Immigrants and world cities: from the hyper-diverse to the bypassed

A relationship between globalization, cities and immigration is increasingly apparent. Whether one is trying to understand Dubai, Toronto, or London, immigrants are culturally, economically, and spatially changing cities in significant ways. This study compares the roster of world cities with that of major urban immigrant destinations. The number of major urban immigrant destinations is growing due to the acceleration of immigration driven by income differentials, social networks and various state and local policies to recruit skilled and unskilled labor and replenish population. This study will present urban-level data on the foreign-born for 145 metropolitan areas of over 1 million people. It will focus on the world’s 19 metropolitan areas with over 1 million foreign-born residents. Analysis of the data suggests that there is a range of destination types. Although not all world cities are immigrant gateways, many are.     

State rescaling and new metropolitan space in the age of austerity. Evidence from Italy

This article presents the changes that are emerging in the Italian national policies mainly through the discussion of the contents both of the recent metropolitan reform initiative, and the national programming documents for metropolitan cities related to European Programming period 2014–2020. In Italy, which faced severe political difficulty and economic stagnation after 2008 global crisis, the production of the new metropolitan scale became one of the tools for the implementation of austerity measures. The paper examines whether the understanding of the new metropolitan scale in the Italian geography of austerity can be strengthened through a careful engagement with the body of literature on state rescaling and on austerity policies. The paper illustrates how that the apparently neutral emphasis on metropolitan city scale, first can be understood as a crucial tool of an austerity measures; second, it implies a rescaling of public power and, third, it neglects the multifaceted notion of the urban and the trans-scalar territorial governance relationships.     

Kenya’s Secondary Cities Growth Strategy at a Crossroads: Which Way Forward?

Kenya has been promoting equitable urban and regional development since the 1970s despite the lack of a clearly formulated national urban policy or an urban and regional development policy. A key element of the country’s equitable urban and regional development effort is the promotion of secondary cities that would relieve population pressure in the countryside, help to better integrate the country’s rural and urban economies, help to reduce congestion and improve the quality of life in the metropolitan cities of Nairobi and Mombasa, and help increase the modernization spin-off which urban centers provide to the surrounding rural areas. Using recent census and economic survey data, this paper examines the current state of Kenya’s secondary cities in the context of its urban and regional development strategies. The paper finds that: (1) the country’s urban and regional development strategies have failed to work as planned largely because of insufficient devolution of power and fiscal responsibility to municipal and other local government units, (2) the country’s secondary cities are faced with immense challenges that undermine their ability to live up to expectations, (3) some of these cities have significantly grown economically over the last four decades despite immense challenges, and (4) Nairobi’s dominance of Kenya’s economy continues because of policies that unwittingly concentrate investments there. The paper concludes with strategies that could enhance the country’s urban and regional development programs and, in the process, aid the development of its secondary cities.     

Situating queer migration within (national) welfare regimes

Building on recent criticisms within the literature on queer migration raised by Andrew Gorman-Murray and Nathaniel Lewis, the article explores ‘unconventional’ trajectories of queer migration: a Global North metropolitan area-Global North metropolitan area one and a Global North metropolitan area-Global North ordinary city one. Two very different migration patterns are analyzed: the movement of young queer ‘creative’ Italians from different metropolitan areas (Rome, Milan, Bologna, Catania, Naples, Padua and Turin) towards Berlin (Germany) and the relocation of young queers from the major Italian cities (Rome and Milan) towards ordinary/small size towns. Aimed at highlighting the complexity of material and immaterial factors leading the decision to migrate in times of crisis, austerity politics and increasing unemployment, the article introduces the role of welfare regimes in shaping migration’s choices. This way, queer migrants and their socio-economic status and possibilities find materially situated within national/local welfare regimes, thus challenging the teleological binarism of the ‘coming-out’ journey always presuming a rural/urban movement for queer subjects. Within such a framework, the ordinary/small size town can become a place for ‘outness’ and self-realization of queer migrants who create bridges and connections with the metropolitan areas, thus queering the provincial contexts.     

河西地区城镇体系特征及未来发展构想

河西地区城镇体系在空间地域结构上,表现出绿洲城镇的特点;在职能类型结构上,以综合性城镇为主;在规模等级结构上,具有经济不发达地区城镇体系的共性. 未来城镇体系建设,必须从区域整体发展的宏观思路出发,统一构建与绿洲环境相协调的城镇体系格局,使水资源能够支持重点城镇的发展,围绕酒泉市、张掖市、武威市和敦煌市4个区域中心城市,有意识地利用"点-轴"结构,积极培育次级中心,形成空间分布合理、职能类型多样、规模等级协调的城镇体系网络,促进河西地区社会经济的持续发展.     

Kenya’s Secondary Cities Growth Strategy at a Crossroads: Which Way Forward?

Kenya has been promoting equitable urban and regional development since the 1970s despite the lack of a clearly formulated national urban policy or an urban and regional development policy. A key element of the country’s equitable urban and regional development effort is the promotion of secondary cities that would relieve population pressure in the countryside, help to better integrate the country’s rural and urban economies, help to reduce congestion and improve the quality of life in the metropolitan cities of Nairobi and Mombasa, and help increase the modernization spin-off which urban centers provide to the surrounding rural areas. Using recent census and economic survey data, this paper examines the current state of Kenya’s secondary cities in the context of its urban and regional development strategies. The paper finds that: (1) the country’s urban and regional development strategies have failed to work as planned largely because of insufficient devolution of power and fiscal responsibility to municipal and other local government units, (2) the country’s secondary cities are faced with immense challenges that undermine their ability to live up to expectations, (3) some of these cities have significantly grown economically over the last four decades despite immense challenges, and (4) Nairobi’s dominance of Kenya’s economy continues because of policies that unwittingly concentrate investments there. The paper concludes with strategies that could enhance the country’s urban and regional development programs and, in the process, aid the development of its secondary cities.     

基于分形理论和Kohonen网络的城镇体系的非线性研究——以长江三角洲地区为例

结合长江三角洲地区，探讨分形理论、人工神经网络（Kohonen网络）在城镇体系研究中的应用问题：运用分形理论，计算长江三角洲地区城镇体系规模结构分形分布的分维数和城镇体系空间结构的关联维数，并分析其规模结构和空间结构的分形结构特征；运用Kohonen神经网络模型，对长江三角洲地区的城市进行城市职能分类，分析其职能结构；提出长江三角洲地区城镇体系的发展对策，同时分别评述分形理论和Kohonen网络方法在城镇体系研究中存在的优势与不足，并提出其改进方法。     

The cityscapes of European capital cities

Capital cities are politico-administrative centers. They are command centers, they symbolize authority and also the unit that is governed. Primarily they are capitals of states, but other governance systems may also have capitals. In the European context there are now regional capital cities and at least the concept of a European capital. Particularly on account of their symbolic function but also for the uses made of its appearance in political life, the cityscape of capital cities is an interesting topic for research. There are different types of capital cities in Europe that give rise to different cityscapes. Existing urban networks and types of political regime are important in this respect. Although cityscapes are pretty stable, they are differently perceived over time and uses made of them also change. A research agenda for this intersection of historical, cultural and political geography should concentrate on the evolution of these cityscapes, their perception and the uses made of them in the acting out of politics.     

中国城市地质调查总体构想与关键理论技术

近年来,我国在城市群、大城市和中小城镇等不同层面组织开展了大量的城市地质调查,在城市地质资源、地质环境、发展空间的调查评价,以及地质信息服务城市管理制度建设等方面取得了丰富成果,在调查技术方法、成果产品服务、工作协调机制等方面积累了一些经验,但和新型城镇化的需求相比,还存在着工作理念较落后、地质信息更新慢,成果体系没标准、工作机制不完善等诸多不足。国家新型城镇化发展战略提出了全新的城市发展理念,在优化城市结构布局、拓展城市发展空间、推进绿色城市建设、提高城市安全保障水平等方面,对城市地质调查提出了迫切需求。新时期应该以全新的思路开展城市地质调查,要树立大资源、大环境、大数据理念,服务城市规划、建设、运行、管理等多个层面,开展空间、资源、环境、灾害等多要素综合调查,打造地下三维可视化的城市地质模型(透明城市),完善空天地一体化的地质资源环境监测网络,建立开放共享、动态更新的城市地质信息服务与决策支持系统,构建城市地质调查成果服务产品体系、技术标准体系和保障制度体系。为实现这个目标,需要建立城市资源环境承载能力、城市多圈层交互带、地下空间资源协同规划等理论,开展城市地质探测与监测、国土空间开发地质适宜性评价、地下空间开发利用地质安全评价、三维城市地质建模与公共服务等技术攻关。     

Megacities and natural disasters: a comparative analysis*

Natural disasters are a worsening problem in many of the world's largest cities. Since an increasing majority of the world's population will soon live in cities, and mostly in large cities, the trend towards increasing urban hazard poses serious societal challenges for the future. Beginning in the mid-1990s, the International Geographical Union's Study Group on the Disaster Vulnerability of Megacities undertook a series of case studies of megacities that have been – and are – exposed to major natural disasters. These include: Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, Lima, Mexico City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, London and Dhaka. Case studies focused on reviewing the historic record of major disasters in each city and on documenting recent changes in different components of hazard including, risk, exposure, vulnerability and response. It was found that exposure and vulnerability are the components of hazard that are changing fastest and with the gravest implications for urban populations. Because hazards are only one part of the typical urban management agenda, hazards management in large cities should be pursued with careful regard to the context of general urban policy manking and management. Sustainability has become a guiding principle of urban management but the relationship between hazard and sustainability is little understood and little explored. The way lies open for hazard researchers to develop alternative contextualized approaches to the analysis and resolution of urban hazard issues. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The fall and rise of metropolitan government in Copenhagen

In this paper it is argued that the re-establishment of a metropolitan government in the Greater Copenhagen Area in 2000 (Greater Copenhagen Authority) is not to be seen as a return to the kind of regional, coordinative authority (Greater Copenhagen Council) that was abolished in the Thatcherite climate of the 1980s. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s new forms of urban governance, entrepreneurialism and a higher national priority to the capital region were introduced, which changed the conditions under which the new metropolitan government is operating. This `contextualization' of the analysis of the two generations of metropolitan government points to the fact that typologies of metropolitan government, such as the one put forward by Sharpe (1995), often lacks analytical cogency. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

基于城市地质质量研究

将安全、和谐、环境、经济和是否占有资源等指标作为评价城市地质质量的5个因子,并以河南省郑州、平顶山、焦作、鹤壁四个主要城市为例,在调查分析了城市存在的自然地质因素（地质构造、岩土）和人为活动影响次生因素等主要问题基础上,建立起自然地质因素、人为次生因素等与5个评价因子之间的逻辑联系;根据地质因素对城市因子的影响程度的轻重,进行专家赋值判别运算,采用层次分析法（AHP））进行权重分析,对四个城市的城市地质质量进行了评估。结果认为Z-Ⅰ、Z-Ⅱ、J-Ⅱ、H-Ⅰ、H-Ⅱ、P—Ⅱ、P—Ⅲ、H—Ⅲ等区良好以上,适宜城市可持续发展;P—Ⅰ、H-Ⅳ等区质量不高,存在问题较多,应在城市建设发展中引起注意。同时指出城市地质是城市发展中的一个重要的基本因素,城市的建设、可持续发展方案的制定需要关注城市地质质量、依赖城市地质。     

The changing distribution of incomes in Dutch cities: myth and reality

Segregation is a central concept in the debate on urban issues, both in scientific literature and in society in general. The process of globalisation is particularly expected to increase polarisation and segregation in cities, resulting in the emergence of ‘ghettos’ or – as they are called in the Netherlands – ‘income neighbourhoods’. This paper tries to judge the situation in Dutch cities by studying changes over time; by looking at segregation within cities as well as between cities and the wider metropolitan area; and by comparing socio-economic differences with socio-cultural and socio-demographic characteristics. The analysis shows that the empirical facts are quite different from the ongoing debate. It establishes that socio-economic segregation is more moderate than segregation with respect to the other two dimensions. Contrary to suggestions from the vernacular debate, segregation within cities is scarcely increasing, but between cities and the surrounding area it is rising with respect to all three dimensions. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Milan: The city of constant renewal

Traditional models of urban development are no longer adequate to describe current metropolitan transformations. These are now at the centre of a debate concerning management and administration. In Italy, delays in resolving problems of urban and metropolitan government, despite the legal framework provided by Law 142/90, have weighed heavily on the larger urban areas of the country: Rome, Naples, Milan, which have not been able to tackle the issue of metropolitan government. Recent legislation, while not providing a pre-defined institutional solution, allows separate administrative districts to collectively establish metropolitan institutions of `variable geometry'. The Milan urban area is not one city, but a system of mutually-dependent cities, linked to each other and the rest of the world by a transport network still requiring much investment. The vitality of its economic structure (especially its small firms) is held back by seriously inadequate infrastructure and low external economic efficiency. The provincial capital may boast `historic centrality' but the most interesting potential for development is to be found on the periphery and in the administrative districts immediately surrounding it, in the recovery of derelict industrial areas and dormitory towns established in the 1950s and 1960s, especially to the north. Recovery of derelict areas, green areas, and better transport links within the urban area and with the outside world are the key elements in the reorganization of `Greater Milan'. In this situation of rapid transformation the most appropriate political strategies involve negotiated planning. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Urban development in Germany — perspectives for the future

The essay portrays urban development in Germany at the end of the 20th century in the transition from Industrial Modernity to the New Modernity. The city of the Industrial Modernity is described as a traditionally closed and mixed city. It corresponds to the classical European model of the compact city with a clearly defined centre and a surrounding area which is unambiguously oriented towards this centre. This urban model is disintegrating in Germany. The essay explains this lingering but fundamental process of change. The inner cities are decreasing in importance in favour of the urban fringe, traditional relationships and connections with our cities are lost, new regional activity areas are emerging in the environs of cities. Although the urban impacts of new communication technologies have not been completely clarified, they are changing previous local relationships in the cities. This is not without consequences for urban neighbourhood relationships. The increasing polarisation in German society also affects urban structure. The social mixture in cities disappears on a small scale, public spaces are losing their functions, undesirable population groups are excluded from participation in urban life in new shopping, leisure and transport facilities. The interaction between private and public agents who influence and determine urban development has changed in recent years, and the civic sense of responsibility for the city must be newly defined. Hopes are put into the debates on the Local Agenda and - in spite of its dangers - into a project-oriented planning approach.     

近10年来城市地质学研究和城市地质工作进展述评

首先回顾了近10年来城市地质学研究的进展。国际上,城市地质学研究主要集中在城市地质与城市规划的结合、城市地质环境和灾害风险评价等方面,国内则集中在城市地质调查方法、城市地质灾害防治方法等方面。然后回顾了近10年来城市地质工作的情况。国际上,建立城市地质环境动态监测体系是一个新动向。在国内,城市地质调查仍然是今后很长一段时间的工作重点。最后针对目前存在的问题提出了若干对策:城市地质学研究要结合城市发展过程中面临的重大问题,积极运用现代信息技术,大力培养专业人才,主动为城市规划建设服务,编制城市地质工作专项规划,建立城市地质工作成果流通机制等。     

Exploring the structure of the U.S. intercity passenger air transportation network: a weighted complex network approach

The U.S. airline network is one of the most advanced transportation infrastructures in the world. It is a complex geospatial structure that sustains a variety of dynamics including commercial, public, and military operations and services. We study the U.S. domestic intercity passenger air transportation network using a weighted complex network methodology, in which vertices represent cities and edges represent intercity airline connections weighted by average daily passenger traffic, non-stop distance, and average one-way fares. We find that U.S. intercity passenger air transportation network is a small-world network accompanied by dissortative mixing patterns and rich-club phenomenon, implying that large degree cities (or hub cities) tend to form high traffic volume interconnections among each other and large degree cities tend to link to a large number of small degree cities. The interhub air connections tend to form interconnected triplets with high traffic volumes, long non-stop distances, and low average one-way fares. The structure of the U.S. airline network reflects the dynamic integration of pre-existing urban and national transportation infrastructure with the competitive business strategies of commercial airlines. In this paper we apply an emerging methodology to representing, analyzing, and modeling the complex interactions associated with the physical and human elements of the important U.S. national air transport and services infrastructure.     

国内外城市环境地质工作进展

城市化是世界各国发展的共同趋势，是人类文明和进步的标志。论文简述了国内外城市环境地质工作的历史发展，着重论述了城市地质工作的内容，指出我国城市环境地质中存在的问题。如地面沉降、地裂缝、岩溶塌陷等地质灾害及水资源短缺、城市废弃物处置以及特殊岩土环境问题。为了提高城市规划和确保城市可持续发展，仅从以下5个方面提出了我国城市地质工作的方向：(1)城市地质环境条件、地质资源综合调查评价；(2)城市主要环境地质问题调查；(3)城市群、城市密集区环境地质适宜性综合评价；(4)城市环境地质综合研究；(5)城市环境地质信息系统建设。     

A thousand years of loneliness? Globalization from the perspective of a city in a European periphery

Most cities face the challenge of increasing global and local change. Much of what has been said about cities in a globalized world has been concerned with large metropolitan cites. It has been postulated that increased competitiveness is the relevant response, and that urban governance has to change from managerialism to entrepeneurialism in order to cope with this challenge. The first part of the paper discusses some aspects of this body of theory, and the relevance for sub-national regional capitals. It also discusses how the scope of strategies depend on changing national and regional policies. The second part uses the case of Trondheim to discuss how these cities perceive and deal with globalization. Four policy options are discussed; the clientist strategy, the competitive strategy, the isolationist strategy and finally the option of doing nothing at all. The article concludes that global challenges will force local government in small cities to forge new strategies, but the preferred option is a clientist strategy rather than an entrepreneurial one, and the scope of strategy is national rather than global. Thus, when dealing with small peripheral cities and globalization, the range of perspectives must be extended beyond entrepreneurialism and competitiveness.     

In poor health: Supermarket redlining and urban nutrition

Over the past 100 years, ethnic minorities and the poor have become increasingly concentrated and isolated in low-income urban neighborhoods. While the demographic changes in cities are well documented, the parallel history of urban retailing is less well known. Little research has been done on changes in urban food retailing, particularly as they concern the urban poor. As the residential character of urban neighborhoods changed during the 20th century, so did the amenities available in those neighborhoods. The low point for urban retailing was in the 1980s, when cities experienced a net loss of supermarkets even as, nationally, store openings exceeded closings. The trend toward fewer, bigger stores located outside cities has continued to the present. Some critics have referred to this disinclination of large chains to locate in cities as `supermarket redlining'. Changes in food availability are a key element in the changing social conditions of the urban poor and, as good nutrition is critical for good health, a contributing factor in the decline of urban health. This paper will examine changes in urban retail food availability, the impact these changes have had on the health status of the urban poor, strategies utilized by the urban poor to address inadequate access to quality food sources, and the role of supermarkets in distressed communities.