Revisiting the red light district: Still neglected, immoral and marginal?

Twenty years ago, Ashworth et al. (1988) offered a distinctive and innovative interpretation of a neglected aspect of the urban scene: the red light district. Focusing on the location of female prostitution in a series of Western European cities, their paper suggested that the geographies of sex work are revealing of some of the ‘less obvious’ social and political processes that shape urban space. Here, we revisit Ashworth et al’s paper in the light of subsequent developments in the organisation of commercial sex as well as the study of sexuality and space. Noting important continuities as well as major shifts in the location of sex work, with a significant shift to off-street forms of sex working having occurred, this paper argues that some of the ideas in Ashworth et al’s paper remain highly pertinent, but others appear in need of updating. In particular, we stress the importance of focusing on men as both clients and workers within the sex industry, and flag up a number of connections that might be made with the emerging literatures on the geographies of sex itself. We hence conclude by considering Ashworth et al’s paper as an important early intervention in debates surrounding the relations of sexuality and space, albeit one in which questions of gender, embodiment, and sexual desire remained largely unexplored.     

Social-geographical problems of a metropolitan region within a Soviet Republic (a case study of the Tbilisi metropolitan region, Georgia, U.S.S.R.)

While the capital city and its surrounding territory often forms the most important nodal region in any country, this very nodality may give rise to social problems. In the case of the Tbilisi metropolitan region, Georgia, U.S.S.R., social development has been conditioned by such factors as the Soviet centralized economic management system, administrative control of population in-migration, state ownership of land, and the tendency towards hyperurbanization. For most Georgians Tbilisi is the republic's most attractive city, and it is in actual fact the leading city in terms of material welfare. Nevertheless, the metropolitan region suffers from a number of concrete social problems whose significance is analysed by means of an opinion poll of metropolitan region inhabitants and a comparative poll conducted in a rural area. While some problems such as retail trade deficiency and the low quality of consumer goods appear to cause universal concern, others such as housing provision and design, ecological problems and social pathology (crime, alcoholism, drug abuse, prostitution) cause greater anxiety among metropolitan residents. It is hoped that recent policies of decentralization and economic reform will help solve some of these difficulties.     

Public space design as class warfare: Urban design, the `right to the city' and the production of Clinton Square, Syracuse, NY

Urban designers and their design process remain largely outside the literature on public space. Either designers are cast as simple tools of capitalist social relations, producing exclusionary public spaces, or they figure as entrepreneurs that complement economic renewal schemes through beautification measures that bring business and jobs to the city. This paper analyzes both of these arguments, through an ethnographic analysis of the urban design process behind the redevelopment of a public square in Syracuse, NY. I argue that aesthetic considerations most often derive from economic and political pressures, pressures that draw upon the social contexts of urban designers within an international division of labor and their relationship to class struggle. Because public space serves such an important role in political and social life, its status as a product of urban design should therefore act as a crucial component in any discussion of rights to the city.     

Architects and planners approaches to urban form and design in the Toronto region: A comparative analysis

This study compares architectural and planning approaches to urban form and design within a North American context. It presents a critical assessment of the results of semi-structured, in-depth interviews with a group of highly experienced architects, landscape architects, and planners from the Greater Toronto Region. Dialogues with practitioners revealed a growing intellectual divide in regard to understanding urban form and design issues. Planners portrayed the urban form as a product of social and economic forces or a backdrop for civic institutions, private development initiatives, and public action. Architects and landscape architects, on the other hand, emphasized the importance of built configurations and spatial relations in shaping economic, social, and cultural patterns. With such a polarized perspective of urban development processes, each group of practitioners proposed different and somewhat contradictory visions for the future of North American built forms. This study develops an understanding of theoretical and pragmatic concerns within design professions (architecture/landscape architecture) and social science professions (planning at large) that hamper the development of integrative urban design visions. It extends an interdisciplinary understanding of built environments and the forces that shape them and paves the way for more in-depth studies aimed at creating more integrative urban design theories and development strategies.     

非传统安全视角下的城市水安全概念辨析

城市水安全研究正从水治理向水安全管理方向发展,研究视角也从自然科学领域转向社会人文领域。然而国内外对城市水安全的研究还处于实践探索和经验分享的阶段,尚未形成一个完整、清晰的概念和理论体系。为此试图将城市水安全研究纳入非传统安全范畴来构建其理论体系,首先从安全的原义出发探讨城市水安全的学科归属,从主体间性来理解城市水安全的主体关系,从安全的物质和社会建构角度来剖析城市水安全化的动态过程,从非传统安全理论构建的一般框架来解构城市水安全的指涉对象及其安全价值,进而总结城市水安全的概念,为城市水安全乃至其他资源安全研究提供一种兼顾自然和人文的新思维方向。     

Migration and urban survival strategies in Windhoek, Namibia

Based on recent research in Windhoek, this paper demonstrates that it is the well established and widespread social linkages that persist between rural and urban households that are central to the ability of poor urban households to survive. Whereas informal coping mechanisms that include borrowing, piecework and credit are pervasive in rural areas of Namibia, intra-urban sources of food are poorly developed, and outside of kinship circles, social networks within Windhoek are used sparingly, even in times of greatest need. In addition, urban agriculture plays a very limited role at present in urban food supply. The research demonstrates that urban households that are most vulnerable to hunger are those that have limited social connections to the rural areas, and must rely on intra-urban opportunities to get food (including borrowing, begging, piecework and crime). The most vulnerable are female- and male-headed households with no access to farm income and limited/irregular urban incomes. In contrast, those with active rural-urban linkages enjoy significant transfers of food from rural areas that offset hunger and vulnerability in the urban context. Urban-rural reciprocity is therefore not only a one-way movement of people and resources from the urban to the rural areas, but also a transfer of food from rural to urban households.     

Identifying urban–rural differences in social vulnerability to natural hazards: a case study of China

Identifying and analyzing the urban–rural differences of social vulnerability to natural hazards is imperative to ensure that urbanization develops in a way that lessens the impacts of disasters and generate building resilient livelihoods in China. Using data from the 2000 and 2010 population censuses, this study conducted an assessment of the social vulnerability index (SVI) by applying the projection pursuit cluster model. The temporal and spatial changes of social vulnerability in urban and rural areas were then examined during China’s rapid urbanization period. An index of urban–rural differences in social vulnerability (SVI_D) was derived, and the global and local Moran’s I of the SVI_D were calculated to assess the spatial variation and association between the urban and rural SVI. In order to fully determine the impacts of urbanization in relation to social vulnerability, a spatial autoregressive model and Bivariate Moran’s I between urbanization and SVI were both calculated. The urban and rural SVI both displayed a steadily decreasing trend from 2000 to 2010, although the urban SVI was always larger than the rural SVI in the same year. In 17.5% of the prefectures, the rural SVI was larger than the urban SVI in 2000, but was smaller than the urban SVI in 2010. About 12.6% of the urban areas in the prefectures became less vulnerable than rural areas over the study period, while in more than 51.73% of the prefectures the urban–rural SVI gap decreased over the same period. The SVI_D values in all prefectures had a significantly positive spatial autocorrelation and spatial clusters were apparent. Over time, social vulnerability to natural hazards at the prefecture-level displayed a gathering–scattering pattern across China. Though a regional variation of social vulnerability developed during China’s rapid urbanization, the overall trend was for a steady reduction in social vulnerability in both urban and rural areas.

     

Evaluating housing and neighbourhood initiatives to improve the quality of life in deprived urban areas

Changes in the urban social geography; the development of urban neighbourhoods of multiple deprivation, in which different processes of social exclusion reinforce one another, is a grave challenge to the European society. Housing initiatives and local neighbourhood practices seem to be key factors in finding solutions in combating social exclusion and improving the quality of life in deprived urban neighbourhoods. The OECD-report `Integrating distressed urban areas' (Paris, 1998) states that a combination of policies focusing on specific urban areas and more general socio-economic measures are necessary to integrate such areas into the fabric of the cities. This evaluation of bottom-up neighbourhood solutions, within their national contexts, is the central focus of a European research project (NEHOM) involving housing researchers and providers in 8 European countries. Pilot case studies have been undertaken in United Kingdom, Norway and Hungary to test a common case study methodology. Using a range of indicators of improvements in the quality of life in case study areas, the research will seek to identify innovative housing initiatives and neighbourhood practices, as well as a toolkit for neighbourhood assessment and improvement. A special challenge for the research project is to assess and identify opportunities for and barriers to transferability of best practices and housing policies between European countries.     

县域统筹城乡发展综合评价研究——以陕西省华阴市为例

县域是统筹城乡发展最为关键和迫切的地域单元。统筹城乡发展,须以区域经济社会发展进入一定阶段为前提,涉及城乡经济、社会、文化、基础设施等多个方面,构建统筹城乡发展评价体系具有明显的复杂性。在回顾总结已有测评研究和对统筹城乡发展进行再认识的基础上,构建了3个一级指标、18个二级指标组成的评价指标体系,据此对陕西省华阴市统筹城乡发展水平进行综合评判,提出了统筹城乡发展的对策建议。     

The spatial formation of the South African City

The south African social formation is characterised by a distinctively large social distance. This paper traces the evolution of the social formation, identifies some of its parameter and demonstrates its on the urbanisation process and the urban structure. Within this framework, a Segregation City and an Apartheid City are recognised, representing two sequential but interrelated phases of urban development separated by the acceptance of a formal Apartheid ideology and development strategy from 1948 onwards.     

Flows,system boundaries and the politics of urban metabolism: Waste management in Mexico City and Santiago de Chile

In this paper we examine two central concepts of urban metabolism (‘system boundaries’ and ‘flows’), and explore how to approach them as a means to politicise urban metabolism research. We present empirical findings from two case studies of waste management, in Mexico City and Santiago de Chile, looking at: the materiality of waste flows, the actors involved in them, and how waste flows relate to issues of environmental justice. We argue that urban metabolism, as a methodology to understand urban sustainability, has the potential to produce knowledge to trigger urban transformations, and to analyse the social, political and environmental aspects of waste management in urban areas.     

Economic restructuring, social re-composition and recent urban changes in Portugal

The productive restructuring process has affected more than just the economic field, because its effects have been felt on urbanisation processes, on social relations, and on the spatial organisation of society. Starting from the ‘metapolis’ concept, developed by Ascher (1995), we analyse the evolution of new forms of urban space in Portugal, arguing that new urban forms generate new social inequalities and, in extreme cases, social exclusion. Portugal is a semi-peripheral country that combines certain of the trends in social and economic organisation common to core countries, with certain trends more common in the developing world. Thus the understanding of urban change in Portugal is a complex task, made more difficult by the rapidity of processes since the mid 1970s. The Lisbon Metropolitan Area has been deeply affected by the productive restructuring process. The role of economic and urban policies in the Lisbon region is discussed, and an assessment is made of certain measures aimed at solving economic and social problems. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Party politics,civil society and local democracy – Reflections from Johannesburg

Party politics are generally absent from urban governance or urban politics theories or debates, or present only anecdotally or as a ‘black box’, whilst they are more and more described, especially in Cities of the South, as central to urban societies, access to resources and social dynamics. This paper attempts, through the case of the role of the ANC in civil society in Johannesburg, to uncover the place and the role of political parties in urban governance. It first argues that the party local branch is often crucial as a platform of mobilization, expression and debates around local needs, being more structured and able to access channels of decision than other civil society organizations or local government participatory structures. However, its strong embededness in urban local societies also means a form of social control restricting the ability of civil society to revolt and challenge urban policies more radically.     

Urban agriculture in Cameroon: an anti-politics machine in the making?

Urban agriculture in Africa is a growth area for development institutions and researchers. It is often portrayed as a coping strategy through which the urban poor have adapted to structural adjustment. It is enframed in an apolitical, ahistorical way because development institutions seek to create spaces into which development projects can be inserted in the future. This paper uses a case study from the town of Buea in south-west Cameroon to illustrate the differences between the international image of urban agriculture and its practice in one particular place. The increase in agricultural production in Buea in the 1990s initially appears to conform to the standard picture of urban farming as a recent, pragmatic and unplanned response to falling household incomes. However, such a portrayal neglects the history of urban farming, the pleasure that agriculture brings to farmers and the political consequences of expanding agricultural production. One of the concrete outcomes of increased urban agriculture in Buea in the 1990s has been to act as a `safety valve' against social unrest. It has acted as an `anti-politics machine'; a mechanism through which a sensitive political operation (reducing the salaries of civil servants) is achieved through apparently disconnected apolitical acts (enabling urban households to expand agricultural production). The Cameroonian government has opportunistically encouraged urban agriculture during a period of rapid economic change as one strategy for reproducing existing social relations.     

Contested places: Squatting and the construction of `the urban' in Swiss cities

This paper examines urban social movements through a case study directed toward housing and urban culture in Berne, Switzerland. Urban movements set the stage for ways of understanding, interpreting, and challenging unspoken norms in city life. Taking an actor-oriented perspective, I focus on subjective motivations in forming a collective movement and relate these to a wider context of social change. The study is based on qualitative interviews with former squatters and participants in the movement.     

城乡一体化建设下的凤翔县水资源利用研究

水资源作为经济社会发展和生态环境保护的重要因素,在可持续发展中地位显著.在城乡统筹发展背景下,加强对水资源统筹协调配置是解决水资源短缺问题的必然选择,本文介绍了凤翔县水资源的特点,分析了水资源开发利用中存在的问题,在此基础上对凤翔县城乡一体化建设下的水资源利用进行了研究.最后提出了实现水资源合理配置的保障措施,以保证凤...     

Political transformation,urban policy and the state in London's Docklands

The contemporary restructuring of urban space in the United Kingdom can be understood in terms of much broader social, political, and economic changes. This paper provides an analysis of this experience in London's Docklands, as a way of highlighting the connections between these social relations. We can best understand these changes by drawing upon regulation theory, which posits a firm, but dynamic, link between economic and political processes. Through an analysis of urban policy changes, political struggles, and economic shifts in London's Docklands, I argue for a more central role for the state and social movements in the understanding of social regulation and urban change. Finally, the paper considers the establishment of an Urban Development Corporation in the area in 1981, which represents an attempt by the central government to establish a new regime of economic and political life in the area. This has produced important conflicts at a local level, which typify the conflictual nature of attempts to restructure the economic and political relations of urban locales.     

城市山洪灾害易损性的RS和GIS分析

以受山洪灾害影响突出的云南文山城区为研究区,从承灾体属性特征和社会承灾能力二个方面探讨了城市山洪灾害易损性分析的方法;利用高分辨率遥感卫星影像为数据源完成城市土地覆盖类型解译,在此基础上应用GIS定量分析城市山洪灾害易损性。对承灾体属性特征定量分析结果表明,文山城区50年一遇山洪淹没范围内的承灾体中城市房屋建筑的易损性最大。对易损性要素中的社会承灾能力分析认为,由于文山城区段防洪河道行洪能力低,蓄滞洪能力弱。山洪灾害的易损性仍然较高,山洪对文山城威胁形势严峻。     

苏南地区城乡聚落空间演化过程及其格局特征

当前,城乡聚落空间正由自然和经济社会条件存在差异的等级体系转变为密切联系的网络化结构,城乡融合已经成为中国城乡聚落空间演化发展的重要方向。以苏南地区为例,对20世纪90年代以来的城乡聚落空间演化过程及其格局特征进行分析,发现2000年以后城镇聚落扩张强度远高于乡村聚落,城乡聚落空间结构可进一步归纳为集中、双心、多核和密集4种基本格局。该研究对乡村振兴背景下的城乡聚落空间优化布局具有一定指导作用。     

Unbundling Stockholm: The networks, planning and social welfare nexus beyond the unitary city

This paper focuses on the extent to which recent infrastructure-oriented urban developments in Stockholm concord with various aspects of the ‘splintering urbanism’ thesis of Graham and Marvin. This contextualisation allows us to extend their work empirically and conceptually. In the first instance, we study a particular case of the decline of a unitary networked city (in an urban context largely absent from their book). In the second instance, we develop their notion of ‘unbundling’ to capture not just core changes in the organisation of infrastructure provision, but an overarching disjunction of the established nexus between networks, planning and social welfare in the city. This disjunction operates through interlinked transformations concerning, for example, privatisation and outsourcing in network services, separation of infrastructure planning from broader urban planning, contradictions between the environmental and social mandates of infrastructure, and a (prospective) curtailment of the redistributive, social role of essential network service provision. We conclude nonetheless that this ‘destructive’ moment of unbundling has not so far been pursued by more explicitly ‘creative’ urban fragmentation strategies, due largely to the vestiges of a socio-political consensus based around redistribution and equality. In this respect, the Stockholm case pleads for a conception of ‘splintering’ as a dynamic and multi-stage process which is not only always ongoing, unstable and incomplete, but also non-linear and open to resistance/regulation.