K.B. Makhanov, A.A. Khitakhunov, Z. Zhanaltay
et al.
This study analyzes changes in the spatial distribution of the rural population in post-Soviet Kazakhstan using census data from 1989 to 2024. While the total rural population has remained stable, over 27% of rural settlements have been eliminated during the sample period. Applying a proximity-based framework, the research shows that districts near major cities have experienced rural population growth and resilience, while remote areas face sharp decline and village abandonment. The findings reveal a selective spatial reorganization of the rural landscape, with populations concentrating in fewer, larger settlements located within accessible distance of major urban centers. These dynamics reflect not only rural decline, but also broader structural changes aligned with Kazakhstan’s ongoing urbanization. The observed patterns are closely tied to Kazakhstan’s broader urbanization process in a way that cities have become a key factor shaping rural viability, reinforcing demographic and spatial reorganization across the country. Overall, the findings align with broader research on rural transformation, providing a detailed case of how proximity to urban centers has shaped rural population patterns and settlement structures in post-Soviet Kazakhstan over time, reflecting enduring trends of spatial concentration and selective territorial development.
Keywords: rural population, population geography, urbanization, migration, post-Soviet Kazakhstan.
The new tendency in Urban Green Spaces (UGS) design is to establish sustainable and health-promoting public parks – often described as the new (second) generation of public parks. The possibilities of wider implementation of the new generation of public parks are presented as an example of a recently constructed or revitalized park in the Pomerania region. This paper discusses three public parks in the Pomerania region – Public Municipal Parks in Rumia, Reda and Wejherowo. In this study, the main research question was whether the selected parks promote the well-being of inhabitants as well as sustainability. The parks were assessed using a standardized tool – the universal standard of health-promoting urban places. All three parks are places for physical, mental and social restoration of neighborhood communities, as well as ecological education. Thus, they can be regarded as health-affirming urban places
La migración venezolana en los últimos tiempos ha tenido como consecuencia el abandono de las ciudades y la pérdida del uso efectivo de muchas edificaciones, produciéndose un vaciamiento denominado osteoporosis urbana. Ello ha supuesto cambios sustanciales en la dinámica urbana y el sector inmobiliario. En este artículo se revisan experiencias de vaciamiento de ciudades en el mundo y se exploran algunas opciones para reutilizar el inventario urbano venezolano
Kennedy Machira, Wisdom Richard Mgomezulu, Mark Malata
Poverty alleviation remains one of the ancient goals of Malawi as the country has since 1994 adopted a poverty alleviation strategy throughout its developmental programs. Through the support of the World Bank, a poverty monitoring system was put in place whose data are collected through the Living Standards Measurement Surveys (LSMS). However, since the establishment of the LSMS, findings of different assessments and eras have revealed instabilities in the country’s poverty levels overtime. What remains unclear is whether households have been able to move out of poverty or not. The current study employed a two wave LSMS panel of 2016 and 2019 and assessed poverty dimensions including poverty incidence, depth and severity. The study further assessed the determinants of poverty transitions in order to understand movements in and out of poverty. Household size, gender of household head, education level of the household head, agricultural land holding sizes, access to credit, residence (urban or rural) and expected shocks significantly influenced the poverty dimensions and poverty transition. It is hence imperative that proper strategies that embrace robust and sustainable credit systems, improvement in literacy levels of the Malawian population, and further improving agricultural land productivity can help reduce poverty and further move households out of poverty. Such initiatives should take into consideration the gender divide and the rapid population growth faced by the country.
Cities. Urban geography, Urbanization. City and country
O artigo narra como se põe em marcha uma exposição, desde a seleção e solicitação em empréstimo das obras aos museus e aos colecionadores, atendendo aos requerimentos exigidos pelas instituições de empréstimo, até o transporte e suas condições e a instalação das obras na sala, o que requer uma montagem que deve atender a múltiplas, e algumas vezes contraditórias, necessidades.
Der von Bund, Kommunen und Selbsthilfeorganisationen ausgerufene „demenzfreundliche“ Umbau der Gesellschaft wird einer kritischen Analyse unterzogen. Hierfür werden die polit-ökonomischen und wohlfahrtstaatlichen Rahmenbedingungen des sozialpolitischen Konzepts der „sorgenden Gemeinschaft“ rekonstruiert, welches die Zivilgesellschaft zu einer wesentlichen Akteurin „demenzsensibler“ Kommunen erklärt. Unter den gegebenen Bedingungen läuft diese Entwicklung Gefahr, den mangelnden Ausbau sozialstaatlicher Transfer- und Dienstleistungen in der Altensorge abzufedern. Am Beispiel des Konzepts der „demenzfreundlichen Kommune“ wird gezeigt, dass bürgerschaftliches Sorgepraktiken Menschen mit Demenz zugleich Emanzipationsgewinne in Form von steigender sozialer Partizipation und Selbstbestimmung ermöglichen. Ausgehend von diesem Spannungsverhältnis wird ein Vorschlag unterbreitet, wie gemeinwesenorientierte Care-Arrangements jenseits der Dichotomie von sozialstaatlichem Sparmodell und idealistisch verklärter Sorgegemeinschaft zu fassen wären.
Cities. Urban geography, Urban groups. The city. Urban sociology
W artykule opisano najnowsze tendencje rozwoju budownictwa mieszkalnego w ukształtowanej zabudowie centralnej części miasta: zwiększenie liczby „drugich” mieszkań w strukturze miast, dążenie do współistnienia mieszkań z budownictwem biurowym, zwiększenie popytu na małometrażowe apartamenty. Zostały przeanalizowane czynniki społeczno-demograficzne, które wpływają na kształtowanie danych tendencji.
Urban vegetation and green spaces play a crucial role in dealing with the impacts of climate change: urban green spaces regulate the micro-climate in densely built-up and overheated settlement areas, and support the percolation of rain water and the retention of flood events. According to these findings, manifold measures of green space development are discussed, supporting an urban development which is appropriate to the challenges of climate change. Thus, retaining and enhancing the provision of settlement areas with green spaces in terms of green infrastructure is a central element of urban and regional climate adaptation strategies. In this paper the question is raised, how green infrastructure and its different potentials to adapt to climate change can be considered in the urban fabric and measures to enhance the green infrastructure can be implemented. As a part of the “Integrated Regional Climate Adaptation Programme for the Region of Dresden” a number of measures for the development and planning of green infrastructure have been developed. Based on these experiences, basic planning approaches to implement and realise green infrastructure, addressing climate adaptation both on city and site scale, are presented.
Cities. Urban geography, Urbanization. City and country
Celem opracowania jest przedstawienie problematyki czasu wolnego ludzi starszych. W badaniach uwzględniono takie zagadnienia, jak bierne i aktywne formy czasu wolnego, preferowany przez ludzi starszych sposób spędzania czasu wolnego, miejsce spędzania czasu wolnego poza domem. Szczególną uwagę zwrócono na aktywność ruchową ludzi starszych, a także aktywność kulturalną. W tekście przedstawiono również zagadnienie czasu wolnego, a także problematykę starości i starzenia się. Ukazano również konsekwencje sukcesywnego starzenia się społeczeństw na płaszczyźnie jednostkowej, społecznej i ekonomicznej. Badania prowadzono wśród seniorów mieszkających w województwie łódzkim w Polsce.
La ciudad de México ya no es el polo dominante que propicia polarización socioeconómica, según la teoría dualista, un polo concentrador; en el largo plazo puede convertirse en un polo diseminador. Ciertamente mantiene los indicadores de desarrollo más altos, pero éstos tienen el crecimiento más lento a nivel nacional. Aunque la teoría neoclásica justifica esta tendencia, las comparaciones internacionales muestran que tiene rezagos en la expansión de sus indicadores, a su vez, el análisis paramétrico no encuentra evidencia de que la ciudad ejerza, en décadas recientes, un efecto diseminador a nivel nacional.
Cities. Urban geography, Urban groups. The city. Urban sociology
The article brings a particular reflection on centrality as a network of urban places. A decisive change in contemporary urbanization has been the creation of new places in cities –places configured in various settings such as “shopping malls”, revamped historic areas, sports arenas, multiplexes, museums, libraries– which try to “clone” qualities found elsewhere, or that create what is believed to assign quality to an urban space. The article acknowledges there are good possibilities for the issuing of human existential experiences in those places, contemplating them from the perspective of an increase in richer and more varied centralities stimulating social contacts. To demonstrate this it brings a selection of exemplary cities that count with off-center-centers. The paper brings advancements in the understanding of the concept of place; addresses the persistent concept of centrality and its new spatial correlations; and elaborates on centrality configured by excentric centers.
The vulnerability of cities is often discussed in terms of physical hazards and disasters such as earthquakes, floods or terrorist attacks. In contrast, this paper opens up a social-constructivist perspective, describing the vulnerability of cities as a result of discursive based communications. The article looks at the extent to which collective identities in cities are vulnerable to stigmatisation in the media and the ways in which local actors find to cope with this. Key terms of stigma and identity research are presented and the transferability of stigma and identity concepts of social groups to cities is discussed. Taking the examples of Sangerhausen and Pirmasens, which have for several decades been affected by peripheralisation, the article describes stigma processes in the national media, how this is addressed in the city and what coping strategies the actors have developed. Finally the key findings are summarised and conclusions with regard to the vulnerability of collective identities are interpreted.
Cities. Urban geography, Urbanization. City and country
This article examines the short-term regional economic effect of universities. The methodology used differs substantially from previous studies as it focuses on the additional resources attracted to the region by the establishment of universities. The effects of the attracted resources are therefore related to the basic financing provided by the federal state (Land). We call these relations the regional rates of return on university financing. We demonstrate the regional rates of return using the experience of the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg and the college of higher education Magdeburg-Stendal as examples. The results indicate that the financing of universities is an effective means to create both jobs and economic prosperity. In turn, the reduction of public funding for universities causes substantial opportunity costs for the region, even in the short term.
Cities. Urban geography, Urbanization. City and country
Este trabajo tiene por objetivo describir y analizar las relaciones y lógicas de articulación entre la política, la economía y el derecho al respecto de la estabilización de las complejas democracias modernas, fundamentalmente en la periferia de la modernidad. Interesa observar por qué las expectativas cognitivas y normativas (derecho) no logran acomodos políticos duraderos que faciliten la evolución sociopolítica en un escenario como el latinoamericano, donde siguen primando las corporaciones y el caudillismo clientelar, mas no las expectativas institucionalizadas, preguntándonos entonces cómo es posible la democracia en esta periferia de la modernidad.
Cities. Urban geography, Urban groups. The city. Urban sociology
Der Beitritt Griechenlands zur Europäischen Gemeinschaft hat auf der Wettbewerbsebene keine nachhaltig positiven Impulse für die regionale Industrieentwicklung zur Folge gehabt und somit auch nicht zum Abbau der erheblichen regionalen Disparitäten beigetragen. Obwohl der Einfluß der EG-Mitgliedschaft methodisch kaum von anderen, die allgemeine Wirtschaftsentwicklung bestimmenden Faktoren getrennt werden kann, läßt sich aufgrund empirisch gewonnener Daten behaupten, daß der nach dem Beitritt durch den Abbau tarifärer und nicht-tarifärer Handelshemmnisse erfolgte außenwirtschaftliche Konkurrenzdruck einen negativen Einfluß auf die regionale Wirtschaftsentwicklung hatte. Der Wegfall steuerlicher Bevorzugungen und die Übernahmen der gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik verstärken diesen Prozeß. Demgegenüber steht nur die günstige Entwicklung der Textil- und Bekleidungsindustrie. Die Orientierung auf diesen Sektor trägtjedoch zu einer ungleichen Integration Griechenlands in die internationale Arbeitsteilung bei und schafft Industriestrukturen, die langfristig international nicht wettbewerbsfähig sind.
Die Region Thrakien steht somit am Vorabend der Realisierung des europäischen Binnenmarktes vor einer schwierigen Aufgabe, deren Bewältigung zukünftig einen massiven und koordinierten Einsatz wirtschafts- und strukturpolitischer Instrumentarien erfordert.
Cities. Urban geography, Urbanization. City and country