Urban Studies
Volume 50, Issue 6, May 2013
1. Title: Minarets without Mosques: Limits to the Urban Politics of Neo-liberal Islamism
Authors: Bülent Batuman
Abstract: This paper discusses urban politics in contemporary Turkey through a particular architectural phenomenon: that of minarets without mosques. Local administrations under neo-liberal Islamists propose urban regeneration projects which require extensive demolitions in squatter areas. Yet, their reluctance to tear down minarets creates ruinscapes in which minarets seem to have miraculously survived destruction. In this regard, the minarets without mosques should be understood as symptoms of urban transformation led by neo-liberal Islamism. Neo-liberal Islamists envisage these projects as spatial forms of politics of convergence, juxtaposing slum upgrading with luxurious housing within the unifying cultural codes of Islam. It is proposed to interpret these minarets not as bearers of religious symbolism but as nodes within the urban network of everyday life referring to Lefebvre’s concept of rhythmanalysis. Viewed in this way, it becomes possible for the minarets to take on new meanings and serve as signs of the displacement of the squatters.
2. Title: Culture Wars, Revanchism, Moral Panics and the Creative City. A Reconstruction of a Decline of Tolerant Public Policy: The Case of Dutch Anti-squatting Legislation
Authors: Hans Pruijt
Abstract: Squatting became illegal in the Netherlands on 1 October 2010. The paper examines the dynamics involved. Theoretically drawing on debates about culture wars, revanchism, moral panics and the creative city, it is based on participant observation in squatter meetings, debates with politicians, a parliament hearing, lobbying meetings and various informal encounters, on a survey and on a collection of documents. A key mechanism that the paper explores is the following. Strategies of resistance that seem more or less manageable in the local context of a creative city can, when they backfire, cause a moral panic on the national level. This provides ammunition for revanchist politicians.
3. Title: Dealing with Diversity: Middle-class Family Households and the Issue of ‘Black’ and ‘White’ Schools in Amsterdam
Authors: Willem R. Boterman
Abstract: The urban middle classes often celebrate the diversity of their neighbourhood. As soon as they have children, however, the desire to display symbolic capital may conflict with the need to reproduce cultural capital through the educational system. In the ethnically diverse Amsterdam schooling context, in which parents have free school choice and school access is not determined by fees, the socio-spatial strategies of school choice could be expected to differ from particularly the UK context. Based on in-depth interviews conducted with white middle-class parents in Amsterdam, this study argues that ethnic diversity is a major concern when they are seeing primary schools for their children, but that middle-class fractions have different socio-spatial strategies for managing it. It is argued that, despite differences in terms of housing market and school policies, the strategies of the Amsterdam middle classes are very similar to other contexts, suggesting homologies of class between national contexts.
4. Title: Gender Matters in Social Polarisation: Comparing Singapore, Hong Kong and Taipei
Authors: Po-Fen Tai
Abstract: This paper focuses on a relatively overlooked aspect of social polarisation in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taipei: its gender implications. The transformation of these cities, from industrial to post-industrial cities, has been accompanied by a transition from Chinese patriarchal society to modern society. A dual gendered structure is emerging—a regime of labour intimacy (RLI) under state regulations and a technomuscular capitalism (TMC), presenting itself as a competitive labour market. Migrant workers are introduced to compensate for the loss of household labour, but the wage gap between them and their local counterparts may be controlled. The occupational segmentation and income disparity between men and women are improving because of the upgrade of women’s status. The model of bound RLIs and open TMCs emphasises a more contextually situated construction in which state migration policies and changing gender status play an intermediate role in the division of labour between work and home.
5. Title: ‘Neighbourhood Effects’ and ‘City Effects’: The Entry of Newly Arrived Immigrants into the Labour Market
Authors: Charlotta Hedberg and Tiit Tammaru
Abstract: An important debate in current research and policy focuses on the role of urban residential segregation on the social mobility of immigrants. Much focus has been on ‘neighbourhood effects’ and on how spatial variations within the city affect individual careers. This paper adds the analysis of variations of labour market incorporation between cities. The labour market careers of one migrant cohort to Sweden are analysed, where the analysis of ‘neighbourhood effects’ and ‘city effects’ are studied jointly, using a longitudinal database and discrete-time event history analysis. The results show that labour market participation increases slowly over time and there are large variations due to migrant origin, gender and education. Both ‘neighbourhood effects’ and ‘city effects’ were significant, but whereas the former decreased over time, the ‘city effect’ was robust. Accordingly, contextual aspects of the individual city need to be included in the analysis of neighbourhood effects.
6. Title: From Minimum to Maximum: Impact of the London Parking Reform on Residential Parking Supply from 2004 to 2010?
Authors: Zhan Guo and Shuai Ren
Abstract: This research examines residential parking supply in London before and after the minimum off-street parking standard was replaced by a maximum one in 2004. Based on 11 428 residential developments after and 216 developments before the reform, it is found that parking supply was reduced by approximately 40 per cent. Ninety-eight per cent was caused by the removal of the minimum standard, while only 2 per cent was due the imposition of the maximum standard. However, the parking supply is actually higher in areas with the highest density and the best transit service than in the areas immediately outside; the adopted maximum standard follows a similar pattern. The market-oriented approach to parking regulation can reduce excessive parking, but it depends on the particular sub-markets. Complementary policies such as strict parking maxima, on-street parking controls and parking taxes are often necessary to form an efficient parking market.
7. Title: The Predictive Performance of Multilevel Models of Housing Sub-markets: A Comparative Analysis
Authors: Chris Leishman, Greg Costello, Steven Rowley, and Craig Watkins
Abstract: Much of the housing sub-market literature has focused on establishing methods that allow the partitioning of data into distinct market segments. This paper seeks to move the focus on to the question of how best to model sub-markets once they have been identified. It focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of multilevel models as a technique for modelling sub-markets. The paper uses data on housing transactions from Perth, Western Australia, to develop and compare three competing sub-market modelling strategies. Model 1 consists of a city-wide ‘benchmark’; model 2 provides a series of sub-market-specific hedonic estimates (this is the ‘industry standard’) and models 3 and 4 provide two variants on the multilevel model (differentiated by variation in the degrees of spatial granularity embedded in the model structure). The results suggest that the more granular multilevel specification enhances empirical performance and reduces the incidence of non-random spatial errors.
8. Title: Fostering Multiscalar Collaboration and Co-operation for Effective Governance of Climate Change Adaptation
Authors: Hayley Leck and David Simon
Abstract: In order to address climate/environmental change successfully and sustainably, it is vital to foster collaborative relationships between national, regional and local government institutions. Insufficient attention has been paid to relational dynamics between multiple levels of governance, and related learning networks outside formal government structures, particularly in the context of development imperatives in poor countries. This paper illustrates these issues via an exploration of relations between two contiguous, yet contrasting local authorities in South Africa and between these local authorities and higher government levels and other networks. To date, most progressive local climate change initiatives have been undertaken autonomously and often there are mismatched priorities between different government spheres regarding climate change efforts. The likely implications for the execution of environmental change adaptation actions and the benefits of effective networking are considered in this light and through deploying conceptual insights from multilevel governance, systems approaches to urban governance and other literatures.
9. Title: The Airport City Phenomenon: Evidence from Large US Airports
Authors: Stephen J. Appold and John D. Kasarda
Abstract: As air transport for leisure trips, business travel and goods shipment increased rapidly over the past several decades, the emergence of airport cities has been hypothesised. Busy commercial airports may be emerging as central transport nodes in large metropolitan areas, much as ports and rail terminals were in the past, anchoring employment servicing passengers, facilitating frequent travellers and providing a spatial focus for unrelated firms. An analysis of small-area employment data for the areas surrounding 25 major US airports and the related central cities reveals the concentration of employment within 2.5 miles of these airports to be substantial—approximately half that within 2.5 miles of the central point of the corresponding CBDs—and growing. The analysis refocuses a question about the nature of spatial differentiation within metropolitan regions supporting multiple employment nodes.
10. Title: Brute Force and Sorting Processes: Two Perspectives on World City Network Formation
Authors: Zachary Neal
Abstract: The interlocking network model has provided a framework for examining world city networks for over a decade. However, it implicitly adopts a ‘brute force’ perspective in which intercity linkages are forged by cities’ sheer economic size. This paper develops a complementary ‘sorting process’ perspective in which linkages are viewed as arising from the complex process through which firms are sorted into cities. It describes a new statistical test and associated computer program (ONEMODE) that permit the identification of linkages forged by a menon-random firms-into-cities sorting process. Such linkages warrant particular attention because they are driven by deeper but often unknown forces. Networks implied by both perspectives are illustrated and shown to exhibit several expected similarities and differences. These networks provide complementary views of the global urban system that can be combined to obtain more comprehensive understandings of the world city network. The paper concludes by discussing the approach’s limitations and directions for future research.
11. Title: Is the Tap Locked? An Event History Analysis of Piped Water Access in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Authors: Stéphanie Dos Santos and Thomas LeGrand
Abstract: In many respects, easy access to water of good quality and in adequate quantity can be regarded as a basic social service that is central to both health and socioeconomic development. Having piped water in the dwelling or in the yard remains the best way of having low cost and easily accessible water, compared with water vendors or standpipes. However, international data estimate that only 35 per cent of urban population in sub-Saharan Africa have piped water access. This research uses event history analysis methods to study the factors affecting sustained piped water access in Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso, where only 23 per cent of the urban population had piped water in 2010. The analysis demonstrates the relationship between aspects of one’s life history—particularly residential status—and access to piped water. These results are discussed from the perspective of social and health issues.
以下是书评:
12. Title: Mixed Communities; Gentrification by Stealth?
Authors: Gary Bridge, Tim Butler and Loretta Lees
Abstract: The article reviews the book “Mixed Communities; Gentrification by Stealth?” by Gary Bridge, Tim Butler and Loretta Lees.
13. Title: Living the Drama: Community, Conflict, and Culture among Inner-city Boys
Authors: David J. Harding
Abstract: The article reviews the book “Living the Drama: Community, Conflict, and Culture among Inner-city Boys,” by David J. Harding.
14. Title: Rethinking the Informal City: Critical Perspectives from Latin America
Authors: Felipe Hernandez, Peter Kellett and Lea K. Allen
Abstract: The article reviews the book “Rethinking the Informal City: Critical Perspectives from Latin America,” by Felipe Hernandez, Peter Kellett and Lea K. Allen.
15. Title: The Blackwell Companion to the Economics of Housing: The Housing Wealth of Nations
Authors: Susan J. Smith and Beverley A. Searle
Abstract: The article reviews the book “The Blackwell Companion to the Economics of Housing: The Housing Wealth of Nations,” by Susan J. Smith and Beverley A. Searle.