Toward a sociology of global comparative placemaking

I call for a globally informed sociology of comparative placemaking that integrates historical and contemporary processes and includes the ephemeral, institutional, and personal. By placemaking, I am referring to the explicit or tacit cooperation among people to create, maintain, and give meaning to places in space through bodily occupation given differential resources and constraints. I review select place, space, and community-based literature about urban, Black, migrant, LGBTQ, and international populations to think about how we can build upon and integrate multiple theoretical, methodological, and epistemological insights to form an explicit placemaking research agenda. A US focus on neighborhoods contrasts with a comparative examination of global urban networks, social polarization, and transformation of the built environment in the interdisciplinary field of global urban studies (Ren, 2018). I argue for a placemaking research agenda that bridges insight from US Urban Sociology with Global Urban Studies to consider how various structures and actors constrain and facilitate place projects. With a globally reaching and comparatively informed sociology of placemaking, we can illuminate our multi-structured story of place and agency in context. We can answer questions about how and why we co-create and are simultaneously disciplined by the process of creation.     

组织支持、城市融入与新生代农民工离职:一个被调节的中介模型

新生代农民工过于频繁的离职行为导致企业用工成本上升,同时也阻碍了农民工的城市融入进程.基于组织支持和互惠理论,采用问卷调查的方式,实证检验了组织支持感、城市融入感及互惠与新生代农民工离职意愿之间的关系与作用机制.研究结果表明,组织支持感负向影响新生代农民工的离职意愿,城市融入感在其中起到了中介作用.同时,新生代农民工的互惠倾向对城市融入感与离职意愿的关系具有强化调节作用,并进一步调节城市融入感在组织支持感与离职意愿之间的中介作用,也即新生代农民工的互惠水平越高,城市融入感的中介作用越强.文章首次测度了新生代农民工的互惠倾向,并且验证了微观企业的组织支持能够促进新生代农民工的城市融入.研究结论为用工企业更好地理解新生代农民工心理行为机制,从而建立有效的管理措施提供了理论指导,同时为寻找新生代农民工城市融入的实现路径提供了依据.     

Urban greening and mobility justice in Dhaka’s informal settlements

ABSTRACT

Urban greening in Dhaka, Bangladesh is fraught with injustice for slum dwellers. Access to the commons for the enactment of gardening, farming and foraging by the urban poor, many recent internal migrants from rural areas, is contested by wealthier citizens, developers and political elites. Through qualitative research with households within the informal settlement of Korail in Dhaka’s urban core, and a range of stakeholders in governmental and non-governmental organizations, this study critiques competing policy visions that involve urban greening and urban green infrastructure. Repurposing the conceptual lense of ‘mobility justice’ to analyse environmental and ecological issues in the global South, the findings highlight the importance of mobility concerns to just futures for urban planning.     

历史城区自行车绿道系统规划与设计的实证研究

为提升历史城区的绿道品质，优化非机动车出行环境，对自行车绿道系统的规划与设计方法进行了实证研究。根据自行车绿道系统的特性，按照空间形态特性将历史城区的自行车绿道系统分为单元、廊道及节点等3类要素，通过自组织映射图模型、最短路算法、旅行推销员算法及自行车路阻函数等，在地理信息系统上建立了基于赋权系数的自行车绿道系统规划方法，并应用所提出的方法对西安市主城区自行车绿道系统进行实证研究。研究结果表明，西安可以构建成包括22条骑行廊道、总长度142.6 km的自行车绿道网络，证明提出的方法能建立适用于历史城区出行特性的自行车绿道系统。     

Rural-urban differences in college students’ cardiovascular risk perceptions

Abstract

Objective: To examine rural-urban differences in college students’ cardiovascular risk perceptions. Participants: College students in rural (n?=?61) and urban (n?=?57) Kentucky counties were recruited from November 2012 to May 2014. Methods: This was a secondary data analysis of a cross-sectional study examining rural-urban differences in cardiovascular risk factors. Students rated their risk for developing high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, having a stroke, and gaining excess weight. Chi-square and logistic regression were used for data analysis. Results: Rural students had lower odds of perceived high risk for developing high blood pressure compared to urban students (odds ratio (OR): 0.32, 95% CI: 0.11–0.96) after adjusting for race, sex, and body mass index. This association was not observed after adjusting for healthcare access variables. No other significant differences were observed. Conclusions: Efforts to raise perceived risk for developing hypertension among rural college students may be warranted.     

Circular economy and the city: an urban political economy agenda

ABSTRACT

The circular economy (CE) has become a matter of urban development. A literature review shows that the CE debate is biased toward technology-driven industrial change, while bracketing broader socio-political interests. We address this gap by exploring the political economy of scale of the CE. Looking into the case of Brussels (Belgium), a city that has recently adopted the CE as part of its socio-economic strategy, we explore how the anticipated transition to a ‘circular city’ chimes with long-standing urban development agendas. While there is little evidence of stable growth coalitions between corporate and political elites, we argue that the CE provides an ‘urban sustainability fix’ by selectively incorporating ecological goals in urban governance strategies. We further scrutinise the landscape of diverse and heterogenous CE practices in food and transport, highlighting how they are regulated and organised, what labour conditions they offer, and how they are anchored in urban space.     

城市公共艺术与文化软实力的对接关系研究——以广州为例

文化软实力是一个国家除军事经济之外让别人主动接近的吸引力,城市公共艺术也是一种与大众有亲缘关系的艺术形态。某种程度上说,城市公共艺术是文化软实力在艺术领域的一种显象。广州城市公共艺术在器物层、行为层、制度层诠释了文化软实力的静态和动态的维度。     

一把尺子如何“量到底”:基层治理中的制度硬化——以一个城市更新试点项目为例

城市更新中日益增长的社会压力使基层政府产生制度硬化的需求，但持续的高压体制又使其延续制度弹性的逻辑，两者间张力凸显，构成当前的治理困境。本文通过对一个试点项目中制度硬化实践的观察提出核心问题：权力运作空间如何在日益增强的规范性约束下得以再生产。本案例中，制度硬化被拆分为“结果硬化”和“过程硬化”两部分，前者标识着鲜明的刚性边界，后者则暗中预留出弹性空间。通过外部条件硬化、让步规则硬化、加压底线硬化这三重机制，基层政府在与社会的互动中由表及里地拓展了硬化原则背后的边界，使权力运作空间以一种更为正式化、制度化、组织化的形式不断生产出来，展现出更深层、隐秘的治理技术及国家与社会的相互形塑过程。     

金融集聚、生产率增长与城乡收入差距的实证分析——基于动态空间面板模型

本文利用中国2003-2013年285个地级及以上城市的统计数据，采用动态空间面板模型实证分析了金融集聚对城市总体生产率增长及其内部城乡收入差距的影响，研究结论表明：金融集聚是促进城市总体生产率增长的重要推动力，同时也是导致城市内部城乡收入差距扩大的关键因素，这主要是因为金融集聚显著推动了城市居民人均收入水平的提高，而对农村居民人均收入水平的提升作用不显著。本文的政策含义在于，在城市金融集聚的扩散阶段还没有到来之前，政府旨在缓解城乡收入差距的金融政策可能会抑制城市总体生产率增长。     

Disentangling the Governance Configurations of Strategic Spatial Plan-Making in European Urban Regions

This paper is aimed at assessing and disentangling how territorial governance configurations influence contemporary practices in strategic plan-making in 14 European urban regions. The findings allow us to distinguish three dominant practices: i) plan-making shaped by consensus building and multilevel government cooperation; ii) plan-making shaped by the involvement of profit-oriented actors and negotiations, and iii) plan-making shaped by consolidated planning practice. To truly grasp plan-making practice, it is necessary to scrutinize who rules and who is ruled while negotiations are unfolding, as well as the extent to which private actors’ interests influence how spatial development goals and strategies are defined.