scholarly journals Exemplary Amateurism: Thoughts on DIY Urbanism

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Deslandes
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
North American ◽  
Community Building ◽  
Commercial Buildings ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Do It Yourself ◽  
Australian English ◽  
American Cities ◽  
The City

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) urbanism has become increasingly recognised as a non-professional and non-technocratic practice of urban alteration and community building. Already thus marked as ‘amateur’ in the contemporary sense (where the lines between amateur, professional, producer and consumer are significantly blurred), two of its key features are support for ‘proam’ cultural production and the ‘meanwhile’ use of commercial buildings. Within this, DIY urbanism is an important reference to economic and spatial scarcity in the Australian, English and North American cities where it has manifested as a discourse. The reference is particularly evident in the proximity to marginal urban space that participants in DIY urbanism share with other potential users of that space, which includes people experiencing primary homelessness. It is through this proximity that DIY urbanism works as a kind of ‘exemplary amateurism’. DIY urbanism demonstrates spatial scarcity in the city — a phenomenon in which amateur labour, 'meanwhile' use of buildings and homelessness are implicated.

Visual Arts, Representations and Interventions in Contemporary China

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Cultural Activism ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The City

This edited volume provides a multifaceted investigation of the dynamic interrelations between visual arts and urbanization in contemporary Mainland China with a focus on unseen representations and urban interventions brought about by the transformations of the urban space and the various problems associated with it. Through a wide range of illuminating case studies, the authors demonstrate how innovative artistic and creative practices initiated by various stakeholders not only raise critical awareness on socio-political issues of Chinese urbanization but also actively reshape the urban living spaces. The formation of new collaborations, agencies, aesthetics and cultural production sites facilitate diverse forms of cultural activism as they challenge the dominant ways of interpreting social changes and encourage civic participation in the production of alternative meanings in and of the city. Their significance lies in their potential to question current values and power structures as well as to foster new subjectivities for disparate individuals and social groups.

scholarly journals ‘What Difference does it Make? Women's Pop Cultural Production and Consumption in Manchester’

2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Richards ◽  
Katie Milestone
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Consumption Patterns ◽  
Cultural Industries ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Gender Characteristics ◽  
Gender Power ◽  
The City ◽  
Experiences Of Women

This paper explores the experiences of women in small cultural businesses and is based upon interviews with women working in a range of contexts in Manchester's popular music sector. The research seeks to promote wider consideration of women's roles in cultural production and consumption. We argue that it is necessary that experiences of production and consumption be understood as inter-related processes. Each part of this process is imbued with particular gender characteristics that can serve to reinforce existing patterns and hierarchies. We explore the ways in which female leisure and consumption patterns have been marginalised and how this in turn shapes cultural production. This process influences career choices but it is also reinforced through the integration of consumption into the cultural workplace. Practices often associated with the sector, such as the blurring of work and leisure and ‘networking’, appear to be understood and operated in significantly different ways by women. As cultural industries such as popular music are predicated upon the colonisation of urban space we explore the use of the city and the particular character of Manchester's music scene. We conclude that, despite the existence of highly contingent and individualised identities, significant gender power relations remain evident. These are particularly clear in discussion of the performative and sexualised aspects of the job.

scholarly journals HETERO-TEXTUALITY AND CO-SPATIALITY: FROM THE SEMIOTICS OF THE CITY TO THE TRANS-SEMIOTICS OF THE POST-CITY

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-79
Author(s):  
Dmitry N. Zamyatin ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
General Context ◽  
Research Material ◽  
Single Text ◽  
Urban Narratives ◽  
Key Features ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The City

Literary texts can be considered as the most attractive research material for analyzing the key features of both the semiotics of the city as a whole and the semiotics of individual cities, to which many works of art are devoted. The urban space of Modernity as a result of the processes of powerful semiotization can be considered as both textual and intertextual. The intertextuality of Modern urban spaces presupposes sets of “floating” topological signifiers corresponding to similar sets of “floating” topological signs. In the traditional semiotics of the city, the existence of two realities is assumed — the “real” reality and the “semiotic” reality, between which clear logical correspondences and/or relations can be observed and analyzed. The appearance of non-classical/post-classical urban narratives focused on the problems of dis-communication at the beginning of the 20th century became one of the important signs of the primary formation of the post-city and post-urbanism phenomena. The post-city is not a text and can not be regarded as a text; at the same time, it can generate separate texts that are not related to each other in any way. Post-urban texts, which are the communicative results of specific co-spatialities, remain local “flashes” that do not form a single text or meta-text (super-text). Hetero-textuality is a phenomenon of post-urban reality, which is characterized by the coexistence, as a rule, of texts that do not correlate with each other, relating to certain stable urban loci. Trans-semiotics in general context is understood as the study of any texts that involve the creation of sign-symbolic breaks or “gaps” with any other potentially possible correlating texts in the process of signification. Trans-semiotics of post-cities are studies of (literary) texts that involve the creation of sign-symbolic breaks or “gaps” with any other potentially possible correlating texts related to a particular urban locus in the process of signifying any urban loci. The post-city heterostructuality can be considered as the co-spatiality of mutually exclusive texts corresponding to “non-seeing” post-city loci. Post-urban trans-semiotics in the course of their development form a kind of “dark zones” that reject or neutralize any attempt at any semiotic interpretation.

scholarly journals Urban Phenomena in São Paulo’s Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Appropriating Local Spatio-Temporalities

Tempo Social ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-69
Author(s):  
Sebastian Dorsch
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
Relational Analysis ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
American Cities ◽  
The City

The article seeks to investigate urban phenomena in São Paulo’s 19th and 20th centuries by utilizing Henri Lefebvre’s concept of appropriation. Thus I focus on the relations between urban space(s) and its inhabitants, and the analysis of the city – usually perceived as space – becomes a spatio-temporal and relational analysis regarding dynamic practices, conflicts, etc. understood as urban phenomena. How did the inhabitants appropriate São Paulo? May we state special forms by comparing it to other Latin American cities of former times? How did the migrants arriving at the end of 19th century change old forms of living in the city? I conclude with remarks and critics on the potential of using the concept of appropriation in urban studies.

Planning for Women and other Disenabled Groups, with Reference to the Provision of Public Toilets in Britain

1996 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 573-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
C H Greed
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
North American ◽  
Organisational Context ◽  
Urban Structures ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
Governmental Support ◽  
Alternative Approaches ◽  
The City ◽  
Public Toilets

In this paper the reasons why it is proving so difficult to implement enabling policies to make urban space more accessible for women and other disenabled groups, with particular reference to the provision of public toilets in Britain, are investigated. Toilet provision is described, and factors are identified which have contributed to the situation, with reference to the governmental, professional, and organisational context. Alternative approaches to implementation are considered and examples are drawn from North American zoning-based systems. Although land-use zoning has a reputation for being socially divisive it is argued that zoning ordinance systems can be used constructively as a means of achieving social provision such as toilet facilities. It is concluded that, although it is important to solve existing problems by modifying existing urban structures, a more radical reconceptualisation of the city is needed to meet the needs of the majority of its users. To achieve this there is a need for a change in the subcultural values of the decisionmakers and for governmental support.

scholarly journals Clarence Street, Ottawa: Contemporary Change in an Inner City 'Zone of Discard'

2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
John E. Tunbridge
Keyword(s):  
Inner City ◽  
North American ◽  
Functional Change ◽  
Total Change ◽  
Socioeconomic Environment ◽  
Central Thesis ◽  
American Cities ◽  
The City ◽  
Town Area

The principal focus of early Bytown, before it became the City of Ottawa and the capital of Canada, was the area now known as Lower Town. The elevation of the city's status led to a refocussing of development in the Centre Town area, south of Parliament, and Lower Town ultimately subsided into a classic 'zone of discard.' In recent years, such zones of discard in many North American cities have experienced a considerable renaissance, since they typically possess the oldest buildings remaining in the city and, as such major resources. This paper examines the evolution of Clarence Street, and puts its contemporary change into perspective; the focus is primarily upon the commercial section of the street. The central thesis to emerge from the paper is that the functional change now occurring in such revitalizing 'discard' areas does not necessarily imply a total change in their socioeconomic environment, and in particular their pattern of socioeconomic control.

scholarly journals Creation of an Early Victorian Suburb in Montreal

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
David B. Hanna
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
North American ◽  
Homogeneous Group ◽  
The North ◽  
New Development ◽  
Housing Boom ◽  
British North American ◽  
American Cities ◽  
The City ◽  
Sufficient Strength

Montreal's "terrace townscape" emerged in the 1850s and 1860s and has since disappeared. It represented a conjuncture of forces peculiar to Montreal among British North American cities. The terrace — the uniting of a homogeneous group of attached houses behind a single monumental facade — concentrated on a plateau, between the older city to the south and the high-prestige homes on the slope to the north. Such housing flowed, in one sense, from the speculative development of wealthy landowners. The developnent was driven by the growth of the city and the concurrent housing boom of the 1850s and 1860s, coupled with the desire of the better classes to move from the noisome, dangerous and constricted older areas. Improvements in the urban infra-structure, especially the construction of water-works, made new development on higher lands feasible. The "terrace" form or fashion also derived from an architecturally and socially acceptable formula, rooted in British precedents, especially those of prestigious London. It was, finally, a form or fashion that was "indubitably linked with a strong upper middle class sector of the population" found only in administrative and commercial cities, and in British North Anerica found only in sufficient strength in Montreal.

scholarly journals Greening education: challenges and prospects of implementing green roofs ACROSS TORONTO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pegah Abhari
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Boards ◽  
North American ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Green Roofs ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Green Education ◽  
American Cities ◽  
The City

Green roofs have been recognized as an important climate change adaptation and mitigation tool across North American Cities. As such, the City of Toronto sought regulation and incentives to encourage the adoption of green roofs across new developments and building additions, becoming the first North American City to establish mandatory legislation. While the policy has been mainly successful, Toronto School Boards have struggled to adhere to regulations. This paper seeks to identify the barriers that Toronto School Boards face in green roof implementation by undertaking an analysis of available data, resources, and literature. It also assesses the role of federal, provincial and municipal governments in alleviating barriers, providing recommendations on how they may be addressed. The aim of such research is to guide other Ontario municipalities who may look to Toronto when developing similar legislation, as the province moves to expand this permission to all municipalities. Key words: green infrastructure; green roofs; Toronto School Boards; green education

Creative cities and the reflexivity of the urban creative economy

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim Thiel
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Urban Society ◽  
Creative Economy ◽  
Creative Cities ◽  
Creative City ◽  
The One ◽  
The City

The paper addresses the abundant literature on the creative city that has been generated following publication in 2002 of Richard Florida’s work on the creative class. In particular, it is maintained that the discussion should be based more on a robust social economic analysis of urban economies. The paper starts with a brief review of the polarized debate on the creative city in which either the optimist obsession with a new growth sector is stressed or there is a focus of attention on its negative impact on urban society. Building on the idea of cultural production as a reflexive economic activity and on three empirical vignettes about how culture, the economy and the city interact, it argues that cultural production is an adaptable activity which is, however, permanently forced into a state of adaptation. Urban space and society have an ambivalent role here. On the one hand, the city offers adaptability: on the other hand, however, because this is the case, it fosters the need for permanent adaptation.

scholarly journals Production, Creative Firms and Urban Space in Shanghai

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheng Zhong
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
New Economy ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Creative City ◽  
Questionnaire Surveys ◽  
The One ◽  
The City ◽  
Critical Resources

This paper examines the firms in Shanghai’s official “Creative Industry Clusters (CICs)”. It aims to contribute to the creative city debate by unveiling the relationships between the production of new economy firms and the reconstruction of urban space in the Chinese context. Based on questionnaire surveys conducted in 2009, the paper finds that Shanghai’s creative firms are new, small and flexible and this image conforms to the prototypical “creative firms” described in widely cited Western literature. The paper argues that Shanghai’s CICs represent a market- oriented, fluid, and risk-taking production culture that is a break from the city’s socialist past. However, Shanghai’s new economy spaces in the making are faced with many constraints and contradictions. On the one hand, although market and neoliberalized urban spaces are providing critical resources for firms to grow at a time of state retreat, they also imposes risks, such as career instability, confusion for creative talents and cost pressure for new firms. On the other hand, the state’s ideological control reinforces the market’s homogenizing effect on cultural production. Therefore, Shanghai’s trajectory toward greater innovation and creativity are far from guaranteed despite fast proliferation of creative clusters in the city in the past decade.

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