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Urban Society (urban + society)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences100%

Selected Abstracts

Urban sustainability and governance: issues for the twenty-first century

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 193-194 2008
Françoise Lieberherr-Gardiol
The notion of urban sustainability that emerged at the end of the 1980s falls within the scope of sustainable development, a concept that arose in reaction to the model of technological and economic growth that triumphed after World War II. It comes into play as an attempt to link and put into perspective economic effectiveness, social equity and ecological balance. The sustainability approach focuses on how urban societies organise their space, their way of life and transportation, their technologies of production and consumption, as well as their governance and dynamics. Applied to cities, sustainable development can be defined in terms of concrete objectives: efforts to combat wasted energy, space and natural resources, and to reduce pollution, the problems of sanitation and the degradation of the environment. To the extent that governance is established and maintained with regard to the decision-making powers of public authorities faced with demands by divergent but equally legitimate interest groups, the responsibilities of citizens and the involvement of private stakeholders, sustainable innovations will succeed. The International Platform on Sustainable Urban Development, put in place by S-DEV Geneva 05, makes it possible to illustrate the problem by presenting the priority issues in sustainability, along with experiments undertaken by cities that were invited to present their innovations in renewable energy, soft mobility, green planning, systematic recycling, appropriate sanitation, urban agriculture and participatory governance. [source]

Settlement Dynamics and Social Organization in Eastern Iberia during the Iron Age (Eighth,Second Centuries BC)

OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 3 2003
Ignacio Grau Mira
Summary. This paper explores the formation of urban societies in the eastern Iberian Peninsula. From the Early Iberian Iron Age onwards it is possible to trace the emergence of a hierarchical settlement pattern in which larger settlements carried out the most important functions of control and exploitation of the resources in this territory, extending their authority over several small farming villages. This settlement pattern is associated with the complex socio-economic structures and political organization of Iberian aristocracies. In this paper we will focus on the development of the Iberians' active role in exchanging goods with oriental traders; it is this contact which subsequently produces social change in the Iron Age period. [source]

Migrants and Changing Urban Periphery: Social Relations, Cultural Diversity and the Public Space in Istanbul's New Neighbourhoods

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 3 2008
Sencer Ayata
This study examines the dynamics of socio-cultural change in a peripheral neighbourhood in Istanbul, an "edge city" that is ethnically mixed, culturally heterogeneous, socially differentiated and spatially multi-functional. One major focus in the study is the changing nature of social relations in traditional groups. Though kinship, hem,eri (place of origin) and neighbourhood solidarity is still crucial in the lives of the migrants, participation in these groups becomes more voluntary and the ties among members less obligatory. Secondly, the ethnic and religious groupings in the neighbourhood are not always exclusive, authoritarian and patriarchal communities. What generally appears as rigid communitarian fragmentation is often one of cultural diversity for the residents of the locality. The associational pluralism that exists in the neighbourhood enables people to claim multiple ethnic, religious, political and cultural identities. Thirdly, though they compare unfavourably with their middle class counterparts in the city, the new neighbourhoods provide greater opportunities and more public space for interaction among the members of the locality than for instance, the rural communities. The study also questions the often taken-for-granted image of a rigidly polarized city in view of empirical evidence that indicates the multiple and complex economic and political links between the new neighbourhoods and the broader urban society. Finally, isolation from middle class areas in the city does not necessarily lead to the exclusion of the whole peripheral urban population from urban life, urban institutions and urban culture. These become increasingly present in the new neighbourhoods and available for the majority of the residents. The main conclusion is that Istanbul contains a number of such edge cities, which have powerful integrating and urbanizing influences on individuals. Les migrants et l'évolution de la périphérie urbaine: relations sociales, diversité culturelle et espace public dans les nouveaux quartiers d'Istanbul La présente étude examine la dynamique des changements socioculturels dans un quartier de la périphérie d'Istanbul, une « ville-lisière » (edge city) caractérisée par sa mixité ethnique, son hétérogénéité culturelle, sa différenciation sociale et son espace multifonctionnel. L'un des principaux axes de la présente étude est la nature changeante des relations sociales au sein des groupes traditionnels. Premièrement, bien que la parenté, hem,eri (le lieu d'origine), et la solidarité des résidants des quartiers restent essentiels dans la vie des migrants, la participation à ces groupes devient plus volontaire et les liens entre ses membres sont moins contraints. Deuxièmement, les regroupements ethniques et religieux au sein des quartiers ne constituent pas toujours des communautés privées, autoritaires et patriarcales. Ce qui semble généralement être une fragmentation rigide en communautés est souvent une marque de la diversité culturelle pour les résidants de la localité. Le pluralisme des associations permet aux personnes de revendiquer différentes identités ethniques, religieuses, politiques et culturelles. Troisièmement, même s'ils ne peuvent soutenir la comparaison avec leurs équivalents urbains habités par la classe moyenne, ces nouveaux quartiers offrent davantage de possibilités et d'espace public pour les rencontres entre membres de la localité que les communautés rurales par exemple. L'étude remet aussi en question l'image que l'on a souvent d'une ville rigide et polarisée en faisant état des témoignages empiriques qui attestent de la complexité et de la multitude des liens économiques et politiques entre les nouveaux quartiers et la société urbaine au sens large. Enfin, être isolé des zones urbaines où habitent les classes moyennes n'entraîne pas nécessairement l'exclusion de l'ensemble de la population urbaine vivant en périphérie de la vie, des institutions et de la culture urbaines qui sont de plus en plus présentes dans les nouveaux quartiers et accessibles à la majorité des résidants. La conclusion principale est qu'Istanbul comporte un certain nombre de villes-lisières de ce genre, dont l'influence sur les habitants en matière d'intégration et d'urbanisation est très forte. Relaciones sociales, diversidad cultural y espacio público en los nuevos vecindarios de Estambul En este estudio se examina la dinámica del cambio sociocultural en los vecindarios periféricos de Estambul, una "ciudad suburbana"étnicamente mixta, culturalmente heterogénea, socialmente diferenciada y espacialmente multifuncional. Uno de los principales centros de atención de este estudio es la naturaleza cambiante de las relaciones sociales en los grupos tradicionales. Si bien la buena voluntad, el hem,eri (lugar de origen) y la solidaridad de los vecinos siguen siendo fundamentales en la vida de los migrantes, la participación en estos grupos se convierte en una cuestión de carácter voluntario y los vínculos entre los mismos no son obligatorios. En segundo lugar, las agrupaciones étnicas y religiosas en el vecindario no siempre son comunidades exclusivas, autoritarias o patriarcales. Lo que, generalmente, parece ser una fragmentación comunitaria rígida es más bien una diversidad cultural de los residentes de la localidad. El pluralismo asociativo que existe en el vecindario permite a las personas preservar diversas identidades étnicas, religiosas, políticas y culturales. En tercer lugar, si bien salen desfavorecidos en la comparación con sus equivalentes de la clase media en la ciudad, los nuevos vecindarios proveen mayores oportunidades y espacio público para la interacción de sus miembros de la localidad que, por ejemplo, las comunidades rurales. Este estudio también cuestiona la imagen a priori de una ciudad rígidamente polarizada ya que hay pruebas que indican los múltiples y complexos vínculos económicos y políticos existentes entre los nuevos vecindarios y la sociedad urbana amplia. Finalmente, el aislamiento de zonas de la clase media en la ciudad no conduce necesariamente a su exclusión de la vida, instituciones y cultura urbanas. Estas están omnipresentes en los nuevos vecindarios y disponibles para la mayoría de sus residentes. La principal conclusión de este artículo es que Estambul contiene una serie de estas ciudades periféricas, que tienen poderosas influencias integradoras y urbanizadoras en las personas. [source]

Dialogía y ruptura: la tradición etnogr´fica en la antropología aplicada en Puerto Rico, a partir de The People of Puerto Rico

JOURNAL OF LATIN AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2001
Manuel Valdés Pizzini
The People of Puerto Rico (1956) had an unquestionable academic and intellectual impact on the island. A review of the literature shows that anthropologists and their texts have established a special dialogic with The People, in which we es tablish a distance, for political reasons, but it is also a work that we keep citing and using as an essential source. The relationship between this text and the Puerto Rican anthropologists is a contra dictory one, characterized by the dialectics between ruptures and linkages. There are strong thematic linkages with Steward's text, but the Puerto Rican anthropology also manifests a aipture with those topics, and an engagement of a different set of topics represented in the recent anthropological works (for example, political ecology, urban society, national culture, gender, and racism and ethnicity). This article also presents potential new directions for Puerto Rican anthropology. [source]

URBAN PAUPERIZATION UNDER CHINA'S SOCIAL EXCLUSION: A CASE STUDY OF NANJING

JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2008
YUTING LIU
ABSTRACT:,This article articulates how two new urban poverty groups, namely the new urban poor and poor rural migrants, are pauperized under China's social exclusion. We argue that the two poverty groups experience different pauperization processes and are subjected to distinctive social exclusions with relevance to their institutional-based status and changes in it. The urban poor experience status change from being beneficiaries of the planned economy to being victims of the market economy, and become a vulnerable group characterized by market exclusion and limited welfare dependency. The status of poor rural migrants changes from being institutionally inferior farmers in the planned economy to being a marginal group of urban society, which is now subjected to institutional exclusion and the resultant social exclusion. This research argues that positive social policies should be considered and a social security system should be established to pay more attention to the development issues of the urban poor. [source]

Spatial Govemmentality and the New Urban Social Order: Controlling Gender Violence through Law

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 1 2001
Sally Engle Merry
The new urban social order depends on a complex combination of systems of punishment, discipline, and security. Scholars drawing on Foucault's analysis of the art and rationality of governance, or govemmentality, have explored how urban social orders are increasingly based on the governance of space rather than on the discipline of offenders or the punishment of offenses. The new urban social order is characterized by privatized security systems and consumer-policed spaces such as malls. Gender violence interventions represent another deployment of spatial forms of govemmentality. Over the last two decades, punishment of batterers has been augmented by disciplinary systems that teach batterers new forms of masculinity and by security systems for women based on spatial separation. In the postmodern city, spatial govemmentality is integrally connected with punishment and discipline. These new forms of governance circulate globally along with neoliberal ideas of the diminished state, [gender violence, govemmentality, urban society, globalization, law] [source]

Apportioning Sacred Space in a Moroccan City: the case of Tangier, 1860,1912

CITY & SOCIETY, Issue 1 2001
Susan Gilson Miller
In late 19th century Morocco, ideological issues such as nationalism, secularization, and colonialism came to bear on urban society and on the relations among ethnic groups in the city. This study focuses on inter,communal relations in the coastal city of Tangier, the main port for European entry into Morocco, as an example of a "traditional" Islamic city undergoing rapid modernization. Using archival sources and contemporay ethnographic studies, this article examines how the Muslim and Jewish communities of Tangier responded to the coming of modernity by articulating zones of ethnically and religiously marked space that came to be perceived of as critical to each group's expression of self-identity. [Colonialism, sacred space, Morocco, Muslim-Jewish relations] [source]