Monumentality in Urban Design: The Case of China

An American urban geographer and noted specialist on China comments on the preceding review essay on monumentality in the urban design in world cities (Ford, 2008). Focusing on monumentality in China, the author surveys a number of monumental urban projects in Beijing (particularly in relation to Olympic construction), Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Kunming. In the context of urban theory, he discusses the massive presence of the Chinese state in everyday urban life. Noting the explosive urban growth and megaproject-related construction, the author alludes to recent evidence that the clearing of city neighborhoods and mass displacement of residents have prompted widespread opposition and resistance at the local level. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O18, R14, R53. 9 figures, 42 references.     

Monumentality in Urban Design: The Case of Russia

A prominent American urban geographer and observer of the Russian urban scene provides an overview of grand planning and monumental urban design in Russia and the former Soviet Union through the lens of four themes outlined in a previous paper by Larry Ford (2008). In the process, he adds two more themes relevant to Russia and the former USSR: town building and architecture intended to define and legitimize state power, and the shaping or remodeling of society to reflect a regime's ideology. Noting the obstacles in the West to getting large urban projects planned, accepted, and completed, he argues that monumental urban landscapes appear to demand some degree of sustained, centralized, authoritarian leadership. The latter has been present in Russia and the USSR during much of the past millennium, including the present, but the emergence of new commercial/corporate forces in urban land development also bears scrutiny in studies of the processes promoting urban monumentality. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O18, R14, R52. 10 figures, 44 references.     

Information for Authors, 2001

The paper assesses the urban base for rapid economic development and urbanization projected for western China under the most recent central government policy of "grand development of the western region." It focuses on the socioeconomic characteristics, receptiveness to innovation, and linkages of western China's cities to the world, by utilizing data from government documents and census publications. The analysis reveals remarkable differences among the main urban nodes, raising questions about existing urban and regional development theory and practice in China. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O18, O20, R12. 2 figures, 7 tables, 33 references.     

In search of frameworks for productive comparison of cities in world history

In 2013, The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History, edited by Peter Clark, was published. Its 44 chapters (a total of 882 pages) aim to develop a framework for understanding urban history comparatively and over long spans of time. The authors of the four chronological chapters on Chinese cities attempt to achieve the following goals: to examine the diversity of Chinese cities over time, to analyze the characteristics of Chinese urban development in general, and to illuminate how changing Chinese cities and urban networks reflect and influence world trends. This essay discusses how the Oxford Handbook can serve as a guide and resource for meaningful urban comparisons and also highlights some of its limitations. It compares the Oxford Handbook to a similar volume, The Routledge Handbook on Cities of the Global South, published in 2014. The essay encourages scholars of Chinese cities to consider widening the scope of their comparisons and contribute to scholarship on the development of urban systems worldwide.     

The violence of spectacle: Statist schemes to green the desert and constructing Astana and Ashgabat as urban oases

Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have been home to the most impressive urban development projects in the entire post-Soviet world. Their capitals, Astana and Ashgabat, now boast uniquely monumental architecture and local leaders have invested heavily in ‘green belt’ projects to surround the cities with lush vegetation, as well as developing green and water-laden public spaces. In doing so, elites have drawn on Soviet-era ‘garden city’ idealism, as well as more recent environmental sustainability narratives. Yet these schemes are anything but sustainable. Unfolding on the arid Central Asian steppe, they depend on heavy irrigation, with water diverted from rivers that already fail to meet regional demands. Employing a comparative approach, I ask why and with what effect state planners have sought to craft Astana and Ashgabat as spectacularly green ‘urban oases,’ when their local climates should defy the logic of sustainability. In so doing, I consider urban greening in the two countries as part of a wider phenomenon of statist schemes to green the desert, which have a long and diverse history. Extending the literature on desert greening, I argue that the structural violence they manifest and perpetuate is best understood by attending to how they operate as a form of spectacle.     

Commercial Redevelopment and Regional Inequality in Urban China: Xining's Wangfujing?

An American urban geographer specializing in China explores whether a commercial and urban redevelopment model successful in Beijing (Wangfujing) can be transferred to a more remote region of the country (Qinghai Province), and whether the potential benefits outweigh the costs of dismantling the traditional commercial core of the relatively large provincial capital of Xining, with one-half million inhabitants. The Xining project is investigated in the contexts of globalization, secondary globalization, and the diffusion of urban planning and development practices in China. The biases in Chinese planning practice toward methods employed in large eastern cities are considered in light of global trends toward neoliberalism and the new regionalism. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: I31, O18, R58. 2 figures, 83 references.     

Le Conte de deux cités1 : Analyse comparative des conflits urbains de Montréal et Valence, 1995–2010

A tale of two cities: 9 Comparative analysis of urban conflicts of Montreal and Valencia, 1995–2010 Metropolization processes at work in contemporary societies produce social and spatial change, which can raise strong opposition from a variety of urban actors, leading to acts of dissent. While such urban conflict has been examined in the past, geographical analysis of urban conflicts as sociospatial processes is more recent. Systematic quantitative research on urban conflict is virtually nonexistent in terms of comparative analysis conducted with an international perspective. Systematic comparative analysis sheds light on the existing relationship between urban conflicts and the socio‐territorial contexts in which conflicts emerge and evolve. This article presents a comparative analysis of urban conflict that occurred in a selection of boroughs in two cities characterized by different geographical realities, Valencia (Spain) and Montreal (Canada), between 1995 and 2010. Spatial autocorrelation techniques applied to a conflict database show a significant relationship between the emergence of urban conflict and the spatial distribution of some contextual variables. Indeed, for Montreal as for Valencia, the concentration of urban conflict is the greatest in the most deprived neighbourhoods. Also, regarding the management and regulation of urban conflict, results shed light on important differences between Montreal and Valencia. These differences include the outcome of urban conflicts, repertoire of action of actors involved in conflict activity, and the type of contestation faced by actors who promote the challenged urban projects.     

全球化视角下的世界城市网络理论

城市诞生时就相互保持着联系,只有将城市纳入世界城市网络中才能正确把握城市产生和发展的本质。1980年以来在第三次全球化浪潮的背景下,世界生产要素和产品市场开始整合,世界城市的兴起是国际劳动分工在空间上的表达。Cohen、Friedmann、Sassen、Castells和Taylor等学者提出并发展了世界城市理论,世界城市网络理论已经成为研究城市问题的重要框架。联系数据的缺乏长期制约了世界城市网络的实证研究,二十世纪九十年代中期以来学者们创新性地解决了方法论的问题,对世界城市网络的各个层面进行了实证研究。     

Revanchist Urbanism Heads South: The Regulation of Indigenous Beggars and Street Vendors in Ecuador

Abstract: Much of the discussion surrounding neoliberal urbanism has been empirically grounded in the North. This paper shifts the discussion south to focus on the regulation of indigenous street vendors and beggars in the Andean nation of Ecuador. Inspired by zero tolerance policies from the North, the cities of Quito and Guayaquil have recently initiated urban regeneration projects to cleanse the streets of informal workers, beggars, and street children. In this paper, I explore the particular and pernicious ways in which these neoliberal urban policies affect indigenous peoples in the urban informal sector. Grounded in the literature on space, race and ethnicity in the Andes, I argue that Ecuador's particular twist on revanchism is through its more transparent engagement with the project of blanqueamiento or “whitening”. I further argue that Ecuador's “refinement” of revanchist urban policies only works to displace already marginalised individuals and push them into more difficult circumstances.     

Urban Villages in China: A 2008 Survey of Migrant Settlements in Beijing

A team of Beijing-based urban planning specialists is joined by a noted American geographer to present the results and analyze their 2008 survey of migrant settlements in China's capital city. The paper examines the living and work conditions as well as housing consumption behavior of migrants in Chinese cities, focusing on chengzhongcun or urban villages—rural settlements that have been transformed into poor living spaces for migrant workers. It finds that although migrant workers are willing to pay the same or higher rent per unit of space, they consume much smaller dwelling spaces than local residents. Estimations of the Mincerian wage equation and of a housing demand equation show that migrants' small space consumption is a function not only of low income but also of a reluctance to spend their earnings in the city. The findings reinforce the notion that migrant workers consider the city as a place to work rather than a home in which to live. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: J610, O150, R210, R230. 14 figures, 5 tables, 34 references, 1 appendix.     

Women,Communities, Neighbourhoods: Approaching Gender and Feminism within UK Urban Policy

In recent years some commentators have looked at successive waves of UK urban policy from the perspective of gender, although these commentaries have been somewhat marginal within wider discussions of urban policy and politics. This article seeks to make the case for a renewed emphasis on gender, which moves beyond tracing the role of men and women in relation to urban policy programmes, in two particular ways. First it is argued that a more sophisticated analysis of the gendered nature of urban governance is needed, in other words how forms of gendered labour, subjectivity and power work through and within policy projects; and second that there should be a wider consideration of what feminist visions of cities and politics, both past and present, might contribute to the project of a critical, and hopeful, analysis of urban policy and politics. The paper seeks to make a practical as well as theoretical intervention in relation to gender and feminist perspectives on UK urban policy. It is argued that there has been a silence around such issues in recent years, both in analysis and in policy discourses, and that this silence has masked how gendered labour and power has often been woven into urban governance. For example, forms of women‐centred organising have been relied on in a range of government projects seeking to build community and participation within poor neighbourhoods. Such reliance may be increasing in a context of austerity. As well as this critical analysis of current policy, the paper argues for the reinvigoration of feminist visions of cities that suggest different framings of aspects of urban life. For example, rethinking the lines between public and private spheres might result in different forms of housing or sites of civic participation. Through engaging anew with such perspectives cities might become more just, caring, and equal for all.     

CULTURE‐LED DEVELOPMENT AND CONFLICT OVER URBAN SPACE: REIMAG(IN)ING ST PETERSBURG,RUSSIA

Culture‐led projects have long been part of strategies to regenerate cities in advanced capitalist economies. In recent decades those projects also have become a focal point of urban development in post‐socialist cities. This study argues that an attempt to reimage(in)e the city of St Petersburg through its culture‐led flagship project, Mariinsky Theatre–2, has generated significant changes not only to its built fabric, but also to its social fabric. In the context of a post‐socialist city, this study examines how the urban space of the historical centre is being contested by its urban users, often on the basis of differences in perception, including the impacts of the culture‐led project on those perceptions. Civic awareness about social exclusion and inclusion in urban space is on the rise in this post‐socialist city.     

Interurban Development and Economic Disparities in a Russian Province

The paper explores the relationship among factors believed to influence the economic development potential of Russian cities in the post-Soviet period, based on a detailed case study of small and medium-sized urban places in Leningrad Oblast. Relying on rarely utilized statistical data (including local town censuses) collected during on-site research and interviews, the author constructs an economic development index that provides a reference for inter-urban comparisons and analysis. The significance of accessibility for post-Soviet urban development is statistically demonstrated and the role of inherited spatial economic structures (economic-geographical endowment) is discussed along with other factors influencing urban performance. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O11, O18, R11. 3 figures, 4 tables, 30 references.     

“This neighbourhood deserves an espresso bar too”: Neoliberalism,Racialization, and Urban Policy

In the Dutch and more broadly European context, urban policymaking has generally been studied through the conceptual lens of neoliberalism. While important, I argue that this neoliberal lens does not fully account for the design and impact of urban policies currently transforming cities like Amsterdam. Following Mustafa Dikeç's (2007, Badlands of the Republic: Space, Politics, and Urban Policy) understanding of urban policy as place‐making practices that normalize particular distributions of people, authorities and spaces, I propose to focus on underlying visions of the normal and the good city that shape urban policymaking. Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic research on Amsterdam's “notorious” Diamantbuurt, I argue that this vision is informed by neoliberalism and by racialized concerns with migrants and ethnic minorities. It entails particular classed and racialized preferences that normalize and underwrite the partial displacement that is underway in the neighbourhood.     

Population Distribution and Spatial Structure in Transitional Chinese Cities: A Study of Nanjing

Two geographers use population surface model techniques to analyze the distribution of population in Chinese cities. Focusing on Nanjing, they utilize detailed urban land use and building distribution data to develop a productive alternative method to reveal spatial variations in the distribution of inhabitants. The findings indicate that despite suburbanization, Nanjing remains a compact city with a population density that declines rapidly as distance from its central business district increases. Also, suburbanization has been limited to an inner area where population is densely distributed while commercial and office development is less prominent. Lastly, commercial activities influence the distribution of urban inhabitants and suburbanization more significantly than industrial development in suburbia. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O15, O18, R12, R14. 9 figures, 3 tables, 37 references.     

The Politics of the Evicted: Redevelopment,Subjectivity, and Difference in Mumbai's Slum Frontier

In recent years cities around the world have undergone mass slum clearances for redevelopment. This study of Mumbai offers an alternative interpretation of urban capital accumulation by investigating the differentiated political subjectivities of displaced slum residents. I argue that Mumbai's redevelopment entails not uniform class‐based dispossessions but a process of accumulation by differentiated displacement whereby uneven displacement politics are central to the social production of land markets. Two ethnographic cases reveal that groups negotiate redevelopment in contradictory ways, supporting or contesting projects in varying moments. Redevelopmental subjectivities are influenced at key conjunctures by market‐oriented resettlement, ideologies of belonging, desires for improved housing, and participation in non‐governmental groups. This articulated assemblage of power‐laden practices reflects and reworks class, gender, and ethno‐religious relations, profoundly shaping evictees' experience and political engagement. The paper concludes that focusing on differentiated subjectivities may usefully guide both analysis and social justice practice aimed at countering dispossession.     

Knowledge Production,Urban Locations and the Importance of Local Networks

This paper analyses the relationship between knowledge production and urban locations in industrial design, a knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS). KIBS concentrate in urban locations. This is often explained by the co-location of client firms and market access in large cities. Recent research on knowledge production, however, reveals that knowledge productive networks are significant for both the competitiveness and location of KIBS. Thus, to understand the urban location of industrial design, it is important to analyse how knowledge production is organized within the industry. Industrial design is concentrated in urban locations, but most of its clients are located elsewhere. Hence, it seems that industrial design firms concentrate in urban locations mainly because their knowledge networks include specific types of formal and informal local social networks.     

Globalising Economic Governance,Political Projects,and Spatial Imaginaries: Insights from Four Australasian1 Cities

This paper explores how territorial economic governance is discursively constituted in a globalising and neoliberalising world. It acknowledges both the increasingly recognised formative role of spatial imaginaries in economic interventions and the workings of co‐constitutive political projects that link particular imaginaries with political ambitions and policy strategies. Embracing recent calls for comparative ethnographic urban research at the local‐global interface, it explores currently dominant spatial imaginaries across the four Australasian cities of Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth. Based on multiple qualitative methods, this study claims that a considerable number of actor's spatial associations and reference points can be related to particular city‐specific governmental projects; Auckland's Super‐City, Sydney's Global and Green City, Melbourne's Liveable City, and Perth's Vibrant City. It is demonstrated how discursive governance techniques such as ‘story‐telling’, benchmarking, and policy transfer have been pivotal in the activation, circulation, and performance of those spatial imaginaries and their transformation into temporarily dominant visions for strategic urban interventions aimed at repositioning urban actors, spaces, and activities. While spatial imaginaries can be related to differently framed global aspirations, the effects of spatial political projects on urban governance and investment trajectories differ significantly across space. Theoretically, the paper stresses the importance of particular conceptions of territorial relations and time‐ and place‐specific institutional mediation in shaping context‐dependent discursive material governance alignments.     

城市旅游综合体的生成因子判定与作用机制研究

判识城市旅游综合体的生成因子并模拟其作用机制,是集约利用城市资源、判定城市大型旅游投资项目可行性的前提。从概念入手,构建了包含3个属性、29个指标的城市旅游综合体生成影响要素评价体系,在利用专家打分法对各因子重要性评价的基础上,采用因子分析法对城市旅游综合体的生成因子进行萃取。结果显示,按照重要性程度高低进行排序可以将这些因子归结为宏观经济水平、旅游产业水平、市场实力、行政效力、旅游资源本底等八个。文章认为,城市旅游综合体是一种特定的旅游人地关系地域系统,城市作为地理空间的属性特征和旅游作为产业形态的经济特征相互作用构成了其生成的动力机制,城市大型旅游项目投资需要从更加宏观的视角去评判其可行性。     

Multiple Suburban Publics: Rethinking Community Opposition to Consolidation in Sydney

Since the late 1980s urban consolidation has become the dominant strategic planning paradigm across Australian cities; however, sites of densification are increasingly becoming sites of community resistance and conflict. In the context of the Sydney Metropolitan Strategy, this paper explores Ku‐ring‐gai in Sydney's northern suburbs as a site of community resistance centred on opposition to urban consolidation. Moving beyond more traditional constructions of community resistance as a form of NIMBYism, we present here a typology of community resistance groups and explore the complex relationships between these groups, which are used to challenge development. In addition we draw on understanding of urban publics to explore the ways in which these groups attempt to engage and act on behalf of a diverse set of publics operating across scales.