an article by Henrietta L. Moore and Saffron Woodcraft (UCL Institute for Global Prosperity, UK) published in City & Society Volume 31 Issue 2 (August 2019)
Abstract
The UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been conceived as a global roadmap for peace, dignity, and prosperity on a healthy planet (UNDP 2016). The SDGs challenge the dominant notion of prosperity as material wealth measured by GDP and rising household incomes; instead prosperity is reframed as a shared condition to be weighed alongside ending poverty, tackling inequalities, and safeguarding the environment.
Cities are identified as having a critical role in generating and equitably distributing prosperity on these terms.
Reframing prosperity in this way opens up space for new forms of dialogue about what it means for people everywhere to prosper, asking how material wealth, other forms of value, equity, and fairness, and the needs of humans and nonhumans are differentially understood and acted on. Yet this article argues that prosperity is understudied and undertheorized by social scientists.
A new research agenda, driven by empirical studies in diverse urban contexts, must form the basis for new theoretical insights and policy formation that will drive action on prosperity in the years to come.
Presenting new empirical work from community‐led research in three east London neighborhoods, the article examines prosperity as a lived experience in comparison to policy goal, demonstrating how context‐specific meanings and practices challenge the orthodox models and metrics that currently dominate policymaking.
The authors demonstrate how situated and engaged research with local residents and citizen scientists provides the basis for developing new prosperity metrics that reflect issues of specific value and concern to individuals and communities in east London.
Showing posts with label urban_studies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label urban_studies. Show all posts
Monday, 5 August 2019
Wednesday, 21 November 2018
Cities and the political imagination
an article by Rivke Jaffe (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands) published in The Sociological Review Volume 66 Issue 6 (November 2018)
Abstract
How can we recognize the political in the city?
How might urban scholars engage with forms of urban politics outside of established sites of research such as those associated with representative democracy or collective mobilizations?
This article suggests that new perspectives on urban politics might be enabled through reinvigorated connections between the social sciences and humanities, and by combining long-term urban ethnography and cultural analysis. Reading forms of creative expression in relation to power struggles in and over urban space can direct our attention towards negotiations of authority and political belonging that are often overlooked within urban studies.
The article explores the possibilities of such an approach by focusing on the idea of the political imagination as socially and materially embedded in urban landscapes. Expressive culture generates both analytical and normative frames, guiding everyday understandings of how urban power works, where and in whose hands it is concentrated, and whether we see this as just or unjust.
Such frames can legitimize or delegitimize specific distributions of urban resources and risks, and can normalize or denaturalize specific structures of decision-making.
Through a discussion of popular music and visual culture, the article considers how everyday practices both feed into, and are informed by, imaginations of urban rule and political belonging.
Full text (PDF 14pp)
Abstract
How can we recognize the political in the city?
How might urban scholars engage with forms of urban politics outside of established sites of research such as those associated with representative democracy or collective mobilizations?
This article suggests that new perspectives on urban politics might be enabled through reinvigorated connections between the social sciences and humanities, and by combining long-term urban ethnography and cultural analysis. Reading forms of creative expression in relation to power struggles in and over urban space can direct our attention towards negotiations of authority and political belonging that are often overlooked within urban studies.
The article explores the possibilities of such an approach by focusing on the idea of the political imagination as socially and materially embedded in urban landscapes. Expressive culture generates both analytical and normative frames, guiding everyday understandings of how urban power works, where and in whose hands it is concentrated, and whether we see this as just or unjust.
Such frames can legitimize or delegitimize specific distributions of urban resources and risks, and can normalize or denaturalize specific structures of decision-making.
Through a discussion of popular music and visual culture, the article considers how everyday practices both feed into, and are informed by, imaginations of urban rule and political belonging.
Full text (PDF 14pp)
Monday, 21 May 2018
Sex Work, Sensory Urbanism and Visual Criminology: Exploring the Role of the Senses in Shaping Residential Perceptions of Brothels in Blackpool
an article by Emily Cooper (University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK) and Ian R. Cook and Charlotte Bilby (Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK) published in International Journal of Urban and Regional Research Volume 42 Number 3 (May 2018)
Abstract
Urban studies and criminology have much to offer each other, but the links between the two have so far been underexplored. This article is an illustration of how aspects of both can, and should, be brought into conversation: namely the literatures on sensory urbanism (in urban studies) and visual criminology.
The benefits of doing so are evidenced by a case study exploring the ways in which the senses shape residents’ perceptions of brothels in Blackpool.
Three key findings emerge from the case study.
Such insights, we argue, are made possible by, and highlight the possibilities of, the bringing together of urban studies and criminology.
Full text (PDF 17pp)
Abstract
Urban studies and criminology have much to offer each other, but the links between the two have so far been underexplored. This article is an illustration of how aspects of both can, and should, be brought into conversation: namely the literatures on sensory urbanism (in urban studies) and visual criminology.
The benefits of doing so are evidenced by a case study exploring the ways in which the senses shape residents’ perceptions of brothels in Blackpool.
Three key findings emerge from the case study.
- First, the residents interviewed tended to focus on the visual aspects of brothels rather than other sensory aspects. Nevertheless, touch and smell (and their interaction with the visual) also played small but important roles in shaping residential perceptions.
- Second, residential perceptions of sex work and brothels are linked to, and encompass, a plurality of emotional responses.
- Third, while the residents could see or hear little of what was happening inside the brothels, they often sought out sensory clues from outside, typically drawn from the architectural features of the brothels.
Such insights, we argue, are made possible by, and highlight the possibilities of, the bringing together of urban studies and criminology.
Full text (PDF 17pp)
Friday, 5 January 2018
Racial projections: cyberspace, public space, and the digital divide
an article by Genevieve G. Carpio (University of California Los Angeles, CA, USA) published in Information, Communication & Society Volume 21 Issue 2 (2018)
Abstract
Scholars of critical race studies, urban history, and information and communications technologies (ICTs) share an interest in the relationship between spatial and racial disparities, including the quality of basic infrastructure, degrees of connectivity, and participatory culture.
However, contemporary research on the digital divide struggles to link historical legacies of uneven development, as well as social justice strategies, with digital participation in urban spaces. By examining contemporary digital art that critiques the spatial inequalities encountered by U.S. racial minorities, this article illustrates how public intellectuals use ICTs in ways that draw upon past strategies to territorialize space for political ends.
It focuses on digital pop-ups, open-air installations that cast images onto public space using projectors. Historicizing these new efforts illustrates a continuity of tactics engaged by communities of color in response to socio-spatial inequalities in the urban United States, such as the 1970s mural movement’s efforts to re-politicize spaces of exclusion.
While existing literature finds that digital inequality results in differential digital human capital, this research indicates that place-based claims, such as digital pop-ups, are important sites for combatting racial injustice and creating more inclusionary spaces, especially among youth adults.
Abstract
Scholars of critical race studies, urban history, and information and communications technologies (ICTs) share an interest in the relationship between spatial and racial disparities, including the quality of basic infrastructure, degrees of connectivity, and participatory culture.
However, contemporary research on the digital divide struggles to link historical legacies of uneven development, as well as social justice strategies, with digital participation in urban spaces. By examining contemporary digital art that critiques the spatial inequalities encountered by U.S. racial minorities, this article illustrates how public intellectuals use ICTs in ways that draw upon past strategies to territorialize space for political ends.
It focuses on digital pop-ups, open-air installations that cast images onto public space using projectors. Historicizing these new efforts illustrates a continuity of tactics engaged by communities of color in response to socio-spatial inequalities in the urban United States, such as the 1970s mural movement’s efforts to re-politicize spaces of exclusion.
While existing literature finds that digital inequality results in differential digital human capital, this research indicates that place-based claims, such as digital pop-ups, are important sites for combatting racial injustice and creating more inclusionary spaces, especially among youth adults.
Sunday, 15 October 2017
The more-than-human city
an article by Adrian Franklin (University of Tasmania, Australia) published in The Sociological Review Volume 65 Issue 2 (May 2017)
Abstract
That the modern city should be a purified space of human habitation, a humanist citadel, constructed for, and by humanity alone, was an implicit assumption in urban studies until recently. We might say that urban studies has always been part of this humanist fantasy since it is hard to find a time when non-human elements and actants were not important to the life chances of cities everywhere.
Not surprisingly, in 1970 Ray Pahl paid little attention to the non-human world but since then the politics of the ecologically minded and technical city has been populated by more and more instances of our dealings with what Latour calls the ‘extended democracy’ of other species and things.
This paper extends this understanding by showing how many natural forces, species, technologies and materialities became entangled in the social, cultural and political life of contemporary cities.
Using illustrations from Asian, European, American and Australasian cities, it shows how environmental and technical forces (such as fire, engineering, theory and flood) become incorporated into the life, subjectivities and structures of modern cities; how animals have become important companions to urbanites whose social bonds have fragmented; how animals and objects have been used to signify contested spaces; how they, together with other material objects and forces, enter into dialectical ‘more-than-human’ politics, how they form and embody the values and interests of particular city groups and how they become the focus and voice of otherwise difficult political, moral and ethical values.
It shows, in other words, how they have disturbed the politics of the city creating new, more-than-human political interests and movements around their ‘residency’, lines of flight and alliances with humans.
Abstract
That the modern city should be a purified space of human habitation, a humanist citadel, constructed for, and by humanity alone, was an implicit assumption in urban studies until recently. We might say that urban studies has always been part of this humanist fantasy since it is hard to find a time when non-human elements and actants were not important to the life chances of cities everywhere.
Not surprisingly, in 1970 Ray Pahl paid little attention to the non-human world but since then the politics of the ecologically minded and technical city has been populated by more and more instances of our dealings with what Latour calls the ‘extended democracy’ of other species and things.
This paper extends this understanding by showing how many natural forces, species, technologies and materialities became entangled in the social, cultural and political life of contemporary cities.
Using illustrations from Asian, European, American and Australasian cities, it shows how environmental and technical forces (such as fire, engineering, theory and flood) become incorporated into the life, subjectivities and structures of modern cities; how animals have become important companions to urbanites whose social bonds have fragmented; how animals and objects have been used to signify contested spaces; how they, together with other material objects and forces, enter into dialectical ‘more-than-human’ politics, how they form and embody the values and interests of particular city groups and how they become the focus and voice of otherwise difficult political, moral and ethical values.
It shows, in other words, how they have disturbed the politics of the city creating new, more-than-human political interests and movements around their ‘residency’, lines of flight and alliances with humans.
Friday, 23 August 2013
The Limits of Technology: Social class, occupation and digital inclusion in the city of Sunderland, England
an article by John Clayton and Stephen J. Macdonald (University of Sunderland, UK) published in Information, Communication & Society Volume 16 Issue 6 (2013)
Abstract
Drawing upon the concept of capital and its uneven distribution, as outlined by Bourdieu, the article highlights the importance of social class, occupational status and place in understanding how individuals and communities make use of and benefit from technology in their everyday lives.
Based upon quantitative and qualitative research conducted in the city of Sunderland, England, the article addresses the extent and manner to which those in ‘socially excluded’ areas of the city engage with technology, specifically personal computers and the internet and the impact of such engagement upon quality of life and social inclusion.
The research indicates that the manner in which technology is experienced by marginalised social groups in this place, does not fit neatly with a dominant discourse of digital inclusion which emphasises technology as a means for social inclusion, particularly in the realms of civic participation, educational achievement and employment.
Abstract
Drawing upon the concept of capital and its uneven distribution, as outlined by Bourdieu, the article highlights the importance of social class, occupational status and place in understanding how individuals and communities make use of and benefit from technology in their everyday lives.
Based upon quantitative and qualitative research conducted in the city of Sunderland, England, the article addresses the extent and manner to which those in ‘socially excluded’ areas of the city engage with technology, specifically personal computers and the internet and the impact of such engagement upon quality of life and social inclusion.
The research indicates that the manner in which technology is experienced by marginalised social groups in this place, does not fit neatly with a dominant discourse of digital inclusion which emphasises technology as a means for social inclusion, particularly in the realms of civic participation, educational achievement and employment.
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