As a concept imported from the West, ‘public’ did not show up in Japanese society until Meiji. This results in a lack of typical public space typologies in Japan's city center, such as square and plaza. However, researchers argue concepts rooted in premodern ideas and related materialized informal open spaces, such as urban commons in Edo, to be the indigenous ‘public’ space in Japan for public gatherings and interactions. As Western ideas of clear public-private division for the protection of private property enter into legislation, the once popular ‘common’ space between public and private, and according shikii (threshold) concept behind it, are threatened to be disappearing. This paper focuses on one social housing project, Shinonome Canal Court in Tokyo, designed by Riken Yamamoto, who is the laureate of 2024 Pritzker Prize for his dedication to public space and community cultivation through shikii. Through case study, the research explains how the shikii concept is interpreted in Shinonome Canal Court, and how the ‘public’ space and its ‘public’ meaning related to ‘common’ are constructed and explained under shikii. Based on the archive documents provided by UR, related reports and research in literature, observation of activities and events, interviews with the designer Riken Yamamoto, the representative of the project's private management company, Tokyu Housing Lease, and local residents, the paper underscores the lost ‘grey’ character behind shikii in defining Japanese ‘public’ (‘kōkyō’). It concludes that shikii in the project is represented not only in the physical form of different types of open spaces but also in the cooperation and negotiation between different public and private groups in deciding how the open spaces are designed, operated, and managed. ‘Public’ meaning is constructed by ‘common’; ‘Public’ space and ‘common’ space are interchangeable in Shinonome Canal Court, depending on time-based activities and events of users within.
Urbanization. City and country, Political institutions and public administration (General)
Maria Giovanna Brandano, Chiara Conti, Marco Modica
et al.
Under the threat of climate change, the world has become increasingly unsafe, with extreme weather events causing devastation and high economic costs. These impacts are heterogeneous because of the interaction between different regional climate changes and the varying socio-economic characteristics of affected places. Climate change also impacts the management of cultural heritage sites. We then propose a method to identify heritage sites at risk from climate change issues, considering the single components of risk, namely both the natural hazard and the resilient/vulnerable local characteristics that may increase or mitigate the potential damage. The link between the natural and human spheres is, in fact, crucial for the development of suitable mitigation and prevention strategies, particularly relevant for developing countries that suffer from scarce economic resources. Overall, this work aims to provide a method to detect heritage sites at risk and a decision support tool for strategically managing cultural sites. We focus on Italy since it is one of the countries with a higher endowment of cultural heritage. However, thanks to its high replicability, this tool might be exported and adopted in different contexts and scenarios.
Urbanization. City and country, Political institutions and public administration (General)
Metaverse is a unique space in a virtual world that with many capabilities and features shows us a world in which we can experience life in all its dimensions. The presence of Metaverse in the global arena and the use of the facilities of this technology are effective in improving living conditions in developing cities. In this study, two sample projects that Metaverse can support are presented in India and Ghana. The remarkable thing is its innovative method that can solve many problems in the cities of the world. One of the most important challenges in the world today is saving cities from climate change and its adverse effects. Metaverse is one of the innovative methods to reduce the effects of greenhouse gas emissions in the cities of the world. The question is whether Metaverse can influence the urban planning of many cities in the world and change urban planning in the world internationally? And can Metaverse challenge the theoretical foundations in the city? The purpose of this study is to clarify the effects of the Metaverse on the city level. This study aims to introduce a new way to solve the problems of today and the future of world cities by examining Upland and its effects on urban sustainability and ways to prevent climate change. In this context, Metaverse technology has been used as a new solution to provide jobs, reduce poverty, increase public health, prevent climate change and, as a result, realize a better life for future generations. The results of this study, due to being cross-border and creating a global perspective on the Metaverse in urban planning, can create a new scientific perspective based on technological advances in urban studies.
Gender inequality in employment remains a significant challenge in many countries, including South Africa. The impact of this inequality on economic development is a topic of increasing interest and concern, with many studies showing a correlation between gender equality and economic growth. This study explores the impact of gender inequality in employment on economic development in South Africa, with a case study of Nyandeni local municipality. The study employs a quantitative, statistical technique to answer the study issues. The article explores the challenges faced by women in the workforce, the impact of gender employment equity policies, and the role of government, businesses, and civil society in addressing gender inequality in employment and promoting economic development within Nyandeni Local Municipality. This research seeks to determine if women's work will provide an extra lever for economic expansion. A fundamental study on women's involvement in economic development describes the position of women in Africa, Asia, and Latin American nations. The theory that frames the accompanying debate focuses on inequalities, growth, gender, and capacities in general, and the influence of gendered disparities on salaries, education, and economic growth. This research aims to reveal a connection between economic development in South Africa and gender equality. As a second objective, the study seeks to determine whether the contribution of women to economic growth provides extra valuable information for economic policymaking. South Africa's gender gap in employment remains despite legislative and legal progress in the battle against gender inequality.
ABSTRACTThis research paper analyzes urban travel mode preference in Addis Ababa using a survey distributed to 457 public transit users. The article highlights the details of individual travel and then discusses the implications of the travel patterns for transport policy in the city. The study employed percentages and run multinomial logistic regression to analyze the relationship between mode choice, travel characteristics and socio-economic features of individuals. In terms of mode choice and the influential factors, the analysis shows that income, age, travel expenditure and distance are the determining factors that affect mode choice. It was also found that the privately owned public transport, Taxi (mini-bus) and Higer (midi-bus) form the dominant mode of transport used by closely half percent (41.3%) of the survey respondents. On the basis of our analysis, we suggest that policies have to be devised to make government owned public transport service better in order to support a shift from using low occupancy vehicles to high occupancy vehicles which ultimately solve the problem of congestion and environmental pollution.
In this paper, we explore the effects of India's federal structure on state-level fiscal responsibility. Drawing from a 1991–2018 dataset, we argue that higher levels of transfer and borrowing dependence (soft budget constraints) from the central government facilitate lower levels of fiscal responsibility by subnational governments. Our hypothesis is tested using panel regressions on fiscal responsibility outcomes across Indian states. We also evaluate the effects of the world's largest employment program, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), on subnational fiscal responsibility. We find that rural public employment measures are conducive to lower levels of fiscal responsibility. Soft budget constraints constitute a key structural feature of Indian federalism.
In many developing countries, comprehensive and structured planning strategies for pedestrians compared to users of other modes are grossly absent. This poses a challenge for planning agencies and local government authorities in the proper utilization of the fund. The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive list of factors that would help in the decision-making process for the improvement of pedestrian facilities in urban areas. A preliminary list of 57 factors that influence the improvement of pedestrian facilities in the urban area was discovered through a literature survey and expert intervention. The compilation was done based on the frequency of citations in previous studies. The factors were then grouped into five major categories that characterize the pedestrian facilities such as (1) Infrastructure; (2) Location (3) Ambience/Liveability, (4) Safety and Security, and (5) Mobility. A Delphi survey was conducted among 24 selected experts. After 4 rounds of the survey, 33 factors were identified as significant for the improvement of pedestrian facilities in an urban area. The study also identified some significant factors that failed to get attention in the past. The consolidated list would serve as a guide for planners, authorities, and government officials to adopt significant factors according to their requirements, and can be used as a reference for other developing countries.
Urbanization. City and country, Political institutions and public administration (General)
Although sanitation is a core element of healthy family and community life and an important indicator of social development, it has not received the sociological attention it deserves. Based on an analysis of both rural and urban areas cutting across diverse social groups, this article shows that the sanitation in India is not only a rural but also an urban problem, particularly in the context of growing industrialisation, coupled with concomitant rapid urbanisation and expansion of cities. The article unveils the link between poor sanitation, especially preference for open defecation among rural folks with peoples’ practices and perceptions, which are deeply rooted in cultural norms. Ultimately, it is argued that it is not the resources but rather the beliefs, practices and customs of people related to health and environment that matter in improving the sanitary conditions in India
S. S. Kaziev, Marina V. Mogunova, Sergey V. Mogunov
The article discusses the main trends in the marriage relations between urban Kazakhs and Russians in the North Kazakhstan region in the period between 1996 and 2016. The authors aim not only to show the quantitative changes taking place in the field of family and marriage, but also to analyze the main factors that affect the overall development of inter-ethnic marriages. Inter-ethnic marriages are relevant predictors of the inter-ethnic relations in general and allow to assess the existing ethno-cultural distances. In this regard, the main attention was paid to marriages between Kazakhs and Russians of the region. The research was based on the materials of the City Civil Registry Office as well as on the ethno-sociological surveys. A comparative analysis of the development of family and marriage relations in other regions of Kazakhstan was made based on data from published literature. The study of inter-ethnic marriages between 1996 and 2016 revealed an obvious positive shift in the attitudes both among local Kazakhs and Russians. This is largely due to the accelerated urbanization of the Kazakh population and the widespread system of European social attitudes, including individualization of conscience and the prevalence of the egalitarian family. Based on empirical data, further increase in the number of marriages of Kazakhs and Russians in the region is predicted. Despite the fact that the main share of marriages is currently mono-ethnic marriages, an ethno-sociological survey in April 2020 revealed a tolerant attitude of the majority of Kazakh and Russian youth to the idea of creating a family with representatives of another ethnic group. The study also demonstrated that in Northern Kazakhstan, the two leading ethnic groups avoided the scenario of "communization" and turned out to be "open" in inter-ethnic relations, and in future, this can level out ethno-cultural differences and block inter-group conflicts. This trend has been identified so far at the local level and contrasts with the trends of family and marriage relations in the southern region, which show the rigidity of inter-ethnic "partitions" and the strength of traditional attitudes.
It is known that there were a total of fourteen places of worship belonging to Non-Muslims in the late 19th-century. Some of these structures were owned by the Armenian Catholic Community, namely Surp Gımes (Clement) Church, Surp Bogos-Bedros Church, Surp Pırgich Church and Surp Asdvadzadzin (Virgin Mary) Cathedral, the latter of which was used as a base for bishops and included a monastery managed by the Anarad Hıghutyun nuns. However, while the Armenian Catholic churches in Ankara were recorded, there was no mention of the chapel in the graveyard. This study aims to reveal briefly outline the history of the graveyard that belongs to the Ankara Armenian Catholic Community, and that of the barely known chapel which was positioned inside the field. After this church was closed in 1935, the community accepted the authority of the Latin Catholic Church of Sainte Therese and were obliged to offer their prayers to God in this church. In the early 19th-century, the Armenian Catholic Chapel in Ankara, which was thought to have been built alongside the Armenian Catholic Cemetery by Garabed Agha Tingirian and Haci Ohannes Agha, was the only church in Ankara that survived the 1916 fire and remained in use into the Republican period. This increases the status of this small church beyond being merely just a place were funerals were held in the late 19th-century.
The photographs of the period, along with video records, aerial photographs, and cadastral maps of the Armenian Catholic cemetery complex, which now no longer exist, helps us examine the location and the architectural significance of the buildings.
The article analyzes the socioecological structure of Kaunas city (one the centers of the Russian Empire’s provinces) in 1870–1914 based on the ideas for the analysis of the structure and development of modern cities proposed by the Chicago School of Sociology. The first part introduces Burgess’s “Concentric City Model”, which is considered to be the most representative theoretical tool for modern urban structure and development analysis. In the second part, this model is applied to the analysis of the Kaunas socioecological structure in 1870–1914. The conclusions give an answer in which stage of the modern urban structure and development Kaunas city was during the period under investigation. The novelty and relevance of the researchcan be seen: 1) in the first attempt to present the analysis of the structure and development of Kaunas city in 1870–1914 with the help of socio-ecological concepts; 2) in the contribution to the development of interdisciplinary dialogue between history and social sciences (namely, urban ecology theories); 3) in the continuation of the research on the socioecological structure of the major cities of Lithuania during the period of the Russian Empire. Keywords: modern city, Chicago School of Sociology, Burgess’s Ring-Theory of City Development, Kaunas city history. Summary The article analyzes the socioecological structure of Kaunas city (one of the centers of the Russian Empire’s provinces) in 1870–1914 based on the ideas for the analysis of the structure and development of modern cities proposed by the Chicago School of Sociology. The application of Burgess’s “Concentric City Model” made it possible to analyze the Kaunas socioecological structure in 1870–1914 and to answer the question: In what stage of modern urban structure and development was the Kaunas city during the period under investigation? The findings suggest a different arrangement of concentration zones in Kaunas in the period 1870–1914 compared to the Burgess model. The functions of Kaunas districts and the quality of their residential buildings, the contingent of the residents concentrating in them and the occupational layout ofthe population, income and the resulting differences allow us to state that the origin of concentric zones (or their segments) visible in Kaunas during the period in question is not a unique feature of Kaunas development/expansion. Instead, it shows that the process of the colonization of emerging social groups in the cities of the late industrialization in Lithuanian provinces was not completed, and modernization was late in Kaunas, as well as in Vilnius, compared to modern cities in the Western world (especially in the USA) in the period from the 2nd half of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century.
In his original 1965 article, Christopher Alexander argued that master planned cities ultimately failed because the designs elaborated followed a tree structure as opposed to a more desirable semilattice structure present in organic cities. In this article, I argue that a similar claim can be made with urban infrastructure systems planning. As cities expanded and became increasingly complex in the 20th century, the responsibility to plan and design urban infrastructure was distributed to separate agencies that seldom communicate and coordinate with one another. In the global context to make cities more sustainable and resilient, a better integration of infrastructure systems may hold much potential. After recalling Alexander’s main concepts, I examine how current infrastructure systems are naturally interdependent. I then discuss the role of integration, by notably proposing an integration-decentralization matrix, with four quadrants, illustrated by using practical examples. The quadrants are current paradigm, siloed distribution, localized integration, and integrated decentralization. Overall, a better integration of urban infrastructure can offer significant benefits to a city, and it may be time to seriously revisit our current urban infrastructure systems planning practice.
The Sky View Factor (SVF) is a dimension-reduced representation of urban form and one of the major variables in radiation models that estimate outdoor thermal comfort. Common ways of retrieving SVFs in urban environments include capturing fisheye photographs or creating a digital 3D city or elevation model of the environment. Such techniques have previously been limited due to a lack of imagery or lack of full scale detailed models of urban areas. We developed a web based tool that automatically generates synthetic hemispherical fisheye views from Google Earth at arbitrary spatial resolution and calculates the corresponding SVFs through equiangular projection. SVF results were validated using Google Maps Street View and compared to results from other SVF calculation tools. We generated 5-meter resolution SVF maps for two neighborhoods in Phoenix, Arizona to illustrate fine-scale variations of intra-urban horizon limitations due to urban form and vegetation. To demonstrate the utility of our synthetic fisheye approach for heat stress applications, we automated a radiation model to generate outdoor thermal comfort maps for Arizona State University’s Tempe campus for a hot summer day using synthetic fisheye photos and on-site meteorological data. Model output was tested against mobile transect measurements of the six-directional radiant flux density. Based on the thermal comfort maps, we implemented a pedestrian routing algorithm that is optimized for distance and thermal comfort preferences. Our synthetic fisheye approach can help planners assess urban design and tree planting strategies to maximize thermal comfort outcomes and can support heat hazard mitigation in urban areas.
Recent debates have highlighted trends towards the privatisation of public space and the incorporation of increased security measures to safeguard users. Literature has also emphasised the move away from the traditional high street to suburban shopping malls as part of an increased focus on the development of protected consumption space. As public space continuously evolves, it is interesting to find the emergence of a new type of controlled outdoor space that seems to reflect characteristics of older traditional public spaces acting as a local gathering space in suburbia, yet being very controlled within the boundaries of shopping malls and reflecting strong patterns of consumption. The article investigates this trend within the capital city of South Africa, Pretoria, focusing on three quasi-public spaces. The findings indicate that urban design continues to play a critical role in the incorporation of characteristics that are traditionally associated with successful public spaces, but with a strong emphasis on consumption in a controlled and secure environment. At the same time, however, these spaces have also become a new type of village commons in an increasingly polarised society and, hence, cannot simply be negated as purely exclusive spaces.
Cities. Urban geography, Urban groups. The city. Urban sociology
S. Fernández-Balbuena, M. Belza, D. Zulaica
et al.
Background and Objective Spain has implemented several in-pharmacy HIV testing programmes performed by pharmacists as part of their everyday routine. We aim to assess the feasibility and the main outcomes of three programmes implemented in three Spanish regions with different sociological profiles and also different epidemiology for HIV. Methods The characteristics of the 24151 people tested between 2009 and 2013 at 74 urban pharmacies are studied. We compare the main outcomes of the programmes with those of each Regional HIV Surveillance System (RHSS) assessing the contribution to the total new diagnosis in each region and if priority groups are being reached. Results 45.7% were heterosexual men (MSW), 14.4% men who have sex with men (MSM), and 27% women. The 35% were younger than 30 and 9.6% foreigners. The 52% were previously untested, and women were the most likely to be untested. The three programmes altogether diagnosed 226 people, resulting in a global prevalence of 0.9% (95%CI: 0.8–1.1); 3.4% in MSM (95%CI: 2.8–4.0). The prevalence among Spaniards was 0.8% (0.7–1.0) vs. 2.2 (1.6–2.9) among foreigners. The percentages of MSM diagnosed by all three programmes were higher than the one reported by their respective RHSS. Thirty four percent of the reactive MSM and the 71.4% of the reactive MSW did not have a previous HIV test although big testing history differences were observed across the programmes. Altogether, these services contributed with the 10.6% of all HIV diagnoses in these regions. Conclusions In-pharmacy HIV testing programmes are a valuable testing option, having been able to uncover 1 out of 10 the new diagnoses reported in each region. They showed a good capacity of reaching and diagnosing previously untested populations, not only a priority population such as MSM but also heterosexual population who are more affected by delayed diagnosis. They seem to be particularly suitable for regions without large cities and specific HIV diagnostic services.