modernity of Paris, including features such as the Eiffel Tower, café culture, hotel rooms, and the Grands Boulevards.


Author(s):  
Andrew Thacker

This paper explores the significance of Katherine Mansfield and Jean Rhys as colonial outsiders in the modernist metropolis of Paris. The paper draws upon a number of ideas from contemporary affect theory (such as work on the idea of shame) to present an original account of how, in texts such as ‘Je ne parle pas français’ and ‘Feuille d’Album’ (Mansfield) and Quartet (Rhys), both writers responded, in differing ways, to the moods of the modernist spaces of the city. It also discusses the importance of their engagement with the cultural institutions of modernism in Paris, such as that of Sylvia Beach’s bookshop, Shakespeare and Company, and explores their shared connections to the French writer Francis Carco.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2935
Author(s):  
Natalia Drop ◽  
Daria Garlińska

Using intelligent transport systems in cities is gaining popularity. The fundamental aim of their existence is to improve safety and traffic flow and prevent congestion in city centres. All people moving around the city, such as public transport passengers, as well as truck and emergency vehicle drivers and drivers of passenger vehicles, are users of intelligent transport systems. Research which was carried out for the article entirely concerns functioning and utility of intelligent transport systems from truck drivers’ experience. The main aim of the research was to evaluate services and tools within intelligent transport systems in European cities which are visited by Polish truck drivers. Our research indicates that most drivers (almost 98%) stated that they find intelligent transport systems useful and 92.5% of interviewed pointed that intelligent transport systems help with their everyday work duties. Of all the tools in the survey drivers agreed that variable content signs, accommodative traffic lights, and extra road illumination have most influence in road safety. Identifying the most useful and helpful tools of intelligent transport systems will allow to define their preferred development directions from truck drivers’ point of view.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanan Liu ◽  
Dujuan Yang ◽  
Harry J. P. Timmermans ◽  
Bauke de Vries

AbstractIn urban renewal processes, metro line systems are widely used to accommodate the massive traffic needs and stimulate the redevelopment of the local area. The route choice of pedestrians, emanating from or going to the metro stations, is influenced by the street-scale built environment. Many renewal processes involve the improvement of the street-level built environment and thus influence pedestrian flows. To assess the effects of urban design on pedestrian flows, this article presents the results of a simulation model of pedestrian route choice behavior around Yingkoudao metro station in the city center of Tianjin, China. Simulated pedestrian flows based on 4 scenarios of changes in street-scale built environment characteristics are compared. Results indicate that the main streets are disproportionally more affected than smaller streets. The promotion of an intensified land use mix does not lead to a high increase in the number of pedestrians who choose the involved route when traveling from/to the metro station, assuming fixed destination choice.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2418
Author(s):  
Ana María Arbeláez Vélez ◽  
Andrius Plepys

Shared mobility options, such as car sharing, are often claimed to be more sustainable, although evidence at an individual or city level may contradict these claims. This study aims to improve understanding of the effects of car sharing on transport-related emissions at an individual and city level. This is done by quantifying the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the travel habits of individuals before and after engaging with car sharing. The analysis uses a well-to-wheel (WTW) approach, including both business-to-consumer (B2C) and peer-to-peer (P2P) car-sharing fleets. Changes in GHG emissions after engaging in car sharing vary among individuals. Transport-related GHG emissions caused by car-free individuals tend to increase after they engage in car sharing, while emissions caused by previous car owners tend to fall. At the city level, GHG emissions savings can be achieved by using more efficient cars in sharing systems and by implementing greener mobility policies. Changes in travel habits might help to reduce GHG emissions, providing individuals migrate to low-carbon transport modes. The findings can be used to support the development and implementation of transport policies that deter car ownership and support shared mobility solutions that are integrated in city transport systems.


Oecologia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne S. Renner ◽  
Marie Sophie Graf ◽  
Zoe Hentschel ◽  
Helen Krause ◽  
Andreas Fleischmann

AbstractThe increase in managed honeybees (Apis mellifera) in many European cities has unknown effects on the densities of wild bees through competition. To investigate this, we monitored honeybees and non-honeybees from 01 April to 31 July 2019 and 2020 at 29 species of plants representing diverse taxonomic and floral-functional types in a large urban garden in the city of Munich in which the same plant species were cultivated in both years. No bee hives were present in the focal garden, and all bee hives in the adjacent area were closely monitored by interviewing the relevant bee keepers in both 2019 and 2020. Honeybee numbers were similar in April of both years, but increased from May to July 2020 compared to 2019. The higher densities correlated with a significant increase in shifts from wild bee to honeybee visits in May/June/July, while visitor spectra in April 2019 and 2020 remained the same. Most of the species that experienced a shift to honeybee visits in 2020 were visited mostly or exclusively for their nectar. There were no shifts towards increased wild bee visits in any species. These results from a flower-rich garden have implications for the discussion of whether urban bee keeping might negatively impact wild bees. We found clear support that high honeybee densities result in exploitative competition at numerous types of flowers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Athanasios Thanos Giannopoulos

AbstractThis paper is concerned with the assessment of future applications of CASE (Co-operative, Autonomous, Shared, and Electric) mobility—a term that is also taken to include the more traditionally known applications of ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems). It sets the objective of making such assessments more holistic and horizontal in nature because future CASE mobility applications will include many technologies and service concepts as an integrated whole serving specific mobility objective. Traditional evaluation methodologies will therefore have to be modified to account for this situation, and to this end, the paper focuses on assessing and adapting such “traditional” methodologies. It draws from the experience gained in Greece in the last decade when a substantial number of ITS applications were implemented and assessed, especially in the second largest urban area of the country, the city of Thessaloniki (part of the EU’s European Network of Living Labs). Four basic methodologies are selected: the use of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), focused interviews, the CMME (CASE Mobility Matrix Evaluation), and the use of safety audits before and after the CASE mobility application. For the first three, the paper suggests specific indicators and/or content. It also gives an example of the use of CMME based on a use case from Thessaloniki. The contents and recommendations of this paper provide a better understanding of the emerging situation as regards CASE mobility applications and point to the need for establishing a timely and comprehensive CASE mobility evaluation framework at both national and European levels, for future implementations.


2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey L. Kidder

Parkour is a new, and increasingly popular, sport in which individuals athletically and artistically negotiate obstacles found in the urban environment. In this article, I position parkour as a performance of masculinity involving spatial appropriation. Through ethnographic data I show how young men involved in the sport use the city (both the built environment and the people within it) as a structural resource for the construction and maintenance of gender identities. The focus of my research highlights the performance of gender as a spatialized process.


Author(s):  
И.Г. Федченко

В статье представлен обзор тематики выпускных квалификационных работ по градостроительству, представленных на Международный смотр-конкурс дипломных проектов архитектурных вузов, проводимый Межрегиональной общественной организацией содействия архитектурному образованию (МООСАО) в 2018 и 2019 годах. Проведенный анализ позволил сформулировать современные направления развития градостроительного знания по смысловым категориям проектов: технологические проекты; стратегические проекты различных уровней; проекты развития урбанизированных территорий; проекты уникальных тематик (освоение космоса, Арктики, концепции города будущего, проекты на территориях зарубежных государств). The article provides an overview of the topics of diploma works on urban planning submitted to the International Review Competition of architectural projects of university graduates held by the Interregional Public Organization for the Promotion of Architectural Education in 2018 and 2019. The analysis made it possible to formulate a generalization of topics into semantic categories: technological projects (technologies for urban planning, environmental-friendly planning, participatory design); strategic projects of various levels (the development of agglomerations and resettlement systems, strategies for the development of cities and historical centers, the modernization of transport systems, as well as projects to form the “nuclei” of economic growth); urban development projects (reconstruction of existing buildings, renovation of communal and warehouse areas of the city, development of disturbed territories, public space projects under the federal program “Formation of a comfortable urban environment”); projects of unique topics (space exploration, the Arctic, the concept of the city of the future, projects in foreign countries).


1980 ◽  
Vol 10 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 9-12
Author(s):  
Donald J. Cosentino

The question immediately suggests itself: what constitutes a major American city? Subjectively, but with a long side glance at Jane Jacobs, I would define such a metropolitan area by several attributes. One obviously is population density, though the actual number of people that make up the city is less important than the diversity within the population that allows for a great diversity in culture. Major American cities are composed of many cultural, racial, and economic constituencies coexisting in a single polity. Thus, even though Peoria and San Francisco are dense population centers, one is a major farm town, and the other is a major city. This multiplicity of ethnic constituencies is reflected in a city’s educational, economic, religious, political, and cultural institutions which are likewise fragmented, though interdependent. Such cities with enormous and highly diverse constituencies are likely to be more self-sufficient culturally, politically, and economically than other American towns. They supply their own news and publications, stage their own cultural events, concentrate more on their own political processes, and establish autonomous norms of behavior. In fact, what happens in these cities more often creates the news, the culture, the mores, and the politics for the rest of the land. A university operating in such a milieu is not just a light on the hill. It is a constituency within a mosaic of constituencies. It is linked to those other constituencies politically, socially, culturally, and economically, just by being where it is. It must frequently act on an ad hoc basis, responding to requests and solicitations that are sometimes immediate, and sometimes imperative. The parameters of its actions are clearly traceable in the mosaic of relationships which describe the city. It is not as free as the state university in the college town to define its own program, but by its existential commitment to its locale it draws whatever important qualities it will have for itself, for its community, and for the nation.


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