Contesting green technology in the city: techno-apartheid or equitable modernisation?

In recent decades, heated debate around green technology and its equitable access has aroused the concern of international scholars. This paper provides a review on the exclusion of green technology referred to as ‘green techno-apartheid’ and examines selected key eco-cities (i.e. Masdar, Songdo IBD and Bangalore) considered in the 2013 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report on ‘City-Level Decoupling’ (2013). Metropolitan planning is a crucial instrument in addressing the challenges of urban social sustainability and is thus considered an important mechanism for developing a platform to approach issues of equitable access to green technology. The study reviews five metropolitan plans: the ‘London Plan’ (London, England), the ‘Municipal Plan 2011 for Greater Copenhagen’ (Copenhagen, Denmark), the ‘Economically Strong and Sustainable Structural Vision: Amsterdam 2040’ (Amsterdam, Netherlands), the ‘Hong Kong 2030: Planning Vision and Strategy’ (Hong Kong, China) and the ‘Metropolitan Plan for Sydney 2036’ (Sydney, Australia). The results of the study suggest that while all these plans focus on promoting green technology within a framework of ecological modernisation, they lack appropriate tools for achieving equitable modernisation and enhancing social equity. Consequently, it is essential that researchers and planners take further steps and develop effective instruments to improve equitable access to green technologies and achieve long-term urban social sustainability.     

Should we care about neutrality in the city?

Neutrality in political philosophy is a contested idea. The paper argues that there are valid moral reasons to incorporate neutrality in spatial organization considerations, by appealing to universal reasons rather than sectarian reasons. This is a view that defends ‘justificatory neutrality’. The paper responds to previous concerns regarding the applicability of neutrality in the spatial sphere, arguing that the conception of justificatory neutrality successfully addresses these concerns. Yet, the paper raises doubts whether the arguments that persist in the current political philosophy literature can or should, at the end of the day, be applied to the spatial sphere.     

Bern's positioning strategies: Escaping the fate of a secondary capital city?

Bern is a classic example of a so-called secondary capital city, which is defined as a capital city that is not the primary economic center of its nation. Such capital cities feature a specific political economy characterized by a strong government presence in its regional economy and its local governance arrangements. Bern has been losing importance in the Swiss urban system over the past decades due to a stagnating economy, population decline and missed opportunities for regional cooperation. To re-position itself in the Swiss urban hierarchy, political leaders and policymakers established a non-profit organization called “Capital Region Switzerland” in 2010 arguing that a capital city should not be measured by economic success only, but by its function as a political center where political decisions are negotiated and implemented. This city profile analyses Bern's strategy and discusses its ambitions and limitations in the context of the city's history, socio-economic and political conditions. We conclude that Bern's positioning strategy has so far been a political success, yet that there are severe limitations regarding advancing economic development. As a result, this re-positioning strategy is not able to address the fundamental economic development challenges that Bern faces as a secondary capital city.     

World War II and the growth of southern city planning: a gigantic force?

Many historians believe that war produces revolutionary or at least extraordinary change. That would seem to be true of some wars in a military sense and sometimes in a diplomatic sense. However, the picture of non-military change is not so clear for every society. Since World War II had such a great impact on American cities, the experience of cities seems like an ideal realm in which to test the degree of change. Since city planning is one of the premier modern urban professions, gauging the impact on city planning is a good place to begin. This article argues that southern city planning experienced only modest changes during the World War II. The war did create considerable growth in a few southern cities. However, the vast majority of them did not grow and usually declined. In the boom cities, the war created disorderly conditions, inimical to good city planning. On the other hand, the cities that declined made modest progress in planning, mainly in establishing amateur planning commissions and adopting zoning laws. These relatively tranquil cities laid the foundations for planning development, while the boom cities just tried to keep their heads above water. The dramatic changes that war caused to other aspects of historical experience did not touch southern city planning.     

Reproducing the city? Heritage and Eigenlogik

The aim of this study is to explore the potential usefulness as well as the limitations of the paradigm of Eigenlogik for heritage studies. The contention is that Eigenlogik, understood as a lasting operative praxis that is locally specific and unconsciously implicit in all actions, should also be traceable in those practices and processes of negotiation that select, fashion and interpret monuments. Indeed, the example of medieval monuments in German cities shows that different communities attribute very different kinds of meaning to their built heritage; these observations in turn suggest that long-term, locally specific processes of meaning attribution and negotiation are in operation. Furthermore, it is argued that built heritage functions as an amplifier of Eigenlogik in as much as the monument embodies a particular structural form of self-reference, a locally specific mode of the reproduction of meaning that remains consistent through all ‘makings’ of it.     

Bringing design back: resetting liveability of a ‘near but not in the city’ housing environment in Sydney

Using an inner urban area of Sydney city as a case study, the paper puts forward that overall residential satisfaction is related to three sets of factors: objective characteristics of environment, objective characteristics of residents and their subjective perception. Three hypothesized models by regression are tested to empirically examine which of the attributes of the residential environment and of the individual have either a direct or no relationship with overall residential satisfaction. Findings suggest that perceptual response to dwelling design aspects and neighbourhood features along with neighbourliness and objective indicator of age are among the strongest predictors. The discussion contributes to an understanding of the importance of ‘good design’ which to some extent may help to attenuate the potentially adverse effects of higher density living.     

Is inequality in the distribution of urban facilities inequitable? Exploring a method for identifying spatial inequity in an Iranian city

Achieving spatial equity in the distribution of public facilities has been explored over the last two decades. The direction of these attempts was to offer an integrated index of spatial equity to decrease inequalities between cities. This study seeks to explore an integrated model for spatial inequity measurement (SIM), with a particular focus on inequalities resulting from a) mismatch of population demand (need) and population that can be supported by a facility; b) spatial mismatch of population distribution in relation to facility distribution; and c) mismatch of human deprivation in relation to spatially located “nonenjoyment.” The SIM was examined in 15 kinds of facilities together with different service areas in Hamadan city by integrating geographic information system (GIS) and spatial analysis models. This model identifies and calculates spatial inequities in all city units, in regard to whole facilities, distinct sets of facilities, or an individual facility; it then maps these facilities to determine the areas and the extent to which they experience inequity, for rational prioritization of the distribution of facilities in future planning. The results show that the majority of the city population experienced “nonenjoyment,” indicating a widespread spatial inequity among different groups of people. They also indicated the importance of public facilities in determining the level of inequalities and subsequent deprivation of the poor that can occur from inequitable spatial distribution. This model is an integrated spatial analytical tool that is capable of determining and mapping the level of spatial inequity of all facilities in a disaggregated and aggregated manner for an urban area.     

About Les Halles in Paris: the leading role of the historian in the city (1960–1971)

The Argentinean Southern Lakes Region, in the north-west of the ‘mythical’ Patagonia, is blessed with a landscape of amazing beauty. Dominating from a small hill the shores of the Nahuel Huapi Lake and backed by the mountain range of the Andes, the Hotel Llao Llao, built in 1937 as part of a series of schemes of the then recently created Administration of National Parks, is considered to be the showcase of the local architectonic style (Fig. 1). The following study scrutinises the success of architecture as part of a complex process of ‘creating place’ in a wild and beautiful environment. The process includes the extermination and condemnation to oblivion of the primitive aboriginal culture, the colonisation of ‘desert lands’, the arrival of European pioneers, the foundation of cities and the imprint of tourism.     

The impacts of globalization on St. Petersburg: A secondary world city in from the cold?

St. Petersburg has not been successful in overcoming a large number of social and economic obstacles inherited from its Soviet past. St. Petersburg is missing an important set of pre-conditions that are critical to attain a level of global interaction required to be considered for secondary city status in a semi-peripheral country. Only the city's cultural activities appear to qualify the city for world city status. As long as Russia itself remains stuck in transition, world city status for St. Petersburg will remain elusive. The author gratefully thanks the organizers of the Impacts of Globalization on Urban Development conference and the anonymous reviewers of this paper.     

The shift to competitiveness and a new phase of sprawl in the Mediterranean city: Enterprises guiding growth in Messoghia – Athens

Spatial planning frameworks in EU member states have been increasingly supporting the growth prospects of particular metropolitan regions, deemed as regional engines of national economic growth. This paper discusses the shift in spatial planning policies towards territorial competitiveness, focusing on Greece. The country’s commitment to competitiveness was confirmed in the 1990s and was symbolically sealed with the decision to host the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Examination focuses on one of the key objectives behind the prioritization of competitiveness-related interventions: investment attraction and the locational traits of new business formation in the eastern Athenian hinterland is explored (1997–2010). The locational traits of startup businesses are analyzed by means of exploratory point pattern analysis on the geocoded enterprises, underscoring a sprawl-like type of growth. The proliferation of divergent modes of state spatial intervention is associated in the literature with an increase in spatial disparities. In areas with underdeveloped land-use planning structures, it is argued, competitiveness pre-occupations unsettle stated planning priorities and ‘revive’ arguments that approach unordered urban expansion as a short-cut to growth.     

Revealing the “Invisible Gorilla” in construction: Estimating construction safety through mental workload assessment

Construction companies can accrue losses due to labor fatalities and injuries. Since more than 70% of all accidents are related to human activities, detecting and mitigating human-related risks hold the key to improving the safety conditions within the construction industry. Previous research has revealed that the psychological and emotional conditions of workers can contribute to fatalities and injuries. Recent observations in the area of neural science and psychology suggest that inattentional blindness is one major cause of unexpected human related accidents. Due to the limitation of human mental workload, laborers are vulnerable to unexpected hazards while focusing on complicated construction tasks. Therefore, the ability to detect the mental conditions of workers could reduce unexpected injuries. However, there are currently no available measurement approaches or devices capable of monitoring construction workers' mental conditions. The research proposed in this paper aims to develop a measurement approach to evaluate hazards through neural time–frequency analysis. The experimental results show that neural signals are valid for mental load assessment of construction workers, especially the low frequency bands signals. The research also describes the development of a prototype for a wearable electroencephalography (EEG) safety helmet that enables the collection of the neural information required as input for the measurement approach.