Producing multiple imaginations of the Silk Road in Xi’an,China’s urban development

ABSTRACT

This paper looks at how the Chinese government’s recent national project, ‘the Belt and Road Initiatives’ (the BRI), is played out at the local level in the context of cultural cities. Scholarship on the BRI focuses less on how the official narratives of the BRI have impacted the ongoing process of urbanization in China. This paper contextualizes the BRI by examining how both official and alternative imaginations of the Silk Road contribute to municipal-level urban plans that visualize the Silk Road in the urban built environment. Specifically, this paper suggests understanding the Silk Road in the local context, which entails a constellation of convergent and divergent interpretations by different actors involved in the official urban theming plans. These actors, both experts involved in the implementation process and members of marginalized ethnic communities, specify the vaguely defined ‘Silk Road’ in contexts that are within and beyond the original settings.     

‘Lived bodies’ and the neoliberal city – a case study of vulnerability in London

This article explores the ‘more-than-work’ aspects of the lives of vulnerable women who street-sex work. Particularly, we are interested in the differences between the women’s experiences, within the broader context of power structures as manifested in neoliberal cities. Few studies have explored this aspect of street-sex workers’ lives and theorisations of the co-creation of environments tend to elide the experiences of the most vulnerable people. Specifically, we explore the relationships that these women have with two environments: the quotidian (where they undertake routine everyday activities), and the gentrified (relating to changes in the spaces in which they live and work). We find that their experiences are extremely local, and heavily contingent on the services made available to them (or not) by the statutory and third sectors, and the emotional contacts they make, particularly in third sector support services. This challenges some of the literature which suggests a separation of ‘home’ and ‘work’, and which finds close associations between women who street-sex work. While places designed by the third sector are more responsive to these women, they are also more vulnerable to closure through lack of funding. This contributes to a significant degree of ontological non-linearity and ontological insecurity in these women’s lives.     

北宋东京汴河东水门考

本文综合研究文献记载与考古资料,认为北宋东京汴河东水门应由河道之上的水闸门、汴河南北两岸的陆行门,以及南北拐子城所组成。拐子城,系直门两重,是为了保卫上善与通津两座陆行门和汴河漕运而建,在北宋末年抗击金人的东京保卫战中,起了重要作用。张择端《清明上河图》中所绘制的那座城门,即为汴河南岸的上善门     

河南巩义市夹津口隋墓清理简报

白瓷的烧制成功是我国瓷器史上一项重要成就。巩义市夹津口墓葬所出隋代白瓷烧造技术已经成熟,胎质大多洁白细腻,釉色白,积釉处泛青,并且装饰以红彩,为以后釉下彩成功烧制奠定了基础。     

五代时期的扬州城考

英藏敦煌文献S.529(V)号《诸山圣迹志》(又名《失名行记》)记载了五代时期的扬州城周里数,为研究五代时期的扬州城提供了极其珍贵的第一手资料。本文以敦煌文献S.529(V)号的记载为依据,利用古籍记载和考古资料,论证了五代时期扬州城存在的事实,同时利用该文献对扬州城的规模和城门数进行了探讨。     

五代至元西安城垣范围及建制特点

本文在占有详实资料和实地考察的基础上,运用城市历史地理学方法,分析了五代至元时期与西安城(新城)督建者韩建有关的两个问题,探讨了此时期西安城的城垣范围及其建制特点,并揭示出西安城城墙、城门和城角的具体特征,从而全面地揭示了五代至元西安城垣的面貌。     

网络社会视角下的城市意象理论辨析与规划应用

在信息技术深度融合的网络社会进阶中,移动互联网支撑城市环境的即时共享与未来愿景,非在地的空间感知生成元宇宙类现实/虚拟的城市意象,网络媒介叠加于建成环境主/客观作用的传统经验感知,形成感知拼贴、地方再构、时间重叙、认知分异的意象特征。研究通过梳理互联网语境下的城市意象研究,揭示网络社会背景下城市意象的先验式建构过程,发现了意象节点偏离于城市社会经济活动峰值区域的一般规律,并归纳了互联网环境下城市意象研究的图片、文本和轨迹等应用素材,以丰富人本主义城市设计理论。