Responding to Informality in Urban Africa: Street Trading in Harare,Zimbabwe

Informality is one of the major challenges facing urban policy makers across sub-Saharan Africa. Responses to informality can be viewed along a continuum from violent repression and sustained evictions to inclusive and supportive policies. Using the example of street trading, the task in this paper is to analyse planning and policy issues around the state and the informal economy in Harare, Zimbabwe. In the experience of Harare, the pursuit of targeted actions for inclusive planning designed to support communities of growing informal entrepreneurs is not on the agenda of policy makers. The historical and contemporary directions of policy responses occurring in Harare suggest an unpromising future for their city’s informal entrepreneurs. It is shown that state responses to informality vacillate between actions of frontal aggression and of unleashing bouts of forced evictions to repressive tolerance within which formalisation is increasingly promoted as a means of extracting revenue flows from already economically hard-pressed informal entrepreneurs.     

The Median Picnic: Street Design,Urban Informality and Public Space Enforcement

Medians or central reservations have received scant attention in the vast literature on the history, morphology and design of streets, and are rarely considered as places where people can gather. They are mostly conceived as safety barriers, traffic-calming elements or visual features on multi-way streets. However, by focusing on a case study from Berkeley, California, this paper demonstrates how medians transform into active, informal gathering places despite the presence of prominent prohibitory signage and apparent safety risks. The paper explains how the ‘unlawful’ activity of sitting on the median, or ‘picnicking’ in this instance, is selectively condoned by the City of Berkeley to suit its own liberal image, and because of the commercial interests at stake, underscoring the political dimension in the production of public space. The paper thus engages a discussion of the concepts and practices related to street design, urban informality and public space enforcement, for which the ‘median picnic’ stands as a striking example.     

Sidewalk Informality: An Examination of Street Vending Regulation in China

Street vending represents a vital and growing aspect of the urban informal economy that is often the subject of municipal regulatory efforts that seek to control, confine or extinguish it. In the People's Republic of China, recent developments and discussions on vendor rights and regulation underscore important socio-political and economic changes and concerns around the role of the informal economy in this country. As more of China's rural poor enter urban areas and turn to the streets to survive, the number of unlicensed vendors has risen and municipal efforts at increased regulation and enforcement of street vending licensure have been enacted. These developments within the context of China's ‘state-capitalist economy’ provide a fertile field for research into the informal economy, use and re-appropriation of public space, and regulation of a previously marginalized commercial activity. This paper draws from primary and secondary sources to provide an overview of street vending in China and consider the implications of recent regulatory developments and public dialogue that strive to formalize the informal.     

浅析街道城市设计的维度

城市设计理论涉及不同的研究领域,本文选取了街道这一城市设计客体要素,按照形态、认知、社会、视觉、功能、时间六个维度对相关的理论进行梳理。并指出街道城市设计的各个维度间并没有严格的分界线,而是在客体要素、方法论及研究过程等方面紧密联系的,只有同时考虑到所有这些维度,街道的城市设计才能被认为是完整的。     

Unravelling Apartheid Spatial Planning Legislation in South Africa

The reform of spatial planning and land use legislation in South Africa has been difficult to achieve. The laws designed to implement the urban plans of apartheid remain stubbornly in place. This case study shows that despite there having been three windows of opportunity during which far-reaching law reform seemed likely there has been little change. The only post-apartheid national land development law, the Development Facilitation Act, has been found to transgress the Constitutional powers of local government. With its demise the country falls back entirely on pre-democratic planning legislation. Fundamental to effective planning law reform is a constitutional framework that clearly delineates the legislative powers to regulate planning and land use. A clear and shared understanding of what planning can and cannot achieve is also important, as is an effective alignment of planning law reforms with those of other sectoral laws such as local government and environment. Planning law, especially in a country of great inequality, inevitably gives rise to litigation. Drafters of new planning legislation cannot afford not to pay attention to the minutiae of how the planning system operates. Such a failure opens new planning initiatives to legal attack.     

The Experiences of Immigrants in South Africa: a Case Study of Ethiopians in Durban,South Africa

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of immigrants in South Africa from non-SADC countries. This research was conducted with Ethiopian immigrants in Durban in an attempt to shed some insights into this new nexus. The aim of the study was to understand the experiences of Ethiopian immigrants. The decision to migrate is motivated by a number of socio-economic factors including social networks and greater accessibility and availability of opportunities. The findings of this research suggest that most Ethiopian immigrants in South Africa are involved in the informal economic sector. The target of their economic activities is mainly South Africans in the townships and Ethiopian immigrants themselves. Crime is not the major concern because it does not impact the immigrant community. This research found that Ethiopian immigrants have not integrated into the local community. Language is a major barrier to integration. However, more efforts are needed to ensure their integration into the local community.     

Re-thinking Spatial Inequalities in South Africa: Lessons from International Experience

Questions relating to the causes and responses to spatial inequalities are attracting renewed international focus. Uncertainty exists in South Africa as to appropriate responses to persistent and deep-rooted spatial inequalities in the country. This article analyses international research into patterns and causes of spatial inequality to inform policy debates on addressing spatial inequality in contemporary South Africa.     

Refugees,Violence and Gender: the Case of Women in the Albert Park Area in Durban,South Africa

Women refugees are affected more by violence than any other female group in the world, before, during and after their forced migration experience, because of patriarchy. This paper examines the violence experienced by female refugees in Albert Park in Durban, South Africa. Albert Park is an area dominated by documented and undocumented foreign migrants from African countries, and since 2008, there have been many reported incidents of violence against refugees. The focus of this study is on intimate partner and public violence, the fear of urban public space and the failure of police protection encountered by female refugees as they have attempted to adapt and adjust in a hostile society, in Albert Park. Domestic tensions have emerged from a reversal of traditional patriarchal gender roles as female refugees have often become heads of households, while men had to tend to domestic chores. Female refugees are also afraid of using public space because they were subject to physical attacks, verbal abuse and sexual harassment from refugees, local people and taxi drivers and conductors. This has been aggravated by the high levels of xenophobic violence in South Africa, tensions between local people and foreigners and the knowledge that police protection is limited.     

哈尔滨道外区南二＼南三道街院落空间的复兴研究

近年来,随着城市建设项目的与日俱增,老街区的更新与改造工作不断涌现。在利益至上的市场经济大潮中,传承历史文化特色的同时并满足现代城市功能需求,已成为探寻老街区保护与更新的研究重点。本文以哈尔滨市道外区南二、南三道街街区的复兴为例,浅析其院落空间的过去、现在与未来。     

公园城市语境下的街道一体化研究概述

2018年春节前夕,习近平总书记在视察成都天府新区时,提出"应突出公园城市特点,把生态价值考虑进去",印证了我国当前所处的生态文明时代应坚持不懈地走绿色生态可持续发展道路,应该有序地开创公园城市建设路径的新探索.公园城市理论的提出与具体实践,是推动城市生态文明建设的重要举措,在公园城市体系完善过程中,街道作为城市公共空间各要素的承载体,应该全面展现街道空间回归于人、回归于自然的重新生长.因此,从共享街道理论延伸到街道一体化规划建设和运营管理,方能支撑宜居宜业的美丽公园城市加快成型.     

南非德班摩西·马布海达体育场

<正>2006年,德班市举办设计竞赛,诚邀多家建筑师事务所设计一座可容纳7万～8.5万名观众的多功能体育场,作为城市的建筑地标。伊布奥拉·勒图设计团队(Ibhola Lethu Consortium)最终折桂,获准设计全新的德班     

国家空间选择与地方空间重构：重庆两江新区空间影响研究

国家空间选择反映了国家治理的空间偏 好,通过在选定空间进行尺度建构,引发地方多 尺度空间重构。国家级新区作为一种基于地方的 国家空间选择策略,2010年以来得到学界广泛关 注。现有研究重点审视这一策略建构实施的过 程、机制和内在逻辑,对其如何嵌构并影响地 方空间重构的探讨尚不深入。本文以中国内陆首 个国家级新区——重庆两江新区为例,揭示其 在都市区北部的治理建构对产业和人口的多层 次空间影响,比照欧美20世纪90年代以来国家 空间选择向都市区尺度上移后在次区域层面形 成的新空间非均衡现象,从政策治理环境、地 方政府角色探讨了中国与欧美国家空间选择对地 方空间影响的异同,丰富了国家空间选择理论的 地方化理解。     

The Boutique Hotel Industry in South Africa: Definition,Scope, and Organization

South Africa’s hotel industry has attracted only limited academic writings. This paper focuses on the emergence and development of boutique hotels. In common with the international tourism economy, the contemporary hotel industry of South Africa is experiencing increased differentiation of new product offerings. The boutique hotel represents a new element within the South African hotel sector. Developers of boutique hotels have sought to distinguish this new tourism product in terms of its experiential qualities with strong emphasis placed upon the production of high levels of design, ambience, and offerings of personalized service. Mainly patronized by European tourists, the spatial pattern of these small hotel properties is distinctive with Cape Town, the major focus for their development. Key issues facing boutique hotels relate to the lack of recognition by the national grading authority of their distinctive experiential qualities.     

基于分形理论的宜兴市蜀山古南街空间形态研究

文章以宜兴市蜀山古南街的调研资料为基础,运用分形理论,对江南水乡传统古建聚落进行空间形态的研究。进而深入至单体民居的分析研究,并发现在蜀山古南街古建聚落的空间形态和整体布局上有着自相似性,这也是建筑群所显著的分型特征。     

丹麦赛德堡文化研究中心

Alsion是丹麦南部的文化研究中心,位于丹麦南部小镇赛德堡,由南丹麦大学、私立科技园区、公园、一个音乐厅与DSB售票站组成,面积28 500平方米,2006年竣工.主要设计理念为一系列或者说一串由中庭分割的羽翼.这种木梳状的结构使得整片建筑群被分隔成一系列有节奏的单元,计划中的独立部分在尺寸与原理上与sonderborg其他的建筑相一致.而且这种结构可根据需要随时扩建,音乐厅就是在设计阶段的新增建筑.短山墙建筑体与带中庭建筑交替设计,以便获得充足的天然光.因此尽管建筑体量很大,但与小城周边环境达到完美融合.     

城市产业园规划探析——以保山工贸园区总体规划为例

该次规划的目标是以土地空间规划为核心,以产业发展为导向,重视产业发展的基本门槛和配套设施建设,结合绿色经济和产业园生态化趋势,建立园区功能和空间形态的可持续发展框架。依托保山主城区,突出区域引领和承上启下的服务职能,形成双城联动的城市发展格局,提出"大力发展基础优势产业,特色升级产业,战略潜力产业以及配套服务产业",建设综合型工贸新城的思路,对工贸园的中长期发展具有指导意义。