Advancing development projects through mega-events: the 2010 football World Cup and bus rapid transit in South Africa

In 2010, the focus of the sporting world was on South Africa, the first African country to host a Football World Cup, and the largest mega-event ever held on the continent. Mega-events like the World Cup have become instruments for governments seeking material improvements to highways and telecommunications as well as the more elusive nation-building and sanguine legacies. Whereas the literature typically concentrates on stadia and sports-related infrastructure, this paper focuses on bus rapid transit (BRT) as an “indirect legacy” to understand the way in which cities exploit the financial and political capital made available to advance projects long delayed behind more pressing endeavors. The compressed time horizons, unlocked financing and focused planning can be a “mixed blessing” however by limiting the scope of the project to the event. The paper concludes that in South Africa advancing development through the World Cup reinforced state authority and legitimacy.     

Collaborative Visioning or Urban Planning as Therapy? The Politics of Public‐Private Policy Making

One aspect of a recent restructuring of urban economies, societies, and spaces has been a change in urban planning practice. Planning is increasingly privatized and decentralized in U.S. cities. Private planning consultants are often hired by public‐private coalitions in order to shape the future of cities, while the planning processes they institute are frequently claimed to be consensus‐based, collaborative, and inclusionary, rather than elite‐centered and expert‐driven. This paper discusses the use of “visioning”—an increasingly popular technique that develops goals for the future of a city through consensus‐based meetings, open to all parties—as developed by New Century Lexington, a public‐private planning initiative in Lexington, Kentucky. It argues that: (1) new public‐private planning procedures, incorporating collaborative techniques, frequently become the institutional sites of political struggle over how future urban geographies are produced; (2) in order to understand the role of visioning in contemporary urban politics and in policy making outcomes, we must recognize the sociospatial context in which it is deployed; and (3) in the case of New Century, the way in which local elites controlled the mechanics of the visioning process made dissent difficult and, therefore, produced a vision of the future largely parallel to their standard economic development models.     

The Sochi 2014 olympics: nationalism,globalized place-making and multiscalar legitimacy

The Olympics literature typically makes cities the predominant unit of analysis and investigates how and why certain cities host the Games. This article examines how the international and national self-seeking bureaucratic elites instrumentalize the Games across several spatial scales, with a host city functioning as a stage on which the multi-scalar actors use the Olympics to increase their legitimacy and to coopt large groups of populations and elites. The article offers the concept of multiscalar Olympics legitimacy necessary for the analysis of the organization of mega-events and their consequences for cities. It asks, how the actors at various geographical scales managed and exploited the Games? Drawing on the theories of legitimacy and mega-events, and data from interviews conducted in Russia between 2009 and 2015, I demonstrate that organizers used cooptation of professionals and nationalist legitimization as the instruments facilitating host city involvement in the Olympics.     

Co‐inhabiting public spaces: diversity and playful encounters in Darwin,Australia

When fear and anxiety circulate in public spaces of diverse western cities, heightened surveillance can provide a sense of safety and comfort. These measures of surveillance that target bodies that are ‘out of place’, however, are limited in animating public spaces. This paper focuses on Darwin, a small but rapidly growing north Australian city where the visibility of Aboriginal people from Greater Darwin/regional communities and migrant newcomers from countries in Africa, South Asia and the Middle East often circulates fear and anxiety and deadens public spaces. I argue that playful events or spontaneous multisensory encounters of humans, non‐humans and material things, however, have the potential to animate these public spaces. The paper focuses on these events in a Drop‐in open‐air café‐community garden‐Op shop in a culturally diverse northern suburb of Darwin. It suggests that the vibrancy of matter and the vitality of non‐human forms of life can inform how we co‐inhabit cities of difference and unsettle policies of social cohesion that focus on integration into a dominant white majority culture.     

试论公众防灾意识教育及其在城市安全中的作用

大多数城市灾害的发生都具有典型的突发性和不确定性,当特大灾害发生时,现有的工程措施已不能有效地避免灾害造成的危害,人们面对灾害的行为及反应成为减灾中一个决定性因素。从一定程度上讲,对公众的环境教育的不够是导致中国每年灾害损失较大的主要原因之一。通过探讨环境教育在灾害发生过程中对救灾、减灾的影响及其社会效应,对公共环境教育的途径提出了建议。     

The Delhi Bias: knowledge hegemony of India's slum governance

Slum eradication has been a concern in South Asian cities since the colonial times. Legislation and policies are being framed both out of national desires and international strategies. However, very little is being studied on how these legislation and policies come into being, specifically geography's influence in their formulation. The article analyses parliamentary debates from India (Rajya Sabha, 1953–2014), and outlines the process of historical, political, and institutional dominance of Delhi. It shows that the slum legislation and policies in India are formulated by abstracting cases from the Delhi slums. This knowledge hegemony of Delhi is discussed within the growing consideration towards urban theory's southern shift, which puts the Southern cities (megacities) as underdogs. The paper argues that at a regional level, these megacities exert the same hegemony that the southern theory wants to avoid. The results argue towards broadening the southern theory and ordinary city discussions.     

世界文化遗产时空分布及其与人类城市文明的关系

将位于城市中的联合国教科文组织世界文化遗产名单在Google地图上完整体现,全样本统计、分析城市中的世界文化遗产的时空分布特征,试图揭示世界文化遗产与人类文明（尤其是城市文明）发展历程之间的相互关系。实证结果显示：1）被认定的世界文化遗产总数832项,其中417项与人类城市文明发展相关联,多数为城市的历史城区建筑景观;2）从空间上看,反映欧美地区城市文明的世界文化遗产最多,非洲地区最少,这与经济发展水平和城市文明发达程度相关;3）结合时间维度,古代（3500 B.C.―A.D.500）城市中的世界文化遗产主要分布在耕种农业发达的沿河地区以及宗教类遗址所在地;中世纪（A.D.500―A.D.1500）遗产数量的变化见证了中世纪城市文明由初期的式微走向后期复兴活跃的过程,亚洲等区域宫殿类、古典园林类、坛庙等多种类型遗产的出现说明了文明在欧洲之外地区的生长;16世纪至今遗产的数量最多,遗产类型更为丰富,出现殖民城市遗产、军事要塞类遗产、工业遗产以及线性文化遗产,展示了殖民扩张、工业发展过程,以及以线性的方式体现城市历史的动态发展和功能演变;4）从世界文化遗产与城市文明的关系来看,城市中的世界文化遗产反映了人类解决城市问题的智慧,展现了特殊城市深厚的人文艺术底蕴,同时宏观上世界文化遗产基本覆盖了全球人类城市文明的历史进程以及不同区域的人类文明,体现了不同地域的典型特色、文化多样性与发展的延续性。总的来说,在全球化以及我国“一带一路”发展战略的背景下,城市中的世界文化遗产是城市文明的重要载体,未来研究亟需利用更广阔、更多元的视角探讨跨地域、跨国界下的文化遗产保护和发展。     

Southeast Asian cities as co-producers of ecological knowledge in transnational city networks

In a polycentric world, cities increasingly bear responsibility for implementing climate policies. To do so, they establish transnational city networks (TCNs), which produce ambitious imaginaries of the future of cities, such as ‘smart cities’ or ‘resilient cities’, based on ecological knowledge. This paper analyses Southeast Asian (SEA) cities’ participation in TCNs. First, this paper presents city networks operating in SEA. Then, drawing on a case study of Quezon City, this paper shows how SEA cities often position themselves in the network as knowledge consumers rather than (co)producers and prefer to learn from cities in the Global North. This research also shows how TCNs—with limited success—seek to counter this neo-colonial knowledge flow model. The paper contributes to the literature on TCNs, arguing that the ongoing North–South imbalance needs to be addressed if networks are to promote viable models of future SEA cities. Identifying the patterns of knowledge flows inside TCNs, this study argues that networks should assist cities in imagining possible city futures beyond the experiences of the select world and global cities. TCNs should pay more attention to supporting their SEA members in looking ‘outwards’ to comparable cities worldwide rather than merely ‘upwards’ to global and mega-cities.     

Was ‘Black Wednesday’ avoidable? The Melcom disaster in Accra puts a generation on trial

This study contributes to the existing literature on disaster risk preparedness in sub‐Saharan African cities. The paper demonstrates how corruption and personal greed condemn society to the mercy of disaster events, by examining stakeholders′ perspectives on the causal factors of the collapse of a Melcom shopping centre in Accra and by situating the event within the broader context of disaster management. A high concentration of people and physical and financial assets in cities means that a single accident can cause catastrophic effects and destroy years of development gains. The paper shows how increasing urbanization is shaping where and when disaster strikes and whom it affects most. It further emphasizes the need for disaster risk reduction practitioners to communicate with urban planning professionals in the planning and implementation of development projects. Significantly, the evidence suggests that the government has failed to incorporate lessons gleaned from past disasters into policies to avert future disasters. The paper concludes that a deeper understanding of the root causes of past events and a sustained focus on risk reduction and disaster preparedness are crucial to mitigating the impact of hazards and building resilient cities.     

The Nearshore as Public Space: Controlling Access to the Coastal Ocean

In this paper I examine how the politics of mobility is an important factor when considering the contentious nature of urban growth debates. By a politics of mobility I mean the political struggle over what type of transportation mode—be it automobile, transit, or walking—is developed in a city, and how urban space is configured to make various modes functional. More importantly, the politics of mobility is an extension of competing and contested ideologies and normative values about how the city should be configured and for whom. I provide a case study of Atlanta, Georgia's business elites and their negotiation of the politics of mobility as they confronted a mobility crisis of congestion and air pollution. This paper provides a platform for further comparative research on urban growth debates in an era of increasing environmental and social problems stemming from transportation policy.     

Contesting ‘Local’ Commemoration of the Second World War: the case of the Changi Chapel and Museum in Singapore

This paper concerns the performance of national war memory at the Changi Chapel and Museum, a site honouring the many prisoners interned in Japanese-Occupied Singapore—especially at Changi—during the Second World War. In the light of the global nature of ‘the Changi story’, and the predominantly transnational nature of its present in situ memorialisation, we first examine how the Singapore state has sought to ‘localise’ the site to make it equally appealing to Singaporeans, as a place where a sense of their ‘shared history’ may be invoked. We then explore the Singaporeans' views about the site and its reconfiguration as a national icon, arguing how the state's task of ‘localising’ the site has been a vexed process due to myriad factors such as ethnic and religious plurality, and the already foreign-centric bias of prevailing knowledge about Changi. Following that, we show how this performance of national memory is also inflected by Australia's national remembrance of the same event. More broadly, we highlight the contested process of ‘localising’ such war memoryscapes as national iconography, suggesting how it may be more fruitful to conceive them as ‘international memoryscapes’, or places to which all individuals can relate regardless of race or national affiliations.     

乌昌地区基本公共服务失配度时空格局演化及影响因素分析

通过将基本公共服务作为一种民生资源,从失配视角研究其配置问题,运用熵值法和健康距离模型,分析乌昌地区2007—2016年基本公共服务失配度时空格局及其影响因素,为推进乌昌地区基本公共服务均等化建设提供决策依据。研究发现:乌昌地区8个市县基本公共服务失配度的平均值逐渐减小,2007年为0.759,属于高度失配,2016年为0.573,属于低度失配;2007年高度失配市县占比高达87.5%,2016年,基本公共服务配置较高、高度失配的市县占比仅为25%,整体上各市县基本公共服务状态有所提高,但2016年基本公共服务失配市县占比仍高达75%,说明乌昌地区仍有较多市县基本公共服务不协调。时间上,基本公共服务失配度演化主要经历3个阶段:高度失配主导阶段(2007—2011年)、失配度下降过渡阶段(2012—2014年)和中度失配主导阶段(2015—2016年)。空间上,基本公共服务失配度由均衡高度失配逐渐演进成不均衡中低度失配,并呈现出"核心、两翼"格局,"两翼"基本公共服务大多处于高度失配和较高度失配状态,而"核心"则一直处于良好或优秀状态,在变化趋势上,失配度由"核心"向"两翼"逐渐变化,离"核心"越近的市县基本公共服务失配度越早呈现下降趋势。     

Urban–agricultural water appropriation: the Hyderabad, India case

With the urbanisation drive comes steady growth in urban water demand. Although in the past this new demand could often be met by tapping unclaimed water sources, this option is increasingly untenable in many regions where little if any unclaimed water remains. The result is that urban water capture, and the appropriation of associated physical and institutional infrastructure, now often implies conflict with other existing uses and users. While the urbanisation process has been studied in great depth, the processes and, critically, impacts of urban water capture and appropriation are not well researched or understood. This paper undertakes a critical examination of the specific case of Hyderabad, one of India's fastest growing cities, to shed light more generally on the process of water capture by cities and the resultant impacts on pre-existing claims, particularly agriculture. It does this by examining the history and institutional response to Hyderabad's urban–rural water contest; how the results of that contest are reflected in surface and groundwater hydrology; and the eventual impacts on agriculture. The findings show that the magnitude, and sometimes even direction, of impact from urban water transfer vary in space and time and depend on location-specific rainfall patterns, the nature of existing water infrastructure and institutions, and farmers' adaptive capacities and options, notably recourse to groundwater. Broader consideration of the specific findings provides insights into policy mechanisms to reduce the possible negative impacts from the global, and seemingly inexorable, flow of water to the world's growing cities.     

基于高端时尚消费品销售空间的中国城市控制力结构研究

自"世界城市"和"全球城市"研究开始,在对城市控制力的相关研究中,除了传统的人口、经济等属性数据外,研究对象高度集中于生产性的工作空间,即制造业企业和高端生产服务业企业。但卡斯特对其流动空间的理论阐述中明确表述了商务人士除工作地点以外的以高端消费者服务业为代表的消费性空间也应纳入流动空间的控制层-商务精英层之中的观点。因此,在对城市控制力结构的研究中,高端消费者服务业可以成为制造业企业和高端生产者服务业的一个有效的补充。从高端消费者服务业视角出发,通过对高端时尚消费品销售网络空间分布的研究,在多个层面对中国城市的高端生活服务控制力中心结构进行解析。通过研究得到以下主要结论:①城市控制力中心在中国国土范围内呈现菱形结构,从东部直接跳跃至西部,中部呈现为低洼地带;②三大城市群内部的城市控制力多中心结构开始显现,其中长三角地区的发育较为明显;③西部和东北仍呈现单中心据点发育格局。     

老年人公交移动性的季节时空分异特征研究——以安徽省芜湖市为例

移动性是老年人生活质量的重要影响因素,提高老年人的移动性是延长老年人独立生活时间,从而减小社会养老成本的重要手段。公共交通是中国老年人较长距离出行的最主要交通方式,但已有研究对公交移动性的关注较少。论文从季节时空分异的角度出发,利用安徽省芜湖市智能公交卡数据,分析不同季节老年人公交移动性静态空间集聚特征以及季节变化条件下移动性变化值的空间集聚特征。结果表明：① 老年人公交移动性空间集聚明显,呈现圈层式分布的特征。不同季节、不同移动性指标在城市中心、城市中心外围和城市边缘的集聚现象存在较大差异。② 老年人公交移动性的时空分异现象是复合的,不同城市空间对季节变化的敏感程度存在差异,主要呈现出从城市中心向外递增的趋势。研究公交移动性的季节时空分异现象可以为老年友好型城市的规划建设提供更加适当的规划和灵活的政策建议。     

The divergence between acceptability of municipal services and urbanization in developing countries: insights from Accra and Sekondi-Takoradi,Ghana

Abstract

In most developing countries, the provision of municipal services and infrastructure invariably fails to match the pace and demands of urbanization. The outcome is often increased informality due to improper planning, official bureaucratic barriers and perhaps insufficient and shrinking public resources, which then makes leveraging private capital for public service provision imperative. Drawing on in-depth qualitative fieldwork in two Ghanaian cities, this paper aims to extend literature on the divergence between service provision and urbanization in developing countries. More specifically, it attempts to qualify recent macro-level data indicating that access to water, sanitation and electricity services in Accra and Sekondi-Takoradi is improving substantively. Contrary to dominant policy narratives circulating in Ghana, we illustrate how the acceptability of key municipal services within urban settings is often inadequate, and how acceptability is tied to spatial and temporal factors. We then identify and examine the reasons underpinning these variations. Through exploring residents’ perceptions of key services, and examining critically the possibility and feasibility of meeting urban service needs through leveraging private resources, this paper contributes to broader academic debates over urban service provision, while also feeding into contemporary policy discussions concerning how to achieve several of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.     

Network Topology and City Accessibility of the Commercial Internet

The rapid growth in this decade of World Wide Web access through the Internet is supported by a complex matrix of telecommunications infrastructure. This paper presents an overview of the history of the Internet and recent efforts to measure its structure and performance, and examines the spatial organization of the commercial Internet backbone. The research presented in this paper differs from previous Internet measurement work in that we apply network analysis methods to evaluate Internet connectivity. Transportation network analysis techniques are applied to measure 1) connectivity of individual service provider networks and 2) accessibility of cities to Internet service. The results reveal many different strategies implemented by service providers in network design as well as large differences in levels of accessibility of cities and regions in the United States. There is also an apparent disparity between population and city accessibility to the Internet.     

Network Topology and City Accessibility of the Commercial Internet

The rapid growth in this decade of World Wide Web access through the Internet is supported by a complex matrix of telecommunications infrastructure. This paper presents an overview of the history of the Internet and recent efforts to measure its structure and performance, and examines the spatial organization of the commercial Internet backbone. The research presented in this paper differs from previous Internet measurement work in that we apply network analysis methods to evaluate Internet connectivity. Transportation network analysis techniques are applied to measure 1) connectivity of individual service provider networks and 2) accessibility of cities to Internet service. The results reveal many different strategies implemented by service providers in network design as well as large differences in levels of accessibility of cities and regions in the United States. There is also an apparent disparity between population and city accessibility to the Internet.     

重大事件公众参与的国际经验与教训

作为一种新的旨在刺激举办地经济发展的、具有潜在高风险的公共政策,奥运会、世博会等重大事件有广泛的公众参与要求．而事实上公众很少能参与重大事件的决策过程。本文从参与领域、途径和保障等角度．对国外重大事件公众参与的实践进行了分析,并得出最终结论：在重大事件管理的全过程（研究-申办-筹办-举办-事后管理）．公众都能以不同形式参与进来;而且,只要是事件管理者主动吸收公众参与．他们大都倾向于使用较高级的参与形式。另外,对国外相关事件的公众参与经验进行归纳总结．也能给北京奥运会、上海世博会的组织者带来有益的启示。     

Southern Suburb/Northern City: Black Entrepreneurship in Segregated Arlington County,Virginia

Most scholarship on racial segregation in U.S. cities retraces the Great Migration, from the rural South to the urbanizing, industrializing North. Arlington County, Virginia, adjacent to the large, prosperous black community of Washington, D.C., provides a unique opportunity to study processes that transcended this dichotomy. During segregation blacks were limited to living and doing business in three of the County's 38 census tracts. Using census data, telephone records, and interviews with black residents, this paper explores the black-owned businesses that grew in Arlington during segregation and the fate of those businesses following integration, concluding that the nature of the businesses was largely determined by the County's unique context. The black neighborhoods were dispersed, lacking public transportation, with insufficient residents to support the self-contained business infrastructure found in many segregated cities of similar size. Conversely Arlington's black residents were welcomed in the extensive black-owned business infrastructure of nearby Washington, D.C.