Marketing the Chinese Dream Home: Gated Communities and Representations of the Good Life in (Post-)Socialist Shanghai

This paper examines the advertising themes and rhetoric that have been assembled in the place-marketing of Shanghai's newly built gated communities. We demonstrate how place-marketing strategies, in this case selling the Chinese dream home, draws upon specific landscape meanings and values that are embedded in Chinese/Shanghainese history, even as symbolic and cultural capital from the contemporary scene also exert their influences. Collectively, these representations of the good life both reflect and reinforce the exclusivist housing aspirations and privatist visions of middle-class residents of gated communities in contemporary Shanghai. While advertisements do not always achieve the outcomes that property developers wish for, there is no doubt that they play significant roles in both shaping and reflecting landscape meanings and values. As medium and outcome, they reveal the growing aspirations of a new Chinese middle class.     

Social Consequences of Gated Communities: The Case of Suburban Warsaw

This article aims to determine how three factors—the fence, the internal public space, and the type of building—affect the sense of community, as well as the perception of social divisions that gated communities generate and the need for integration between people living in and outside gated communities. Its results are based on the survey conducted in two villages, Józefos?aw and Julianów, located in the Warsaw metropolitan region. It has been found that the existence of a physical barrier in the form of a fence affects the perception of human relationships. Research has confirmed the negative impact of fencing off on social bonds, the sense of community, and attachment to the area beyond the housing estate. The study of Józefos?aw and Julianów, however, has proved that for the residents of suburban gated communities the key factor that can increase their sense of community is access to an internal public space. The sense of community and the attachment to the area of residence are also dependent on the type of building. Inhabitants of suburban gated communities dominated by multifamily housing are definitely characterized by a weaker attachment.     

Electoral behaviour behind the gates: partisanship and political participation among Canadian gated community residents

Gated communities have been characterised as representing processes of 'forting up' and 'civic secession', in which their residents use gating as a strategy for withdrawing from political life and from taking collective responsibility for others. The assumption is that the residents of private gated communities should be less likely to participate in political life, and/or be more likely to support political parties on the right who advocate privatisation, reduced government expenditures and lower taxes. If the act of living in a gated community is associated with either greater support for parties and policies on the right of the political spectrum, or limited political participation, then the growth of such forms of privatised communities has potential implications for the future of urban politics and even for national political systems. However, despite surveys that have dealt with social attitudes 'behind the gates', insufficient attention has been paid to the politics of gated community residents. This paper fills this gap through a comparative analysis of electoral behaviour during the 2006 federal election at the level of the polling station. Electoral participation and partisanship in 27 gated communities in three Canadian metropolitan areas is compared against that of non-gated residents. Regression analysis is conducted in order to determine whether gated community residents differ from their non-gated counterparts in the way they vote and their levels of electoral turnout, after controlling for social composition. The potential implications of this research are then discussed.     

AD HOC REGIONALISM IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT*

Government units such as counties and cities have long been the basis for economic development, service delivery, and problem solving in rural America, but they are increasingly inappropriate, because many of them are too small to reach the critical mass and because rural issues often transcend arbitrarily set political boundaries. To overcome the resultant adverse effects, many rural communities have been rethinking their development strategies and actively forging regional partnerships. Ad hoc regionalism is a politically feasible and effective way for rural communities to collaborate in these initiatives. The exact issues that spark such collaboration may vary from place to place, but they are all grassroots, voluntary regional governance frameworks or innovations. They allow rural communities to pool their resources and reach the critical mass necessary to tackle a variety of regional issues and take advantage of new economic development opportunities without replacing or threatening existing government units. The two case studies discussed in this article—the western Kansas Rural Economic Development Alliance and the San Juan Forum in the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States—show that ad hoc regionalism offers several advantages over rural communities working independently but that challenges in implementing it exist.     

“Finding their way”: the negotiation of the city by low-skilled service sector migrant workers in Dublin

The city has become the context for a dialectical relationship not only between the global and the local but also between migrants and the host society. Whilst there is considerable work on migrant integration, integration is rarely examined from the perspective of the workplace, or from a geographic perspective, which problematizes the spatiality of migrant workers’ experiences. This article studies migrant workers in low-skilled jobs, with a focus on Temporary Service Sector Providers in catering, cleaning, and security, in order to understand how they negotiate their position in the city and are active agents of this negotiation. The study, based upon a survey of 60 migrants complemented by 20 in-depth interviews, questions how integration should be understood: in particular it suggests that—in some respects—integration may be difficult for all low-wage precarious workers, whether migrants or not. The study also highlights how migrant workers retain agency—the capacity to act, to make decisions, and appropriate certain places—even in challenging circumstances.     

The Emergence of Gated Communities in a West African Context: Evidence From Greater Accra,Ghana

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the global expansion of gated communities has become an increasingly important part of the residential geography of many cities. The gated community phenomenon has not been researched in West African cities, and the extent of these communities' formation and convergence or divergence with global trends is unknown. This article provides the first-ever analysis of their formation in Greater Accra, Ghana. The analysis suggests that the globalization of real estate markets and Diaspora living are important aspects in the residential geography of Accra. The concept of "transnational houses" is employed to explain aspects of the local property market that are being globalized and differentiated from local housing. Transnational houses add another layer of diversity to the contemporary urban geography of Greater Accra.     

门禁社区边界和家的构建关系研究

门禁社区作为一种全球现象引起了学界的广泛关注。当前研究中,空间、制度、经济和社会维度是学者们关注的焦点,对门禁社区的文化分析则相对薄弱。研究基于我国社会情境,从“边界”和“家”这两个不同,却又相互交织的理论视角出发,探讨围墙的意义和家的构建,对国际范围内关于门禁社区的争论提供文化的视角。研究发现,“家”的构建是通过创建“边界”来实现的。门禁社区的围墙和大门不仅仅是物质性的边界,更是一种社会和文化建构,它构建了“家”,同时也成为围墙内外居民争夺“家园”的象征。     

Assessments of ecosystem service indicators and stakeholder's willingness to pay for selected ecosystem services in the Chure region of Nepal

The Chure region of Nepal—the area sandwiched between the hills in the north and the plains in the south—is considered an ecologically fragile, structurally weak, and highly erosion-prone region. The forest in the Chure region provides several ecosystem services to people living in the downstream areas. However, assessment and quantification of ecosystem services in this region are very limited. This study, conducted in a watershed of the Chure region of western Nepal, combined local users' perspectives with experts' opinions to identify and rank ecosystem services based on land use types, to investigate the downstream users' willingness to pay for ecosystem services, and to explore the socio-economic factors affecting their willingness to pay. The study found that forests offered the highest number of ecosystem goods and services in this area. Local people were familiar with 10 different ecosystem services provided by the watershed and ranked drinking water service at the top. The downstream beneficiaries would be willing to pay a higher amount for drinking water service than they were currently paying if the quality of the service and its sustainability were assured. The amount they were willing to pay for ecosystem services increased significantly with monthly income. The results of this study are useful for other areas in which an upstream–downstream linkage exists and the upstream communities play a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem functions and the resulting supply of ecosystem services to the downstream communities.     

城市绿地对居民地方依恋的影响研究——以广州市为例

随着城市居民对居住环境质量追求的不断提升,绿地作为一种稀缺资源,对居民地方依恋具有重要影响。论文使用“快鸟”高分辨率遥感影像以及广州市1232份居民问卷数据,采用多层级中介效应模型,探索城市绿地对居民地方依恋的影响机制,尤其关注居住环境满意度的中介效应,并对比封闭社区与非封闭社区的差异。研究发现：① 绿地能够直接提升居民的地方依恋;② 居住环境满意度作为中介变量,是绿地影响居民地方依恋的传导因素;③ 对于封闭社区,居住环境满意度起部分中介效应,即绿地通过居住环境满意度间接提升了居民的地方依恋;④ 对于非封闭社区,居住环境满意度起完全中介效应,即居住环境满意度完全解释了绿地对地方依恋的影响。基于实证结果,论文认为在注重绿地的空间均等化并向弱势群体倾斜的同时,更需要考虑居民进入与使用绿地的权利以及其主观满意度,并在此基础上为优化地方政府的社区治理和规划政策提供支撑与建议。     

Fortress Australia? (In)security and private governance in a gated residential estate

Part of a broader trend towards all-inclusive master planned developments, gated residential estates are an intensely private form of residential development with a degree of securitisation. Gated residential estates have been the topic of intense debate in urban planning and policy circles and the target of fierce criticism for potential exclusionary outcomes as fearful residents lock themselves away from the ills of wider urban society. Crime, a fear of crime and the need for security dominate discussions and understandings of gated residential developments in Australia without much empirical validation. This paper poses two key research questions: does fear of crime and need for increased security drive residents towards gated estates; and what are the lived experiences of security, gates and crime once residing within a gated estate? Based on in-depth research in Macquarie Links (one of Sydney's largest gated estates) this paper offers insights into the lived dimensions of gated estates. The paper explores the attractions and realities of security services and infrastructure, private control over the residential environment and the importance placed by the residents on the ability to protect the nature of their neighbourhood and to protect themselves from any ‘unwanted’ activities or groups. The discussion in this paper demonstrates that for the residents in the study, residing in a secure residential neighbourhood is less about the role and place of physical security and security services, and more to do with protection afforded by the private governance structure of the neighbourhood.     

THE ROLES OF NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS IN CHINA

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全球化背景下封闭社区形成的影响因素与空间效应

随着经济全球化和西方新自由主义政策推行,封闭社区以其空间私有化、社会分异与隔离的特征成为一种特殊的全球现象。封闭社区对城市社会、政策和经济发展等方面具有重大影响。本文在对国内外研究成果总结的基础上,探讨封闭社区的性质、类型和形成的影响因素,并重点讨论封闭社区对城市空间发展与演变的影响。封闭社区具有物理空间封闭性、社会空间隔离性和文化空间契约性,是经济全球化与新自由主义政策、制度环境与历史文化变迁和多元主体共同作用的产物。在空间效应上,封闭社区影响着城市物质空间、社会空间和文化空间的塑造和演变,进而深刻影响城市空间演化与城市发展。最后,从城市政府和城市规划的角度讨论封闭社区的治理建议。     

The Perception and Impact of Natural Hazards on Fishing Communities of Kutubdia Island,Bangladesh

Natural hazards lead to unexpected and often dire situations for people who have few resources and little control over the environment in which they live. Kutubdia, an island in the southeastern part of Bangladesh, experiences frequent natural hazards that impact the livelihoods of its people and put them in vulnerable situations. The research elaborated here is the result of 300 household surveys collected from persons in Kutubdia's fishing communities. The surveys investigated the perception and consequences of natural hazards on the fishing communities. The results indicated that the experience of natural hazards—cyclones, erosion, and flooding are examples—have increased over the years. Coastal erosion displaced seventy‐two (24 percent) fishers, forcing them to relocate their houses several times and imposing multiple challenges on their lives. Literacy was not associated with perceptions of environmental changes or changes in fishing. However, young fishers—less than forty years of age—perceived that environmental changes had affected fish catch more than their older colleagues.     

Failing to Grow "Their" Own Justice? The Co-Production of Racial/Gendered Labor and Milwaukee's Urban Forest

Little attention is paid to the ways that labor market inequalities within urban institutions enforce governance regimes that (re)produce urban environmental unevenness. Milwaukee's Bureau of Forestry is one such institution that has historically been dependent on state-sanctioned labor market inequalities to perpetuate an explicitly White/male regime of environmental governance and production. Historically, the Bureau's management employed and promoted very few African Americans and women within its arboricultural workforce, based on its racist and gendered categories of laboring individuals. Furthermore, and for identical reasons, these workers—and by extension their communities—face distributional injustices as they are not allowed to channel their labors into the production of equitable and/or alternative forms of urban forests more suitable to their own social reproduction. This paper investigates the changing relations between Milwaukee's Bureau of Forestry and its African American and female employees as they attempt to legally (re)articulate their laboring identities and capabilities within a disempowering institution. We use in-depth interviews and archival materials to show that the Bureau of Forestry has consequently been forced to publicly confront its racist/patriarchal legacy in light of two recent high-profile lawsuits and an ambassadors program. We conclude by discussing how changes that allow some African Americans and women to work in Milwaukee's urban forest have affected the Bureau of Forestry and potentially the forest itself.     

Helge Ingstad 1899-2001

The article aims to determine the degree of sociocultural change resulting from the return of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), how the changes have impacted on the workers' original communities, and the various reintegration challenges posed by those communities. The theoretical framework of the article is built upon concepts of transnationalism and habitus. The methodology employed included field research conducted in 2010 and a village community approach. The study revealed that changes in the personal identities and social behaviour of the returnees are significant. However, the returnees' family ties and attitudes towards religion were largely the same as before they went overseas, and some had grown even closer to their families and become more religious. Further, the changes in their local community that occurred subsequent to their return revealed both positive and negative influences. Several sociocultural factors impeded the reintegration of returnee OFWs, and this called for action at all levels of government in the Philippines as well as from local communities and the returnees themselves.     

Growth Management and Resident Satisfaction with Local Public Services

The lack of timely survey data on resident satisfaction with local public services makes it difficult to verify the legitimacy of resident concerns with the effects of rapid population growth. This study attempts to verify the legitimacy of such concerns by analyzing survey data on resident service satisfaction in a rapidly growing county in Northern Virginia. Using an empirical model that simultaneously incorporates individual- and community-level predictors of resident service satisfaction seems to support resident's concerns; resident service satisfaction is significantly lower in the area of the county (the eastern part) where most new development has occurred. This finding suggests that residents living in comparatively low density communities in the fastest-growing area of the county are not very satisfied with services. One explanation is that these services are not yet in place so they compare unfavorably with the services residents experienced in the communities from which they came.     

Hydroelectric Infrastructure and Potential Groundwater Contamination in the Brazilian Amazon: Altamira and the Belo Monte Dam

Heavy investments in hydroelectric development are occurring throughout the Amazon Basin, which holds 42.2 percent of Brazil’s hydroelectric potential. The Belo Monte dam is the most recent and largest project in this region. The prevalence of septic systems in the Amazon, coupled with the widespread use of water wells and rising water table from filling the reservoir, create sanitation and health concerns for upstream communities. Using spatial analytical data and terrain analyses, we identify high-risk locations within the most densely populated neighborhoods in Altamira, Belo Monte’s host city. The purpose of this research is to develop a heuristic for identifying areas susceptible to groundwater and well contamination in relation to existing and proposed hydroelectric projects. Altamira’s city center persists as a high-risk location for contamination of wells because of its population density and relatively low elevation compared to other parts of the city. The methods, tools, and analyses presented in this article provide a framework that can be used to identify vulnerability to groundwater and drinking well contamination. The results presented here can guide implementation of public health and sanitation efforts in areas affected by large hydroelectric projects to avoid future water quality crises. Key Words: Belo Monte, groundwater contamination, hydroelectric infrastructure, risk assessment, spatial and terrain analyses.     

Sustainability Through an Alternative Property‐Rights Regime for Bangladesh's Mangrove Forest

This study examines the challenges of achieving sustainable management of the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans, in Bangladesh. The Sundarbans is currently managed by the Bangladesh Department of Forest, under a state property‐rights regime, while our study explores an alternative property‐rights regime. We employed a mixed‐method approach to examine the prospects of alternative management and livelihood strategies to achieve sustainability. Both focus groups and household surveying were used to assess the opportunities for, and barriers to, achieving sustainability. It was found that two conflicting groups—forest‐dependent communities and foresters—are responsible for policy failures due to the absence of power‐sharing arrangements, nor is it likely a common property‐rights regime will be enough to cap degradation and achieve sustainability, while supply‐and‐demand policy interventions may well could help achieve sustainable management of the Sundarbans.     

THE NEGOTIATION OF SPACE AMONG SEX WORKERS IN CEBU CITY, THE PHILIPPINES

The paper examines the experiences of space among sex workers in Cebu City, a major service and commercial centre in the Visayan region of the Philippines. It explores the issue of space from a number of perspectives and scales: first, at the national level in terms of migration patterns among sex workers; second, at the local level in relation to how sex workers experience and construct urban spaces through residence and working patterns; and finally, from a community perspective, the nature of domestic spaces among these women. The underlying theme of the paper centres around the contradictory ways in which social opprobrium is often reflected in spatial seclusion among sex workers. On the one hand, they are constrained in their experiences of space. On the other, the construction of their own particular spaces reflects a high degree of resourcefulness and resistance. This is corroborated further by the fact that involvement in the sex industry creates a different set of spatial aspirations and awareness among sex workers compared with those of the wider population.     

基于住宅价格视角的居住分异耦合机制与时空特征——以南京为例

城市住宅价格空间分异,是居住空间资源非均衡配置的市场化表达,映射出不同阶层社会群体对城市住宅的选择倾向与需求差异,与居住空间分异在机制和格局上存在一定耦合关联。以南京主城区商品房社区为研究对象,构建起住宅价格特征变量指标体系,采用地理加权回归模型,分析导致房价空间差异的主要因素、组合关系及时空演变特征。研究发现：社区服务档次、学区资源、环境区位、景观稀缺等能够体现居住群体经济实力、生活方式与文化品位的因素,是影响房价分异的主导要素并随时间不断强化;南京房价总体上呈现“圈层+扇形+飞地”的空间结构,高房价主要分布在城市中心、名校学区、高档封闭社区和山水景观别墅区;房价分异与居住分异在作用机制和空间格局上表现出显著的关联耦合特征。城市房价空间分异不止于表达,同时也是推动居住空间分异与再分化的重要驱动机制,并能够预判未来一段时期内城市居住空间分异格局演变的基本走势,可以为城市社会空间研究提供具有前瞻性的观察视角和分析工具。