scholarly journals Urban resilience czy krytyczne teorie zmiany? Spór wokół studiów miejskich na marginesie kryzysu pandemii

2020 ◽  
pp. 339-358
Author(s):  
Agata Skórzyńska
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
Cultural Activity ◽  
Urban Resilience ◽  
Urban Political Ecology ◽  
Critical Knowledge ◽  
A Current

The aim of the article is critical reconstruction of a current dispute in the field of urban studies. Recent dabates and polemics between researchers related to such approaches, as planetary urbanisation thesis, urban political ecology, assemblage urbanism, urban postcolonial studies and – last but not least – well known Los Angeles School – showed that the expieriencie of the urban cirisises is closely related to the search for the new knowledge and concepts, that can bring visons of change and sollutions. At stake is, however, the recognition that some theoretical proposals have the potential to develop critical knowledge, while others tend to become just new urban ideologies, attractive, but often reactive, ineffective or exclusive. The climate change, as well as recent pandemic crisis shows clearly that well-established theoretical criticism is just as nessecary as cultural activity or political action, if urban studies are to continue to provide us with knowledge that responds to the challenges of the future. Theoretical disputes are sometimes just a „family war”, but they often show the most sensitive problems to which scientific knowledge must answer. Urban crisises in turn, as COVID-19 pandemic clearly shows – are often unexpected pracitical tests of theories.

scholarly journals Kulturowa artykulacja nowych idei miejskich

2020 ◽  
pp. 321-338
Author(s):  
Ewa Rewers
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Urban Political Ecology ◽  
Urban Theory ◽  
Cultural Approach ◽  
Political Economies ◽  
Critical Urban Theory ◽  
Cultural Turn

The way in which cultural approach operates though disciplines of knowledge and urban theories is a central theme of this article. If cultural approach in urban studies worked largely through cultural turn ideas in the end of 20th century, recently works through reinterpreted and expanded concept of culture as a structure/infractructure of urban life. Reflecting the crisis of cultural turn in urban theory in 21st century some authors and disciplines became more interested in the study of the urban political economies, urban political ecology and critical urban theory. Research seeking to explore recent urban crisis as a result of climate changes, growing social inequality and lack of solidarity in global scale has unsurprisingly been diverse and varied. Analitically this moment is compelling because it emphasizes the weakness of cultural factors in the process of articulation of a new urban ideas. This, however, raises a question with respect to much of the most visible results of urban studies and urban theory: are its proponents inclined to accept again the offer of cultural oriented urban studies in terms of cultural materialism, eco-criticism, eco-philosophy, ethics and aesthetics? Are they ready to rethink the relationship between economic and extraeconomic causality in the conditions of global multilevel crisis? This article is therefore primarily a theoretical attempt to articulate how urban theory might be moulded by global urbanisation in crisis.

Introduction: Rethinking Urbanism from the South

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Garth Myers
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
Chicago School ◽  
Research Network ◽  
Edouard Glissant ◽  
Global Connections ◽  
Key Terms ◽  
American Cities ◽  
Comparative Urbanism

The introduction situates the exploration that ensues in the six chapters by outlining the parameters of how the discussions and debates in urban studies about global connections and circuits of urbanization emerged and evolved over the last half-century or so. It defines the four key terms of the book title (urbanism, rethinking, postcolonialism and the Global South). Approaches to global urban studies via the Chicago School, Globalization-and-World-Cities Research Network, the Los Angeles School, Henri Lefebvre, and planetary urbanization are explored. It then discusses the considerable critique and vast opening of comparative urbanism that arose out of postcolonial studies and southern theory, challenging universal understandings emanating from European and North American cities. The challenges of working toward a southern and postcolonial global urban studies are highlighted, and the work of Edouard Glissant is introduced.

Resistance is in the air: From post-politics to the politics of expertise

2021 ◽  
pp. 239965442110341
Author(s):  
Nicola da Schio ◽  
Bas van Heur
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Public Knowledge ◽  
Societal Actors ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Knowledge Dynamics

Knowledge about air pollution is key, both to contest the status quo and to propose a different environmental imaginary as to how urban reality should be. Empirically, this paper focuses on Brussels and its history of air pollution contestation over the last fifty years, in order to trace how knowledge dynamics shape the politics of air. Theoretically, the paper offers a critical reading of the ‘post-political city’ literature that has been omnipresent in urban studies, human geography and political ecology over the last decades, in order to offer a more sophisticated theorization of expertise and knowledge. The paper offers at least three key insights. First, lay as well as public knowledge is of key importance in making air pollution manifest as a matter of concern. Making a perceived problem visible to a wider public in itself can be transformative and can pressure governments to respond, albeit rarely adequately. Second, the use of scientific knowledge by social movements and civil society plays a central role in contesting established priorities and in developing counter strategies, often alternating lay knowledge and more formal scientific knowledge in the process. At the same time, scientific knowledge and other forms of specialized expertise also play an important role in solidifying existing hierarchies of authority. Third, our analysis points to the centrality of the state as an arena for political action and to the importance of a politics of shifting blame and responsibility onto other layers of government or other societal actors.

scholarly journals Theorizing Public Participation and Local Governance in Urban Resilience: Reflections on the “Provincializing Urban Political Ecology” Thesis

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 10307
Author(s):  
Chihsin Chiu
Keyword(s):  
Public Participation ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Urban Resilience ◽  
Urban Political Ecology ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Corporate Elites

Urban political ecology (UPE) infuses Marxism with poststructuralism and constructivism to explore the dialectic relationship between nature and society in urban environments as well as the economic aspect of an urban socioecological system. Nevertheless, the literature on southern urbanism has urged UPE to become more “provincialized” to reflect the diffuse forms of power and everyday governance influencing the planning of cities in the Global South. This article reviews and reflects on this wave of debates raised by critics who have positioned postcolonial thinking as an alternative to Marxist political economy, in which UPE is rooted. It also identifies those works that might help provincialize UPE differently. Without rejecting the Marxism, another set of approaches draws influence from the strategic-relational approach (SRA) to examine environmental issues in ways that destabilize conventionally economic determinist UPE. In addition to involving corporate elites and city officials, a UPE framework incorporating the SRA is capable of bringing the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community leaders, and environmentalists in everyday governance to the front. The article contends that the latter framework adds weight on public participation and local governance in different geopolitical contexts without losing sight of the social inequalities caused by state-led or privatized programs in the quest for urban resilience.

scholarly journals Urban political ecologies of housing and climate change: The ‘Coolest Block’ Contest in Philadelphia

Urban Studies ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 1126-1141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gareth A S Edwards ◽  
Harriet Bulkeley
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Urban Political Ecology ◽  
Address Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Objectives ◽  
Emergent Literature ◽  
Political Ecologies ◽  
The City

Urban authorities and a range of private and civil society actors have come to view housing as a key arena in which to address climate change whilst also pursuing wider social, economic and environmental objectives. Housing has been a critical area for urban studies, but often considered in sectoral terms and work on urban responses to climate change has followed this positioning. By contrast, an Urban Political Ecology (UPE) perspective would position housing in more integrated terms as part of the metabolism of the city. Yet so far there has been relatively little written in UPE about either housing or climate change. This paper therefore seeks to bring UPE into dialogue with the emergent literature focused on governing climate change through housing. It does so through a detailed study of the ‘Retrofit Philly “Coolest Block” Contest’. We argue that this contest highlights the ways climate change is changing the way housing is embedded in the circulations of the city, pointing to changes in who is governing housing, how housing is being governed and who is able to access the benefits of (climate change-branded) action on housing.

Conceptualizing the Political Ecology of Urban Infrastructures: Insights from Technology and Urban Studies

10.1068/a4145 ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 1924-1942 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jochen Monstadt
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Ecological Sustainability ◽  
The Political ◽  
Crucial Importance ◽  
Urban Political Ecology ◽  
Environmental Practices ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Analytical Approaches

The debate on urban sustainability has now been on the research agenda for a number of years. One element that has, however, been undertheorized and empirically understudied is the crucial importance of networked urban infrastructures for the ecological sustainability of cities. These infrastructures mediate resource flows and vitally shape environmental practices and sociotechnical innovation in cities. It is thus argued that we need adequate conceptual approaches which reflect the complex interdependencies between cities, networked infrastructures, and urban ecologies and which broaden our understanding of the ways we can develop, govern, and renew our infrastructures in cities in a sustainable way. Scrutinizing the relevant debates both in technology studies and in urban studies, the author reveals that none of the theoretical approaches discussed seems entirely suitable for conceptualizing these interdependencies and the requirements for the sustainable redesign of urban infrastructures. The author shows, however, how urban and technology studies might inspire, complement, and benefit each other in conceptualizing the urban political ecology of networked infrastructures. Combining elements of the different analytical approaches, it is argued, could create new opportunities for the empirical study of infrastructures.

scholarly journals Who defines 'whole': an urban political ecology of flood control and community relocation in Houston, Texas

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 951 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin A. Lynn
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Flood Control ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Public Agencies ◽  
Urban Political Ecology ◽  
Potential Health ◽  
Public Agency ◽  
The Us ◽  
Flood Control Infrastructure

Abstract Even if public agencies sponsoring projects like flood alleviation have the best of intentions for relocated households, there may still be residents who do not agree with being forced to move. Federal relocation policy in the US has been, and continues to be, concerned primarily with housing economics and financial compensation. And yet, residents subject to relocation continue to express other concerns. The public agency responsible for relocation from flood-prone Kashmere Gardens in Houston, TX has promised to make households 'whole' in terms of finding new housing that is no more expensive (in terms of rent, mortgage payments, and equity) than vacated homes. While these considerations are important, this article illustrates how public agencies need to expand how they define 'whole.' Interviews with 53 households affected directly or indirectly by relocation show that the following factors need consideration when subjecting households to involuntary relocation: (1) suitability of new housing, (2) perceived competence of relocation specialists, (3) the relocation planning process, and (4) potential health issues for relocated households. Key Words: Kashmere Gardens, Houston, Uniform Relocation Act (URA), flood control infrastructure, urban political ecology

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