A Postcolonial Approach to Urban Studies: Interviews,Mental Maps,and Photo Voices on the Urban Farms of Dar es Salaam,Tanzania

To examine a postcolonial approach to urban experience is to inquire about how cities and people operate beyond the structures and analytical frameworks that have emerged from Western urban theory. Much of the emerging research in the field is looking for ways to valorize the myriad efforts that residents put forth to live and thrive in the city. Many methodological approaches, however, are still directed by the researcher, who determines the data-collection activities and the guidelines by which they are carried out. Using a case study of urban farmers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, this article is an effort to articulate a postcolonial methodology where the research and data collection methods were designed to give voice to the people marginalized by narrow definitions of the city, who are often seen as victims rather than as active agents constructing their own lives. This approach reveals the very real and tangible experiences and relationships that constitute daily life for the urban farmers of Dar es Salaam. Key Words: mental mapping, photo voice, postcolonial methods, Tanzania, urban farming.     

Comparisons: colonial or cosmopolitan?

Editors' Note: The following is the ninth in the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography Lecture Series. It is based on the plenary presentation of 3 September at the Annual Conference of the Royal Geography Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) held in London in 2010. In the search for a more international approach to theorizing cities, comparative methods hold considerable promise, although one concern might be that in their theoretical ambitions they foster a universalising approach rather than one appreciative of diverse and sometimes divergent urban experiences. The potentially universalizing ambitions of comparative methods lead some postcolonial theorists to question the extent to which comparativism carries the marks of colonial histories. Critics argue that some aspects of formal comparative methods can be traced to ambitious and geographically encompassing intellectual projects from the colonial era, when the interest and capacity to bring different parts of the world together within the same intellectual frame advanced significantly. This paper explores the complexities of these colonial lineages of comparative research with a view to assessing their implications for postcolonial comparative urbanism. It concludes by assessing the potential for more modest comparative experiments in a postcolonial vein through attending to the diverse vernacular cosmopolitanisms of cities. Following the spatialities of cities themselves has the potential to offer non‐universalizing but variously internationalizing theoretical engagements with different places.     

Teaching Orientalism in Introductory Human Geography

This article explores efforts to bring postcolonial theory into the undergraduate human geography classroom. Through a case study of teaching Edward Said's Orientalism in introductory human geography, we discuss the relevance of postcolonial theory to critical pedagogy in geography. We lay out how instructors can teach Orientalism in introductory courses, what happens when they do so, and where efforts to use postcolonial theory to help students analyze the “colonial present” can be improved. We suggest that postcolonial theory is particularly well suited pedagogically to show students the mechanisms and uneven power relations producing and sustaining past and present geographies of difference.     

The unauthorized city: Late colonial Lusaka and postcolonial geography

This paper uses a case study of Lusaka, Zambia, to interrogate several aspects of the literature on postcolonial geography. I deploy two concepts from African postcolonial studies – the idea of exclusionary democracy and the concept of the domestication of difference – and assess the continuity in their applicability to Lusaka. More specifically, I examine the contention that both the political and the planning dynamics of the last years of colonialism are foundational to state–society relationships in contemporary Lusaka. Distinguishing two spheres for in-depth discussion – urban government and housing policy – I concentrate on the final years of colonialism, moving through to the contemporary setting, to examine if the roots still show for the processes creating exclusionary democracy and domesticating difference. I also examine the ambivalent and incomplete character of those processes. I close with an assessment of the broader meaning inherent in understanding Lusaka in postcolonial terms.     

Segregation and Residential Mobility of Vietnamese Immigrants in Brisbane,Australia

The study focuses on residential mobility propensities of Vietnamese immigrants in the city of Brisbane, Australia, as a principal force contributing to the persistence or change of ethnic residential segregation over time. Using 1990 survey data, discrete-time logit models are estimated to assess the effects of locational, contextual, and personal characteristics on the likelihood of changing residence within the city. The results indicate that locational variables operate in such a way that the most dominant Vietnamese neighborhood in Brisbane increases its prominence even further, while secondary Vietnamese clusters are likely to weaken. The results also indicate that initial settlement conditions are important for the first move only, whereas personal attributes contribute to variations in mobility propensities primarily in the second move. This implies that the composition of the immigrant population potentially influences the speed at which changes in ethnic residential patterns will occur in urban areas.     

‘Locationally disadvantaged’: planning governmentalities and peri-urban agricultural futures

ABSTRACT

Peri-urban areas are the interface between urban and rural regions, with these regions traditionally acting as foodbowls for adjacent urban areas. This peri-urban agriculture provides a diverse suite of benefits to urban areas. Increasingly, however, peri-urban areas are being converted to residential uses, driven in part by higher land values secured for land converted for residential development. In Sydney, planning and development has tended to treat peri-urban areas as ‘suburbs in waiting’. Using a Foucauldian governmentality approach, this paper investigates the prevailing rationalities in metropolitan-level strategic planning documents—in particular A Plan for Growing Sydney and the Draft South West District Plan—and how these rationalities relate to peri-urban agriculture. Our analysis shows that the three overarching rationalities—the global city, the compact city and the sustainability agenda—frame the urbanisation of peri-urban agricultural lands as necessary and inevitable, and only integrate agriculture as part of the future of the city of Sydney when it can be rationalised within the ‘global city’ narrative. As a result, peri-urban areas are not considered to have unique planning needs, but are imagined as latent spaces that will enable Sydney to meet its housing and job targets through their future development.     

Subversive formalization: efforts to (re)form land,labor, and behavior in a carioca favela

ABSTRACT

State entities in Brazil have rolled out numerous programs to “integrate” precarious settlements into the so-called formal city of Rio de Janeiro. Two of the most visceral integration projects in Rio’s favelas have been infrastructural upgrading and public security via military police occupation. Drawing on participant observation, interviews, and policy analysis, in this paper I trace how these projects attempt to formalize land, labor, and behavior in a complex of favelas called Complexo do Alemão. Inspired by postcolonial urban approaches to formalization, I argue that formality/informality as it operates through these projects is, in part, a performative distinction deployed by the state, echoing elite and popular socio-spatial imaginaries. I add, however, that non-state actors are also involved in their own practices of formalization. Residents themselves are re-making diverse forms of property, employment, and behavior through processes of subversive formalization, informed by their geographically-embedded and historical relationships with one another.     

MEXICAN URBAN COLONIAS IN THE SALT RIVER VALLEY OF ARIZONA

The history of the Salt River Valley is often characterized as a boomtown narrative that highlights the exploding Anglo population and rapid suburban sprawl that followed World War II. Frequently overlooked is the fundamental role that Mexicans played in the early suburbanization process through the formation of urban colonias, or suburban Mexican settlements. Early Mexican suburbs, despite their rural atmosphere, were connected to the pre–World War II urbanization process in the Salt River Valley. Our research seeks to amend and clarify the urban historical record by documenting the diverse and dispersed array of Mexican suburban settlements, a process generated by industrial agriculture, decentralization, and residential segregation.     

Urban annexation of the rural: kebun culture in Malaysia

‘Kebun culture’ is a distinctive, emergent form of rural sensibility and social-economic relations in Malaysia. As a contribution to theories of ‘planetary’ or thoroughgoing urbanization, the ethnographic evidence presented in the article illustrate a case of urban annexation of rurality, in which kebun (orchards) are detached from the social organization of rural villages and incorporated into urban-centered Malay society. Kebun, as productive land with non-rice crops, have traditionally been associated with rural kampung (village). In the late twentieth century, thoroughgoing urbanization, driven by both rural-to-urban migration and in situ urbanization of rural kampung, simultaneously produced a social disintegration of Malay kampung and increasingly urban-oriented Malay society. The kebun, which previously was an ancillary part of kampung social ecology has become dissociated from kampung and instead operates as an annex of urban-centered social lives. Kebun are also distinctively individuated rather than communal socio-economic projects. In both reserve lands and kampung areas, urban-based Malays and rural-to-urban return migrants are involved in kebun projects, through which they engage with nostalgic notions of rurality, but without the social entanglements of kampung social relations. At the same time, through kebun projects, urban Malay subjects enter into new social relations, albeit ones marked by commodification.     

近10年来大连城市居住小区时空变动与演化模式

城市化进程的加快和房地产业的快速发展使居住小区时空复杂性日益突出,居民的择居行为和居住区位都在不断地发生变化。依据统计资料,结合实地调查和电话访查收集到1998~2006年大连城市居住小区的相关数据,运用GIS的空间分析功能,从实证与定量分析角度揭示出大连城市居住小区10年来的时空演化分为快速增长、缓慢调整和井喷式膨胀三个阶段;在趋向于城市边缘、沿交通干线、自然资源优美地区布局与临近高新技术园区、大学园区布局四种区位指向性下,居住小区的空间演化模式呈现出圈层外溢、扇面拓展和组团聚集三种模式。     

徐州城市建设用地空间格局特征及其演化

基于1979年、1994年、2003年、2008年徐州城市土地利用现状图,构建研究区居住、工业和商业及公共服务（商服）用地图层,在此基础上运用基于矢量单元的圈层分析、扇形分析和基于栅格单元的空间韵律分析技术,分别从距离、方位和空间格局关系等方面分析了徐州城市建设功能用地空间格局。研究表明：（1）工业和居住用地的波峰位置...     

Urban transformations,migration and residential mobility patterns in African secondary cities

Abstract

Urban growth is a significant trend in Africa. Scholarly attention and urban planning efforts have focused disproportionately on the challenges of big cities, while small and medium-sized urban settlements are growing most rapidly and house the majority of urban residents. Small towns have received some attention, but very few studies have focused on secondary cities. This paper offers a study of urban transformations, migration and residential mobility patterns in Arusha, a rapidly growing secondary city of Tanzania. Arusha functions as a major attraction for migrants and in-migration is a central dynamic shaping transformation processes in central areas characterized by high population turnovers, vibrant rental markets and widespread landlordism. There is also a considerable degree of intra-urban residential mobility within and between central areas. Intra-urban residential mobility is the most important dynamic shaping transformation processes in peripheral areas characterized by long-term urban residents moving from central parts of the city as part of a process of establishing themselves as homeowners. Overall, the paper provides crucial insights on how migration and residential mobility patterns influence processes of urban growth and transformation in the context of large secondary city, and thereby contributes to fill a significant knowledge gap on secondary cities in Africa.     

城市边缘区居住用地的空间异质性:构型、度量与低熵化

基于对城市边缘区居住用地演进模式的研究,采用信息熵定量研究城市边缘区居住用地的空间分异性状,并构建相应的改造模式。结果表明,城市边缘区居住用地有其自身的复杂性和多变性,其存在的空间分异可以用信息熵进行度量,基于度量结果,将其分为4种类型。这些类型的土地利用状态呈现不同的特点,根据其特点分别设计相应的模式对其进行低熵化改造,以实现土地高效、合理及可持续利用目标。     

基于GWR的南京市住宅地价空间分异及演变

以南京市主城区为例,在空间自相关分析和蒙特卡罗检验的基础上,构建城市住宅地价地理加权回归模型,通过2003 年、2009 年住宅地价空间分异的对比,探讨不同影响因素对住宅地价影响的空间差异性及其随时间变化的特点,揭示住宅地价及其影响因素的空间变化关系,以促进地价的科学化管理。研究表明：① 随着影响因素数量不断增加以及合理均衡分布,区域差异性缩小,一般会减弱其对地价的影响。② 随着交通条件的不断完善,导致影响因素如CBD、主干道、公交等对地价的影响程度和范围发生变化。③ 随着时间推移,城市居民逐渐注重生活质量、居住品位的提高,公园绿地对地价的影响程度超过其他公用设施。     

PROPRIETARY RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITIES IN THE UNITED STATES

ABSTRACT. Proprietary residential communities constitute a major component in the evolving geography of urban America. In many metropolitan regions, proprietary residential communities or common‐interest developments, and associated forms of urban management, have emerged as the dominant form of residential development. Critical discourse on these communities and their residential community/homeowner associations has focused principally on the negative consequences for urban social and political life. It is argued here that many critical assessments are grounded in an idealistic view of contemporary society and an outdated conceptualization of citizenship. This article is intended to reenergize debate on these developments through a realist interpretation of the benefits and disbenefits of a form of residential development destined to exercise a major influence on the sociospatial structure of U.S. metropolitan areas in the early twenty‐first century.     

Simulating urban growth in a metropolitan area based on weighted urban flows by using web search engine

As a consequence of rapid and immoderate urbanization, simulating urban growth in metropolitan areas effectively becomes a crucial and yet difficult task. Cellular automata (CA) model is an attractive tool for understanding complex geographical phenomena. Although intercity urban flows, the key factors in metropolitan development, have already been taken into consideration in CA models, there is still room for improvement because the influences of urban flows may not necessarily follow the distance decay relationship and may change over time. A feasible solution is to define the weights of intercity urban flows. Therefore, this study presents a novel method based on weighted urban flows (CA_WeightedFlow) with the support of web search engine. The relatedness measured by the co-occurrences of the cities’ names (toponyms) on massive web pages can be deemed as the weights of intercity urban flows. After applying the weights, the gravitational field model is integrated with Logistic-CA to fulfill the modeling task. This method is employed to the urban growth simulation in the Pearl River Delta, one of the most urbanized metropolitan areas in China, from 2005 to 2008. The results indicate that our method outperforms traditional methods with respect to two measures of calibration goodness-of-fit. For example, CA_WeightedFlow can yield the best value of ‘figure of merit’. Moreover, the proposed method can be further used to explore various development possibilities by simply changing the weights.     

Using Spatial Statistics to Examine the Pattern of Urban Land Development in Halifax–Dartmouth

This article examines the locational patterns of population and employment and the resultant changes in urban form in the Halifax–Dartmouth region between 1970 and 1996. The article employs the univariate and bivariate K function to measure spatial dependence or clustering within and between the classes of residential and commercial land parcels. The results of the K function estimates suggest that residential land parcels cluster together, commercial land parcels cluster together, and residential and commercial land parcels have become more clustered over time. Evidence of clustering provides insight into the changing urban form of the region and possible multinucleation.     

Urban Biogeographical Analysis of Spontaneous Tree Growth on Stone Retaining Walls

Stone retaining walls in urban Hong Kong provided vertical habitats for spontaneous colonization by a diversified humid-tropical flora with large trees. A citywide survey assessed wall and tree characteristics to understand wall-tree relationships and identify conservation candidates. Nonparametric correlations were computed between 28 wall attributes versus tree count, tree biomass, and species-vegetation factors. Most of the 245 walls, with 1275 trees, were in residential areas. Moraceae dominated the 30 tree species, predominantly genus Ficus, and especially F. microcarpa. Natives formed the overwhelming majority, largely with pioneer and ruderal traits. The positive effect of adjacent built-up land use and negative effect of wall exposure indicated sheltering from wind could facilitate tree growth. Wall height was a key determinant as taller walls furnished more surfaces free from human disturbance and conducive to seed deposition by frugivorous birds and bats. Stone width offered more horizontal microsites for seeds to lodge. Stone roughness operated at the microscale to encourage nonarboreal vegetation. Joint attributes exerted strong influence on tree growth and less so on nontree affiliates. The walls-cum-vegetation, many older than 100 years, presented a precious natural-cum-cultural heritage, deserving protection as an urban ecological asset.     

The Urban Settlement Patterns of Disadvantaged Migrants

Abstract

Disadvantaged migrants to metropolitan areas are segregated by race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status within the residential areas of central city poverty neighborhoods. Whereas black migrants are generally restricted to ghetto space, regional cultural similarities and feedback in the social communication network are important to the residential location of lower class whites. The urban settlement patterns of a sample of recent disadvantaged white migrants to Indianapolis, Indiana, vary from the clusters of migrants from Appalachia and the South to the more dispersed pattern of migrants from Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio, and other metropolitan areas. The residential location of migrants from Appalachia and the South is geographically restricted by cultural constraints, and heavy reliance upon a limited network of friends and relatives in the housing search. However, the sociocultural resources of the Midwest group and the previous urban experience of metropolitan migrants increase the range of housing opportunities in Indianapolis that are available and known to them.     

基于百度热力图的银川市中心城区职住关系研究

“职”和“住”是城市最基本的功能,职住关系反映了城市秩序与效率。以百度热力图、百度路况图所提供的实时动态大数据为依据,配合城区土地利用现状图,分析了银川市主城区职住关系。结果表明：在一个工作日内,上班时间段内,教育、商业用地上的人口聚集力度更大,而在休息时段,居住用地上的人口聚集状况更明显,二者表现出大致反向的趋势。这意味着上班时段内人口大量离开居住区,百度热力下降;而下班时段又返回居住区,百度热力上升,居民在工作地—居住地间存在着节律性的钟摆式流动。上班时间段内人群高度集中的区域大部分是商务中心、城市综合体、高等院校、医院和物流中心等工作地;休息时段人群高度集聚中心由就业中心转为居住区和休闲购物区,说明整个城区存在一定的职住分离。银川市职—住比介于0.34~3.4之间,职住相对平衡;但区域间差异较大。总体来看,城市中心区比外围区的职住平衡更明显。依据职住比,将职关系划分为基本平衡型、 轻微就业倾向型、 严重就业倾向型、 轻微居住倾向型和严重居住倾向型五类。