scholarly journals The London Spikes Controversy: Homelessness, Urban Securitisation and the Question of ‘Hostile Architecture’

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Petty
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Explanatory Framework ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Scrutiny ◽  
New Feature

This article examines an ostensibly new feature of the securitised urban landscape: ‘hostile architecture’. Following controversy in 2014 London over ‘anti-homeless spikes’– metal studs implanted at ground level designed to discourage the homeless from sleeping in otherwise unrestricted spaces – certain visible methods of environmental social control were temporarily subject to intense public scrutiny and debate. While contests over public and urban spaces are not new, the spikes controversy emerged in the context of broader socio-political and governmental shifts toward neoliberal arrangements. Using the spikes issue as a case study, I contextualise hostile architecture within these broader processes and in wider patterns of urban securitisation. The article then offers an explanatory framework for understanding the controversy itself. Ultimately the article questions whether the public backlash against the use of spikes indicates genuine resistance to patterns of urban securitisation or, counterintuitively, a broader public distaste for both the homeless and the mechanisms that regulate them. 

scholarly journals The Paradoxes in the Use of the Panopticon as a Theoretical Reference in Urban Video-surveillance Studies: A Case Study of a CCTV System of a Brazilian city

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (27) ◽  
pp. 144-161
Author(s):  
Iafet Leonardi Bricalli
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Surveillance Studies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Control Rooms

This article aims at introducing the relation between the use of CCTV systems in urban spaces and social control. More specifically, its purpose is to problematize and reaffirm the use of the theoretical background of the panopticon in order to interpret such a relation. In CCTV studies, as a consequence of literal interpretations, as well as the existence of a hegemony in ethnographic studies carried out in control rooms, the theoretical use of the panopticon is then questioned. In this article, based on an ethnographic study conducted in the public spaces surveilled by a CCTV system in a Brazilian city, it can be concluded that the effects of social control through surveillance are paradoxical. The indifferent way in which citizens deal with surveillance, or even the lack of awareness of it, imposes limits to the interpretation of the system as a tool of social control. Thus, the use of the panopticon becomes problematic. However, this research has shown how the presence of cameras in public spaces makes it conducive for a state of control in the form of a network whose project would be a mythical and homogeneous ordering of the spaces. The importance of the interpretation of Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon by Michel Foucault is then reaffirmed, that is, panopticism as a trend of normalization and moralization of the public spaces.

scholarly journals The Politics of Gendered Spatializations: A Study of Cityscapes in Manu Joseph’s Novels

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.S. Parvathi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Landscape ◽  
The Body ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
City Image ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Spatial Politics ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
The City

Burton Pike (1981) terms the cityscapes represented in literature as word-cities whose depiction captures the spatial significance evoked by the city-image and simultaneously, articulates the social psychology of its inhabitants (pp. 243). This intertwining of the social and the spatial animates the concept of spatiality, which informs the positionality of urban subjects, (be it the verticality of the city or the horizonality of the landscape) and determines their standpoint (Keith and Pile, 1993). The spatial politics underlying cityscapes, thus, determine the modes of social production of sexed corporeality. In turn, the body as a cultural product modifies and reinscribes the urban landscape according to its changing demographic needs. The dialectic relationship between the city and the bodies embedded in them orient familial, social, and sexual relations and inform the discursive practices underlying the division of urban spaces into public and private domains. The geographical and social positioning of the bodies within the paradigm of the public/private binary regulates the process of individuation of the bodies into subjects. The distinction between the public and the private is deeply rooted in spatial practices that isolate a private sphere of domestic, embodied activity from the putatively disembodied political, public sphere. Historically, women have been treated as private and embodied and the politics of the demarcated spaces are employed to control and limit women’s mobility. This gendered politics underlying the situating practices apropos public and private spaces inform the representations of space in literary texts. Manu Joseph’s novels, Serious Men (2010) and The Illicit Happiness of Other People (2012), are situated in the word-cities of Mumbai and Chennai respectively whose urban spaces are structured by such spatial practices underlying the politics of location. The paper attempts to problematize the nature of gendered spatializations informing the location of characters in Serious Men and The Illicit Happiness of Other People.

Transmedia Journalism and the City

2018 ◽  
pp. 147-161
Author(s):  
Renira Rampazzo Gambarato
Keyword(s):  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Participatory Culture ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Housing Crisis ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The City ◽  
Alternative Solutions

This chapter discusses the participatory flair of transmedia journalism within the concreteness of urban spaces by examining The Great British Property Scandal (TGBPS), a transmedia experience designed to inform and engage the public and offer alternative solutions to the long-standing housing crisis in the United Kingdom. The theoretical framework is centered on transmedia storytelling applied to journalism in the scope of urban spaces and participatory culture. The methodological approach of the case study is based on Gambarato's (2013) transmedia analytical model and applied to TGBPS to depict how transmedia strategies within urban spaces collaborated to influence social change. TGBPS is a pertinent example of transmedia journalism within the liquid society, integrating mobile technologies into daily processes with the potential for enhanced localness, customization, and mobility within the urban fabric.

Public Space, Common Space, and the Spaces In–Between: A Case Study of Philadelphia's LOVE Park

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 676-703
Author(s):  
Luke M. Cianciotto
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
General Public ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Public ◽  
Common Space ◽  
The Common

This study concerns the struggle for Philadelphia's LOVE Park, which involved the general public and its functionaries on one side and skateboarders on the other. This paper argues LOVE Park was one place composed of two distinct spaces: the public space the public engendered and the common space the skateboarders produced. This case demonstrates that public and common space must be understood as distinct, for they entail different understandings of publicly accessible space. Additionally, public and common spaces often exist simultaneously as “public–common spaces,” which emphasizes how they reciprocally shape one another. This sheds light on the emergence of “anti–common public space,” which is evident in LOVE Park's 2016 redesign. This concept considers how common spaces are increasingly negated in public spaces. The introduction of common space to the study of public spaces is significant as it allows for more nuanced understandings of transformations in the urban landscape.

Urban Landscape Quality Management and Monitoring

2018 ◽  
pp. 396-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Vaz de Freitas ◽  
Jorge Marques ◽  
Carlos Augusto Rodrigues ◽  
Cristina Sousa
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Landscape Management ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Landscape Quality

The issue of the landscape quality or, more precisely, of its goal was addressed in the European Landscape Convention in 2000 to guide the public authorities and the aspirations of the population concerning their characteristics. It also happens regarding the landscape management that leads the authors to a sustainable development preservation, orientating and conciliating the changes that result from the human interaction with the environment. For a research on urban landscapes management, it is proposed a methodological analysis to the case study of Porto (Portugal) with a historical approach to understand how the increasing pressure of tourism is manifested on its image. The main goal is to identify the quality of the landscape and guide its sustainability towards a constant monitoring of images perception.

Memory, Heritage and the Demolition of the Potsdam Garnisonkirche, 1968*

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 290-310
Author(s):  
Marcus Colla
Keyword(s):  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
Public Discussion ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Many ◽  
Number Of Individuals ◽  
The Church ◽  
Socialist Unity ◽  
The Way

Abstract In 1968, the ruling Socialist Unity Party demolished Potsdam’s Garnisonkirche (Garrison Church). This article analyses the way in which the demolition of the Garnisonkirche opened up a spectrum of reflections on the meaning of the Prussian and Nazi pasts in the GDR and the ways it ought to be mediated through the urban landscape. Using petitions sent by everyday citizens to the local political authorities as well as debates within the SED itself, this article demonstrates how the public discussion about the demolition of the church navigated the many problems posed by Potsdam’s ‘burdened’ past in its urban spaces. While a number of individuals believed that this history could be transcended through the construction of a ‘new’ Potsdam, others believed that effectively handling the recent past required a direct confrontation with its architectural symbols.

Urban Landscape Quality Management and Monitoring

2019 ◽  
pp. 323-341
Author(s):  
Isabel Vaz de Freitas ◽  
Jorge Marques ◽  
Carlos Augusto Rodrigues ◽  
Cristina Sousa
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Landscape Management ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Landscape Quality

The issue of the landscape quality or, more precisely, of its goal was addressed in the European Landscape Convention in 2000 to guide the public authorities and the aspirations of the population concerning their characteristics. It also happens regarding the landscape management that leads the authors to a sustainable development preservation, orientating and conciliating the changes that result from the human interaction with the environment. For a research on urban landscapes management, it is proposed a methodological analysis to the case study of Porto (Portugal) with a historical approach to understand how the increasing pressure of tourism is manifested on its image. The main goal is to identify the quality of the landscape and guide its sustainability towards a constant monitoring of images perception.

Destination central district: the representation of the conflict

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Damián Macías Rodríguez ◽  
Blanca Del Espino Hidalgo ◽  
María Teresa Pérez Cano
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Central District ◽  
Initial Framework

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to represent the conflict of touristification in the central district of Seville to evaluate the dimension of the problem. Therefore, it focuses on the diagnostic representation of the conflict between citizens and tourists, to help define the coexistence of opposing interests and to bring solutions in favour of a liveable urban landscape. Design/methodology/approach The research has implied a detailed analysis beyond the observation of data and statistics, which facilitated a complex diagnosis for decision-making. This has led to consider as an initial framework the main tourist resources, official agreements and civil manifestations regarding touristification. Then, factors of tourist density and one in-depth case study of changes in use have been mapped. Findings First, an analysis of the urban spaces affected by the tourist dynamics following the degree of habitability of the resident citizens has been led. Second, of the conflict resulting from a relationship between economic activities, the attractiveness of the urban landscape and the tourist use of the space has been mapped. Originality/value Through the study of the central district of a city of great heritage value where conflicts begin to occur as a result of tourism, it is intended to contribute to the development of the spatial syntax of the tourist conflict, what could lead to improve responsible urban and social city policies.

“They had already sold”: Uncovering relations among the local state, the market and the public in the case of municipal housing privatization, in Rosengård, Sweden

2021 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2110530
Author(s):  
Jennie Gustafsson
Keyword(s):  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Local State ◽  
Economic Literature ◽  
The Public ◽  
Housing Privatization ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Historical Function ◽  
Municipal Housing

This paper uncovers the local state's complex intersections with the market and its multifaceted relations with the public through an in-depth qualitative case study of municipal housing privatization and urban renewal in one of the heartlands of the Swedish welfare state project, Rosengård in Malmö, Sweden. Drawing on the political-economic literature, I argue that housing privatization is entangled with complex interrelations among the (municipal) local state, the market, and the public and that an exploration of these relations reveals contemporary features of the local state. Hence, this investigation highlights the local state's motivation for privatization, the remaking of a market in a place where the market is believed to have failed, and the powers the local state retains. Additionally, the paper elucidates how the function of public assets changes due to privatization and considers tenants’ and residents’ worries, criticism, and concerns about municipal interventions. Subsequently, by grounding these findings in the historical function of municipalities in Sweden, the study contributes new knowledge on the local state in a deepened neoliberalized and financialized urban landscape.

scholarly journals DIGITAL HISTORIC URBAN LANDSCAPE METHODOLOGY FOR HERITAGE IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF SINGAPORE

2017 ◽  
Vol IV-2/W2 ◽  
pp. 327-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Widodo ◽  
Y. C. Wong ◽  
F. Ismail
Keyword(s):  
Urban Landscape ◽  
End Users ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Cultural Learning ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Digital Platform ◽  
The Public ◽  
Digital Heritage ◽  
Individual Entity

Using the case study of Singapore’s existing heritage websites, this research will probe the circumstances of the emerging technology and practice of consuming heritage architecture on a digital platform. Despite the diverse objectives, technology is assumed to help deliver greater interpretation through the use of new and high technology emphasising experience and provide visual fidelity. However, the success is limited as technology is insufficient to provide the past from multiple perspectives. Currently, existing projects provide linear narratives developed through a top-down approach that assumes the end-users as an individual entity and limits heritage as a consumable product.<br><br> Through this research, we hope to uncover for better experience of digital heritage architecture where interpretation is an evolving ‘process’ that is participatory and contributory that allows public participation, together with effective presentation, cultural learning and embodiment, to enhance the end-users’ interpretation of digital heritage architecture.<br><br> Additionally, this research seeks to establish an inventory in the form of a digital platform that adopts the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) into the Singapore context to better and deepen the understandings of the public towards architectural as well as cultural heritage through an intercultural and intergenerational dialogue. Through HUL, this research hopes that it will better shape conservation strategies and urban planning.

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