City as a geopolitics: Tbilisi,Georgia — A globalizing metropolis in a turbulent region

Tbilisi, a city of over a million, is the national capital of Georgia. Although little explored in urban studies, the city epitomizes a fascinating assemblage of processes that can illuminate the interplay of geopolitics, political choices, globalization discourses, histories, and urban contestations in shaping urban transformations. Tbilisi's strategic location in the South Caucasus, at the juncture of major historical empires and religions in Eurasia, has ensured its turbulent history and a polyphony of cultural influences. Following Georgia's independence in 1991, Tbilisi found itself as the pivot of Georgian nation-building. Transition to a market economy also exposed the city to economic hardship, ethnical homogenization, and the informalization of the urban environment. The economic recovery since the early 2000s has activated urban regeneration. Georgia's government has recently promoted flagship urban development projects in pursuit of making Tbilisi as a modern globalizing metropolis. This has brought contradictions, such as undermining the city's heritage, contributing to socio-spatial polarization, and deteriorating the city's public spaces. The elitist processes of decision-making and a lack of a consistent urban policy and planning regimes are argued to be among major impediments for a more sustainable development of this city.     

Planning allocations and the stubborn north–south divide in Tel Aviv–Jaffa

Several master plans have attempted to lessen the divide between the poor southern neighborhoods of Tel Aviv–Jaffa and the well-off central and northern ones. We compared the planning visions, the main policies and detailed schemes, financing methods, and actual implementation efforts. We found that each planning generation has promoted different development locations, regulations, and allocation methods, and yet implementation has generally been much more durable and with superior socio-spatial impacts in the more affluent areas. To analyze and explain these findings we studied planning allocations in the light of ideas of distributive justice and of urban regime practice. We found that while the welfare state's direct allocation of housing and infrastructure for communities and individuals was not really equal, the later indirect allocations by neoliberal regimes mainly stimulated market forces in the more affluent or attractive areas. We also found that while planning allocation varied in different neighborhoods, the pace and order of planning and realization became crucial elements in urban inequality.     

Urban modernization and heritage in the historic centre of Santiago de Chile (1818–1939)

ABSTRACT

Architecture and urban heritage have been decisive in the modernization of the historical centre of Santiago de Chile. As early as the first half of the nineteenth century they added value to this area of the capital. Public authorities, with the support of regulations, identified valuable urban heritage, incorporating it into urban transformations. For various practical or historical reasons, buildings and public spaces were preserved and eventually reused, giving birth to a renewed idea of planning, which took advantage of this existing heritage. The incorporation of new typologies into the colonial urban fabric, together with the conservation of traditional buildings and public spaces, produced memorable places, both in the republican and modern city. They enriched the urban practices and the city landscapes, offering a valuable continuity with the colonial and republican past. The integration of old and new stimulated the emergence of an urbanism of quality. This article focuses on three specific moments of that peculiar modernization process: the consolidation of the original colonial grid (1818–1846), Vicuña Mackenna’s Transformation Plan (1872–1875) and Santiago's first official Urbanization Plan (1939).     

上海城市遗产的保护策略

通过对上海城市遗产的基本状况和主要特征分析,探讨了优秀历史建筑和历史文化风貌区等城市遗产保护实践中所面临的问题。从制定有利于城市遗产保护的社会政策,通过规划控制强化历史风貌的整体保护,市场经济条件下有效的保护手段,以及推动市民参与的保护运动等方面,探索在都市快速发展过程中积极保护城市遗产的有效途径和政策措施。     

Urban morphology and local citizens in China's historic neighborhoods: A case study of the Stele Forest Neighborhood in Xi'an

This paper analyzes the role of local citizens in the morphological transformation of China's urban historic neighborhoods. With a focus on ordinary neighborhood properties, this research explores how local citizens have consumed different types of properties, and critically investigates socio-spatial problems that arise from such consumptions. By the case of the Stele Forest Neighborhood in Xi'an, the study argues that both the local state and local citizens recognize heritage resources as an important source of profit and that the competition for exchange values between the two has contributed to historic neighborhood physical patterns. Local citizens' resistance against and dissent from local government's conservation policies are manifested through passive bargains and tolerated illegalities, and are eventually reflected in their neighborhood morphological forms. Morphological pattern-related decision-making and subsequent actions in China's neoliberal urban setting are no longer monopolized by the local state, but shared by the local state and non-state actors.     

Salvador: The Struggle for Dialogue Within a Heritage City

Founded by the Portuguese in the mid-16th century as the colonial capital of Brazil, Salvador da Bahia on the northeast coast retains to this day a unique historical centre. Now a burgeoning metropolis, Salvador is also the country's third largest city with all the social, political and infrastructure problems and inequalities that accompany explosive urban growth. Sergio Ekerman , an architect and professor at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) in Salvador, describes how a lack of political will and consensus between private and public stakeholders is failing to produce the dialogue necessary for coherent urban development.     

Panoramic view and national identity: two of Santiago de Chile's public spaces in the second half of the nineteenth century

This article shows how the panorama, as a modern form of visualization and representation, became a model for the Santa Lucia Hill and the Cousiño Park, two emblematic projects of Santiago's transformation, carried out by Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna between 1872 and 1875. On the one hand, supported by the height and location of the hill and its pattern of paths and terraces, the Santa Lucia promenade became an effective mechanism for visual control of the city as a whole, as well as a reference to the new urban order that was to be imposed. On the other hand, by proposing a landscape design that served as an urban window into Santiago's geographical surroundings, the Cousiño Park project interpreted the qualities of the panorama from a strongly local sensitivity that highlighted the values of life in contact with nature. The analysis of these two cases will show how the panorama remarkably influenced Santiago's first transformation in the republican era, while representing fundamental values of the emerging national identity.     

The flagship concept of the ‘4th urban environment’. Branding and visioning in Malmö, Sweden

In the process of turning the post-industrial city of Malmö, Sweden, into a knowledge-based, creative city, new urban planning strategies and visions are being developed. An important component of developing the “knowledge city” is the spatial conceptualization for renewal of urban life. One such concept introduced in Malmö is “the 4th urban environment” (det 4.e stadsrummet). In this article, based on critical urban studies, the development, branding, and practice of the 4th urban environment as a strategy to generate a creative economy and knowledge city is critically analyzed as part of a neoliberal planning discourse. The article raises the question, what kind of vision is “the 4th urban environment”? What is it an expression of; what does it mean for planning practice and to urban development? Contextualizing and investigating trends of neoliberal planning ideas are important to an understanding of the social and economic consequences of unequal power relations. The 4th urban environment and its application in Malmö is illustrative of existing neoliberal planning practices in a Nordic context, and in other similar economies with legacies of redistribution policies and long-standing leadership of the Social Democratic Party. This article focuses on what is articulated within discourses that re-present particular notions of space and place, to gain a better understanding of what neoliberal planning does to space.     

Neighborhood,community and consumption: Study on the socio-spatial structure during two boosting epochs in Shanghai

The modernization of Shanghai has experienced two boosting periods. The first appeared in the 1930s, when it formed the civil society of Shanghai and initially facilitated the trade port into an international metropolis. The second started after the nation's reform and opening-up, which attempted to promote the city into a global metropolis in the 2010s. In order to evaluate the socio-spatial transitions of communities in Shanghai during the process, Lilong historical neighborhoods in the 1930s and 2010s are successively chosen as research objects. Meanwhile, three specific neighborhoods in each period are selected for case study, so as to depict different symbiosis patterns of the socio-spatial structures under different spatiotemporal conditions by means of a cross-sectional analysis of the consumption level. By pointing out Shanghai in the 1930s was marked with social integration and local-based consumption, while it was inundated with administration tendency and global-oriented consumption in the 2010s, the article believes the dual integration of local-based and global-oriented consumptions is an alternative solution for Shanghai. Finally, the article proposes that Shanghai's current urban regeneration should rely on the multi-centered symbiotic structure to create a compound network, during which territorial socio-spatial structures and basic living needs of the plebeian can be simultaneously preserved.     

Scenery as an asset: assessing the 1930 Los Angeles regional park plan

Parks, Playgrounds and Beaches for the Los Angeles Region , the 1930 report produced by Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm in association with the urban planning firm Harlan Bartholomew and Associates, sought to mitigate unprecedented urban expansion and preserve Los Angeles' popular image as a natural paradise by allowing for the creation of an interconnected system of parks and recreational spaces. In advocating a mixture of traditional landscape aesthetics characteristic of nineteenth-century urban park planning along with more modern social-scientific transportation and regional planning proposals, the report addressed a wide array of issues ranging from recreation and public health to nature appreciation and automobility. Underlying these divergent concerns is a minefield of shifting ideas about the value of nature and its place in the modern metropolis. The report did not embrace an environmental agenda. Rather, it sought to preserve and create scenery. Under the rubric of 'scenery as an asset', the landscape envisaged in the park plan was cloaked in images and ideas associated with nature while it advanced a cultural agenda that reinforced the dominant ideology of progress, technology and commercial development. This essay examines the cultural and intellectual under-pinnings of the proposed park plan as a means to explore the myth of comprehensive planning as an environmental cure-all.     

Social exclusion,area effects and metropolitan governance: a comparative analysis of five large Spanish cities

As a first step towards the exploration of the particularities urban social exclusion in Spain, the research presented here evaluates the significance of the urban territorial factor at neighbourhood level in order to develop relevant conclusions for the design of urban policies. After comparing the structure and dynamics of socio-spatial inequalities in five large Spanish cities (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Seville and Murcia), we analyse how different disadvantaged neighbourhoods – inner city districts and peripheral housing estates – affect the life trajectories of different vulnerable social groups: long-term unemployed males, undocumented immigrants, single mothers, old people living alone and young people with a low education level and job problems. We identify the existence of significant differences between inner city districts and peripheral housing estates regarding the way they affect the life chances of their inhabitants. Furthermore, we show how different social groups are unequally affected by the characteristics of the neighbourhood in which they live. This all leads us to stress the importance of urban public policies being sensitive to the diversity of socio-spatial conditions of cities.     

近代武汉市政规划中的“公园”——早期 公园系统的本土化及启示

"公园"是伴随着19世纪西方工业革命带来的城市化进程加剧而产生的一种典型的现代城市公共空间,并逐步发展成为区域尺度的公园系统。梳理了近代重要都会武汉的早期市政规划成果中有关公园的具体内容。从市政建设视角,考察中国早期公园系统规划的变迁历程和内在特质,展现近代精英阶层理性吸收西方先进经验、深刻联系本土现实、以民族主义的市政规划等物质空间改造进行社会改良的积极尝试;揭示了"公园"产生与"城市化"之间的深层逻辑关联,以及本土特色的公园系统规划的生成机制和深远影响;尝试从溯源角度解析其对当前我国公园城市建设的有益启示。     

Processes of Socio-spatial Differentiation in Post-communist Prague

This paper analyses processes which transform the socio-spatial pattern of post-communist Prague and describes major changes in the city's social geography. It begins with a brief introduction about the socio-spatial pattern of a socialist city and a discussion of methods and concepts of investigation of processes of socio-spatial change in contemporary Prague. Growing income inequalities and transformations in the housing system are examined as the main underlying causes of growing socio-spatial disparities. In the section concerning the mechanism of socio-spatial differentiation, attention is focused on the role of social mobility, migration, housing renovation and new housing construction. The conclusions summarise major changes in the social geography of post-communist Prague and discuss implications of central and local government policies for the growth in socio-spatial disparities.     

Towards a greater urban geography: regional planning and associational networks in London during the early twentieth century

This article examines commitment to the regional development of London as it emerged among individuals and groups interested in urban planning in the early twentieth century. Following a brief account of growth and reform in the capital during the nineteenth century, this article focuses on the development of debates about planning the metropolis in the first two decades of the century, exploring practical initiatives such as the Town Planning Conference held in 1910 and the production of The London Society's Development Plan for Greater London during the years of the First World War. London's associational culture was central in generating and hosting discussions about the future of the city during this period and the article provides an indication of the extent of overlapping memberships between groups such as the Royal Institute of British Architects, The London Society and the Town Planning Institute. In conclusion, this article suggests that the regional imagination, central to the later development of planning, was clearly visible in the programme of work undertaken during the First World War and that associational networks were an important part of early professionalization in planning in Britain.     

Monitory Democracy as Citizen-driven Participatory Planning: The Urban Politics of Redwatch in Sydney

This article analyses a case of citizen-driven participation in urban planning in Sydney, Australia. Drawing on a case study of the local resident action group REDWatch the analysis is undertaken within the context of the hybrid forms of technocratic, participatory and neoliberal planning that are operating in the New South Wales planning system. Framed by the concept of monitory democracy, the analysis explores the four key features of monitory forms of civic action: (1) monitoring powerful social actors; (2) encouraging difference, disagreement, debate and change; (3) making formal power structures more transparent and accountable; and (4) fostering new forms of informal political power. The findings demonstrate that analyses of formal community consultation events and participatory planning policies are far too narrow to determine the civic utility of citizen participation in planning. Expanding the analytical borderland beyond the formal structures of the planning system exposes important informal citizen participation practices that are operating from outside of planning systems. Unlike formal state-driven participatory planning events and policies, these informal citizen-driven participatory planning practices can deal with planning hybridity and conflict, which are increasingly central to many contemporary planning systems.     

大都市区外围新城轨道都市的构建探讨

轨道都市是支撑大都市空间扩张的一种战略,借鉴国际大都市区轨道都市的经验和特征,基于国内新城开发模式粗放和趋利、通勤公交供给难以满足需求及公交资源缺乏整合的现状,提出轨道交通与城市形态契合、公交走廊引导城市发展、公交枢纽与城市中心体系适配的构建轨道都市原则,并相应给出了城市开发与轨道交通建设统筹规划、土地利用响应轨道交通站点、构建多层次大公交体系、量化轨道都市评价指标的应对策略。     

新自由主义管治下的后奥运规划与开发：以悉尼奥林匹克公园为例

奥运会给主办城市留下的最大物质遗产是奥运基础设施和场馆。后奥运研究文献大多集中在设施和场馆的运营和管理上,而对以它们为基础的后奥运城市开发及其规划则重视不够。撰写此文的目的是为了增加有关后奥运规划和开发的研究成果。我们的方法是案例研究,以悉尼奥林匹克公园为例,分析2000年奥运会之后悉尼所在的新南威尔士州政府如何在新自由主义城市管治理念下继续规划和开发奥林匹克公园。我们的结论是：尽管政府投入巨资修建奥运设施有悖于纯粹新自由主义管治理念,可以看作是新自由主义面对全球化趋势的妥协,但是在后奥运规划和开发上,新自由主义管治所倡导的小政府、公私伙伴关系和政府从土地等资产盈利等却有利于使奥运设施遗产价值最大化。我们希望此文对中国主要城市的有关讨论作出贡献。     

Innovation in Urban Policy: The Experience of Italian Urban Time Policies

ABSTRACT Urban time policies are public policies that intervene in the time schedules and time organization that regulate human relationships at the urban level. Urban time policies were launched in Italy at the end of the 1980s. Within a span of 10 to 15 years, 170 municipalities have been involved in time-oriented projects or timetable plans, or in studies of urban social time. There has also been a diffusion into several countries of the European Union, especially in Germany and France. Now the diffusion is starting in Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium. In this article, the development of urban time policies in Italy is reviewed up to the new national law of 2000. The article examines how urban and social time emerged as a new theme of public policy, and the way it has been translated into public actions. In Italy, 15 years of experience and a new national law brought urban planners, sociologists and policy makers to think over the role of these city actions and over the nature of innovation in these policies. In conclusion, the article underlines the innovative aspects of Italian urban time policies (urban and social time became a new way to examine urban transformations and a new stake for urban policies; it offered an integrated approach to planning management; experimentation has been the driver of innovation) and how urban time policies can be considered an enrichment of traditional town planning (they offered a wider problem solving articulation acting also on timetables; they provided a new concept, chronotopes, to study and design urban transformation and, finally, they encouraged social, political and institutional capacity-building in urban action and planning).     

Too complex to be managed? New trends in peri-urbanisation and its planning in Beijing

Taking Beijing as a case study, this paper analyses new trends in peri-urbanisation and the city’s planning responses after 2000 in China. The results of the analysis show that the percentage of temporary migrant residents continues to grow in the peri-urban region and the social inequalities in relation to quality of life between local people and migrants have increased there. In particular, there is a concentration of thousands of young and well-educated migrants in the peri-urban region, resulting in a new kind of urban slum. Sprawling development still dominates Beijing’s fringe. New planning policies related to an urban–rural integration strategy have played a positive role in improving living conditions in rural areas and reducing the social and economic gaps between urban and rural areas in the peri-urban region. However, planning in the peri-urban region is still facing new challenges due to vertically and horizontally fragmented management, growing market forces, and social discrimination caused by the remnants of the hukou mechanism. This suggests that it will not be easy to achieve the planning goal of urban–rural integration and harmony society unless further actions are taken to enhance political capacity of planning system in Beijing. The capacity-building of planning should be facilitated if institutional innovations can be made in arrangements of power, rights, public resources, accountability, and legitimacy in the planning system.