Cultivating the sustainable city: urban agriculture policies and gardening projects in Minneapolis,Minnesota

In the past 20 years, municipal governments across the United States have increasingly tried to incorporate environmental efforts into city business and policies. Urban sustainability has become the key concept around which such activities are organized. Official sustainability plans are most often implemented through indicators and metrics. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, urban gardening, in a variety of forms, has been the focus of ongoing citizen- and NGO-led environmental efforts, as well as municipal measures of sustainability. Here, debates around the recent adoption of a city urban agriculture policy, as well as a program to encourage the installation of raingardens in neighborhoods across the city, reveal some of the rich variations in gardening practices and spaces. These far exceed the relatively narrow official focus on sustainability indicators. Better understanding how urban sustainability initiatives might work with, but also move beyond, indicators may provide directions toward wider visions of sustainable urban life.     

Urban Pulse—(RE)Making Space for Globalization in Istanbul

This paper provides critical reflections on the urban transformation campaign launched by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) as part and parcel of its ambitions to upgrade Istanbul to "world city" status. I focus on two main aspects of "urban transformation" in Istanbul: prestige mega-projects and (re)development of informal housing areas, with particular emphasis on the latter. I examine how poor residents' livelihoods are put at stake in spite of the IMM's claim that "urban transformation" is ultimately beneficial for all citizens. I conclude with the unique policy challenges that the local governments face in developing participatory models for urban renewal and regeneration in Istanbul.     

北京经济适用房布局特征及影响因素研究

20 世纪90 年代,中国开始实施经济适用住房政策。然而,在政策的实施过程中,由于不合理的布局,经济适用住房并没有切实解决中低收入家庭的住房问题。学者们通过研究发现,大多数经济适用住房被安排在城市边缘地区,缺乏配套公共设施。目前,相关研究较多关注经济适用住房的空间布局及其引发的社会问题,少有学者关注影响经济适用住房布局的因素。因此,本文试图从地方政府的视角解答影响经济适用住房布局的因素。研究提出假设,地方政府受到土地财政收入的驱动,将经济适用住房项目布置在对土地收益损失最小的地方,同时兼顾政策实施过程中的拆迁压力、住房市场结构以及公共交通便利性等。在假设基础上,对北京经济适用住房空间布局的时空特征进行分析,并构建经济适用住房布局的影响因素模型。结果发现：1999-2009 年间北京经济适用住房建设速度放慢,同时呈现向五环以外扩散及向某些点集聚的趋势;模型结果证实土地价格是政府在落实经济适用住房项目时考虑的重要因素。     

Residential Mobility and Urban Restructuring under Market Transition: A Study of Guangzhou,China

Residential mobility can be conceptualized as an outcome of a choice process exercised under complex institutional and personal constraints. China's rather unique pattern of housing market segmentation under market transition impinges directly on residential location and relocation. Drawing upon data from a sample survey, this paper analyzes the pattern of residential moves resulting from commodity housing construction in a major Chinese city, Guangzhou. Most moves are of short distance, although the general direction is towards the urban periphery. Danweis and the municipal housing bureau, rather than the market per se, are the primary driving forces behind suburbanization in China today.     

Residential Mobility and Urban Restructuring under Market Transition: A Study of Guangzhou,China

Residential mobility can be conceptualized as an outcome of a choice process exercised under complex institutional and personal constraints. China's rather unique pattern of housing market segmentation under market transition impinges directly on residential location and relocation. Drawing upon data from a sample survey, this paper analyzes the pattern of residential moves resulting from commodity housing construction in a major Chinese city, Guangzhou. Most moves are of short distance, although the general direction is towards the urban periphery. Danweis and the municipal housing bureau, rather than the market per se, are the primary driving forces behind suburbanization in China today.     

Historical Political Ecology of Water: Access to Municipal Drinking Water in Colonial Lima,Peru (1578–1700)

Historical political ecology provides a powerful framework for understanding nature–society relations in the past. This approach is applied to municipal drinking water governance in early colonial Lima, Peru, with a focus on how power dynamics influenced sociospatial patterns of water access and control. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century archival sources are analyzed for material aspects of Lima's drinking water pipeline network and for the management strategies employed by the municipal government. Access to water is demonstrated to have shaped, reinforced, and reflected colonial social divisions and to have been linked to the spatial development of the city, including urban–rural relations.     

The role of local government in promoting sustainable urban agriculture in Dar es Salaam and Copenhagen

As a multifunctional activity and land use, urban agriculture supports a range of objectives, from urban greening to food security. However, it is often left out of urban policy. As a result of the highly contextual and cross-cutting nature of urban agriculture, there are relatively few comprehensive and formalized regulatory tools to draw from. Different cities around the world are now deciding how to fit urban agriculture into the urban agenda; however, in many places urban agriculture continues to operate in the absence of legitimization due to its relatively mobile and dynamic nature. This article looks at the importance of local and central governments in promoting sustainable urban agriculture. Through participatory action research, it examines the cases of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Copenhagen, Denmark to understand stakeholder interactions, as well as present and future barriers to the conservation of existing urban agriculture and future initiatives. The findings suggest that municipal recognition and institutional support for urban agriculture is an important component in increasing the sustainability of related initiatives. Local and central government plays a role in the legitimization and institutionalization of urban agriculture through the facilitation of multi-stakeholder processes, policy development and the conservation and allocation of land.     

Governing a city of unicorns: technology capital and the urban politics of San Francisco

San Francisco is now widely considered to be the most important city in the world for the location of new technology start-up firms, especially high valuation “unicorns,” and is increasingly seen as both a locational and metaphorical extension of Silicon Valley. In this paper, I trace some of the political strategies and tensions that have accompanied the city’s prominence in this area, and in particular the distinctive role of technology and venture capital in the political economy of urban development. The paper has four empirical sections. It describes (1) the political machinations surrounding the 2011 and 2015 municipal elections, which saw the election of Ed Lee as Mayor with significant support from individual technology investors such as Ron Conway and Marc Benioff, and accompanied by various “tech-friendly” policy shifts; (2) the foundation of the “tech chamber of commerce” sf.citi as a means of enhancing the policy influence of the tech industry in San Francisco; (3) the introduction of a low taxation regime in the city’s Central Market area that has attracted technology companies such as Twitter as tenants; and (4) the urban policy tensions associated with the evolution of new “sharing economy” firms such as Uber and Airbnb, which have aggressively challenged municipal regulations in the taxi and property rental fields. Throughout these machinations, we can see a reshaping of capital fractions, with venture and angel capital increasingly involved in reengineering the labor, housing, and public transport markets of the city in order to circumvent the accumulation problems that tech investors had suffered in the earlier dot.com failures.     

Mine your data: open data,digital strategies and entrepreneurial governance by code

Investment in the release of open data has become increasingly central to the implementation of smart city programs by governments around the world. Though originally arising out of a push towards “open government” and the pursuit of more transparent decision-making by public authorities at multiple scales, open data programs have more recently been adopted by municipal governments to support entrepreneurial goals of enhanced competitive positioning and attracting investment. As urban scholars now subject the smart city project to critical scrutiny for its role in advancing urban entrepreneurialism, this article considers the relevance of the open data agenda as it shapes wider understandings of the smart city. In particular, I address the collection of policy practices, aspirations, stakeholders and entrepreneurs active in framing the opportunities and values of open data for urban governments. Both the momentum of support for open data, along with a recent shift in the rhetorical aspirations of the open data movement away from the values of openness and transparency and towards a more confined focus on value generation, raise important critical questions for urban geographers concerned with the nature of urban governance in an age of big data.     

Mosquitoes in the mix: How transferable is creative city thinking?

This paper contributes to recent debates about whether urban policy discourses are transferable and what is at stake in their translation. It draws on discussion of Darwin (Northwest Territory, Australia), a tropical savanna location that the local government wants to promote as a 'creative city', without quite knowing what this might require. We discuss relevant debates on research knowledge construction, the creative city and the path-dependent character of neoliberal governmental objectives. We then turn to the geographical, demographic and cultural characteristics that make Darwin a challenging and distinct context for translation of global theories of creative city rejuvenation. As well as arguing a case for more nuanced, locationally specific, analysis of the capacity of places to embrace travelling policy discourses, we suggest ways in which creative city research can be refreshed through engaging with literatures on (post)colonial urban politics and intersections with policy initiatives other than those targeted at 'creative industries' per se . We systematically outline the particular challenges that tropical cities in remote locations provide to accepted wisdom about creativity-led urban planning.     

The “Soviet” factor: exploring perceived housing inequalities in a midsized city in the Donbas,Ukraine

In this paper, I revisit the role of Soviet legacy factors in explaining today’s housing inequalities in a midsized post-Soviet city by investigating social, demographic, economic and geographic determinants of perceived housing quality. Building on a sample survey dataset (n = 3,000) that brings together both Soviet legacy effects and more universal influences on housing inequality, it is shown that various aspects of Soviet housing policy can be traced as well-preserved legacies today. The survey was conducted in 2009 in Stakhanov, Ukraine, and the method of analysis is binomial logistic regression. By capturing both the social costs attributed to the post-Soviet transition crisis as well as the underlying legacy factors inherited from the Soviet epoch, the findings suggest that any analysis of housing inequalities or residential segregation in the post-socialist city must come to terms with the impacts of socialist-era economic priorities on the urban social landscape.     

芜湖市就业与居住空间匹配研究

借助偏离度指数分析法从宏观层面研究了芜湖市辖区的就业—居住空间匹配状况的变化特点,利用问卷调查数据,从微观角度分析了市区居民通勤的时间、距离、方式及费用。研究结果表明:芜湖市就业—居住空间匹配度趋于下降,核心区为服务业就业主导区,北部以制造业就业为主导功能,南部居住功能占主导,带来各区居住人口和就业人口的空间流动。居民通勤平均距离约为4km,平均时间约为25min,通勤方式以电动车、公交车为主。目前,居民对就业—居住地匹配状况的满意程度总体尚好,还需要采取措施以进一步提高满意度。     

A look inside the struggle for housing in Buenos Aires,Argentina

Set in the broader context of increasing urban precarity and displacement of the urban poor and working classes, this paper examines the social and collective significance of housing precarity and eviction as it is experienced by Latin American, immigrant families living in informal hotels in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I analyze the internal dynamics, interactions and relationships between residents of informal hotels, the housing organization CIBA (Coordinadora de Inquilinos de Buenos Aires), which fights for housing rights for the poor in the city, and the city government sponsored housing subsidy. I argue that urban precarity severely limits opportunities for collective organization around better housing and political and social change. I show that despite CIBA’s objectives to transform social and political conditions for the poor in Buenos Aires, residents often operate under other assumptions and goals, in part because of the temporal and spatial restraints under which they live. Instead, residents of informal hotels work with CIBA in order to secure access to basic, urgent needs. These different expectations and understandings produce contentious relationships of dependence and subordination that are exacerbated by the eviction process and the city government housing subsidy.     

非户籍与户籍人口居住空间分异的多维度解析——以深圳为例

在居住空间相异指数基础上,构建了集聚—分散度、中心—边缘度和极化—均质度指数,进一步挖掘由于人口聚居形态、居住区位和居住质量等方面差异导致的居住空间分异的多维内涵,及其所揭示出的社会经济空间现象、成因及空间治理重点。利用全国第六次人口普查数据开展深圳实证研究,在计算全市及各区分维指数的基础上,分析深圳人口居住空间相异指数特征及空间尺度差异,多维居住空间分异格局特征及成因,并通过聚类分析将深圳非户籍与户籍人口居住空间分异类型划分为三类,分类提出空间治理政策建议。从而为深入理解中国大城市日益出现的居住分异现象及机制提供新鲜视角和多样化测度方法,为解决其带来的社会及空间治理问题提供更有针对性的政策建议。     

Are We There Yet? NSW local governments’ progress on climate change

Local governments are responding to top-down policy initiatives from both federal and State governments to reduce emissions, and adapt to any potential impacts of climate change. Although climate change is clearly a global problem, many of the solutions will be implemented at the local level. To explore this issue, the aim of this research was to examine regional variation in climate change response across New South Wales (NSW). To this end, between September 2010 and September 2011, we reviewed publicly available council and regional documentations for all NSW councils. The indicators of response examined were based on the NSW Greenhouse Plan (2005). These were awareness-raising, emissions reduction and adaptation planning. It was found that councils were undertaking many practical projects to fulfil the goals of this plan. As a result, they are abating significant quantities of emissions. Adaptation is progressing through the development of risk-based climate change adaptation plans. Councils are addressing particular areas of management, such as water management, assisted by guidelines which incorporate consideration for climate change as part of best practice. While overall responses to this threat are progressing, a distinct urban bias in action has been observed, due to biases in policy and funding arrangements.     

转型期城市居住用地更新的空间加密化研究——广州市金花街改造再考

选择具有代表性的广州市金花街改造项目（1988~2003年）为案例研究对象,分析了政府主导下改造方案的调整过程和改造空间特征,探讨居民诉求和政府旧改政策对旧城空间的影响。研究表明：金花街居民的原地安置诉求和城市政府依此设计的以民生为导向的改造安排,乃是影响旧城空间的重要原因;在准市场化融资方式和福利化拆迁安置方式下,城市政府提出的有关提供公共服务设施、解决居民临时安置问题和让居民原地安置的要求,使改造规划多次提高改造容积率,以保持改造经济平衡;改造后的金花街在房屋和人口两个维度呈现空间加密化的态势,即存在原地安置房叠加融资商品房、原地安置居民叠加购房迁入居民的社会空间现象,金花街改造并未出现以外来中产人口大规模替代原住低收入人口为基本特征的绅士化过程。最后,从引入转让开发权和鼓励微改造两方面对当前广州的旧城改造提出政策建议。     

SOUTH AFRICA'S NATIONAL HOUSING SUBSIDY PROGRAM AND APARTHEID'S URBAN LEGACY

This study examines the ability of the South African housing subsidy program to hasten desegregation and integration of South Africa's cities. It reviews the basic elements of recent local government reform and housing subsidy legislation. Highlighting the experiences of the city of George, it notes that in order to achieve a rapid provision of housing, the racial division of urban areas has initially been perpetuated. [Key words: Housing, post-apartheid, public policy, South Africa, subsidies, urban.]     

Explosive City Growth in the Modern World-System: An Initial Inventory Derived from Urban Demographic Changes

This is an empirical quantitative study that uses urban demographic data to identify economic change in cities. Unlike previous demographic studies, a strong theoretical framework is provided for the analysis. The research is designed and interpreted through Jacobs's theory of the city as economic process within the framework of Wallerstein's modern world-system. This is the first time Jacobs's theory has been subject to systematic inquiry over big time and big space. We create an inventory of 184 examples of Jacobs's "explosive growth" from 1500 to 2005 within the modern world-system. These results are interpreted in terms of systemic hegemonic cycles with first Dutch, and then British, and finally U.S. cities dominating the inventory lists. It is found that Dutch, British and U.S. city growth spurts are front-loaded in their respective hegemonic cycles: this is strong evidence of hegemony being created and initially sustained through and by these dynamic cities. This study makes a direct contribution to developing world-systems analysis, and in a short conclusion future research on ways of contributing to Jacobs's theory of the city are discussed.     

COSMOPOLITANISM: THE MEDITERRANEAN ARCHIVES†

The existing postcolonial literature privileges the British and French imperial/colonial history that mirrors the ongoing debate on the relationship among cosmopolitanism, universalism, and imperialism. These debates take for granted the Kantian and Hegelian hierarchy of European civilizations, hence marginalizing the southern shores of Europe and the broader Mediterranean space. Drawing on Mignolo's notion of “border thinking” and on Isin's account of the city as a “difference machine,” I address the issue of how imperialism, colonialism, and cosmopolitanism come together and relate to each other in the context of the Mediterranean (allegedly) cosmopolitan cities. In particular, cosmopolitanism is read as the outcome of the reciprocal adjustment of interior and exterior borders in the making of modernity/coloniality in the Mediterranean. Focusing on the Ottoman millet system, my main claim in this article is that cosmopolitanism worked as a peculiar dispositif within the urban difference machine, enabling the city to sustain the tension between different accounts of citizenship.