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Urban Studies (urban + studies)
Selected AbstractsThe connection: Schooling, youth development, and community building,The Futures Academy caseNEW DIRECTIONS FOR YOUTH DEVELOPMENT, Issue 122 2009Henry Louis Taylor Jr. Universities, because of their vast human and fiscal resources, can play the central role in assisting in the development of school-centered community development programs that make youth development their top priority. The Futures Academy, a K,8 public school in the Fruit Belt, an inner-city neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, offers a useful model of community development in partnership with the Center for Urban Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo. The goal of the project is to create opportunities for students to apply the knowledge and skills they learn in the classroom to the goal of working with others to make the neighborhood a better place to live. The efforts seek to realize in practice the Dewey dictum that individuals learn best when they have "a real motive behind and a real outcome ahead." [source] Estimation of the burden of active and life-time epilepsy: A meta-analytic approachEPILEPSIA, Issue 5 2010Anthony K. Ngugi Summary Purpose:, To estimate the burden of lifetime epilepsy (LTE) and active epilepsy (AE) and examine the influence of study characteristics on prevalence estimates. Methods:, We searched online databases and identified articles using prespecified criteria. Random-effects meta-analyses were used to estimate the median prevalence in developed countries and in urban and rural settings in developing countries. The impact of study characteristics on prevalence estimates was determined using meta-regression models. Results:, The median LTE prevalence for developed countries was 5.8 per 1,000 (5th,95th percentile range 2.7,12.4) compared to 15.4 per 1,000 (4.8,49.6) for rural and 10.3 (2.8,37.7) for urban studies in developing countries. The median prevalence of AE was 4.9 per 1,000 (2.3,10.3) for developed countries and 12.7 per 1,000 (3.5,45.5) and 5.9 (3.4,10.2) in rural and urban studies in developing countries. The estimates of burden for LTE and AE in developed countries were 6.8 million (5th,95th percentile range 3.2,14.7) and 5.7 million (2.7,12.2), respectively. In developing countries these were 45 (14,145) million LTE and 17 (10,133) million AE in rural areas and 17 (5,61) million LTE and 10 (5,17) million AE in urban areas. Studies involving all ages or only adults showed higher estimates than pediatric studies. Higher prevalence estimates were also associated with rural location and small study size. Conclusions:, This study estimates the global burden of epilepsy and the proportions with AE, which may benefit from treatment. There are systematic differences in reported prevalence estimates, which are only partially explained by study characteristics. [source] Spaces of Utopia and Dystopia: Landscaping the Contemporary CityGEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 3-4 2002Gordon MacLeod Some of the most recent literature within urban studies gives the distinct impression that the contemporary city now constitutes an intensely uneven patchwork of utopian and dystopian spaces that are, to all intents and purposes, physically proximate but institutionally estranged. For instance, so,called edge cities (Garreau, 1991) have been heralded as a new Eden for the information age. Meanwhile tenderly manicured urban villages, gated estates and fashionably gentrified inner,city enclaves are all being furiously marketed as idyllic landscapes to ensure a variety of lifestyle fantasies. Such lifestyles are offered additional expression beyond the home, as renaissance sites in many downtowns afford city stakeholders the pleasurable freedoms one might ordinarily associate with urban civic life. None,the,less, strict assurances are given about how these privatized domiciliary and commercialized ,public' spaces are suitably excluded from the real and imagined threats of another fiercely hostile, dystopian environment ,out there'. This is captured in a number of (largely US) perspectives which warn of a ,fortified' or ,revanchist' urban landscape, characterized by mounting social and political unrest and pockmarked with marginal interstices: derelict industrial sites, concentrated hyperghettos, and peripheral shanty towns where the poor and the homeless are increasingly shunted. Our paper offers a review of some key debates in urban geography, planning and urban politics in order to examine this patchwork,quilt urbanism, In doing so, it seeks to uncover some of the key processes through which contemporary urban landscapes of utopia and dystopia come to exist in the way they do. [source] The Role of the Development Industry in Shaping Urban Social Space: a Conceptual ModelGEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2007EDDO COIACETTO Abstract Socio-spatial differentiation or the spatial arrangement of social groups in cities has long been the subject of scholarly attention in urban studies from a variety of perspectives. In many contemporary societies, the development industry plays an important and growing role in socio-spatial differentiation. This paper presents a conceptual model for the empirical analysis of the role of this industry in shaping urban social space. [source] Urban Shadows: Materiality, the ,Southern City' and Urban TheoryGEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 2 2008Colin McFarlane We may be witnessing a ,Southern turn' in urban studies, but the implications for urban theory are only beginning to be worked through. In this article, I argue the need for urbanists to engage with a variety of ,shadows' on the edges of urban theory. The article engages with literature that theorises the interactions between urban materiality and social change, from community development literature to more expansive sociomaterial theorisations of the urban fabric. I invoke an expansive conception of the relations between the urban fabric and social change, and draw on a variety of examples through which infrastructures come to matter politically in the creative destruction of capitalist redevelopment. The article ends with consideration of how comparison might be conceived as a strategy of indirect and uncertain learning that entails the possibility of transformation in a predominantly Euro-American-orientated urban theory. [source] Participation in Urban Contention and DeliberationINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2010HILARY SILVER Abstract Participation is a popular buzzword in contemporary urban studies. For some, it implies a deepening of democratic deliberation; for others, it represents grassroots resistance to powerful elites and neoliberalization. Rather than seeing participation as either consensus-building or conflicts of interest, as either a top-down or bottom-up process, the evidence suggests that it can be all of these. By adopting a more dynamic, pragmatic, and empirically informed perspective, seemingly opposite normative conceptions of democratic participation may be theorized as different ,moments' in the democratic process. Bottom-up mobilization may coincide with and complement top-down initiatives, each dominating different political phases of policymaking, implementation and monitoring. Case studies from Belfast, Berlin, Durban, Philadelphia and São Paulo illustrate the approach and provide insight into the urban as a social laboratory in which other scales of social life and multiple ways to perform democracy are constructed. Résumé La participation est un terme qui revient très souvent dans les études urbaines contemporaines. Pour certains, elle implique une réflexion démocratique approfondie, pour d'autres, une résistance des citoyens face à la puissance des élites et au néolibéralisme. Si la participation peut être vue comme un moyen de bâtir des consensus ou l'expression de conflits d'intérêts, ou comme un processus imposé par le haut ou bien par la base, les faits suggèrent qu'elle peut être tout cela. En adoptant une perspective pragmatique plus dynamique reposant sur des éléments empiriques, des concepts normatifs de la participation apparemment opposés sont susceptibles d'être formulés en tant que "moments" différents du processus démocratique. La mobilisation par la base peut venir en coïncidence et complément d'initiatives imposées par le haut, chaque forme dominant des phases politiques distinctes dans la prise de décision, la mise en ,uvre et le suivi. Des études de cas portant sur Belfast, Berlin, Durban, Philadelphie et São Paulo illustrent la démarche et font apparaître l'urbain comme un laboratoire où s'élaborent d'autres dimensions de la vie sociale et de multiples modalités d'exercice de la démocratie. [source] Re-engaging the Intersections of Media, Politics and Cities , Introduction to a DebateINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2009SCOTT RODGERS Within contemporary social theory and social science, urban and media studies are seen as zones of speciality, with distinctive theoretical traditions and substantive concerns. This introduction situates the four short essays making up this Debates and Developments section in relation to a recent interdisciplinary workshop held in June 2008 at The Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, where participants were encouraged to experiment with and rework the longstanding conceptual differences and disciplinary policing that so often sets apart media and urban studies. The essays showcased here focus on the theoretical approaches urban scholars might bring to bear on studies of how cities and media come together around matters of politics. Résumé Dans le cadre de la théorie sociale contemporaine et des sciences sociales, les études urbaines et relatives aux médias sont considérées comme des domaines de spécialité assortis de traditions théoriques et de préoccupations majeures distinctes. Cette introduction situe les quatre courtes contributions aux ,Débats et développements' par rapport à un récent séminaire interdisciplinaire qui s'est tenu en juin 2008 à l'Open University de Milton Keynes, en Angleterre. Les participants y étaient invités àéprouver et remanier les divergences conceptuelles persistantes et l'ordre disciplinaire qui, si souvent, séparent études urbaines et études sur les médias. Les textes présentés ici portent principalement sur les approches théoriques que la recherche urbaine pourrait mettre en oeuvre pour étudier comment villes et médias se rejoignent autour de sujets de politique. [source] The future of urban sociology: report of joint sessions of the British and American Sociological AssociationsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2002Beth Perry This article reports on two joint sessions of the British and American Sociological Associations held during the course of 2001 as a first step toward more structured dialogue and debate between the two national associations. Drawing on the comments of a number of leading academics on both sides of the Atlantic, this paper presents a series of discussions about the role and future of urban sociology. It explores the challenges and opportunities offered to urban sociology by increasing interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity in the field of urban studies as a whole. It then explores the role of sociology in understanding the relationship between contemporary processes of globalization and urban change and the degree to which this constitutes a new dynamic core of sociological theory and research. The paper reveals that there are a variety of alternative futures for urban sociology and there would appear to be little agreement on one specific route, nor on how to get there. Urban sociology continues to face a variety of challenges and more debate on its future trajectory is clearly needed but it remains a vital and expanding sub,field. Cet article rend compte de deux sessions communes des associations de sociologie britannique et américaine qui ont eu lieu en 2001, premier stade vers un dialogue et un débat plus structurés entre les deux organismes nationaux. Partant des remarques d'un certain nombre de grands intellectuels des deux côtés de l'Atlantique, ce travail présente plusieurs discussions sur le rôle et l'avenir de la sociologie urbaine. Il examine les défis et possibilités que lui offrent l'interdisciplinarité et la pluridisciplinarité croissantes dans l'ensemble du domaine des études urbaines. Il explore ensuite comment la sociologie aide à comprendre la relation entre les processus contemporains de mondialisation et de changement urbain, et la mesure où peut ainsi émerger une nouvelle dynamique nodale pour la théorie et la recherche sociologiques. L'article expose plusieurs avenirs possibles de la sociologie urbaine, sans qu'il y ait apparemment d'accord sur une voie particulière ni sur le moyen d'y parvenir. La sociologie urbaine rencontre toujours de multiples défis et il faut manifestement approfondir les débats sur sa future trajectoire, mais elle demeure un sous,domaine à la fois crucial et en expansion. [source] Commodified language in Chinatown: A contextualized approach to linguistic landscape1JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, Issue 3 2009Jennifer Leeman In Washington DC's newly gentrified Chinatown, recent commercial establishments, primarily non-Chinese owned chains, use Chinese-language signs as design features targeted towards people who neither read nor have ethnic ties to Chinese. Using this neighborhood as a case study, we advocate a contextualized, historicized and spatialized perspective on linguistic landscape which highlights that landscapes are not simply physical spaces but are instead ideologically charged constructions. Drawing from cultural geography and urban studies, we analyze how written language interacts with other features of the built environment to construct commodified urban places. Taking a contextually informed, qualitative approach, we link micro-level analysis of individual Chinese-language signs to the specific local socio-geographic processes of spatial commodification. Such a qualitative approach to linguistic landscape, which emphasizes the importance of sociohistorical context, and which includes analysis of signage use, function, and history, leads to a greater understanding of the larger sociopolitical meanings of linguistic landscapes. [source] Advancing urban ecological studies: Frameworks, concepts, and results from the Baltimore Ecosystem StudyAUSTRAL ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2006S. T. A. PICKETT Abstract Urban ecological studies have had a long history, but they have not been a component of mainstream ecology until recently. The growing interest of ecologists in urban systems provides an opportunity to articulate integrative frameworks, and identify research tools and approaches that can help achieve a broader ecological understanding of urban systems. Based on our experience in the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES), Long-term Ecological Research project, located in metropolitan Baltimore, Maryland, USA, we identify several frameworks that may be useful in comparative urban studies, and may be worthy of consideration in other integrative urban ecosystem studies: (i) spatial patch dynamics of biophysical and social factors; (ii) the watershed as an integrative tool; and (iii) the human ecosystem framework. These frameworks build on empirical research investigating urban biota, nutrient and energy budgets, ecological footprints of cities, as well as biotic classifications aimed at urban planning. These frameworks bring together perspectives, measurements, and models from biophysical and social sciences. We illustrate their application in the BES, which is designed to investigate (i) the structure and change of the urban ecosystem; (ii) the fluxes of matter, energy, capital, and population in the metropolis; and (iii) how ecological information affects the quality of the local and regional environments. Exemplary results concerning urban stream nutrient flux, the ability of riparian zones to process nitrate pollution, and the lags in the relationships between vegetation structure and socio-economic factors in specific neighbourhoods are presented. The current advances in urban ecological studies have profited greatly from the variety of integrative frameworks and tools that have been tested and applied in urban areas over the last decade. The field is poised to make significant progress as a result of ongoing conceptual and empirical consolidation. [source] | ||||||||||