Aktivistinen kielimaisema: pilottitutkimus

Urban linguistic landscapes consist of various kinds of signs in different languages, together transmitting a myriad of messages to the people living in, visiting or passing through the city. Official authorities are the authors of some signs, e.g. street names and tourist information, while businesses operating on a local or global level are the authors of other signs, e.g. advertisements and information about opening hours. In addition, individual persons or groups of people give their input to the urban linguistic landscapes, e.g. by attaching a sticker to a bus stop or writing a slogan on a park bench. The current article explores this third, unofficial layer of the urban linguistic landscape, and the topics, discourses and ideologies it encompasses. Through a pilot study of the activist linguistic landscapes at two railway stations in Helsinki, the article discusses the methodological underpinnings of this kind of linguistic landscape research.

Dedicated business centers in public libraries

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not a dedicated business center within a public library acts as a key success factor in a public library’s services to the community entrepreneur. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey was sent to 88 public libraries with dedicated business centers, and posted to BRASS-L and BUSLIB-L, for input from public libraries without business centers. Interviews with three survey respondents and one local city official followed. Findings – Fifty-seven per cent of all respondents felt that a dedicated business center is very essential or essential to the services provided to the entrepreneurial community. The services most often offered were workshops/seminars/classes, counseling sessions by collaborative agencies and one-on-one research sessions with librarians. The majority of responding libraries collaborated with a community business agency (80 per cent). Fifty-one per cent spend between 6 and 20 hours/month on the collaboration. Research limitations/implications – Since 2007, many of the dedicated business centers in public libraries have closed or been consolidated with other sections and services of a public library. This should be further studied. Further research on librarian expertise in market and industry research is recommended. Originality/value – This study updates the business services associated with public libraries business services since the push in the late 1990s for public libraries to be more active in community economic development.

Urban Agriculture as Local Initiative in Lusaka, Zambia

The topic of urban agriculture has, for a significant period of time, been recognized as a key facet of urban survival in the cities in the South. While it normally forms part of multilivelihood strategies and its overall significance is the subject of some debate, it nonetheless is an important feature of both urban landscapes and urban survival. This paper examines the current status quo of urban agriculture in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. Structural adjustment and downscaling of the key copper mining sector seems to have forced more people into various informal survival strategies, including urban agriculture. Despite the apparent growing significance of urban agriculture, as illustrated by significant recent vegetation clearances around the city, official policy remains ambivalent and it has not been adequately supported or catered for in urban planning. While it remains officially illegal, controls are seldom enforced and urban farmers persist with what is a key household survival strategy under trying circumstances.

Planning versus administration: The Independent City Planning Commission in Cincinnati, 1918–1940

City planning has become such an acknowledged function of city government that today we tend to take the city planning commission for granted as a logical part of the city government. Pioneers in the city planning movement in the United States at the turn of the century, however, had yet to decide upon the proper vehicle for carrying out city planning. Although in the early years of the movement a variety of methods were tried, including private planning associations, planning conducted by a committee of city council, and city planning conducted by a single city official, the most common agency of planning to emerge out of this period was the city planning commission.

Dispersal and Choice: Towards a Strategy for Ethnic Minorities in Britain

Official policy supports the dispersal of coloured immigrants from inner city areas, but this orthodoxy has been challenged from a number of directions and an alternative strategy of ‘enrichment’ has been proposed. These two policies are discussed in the context of present patterns of dispersal and concentration in Britain, with especial emphasis placed on the factor of choice by members of the coloured minorities. While the majority will opt for the ‘comfortable solution’ in the inner city, official policy will have to maximise the opportunities for those who wish to move away.