scholarly journals Circular Economy and the Role of Universities in Urban Regeneration: The Case of Ortigia, Syracuse

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 4305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefania De Medici ◽  
Patrizia Riganti ◽  
Serena Viola

Regeneration processes activate stable regimes of interaction and interdependence among the architectural, economic, cultural and social sub-systems in settlements. The thesis of this paper is that in order to progress towards sustainable and inclusive cities, urban governance should widen the decision-making arena, promoting virtuous circular dynamics based on knowledge transfer, strategic decision making and stakeholders’ engagement. The historic urban landscape is a privileged la b for this purpose. The paper adapts the Triple-Helix model of knowledge-industry-government relationships to interpret the unexpected regimes of interaction between Local Authority and Cultural Heritage Assets triggered in the late 90es by the establishment of a knowledge provider such as a Faculty of Architecture in the highly degraded heritage context of the city of Syracuse, Italy. Following this approach, the authors explain the urban regeneration happened over the last 20 years in the port city of Syracuse, based on knowledge sharing and resources’ protection that promoted processes of social engagement and institutional empowerment for both new residents and entrepreneurs.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kudzai Furusa

<p>Porirua is tucked alongside a beautiful harbour and a rugged coastline. The city offers natural beauty and peaceful surroundings which are matched with a vibrant culture and the youngest demographic in the country. Unfortunately, the cultural diversity is not represented in the architecture of the city, the harbour is polluted and underutilised. Porirua Harbour is not incorporated in the city’s urban design which has led to it being overlooked. This thesis proposes interventions to revitalise the harbour, focusing on bringing people back to the neglected area and expanding social engagement. The proposition highlights the role of Interior Designers in the urban landscape of Porirua and aims to uncover the rich history of the city. Urban Interior techniques and strategies are explored in an attempt to celebrate the local history and empower communities through design. The historical narrative acknowledges the importance of past events and their impact on communities in Porirua and aims to redesign for the future. The interior as a site has offered many opportunities for artists and designers to challenge how we inhabit and change architecture.Research involved consideration into urban interior spaces and sensorial qualities, to create a spatial experience that connects people with the past whilst addressing a contemporary setting.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kudzai Furusa

<p>Porirua is tucked alongside a beautiful harbour and a rugged coastline. The city offers natural beauty and peaceful surroundings which are matched with a vibrant culture and the youngest demographic in the country. Unfortunately, the cultural diversity is not represented in the architecture of the city, the harbour is polluted and underutilised. Porirua Harbour is not incorporated in the city’s urban design which has led to it being overlooked. This thesis proposes interventions to revitalise the harbour, focusing on bringing people back to the neglected area and expanding social engagement. The proposition highlights the role of Interior Designers in the urban landscape of Porirua and aims to uncover the rich history of the city. Urban Interior techniques and strategies are explored in an attempt to celebrate the local history and empower communities through design. The historical narrative acknowledges the importance of past events and their impact on communities in Porirua and aims to redesign for the future. The interior as a site has offered many opportunities for artists and designers to challenge how we inhabit and change architecture.Research involved consideration into urban interior spaces and sensorial qualities, to create a spatial experience that connects people with the past whilst addressing a contemporary setting.</p>


2021 ◽  
pp. 0739456X2199466
Author(s):  
Siu Wai Wong ◽  
Xingguang Chen ◽  
Bo-sin Tang ◽  
Jinlong Liu

A key theme in urban governance research is how neoliberalism reshapes the state–society relationship. Our study on Guangzhou, where urban regeneration through massive redevelopment of “villages-in-the-city” uncovered interactions between the state, market, and community in local governance, contributes to this debate. Based on intensive field research to analyze three projects, we find that what really controls neoliberal growth in China is not simply the authoritarian tradition of the socialist state but also the power of the indigenous village communities. Our findings suggest that state intervention for community building is vital for rebalancing power relations between the state, market, and community.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5033
Author(s):  
Linda Novosadová ◽  
Wim van der Knaap

The present research offers an exploration into the biophilic approach and the role of its agents in urban planning in questions of building a green, resilient urban environment. Biophilia, the innate need of humans to connect with nature, coined by Edgar O. Wilson in 1984, is a concept that has been used in urban governance through institutions, agents’ behaviours, activities and systems to make the environment nature-inclusive. Therefore, it leads to green, resilient environments and to making cities more sustainable. Due to an increasing population, space within and around cities keeps on being urbanised, replacing natural land cover with concrete surfaces. These changes to land use influence and stress the environment, its components, and consequently impact the overall resilience of the space. To understand the interactions and address the adverse impacts these changes might have, it is necessary to identify and define the environment’s components: the institutions, systems, and agents. This paper exemplifies the biophilic approach through a case study in the city of Birmingham, United Kingdom and its biophilic agents. Using the categorisation of agents, the data obtained through in-situ interviews with local professionals provided details on the agent fabric and their dynamics with the other two environments’ components within the climate resilience framework. The qualitative analysis demonstrates the ways biophilic agents act upon and interact within the environment in the realm of urban planning and influence building a climate-resilient city. Their activities range from small-scale community projects for improving their neighbourhood to public administration programs focusing on regenerating and regreening the city. From individuals advocating for and educating on biophilic approach, to private organisations challenging the business-as-usual regulations, it appeared that in Birmingham the biophilic approach has found its representatives in every agent category. Overall, the activities they perform in the environment define their role in building resilience. Nonetheless, the role of biophilic agents appears to be one of the major challengers to the urban design’s status quo and the business-as-usual of urban governance. Researching the environment, focused on agents and their behaviour and activities based on nature as inspiration in addressing climate change on a city level, is an opposite approach to searching and addressing the negative impacts of human activity on the environment. This focus can provide visibility of the local human activities that enhance resilience, while these are becoming a valuable input to city governance and planning, with the potential of scaling it up to other cities and on to regional, national, and global levels.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (58) ◽  
pp. 147-157
Author(s):  
Александр Игоревич Черкасов

This article deals with the institute of mayor and his interaction with municipal councils in the countries of Eastern Europe. The author points out that the mayor personifies the whole urban governance mechanism and acts as an arbitrator in the struggle of various interests coming into confrontation at the level of a modern city. The article contains analyses of the trend towards “presidentialization” of the local political system and decollectivization of the decision making process at the municipal level common for many modern cities. On the basis of popular support and expectations the mayor begins to increasingly squeeze positions of local councils in the municipal mechanism. Direct mayoral elections are becoming more common and increase the independence of the head of local administration from political parties and slightly reduce the role of the latter in the decision making process


2021 ◽  
pp. 147612702110468
Author(s):  
James D Westphal ◽  
David H Zhu ◽  
Rajyalakshmi Kunapuli

We examine the symbolic management of participative strategic decision-making programs that purportedly use crowdsourcing technology to solicit strategic input below the executive suite, but are often decoupled from actual strategic decision making. Specifically, top management may decide on a strategic option before soliciting input under the program. The first portion of our theoretical framework explains why disclosure of a participative strategic decision making program in communicating with security analysts is associated with more positive analyst appraisals, despite decoupling, and why the benefits of disclosure are amplified to the extent that leaders highlight the use of crowdsourcing technology in the program. The second portion of our framework addresses the antecedents of symbolic adoption. We suggest that firms are more likely to adopt and decouple a program when the CEO has a personal friendship tie to the CEO of another firm that has adopted and decoupled, especially following relatively negative analyst appraisals. Analysis of a unique dataset that includes longitudinal survey data from executives supported our predictions.


Author(s):  
Hung Viet NGO ◽  
◽  
Quan LE ◽  

The world’s population is forecasted of having 68% to be urban residents by 2050 while urbanization in the world continues to grow. Along with that phenomenon, there is a global trend towards the creation of smart cities in many countries. Looking at the overview of studies and reports on smart cities, it can be seen that the concept of “smart city” is not clearly defined. Information and communication technology have often been being recognized by the vast majority of agencies, authorities and people when thinking about smart city but the meaning of smart city goes beyond that. Smart city concept should come with the emphasizing on the role of social resources and smart urban governance in the management of urban issues. Therefore, the "smart city" label should refer to the capacity of smart people and smart officials who create smart urban governance solutions for urban problems. The autonomy in smart cities allows its members (whether individuals or the community in general) of the city to participate in governance and management of the city and become active users and that is the picture of e-democracy. E-democracy makes it easier for stakeholders to become more involved in government work and fosters effective governance by using the IT platform of smart city. This approach will be discussed more in this paper.


Author(s):  
Katherine Smith

This chapter explores self-policing of urban violence in Harpurhey, Manchester. Arguing that ethical decision-making is practiced regularly in the process of policing the actions and behaviours of others. The author addresses the questions of, what does self-policing in the city actually look like? How does one determine what one ‘ought’ to do in the face of illegal or unethical actions in this part of the city? It concludes by arguing that the act of judgment of the behaviours and actions of others, and the assessment of where, when and whether or not to draw upon the services of the state to fulfill the role of policing, suggest that self-policing is not simply an outcome of neoliberal ideologies of self-management, but is an ethical engagement with the quotidian aspects of everyday life on this Manchester social housing estate.


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