Planning for shrinking cities in Portugal
subject: shrinking cities, Portugal, urban planning, regional planning
description: This thesis is about shrinking cities and planning. Urban growth has been a synonym of success throughout the world; and even considered the true and sole reason for planning. Even though shrinkage is as old as growth, it has become more visible since unquestionable facts started to challenge conservative and established planning paradigms. Consequently, the theory of shrinkage is still under development, gradually building up. Portugal is not an exception to this rule. This presents an opportunity to contribute to the theory of shrinkage, to find original evidence about shrinkage in Portugal and investigate how planning is dealing with this issue. The first part of the dissertation corresponds to a literature review to assemble a theoretical framework for shrinkage and its relation with urban and regional planning. The second part of the research focuses on the Portuguese case, first on a macro scale and then materializing the city scale of shrinkage. In the third part, cluster analysis is used to classify the Portuguese shrinking cities. Finally, plan content analysis is applied to national, regional and local spatial planning instruments to determine responsiveness to shrinkage. The study is completed by revisiting the most important questions both in the theoretical discussion and the empirical research. Together with the theoretical analysis, the results comprise, firstly a broad picture of shrinkage; secondly, a typology of shrinking cities; and thirdly, an account of the awareness and approach to shrinkage in Portugal. The research concludes that despite the embryonic character of shrinkage in Portugal there is evidence of its existence, although planning’s response does not match evidence found. Recommendations for city policy, planning practitioners and future research on this topic are offered based on the findings.
creator: Sousa, Sílvia Ávila de
publisher: Universidade do Porto
date: 2010
contributor: Pinho, Paulo Manuel Neto da Costa. Supervisor
language: en
type: Thesis

The suburbs of Victorian Oxford: Growth in a pre-industrial city
subject: urban growth, suburbs, Victorian, 19th century, nineteenth century, Oxford, suburban life, housing
description: This study examines the origins, growth and subsequent character of the Victorian suburbs of Oxford, a small provincial city with no industrial base. Major sources include newspapers, census enumerators' returns, deposited plans, and plan registers, rate books, the records of leasehold estates and deeds of properties acquired by the City Council. Chapters are devoted to:- The Creation of the Suburbs; Development Control; the House-Building Industry; Suburban Houses; House-Ownership; Residents of the Suburbs and Life in the Suburbs. Victorian Oxford grew steadily, attracting local migration because of the varied job opportunities. Suburban development was profoundly influenced by topography and the decisions taken by landowners. Corporate landowners preferred leasehold development to outright sale and their concern for reversionary value encouraged the building of high-cost, low-density housing. On freehold estates, too, standards were raised by the social and financial preferences of developers and builders, the introduction of building byelaws and the rising real incomes of potential investors and tenants. Access to cheap freehold plots prolonged the fragmentation of a building industry which depended heavily upon loans and credit. The suburbs were the product of innumerable local and personal decisions, providing a safe income for many private landlords and larger, more sanitary homes for better-off tenants. The new suburbs required many services and facilities, but the provision of these owed much to their social status. With an increasing number of resident councillors, leasehold, middle-class North Oxford had the political and economic power to maintain and enhance its character. Elsewhere, market forces prevailed over amenity, public utilities were grudgingly provided and the limited nature of municipal intervention was most seriously felt. Conditions were ameliorated, however, by those people and organisations who, for various reasons, provided churches, scho…
creator: Graham, Malcolm
publisher: University of Leicester
date: 1985
contributor: Aldcroft, Derek. Supervisor
contributor: Dyos, H. J. Supervisor
language: en
type: Thesis

Power and administration in two Midlands cities, c. 1870-1938
subject: urban history, public administration, local government, governance, public service, nineteenth century, twentieth century, 19th century, 20th century, Midlands, Leicester, Birmingham
description: Municipal government mattered as much in the 1930s as it did in the 1870s. Taking a case study of a prestigious urban institution in Birmingham and Leicester, this thesis explores the role of the Watch Committee in interacting with other local, national and professional institutions in administering urban police and fire services. A melding of approaches prevalent within the disciplines of public administration and urban history facilitates a thematic approach to the nature and practice of administrative power. R. A. W. Rhodes' model of power-dependence, modified and reinforced through recent research into policy networks and communities, allows the modem urban historian to explore the interplay between structure and agency within intergovernmental relations between 1870 and 1938. Through an analysis of legal, financial, organisational, political and informational resources, this thesis argues that neither central nor local government dominated the decision-making or policy implementation processes. Governmental institutions negotiated and interacted amongst themselves through a variety of networks, both locally and centrally initiated, for their access to such resources. Ultimately, powerful and prestigious county boroughs continued to influence national decision-making structures throughout the inter-war years. The Watch Committee was an independent institution and consisted of experienced and expert members. Through its close relationship with the Police and Fire Departments, in particular their chief officials, the urban dimension of `police' policy remained integral despite increasing central regulation of local services during the period under review.
creator: Ewen, Shane
publisher: University of Leicester
date: 2003
contributor: Rodger, Richard. Supervisor
language: en
type: Thesis

Experience and conflict. The dialectics of the production of public urban space in the light of new event venues in Helsinki 1993-2003
subject: urban planning, public urban space, urban events, spatial dialectics, weak place, Lefebvre
description: Why do new urban spaces lack feeling, power and sensory quality? Why does 'urbanness' retreat from the newly produced public spaces? Why does the political significance of urban space seem to be lost? In this research, the structures of thinking in planning and architecture are identified as a key reason for those problems. Urban reality is never 'transparent' to the planners. Rather, planning is conducted in an artificial reality, which I call Concept City, characterised by a simplified and outdated conception of space. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to formulate a new, richer theory about space in general and public urban space in particular. The new theory includes physical space, its use and, as the most difficult aspect, the personal, singular moments of invention and existentially important experiences that are indispensable elements of the lived urban space. Instead of visual and practico-material, space is understood as socially produced. The central new notions the work develops, include 1) 'weak place', a new conceptualisation of place as the individual and singular moment of signification; 2) 'spatial dialectics 2.0', a development of Henri Lefebvre's dialectique de triplicité; and 3) 'quasi-object', leading to a new interpretation of the role of material artefacts and spatial configurations in the production of space. The work contextualises Lefebvre's ideas to urban planning and architecture. It aims at reconceptualising the notions of space and place in those fields in such a way that the conflictual coming-together of individual experiences, spatial practices and public perceptions can be understood as the constituent process of public urban space. Though the thesis is primarily a theoretical treatise, it is grounded on empirical observations in Helsinki, with references to Manchester and Berlin. Since the late 1980s, urban events have had an important role in the production of new public urban spaces in Helsinki. In events, citizens have claimed urb…
creator: Lehtovuori, Panu
publisher: Helsinki University of Technology
date: 2005
contributor: Lapintie, Kimmo. Supervisor
contributor: Verwijnen, Jan. Supervisor
language: en
type: Dissertation

Urban ethnicity in Santiago de Chile. Mapuche migration and urban space
subject: urban space, migration, urban ethnicity, urban identity, Santiago de Chile
description: The urban phenomenon is changing. The social and political transformations of recent decades have created new forms and models of inhabiting in the city. In Latin America, phenomena of globalization and the implementation of liberal policies have, on the one hand, expanded flows of information and communication and, on the other hand, affected forms of social cohesion which were developed from the modern urbanization process of the mid-20th Century. This new context has transformed the ways in which the people build identity and a sense of belonging inside the urban society. Since the 1990s ethnicity has become an important source of identity construction for a growing percentage of city dwellers in Latin America. The ethnic roots of its inhabitants are turned into resources for social cohesion and recognition as social actors. The purpose of this study is to explore the process of formation of an urban ethnicity in Santiago de Chile. The Mapuches are the largest ethnic group in Chile and about half of their total population resides in the city of Santiago. However, despite being the largest ethnic group in Santiago, the Mapuche do not have a visible presence in the city. The emergence over the last decade of the political and social category of urban Mapuche and Mapuche-warriache describes the growing importance of ethnicity as a source of identity in Santiago. Ethnicity is related to the notion of collective identities. In this sense, it is a process whereby a group of people are collectively different from “others,” ethnicity is a broad concept which describes a process of differentiation. The objective of this research is to investigate the strategies through which Mapuche society in Santiago establishes differences, both in relation to the remaining urban society, and to "traditional" Mapuche society. Accordingly, this work aims to identify processes through which an urban ethnic identity is constructed. The working hypothesis is that the Mapuche currently in t…
creator: Imilan Ojeda, Walter Alejandro
publisher: Technische Universität Berlin
date: 2009
contributor: Herrle, Peter. Adviser
contributor: Golte, Jürgen. Adviser
language: en
type: Dissertation

Urban segregation as a complex system
subject: urban segregation, social inclusion, urban policy, MASUS, simulation, São José dos Campos
description: Urban segregation represents a significant barrier for achieving social inclusion in cities. To overcome this, it is necessary to implement policies founded upon a better understanding of segregation dynamics. However, a crucial challenge for achieving such understanding lies in the fact that segregation is a complex system. It emerges from local interactions able to produce unexpected and counterintuitive outcomes that cannot be defined a priori. This study adopts an agent-based simulation approach that addresses the complex nature of segregation. It proposes a model named MASUS, Multi-Agent Simulator for Urban Segregation, which provides a virtual laboratory for exploring theoretical issues and policy approaches concerning segregation. The MASUS model was first implemented for São José dos Campos, a medium-sized Brazilian city. Based on the data of this city, the model was parameterized and calibrated. The potential of MASUS is demonstrated through three different sets of simulation experiments. The first compares simulated data with real data, the second tests theories about segregation, and the third explores the impact of anti-segregation policies. The first set of experiments provides a retrospective validation of the model by simulating the segregation dynamics of São José dos Campos during the period 1991-2000. In general, simulated and real data reveal the same trends, a result that demonstrates that the model is able to accurately represent the segregation dynamics of the study area. The second set of experiments aims at demonstrating the potential of the model to explore and test theoretical issues about urban segregation. These experiments explore the impact of two mechanisms on segregation: income inequality and personal preferences. To test the impact of income inequality, scenarios considering different income distributions were simulated and compared. The results show how decreasing levels of income inequality promote the spatial integration of diffe…
creator: Fonseca Feitossa, Flávia da
publisher: Universität Bonn
date: 2010
contributor: Vlek, Paul L. G. Referent
contributor: Ehlers, Eckart. Referent
language: en
type: Dissertation

Al-Balad as a place of heritage: Problematising the conceptualisation of heritage in the context of Arab Muslim Middle East
subject: heritage, Middle East, Arab city, Islamic city, Al-Balad, Amman, built environment, identity
description: This thesis addresses a problem affecting places of heritage throughout the world as represented by the case of al-Balad, the historical centre of Amman in Jordan: despite the increasing efforts expended on the conservation of built heritage, most social groups appear to be uninterested; this contradiction results in problems of neglect, dilapidation and lack of participation in its construction and representation. The research explores three possible sources of contradictions that cause this problem: the process of meaning construction in capitalist societies, the global conceptualisation and institutionalisation of heritage, and the role of dissonance of identities in creating dissonance in the construction of heritage. In order to explore such a subjective topic in a manner that would produce generalisable findings instrumental for purposes of urban planning and development, the chosen methodology is structural and positivistic and relies on frameworks of semiotics, mapping, media topic analysis, and most importantly on the findings of an extensive questionnaire survey that was made possible by the gradual opening up of public expression in Jordan. The first source of contradictions explored manifests through the construction of meaning. In an investigation of frameworks that explain the process, the semiotic framework of the myth developed by Barthes is synthesised with the ideas of Baudrillard and Lefebvre who also explored the process of production and consumption of meaning in bourgeois societies that is of particular relevance to the neo-liberal economic framework in Jordan, which caused a focus on cultural tourism and revitalisation of heritage as drivers of economic development. An application of the semiotic framework to the attributes of al-Balad showed that although al-Balad is becoming known as a place of heritage (a place of the past), for the majority of the Ammanis it is still conceptualised as a market (a place of the present). The second source of…
creator: Shawash, Janset
publisher: University College London
date: 2011
contributor: Cabannes, Yves. Supervisor
contributor: Edwards, Michael. Supervisor
contributor: Mumtaz, Babar. Supervisor
language: en
type: Thesis

The urban turn - and the location of economic activities
subject: innovation, urban turn, business climate, people climate, human capital, outer city, creative class, talent, regional development, city regions
description: Competitiveness of city regions has gained a more and more central position in regional development and regional planning within the last decades. A reason for this is that globalisation has caused pressure on industrial structures forcing firms to increase their competitiveness by more actively promoting innovation and knowledge creation. Access to knowledge has therefore become vital for most types of productions in the Western economies. As creation of and access to knowledge have become increasingly important in order to stay competitive, a growing focus has been put on the geography of highly skilled labour. A growing string of this literature argues that large cities shall be understood as locomotives of regional development and growth because they have an attractive effect on highly skilled labour. This line of thinking is called the urban turn in economic geography. This study examines the urban turn by studying the dynamics of location of economic activities in Nordic countries. The thesis consists of 5 papers and a research report and offers both quantitative and qualitative analyses of the dynamics of location of economic activities in the knowledge economy. It approaches regional development both from an interregional perspective and an intraregional perspective. It provides a critical and thorough examination of the technology, talent and tolerance approach to regional development put forward by Richard Florida in his book The Rise of the Creative Class by examining the adequateness of the approach in a Swedish and Nordic context, and next it retheorises the approach based on empirical findings. Further, by studying intraregional dynamics in the greater metropolitan area of Copenhagen, the thesis addresses the geographical heterogeneity of the city region on the one side and the importance of social relations for location of economic activities on the other. Thereby the presented research calls for an intraregional perspective in mainstream regional dev…
creator: Kalsø Hansen, Høgni
publisher: Lunds Universitet
date: 2008
contributor: Asheim, Bjørn T. Supervisor
contributor: Lundquist, Karl-Johan. Co-supervisor
language: en
type: Thesis

Identity politics and city planning: The case of Jerusalem
subject: Jerusalem, territoriality, national identity, commemorations, identity discourse, identity politics, commemorative narratives, city planning, traditional Zionism, place-making, city policy, green Zionism
description: Jerusalem is the declared capital of Israel, fundamental to Jewish tradition, and a contested city, part of the Israel–Palestine conflict. Departing from an analysis of mainly interviews and policy documents, this study aims to analyze the interplay between the Israeli identity politics of Jerusalem and city planning. The role of the city is related to discursive struggles between traditional, new, and post-Zionism. One conclusion is that the Israeli claim to the city is firmly anchored in a master commemorative narrative stating that Jerusalem is the eternal and indivisible capital of Israel. A second conclusion is that there is a constant interplay between Israeli identity politics, city policy, and planning practice, through specific strategies of territoriality. The goals of the strategies are to create a political, historical and religious, ethnic, economic, and exclusive capital. Planning policies are mainly focused on uniting the city through housing projects in East Jerusalem, rehabilitating historic heritage, ancestry, and landscapes, city center renewal, demographic balance, and economic growth, mainly through tourism and industrial development. An analysis of coping strategies shows that Jerusalem planners relate to identity politics by adopting a self-image of being professional, and by blaming the planning system for opening up to ideational impact. Depending on the issue, a planner adopts a reactive role as a bureaucrat or an expert, or an active role, such mobilizer or an advocate. One conclusion drawn from the “Safdie Plan” process is that traditional Zionism and the dominant collective planning doctrine are being challenged. An alliance of environmental movements, politicians from left and right, and citizens, mobilized a campaign against the plan that was intended to develop the western outskirts of Jerusalem. The rejection of the plan challenged the established political leadership, it opened up for an expansion to the east, and strengthened Green…
creator: Andersson, Ann-Catrin
publisher: Örebro Universitet
date: 2011
contributor: Elander, Ingemar. Supervisor
contributor: Aggestam, Karin. Supervisor
language: en
type: Thesis

The process of black suburbanization
subject: urban studies and planning, African Americans, housing, case studies, suburbs, United States, residential mobility
description: In the past three decades, one of the major trends in metropolitan areas has been the substantial increase in the size of the suburban population. Until the most recent decade, blacks were not a significant part of this trend. In the decade of the 1960s more than 800,000 blacks moved from the central cities to suburban parts of metropolitan areas. While the black proportion of the total population did not change as a result of this movement, this is only because white out-migration continued at a high level. While there have been numerous studies of black mobility, and separately of blacks in the suburbs, there have been no systematic inquiries into the process by which this migration takes place. This thesis is an investigation of the process of black suburbanization. The hypothesis suggests that black suburbanization is a function of the level of black "effective demand". The thesis is organized around three elements to test this hypothesis. Who, among blacks move the the suburbs, what type of physical setting (housing and neighborhood) do they move to, and what pattern emerges in their settlement? Census data and case studies are the sources of data.
creator: Clay, Phillip L.
publisher: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
date: 1975
contributor: Frieden, Bernard J. Advisor
language: en
type: Thesis

Urban and regional restructuring and barrio formation in Massachusetts: The cases of Lowell, Lawrence, and Holyoke
subject: barrio, urban restructuring, regional restructuring, barrio formation, Massachusetts, Lowell, Lawrence, Holyoke, Puerto Rican, ethnic enclave
description: In the last decade, the number of Puerto Ricans in small cities and towns of the Northeastern United States has been growing steadily. This regionalization is in part the result of two processes: barrio formation and barrio differentation. The former is a multi-stage process of development mediated by social networks wherein Puerto Ricans use their ethnic and social bonds as a strategy to cope with drastic social and economic change both in the island and in the mainland. Three main stages of barrio formation can be identified: colonia formation, colonia expansion, and barrio maturation. During the latter two stages of barrio formation, population dynamics, economic restructuring, urban renewal and urban policies, and sociocultural dynamics are the four main factors of differentiation which transform the spatial/residential, family/household, labor-market, and organizational characteristics of barrios and their residents. The result of this process of barrio differentiation is barrios which exhibit a mix of characteristics from three types of barrios: working-class barrios, underclass barrios, and ethnic enclaves. Our research has shown that the mix of characteristics exhibited by barrios is critically framed and defined by the factors of differentiation. However, in some specific instances the mix of characteristics can be countervailed by the interaction between human agency and the factors of differentiation. To investigate this process of barrio formation and differentiation our research compared three case-studies of development of Puerto Rican communities in Lowell, Lawrence and Holyoke, Massachusetts between the late 1950's and the early 1990's. In all three cities the colonias formed as a result of a dual situation of employment instability in Puerto Rico and in the US, and of the conditions of social hardship and isolation in the new locales.
creator: Borges-Méndez, Ramón
publisher: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
date: 1995
contributor: Meléndez, Edwin. Advisor
language: en
type: Thesis

El plan general de Murcia de 1978. La implantación práctica del urbanismo contemporáneo
subject: urbanismo, Murcia, Ribas i Piera, evolución urbana, arquitectura, desarrollo urbanístico, planificación, intervencionísmo, barroco, medieval
description: La tesis analiza del PGOU de Ribas i Piera. Que incide en la nueva forma urbana de la Ciudad de Murcia, dando lugar a lo que podemos denominar como su tercera definición urbana, que supera a las "forma urbis" anteriores, medieval y barroca. Añade al aspecto de abierta, el carácter de espaciosa en la que el espacio privado es inferior al público, en la que ésta clase de interés resulta predominante. Ordena exhaustivamente todo el territorio, con los más de 50 núcleos menores. Se analizan la evolución histórica, los resultados, y los condicionantes que su desarrollo futuro, la vigencia de este modelo. Entronca con los principios fundacionales del urbanismo contemporáneo, Declaración de La Sarraz y Carta de Atenas, e incorpora el concepto de Ocio activo. Pone fin a una forma de actuar posibilista y pragmática, agotado hacia los 70. Claramente intervencionista, se estructura como plan programa y plan reglamento. Los planes de desarrollo y la ejecución se deben a iniciativa municipal, que asume el plan como una función pública. Reestructurando la ciudad de forma uniforme y homogénea en sus tipologías, consolidando el gran ensanche y los viales vertebradores del desarrollo futuro. Con un alto nivel de zonas verdes y dotaciones públicas. Se encuadra entre los documentos de transición política y legislativa, y representa una de las primeras aplicaciones, escrupulosa, de la Ley de 1975. Está vinculado con el urbanismo contemporáneo, porque su formulación deriva de las leyes del Suelo. Se ajusta también, y de un modo más libre a unos principios y conceptos, que son el resultado de un largo debate sobre la ciudad. Cumple el objetivo de transformar una ciudad atrasada en una ciudad central de ámbito regional.
creator: Cano Clares, José Luis
publisher: Universitat Politècnica de València (España)
date: 2009
contributor: Alonso De Armiño Pérez, Luís. Director de tesis
language: es
type: Tesis

City-to-city co-operation and the realisation of urban sustainability
subject: city-to-city co-operation, local authorities, urban policy, sustainable development, governance
description: This thesis examines the extent and the nature of city-to-city co-operation (CTCC) for sustainable development among UK local authorities. Policy-makers and analysts believe that various forms of local authority co-operation, here termed CTCC, will enable local authorities to effectively deliver local sustainable development objectives. To date, little attention has been given as to why and how such governing processes take place or to the realities of their outcomes. The thesis informs academic debates on governance. It argues that the 'hollowing out' (Rhodes, 1997, p. 138) and changing role of the state (MacLeod and Goodwin, 1999) have allowed for the emergence and diffusion of self-organizational networks. This shift in the nature of governance has created the political opportunity for CTCC. The thesis draws on the policy networks (Marsh and Rhodes, 1992) and governance networks (Marcussen and Torfing, 2003) literature to consider how key characteristics in governing through networks - resources, fact-to-face interaction, and inter-personal relationships and trust - are relevant to CTCC. In turn, the thesis argues that hierarchy and meta-governance, often neglected in discussions of self-organising networks, have important roles in shaping governing processes. The thesis has developed a three-fold typology for understanding the nature and implications of CTCC. Three main methods were employed in the research: the use of an empirical survey to 100 local authorities within the UK; semi-structured interviews, and documents analysis within the context of four UK-based local authority case studies. Two of the case studies examined the policy area of climate change adaptation; and the other two explored community planning. The findings suggest that CTCC is widespread transnationally and domestically. Links between local authority institutions can be virtual - e.g. browsing of websites, on-line policy documents, e-mails, telephoning - which is generally excluded from th…
creator: Bridges, James Ian
publisher: Durham University
date: 2008
contributor: Bulkeley, Harriet. Supervisor
contributor: MacLeod, Gordon. Supervisor
language: en
type: Thesis

A geographical study of the evolution of the cities of Tehran and Isfahan
subject: urban morphology, Persian cities, Tehran, Isfahan, urban development, Iran, origin of cities, townscape, urban form, urban geography, urban history, population, urban characteristics
description: The introduction to this thesis sets forward its aims which are to account for the present morphological features of Tehran and Isfahan and to examine in detail the characteristic features of Persian towns. It goes on to examine the sources for such a study and to describe some of the methods which have been employed. The thesis itself is divided into three sections. The first traces the historical development of Tehran and Isfahan from the earliest times. The periods during which the cities have been capitals of Persia, the Safavid period in the case of Isfahan and the Qajar and present Pahlevi periods for Tehran are considered in detail and the morphological effects of growth or decay are emphasised. The second part is a detailed examination of certain morphological features which have played significant roles in forming the townscape of Tehran and Isfahan and which are valuable as distinguishing features of the Persian town in general. Those studied are defences and palace quarters, bazaars, gardens and palaces, Islamic religious buildings, squares, baths and foreign establishments. A further chapter considers changes of population up to the present and the part played by minority groups. The third section uses the material thus presented in an analysis of urban characteristics in Persia. Finally an attempt has been made to apply modern theories of urban geography to Tehran and Isfahan especially those concerning the classifications of towns by typology and an urban hierarchy, and the trait complex.
creator: Brown, Judith A.
publisher: Durham University
date: 1965
contributor: Bowen-Jones, H. Supervisor
contributor: Clarke, J. I. Supervisor
language: en
type: Thesis

Commercial galleries in Copenhagen, London and Reykjavík: A comparative study of the formations, contexts and interactions of galleries founded between 1985 and 2002
subject: art, gallery, gallerist, museum studies, urban culture, creativity
description: This study situates the commercial gallery operator, or ‘gallerist’, in the context of art world conceptions. Specifically it examines the contexts and activities of gallerists in Copenhagen, London’s East End and in Reykjavik in the era of the Young British Artists and the revitalised art market that phenomenon engendered. Drawing upon interviews with gallerists and studies of urban culture and environments, this thesis reveals that gallerists are driven by creativity and artistic vision, often at the expense of market awareness. The London and Copenhagen gallerists saw themselves as pioneers who through their actions not only established new art businesses but developed new cultural quarters in these cities. The tiny capital city of Reykjavík exposed the significance of scale and position; its new galleries remained within the comfort zone of established art institutions in the city centre. They were small and internationally isolated, and appeared much like those found in provincial cities in larger countries. Copenhagen also lacked the world city status of London and its gallerists sought recognition and buyers through international art fairs. In contrast, London found itself at the heart of an international art world. Galleries were established in such numbers in the East End as to produce an art world momentum of its own. Gallerists in the more cosmopolitan settings of London and Copenhagen possessed a greater sense of community; those in constrained markets of Reykjavik retained a small-town competitiveness. The creative desires of gallerists were also reflected in their proactive pursuit of artists; it was they who decided what to show and who to patronise. While the majority of gallerists favoured art with a conceptual edge, all denied that they were specialising in this work. They emphasised the diversity of the works on sale. The London and Copenhagen markets were mature markets but those in Reykjavík appeared more regulated. Within these cities it was po…
creator: Gestsson, Magnus
publisher: University of Leicester
date: 2009
contributor: Knell, Simon J. Supervisor
language: en
type: Thesis

Towards safe city centres? Remaking the spaces of an old-industrial city
subject: economic restructuring, crime control, regeneration, community safety, policing, Glasgow, city centre, urban space, critical Marxism
description: Situated at the intersection of economic restructuring and crime control, this thesis explores the practices and policies of economic regeneration, community safety and policing in the city of Glasgow. In particular old-industrial cities and regions have felt the pressures to ‘revitalise’ and regenerate their failing economic base, as well as to change the modalities of governance, and subsequently embarked upon local economic development and attracting growth industries. Examining the interest in quality-of-life offences within such regeneration agendas, my thesis explores the importance of crime control, policing and community safety in a series of empirical ‘cuts’ through the subject, starting with wider issues of crime control, imagineering and city centre upgrading. Practices of regulating city spaces are carried out in distinctive fields of community safety policies, the policing of homeless people and street prostitutes, and also include the regulating of businesses in the wake of economic regeneration. Furthermore, a city centre warden project, the City Centre Representatives, is studied in detail in relation to their work remit, encompassing a tourist service as well as a range of ordering tasks in the newly regenerated spaces of the city centre. Explicitly framing these substantive debates in a theoretical context, the first part of the thesis engages in questions of social ontology, working towards a research perspective of a reworked critical Marxism. Such critical Marxism is arrived at by discussion of current approaches, both in policy and academy, of how to account for processes of economic restructuring and crime control in late-capitalist societies. While maintaining concepts of a(n), although fragmented, social totality, held together in dialectical processes, social praxis as mediation between social totality and agency becomes the central hinge for researching such ontology. As embodied, routine and partially reflected upon social practices that …
creator: Helms, Gesa
publisher: University of Glasgow
date: 2003
language: en
type: Thesis

Challenges of traffic development in Kabul City
subject: Kabul, Kabul City, traffic, transport, public transportation, public transit, getting around, transport policy, infrastructure
description: Following two decades of war (1980-2002) that destroyed the Kabul City, it started to rebuild its transportation infrastructures from scratch. Though the upgrading of the city transportation system was on the focus of Governmental institutions (Kabul Municipality, Kabul Traffic Office and the Ministry of Transportation) and international donors, the city inhabitants have been suffering from the lack of public transportation (public transit/mass transit) and negative effects of crowded (travel/reaching time) and costly transportation. They have been spending about 20 percent of their monthly income on transportation cost. Of course, the authorities try to solve the problem, but the lack of a scientific research and data make it difficult to reach a right decision. Therefore, the need for a scientific research on the city transportation system was strongly felt, and this paper is based on this research that is obviously supposed to answer the following questions: • What transportation challenges does the city face? • Where do the challenges come from? • How to improve the transportation system? This strategy follows three steps. The first step considers the city structure, function and population, examines the existing city transportation system which includes technical/physical, organizational and administrative infrastructures and transportation demand. Establishing the scope and character of a new transportation system to meet the expected demand is covered by the second step. The third step studies the economic feasibility which is not included in this paper. A survey was done in 2009 to identify the characteristic and function of the city and its transportation demand. About 1100 roadside interview were conducted to gather information of transportation cost and modal split in the city. Besides, seven survey points were selected to estimate the peak hours and reaching time in the city. Moreover, the Kabul municipality, the Kabul Traffic Office and the Ministry of …
creator: Noori, Walid Ahmad
publisher: Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen
date: 2010
contributor: Dittmann, Andreas. Advisor
language: en
type: Dissertation

"Circe among cities": Images of London and the languages of social concern, 1880-1900
subject: London, social conditions, nineteenth century, 19th century, literature, social problems in literature
description: This thesis is an investigation of sociological, documentary and literary texts whose central concerns are the social conditions in London during the period 1880-1899. London is chosen as a focus because during this time it was perceived as being in a state of crisis which produced an unprecedented amount of writing in response. The investigation has two complementary objectives: (i) to analyse, through the changing presentation of London in literary texts, the response of novelists working within the realistic tradition to the challenge of divesting language and form of inherited social meanings; (ii) to ascertain how conditions in London were articulated in a wide range of non-fictional writings, and to assess the role played by discourses inherited from Christian perspectives of society in absorbing, hindering, expressing or developing radical thought. The first part of the thesis will establish what the dominant images of London were. It will concentrate on the inner city texts of the 1880s and the suburban texts of the 1890s. What these images reveal about changing moral and political responses to social issues are assessed. The second part will be concerned with a London of spiritual and moral significance. Certain doctrinal, sociological and fictional works which attempted to make Christian terminology appropriate to the contemporary city will be considered. The impact of Socialism on religious and fictional discourses is evaluated. The thesis will conclude with a discussion of London as a political construct and assess how far such a perception sets up a break with tradition. Fictional texts assume a peculiar importance here since they are strongly differentiated from each other and from their literary tradition. In fictional texts in particular, images of London highlight the particular difficulty of redeploying a tradition of realism to accommodate radical ideas and the consequent formal challenges. The presentation of London in a diverse body of literatur…
creator: Hapgood, Lynne
publisher: University of Warwick
date: 1990
language: en
type: Thesis

The city and landscapes beyond Harold Pinter's rooms
subject: Pinter Harold, literary criticism, literature, cities and towns in literature, landscapes, landscapes in literature
description: Pinter's dramas have been labelled as 'absurd', 'mysterious', 'enigmatic', 'taciturn'. There has been a constant tendency to reduce the idea of the 'Pinteresque' to language when Pinter is preoccupied with the tensions between reality and the world of the imagination. He has, actually and accurately, used theatre as a 'critical act' to denote the abstracted realities, and he has applied his language to embody his world-view - his concerns in the contemporary capitalist world. Pinter has journeyed from the room to the outside world, from the private to the public social space, and has identified an inescapable sense of pessimism and alienation, and investigated an alarming world of atrocities. There are cities and landscapes beyond Pinter's rooms, cities peopled by wandering, displaced figures surveying the self-estranged city that is modern consciousness, and landscapes where his people retreat into the private realms of memory and fantasy. This thesis explores the virtual geographies beyond Pinter's rooms through the vocabulary of some modernist theoreticians and social scientists, as there are significant parallels between their analytical observations and the poetic perceptions of Pinter, a practising artist, and the phantom images of his characters. Pinter's plays and film adaptations tend to portray the city as a colonial present, and the country as a mythological past. The 1970s' plays portray a community of isolation, urban decay, dispossession and suffering, through the figure of the 'flâneur' - his characters' subjective experiences, memories and fantasies in the metropolis. In these memory plays, men and women have different mental landscapes and desires. To some extent the city is both a male-constructed world and an image of the twentieth century; in both senses it is anti-human and in decline. In his 1980s mature plays, Pinter's lyrical interiors and serene landscapes are colonised by the metropolis. Here Pinter investigates a universally oppressive spa…
creator: Inan, Dilek
publisher: University of Warwick
date: 2000
contributor: Howard, Tony. Supervisor
language: en
type: Thesis

Law breakers and law enforcers in the late Victorian city: Birmingham 1867-1877
subject: criminals, Birmingham, history, 19th century, nineteenth century, law enforcement, social conditions
description: This study, based on a sample of offenders coming before the summary court in Birmingham, 1867-77, looks at the processes of ostracism, exclusion, deprivation and punishment accorded to the lowest strata of society in the late Victorian city. It is argued that the identification and labelling of a criminal class was part of the effort to deny the relevance of class conflict by insisting on the relevance of moral distinctions. The first chapter seeks to plot the social ecology of crime through a comparison of a number of contrasting 'social areas' ranging from a high crime to a no-crime area. Differences in the social characteristics of the population living in these areas form the basis for explanations about differences in levels of reported crime, and of police attention. The second chapter deals with the law enforcement agencies of magistrates, Watch Committee and police - describing their personnel and their different priorities and strategies. In Part II we turn for the first time to the offenders. Chapter 3 concentrates on juvenile offenders, their of fences and social characteristics, and on the policy and provision made for them, as well as on sentencing practice, as carried out in Birmingham in the period. Chapter 4 looks at the legislation for, and the definition of, the Habitual Criminal. In this section the main categories of offence under the Habitual Criminals Act are described as they occurred in Birmingham, as well as the trends in sentencing practice for these offences. The last chapter discusses assault and other violent crimes, with particular attention to the rise in Street disorders and assaults on the police. The conclusion points out that a Strategy of exclusion was implemented by the urban elite for their 'criminal class' since this class presented no real political threat, while it came to serve a diminishing economic function.
creator: Weinberger, Barbara
publisher: University of Warwick
date: 1981
contributor: Shepherd, Michael. Supervisor
language: en
type: Thesis