Background: Schoolyard greening has emerged as an innovative approach to enhancing childrens health and environmental equity in urban U.S. cities. Yet, the implications for neighborhood dynamics and social equity are insufficiently understood. Methods: This comparative literature review synthesizes quantitative and qualitative evidence from peer reviewed studies and case analyses of schoolyard greening in major U.S. cities. Results: Schoolyard greening consistently increases utilization and has a positive, though variable, effect on childrens physical activity and well-being. However, the benefits are not always equitably distributed, and greening projects can catalyze neighborhood change, sometimes leading to green gentrification. Conclusions: Greening urban schoolyards offers benefits for childrens health and urban sustainability but poses challenges for equity and social justice. Policies must prioritize inclusive, community driven approaches to ensure the gains of greening are shared by vulnerable populations.
This editorial is written by Philip Rees, Professor Emeritus in Population Geography at the University of Leeds, UK, drawing on his experience as external editor for Comparative Population Studies (CPoS) in 2019 and as a writer of research papers for 6 decades. He spent a busy year of emails and reviews at his desk in Leeds as part of the CPoS editorial team, with visits to Wiesbaden for editorial meetings. This experience was good preparation for the necessity of home working in 2020 and 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. This article provides guidance for aspiring authors of CPoS articles in preparing and revising a submission. The advice includes sticking precisely to the CPoS guidance, writing clear and concise prose, being selective in your citations, focusing on originality and relevance, and responding in full to all issues raised by the reviewers of your paper. Then you will be able to benefit from the online publication of your paper, avoiding the article charges levied by commercial publishers, rapid turnround, meticulous sub-editing, assistance if English is not your native language and wise advice from a succession of external guest editors.
* This article belongs to a series celebrating the journal's 50th anniversary.
Urban groups. The city. Urban sociology, City population. Including children in cities, immigration
Yvonne Franz, Annegret Haase, Ursula Reeger
et al.
Abstract This paper explores the challenges and barriers of forced migrants at the nexus of housing and social integration, presenting the outcomes of an international and interdisciplinary collaboration funded by the JPI Urban Europe programme. Research includes the case study cities Leipzig, Lund, Riga, and Vienna, utilizing primary and secondary data in a transdisciplinary process involving theoretical discussions and urban living labs with researchers, practitioners, and civic society actors. While empirical contexts vary between cities, the persona method with vignettes adds new knowledge for a nuanced understanding. The project builds on existing expertise and broader migration studies, ensuring context-sensitivity in understanding place-based barriers to integration. It highlights cross-case similarities and significant differences affecting individual integration in European cities.
We study how efficient resource reallocation across cities affects potential aggregate growth. Using optimal resource allocation models and data on 284 China's prefecture-level cities in the years 2003--2019, we quantitatively measure the cost of misallocation of resources. We show that average aggregate output gains from reallocating resources across nationwide cities to their efficient use are 1.349- and 1.287-fold in the perfect and imperfect allocation scenarios. We further provide evidence on the effects of administrative division adjustments and local allocation. This suggests that city-level adjustments can yield more aggregate gain and that the output gain from nationwide allocation is likely to be more substantial than that from local allocation. Policy implications are proposed to improve the resource allocation efficiency in China.
Federica Fanelli, Hygor P. M. Melo, Matteo Bruno
et al.
The distribution of urban services reveals critical patterns of human activity and accessibility. Proximity to amenities like restaurants, banks, and hospitals can reduce access barriers, but these services are often unevenly distributed, exacerbating spatial inequalities and socioeconomic disparities. In this study, we present a novel accessibility measure based on the spatial distribution of Points of Interest (POIs) within cities. Using the radial distribution function from statistical physics, we analyze the dispersion of services across different urban zones, combining local and remote access to services. This approach allows us to identify a city's central core, intermediate areas or secondary cores, and its periphery. Comparing the areas that we find with the resident population distribution highlights clusters of urban services and helps uncover disparities in access to opportunities.
Holger Billhardt, Alberto Fernández, Marin Lujak
et al.
Many challenges in today's society can be tackled by distributed open systems. This is particularly true for domains that are commonly perceived under the umbrella of smart cities, such as intelligent transportation, smart energy grids, or participative governance. When designing computer applications for these domains, it is necessary to account for the fact that the elements of such systems, often called software agents, are usually made by different designers and act on behalf of particular stakeholders. Furthermore, it is unknown at design time when such agents will enter or leave the system, and what interests new agents will represent. To instil coordination in such systems is particularly demanding, as usually only part of them can be directly controlled at runtime. Agreement technologies refer to a sandbox of tools and mechanisms for the development of such open multiagent systems, which are based on the notion of agreement. In this paper, we argue that agreement technologies are a suitable means for achieving coordination in smart city domains, and back our claim through examples of several real-world applications.
Throughout history most young adults have chosen to live where their parents did while a smaller number moved away. This is sufficient, by proof and simulation, to account for the well-known power law distributions of city sizes. The model needs only two parameters, $r$ = the probability that a child stays, and the maximum number of cities (which models the observed saturation at high city rank). The power law exponent follows directly as $α= 1 + 1/r$, with Zipf's Law simply the limiting case as $r \rightarrow 1$. Observed exponents $(α= 2.2 \pm 0.4, n = 158)$ are consistent with stay-or-leave data from large genealogic studies. This model is self-initializing and could have applied from the time of the earliest stable settlements. The driving narrative behind city-size distributions is fundamentally about family ties, familiarity, and risk-avoidance, rather than economic optimization.
Abstract Individuals who reside in a country without regular authorisation generally find it difficult to access public medical services beyond emergency treatment. Even in countries with universal healthcare, there is often a gap between rights on paper and their implementation. Civil society organisations (CSOs) fill this gap by providing medical services to vulnerable populations, including irregular migrants. What, if any, are the ethical dilemmas that arise for CSO staff when delivering such services in countries with universal healthcare? Under what conditions do these dilemmas arise? And what strategies do CSO staff use to mitigate them? We answer these questions using 40 semi-structured interviews with CSO staff working in two European countries with high levels of irregularity, universal healthcare provisions on paper, and significant differences in approaches and availability of public services for irregular migrants: Italy and Spain. We show that CSO staff providing medical services to irregular migrants in places with universal healthcare coverage face a fundamental dilemma between humanitarianism and equity. CSO staff respond to the humanitarian belief in the value of taking all possible steps to prevent or alleviate human suffering, thus promoting a decent quality of life that includes access to both emergency and non-emergency care. In doing so, however, they run the risk of substituting rather than complementing public provisions, thereby preventing governments from assuming responsibility for these services in the long term. Individuals who acknowledge the existence of this dilemma generally oppose the creation of parallel structures; that is, services specifically developed for irregular migrants outside the public system; while those who ignore it essentially subscribe to a tiered system, giving up on considerations of equity. We argue that CSOs involved in the provision of healthcare to irregular migrants do not simply provide services; they also play an inherently political role.
Abstract Despite their strong humanitarian reputations abroad, Norway and Canada have adopted domestic immigration policies that produce permanently precarious residents. These policies affect individuals—including refugees, permanent residents, and naturalized citizens—who have traditionally enjoyed secure legal statuses. Adopting the analytic lens of ‘probationary immigration’, this article explores the legal mechanisms behind three interrelated developments in both countries: 1) the fragmentation of protection regimes in terms of access, rights and duration; 2) stricter/less predictable requirements for permanent residence and citizenship; and 3) intensified practice regarding the revocation of citizenship.
Poland has faced several crisis situations related to migration in the past decade. With differences in the scale and origins of incoming people, these crises have triggered various reactions from Polish policy-makers, from the welcoming of non-EU migrants to the implementation of restrictive measures at the Polish border. The present research uses a discursive approach to study the ways in which non-EU migrants are presented and discussed in Poland. By comparing official discourses from Polish authorities during the 2015–2016 migration crisis, the 2021 border crisis with Belarus and following the Russian war on Ukraine in 2022, we analyse how different groups of non-EU migrants are discursively described and considered by political figures. Furthermore, as these crises have important links with the European Union (EU), we also investigate how Poland’s relationship with the EU is envisioned by Polish authorities. Through the discourse analysis carried out, we argue that ‘migrants’ and ‘refugees’ are discursively constructed as opposing groups in a manner that is highly visible. This discursive strategy is instrumentally used to reflect on the perceived deservingness, alterity or proximity of incoming people. We identify one unifying perspective of Poland’s relationship with the EU throughout these crises: Polish authorities are keen to stress the importance of its membership of the EU when benefiting from the latter’s restriction of migration to Europe.
Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration, City population. Including children in cities, immigration
This editorial introduction sets the scene for the special section of 6 papers on new migration trends in the Western Balkans. The paper is in 2 parts. The first reviews the history and geography of migration from the 6 countries of the region (WB6). The 5 successor states of the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia) have a similar migration profile, shaped by postwar labour migration to Germany, Austria and Switzerland, whilst Albania’s mass migration is more recent – since 1990 – and directed mainly to Italy and Greece. Whilst labour migrations dominated the 1960s and 1970s (the 1990s in Albania) and refugee movements accompanied the break-up of Yugoslavia, recent migration trends are more diverse, including especially highly educated young people and students, as well as transit migrants from the Middle East and other source countries. Most WB6 countries have policies to manage their migrations and mobilise return and the diasporas for development but, in practice, these measures are not effective. The second part of this introductory paper provides an integrated overview of the 6 papers, sequenced in a way that moves from the general (covering the region as a whole) to the particular situations of individual countries regarding such topics as the changing profile of migration, student migration, return migration and gender perspectives.
Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration, City population. Including children in cities, immigration
This research aims to analyze the implementation of play therapy embedded in play activities in Kindergarten B children at Lintang Kindergarten Surabaya. Play therapy is a therapeutic activity given to children to overcome problems related to cooperation, socialization and emotions. This play therapy approach places more emphasis on non-verbals. This means that children aged 2 to 12 years can freely express the feelings they experience, through playing with toys, sand, dolls, clay, art, dance and natural music. This research uses descriptive qualitative research methods. The research population was PAUD PG teachers at Lintang Kindergarten Surabaya. The research sample consisted of 2 teachers who taught class B. The choice of class B teachers was because, from the results of observations made, problems related to student socialization most often emerged in class B. The results of the research concluded that with play therapy, children become it is easier to express his feelings, becomes more relaxed and happy.
Education, City population. Including children in cities, immigration
Miguel G. Folgado, Veronica Sanz, Johannes Hirn
et al.
Traffic congestion is a major urban issue due to its adverse effects on health and the environment, so much so that reducing it has become a priority for urban decision-makers. In this work, we investigate whether a high amount of data on traffic flow throughout a city and the knowledge of the road city network allows an Artificial Intelligence to predict the traffic flux far enough in advance in order to enable emission reduction measures such as those linked to the Low Emission Zone policies. To build a predictive model, we use the city of Valencia traffic sensor system, one of the densest in the world, with nearly 3500 sensors distributed throughout the city. In this work we train and characterize an LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory) Neural Network to predict temporal patterns of traffic in the city using historical data from the years 2016 and 2017. We show that the LSTM is capable of predicting future evolution of the traffic flux in real-time, by extracting patterns out of the measured data.
Kartika Metafisika, Reza Nur Azizah, Fifi Khoirul Fitriyah
This study aims to design and develop an Islamic Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM) Activity Storybook prototype, which is a storybook with STEAM learning activity content in it, and there is an integration between the concept of science and Islamic content. The Design Research with the Plomp Model went through the preliminary investigation, design, and construction phases. The preliminary investigation results showed that Kindergarten teachers did not understand the essential elements in the implementation of STEAM learning and still did not have adequate references and media for STEAM learning implementation. In the design phase, principles in developing the Islamic STEAM Activity Storybook for Early Childhood and criteria for STEM/STEAM learning-based storybooks were formulated before entering the construction phase. The storyboard is developed to determine the narrative, activity sheet, context, or description of the image on the specified book page in the construction phase. The whole process was put forward as a reference for developing the Islamic STEAM Activity Storybook for Early Childhood on other STEAM learning content. The results of this study can help teachers and parents to plan and implement STEAM learning with Islamic content for early childhood.
Education, City population. Including children in cities, immigration
For a migrant, returning to his or her homeland after living abroad can be much anticipated, yet also daunting, especially if return includes other family members who may have little insight into the cultural traditions and life approaches of the homeland. Drawing on both qualitative and quantitative evidence from interviews and a survey of both Latvian nationals living abroad and returnees to Latvia, the anxieties concerning first-generation family return with (mostly) second-generation children are unravelled – particularly the challenges faced by the children. The paper explores the difference between an imagined family return to the homeland and the lived experience. Anxieties especially concern children’s readiness for school – lack of home-country language skills, curriculum disparities and the often unsympathetic attitude of teaching staff towards returnee pupils. Preparation in advance, a resilient mindset and an avoidance of comparisons with the host country are found to reduce return anxiety for both parents and children and to ease (re)integration into the homeland setting. Home-country government initiatives offering support measures to returnees also help to mitigate the challenges of return.
Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration, City population. Including children in cities, immigration
Khaula Amelia Khusna, Mutmainnah Mustofa, Wensi Alka
et al.
The present study focused on teachers’ perceptions of how teacher talk works in the classroom and some challenges they might encounter during initiating interaction to encourage students. A classroom observation was done to portray the data of the learning process and teachers’ interview was also conducted to discover insights about teacher talk and the challenges encountered in the classroom interaction. Findings demonstrated that the teachers enacted dominant English communication as the input rather than using students’ first language. They felt increasing the use of the target language would be more challenging as it is influenced by some aspects from both teachers and students’ motivation, attitude, and proficiency. In addition, teacher talk is varied in some extents based on the teacher and student factors. The findings also showed that teacher talk mostly occurred in the form of asking questions, giving directions, explaining the lesson, and praising the students. In addition, as the students were considered young learners, it was found that classroom interaction and language choice must be adjustable in order to make communication become more effective.
Keywords: teacher talk, perception, challenge, language choice, primary level
Education, City population. Including children in cities, immigration
This article describes and analyses Polish diaspora policy changes in the years 2011–2015. Two decades after the rebirth of the Polonia policy in 1989, it was completely rebuilt. Emphasising values and Poland’s obligations towards the diaspora was replaced by paying more attention to the interests and profitability of this policy. The authors demonstrate how New Public Management (NPM) concepts influenced this shift. Analysis of two different sources – documents programming Polish diaspora policy and interviews with experts and persons designing the Polonia policy – confirmed that NPM principles influenced Polish diaspora policy on five dimensions: organisational restructuring, management instruments, budgetary reforms, participation, marketisation/privatisation.
Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration, City population. Including children in cities, immigration