The architecture of ethnic logic: Exploring the Meaning of the Built Environment in the 'Mixed' City Of Lod – Israel

This article analyses the evolution of the built environment in Israel's 'mixed cities' in Israel; sites shaped by the logic of ethno–nationalism, and characterized by patterns of segregation between the Jewish dominant majority and the Arab subordinate minority. The paper investigates the changes and dynamics of the urban landscape from the British Mandate period to recent times, focusing on the interrelations between ideology and architecture in its wider sense, i.e. referring to the practices of urban design and planning. The production of urban landscapes in Israeli 'mixed cities', I will argue, is a result of the social construction of an ethnic logic, and thus cannot be seen as autonomous from the existing socio–political context. Rather, I would propose, the architecture of the 'mixed city' reflects on one hand, and shapes on the other the struggle over identity, memory and belonging, rooted in urban colonialism discourse.
Empirically, this paper focuses on the city of Lod/Lydda where as in other previously Palestinian cities, a strategy of colonization had been implemented, forming the city's central planning policy since the Mandate period. The paper analyzes in detail various aspects and sites of this process, and explores the role of planners and architects in the construction of a sense of place in tangible as well as discursive levels, which are often neglected in the body of knowledge that deals with urban–ethnic conflicts.     

China’s urban ideology: new towns,creation cities,and contested landscapes of memory

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that “the urban” has emerged as the most significant ideological realm in contemporary China. In developing this argument, I suggest an alternative approach to how we theorize urbanization in China. Seeking to avoid the dichotomized analyses that often characterize scholarship on China’s urbanization, the paper suggests reading “the urban” as an ideological device. Such a reading calls for an analytical distinction between the city as a technology of socialist party-state planning and government and urbanization as a messy social process over which the state struggles for control. It also calls for a recognition of the ways that ideology itself has shifted dramatically in China, from the Mao-era centrality and coherence of class struggle and its overriding goal of proletarianization to a much less coherent post-reform message of “stability”. The paper begins with a brief discussion of ideology and Gramsci’s notion of “common sense” in a Chinese register. It then considers the film 24 City, directed by Jia Zhangke, as a template for understanding urban spaces as sites of conflict between the city as an ideological device and urbanization as a social process. New urban spaces are then explored in an effort to tease out their complex and contradictory ideological renderings. I conclude with an argument about the openness and contradictions of China’s urban spaces and how an ideological analysis can resist the kind of theoretical closure that much work on urbanization in China seems to aim for.     

Destructive creation: fascist urban planning,architecture and New Towns in the Pontine Marshes

This paper examines the construction, architecture, planning and design of New Towns in the Pontine Marshes, south of Rome, in the 1930s, analysing the discourses which contributed to their shaping and settlement. It focuses specifically on the plans and architectural characteristics of the city of Sabaudia as the best example of fascist urban utopias in the area. The paper also moves beyond an analysis of architecture and planning to consider the human beings who were slated for occupying what were viewed as ideal, utopian fascist spaces. This is done through an investigation of Italy's ruralization and internal colonization policies, which aimed to tackle a ‘demographic problem’ defined through recourse to statistics and sociological analysis. These policies were animated by colonists, and their families, chosen by the regime's institutions to take part in the Pontine Marshes project. Italian fascism's structuring of a new urban environment, which stretched from grand systemic designs to the measurement of mosquito net dimensions in colonial houses' bedrooms, justified the attempted social and political control of fascism's experimental urban subjects.     

Shape Reproducibility and architectural symmetry during the Chalcolithic period in the southern Levant

Architecture reflects social aspects of past communities. Structure attributes such as shape, size, building material and decoration, provide valuable information beyond their immediate structural function. However, while attributes such as size can be measured and therefore objectively compared between structures, the comparison of shape between structures is based on subjective observations. In the current study we use two quantification methods for analyzing prehistoric shape-based architectural data: (1) we developed a new method, Shape Reproducibility (SR), based on objective computerized procedure for analyzing the similarity and difference between shapes of ancient buildings; and (2) we use Continuous Symmetry Measure (CSM), a method which was originally developed for analyzing flint artifacts and ceramic vessels to objectively compare between shape symmetry. Applying these methods to settlement data of the Chalcolithic period enables quantification of the level of architectural similarity within and between different sites and their comparison to architectural data of later periods, such as the Early Bronze Age II urban center at Arad. Our CSM results suggest that the symmetry of architecture does not increase through time. Our SR findings demonstrate that in the main cultural Chalcolithic entity, the Ghassulian, the architecture of different sites could not be distinguished from one site to the other. In addition, we demonstrate that the architecture of the Chalcolithic sites in the Golan Heights is homogeneous and significantly differs from other Chalcolithic sites, while Ghassulian intra-site variability is higher. In comparison with Arad, however, this variability is relatively low and limited. These results suggest that status differentiation or hierarchical social organization cannot be indicated from Ghassulian architecture.     

铁路交通流视角下中原城市群城市体系演变：基于城市中心性与中介性的分析

城市体系研究主要关注城市的节点性与城际关系两个方面，而城市网络研究将这两个关键要素统一起来，为进一步探讨此问题提供了新的思路。通过城际联系的视角，本文从城市的“中心性”和“中介性”两个维度来重新定义城市的节点地位。基于此，研究分析了铁路交通流视角下近十年来中原城市群城市体系整体和局部的结构变化，试图提供一种网络视角下城市体系演变的不同图景。研究发现：①城市中心性和中介性呈现出截然相反的变化趋势；②高中介性的门户城市更易提升自身地位；③城市中心性的层级结构愈发显著，而中介性更加扁平。在一体化建设的背景下，研究讨论了中原城市群城际体系演变的特征与问题。     

城市少数民族社区地方认同的消解与重构

在城市空间生产与再生产过程中,城市少数民族社区空间形态及功能的重大改变,需通过地方重构以维系少数民族地方特色及文化传承。开封善义堂回族社区案例研究发现,城市少数民族社区的地方形成以及地方认同建构,依赖于自身独特的居住环境及文化传统。少数民族社区由聚居转变为散居的地方变迁,对居民的地方感知及地方归属感具有重要影响。集中代表地方意义的独特空间,有助于地方及认同的重构。城市少数民族社区中被赋予特殊意义的空间,对地方的建构及文化的传承具有关键作用。     

The place of immigration in studies of geography and race

This paper argues that geographical research on immigration and geographical research on race and racism in the USA must be explicitly connected. Geographic processes such as globalization and urban development already link immigration with race and racism and suggest a need to conceptualize research agendas around immigration and race in relation to each other. Not only are racialized groups spatially connected in many neighbourhoods, cities and regions of the USA, but they are also linked through policies structured by the state at various scales and narratives produced about subordinated and racialized groups. In making this argument, I attempt to highlight work in geography, in related social sciences and in ethnic studies that demonstrates the necessity and usefulness of this approach. Geographers are uniquely positioned to illuminate how the construction of space, place and scale overlaps with the construction of racial-ethnic and immigrant identities and with racism itself. The paper argues that these and other research questions also benefit from linking race and immigration to gender, as some feminist geography and feminist studies have done. Likewise, ethnic studies offer a wealth of theoretical, methodological and empirical insight into linking immigration, race and racism in geographical work.     

What can and cannot be willed: how politicians talk about national identity and immigrants

The ethnic‐civic framework remains widely used in nationalism research. However, in the context of European immigrant integration politics, where almost all ‘nation talk’ is occurring in civic and liberal registers, the framework has a hard time identifying how conceptions of national identity brought forth in political debate differ in their exclusionary potential. This leads some to the conclusion that national identity is losing explanatory power. Building on the insights of Oliver Zimmer, I argue that we may find a different picture if we treat cultural content and logic of boundary construction – two parameters conflated in the ethnic‐civic framework – as two distinct analytical levels. The framework I propose focuses on an individual and collective dimension of logic of boundary construction that together constitute the inclusionary/exclusionary core of national identity. The framework is tested on the political debate on immigrant integration in Denmark and Norway in selected years. Indeed, the framework enables us to move beyond the widespread idea that Danish politicians subscribe to an ethnic conception of the nation, while Norwegian political thought is somewhere in between an ethnic and civic conception. The true difference is that Danish politicians, unlike their Norwegian counterparts, do not acknowledge the collective self‐understanding as an object of political action.     

Sites of Assimilation into Urban Life: Rural Migrants' Clubs in Haifa under the Mandate, 1939–48

Culture clubs and social associations were a common social setting in Palestinian towns and in some large villages during the Mandate period. Drawing on a micro-historical approach, this article focuses on four organisations established in Haifa by rural migrants. These organisations are examined as sites of assimilation in the city and they are used as a vantage point from which to observe the daily life experience of their members. The findings suggest that clubs and associations were not only a setting for sports and cultural activities, social gathering or charity. They were an arena for public activity where rural migrants negotiated their position in urban society and participated in developing Palestinian culture.     

南京城市扩展与其空间增长管理的研究

城市的空间扩展是城市化发展的直接体现,透过对城市扩展的分析研究,可以加深对城市化本质的理解,并可为城市可持续发展提供有效的空间决策资讯。本文选取南京城市扩展作为分析的具体案例,在充分认识和剖析自然景观、区域经济及城市用地结构特征等条件基础上,揭示了南京城市扩展的空间动态过程及其诱导性因子。基于对城市总体规划的概念性理解,论文概括了南京城市空间增长的基本管理措施:即,外围总体控制--框定主城区;主城内部空间的分片管理-结构优化;区域层面的都市发展区空间组织-外围空间引导。     

地域尺度重组下的我国城市与区域规划体系改革

中国传统的空间发展单元正在经历前所未有的地域尺度重组和经济社会重构过程,尺度运用已经成为我国调控空间发展的重要治理手段。本文基于尺度与尺度重组理论,梳理了我国国家治理的新型空间尺度,归纳了我国城市与区域规划体系的现状及其对新型空间尺度的适应性。在此基础上提出,适应尺度重组及尺度重组下国家空间治理重塑的新要求,必须尝试对我国城市与区域规划体系进行改革,整合区域空间规划体系,进一步完善都市区发展与建设规划,善用新区、试验区等的规划,并以治理理念引导规划思维的转变。     

Reviews

Abstract

The existence of sacred places is a widespread phenomenon throughout Palestine, one which is reflected in various types of local sites, such as water sources, graves, caves, trees and constructed shrines (maqams). In Islamic Palestine, the construction of maqams originated with the Fatimid (a Shiite group), in order to memorialise and 'greet' distinguished figures descended from the family of the prophet Muhammad. Thereafter, the Sunni faith actively adopted this concept and dedicated more than 2,500 sites to prophets, holy people, the righteous and martyrs. The sacred place of Sheikh Shihab ed-Din, like several hundred other Islamic maqams throughout Mandate Palestine, is located on top of a natural hill commanding a panoramic view. This place has held religious importance during the Byzantine and Ayyubid-Mamluk periods, right through to the present day. This paper studies the construction of the maqam as well as its related archaeological remains. It is based on a field study, a survey of the literature, and archaeological explorations conducted during a brief excavation season.     

The work that parks do: towards an urban environmentality

Cities today are typically framed as sites of capitalist development, while the urban park is theorized as an indirect response to the emerging hegemony of industrial production in the nineteenth century. Yet, this historical framing tells us little about the process through which our notions of ‘the city’ and of ‘nature’ are produced, or how this knowledge affects the formation of urban people's identities. The discursive formation of the capitalist city can be traced to specific historical moments, one of which is the construction of urban parks during the mid- to late-nineteenth century, which I argue was instrumental in producing a new knowledge of the capitalist city by creating a boundary between the social space of the city and the natural space of the park. Using Philadelphia's Fairmount Park as a case study, I draw on archival photographs and annual park commission reports to explore the formation of park subjects during this period and shed light on diverse economic practices that were once widespread in and around the city but whose erasure was ultimately a prerequisite for the successful formation of an urban discourse organized around the construction of the city/nature boundary.     

Villagizing the city: turning rural ethnic heritage into urban modernity in southwest China

This paper examines the rural ethnic heritage-inspired transformation of the built environment of a relatively small county town in China. The paper explores the ways village-based ethnic heritage is being repositioned by local leaders as a resource for tourism-oriented revenue generation and for ‘improving’ the ‘quality’ and behaviour of town residents. Viewing heritage as a ‘technology of government,’ the paper provides an analysis based on three interrelated themes: the discourses by which town leaders and planners have conceived the heritage development project as one of improvement, the spatial practices by which those discourses have been realised in the built environment, and the ways residents themselves have appropriated and ‘inhabited’ this new ‘villagized’ city as they go about their everyday urban lives. Based on ethnographic field work, a survey, and extended interviews over a period of four years, the paper finds the town leadership’s faith in the ability of the built environment to shape and improve the conduct of citizens to be overstated. While the town’s transformation has generated a new sense of urban modernity among residents, their ways of inhabiting and using urban space have little relevance to the ‘heritagized’ environment in which they now live.     

编制城市生态功能区划的相关思考

本文从生态功能区划的意义出发,对城市生态功能区划编制的工作方法及可应用的理论进行了介绍,并从(1)对城市生态系统的正确认识(2)注意建立可能的生态资源资料库(3)注意寻求城市生态系统可持续发展理想化模型(4)进行科学的生态功能区划(5)制定城市生态功能区建设导则等五方面提出如下观点:城市生态系统是以人的行为为主导,自然环境为依托,资源流动为命脉,社会体制为经络的社会-经济-自然复合生态系统;建立生态环境要素资料库及建立生态因素单因子图层库,是客观、科学编制生态区划的基础;以维持城市可持续发展要求为前提,研究自然生态系统的理想化平台模式和社会经济发展的理想化模型的最佳结合,才能构筑城市生态系统可持续发展理想化模型;以环境问题为导向,以环境安全为原则,以环境合理功能为目标,才能制定科学的生态功能区划;为确保城市生态环境质量的建设要求,保障生态功能区划实施的有效性,制定刚性与弹性相结合的城市生态功能区建设导则是必要的。     

城市规划视角下西安市主城区住宅空间结构演变研究

近年来,住宅市场的空间分异逐渐受到学界关注。本文以西安市主城区为研究区域,以2003年至2009年区内住宅资料为基础数据,分析了西安市主城区住宅空间结构的动态演变规律,并从城市规划视角对住宅空间结构演变机制做以探究。结果认为:西安市主城区内住宅空间结构呈现出数量上向轴线和板块集聚、价格上向多核均衡演变的趋势。住宅空间结构的演变受城市规划的空间战略、产业布局、交通建设和设施配套等影响较大。科学的城市规划能够引导住宅结构逐步优化,使之从单一极化结构向多极多层次的网络化均衡结构演变。     

Urban memory and planning: investigating the use of oral history

Investigation of the reciprocal relation between individuals and space within its cultural and historical evolution allow us to conceive the intrinsic qualities and dynamics of any space in its context and to develop new conceptions to explain what kind of a place it is. Oral history provides opportunities to listen to the voice of space as well as a new way to discover its unique and different characteristics that give the users the feeling of belonging and place attachment. In this study, the place of oral history method in historiography, its use in diverse disciplines related to the shaping of urban space, such as urban planning and architecture, and the possible contribution of oral history to planning and designing urban space are discussed. It is revealed that the use of oral history in research and practice can give effect to develop a sense of belonging for all users and to achieve sustainability of urban memory. For this reason, place-based studies and utilization of oral history method within them are of significant importance, for either acquiring the knowledge embedded in memories or understanding the expectations of users or to provide solutions to place-based problems.     

基于考古遗址公园的城市文化生态系统研究——以西安市为例

考古遗址公园是大遗址保护与利用的主要形式,不仅具有文化传承的作用,也具有生态、经济方面的功能,已于城市发展密不可分。鉴于分区规划对大遗址的影响,结合考古遗址公园蓬勃发展的现状,本文提出利用西安市域内的5大遗址公园和浐灞生态园构筑围绕西安核心区域的"文化-生态廊道"的规划理念,希冀能够在西安地区形成一条由西向东脉络鲜明的中华民族文化地标线。     

南京民国建筑调查报告

民国建筑是指民国时期建设的,具有一定历史文化价值的建筑物。民国定都南京,从1912年算起是38年,从1927年算起是23年,其中有8年迁都重庆。正是在这二三十年时间里,留下了900多万平方米有特色的建筑,其中有代表性的建筑不下200座,使南京成为一座规模宏大的“中国近现代建筑历史博物馆”。“汉唐建筑看西安,明清建筑看北京,民国建筑看南京”,已经成为广泛的共识。民国建筑是南京历史文化名城特色的一个重要组成部分。