An historical perspective on the viability of urban diversity: lessons from socio-spatial identity construction in nineteenth-century Algiers and Cape Town

Social heterogeneity is fundamental to many conceptions of urbanism. Social contact in diverse cities is valorized by theorists linking pluralism with social justice, democratic functioning and the psychological development of tolerance. Others express caution, noting that conflict and instability are equally possible outcomes of intergroup contact. This paper argues that these ongoing debates can be informed by longer-term, cross-cultural perspectives on urbanism. The nineteenth-century histories of Algiers and Cape Town, cities characterized by extreme diversity, are reviewed to show the nature of diverse social contact in open spaces. The intertwined construction of group and neighborhood identities in each indicate that the very definitions of ethnic and class diversity are contextual and evolving, contingent on both neighborhood interactions and structural socio-economic forces. Thus modern efforts to plan for place diversity must grapple with a moving target and may be most realistic when confined to a focus on the built environment.     

Transgressing religious boundaries: the power of aesthetics in tamil catholic and hindu worship

ABSTRACT

This article discusses shared material culture and sensorial practices in prayer among Hindu and Catholic Sri Lankan Tamils living in Paris, such as the clockwise circling of incense, the use of flower garlands, and the worship of Mother Mary. Rather than classifying these practices into religious categories, I argue for a need to examine how such practices come to be shared. By employing a material approach to religious aesthetics which recognizes that objects or “things” are active and have agency and affect how we sense and thus experience our world, I suggest that common aesthetic elements are able to produce feelings of religiosity and, particularly for people who share a common aesthetic in everyday life, to bridge the levels between humans and the divine.     

Mary's rain and god's umbrella: religion,identity, and modernity in the visionary art of a chicana painter

ABSTRACT

Heritage formation involves some kind of sacralization, through which cultural forms are lifted up and set apart. But success is not guaranteed in the making of heritage, and the cultural forms that are singled out may well fail to persuade. Heritage formation is a complicated, contested political—aesthetic process that requires detailed scholarly explorations and comparative analysis. Which aesthetic practices are involved in profiling cultural forms as heritage? What are the politics of authentication that underpin the selection and framing of particular cultural forms? To which contestations does the sacralization of particular cultural forms—in particular, those derived from the sphere of religion—give rise? Which aesthetics of persuasion are invoked to render heritage sacred for its beholders? Calling attention to various facets of the relation between heritage and the sacred, this special issue offers detailed explorations of how form, style, and appearance seek to vest selected objects and performative practices with sacrality.     

What she looks like: on the recognition and iconization of the virgin mary at apparition sites in the twentieth century

ABSTRACT

Knowledge about Mary's appearance, which shapes apparition experiences, is transmitted primarily via well-known images, which themselves are increasingly representations of visions. Though there has been increased homogenization of images of Mary in the twentieth century resulting from template distribution and the way the psychology of recognition works, Mary is still consistently made specific to a place, to carry uniquely identifiable features which may also articulate local political and theological stances. As long as the apparitions are still taking place, these features may be in flux; the process by which they jell is termed “iconization,” the social process of agreeing on one image as the recognizable face of Mary at a certain apparition site. Medjugorje, the most important active Marian apparition site since the late twentieth century, is unique in that several images compete there for iconic status. Though power structures play an important role in determining which images become icons, this essay emphasizes the balancing act between universal and particular traits which constrains the options of the key players producing the images.     

Pilgrimage and Visual Genre: The Architecture of Twentieth-Century Roman Catholic Pilgrimage in Scotland

Abstract

As Roman Catholics gained confidence in twentieth-century Scotland, they revived pre-Reformation shrines and pilgrimages and created new shrines with transnational connections to the modern Catholic world. Three sites in this campaign were Carfin, a new pilgrimage center based on Lourdes; Whithorn, site of medieval pilgrimages to Saint Ninian; and Dunfermline, associated with the canonized Queen Margaret of Scotland. Each had different meanings for Scottish Catholicism. The landscapes of these shrines included proposed new buildings, completed buildings, including shrines and churches, and existing features, notably caves or grottoes and medieval ruins. Whether found, professionally designed, or made by the clergy and their congregations, these sites framed and ordered pilgrimage rituals and lent them meaning. Seeing common architectural, visual features across these pilgrimages, and drawing on new archival research, we suggest that the employment of recognizable visual genres was a key way of creating a consensus among the faithful. International symbols of saintly presence were remade for the local context, with intertwined religious and political intentions, giving tangible expression to a revived Catholicism in Scotland, and promoting a new vision of Scotland as a Catholic nation.     

The ideal democratic apparel: t-shirts,religious intolerance,and the clothing of democracy

ABSTRACT

Studies of clothing highlight the power of fashion and the ways dominant groups police deviant fashion; however, they neglect to analyze how a mainstream fashion item, the T-shirt, also helps monitor the boundaries and norms of American society. This article examines the relationship between the T-shirt form and religious intolerance. Scholars have analyzed nativist rhetoric, polemical literature, and caricatured renderings, yet clothing as a site of religious conflict remains understudied. To address these scholarly gaps, this article first investigates the history and meanings of the T-shirt, and then presents a case study of religious intolerance focused on Islamophobic T-shirts. This analysis builds toward an understanding of the T-shirt as the ideal article of democratic apparel for disseminating religious intolerance. In the end, we see how these T-shirts refashion religious intolerance as American individualism, thus perpetuating the idea that religious intolerance is only an occasional accessory to, rather than a constituent part of the clothing of, American democracy.     

Science, politics and image in Valencia: a review of urban discourse in the Spanish City

In the urban sphere, discourse is fundamental to the social and political construction of urban reality. The urban landscape is, in part, a result of those discourses. It is, as Richard Schein suggests, a discourse materialized. The production of these discourses throughout urban history both represented and constructed urban reality at any given time. For much of history, the written word was central to such discursive representations, literary formulations and even biological metaphors that sought to interpret the city both for local inhabitants and outsiders. Today, the photographic image has usurped the former dominance of the word. This article uses archival research to trace historical representations of Valencia, Spain, a European Mediterranean city with a strong medieval tradition. Beginning with a focus on the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century, when Valencia was economic ‘head’ of the Kingdom of Aragon, this paper will follow how the city developed in concert with evolving intellectual and political representations of it. In doing so, I highlight the important and enduring role of the organic metaphor as a device which framed intellectual and political discourse, and ultimately planning and governing strategies, into urbanism of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (as reflected in the writings of Patrick Geddes). Throughout Valencia’s history, urban discourse has availed itself of biological and medical metaphors, even metaphors drawn from the field of physics, in order to construct a generally agreed-upon image of the urban society at particular historical moment. Analysing the role of such metaphors in urban discourse is fundamental to any full understanding of development in the Mediterranean city, historical or contemporary.     

The Appearance of Saints: Photographic Evidence and Religious Minorities in the Secret Police Archives in Eastern Europe

I present here examples of the photographic presence of a religious minority community in the secret police archives in ex-communist Eastern Europe. The use of secret police archives by researchers to trace the history of repression and collaboration and to understand the methods employed by totalitarian regimes to control their populations is well established. The significance of these archives for the study of material religion, however, has been largely overlooked by scholars. The secret police archives in Romania and the Republic of Moldova constitute a hidden repository of confiscated religious materials and photographs which often sit alongside photographic images created by the secret police in the course of their investigations into “criminal” religious activities. These archives, therefore, represent an important resource for understanding both how religious groups chose to represent themselves, and how the totalitarian system created images of religious “others” in order to incriminate them and to produce anti-religious propaganda. In this paper, through the presentation of example cases from state security files, I discuss the dual character of the photographic traces of communities in the archives as both religious justification and incrimination, and suggest ways of approaching these images through their materiality in the context of contemporary post-communist society.     

The role of national identity and tourism in city planning: the case of Valletta

Decisions regarding the design, conservation and regeneration of urban areas are influenced by a number of factors. In cities that function as national monuments, matters of national identity and tourism are inevitably prioritized. While these objectives may be compatible, there are concerns that good planning practice and liveability of cities is compromised. This paper analyses these issues through a detailed analysis of Valletta, the capital city of Malta. The paper concludes that an over-emphasis on tourism and national projects has affected Valletta's liveability and, paradoxically, it has made the city less attractive to tourists and less representative of Malta.     

Silent meadows: The uncertain decline and conservation of hay meadows in the british landscape

The environmental impacts of British agriculture have been a popular focus in recent years within Landscape Research. However, to date, little attention has been paid to the case of hay meadows, an important feature of the landscape in cultural, agricultural and ecological terms, and one which has been threatened with decline. The paper considers the factors which have marginalized hay meadows in the discussion of agri-environment relations, showing that the lack of definitive data on hay meadows, government funding for more intensive farming practices, and the ephemeral nature of hay meadows have contributed to their 'silent' decline. Drawing on a case study of the Peak District in the UK, the attempts of current agri-envrionment schemes to encourage 'traditional' management, and the problems associated with the use of this term and its connotations, are considered.     

Silent meadows: The uncertain decline and conservation of hay meadows in the british landscape

The environmental impacts of British agriculture have been a popular focus in recent years within Landscape Research. However, to date, little attention has been paid to the case of hay meadows, an important feature of the landscape in cultural, agricultural and ecological terms, and one which has been threatened with decline. The paper considers the factors which have marginalized hay meadows in the discussion of agri-environment relations, showing that the lack of definitive data on hay meadows, government funding for more intensive farming practices, and the ephemeral nature of hay meadows have contributed to their ‘silent’ decline. Drawing on a case study of the Peak District in the UK, the attempts of current agri-envrionment schemes to encourage ‘traditional’ management, and the problems associated with the use of this term and its connotations, are considered.     

Regulation, resistance and the residential area: The keeping of productive animals in twentieth-century Perth, Western Australia

Increasingly throughout the twentieth century in Australia, efforts have been made to control or prohibit the keeping of productive animals in residential areas. However, this attempted 'public invasion of private space' has been continually subverted by those who regard such productive use of residential property as legitimate. Nevertheless, the existing regulations require urgent revision as they are clearly ideological in their privileging of the externalities of consumption over those of production.     

辨析产权与规划权力的关系——中国控规与美国区划法的比较研究

尽管在诸多技术层面与美国区划法相近,中国的控制性详细规划在产权分配方面扮演着完全不同的角色。鉴于美国区划出现在私有产权盛行良久之后,因此象征着对现行产权的一种削减;中国的控制性详细规划则明确了政府会将何种产权授予开发商。因此,当开发商寻求规划变更时,美国对此更为宽容,而中国的制度却把这种行为视作试图变相谋取国家资源。无论如何,这两个国家的开发商都会设法对规划条件施加影响:美国开发商的做法是与当地政府公开谈判,而中国开发商不得不通过更加潜移默化的方式进行游说。长期而言,中国的规划条件调整使得政府以外的机构主导城市再开发项目的难度增大——无论其规模多小;但另一方面,国家也得以分享更多的土地使用价值。由此,虽然中国的控制性详细规划与美国区划法在形式上相似,但二者的作用并不相同,其对城市开发和再开发的影响也大相径庭。     

The application of new technologies in construction: Inventory and characterisation of rural constructions using the Ikonos satellite image

The aim of this work is to demonstrate the usefulness of high-resolution satellite images, in particular Ikonos images, in the study of rural constructions with regard to their subsequent reuse. It includes an inventory of buildings and estimation of densities as well as a study of distribution patterns of constructions. In addition, it will reveal the possibilities that the images offer in relation to the cataloguing of construction characteristics. This information can be integrated into a GIS (Geographical Information System) and can be analysed alongside other data. The methodology employed, based on the digital analysis of high-resolution images, is cost effective in the inventorying of buildings, especially in areas of dispersed settlement.     

The pre-Hispanic landscape of the Cerro de Montevideo (Uruguay) in the sixteenth century: first eco-historical study based on biogeography of vegetation and arachnids,historiography and other evidence

The Cerro de Montevideo is a symbolic reference of Uruguay that currently presents an artificialised landscape with environmental deterioration. We used combined techniques including documentary analysis, cartography, remote sensing, biogeographical relict biota, digital recreation and estimated valuation of visual fragility to characterise its pre-Hispanic ecological landscape: a grassy matrix with large patches and corridors of grasslands and woody vegetation, with an estimated intermediate-level visual fragility. The physiognomic changes would have initiated since ca. 1520, much earlier than was formerly proposed (1851), due to supply of firewood from native forests to vessels and livestock introduction by Europeans. Landscape artificialisation by urbanisation and industrialisation was intensified since 1870. Environmental degradation has increased since 1930. For the first time, cryptozoic arachnofauna, visual fragility and digital satellite photographic recreations were included in an historical landscape study. In addition, Dorstenia brasiliensis was found to be the first known identified plant for the Uruguayan flora.     

The Light of the World: Mediating Divine Presence through Light and Sound in a Contemporary Megachurch

Abstract

The paper explores the interplay of elaborate light and sound technologies used in the worship services of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. During the renovation and reconstruction of the church venue from former basketball stadium to church auditorium, the church hired professional companies to design and outfit the huge 16,000 seat auditorium in order to create a worship space, which simultaneously is meant to serve as a meeting space for the congregation and as an intimate place for a personal encounter with God. Worship services at Lakewood Church are multi-sensory events in which lights on the ceiling, in the auditorium, and on stage interplay with sound, vision, and space in order to structure the worship service and to mediate divine presence. The analysis is based on fieldwork data acquired on site and textual data drawn from portfolios of the technological companies involved in the reconstruction and outfitting of the church auditorium. I argue that despite the capaciousness of the space an atmosphere of intimacy is created through a specific lighting scheme that departs from traditional church lighting practices.     

The ‘desiccator difficulty’: surprise,indignation and the local politics of planning for sanitary technology in nineteenth century Melbourne

ABSTRACT

‘Desiccators’, large machines that used steam and beaters to reduce waste into powder that could be sold as fertilizer, were one solution put forward in response to late nineteenth century Melbourne’s sanitation problems. Despite some initial enthusiasm for them, challenges with finding locations for desiccators were soon dubbed the ‘Desiccator Difficulty’. The ‘Desiccator Difficulty’ is one, all but forgotten, story of the fragmented governance contributing to Melbourne’s delays in coordinating a metropolitan sewerage system. This paper examines desiccators as a story with parallels in and legacies for planning today. It focuses on the role of local property-based conflicts – arguing these constituted emergent forms of planning, underscoring an increasing urban separation and control later embodied in metropolitan planning and infrastructure. Fragmented standoffs and bylaws also rationalized spatial disparities – with suburban municipalities refusing to house desiccators, nightsoil was sent to outer shires for decades. The paper argues Melbourne’s socio-technical transition to metropolitan sewerage and governance occurred not because water-borne technology was necessarily superior, but because legal assumptions and property interests made alternatives difficult to maintain. Desiccators are examples of ‘muddling’ details that belie simple narratives of technological change, and which have implications for how wider urban environmental change occurs and is understood.     

Multiple steady states in combined buoyancy and wind driven natural ventilation: The conditions for multiple solutions and the critical point for initial conditions

Natural ventilation systems may have multiple steady states in the combined buoyancy and wind driven mode in a single space. In this paper, dynamical system analysis is applied both graphically and quantitatively to investigate the multiple steady state behavior of such a natural ventilation system.     

The Privatisation of Public Property: the Development of a Shopping Mall in Sydney and its Implications for Governance through Spatial Practices

This article examines the planning application and current operation of a new shopping mall in Sydney. I use this analysis to argue that the owners of the mall, Westfield, govern, through spatial practices, the physical space in the mall and the shopping practices of the people who enter the mall. By the term govern I mean the spatial practices by which Westfield controls the shopping area of the mall. I follow the idea of governance inspired by the governmentality literature to show that those connected with the mall are shaped by spatial practices which envisages subjects which are morally free and yet are shaped by shopping mall practices (Foucault, 1975, 1980).

By these spatial practices, I argue, Westfield creates a certain ambience in the mall, which conveys the message that the mall is an attractive and safe location, which welcomes certain customers and excludes others. This collective impression of mall atmosphere, I argue acts as a spatial practice, which in effect governs the mall.

One of the features of shopping malls is that public or civic space is replaced with 'semi-public space' owned by developers. In this context the protection of private property has coalesced with the preservation of public order (Gray and Gray, 2000, p. 23). In shopping malls people considered disruptive to shopping are excluded and shops found in the high street such as pawnshops and second-hand bookshops are not granted a tenancy. Other unwelcome folk include the homeless and groups of teenagers.

n this article I plan to analyse the spatial practices which restrict full public access to such places as the Hornsby shopping mall. Accordingly, I firstly show that the concept of property should rightly be seen as containing social ideas, secondly I discuss the nature of spatial practices, which materially and discursively lead to the exclusion of certain people and thirdly, describe notions of community which help define who are proper mall entrants.