Downgrading – An overlooked reality in African cities: Reflections from an indigenous neighborhood of Accra,Ghana

African cities contain a range of low-income ethnic and cultural enclaves that defy conventional ‘slum’ typecasts and intervention guidelines. Further, new forms of urbanization (e.g. gated communities and informal settlements) have received heavy emphasis in recent urban geographic research. Such research emphases have many unintended consequences; one of which is that traditional indigenous neighborhoods in the older city are glossed over. This paper focuses on urban downgrading in Korle Gonno, a prominent and established indigenous community in Accra, Ghana. Using mixed-method data (including surveys), the results illustrate that a traditional neighborhood encounters many of the same dimensions of urban poverty as the more famed slums in the city, yet it experiences different poverty trajectories. We argue that the prevailing slum profiling techniques fall short of capturing these trajectories; more nuanced approaches that capture continuity and discontinuity with past and present socioeconomic processes are necessary. Attention must be rebalanced toward understanding the deterioration of these neighborhoods if policymakers, planners and urban theorists are to obtain a comprehensive picture of poverty dynamics and appropriate interventions in African cities.     

Geographical features and development models of estuarine cities

Cities are the key areas for human beings to achieve sustainable development goals in the future. Estuarine cities are a special type of coastal city in urgent need of a clear definition. This paper proposed that estuarine cities are cities developed on the coast where rivers and oceans meet and defined four connotations, including the intersection of rivers and marine water systems, the coordinated development of land and oceans, the location advantages of connecting rivers and seas, and the im...     

Post-revanchist cities?

This intervention focuses on how national-level rhetoric aimed at impugning “others” has thrived of late, but how concomitantly 1990s-style urban revanchism has faded in cities that were once punitive crucibles against the homeless. Using Los Angeles as case study, I argue that the recent trend has been to grudgingly support the homeless, increasingly via taxpayer initiatives, leading to a potential but stymied post-revanchist city. If the spirit of revanchism remains, it is through the persistent NIMBY opposition to housing the homeless.     

Governing cities through participation—a Foucauldian analysis of CityPlan Vancouver

In 1995 Vancouver City Council approved new policy guidelines for future urban development that departed from the traditional model of suburban growth, instead prioritizing urban intensification. Theoretically guided by the Foucauldian governmentality approach, I argue in this paper that this shift towards intensification can be understood through an analysis of Vancouver’s extensive participatory planning process known as CityPlan. Created as an answer to conflicts around the intensification of historically evolved urban neighbourhoods, CityPlan Vancouver exemplifies a specific form of urban governance that has been understudied in geography and participation research: a governance consisting of conducting the conduct of citizens through participatory processes. The paper examines this “governing through participation” by carrying out a microanalysis of the problematizations, rationalities, and technologies of CityPlan. Such an analysis differs significantly from an evaluation of participatory planning processes against normative ideals, and thus enriches critical research on participation in urban governance.     

The shape of Fraught – urban – rural – the nation-state: tensions and dynamics

I argue that the tension between cities and nation states go through the countryside, or rural areas, at least in the U.S. Further, cities are decidedly constrained in their abilities to effectuate many of the changes associated with them: addressing climate change, economic inequality and more. What is missing is the way in which rural alienation from economic prosperity plays out politically.     

The drivers and spatial distribution of economic efficiency in China’s cities

Journal of Geographical Sciences - This study analyzes cities in China at the prefecture level and above to calculate indices for “urban economic efficiency” (the relationship between...     

Urbanizing the nation-state? Notes on the geopolitical growth of cities and city-regions

This article suggests that the developments during the past few decades indicate a qualitative shift in the city/state relation, and conceptualizes this shift as the geopolitical growth of cities and city-regions. Originally a state-orchestrated process, today this is manifested in the attempts of major cities and city-regions, in particular, to demand a stronger national and international political role even as claims are made for urban separatism. This process is connected to a geopolitical reasoning of the heightened role of cities in inter-state competition during the age of post-Fordist capitalism. Furthermore, the geopolitical growth of cities and city-regions is partly constituted in academic theories and expert knowledges that combine certain type of urbanism, economic growth, and political success, and which in so doing destabilize state-centered geopolitical imaginations.     

Spatio-temporal distribution and transformation of cropland in geomorphologic regions of China during 1990–2015

Journal of Geographical Sciences - Landforms are an important factor determining the spatial pattern of cropland through allocation of surface water and heat. Therefore, it is of great importance...     

Deglaciation Chronology of Lofoten – Vesterålen – Ofoten,North Norway

A deglaciation chronology of the last ice sheet in Lofoten - Vesterålen - Ofoten based on regional shore displacement is presented. An isobase system and a shore zone diagram have been constructed. The heights of raised shore features refer to present mean tide level, and have been adjusted according to the variation in height of recent forms. Owing to this variation in particular, and deformation of features due to shore displacement, a shore zone diagram has been substituted for the traditional shore line diagram. Seven stages in the ice recession have been traced. The outermost probably occurred at a time close to the maximum of the last ice sheet. During its retreat, the ice became increasingly directed by topography. The situation of deposits in the landscape was determined by this. The regional shore displacement seems to indicate that the highest mountains in the area were nunataks during the last glacial maximum.     

Five decades of neighborhood classifications and their transitions: A comparison of four US cities, 1970–2010

This paper examines 50-year spatio-temporal trajectories of neighborhoods (Census Tracts) for four cities discerned by their population growth trends and spatial patterns of growth: Buffalo, New York; Charlotte, North Carolina; Chicago, Illinois; and Portland, Oregon. Using five decades of Census data from 1970 to 2010, a clustering procedure is used to establish five classes of neighborhoods: Suburban, Stability, Blue Collar, Struggling, and New Starts. The transitions and sequences of neighborhoods through these groups are compared, revealing marked differences in the dynamics of neighborhoods according by city. Findings show that while Struggling neighborhoods, characterized largely by high poverty and unemployment levels, were very unlikely to transition out of this group over the course of 50 years in the cities of Buffalo, Charlotte, and Chicago, nearly half Portland's struggling neighborhoods transitioned to a neighborhood of higher socioeconomic status during that time period. The types of neighborhoods that exhibited signs of gentrification also varied according to city. The variability of neighborhood trajectories was greatest for the rapidly growing cities of Charlotte and Portland while neighborhoods in Buffalo and Chicago tended to follow a more predicable downgrading process.     

Impacts of – and farmers’ adaptation to – land allocation policies in the north central uplands of Vietnam

A series of policies on land tenure have been implemented in Vietnam following the doi moi restructuring. This study assesses the impacts of these policies, the extent to which they have had intended effects and coping strategies adopted by farmers. Data were collected in five upland villages in Nghe An Province, North Central Vietnam. The intended effects of the land allocation policies were poverty alleviation, intensification of agriculture, agricultural modernization and forest protection. The policies implemented to achieve these goals include changes in land allocation, purportedly to increase land tenure security. However, the policies have been implemented in a very uneven manner and the effects differ widely due to differences in the local contexts in which they have been implemented. In general, farmers perceive the impacts of policies as adverse and have attempted to cope with their impact in a variety of ways. The paper argues that land allocation policies have: (1) decreased the amount of land available, (2) not improved land tenure security and (3) had a limited impact on farming practices. The differences between the five villages are great, demonstrating the very different results produced by national policies depending on the specific implementation modality and the local context.     

Gobabeb – 50 years of Namib Desert research

The Namib is a relatively well-studied hyperarid desert. Much of the research effort was coordinated through the institutional framework of the Gobabeb Research and Training Centre, which was established in the middle of this desert fifty years ago. The initial discoveries focused on the Namib's remarkably high biodiversity and adaptations to desert conditions, analysed against the foundations of research into this desert's particular climate, geomorphology and geology. The antiquity of this desert, its extreme hyperaridity, and strong climatic gradients provided unusual windows into ecosystem drivers in arid lands, past and present. The Gobabeb Centre itself evolved to translate much of its knowledge into application and is today geared to increase this trend even further, driven by the urgent need for knowledge-based environmental management, such as ecological restoration of mining areas.The current volume collates nine papers which review a cross-section of Namib research, with special focus on projects conducted through Gobabeb. These papers concern different facets of geomorphology where Namib research has led global understanding, reviewed in three papers, and one climatological review of the moisture regime. A review of reptile research illustrates the relationship between biodiversity processes and environmental factors, which is further sharpened in a comparison of dune lizard ecology between continents. The review of botanical research in the Central Namib fittingly binds much of the accumulated knowledge of desert plants into a detailed vegetation map. A review of research on the highly variable ephemeral river systems of the Namib illustrates how academic knowledge accumulated at Gobabeb connects to applied research, which is also the topic of the final paper concerning the knowledge gaps and research needs to provide the information required for ecological restoration.     

An empirical study of the registered population transformation in China’s megacities

From 2020 to 2030, accelerating the “citizenization” of the migrant population is key to promoting urbanization and achieving common prosperity. The urbanization rate of the registered population in China is roughly 18% lower than that of permanent residents. The pressure of the ageing population and the lack of a labor force have caused big cities to introduce relevant policies to attract talent, and the citizenization process needs to be improved urgently, with a particular focus on megacities. The transformation in the number of registered residents in megacities varies greatly, and there is a lack of research on this topic, which makes it an important academic issue. Using both natural and social perspectives, we selected concise indicators and combined the possibility-satisfiability model to estimate the urbanization transformation gap of annual household registration. Further, we constructed a panel data model to empirically analyze the different factors leading to the gap of household registration in megacities. The main factors affecting the transformation of the registered population in megacities are medical services, as well as educational resources and the urban water supply. It is urgent for urban and rural administrators to change the current passive and rigid institutional mechanisms and to ensure flexible, normal governance.