Reading Victorian London : Henry Mayhew, 1812 - 1887, and London labour and the London poor, 1861-62
work, poverty, London Labour and the London Poor, literature, street, homeless, urban society, Mayhew Henry
'London Labour and the London Poor' (1861-62) is one of England's most remarkable nineteenth-century urban documents. Henry Mayhew, journalist, playwright and novelist, poured the best of his life's work into 'London Labour', and the earlier 'Morning Chronicle' newspaper articles (1849-51) on which it was largely based. 'London Labour' encapsulates his mature thought and energy, and public attention, and at its most concentrated, it encapsulates a single intellectual pattern, the examination of Victorian London's labouring poor seen through the communication and cultural prism of vernacular languages. And yet 'London Labour' remains strangely unrecognized even though there is a substantial body of scholarship focused on Mayhew's work, which I have examined. The challenge is to establish once again the theoretical power of Mayhew's vision of a Victorian society focused on urban relationships in the city. 'Reading Victorian London: Henry Mayhew' (1812-1887) and 'London Labour and the London Poor' (1861-62) considers how Victorian London was shaped; London's spatial organization within the limitations imposed by these structural determinations; and the patterning of group and class formations within this spatial domain. The communication issues of language--the increasingly secondary roles of the vernacular, the rise of modern reading communities, and the destruction or censorship of certain genres--are also examined. The pivotal issues of folk culture, the labouring poor described as wandering tribes in the midst of Victorian civilization, are also examined as well as the significance of nineteenth-century travel literature for understanding these important issues. Lastly, the literary issues surrounding 'London Labour' itself are also examined through the Menippean satire, which accounts for Mayhew's perplexing and sometimes violent juxtapositions of topics, genres, and attitudes. For Mayhew combined his philosophical and practical inquiries into the study of the street-folk's life, their entertainment, humour, and vernacular languages, Victorian socio-cultural history, adventure stories and travel literature, are combined in one literary genre, called the Menippean satire. I conclude that there is the need for a more adequate theory of modern cities such as Victorian London, its history and cultures, which could be widened if scholars and journalists seriously included Mayhew's 'London Labour and the London Poor' in their discussions.
Changes in the nature and governance of public spaces in the historic city centre : The case of Damascus
public space, city centre, historic centre, governance, urban planning
Public space is a component of our physical environment which has an important role in city life. This thesis is primarily about investigating public space and public realm in the historic city centre of Damascus in order to understand the potential for its improvement, and secondarily about recommending specific actions towards this. The research takes a qualitative approach focusing on public space as a ‘product’ which is the result of a process. In terms of the product, the nature, morphological and functional aspects of public spaces in Damascus are examined. The governance process is analysed at local level to define main actors, the rules they interact with and the rationalities they use to intervene in public space. This analysis includes locality-specific literature review and interviews with key informants. Such case study analysis is undertaken against the background of a survey of public space regeneration in selected cities around the Mediterranean. Public spaces in Damascus historically developed under strong endogenous social and cultural rules creating a hierarchy of ‘traditional’ spaces which supported public, parochial and private realms. In the contemporary period, these spaces have gone through modernisation in their governance process through introducing new actors and more formal rules, which have led to more ‘publicness’ and tension between tradition and modernisation. This has affected their nature as well as morphological and functional aspects. Analysis showed that strong centralised political and public sector control is found over the governance process through a top-down representative approach. Capacities, interests and perception of public spaces among actors, in addition to poor management, strict legislation and lack of qualified cadres, have all contributed to the continuing deteriorating situation of public spaces. Moreover, interventions for improvement occurred on a short-term basis and mainly to restore historical monuments and improve traffic. An integrated approach to upgrading open spaces is still needed on a long term basis, subject to the available financial resources, with wider governance arrangements and further collaboration and integration between different governmental bodies.
Beyond boundaries : A philosophical mapping of the pre-modern city of the Levant
Islamic city, Arab city, urban culture, urban space, philosophy, pre-modern city
Understanding the pre-modern Muslim-Arab city of the Levant within our embodied modern framework of reference and in the absence of classical texts explaining urban theory within its culture highlights epistemological differences, which endemically produce cultural projections and misrepresentations. Therefore, this dissertation provides a conceptual framework for comprehending the city through an intertwined process of examining key conceptual and historical aspects of the city from within its indigenous culture while, simultaneously, critiquing our modern frameworks for conceptualizing it as currently epitomized in French poststructuralist philosophy. The dissertation undertakes this project through the investigation of the foundational notion of structure and boundaries as defined by dichotomous epistemology in modern Western thinking and by complementary duality in traditional Muslim-Arab epistemology. It reconstitutes the discourse of the city according to these terms by arguing that the latter defines Muslim-Arab worldviews and culture including, most notably, the semantic and phonetic structure of Arabic words. Through an analysis of key architectural and urban terms within a culturally-specific hermeneutical framework, the dissertation shows that compositions of any structural unit as complementary dualities intermediated by liminal mechanisms in order to create a horizontal hierarchy of autonomy and interrelativity are at the basis of the particular concepts of identity, difference, and dimensionality which ground Muslim-Arab ontology. These concepts underlie the intertwined conceptual, spatial, and social orders of the city and frame its urban culture. In comparison to this framework, it demonstrates the limitations of Derrida‘s deconstructionist model of interplay of opposites in overcoming the structuralist, dichotomous, and essentialist notions in understanding the urban order. It also shows the inability of the Foucauldian power discourse on centrality and marginality to break away from its structuralist and dichotomous presuppositions. Finally, the dissertation exposes Deleuze‘s critique of identity and hierarchy as engendering the dichotomous thinking its author had endeavoured to escape. As an alternative, the dissertation proposes a framework indigenous to the Muslim-Arab city based on complementary dualities resulting in a hierarchy of diverse unity. This hierarchy is horizontal, polycentric, and relational relative to another vertical, centric, and metaphysical hierarchy. The meeting of both hierarchies occurs through human agency and defines moral spaces of freedom as the foundation of the cultural values and spatial order of the Muslim-Arab city.
Space wars and the new urban imperialism
getting around, mobility, property, governance, urban geography, street, urban space, social change, film, urban conflict, local management
The dissertation analyzes recent urban transformations through the lens of space wars. The main focus is on investment flows in the commercial property market, changes in urban governance and changes in social geography, and how these three aspects are related. Drawing on cross border investment data, archive studies, interviews with key actors and street walking experiences in Copenhagen, Lisbon and New York, the book offers insight into the "glocal" logic of urban imperialism and its tendency towards uneven development - fundamental forces that shape our cities in the 21st century. In Chapter One, I introduce the concepts of space wars and the new urban imperialism and present the research questions and methodological considerations. Chapter Two analyzes processes of globalization in property markets through an empirical investigation into the commercial property market of Copenhagen. Globalization of property markets is defined, a framework for analysis is presented and methodological problems are reported. The chapter aims to improve our understanding of globalization in the sphere of immobile property, and to show to what extent globalization (in this limited sense) has occurred in Copenhagen. In Chapter Three I analyze linkages between rescaling of commercial property markets and changes in urban governance in Lisbon. The chapter aims to further advance understanding of globalization in the sphere of immobile property, and its relation with shifts in urban governance. Cautious comparisons with Copenhagen are made. Chapter Four expands the analysis of Copenhagen as a globalizing city. Through the optic of the imagineering of Copenhagen as "creative city" - part of Copenhagen's competition with other cities - relations between globalization, urban governance and social geography are analyzed. The chapter problematizes what on the surface seems to be an unequivocally positive quality ("creative") and goal ("creativity"). Chapter Five employs the concept of the global-local nexus of space wars, forging links between highly localized processes of urban transformation, competition between cities and global movements of capital and people. It shows how mental and material boundaries as well as ethnicity and class are central elements in space wars. Through the example of Sydhavn, a rapidly changing part of Copenhagen, the chapter aims to illustrate how processes of material and social construction and transformation of urban space constitute urban space wars, engaging actors at all scales.The Epilogue serves as a supplement to my short film "Space wars: a street level odyssey through the centre of the American empire : New York City". The film offers a street level voyage through the urban topography of New York, centre of the American empire, showing how the rhythms of vagabond capitalism manifest themselves as space wars. At first glance, every day in the city seems an original performance, but underneath the surface, we find a myriad of rhythms that reveal traces of millennia of human cultures and histories. In urban centers throughout the globe we can observe contemporary modern society and the materialized topographies of different modes of time-space production. The film seeks to direct attention to, and stimulate discussion on issues of space wars at different scales and in different contexts.
Inhabiting the city : Citizenship and democracy in Caracas
citizenship, democracy, urban politics, ethnology, political sciences, urban space, participation, class
This dissertation, Inhabiting the City: Citizenship and Democracy in Caracas, asks how multiple modalities of citizenship arise in order to facilitate working-class and middle-class strategies to negotiate formal and informal structures of rights and obligations among individuals, local communities, and the nation-state. By examining mobile and locally fixed practices in multiple sites of Caracas, Venezuela, this work explores the ways that individuals assert claims to political and social rights that are bound to particular spaces of the city. Based on a year of ethnographic fieldwork in one middle-class and two working class communities, this dissertation explores the discursive formation of citizenships that are based on divergent conceptions of democracy. Although the notions of this mode of political organization are based on understandings of equality in the capital's working-class communities, many middle-class ideas are quite different. In more affluent communities, democratic ideals grounded in equality do not take into account popular notions of meritocracy that reinforce class hierarchy. Although many individuals in Caracas work to produce democratic spaces throughout the city, exclusions persist--and some go largely unnoticed. Finally, I argue that the modes of belonging that many residents employ to negotiate spaces of citizenship vary according to factors such as race, class, gender, age, and geographic location. By analyzing citizenship in a city space that is as divided as Caracas--especially along class lines--I argue that studies of citizenship require attention to cultural transformations that are tied to social, geographic, and political relationships in local spaces. To conceive of the citizen as an individual with ties to the nation-state is too broad a scope to begin understanding the nuances of social and political belonging that ensure active participation within contemporary societies.
The illusion of community participation : Experience in the irregular settlements of Bogotá
informal settlement, participation, participative democracy, community, social movement, urban policy, public service, infrastructure, local management
The study focuses on community participation among the poor of Bogotá, Colombia. It explores the changing relationships between poor communities, local politicians and the city government before and after the institutional reforms and changing approach to development that occurred during the 1990s. The case studies were conducted in six irregular settlements, all developed in contravention of the city’s planning regulations. Data were collected using a sample household survey and in-depth interviews with community leaders, local inhabitants and the representatives of outside organisations. In the 1990s, clientelistic practices became less effective to push the regularisation process. City programmes toward irregular settlements became more holistic and benefited from better coordination between the different public entities. As a result, the inhabitants became more discriminating in identifying the most effective strategies for obtaining the services and infrastructure that they required. Competent government intervention was ultimately the most important factor in furthering the regularisation process. However, regularisation could not be achieved without community participation. Community involvement was important both before and after a settlement was recognised. The community had to find the money to put down a deposit before the service agencies would install services. This required not only a minimum level of economic resources but also firm community leadership. The study also shows that apparently contradictory decisions made by the different communities were highly rational. Whether the inhabitants were willing to pay for services depended on the benefit they expected in return. Their criteria changed through the consolidation process because their most urgent needs changed. Today, after the pricing system of public services changed, access to services depends mostly on users’ purchasing power and not on the collective negotiation led by the JAC leaders. In the 1990s, under the new constitution with its laws protecting citizen’s rights, ‘participation’ of citizens in the political arena as well as their right to obtain basic services was clearly recognised. Under this legal framework, community participation gives the poor a voice with which they can present claims as well as criticise the negligence of public administration. However, the protests of the inhabitants against increased public service charges show that the community-based organisations sometimes still have reason, and the ability, to mobilise the local people as a final resort.
The colonial city and the challenge of modernity : Urban hegemonies and civic contestations in Bombay City, 1905-1925
urban history, urban society, colonial city, urban life, citizenship, social movement, modernity
This thesis is a social history of Bombay city in the first quarter of the twentieth century. It explores material changes in urban life consequent upon the impact of modernity and the varied range of contestations of the colonial order which they provoke. The first chapter outlines the specific nature of colonial modernism and shows its impact on the city's spatial forms and on its social relations. Representing a highly selective, power-driven, and essentially technological manipulation of modernity, it ensures distorted and differential outcomes within urban society. These conditions are considerably aggravated by the sudden impact of the First World War, the subject of the second chapter. The War increases material scarcities, worsens conditions of urban life, widens disparities between rich and poor, and intensifies colonial repression. At the same time, the crisis of war brings to the city the full potential of the revolution in communications which carries a modem discourse of civic rights. In the city, Homiman and sections of the bilingual urban intelligentsia rapidly vernacularize this discourse and diffuse it into new social contexts. This is perceived by the local colonial state as seriously threatening and subversive. The third chapter shows how Gandhi's anti-modernist rejection of the city leads to his attempts to control, and in some aspects reverse, this gathering urban momentum for an expansion in citizenship rights. The final chapter considers the new visions of urban citizenship expressed in the agitation for an expansion of civil and democratic rights, and in labour protest movements. This critical modernism looks to the future, rather than to the past, and acts as a force to humanise the city, presenting an alternative and potentially more radical challenge to the colonial state than the Gandhian movement.
Urban branding strategies and the emerging Arab cityscape : The image of the Gulf city
city branding, urban branding, urban landscape, urban planning, urban development, identity, image, Arab city
Since 1970, oil has given the Arab Gulf cities the opportunity to break regional and international records in urban development and economic growth, experiencing dramatic changes in the political, economic and socio-cultural domains, and especially in architecture and urbanism. The development of oil urbanization was shaped by the different practices of “Urban Branding” and city marketing processes. More important, "Urban branding" presents the duality of the emerging cityscape, in which the “perceived images” of the city as a tangible experience of the “urban landscape” interacts with the “brand image” of the city created by the media generated image or “urban Mediascape”, establishing new approaches and directions for research and interpretation. The research is concerned with three main enquiries: 1.To what extent can the creation of a successful image make changes in the urban landscape? 2.What are the opportunities offered by urban branding to guide or to control the appearance of the conventional typical elements of the city image over the special identity of the cities? 3.How have cities succeeded (or not) in their urban branding processes and why? The research aims at examining whether a balance between the presentation of the identity of places and the urban development of the Gulf cities can be achieved. Also, it aims to establish a planning framework that incorporates the practice of urban branding in the design and planning of cities. The research is based on a “thematic” approach combining empirical descriptive approach and comparative analysis method in analyzing and assessing selected examples and the interpretation of case studies. The research focuses on the investigation of selected case studies for Arab Gulf cities – Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Doha, Qatar; Kuwait City, Kuwait; and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia - that may have succeeded (or not) in creating an image of the emerging city that has become nationally or internationally recognized. The analysis is based on selected themes, in which the most related illustrative analysis techniques are extensively used. Following the investigation of the case studies, a comparative analysis for the case studies systematically scrutinizes and evaluates the elements that characterized the process by which imaging processes, both visual and brand images, affecting the Gulf city form. The objective is to identify the common elements between the presented case studies in order to synthesis the major characteristics of the phenomenon of the Gulf city imaging. The findings of the comparative analysis highlight the relationships between branding and city form, including the impact of branding on the development of the city image. The suggested conceptual approach is based on incorporating the practice of urban branding in the design and development processes of the Gulf cities. The approach is based on the argument that city images are deemed to be those elements used to represent a city as a whole and its associated meanings. Hence, the suggested approach is conceived in terms of a triad, consisting of three major components: the city identity, the visual image, and the branding image. Each of these components encompasses other smaller components integral to the building of the approach itself. Consequently, the three components address ways in which city image(s) can be integrated and how the desired integration would meet the capacity of planning the city image. There are different urban branding strategies that could be developed based on diverse city development objectives and visions, such as large scale urban projects, signed architecture, events, media, etc. The study focuses on strategies that tend to combine tangible aspects of the Gulf cities – their built environment, urban culture, heritage, infrastructure, etc. – and a number of intangible aspects – their slogan, their identity, etc. The study focuses on thee main areas: branding location strategies including natural settings, flagship projects, and landmark buildings, branding through city life, festivals and special events and branding through Mediascape, (advertising, publications, slogans, logos, etc.). The guidelines and recommendations are arranged according to their context, current issues, planning objectives and suggested specific exemplary actions. Suggested planning guidelines deal with the following areas of action: skyline, public space, architecture, heritage, public art, and recommendations for the media generated images: festivals and events, logos, slogans and cities’ websites. Illustrative examples from both international and regional successful experience are used in a joint concern of city planning and city branding.
Urban livelihoods, institutions and inclusive governance in Nairobi : 'spaces' and their impacts on quality of life, influence and political rights
governance, living environment, urban space, poverty, economics, slums, city politics
This study formulates conditions for sustainable impacts of inclusive and responsive governance through ‘invited spaces’ offered by the government and ‘claimed spaces’ created by the poor. The study questions how increased contributions to poverty reduction and improvement of quality of life for Nairobi citizens can be realised in an equitable and responsible way, while contributing to development of the city and country. To adequately address this two-sided objective of economic growth and poverty reduction in the contemporary context, the study analyses both processes and impacts; moreover it examines impacts in terms of quality of life as well as influence and political rights. The study explores the individually claimed spaces of households in Nairobi’s slums, the collectively claimed spaces of hybrid mechanisms for access to peri-urban land and tenure, and the invited spaces of city-wide governance networks.
Vossiuspers UvA - Amsterdam University Press
Modelling informal urban growth under rapid urbanisation : A CA-based land-use simulation model for the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
urban modelling and simulation, informal urban dynamics, cellular automata, megacities
Dar es Salaam in Tanzania is one of the fastest growing urban agglomerations in Africa and projected to become a megacity (i.e., a city with more than 5 mil. inhabitants) by 2025. Rapid urban growth under poverty has outstripped the capacities of planning authorities to cope with the enormous pace of urban expansion. As a consequence informal settlements absorb almost all urban settlers leading to rapid urban sprawl into the unplanned periphery. But still only little is known about the drivers and mechanisms of ongoing urbanisation processes and the means of intervention. The need for well balanced and informed decisions becomes evident and calls inter alia for support of urban planning by geo-information technology and so-called decision support systems. This thesis approaches these needs by designing a land-use simulation model for the city of Dar es Salaam. Particularly in developing countries urban modelling inevitably comprises the challenge of setting up an appropriate database. Public authorities in Dar es Salaam lack precise and up-to-date information and were unable to contribute to the database needed for the modelling work particularly since multi-temporal information was required. Basic datasets which have been provided by another research institution were extended and updated to serve as the database required by the analysis and modelling work. The model presented is based on standard GIS software and designed along the principles of Cellular Automata (CA) which are particularly suitable to capture neighbourhood dynamics and likewise do not demand for a highly sophisticated database. Population projections by the UN Population Division have been used to determine future demand for informal residential land. The model simulates its allocation based on variables which represent major drivers of informal urban growth: natural conditions, accessibility and local-scale dynamics, i.e., so-called neighbourhood effects. These drivers have been proven to be adequate to explain and project urban growth during the process of model calibration and validation based on regression analyses. The model has been employed to project land-use patterns until 2022 as a baseline scenario. In accordance with recent local urban planning and development discourse the impact of transport infrastructure projects on the distribution of future urban growth has been simulated in four scenario settings. The results have been analysed with reference to the baseline scenario to compare the characteristics of likely urban futures. The application of the model demonstrates the considerable potential of urban growth modelling for the situation in Dar es Salaam and its transferability to cities facing similar conditions. It provides a valuable laboratory to test the drivers and mechanisms of urban growth and the associated means of intervention. During field work interim results have proven that the model is able to establish and maintain a discourse among planners and other stakeholders thus mitigating one of the major weaknesses of urban development planning - the lack of cooperation and coordination. This is an essential first step for strategic intervention into informal urban development processes given the limited resources at hand and to support planning authorities in Dar es Salaam to cope with future urban development in a pro-active manner.
Urban poverty and adaptations of the poor to urban life in Dhaka City, Bangladesh
This thesis explores urban poverty and the adaptations of the urban poor in the slums of the megacity of Dhaka, Bangladesh. It seeks to make a contribution to understanding and analysis of the phenomenon of rapid mass urbanisation in the Third World and its social consequences, the formation of huge urban slums and new forms of urban poverty. Its focus is the analysis of poverty which has been overwhelmingly dominated by economic approaches to the neglect of the social questions arising from poverty. This thesis approaches these social questions through an ‘urban livelihood framework’, arguing that this provides a more comprehensive framework to conceptualise poverty through its inclusion of both material and non-material dimensions. The study is based on primary data collected from slums in Dhaka City. Five hundred poor households were surveyed using a structured questionnaire to investigate the economic activities, expenditure and consumption, access to housing and land, family and social networking and cultural and political integration. The survey data was supplemented by qualitative data collected through fifteen in-depth interviews with poor households. The thesis found that poverty in the slums of Dhaka City was most strongly influenced by recent migration from rural areas, household organisation, participation in the ‘informal’ sector of the economy and access to housing and land. Almost half of the poor households in the study locations were identified as ‘hardcore poor’, that is having insufficient income for their physical needs. The remainder were found to be ‘absolute poor’, those who experienced poverty and vulnerability but varied in their levels of income and consumption. This level of poverty was also characterised by their social, cultural and political marginalisation. In summary, the urban poor remain very much dependent on their household and social networking, the main social capital they use to adapt to life in Dhaka City. Overall, the urban poor in this study experience the highest level of poverty and vulnerability in their everyday life. The thesis argues that the experience of poverty in the megacity of Dhaka for these households follows the pattern of urbanisation without development, the very opposite to their expectations and aspirations.
Spectacular post-colonial cities : Markets, ideology and globalization in the making of Shanghai and Hong Kong
post-colonial city, globalisation, world city, global city, capitalism, urban culture
This dissertation investigates the history and political economy of two Chinese cities, Shanghai and Hong Kong, in the context of debates about globalization and ‘global cities.’ My inquiry focuses on the interwoven relationships between colonization, global capitalism, ideology, and the changing nature and objectives of national and local governments. On the stage of globalization, cities have become the sites of competition for the concentration of flexible global investment money, new technologies, media and cultural industries, in order to enhance their wealth and their status in the world. Becoming a global city is now a prized goal for many cities around the world, including Shanghai and Hong Kong. Since the 1980s this has led to unprecedented global inter-urban competition. Cities not only have capitalized on their traditional roles as financial and manufacturing centers, but many have also adopted a strategy geared toward the ‘mobilization of spectacle’ to boost their global status. My work illustrates the ways in which Shanghai and Hong Kong, as two self-defined global cities, are engulfed by the formidable force of inter-urban competition in the Asia-Pacific Rim. Much of the analysis focuses on conditions arising from China's broader ideological and political move toward neo-liberalism. The Chinese government has actively promoted Shanghai into the hierarchy of the global urban order by launching a mega urban project, the Pudong Lujiazui New Area, by staging events, such as the Global Fortune Forum, and by massively rebuilding the city's skyline. Similar initiatives in Hong Kong include the creation of Hong Kong Disneyland. In both cases, these initiatives reflect a move toward a more ‘entrepreneurial’ urban culture. I argue, however, that such initiatives are more than a simple reflection of broader global political economic dynamics. Rather, the trajectories followed by both cities require an understanding of their colonial past. In the past, these cities were shaped by the spectacle of imperial capitalism. Today, they are willing participants in embracing forms of globalization that continue to be heavily influenced by the West. I conclude that both cities’ current obsession with becoming global cities entails a complex and often contradictory post-colonial complex.
Socio-physical aspects of urban neighborhoods in Iranian cities : With special reference to the city of Mashad
neighbourhood, community, residential area, urban society, urban form, social cohesion, social interaction
From the third decade of the 20 century onward, Iranian cities have experienced a rapid transformation resulting from swift social, economic and political changes. These changes, stemming from many global factors such as industrial revolution, led to a new lifestyle in Iranian society and also in the cities and their residential areas. A lack of proper urban policy and management, as well as inadequate attention to the real societal and cultural needs of Iranian inhabitants has resulted in the emergence of many problems in Iranian cities and their residential neighborhoods. This thesis with an inquiry into the socio-physical aspects of the residential areas in contemporary Iran with a particular reference to the City of Mashad tries to understand the physical aspects of residential areas, activities of residents in outdoor neighborhood spaces, and also the effect of these physical characteristics on the social behavior, activities, and sense of community of the inhabitants. A multi-method approach (both quantitative and qualitative methods) is adopted to examine the objectives of this research. Also, in order to understand the influence of the physical characteristics of residential neighborhoods on social attributes of their inhabitants, a quasi-experimental method is employed. In this research, seven neighborhoods were selected as study areas and seven hundred households were interviewed using a multi-optional questionnaire. Additionally, observation by note and photo-taking was employed for data gathering during the field work. While quantitative data has been analyzed by statistical methods and by SPSS software, qualitative data has been analyzed using data reduction, and data display. The findings indicate that a lack of affordances and proper spaces in the most common urban pattern of all of the three income groups of these residential areas have led to reducing the creation and promotion of some or all of the examined social attributes like social connections, positive interactions, fulfillment of social needs, and sense of community. Also, the results demonstrate that the spatial and physical characteristics of the common urban pattern of current residential areas in Mashad are not able to form or integrate the social behavior of their residents. This inability is demonstrated through some different competitive and conflicting behavior in middle and low incomes neighborhoods and through accommodative behavior in high income neighborhoods.
TU Berlin - Technische Universität Berlin
From Islamic Ishbilya to Christian Sevilla : Transformation and continuity in a multicultural city
urban history, urban geography, urban culture, urban space, history of urban planning, religion, urban society
A city is more than a physical imprint. Through its architecture and human use of urban space, it is an extension of its residents, an expression of their culture. This investigation is situated within the domain of urban historical geography, focusing on both humanistic and structural dimensions of Spanish urbanism. A late medieval through early modern time frame was chosen because it compares and contrasts the Islamic and Christian experiences and imprints during periods of major urban change. By investigating change and continuity across several centuries it was possible to identify the differences between cultural, socio-political, and economic moments and trajectories. Several themes emerged during preliminary fieldwork in southern Spain in the regions of Andalusia and Extremadura, and were later developed and refined during dissertation fieldwork at the microscale of Sevilla, and barrio, San Bartolomé : (a) Spanish cities in the early modern period (1500-1800) were not predominately Roman from an earlier tradition, or a resuscitation of Roman ideas in the wake of Renaissance. Spain reflects a complex process of cultural exchange - Roman, Visgothic, Jewish, Islamic, and Christian - in planning urban settlements, in which each cultural group had a concept of "cities" from their own experience which they grafted on the structures of the existing infrastructure and expressed in rituals and architecture; (b) Urban planning decisions and use of urban space were motivated by practical considerations, people adapting to their urban environment, planning and administering their cities in a functional pragmatic way, yet ensconced within cultural traditions; (c) The religious use of space in ritual and architecture is embedded in a multi-faceted religious framework, encompassing not only theology, but identity exploration, political and social dimensions, resulting in a continually changing religious context. This research, based on extensive fieldwork, historical and archaeological data, reveals the complexity of the relationship between people and their urban environment, and rejects a single factor deterministic explanation of urbanism.
Forging urban culture: Modernity and corporeal experiences in Montreal and Brussels, 1880-1914
urban space, urbanisation, social relations, urban history, industrialisation, body, environment
Through a comparative examination of Montreal and Brussels, this thesis considers the way city dwellers shaped the social and cultural significance of urban space in terms of sensorial experiences and bodily practices. The analysis is based primarily on qualitative sources relating to urban life and to the relationship with the city environment during the period 1880-1914, a time when cities underwent intense transformations associated with modernity and industrialisation. The discourses and representations examined in this study were produced by a wide range of urban actors, including elected officials and municipal bureaucrats, industrialists, urban reformers, factory and housing inspectors, workers, doctors, hygienists, writers, artists and ordinary citizens. This was a period in which the city was increasingly conceptualised as a total, organic object. Consequently, the thesis first examines representations, both critical and celebratory, of these cities in their entirety, showing how the discourse about urban space was constructed through experiences with, and perceptions of, its materiality. The subsequent chapters examine, in turn, spaces of industrial production, homes and the streets. In each of these spaces, representations of these changing environments were produced in marked reference to the body and the senses. In a time marked by the rise of scientific and rational thought, the sources consulted demonstrate the centrality of personal and subjective experiences in the construction of understandings of the city. Analysing these specific milieus also affords the opportunity to consider the cultural significance of the body, as well as its place in the social tensions that characterised the period. The comparative approach through which these cities are analysed illuminates the development of similar processes in analogous, yet discrete, contexts. In this way, certain specificities of Brussels and Montreal, as well the commonalities they shared, are brought to light. The principal objective of this bipartite perspective, however, is to demonstrate, in reference to two local examples, how urban dwellers interiorised vast processes of global transformation by means of their bodies, the spaces through which they moved on a daily basis, as well as their immediate socio-cultural context. Se penchant sur les cas de Montréal et de Bruxelles en comparaison, cette thèse examine la façon dont, à travers la perception sensorielle et les pratiques corporelles des citadins, la signification sociale et culturelle de l’espace urbain se construit. L’analyse se base principalement sur des sources discursives témoignant de la vie urbaine et du rapport à l’espace d’une multitude d’acteurs durant la période 1880-1914, traversée par d’intenses transformations liées à la modernité et à l’industrialisation. Les discours émanant des élus et des fonctionnaires municipaux, des industriels, des réformateurs urbains, des inspecteurs d’usines et de logements, des ouvriers, des médecins, des hygiénistes, des écrivains, des artistes et de simples citoyens ont été consultés. S’agissant d’une époque où la ville est de plus en plus conceptualisée dans sa totalité, la thèse aborde, dans un premier temps, les discours, à la fois critiques et élogieux, concernant la ville industrielle dans son ensemble, en montrant comment ceux-ci sont construits par rapport à l’expérience et aux perceptions de la matérialité urbaine. Puis, dans les chapitres subséquents, les lieux de production industrielle, le logement et les rues sont examinés successivement. Dans chacun de ces types d’espace, les discours faisant état de l’intensification des transformations à l’environnement se déclinent, de façon prononcée, en référence au corps et aux sens. Ils témoignent de la place prépondérante des expériences personnelles et subjectives dans la construction du rapport à l’espace urbain, et ce à une époque marquée par la montée de la pensée scientifique et rationnelle. L’analyse de ces milieux permet aussi de mettre en relief la façon dont se construit la signification culturelle du corps, ainsi que la place de celui-ci dans l’évolution des tensions sociales caractéristiques de l’époque. À travers une approche comparative, l’étude de ces deux villes permet d’examiner l’évolution de processus similaires dans deux contextes analogues, mais distincts. Ainsi est-il possible de déceler certaines spécificités de Bruxelles et de Montréal, de même que des traits communs aux deux villes. Cependant, l’apport principal de cette perspective croisée est de montrer, à la lumière de deux exemples locaux, la manière dont les citadins intériorisent de vastes processus globaux de transformation par le biais de leur corps, des espaces qu’ils fréquentent quotidiennement, et de leur contexte socioculturel immédiat.
Migration, gender and urbanisation in Johannesburg
urban sociology, gender, urbanisation, migration
This thesis interrogates the dynamics of urbanisation, gender and migration in contemporary Johannesburg through the voices and images of migrant women from the rest of the African continent, now living in Johannesburg. By revealing the lives of a population group that is often hidden from view, it provides details of women’s migration to Johannesburg, and their everyday encounters in the host city. Using these experiences, it sheds light on contemporary migration and urbanisation processes on the continent, expanding our knowledge of the contours of power that shape urban life in Johannesburg and elsewhere. Using the metaphor of the “border” or “borderlands” this thesis explores how women negotiate, cross and remain “in between” the multiple physical, social and imagined borders they encounter in the city. It finds that analyses that read the city through class relationships and capital accumulation do not give adequate weight to the multiple identities and forms of solidarity that exist in cities. Women’s narratives reveal that while their class is an important identity, other identities such as ethnicity, nationality and gender also powerfully shape solidarity and modes of belonging in the city. Moreover, state-centric governance frameworks that have dominated urban policy and scholarly work on the continent are often blinded to the ways in which urban dweller’s actions shift our understanding of the nature and character of state power. Women’s encounters with the state reveal the multiple regimes of power that constitute the city, and the ways in which these subvert, fragment, and yet at times reinforce state power in unpredictable ways. The epistemological approach and findings of this research bring to the fore broader questions around the paradigmatic lenses used to read, interpret and understand African cities. Dominant paradigms tend to draw on western models of cities in ways that undermine African cities’ empirical realities and theoretical potential. For as long as scholars and policy makers fail to see African urbanity in its own terms rather than in relation to how cities elsewhere have evolved, we will continue to miss critical socio-political and economic dynamics that are shaping urbanisation in the twenty first century.
democracy, participative democracy, governance, political sciences, urbanisation, urban form, inequality, urban space, city politics, urban policy, city life
The deliberative turn in recent political theory ties legitimacy to public deliberation about reasons, offered for and against exercises of authority by informed and sincere citizens, who share a commitment to finding mutually acceptable terms of social cooperation. But even such reasonable citizens may disagree on important matters, and some citizens will only rarely, if ever, see their sincere reasoned judgements reflected in democratic outcomes. I argue that, to be widely perceived as legitimate in plural settings, fair deliberative procedures must not only be inclusive and self-evidently grounded in a commitment to reasonableness and mutual respect; they must further ensure that dissenting parties have a reasonable expectation of eventually transforming features of the public sphere to better accommodate their distinctive values and interests. The result is a fair deliberative pluralism that reflects the cacophonous and variegated character of the public sphere in modern democracies. But I caution that this ideal requires conditions that can sustain spatial patterns of wealth and control over land uses that undermine the interests of certain spatially fixed groups. I draw on the experiences of U.S. cities to illustrate this tension. These cities feature profound and enduring inequalities of wealth and political influence, and urbanization generates patterns of industry and habitat that reinforce these inequalities. Municipal and state politics rarely alter the prevailing incentives for home and industry location that perpetuate these patterns, and when efforts are made to do so - for instance, urban growth boundaries, or new taxation schemes to fund public services - the result is often increased antagonism between central cities and their regions. I suggest that these problematic features of cities emerge from political processes that determine how urban spaces are valued, resulting in boundaries and behaviors that undermine the democratic credentials of much political activity in urban settings. I evaluate two classes of solutions to these urban pathologies in light of class-specific constraints on mobility that originate in political strategies of control over urban spaces.
The geography of urban deprivation change in East Montréal and the Montréal Urban Community : 1986-1996
urban geography, poverty, disadvantaged district, urban change, spatial analysis
In recent years, within the fields of urban geography and urban studies, increasing attention has been paid to the multidimensional concept of urban deprivation. The majority of work on this topic has focused on British and U.S. urban areas with less research directed at Canadian cities. This project made a contribution to the Canadian literature by examining the nature and changing geography of urban deprivation in East Montréal (a section of the central city) and the Montréal Urban Community (MUC) between 1986 and 1996. Essentially, Montréal contains a number of the city's poorest and most disadvantaged neighbourhoods and as an industrial area was particularly hard hit by the effects of de-industrialization, economic restructuring and recessions during the 1980s and 1990s. The project proposed a model of urban deprivation change, which was applied to the study area to examine its complex and changing social and economic geography. Fourteen indicators of urban deprivation were analyzed at the neighbourhood level (census tracts) in East Montréal and the MUC for three census years -- 1986, 1991, and 1996. A survey was also conducted in three selected neighbourhoods. The study identified several key trends and findings. There was a significant spreading of urban deprivation and decline during the study period from East Montréal to the remainder of the central city and to several inner suburban municipalities. However, deprivation and decline persisted within East Montréal in the troubled corridor south of Sherbrooke Street. Overall, worsening conditions were more evident during the 1991 to 1996 period compared to the previous five years (1986 to 1991). There was an increase in the level of deprivation among males, particularly with respect to unemployment and poverty. The survey revealed that the majority of respondents were satisfied with their neighbourhoods as a place to live. It also pointed to disparities between census and survey results and suggested that urban deprivation should be considered as more of a relative phenomenon.
Between dreams and reality : Urban governance in the process of Dutch urban restructuring
governance, council housing estates, local authorities, housing policy, urban policy, social housing, urban renovation, inhabitants, neoliberalism
The ambition to redevelop post-World-War Two [post-WWII] neighbourhoods (built between 1950-1975) is derived from the slow degradation process that often affected them during the last decades. The urban-restructuring processes mostly take place through the renewal of the housing stock by the demolition, upgrading, and selling of social housing, the building of more expensive dwellings, and the renewal of the public space and all kinds of facilities. We might expect that the neoliberal reforms of the Dutch welfare state since the 1980s have triggered intensive cooperation in urban restructuring policies between government layers, between the local authority and the housing associations, and with residents’ committees: urban governance (the processes of steering and coordinating urban policies between the public, private, and voluntary sectors to achieve collectively-agreed goals). Network-theory approaches stress this self-steering dimension of networks. In contrast, however, the political-economy approach of multi-scalar meta-governance emphasises the strong steering of the central state in local governance arrangements. Therefore, more insight in the usefulness of various theoretical governance approaches is important in the construction of a more appropriate explanation. Furthermore, the differences in perceptions among stakeholders might impair the cooperation processes and have not as yet been systematically researched. Therefore, the research focus is on local stakeholders’ perceptions with respect to intergovernmental relationships in urban policies, the problems and policies for urban restructuring neighbourhoods, and their roles and tasks in the collaboration process. How do local stakeholders enact the management of networks, and the sustaining of the relationships in the area-based partnerships? Moreover, urban restructuring processes require very high investments in social and financial terms. Identifying the factors that contribute to effective urban policies and well-functioning cooperation processes and those factors that hinder this is thus extremely important. We used a qualitative case study approach to investigate local stakeholders’ perceptions. During 2004-2008 79 semi-structured in-depth interviews were carried out in eight post-WWII urban restructuring neighbourhoods. These case studies are located in both medium-sized and large cities on several geographical locations in the Netherlands. The main conclusion is that institutional changes in Dutch urban restructuring shape the perceptions of the key actors about effective urban restructuring policy and effective urban governance in the area-based urban restructuring partnerships. They perceive a strong role for the market and closed governance arrangements that in turn restrict effective network management and a broad long-term joint-working capacity. This is in strong contrast with what we might expect from network theory. It highlights the serious limitations of normative network theory with respect to their explaining power, owing to the lack of attention paid to the actual underlying processes in urban governance practices and the neglect of the complexity of these processes. Our conclusions are in line with the multi-scalar meta-governance approach, in which the neoliberal restructuring of the welfare state in conjunction with a robust regulation of the cities is emphasised. This strongly influences urban governance practices at the local level. The research outcomes thus clearly illustrate the governance failure derived from the neoliberal practices in Dutch urban restructuring.
Relations of power, networks of water : Governing urban waters, spaces, and populations in (post)colonial Jakarta
governance, water, urban water management, post-colonial city
This thesis documents the genealogy of the development of Jakarta’s urban water supply infrastructure from 1873 (the inception of the first colonial water supply network) to the present. Using an analytical framework of governmentality, supplemented by insights from postcolonial studies and political ecology, the thesis explains the highly unequal patterns of water access in Jakarta as the product of (post)colonial governmentalities, whose relations of power are expressed not only through discursive categories and socio-economic relations, but also through material infrastructures and urban spaces. The thesis presents material from the colonial archives, Jakarta’s municipal archives, and the publications of international development agencies and engineering consultancy firms. This is combined with primary data derived from interviews, questionnaires, and participant observation of the implementation of current pro-poor water supply projects in Jakarta. This data is used to document how water supply is implicated in the discursive and material production of the city and its citizens, and to challenge conventional developmentalist and academic analyses of water supply access. Specifically, a conceptual triad of water, space, and populations – produced through, but also productive of government rationalities – is used to explain two apparent paradoxes: (1) the fragmentation of access in Jakarta despite a century of concerted attempts to develop a centralized system; and (2) the preferences of lower-income households for non-networked water supply, despite its higher cost per unit volume. This analysis hinges on an elucidation of the relationships between urban governance and urban infrastructure, which documents the interrelated process of differentiation of types of water supply, water use practices, populations, and urban spaces from the colonial period to the present. This, in turn, is used to explain the barriers being encountered in current pro-poor water supply development projects in Jakarta. The thesis thus makes a contribution to current academic debates over the "colonial present". The contribution is both theoretical – in the emphasis placed upon the materiality of governmentality – and empirical. Finally, the thesis also makes a contribution to the urban and development studies literatures through its reinterpretation of the urban "water crisis".
University of British Columbia - Vancouver