A Review of “Art and the city; Civic imagination and cultural authority in Los Angeles”

Evaluation Studies Review Annual, Volume 1 Gene V. Glass, ed. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, Calif., 1976. 672 pp. $29.95.

Evaluation Studies Review Annual, Volume 2 Marcia Guttentag with Shalom Saar, eds. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, Calif., 1977. 736 pp. $29.95.

The Evaluation of Social Programs Clark C. Abt, ed. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, Calif., 1976. 503 pp. $25.

A Decade of Federal Antipoverty Programs Robert H. Haveman, ed. Academic Press, New York, 1977. 381 pp. $17.

Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward. Pantheon Books, New York, 1977. 381 pp. $12.95.

Social Science and Public Policy Martin Rein. Penguin Books, New York, 1976. 272 pp. $2.95 (paperback).

Social Policy: An Australian Introduction Adam Graycar. MacMillan, Melbourne and Sydney, Australia, 1977. 70 pp. $3.50 (paperback).

Social Services in the United States: Policies and Programs Sheila B. Kamerman and Alfred J. Kahn. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1976. 554 pp. $15. (cloth), $7.95 (paperback).

The Structure of Urban Reform Roland L. Warren, Stephen M. Rose, and Ann F. Bergunder. Lexington Books, D.C. Heath and Company, Lexington, Mass., 1974. 214 pp. $14.50.

Planning for Social Welfare: Issues, Models, and Tasks Neil Gilbert and Harry Specht, eds. Prentice-Hall, Engle-wood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1977. 390 pp. $13.50.

The Implementation Game: What Happens after a Bill Becomes a Law Eugene Bardach. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1977. 323 pp. $17.95.

The Politics of Social Service Jeffry H. Galper. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1975. xi + 237 pp. $6.95.

Health Care Politics: Ideological and Interest Group Barriers to Reform Robert R. Alford. University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1975. xiv + 294 pp. $4.95.

Need Assessment in Health and Human Services Roger A. Bell, Martin Sundel, Joseph F. Aponte, and Stanley Murrell, eds. University of Louisville, Louisville, Ky., 1976. 360 pp. $8.95 (paperback).

Human Services and Resource Networks Seymour B. Sarason, Charles Carroll, Kenneth Maton, Saul Cohen, and Elizabeth Lorentz. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1977. 201 pp. $12.95.

Awakenings Oliver Sacks. Vintage Books, New York, 1976. 344 pp.

Social Services Planning Series The Research Group, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia.

State Experiences in Social Services Planning: Eight Case Studies on Social Services Planning in Response to Title XX of the Social Security Act Gerald T. Horton, ed. 1976. 520 pp. $10. (paperback).

Alternative Approaches to the Organization and Staffing for Social Services Planning: State Experiences and Suggested Approaches Gerald T. Horton, ed. 1976. 66 pp. $2.50 (paperback).

Techniques for Needs Assessment in Social Service Planning: State Experiences and Suggested Approaches Edmund H. Armentrout, ed. 1976. 122 pp. $5. (paperback).

Techniques for Resource Identification and Service Inventory in Social Services Planning: State Experiences and Suggested Approaches Gerald T. Horton, ed. 1976. 82 pp. $3. (paperback).

Techniques for Goal and Objective Setting in Social Services Planning: State Experiences and Suggested Approaches Edmund H. Armentrout, ed. 1976. 75 pp. $3. (paperback).

Techniques for Resource Allocation in Social Services Planning: State Experiences and Suggested Approaches Edmund H. Armentrout, ed. 1976. 71 pp. $2.50 (paperback).

Alternative Approaches to Program Planning Coordination in Social Services Planning: State Experiences and Suggested Approaches Gerald T. Horton, ed. 1976. 44 pp. $2. (paperback).

Preparation and Format for State Social Service Program Plans in Social Services Planning Gerald T. Horton, ed. 1976. 93 pp. $3. (paperback).

Techniques for Public Information, Participation, Review and Comment in Social Services Planning: State Experiences and Suggested Approaches Victoria M. E. Carr, ed. 1976. 63 pp. $2.50 (paperback).

Alternative Approaches to Program Development in Social Services Planning The Research Group, Inc. 1976. 69 pp. $5.

Social Limits to Growth Fred Hirsch. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1976. 208 pp. $10.

The Limits to Satisfaction—An Essay on the Problems of Needs and Commodities William Leiss. University of Toronto Press, Toronto and Buffalo, 1976. 159 pp. $4.50 (paperback).

The Poverty of Power—Energy and the Economic Crisis Barry Commoner. Knopf, New York, 1976. 314 pp. $10.

The New Urban Politics Louis H. Masotti and Robert L Lineberry, eds. Ballinger, Cambridge, Mass., 1976. 264 pp. $15. (cloth), $7.95 (paperback).

No Little Plans: Fairfax County's PLUS Program for Managing Growth Grace Dawson. The Urban Institute, Washington, D.C., 1977. 168 pp. $3.95 (paperback).

Land Use Controls in the United States Natural Resources Defense Council. Dial Press, New York, 1977. 362 pp. $15.95 (cloth), $7.95 (paperback).

Federal Land Use Regulation Fred P. Bosselman, Duane Feurer, Tobin M. Richter. Available from the Practising Law Institute, New York. 384 pp. $35.

Urban Modelling: Algorithms, Calibrations, Prediction Michael Batty. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Great Britain, 1976. 381 + xxv pp. $46.

The Fiscal Impact Handbook: Projecting the Local Costs and Revenues Related to Growth Robert W. Burchell and David Listokin. Rutgers University, Center for Urban Policy Research, New Brunswick, N.J. 1978. 542 pp. $20.

Planning the Fourth Migration: The Neglected Vision of the Regional Planning Association of America Carl Sussman, ed. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1976. 277 pp. $14.95.

Comparative Metropolitan Analysis Project John S. Adams and Ronald Abler; Ki-Suk Lee, Chief Cartographer; Ronald Abler, ed. (For the Association of American Geographers). Three volumes.

Volume 1, Contemporary Metropolitan America: Twenty Geographical Vignettes Ballinger, Cambridge, Mass., 1976. In four volumes, $100 the set.

Volume 2, Urban Policymaking and Metropolitan Dynamics: A Comparative Geographical Analysis Ballinger, Cambridge, Mass., 1976. 577 pp. $25.

Volume 3, A Comparative Atlas of America's Great Cities: Twenty Metropolitan Regions University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1976. 527 pp. $95.     

Los Angeles housing models and neighbourhoods’ role in supportive housing residents’ social integration

Social integration is an indicator of programmatic success in supportive housing, yet is an ongoing challenge for residents. This study examines varying supportive housing models’ (i.e. congregate, single-site, scatter-site) and neighborhoods’ (i.e. Skid Row, Downtown Los Angeles [DTLA], Other) differential impact on social integration outcomes- measured by residents’ social networks (i.e. size, diversity, social support). Participants were formerly homeless English or Spanish speaking unaccompanied adults (N=405), aged 39 years or older, living in supportive housing for 3 months. Housing model and neighborhood were examined separately with social network measures in controlled multivariable linear regression models. Compared to Skid Row residents, DTLA residents reported less emotional support and less tangible support, while residents in Other neighborhoods reported less emotional support and less instrumental support. Findings suggest overall differing housing models may be less influential in social integration, while neighborhoods may facilitate social support.     

Growth and degradation in the Orient’s ‘Las Vegas’: issues of environment in Macau

This paper argues that the rapid growth of gambling‐related tourism and urban construction in Macau has given rise to serious environmental degradation. The major environmental issues include air quality, water supply, solid waste disposal, noise prevention, heritage conservation and environmental management. The author suggests that the government in Macau should refocus this city’s development direction and commit itself to sustainable development. At the policy‐making level, there are such urgent issues as integration of environmental, economic and urban planning with community participation in decision‐making; enhancement of environmental legislation and institutions; implementing vital measures to control of the numbers of visitors; developing a mass transport system; and protecting the city’s cultural heritage.     

Energy landscape: Los Angeles Harbor and the establishment of oil-based capitalism in Southern California, 1871–1930

In the first three decades of the twentieth century, the Los Angeles metropolitan area emerged as the fastest growing urban–industrial economy on the Pacific Coast. This was a significant achievement for a city without a natural harbour. Despite formidable barriers presented by physical geography, the gradual development of a deep-water harbour in Los Angeles was fundamental to the emergence of oil-based capitalism in Southern California. In the first three decades of the twentieth century, under the municipal governance of a Board of Harbor Commissioners, private oil companies developed Los Angeles Harbor into a modern transhipment facility comprising infrastructures and technologies dedicated to the efficient transportation, storage, and refining of petroleum and petroleum-based products. From this perspective, Los Angeles Harbor needs to be understood as a long-term, fixed-capital investment into oil-based energy as fuel for industry and transportation. As a transhipment facility, Los Angeles Harbor also functioned as a critical outlet for surplus energy after the discovery of several large fields in the Los Angeles Basin in the early 1920s. By focusing on a particular built landscape, this paper aims to contribute insight into how geographies of fixed-capital investment play a role in the regional dynamics of energy transition and establishment.     

White flight in Los Angeles county, 1960–1990: a model of fuzzy tipping

Schelling’s (J Math Sociol 1:143–186, 1971) tipping model is a classic model of racial residential segregation. In this paper, the Schelling original is translated into a fuzzy set version and tested against demographic census data in Los Angeles county from 1960 to 1990. Results of nonlinear least squares regressions indicate that the tipping point has shifted from around 0.36 between 1960 and 1970 to 0.78 between 1980 and 1990. Regression results also suggest a constantly decreasing extent of White flight in the census tract level. These findings confirm the existence of the fuzzy tipping mechanism. They also reflect steady progression toward racially integrated urban residential pattern in Los Angles county from 1960 to 1990.     

“They say this is a home”: the challenge of “home” in residential care settings for old and young

In this article, we want to bolster a critical discussion of how the “home” is used in research on residential care, and additionally make sense of young and old residents’ feelings of resistance, through the lens of a critical geography of home. We illustrate how the home ideal might be provocative and frustrating for the residents, although previous studies point out that the ideal is used by staff and in policy to reassure residents of a sense of belonging and mastery. Examples from interviews with young unaccompanied boys as well as older residents living in residential care have been used and the analysis resulted in two themes: “Residents’ conflicting experiences of space” (shared space, restricted space and regulated space, and “Residents’ feelings of homelessness” (transitional space and encroached space). How the residents themselves understand the space that is called their home and why their home can stir ambivalent or negative feelings of isolation, exclusion, and homelessness, is relevant in order to avoid romanticizing home. Residents’ understanding of home can be different from the staff, a reminder that home is a much more complex notion than the rosy ideal.

     

Does the tender,auction and listing system in land promote higher housing prices in China?

Using monthly data on national housing prices from July 1998 to June 2015, we investigate the effect of the ‘Tender, Auction and Listing’ (hereafter TAL) system on housing prices in land, implemented on 31 August 2004. We apply the additional polynomial regression discontinuity method which effectively eliminates the effects of several confounding factors such as financial crisis, ‘New National Ten Provisions’ and ‘9.30 New Regime’. We find that, although the TAL has caused the national average housing prices to go up by 10%, accounting for 11% of total increase in housing prices in the last year, it does not constitute the major driver for housing prices. Furthermore, our results indicate that TAL has exerted a larger impact on commercial and residential properties, especially in the middle and west regions. By examining the transmission mechanisms, we find that the effects of TAL are mainly via government’s starvation-style land supply effect and market-reshuffling effect.     

“Look at my house!” Home and mobile home ownership among Latino/a immigrants in Florida

This article investigates an understudied topic, namely the meaning of owning a mobile home among first- and second-generation Latino/a immigrants in the USA. In mainstream North American culture, living in a mobile home is stigmatized and not typically associated with membership in the middle class. However, in this paper, I argue that Latino/a research participants, individually and collectively, construct a counter-narrative in which mobile home ownership functions as a symbolic marker of upward social mobility and personal success. I conclude that investigating the meaning of mobile home ownership within the context of immigration facilitates new insights regarding the conceptions of home and home making in general. The paper is based on an analysis of 22 in-depth interviews conducted in four mobile home parks near Florida’s Central Gulf Coast. These interviews, completed between 2008 and 2010, were part of a larger study on issues of identity, community, and disaster in Florida mobile home parks.     

Intercomparison of air quality data using principal component analysis, and forecasting of PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅ concentrations using artificial neural networks, in Thessaloniki and Helsinki

In this paper we propose a methodology consisting of specific computational intelligence methods, i.e. principal component analysis and artificial neural networks, in order to inter-compare air quality and meteorological data, and to forecast the concentration levels for environmental parameters of interest (air pollutants). We demonstrate these methods to data monitored in the urban areas of Thessaloniki and Helsinki in Greece and Finland, respectively. For this purpose, we applied the principal component analysis method in order to inter-compare the patterns of air pollution in the two selected cities. Then, we proceeded with the development of air quality forecasting models for both studied areas. On this basis, we formulated and employed a novel hybrid scheme in the selection process of input variables for the forecasting models, involving a combination of linear regression and artificial neural networks (multi-layer perceptron) models. The latter ones were used for the forecasting of the daily mean concentrations of PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 for the next day. Results demonstrated an index of agreement between measured and modelled daily averaged PM₁₀ concentrations, between 0.80 and 0.85, while the kappa index for the forecasting of the daily averaged PM₁₀ concentrations reached 60% for both cities. Compared with previous corresponding studies, these statistical parameters indicate an improved performance of air quality parameters forecasting. It was also found that the performance of the models for the forecasting of the daily mean concentrations of PM₁₀ was not substantially different for both cities, despite the major differences of the two urban environments under consideration.     

Collective (in) efficacy,substance abuse and violence in “Freedom Park,” Cape Town

Using collective efficacy as a lens, the paper tries to understand high levels of violence and crime within an urban settlement in Cape Town, which has recently undergone an upgrading process from an informal into a formal settlement. Theory and evidence from North America are that collective efficacy (social cohesion and informal control) has a significant bearing on levels of violence and crime and impacts on the ability of a community to regulate antisocial behavior. The paper has three main concerns, namely (a) the impact of the upgrading project on social cohesion within the settlement (b) the impact of an apparent decrease in social cohesion on informal measures of social control and the community’s ability to regulate crime and violence in the settlement and (c) how the presence of a concentration of illegal liquor and drug outlets affects collective efficacy and levels of violence and crime in turn. Research in Freedom Park reveals that the upgrading project did seem to diminish levels of social cohesion, marked by trust and solidarity, within the settlement. Whereas residents had previously depended on one another to maintain order and safety within the settlement, after upgrading, these informal arrangements and support structures have all but disappeared. A proliferation of illegal alcohol and drug outlets has simultaneously contributed to increasing levels of violence and crime and eroded social cohesion among residents. This research shows that while collective efficacy does provide a useful starting point, given the complex nature of violence and crime, it cannot be considered in isolation of broader structural constraints like poverty and unemployment, which feed into a vicious cycle of deprivation violence and crime in disadvantaged neighborhoods in cities of the South.     

Living in highly dynamic polluted river floodplains, do contaminants contribute to population and community effects?

The aim of this paper was to collect evidence for the effects of contaminants on biota in a highly dynamic river Rhine floodplain. To this purpose we reviewed the results of circa 10 studies performed in this floodplain. The floodplain was contaminated with elevated levels of cadmium, copper, PAHs, and PCBs and high levels of zinc which were at some sites above legislative values. The results showed that the present contaminants were accumulated by the floodplain inhabiting organisms, but meanwhile population and community effects were ambiguous. Only for the mayfly Ephoron virgo clear effects were detected at the level of the single floodplain. The absence of clear population and community effects is puzzling since at lower contaminant concentrations adverse effects were detected in other environments. Factors that may mask toxic effects include flooding and food quality and quantity. We conclude that given the site specific conditions, being an open, eutrophic system with a highly dynamic flooding pattern, assessment of the contribution of toxicants to observed population density or biomass and community composition requires 1] an increase in number of replicates; 2] a larger scale of investigation and 3] comparison to stable systems with comparable contamination levels.     

Buddhist material culture, “indianism,” and the construction of pan-asian buddhism in prewar japan

ABSTRACT

Late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japanese Buddhism was marked by a wide-ranging fascination with Buddhist origins in India. This Indian turn in Japanese Buddhist circles manifested not only in elite academic scholarship, but also in Buddhist art and architecture. In this article I consider how the early twentieth-century artistic and architectural production of Itō Chūta and ōtani Kōzui deployed Indian and Southeast Asian Buddhist motifs as part of the effort to create a universalized Japanese Buddhism.     

Of “city lounges”, “bans on gathering” and macho policies - Gender,class and race in productions of space for Rotterdam's post-industrial future

Like many other former industrial cities, Rotterdam (the Netherlands) is engaged in a reinvention for a post-industrial future. The consensus among Rotterdam policy makers, entrepreneurs, economists and politicians has been for some time that the city needs to depart from its industrial, masculine and working class heritage and invest in what is commonly referred to as a post-industrial economy: one of consumption and services. In policy efforts towards this imagined Rotterdam, desired and undesired populations are outlined and targeted, amounting to a reconfiguration of the Right to the City. In this article we outline two particular spatial interventions to investigate the gendered, classed and racial logic of the production of a post-industrial Rotterdam and concomitant gendered Rights to the City. The first is what is called the “City Lounge”: an urban planning programme outlining productions of space in the city centre of Rotterdam for leisure and consumption. The second is what is commonly referred to as a “ban on gathering”, a safety measure meant to disperse ‘problem groups’ socializing in public space. From this analysis it appears that what is conceived as lounging for some in thought of as loitering for others and that both target groups are opposites on the axes of race, class and gender. Moreover, using content analyses of policy documents, legal proceedings, urban planning programmes and media reports, we show how in neoliberal urbanism, femininities are actively used as symbolic instruments in entrepreneurial strategies.     

“art is spirituality!”: practice,play, and experiential learning in the jewish renewal movement

ABSTRACT

This essay explores the art world of ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal—in order to better understand the role of particular material practices in creating a distinctive religious experience and community. One attractive characteristic of Jewish Renewal is its invitation to play artistically with Jewish canonical texts, practices, and traditions. While some might argue that play leads necessarily to a limited and fragmentary Judaism, and that more rigorous study and practice is required, others see both practice and play as routes to a deeper religious experience. Artistic play with Jewish texts and traditions is seen by Renewal Jews as experiential learning, a variety of midrash (biblical interpretation). Artistic adornment of ritual objects and garb may also be understood as hiddur mitzvah (beautifying the religious precepts). Through an examination of the work of five artists (two painters, two fabric artists, and a weaver), the essay engages the concept of “handmade midrash” (artistic works as interpretations of sacred texts); creative reinterpretations of such traditions as counting the Omer and celebrating the New Moon; and the meaning of Torah and of prayer. This essay argues that through artistic engagement with Judaism, Renewal Jews practice play.     

“Third places” and social interaction in deprived neighbourhoods in Great Britain

This paper explores social interaction in local ‘public’ social spaces such as local shops, pubs, cafés, and community centres in deprived neighbourhoods. More specifically, it examines the importance, role and function of these places, which have been described by Oldenberg and Brissett (Qual Sociol 5(4):265–284, 1982), Oldenburg (Urban design reader. Architectural Place, Oxford, 2007) as being “third places” of social interaction after the home (first) and workplace (second). It does so by drawing on data gleaned from in-depth interviews with 180 residents in six deprived areas neighbourhoods across Great Britain, conducted as part of a study of the links between poverty and place funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The paper notes that local third places are an important medium for social interaction in these areas, although their importance appears to vary by population group. It notes that shops appear to be a particularly important social space. It also identifies some of the barriers to social interaction within third places and concludes by highlighting some of the key implications for policy to emerge from the research.