Jane Jacobs: her life and work

In April 2006, Jane Jacobs—analyst of cities—died. As written in the Financial Times obituary of 27 April 2006 “She spent much of her career fighting for one deceptively simple principle: leave cities alone and let them develop by themselves”. In spring 2004 Gert-Jan Hospers visited Jane Jacobs in her Toronto home and conducted lengthy interviews with her about her beliefs, life and work. A future article based on this now invaluable material has been commissioned by European Planning Studies. However on the sad occasion of her death, and with the work of transcribing interview material underway, it seemed appropriate to create an account of key observations made by Jane Jacobs in that interview to explain her philosophy and practice more clearly than occurs in her always readable and influential books. As an early, maybe the first, evolutionary urban economist and modern inventor of the concept of “social capital”, it is especially appropriate to include this obituary in the journal, which has always been a welcoming host to literature composed from such perspectives.     

Reassessing Fiscal Policy: Perspectives from Developing Countries

Over the last twenty‐five years an anti‐Keynesian orthodox approach has envisaged a prominent role for reductions in fiscal deficits in developing countries. Expansionary fiscal policies have been said to result in excessive expansion of aggregate demand leading to current account deficits and inflation, as well as displacing private investment, thereby inhibiting output stabilization and employment recovery. Moreover, chronic fiscal deficits are supposed to be associated with high and explosive debt/GDP ratios. The purpose of this article is to assess the theoretical adequacy of the orthodox approach in the context of developing countries. The author clarifies some common misunderstandings and finds that none of the conventional arguments against fiscal activism is wholly convincing. At the heart of the debate lies the question of assumptions, economic structure and causation mechanisms. The orthodox stories regarding the macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy very often do not go beyond the simple monetarist assumptions or seek to verify the implications against the existing experiences and empirical data from developing countries.     

日本当代女作家隔岸观

战后先后活跃在日本文坛上的女作家几近百人之多。日本有四百多种文学奖,据有关资料统计,仅1970年至1994年的24年中,勇摘日本文学第一大奖芥川奖的女新人就达19名,占同期总获奖者54人中的35．19％,颇可见巾帼不让须眉之势。     

China's Emerging Neoliberal Urbanism: Perspectives from Urban Redevelopment

Abstract: China's urbanization is undergoing profound neoliberal shifts, within which urban redevelopment has emerged in the forefront of neoliberalization. This study aims to understand China's emerging neoliberal urbanism by examining the association between urban redevelopment and neoliberalism. Rather than a deliberate design, neoliberalization in China is a response to multiple difficulties/crises and the desire for rapid development. The neoliberalization process is full of controversies and inconsistencies, which involve conflicts between neoliberal practices and social resistance, and tensions between central and local states. Nevertheless, China's neoliberal urbanism has a responsive and resilient system to cope with the contradictions and imbalances inherent in neoliberalism. Meanwhile, neoliberal urbanism is more tangible at the sub‐national scale, since the local state can most effectively assist neoliberal experiments and manage crises. This study not only contributes to the understanding of China's neoliberal urbanism, but also has multiple implications for neoliberalism studies in general. First, in examining the interrelationship between the state and market, it is the actual effect of legitimizing and facilitating market operation rather than the presence (or absence) of the state that matters. Second, a new nexus of governance has formed in the neoliberalization process. Not only the nation state but also the local state is of great significance in assisting and managing neoliberal projects. Third, this study further validates the importance and necessity of scrutinizing neoliberal practices, in particular the controversies and inconsistencies within the neoliberalization process.     

重估郎世宁的使命——将意大利绘画风格融入清朝作品

耶稣会士郎世宁于1715年至1766年供职于清廷内务府期间,将两种截然不同的艺术文化融合在一起:欧洲艺术风格是这位艺术家所受的基础训练,中国艺术风格则促成了他的职业成就。本文在分析郎世宁意大利基础训练及绘画知识的同时,也分析了其在清廷的代表作品,以提供这位画家在中国进行文化融合的基本框架。郎世宁的文化融合证明,他所接受的意大利基础训练与其后来作为宫廷画家所取得的成就之间,有着深远的联系。本文讨论了郎世宁全部绘画作品中不同元素之间相互关联的动态系统。这些相互关联的元素主要包含三方面的背景:绘画的、政治的以及感性的,分别与三种绘画流派有关——风景画、肖像画以及通景画,这一点对于理解郎世宁的事业至关重要。从更广义的角度讲,本文的目的在于通过展示郎世宁的艺术生涯,有助于我们勾勒出18世纪促成中国与欧洲文化艺术碰撞中的联结点。     

Information Technology Impacts on Urban Spatial Structure in the Chicago Region

This paper examines the impact of information technology on urban spatial structure in the Chicago region. Urban scientists are challenged to understand in what ways information technology has influenced the distribution of urban economic activities: concentration or dispersion. Using data collected in the Chicago region, orientation of establishments toward the center is tested to separate the impact of locational features of centers from the impact of information technology. The result reveals that information technology has attraction as well as spillover effect on urban spatial structure and thus concentration rather than dispersion is dominant at a local scale in the Chicago region. It was found, however, that center‐orientedness varies depending on the sector.     

Islam,Human Rights and Interfaith Relations: Some Contemporary Egyptian Perspectives

Abstract

This paper explores current discussions and debates on Islam, human rights and interfaith relations in Egypt through an analysis of the public statements and writings of various religious scholars and spiritual teachers and the textbooks used to teach Islam in public secondary schools. It is well known that Islamist perspectives have become mainstream in Egypt, a largely devout and socially conservative country that is also the source of most of the major Islamic trends and political ideologies that have impacted the Muslim world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Nonetheless, there is a broad tendency in government-issued textbooks on Islam and in the population at large to equate Islam with democracy and human rights, despite the authoritarianism of the state and the contradictions between traditional interpretations of Islam and international human rights norms. The rhetoric of democracy and human rights is linked to the threat of terrorism, which is labeled un-Islamic. Among ordinary Egyptian Muslims, even those who support Islamist politics, there seems to be a new concern to eradicate Islamic extremism and more openness to unconventional Muslim approaches. The most liberal example of this is an association that teaches the unity of all religions from a somewhat Sufi perspective, promotes interfaith dialogue, and advocates reinterpreting the Shari'a to promote gender equality and equal human rights for all Egyptians.     

Mythological Themes in Iranian Culture and Art: Traditional and Contemporary Perspectives

In Iran, ancient mythical elements are very much alive in the present as a part of the fabric of ordinary people's lives and worldview. This paper explores the relationship between culture, myth, and artistic production in contemporary Iran, using the specific examples of symbols and mythological themes evoked in the work of painter/writer Aydin Aghdashloo and photographer/video artist Shirin Neshat. The paintings of Aghdashloo, in which he deliberately damages beautifully-executed classical style Persian miniatures, convey a sense that the angelic forces have failed and that the world is succumbing to the destructive and degenerative activities of the demonic. The photographs, videos and installations of Neshat likewise draw heavily on cultic forms inherited from ancient Iranian tradition. It is important to note that in none of these cases does the artist use mythological themes and symbols to express their original cultural meaning; rather, they appropriate well-known elements of ancient Iranian culture and imbue them with new meanings relevant to contemporary issues and understandings. What these examples do illustrate is the persistent resonance of ancient Iranian culture among Iranians up to the present day. Iranian artists have demonstrated the effectiveness of evoking their target audience's deep sense of cultural identity to convey contemporary messages using ancient cultural concepts, sometimes on a subconscious level.     

Closed Condominiums as Urban Fragments of the Contemporary City

Contemporary cities have witnessed the emergence of new real-estate products in which gated communities and closed condominiums (CCs) can be included. The proliferation of these urban products is worldwide, with similar patterns that are analysed in this paper according to five perspectives of analysis: physical, economic, social, political and cultural. These perspectives cross-cut some of the main issues of discussion of the contemporary urban debate associated with private residential developments. These developments seem to appeal to an increasing number of social groups and have been able to adapt to different planning systems. With a smaller scale, these developments emerged in Portugal in the form of CCs, and are analysed in a case study in Greater Oporto. The purpose of this paper is to present the Portuguese singularities of this phenomenon in comparison with the worldwide dimension. In our case study we find some important particularities strongly associated with the Portuguese planning system. Some of these particularities have negative impacts on the surrounding urban landscape. As a result, CCs demand specific planning policies to counteract the negative consequences they are likely to generate in local social and urban fabrics. In the absence of these policies, CCs, as well as other private residential developments, are likely to contribute further to an increasingly fragmented and divided urban landscape.     

From May to October: Reassessing the 1968 Generation

Since the early 1980s, France has transformed its pattern of economic policy‐making from a state‐led or dirigiste approach to a more market‐oriented one and generated a new set of dynamics between French business and government at regional, national, and European levels. Business has become more independent of the central state as a result of deregulation, privatisation, regional integration, and Europeanisation, more interdependent as a result of cross‐shareholdings, and more international in consequence of cross‐border mergers and acquisitions. State interventionism, where it remains, has become more circumscribed and less directive, targeting firms only in strategic areas or in trouble.     

Reassessing the Oppida: The Role of Power and Religion

For a long time, the origins and development of Late Iron Age oppida were viewed from predominantly economic perspectives and as dependent on contacts with the Mediterranean world. However, advances in research in recent decades make it necessary to qualify and reassess many of the traditional interpretations of the genesis and functions of these centres, one of the most striking phenomena of the last two centuries BC. This article emphasizes the political and religious role of continental European oppida, understanding them as a new ‘technology of power’, which enabled a more hierarchical and centralizing ideology to be articulated. Moreover, new evidence suggests that many oppida may have had their origin in spaces for ritual gatherings. The result is a new interpretation of the genesis and characteristics of Late Iron Age centralization processes.     

New Perspectives on the "Dao" of "Huidaomen": Redemptive Societies and Religion in Modern and Contemporary China

This essay uses research in Chinese religion,and specifically Chinese "redemptive societies," to challenge and enrich the received history of "sects and secret societies" in modern and contemporary Chinese history,and suggests that a future "history of cultivation movements" might be a helpful means to steer between competing narratives of state-building and personal religious experience.The discussion is illustrated with a brief biography of Li Yujie (1901-94),founder of the redemptive society Tiandijiao who devoted his life to cultivation and religion,but also to independent journalism and the Guomindang.     

Spatial Poetics Under Authoritarianism: Graffiti and the Contestation of Urban Redevelopment in Contemporary China

This article investigates the expression of resistance to urban redevelopment in the authoritarian context of contemporary China. Where conventional channels of public expression are closed, the very space of urban transformation becomes an important medium of contestation. Through the practice of “spatial poetics”, residents manipulate the taken-for-granted meanings attached to urban space, challenging the spatial codes that authorise redevelopment. Working across four spatial dimensions—territory, place, scale, and network—these poetic manipulations allow residents to de-naturalise existing power structures, escape their effects, and re-code space with alternative meanings. The article illustrates the practice of spatial poetics through an analysis of Ciqikou, a historic district of Chongqing undergoing redevelopment. Residents expressed their resistance to redevelopment by writing slogans on buildings slated for demolition. By emphasising relationships of scale, network, and place, residents’ graffiti challenged the territorial basis of the Chinese party-state’s redevelopment project and revalorised the neighbourhood as worthy of preservation.