The Impact of Islamic and Customary Laws on Urban form Development in Southwestern Saudi Arabia

Urban form and architecture, whether religious or secular, does not rely only on principles of aesthetics to reflect its essence, but to a great extent reflects a society's religious and social demands. The article reviews Islamic law, shari^cah, and local customary laws, ^curf, and the influence they have had on the structural development of the urban form and architecture of the traditional highland settlements of southwestern Saudi Arabia. Although living conditions in Saudi Arabia are much changed today, the Islamic religion still plays a prominent role in everyday life. The paper argues that the architectural heritage in traditional villages may provide a more satisfactory basis for contemporary community design than the concepts now being implemented since Islamic law continues to influence the organizational characteristics of Saudi settlements. An analysis of physical elements shows how the principles underlying the structure of Islam and the tribal system are pertinent to each settlement's physical development. The conclusion is that the urban form resulted as a response to the Shari^cah and ^cUrf to verify the basic need for defense, climate and the community's social structure.     

The Integration of Tradition and Modernity: A Search for an Urban and Architectural Identity in Arriyadh, The Capital of Saudi Arabia

About 40 years ago, traditional villages, towns and cities of the Arabian Peninsula started to lose their regional characteristics and embody modern forms and shapes. Since then, these characteristics have been subject to dilution due to social and cultural changes as well as institutionalized changes imposed by planning and architectural practices. This process creates debates and clashes between tradition and modernity. Projects carried out since 1975 are the least representative of the regional characteristics but do attempt to have urban and architectural identity. This paper argues that all the actors in “design formulation” (clients, architects, urban designers and planners) are trying to use historic elements in the creation of architectural identities. In fact they are making efforts to create urban and architectural identity to substitute regional characters. These attitudes flourished as a result of dynamic cultural, economic, political and ritualistic influences. This paper highlights the importance of urban and architectural identity in architectural and urban projects in Arriyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia because such projects create precedents for other Saudi villages, towns and cities. The study identifies the forces behind the initiation, transformation and evolution of the urban and architectural identity and attempts to supplement scholarship in the fields of architecture, urban design, and planning with regard to the role of identity as a tool for improving the spatial quality of the built environment. Architectural identity participates in setting up meaningful schemata which influences human behavior as a cultural process. The paper supports the concern for search for historic symbols which may influence the architectural identity and the quality of perceived environment during the design process of new or transformed physical environments. The paper views the traditional part of the city as an amalgamation of history and economic interests and its symbolic importance seems to be a perfect place for the emergence of different forms of engagement between tradition and modernity. The importance of the traditional part is unique while the importance of continuity of tradition is very likely complementary.     

Learning from tradition: the planning of residential neighborhoods in a changing world

This paper analyses the community values of residential neighborhoods in the southwestern region of Saudi Arabia as an approach to a new theory in urbanism. The indigenous masterbuilders and tribemen incorporated planning decisions pertinent to climatic, cultural, social, economic and religious factors when designing physical elements in their built environment. This is what makes every traditional settlement in the southwest region of Saudi Arabia unique in terms of urban form and social structure. As a step to examining and evaluating the process of residential neighborhood development, three stages of practiced urbanism are discussed. These stages are labelled “vernacular”, “transitional” and “new vernacularism”. These are planning concepts used worldwide in the development of residential neighborhoods throughout history until the present. “New Vernacularism” is envisioned in this investigation as a design/planning objective implemented in most recently planned neighborhoods in Al-Horaidhah, Southwest Saudi Arabia. The achievement of successful urbanism underlies the political goals of urban planning practice. The Al-Horaidhah planning concept is conceived in the light of preservation of community values in neighborhood design/planning as a critical issue.The paper aims to investigate and reconcile the conflicts in the planning of residential neighborhoods in a changing world. The conflicts are restricted between retaining traditions of architecture, urban design and planning with the necessary social, economic, and technological changes in urban formation, mainly, the vernacular and modern. The paper illustrates the concept “New Vernacularism” by presenting Al-Horaidhah scheme as a model for community development in three administrative regions along the Red Sea coastline. “New Vernacularism” as a planning concept looks at the community development in Al-Horaidhah in the light of Sharicah, the Islamic Law and Customary norms by emphasizing the importance of the involvement of local residents in the planning process and gives suggestions of how this might best be achieved and later implemented into new communities.     

Development versus deterioration of traditional settlements of Southwest Saudi Arabia: Government policies and possible courses of action

A program of genuine urban development concepts is critical to the future urban development of formerly isolated rural areas of southwest Saudi Arabia. Recent top-down approaches by government planning agencies, however, faced difficulties to achieve successful planning solutions to the deteriorating traditional villages. New government policies are needed to enhance the success of such a program. This paper offers an overview of experienced development in the villages of the southwest Saudi Arabia, as an example of the difficulties planners face. Economic change and central-government policies of the last 30 years have looked differently to the traditional socioeconomic structures of the villages, once based on the reclamation of land for agricultural purposes and the sustained development of local forests to meet subsistence needs. Today, the villages are caught between the past and the present, represented locally by two competing socioeconomic hierarchies. The paper argues that in order to gain local cooperation in developing new patterns of urban development, innovative steps must be taken to facilitate local participation in program design, implementation and evaluation. This may depend on finding ways to connect present mechanisms of central-government control of urban development to older, traditional systems of local control of past urban development.     

论沙特影响力：从《非斯宣言》到《贝鲁特宣言》

沙特是阿拉伯人的摇篮和伊斯兰教的发祥地。无论在冷战时期还是后冷战时代，沙特一直是中东地区的温和派国家。虽然没有像伊朗、伊拉克、土耳其、埃及、以色列那样拥有强大军事力量，沙特却凭借自身的实力阿拉伯活跃在国际政治舞台上，并深深影响着中东政治格局的发展，是中东政治舞台上不可或缺的重要角色。沙特力排众议，从非斯首脑会议到《贝鲁特宣言》、《利雅得宣言》，彰显出沙特作为地区大国的巨大影响力。     

Post‐Socialist Restructuring and Population Redistribution in Hungary*

Abstract This research focuses on pathways by which national level macro‐social transformations are transmitted to local communities. Our case is Hungary where we examine the relationship between post‐socialist economic restructuring, widespread industrial dislocations, and urban‐rural migration. Using secondary data from the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) and survey data from a study of 49 villages in 4 distinct rural regions, we demonstrate that post‐socialist population deconcentration involved both suburbanization and net movement to villages, especially villages that are located relatively close to cities. Contrary to our expectations, movement to villages was from nearby settlements, not from large industrial centers. Moreover, migrants to villages were substantially better off than longer term village residents in terms of their human capital and attachment to the labor force. Consequently, post‐socialist population deconcentration is not contributing to rural poverty as feared by some scholars.     

欧盟与沙特阿拉伯王国的民主化进程

“9·11”后欧盟加大对沙特等海合会国家的关注力度，这对未来如何建立新型的西方与伊斯兰世界的关系有重要参考价值。欧盟推进沙特民主化进程的动机主要表现在四个方面：维护欧洲安全、促进沙特稳定、弘扬欧洲民主、抵消美国压力。欧盟主要从经贸领域着手，积极推进沙特更好地融入世界经济，此外，还辅以对其现行政治制度的宽容和对伊斯兰的理解与尊重。欧盟民主观建立在维护人权的基础上，其民主只是一种手段而非终极目标。在欧盟的间接影响下，沙特在地方选举、政府机构改革和发展、非暴力民间组织的诞生、妇女地位改善等方面有所推进。欧盟与沙特之间存在着良性互动。     

俄、沙关系发展的历史与现状

沙特一直与美国保持着稳定的友好关系,与俄罗斯的关系不冷不热、若即若离。然而,911事件使美、沙关系发生了转折性的变化,两国的战略同盟趋于松散。与此同时,俄沙关系开始升温。在沙特看来,俄可充当其第二把“保护伞”,也是安排世界石油格局的理想合作伙伴;而俄则视沙为其重返中东和解决车臣问题的希望,且沙特雄厚的石油资本还可助其经济发展一臂之力。     

穆斯林兄弟会与沙特关系的演变及影响

自1932年沙特建国以来,穆斯林兄弟会在沙特经历了初步发展、扩张和衰退三个阶段。二者从合作与相互利用的盟友关系逐渐演变为疏远与对抗的敌对关系。一方面,逃亡到沙特避难的穆兄会成员曾在帮助沙特政权反制埃及纳赛尔政权、推行泛伊斯兰主义战略等方面发挥了重要作用;另一方面,穆兄会成员在一定程度上促成了沙特宗教政治反对派的兴起,影响和培育了一批接受库特布思想的极端分子,对沙特政权的稳固及其国家安全造成了冲击。中东剧变以来,穆兄会势力的壮大削弱了沙特的地区影响力,制约了沙特外交政策的实施,导致沙特面临的地区安全环境进一步恶化。穆兄会与沙特关系的破裂直接反映出前者对沙特内政外交构成的威胁,是穆兄会思想与瓦哈比教义内在矛盾的逻辑结果。     

沙特政策调整及我应对政策

“9·11”后,沙美关系出现逆转。目前,沙特在内外压力下,决心实行自我改革计划。但保守的宗教阶层坚持伊斯兰化,反对变革;一些在阿富汗、伊战后潜伏在沙特的极端分子频频制造恐怖爆炸案,旨在动摇和推翻沙特王室统治。为化解冲击,纾缓压力,沙特在调整内外政策,除采取渐进式改革方式外,其外交多元化势头和“东向”趋势也较明显,对我需求和借重有所上升。我应认真研究沙特有关政策的变化动向,抓住机遇,推动中、沙关系向纵深发展。     

Balancing global city with global village

The discourse on habitat and human settlements is increasingly dominated by that of the global, mega-city. If the aim of those of us in the human settlements field are to improve our understanding of and action on habitat and human settlements, this, often exclusive, focus is a mistake. Our habitat is better understood and acted upon as a network of interwoven settlements and surrounding countryside, large and small, themselves interwoven within our larger ecosystem. In this network the habitat of our smaller settlements (smaller cities, towns, villages) and rural areas and our global village also plays a critical role. The assumption can be challenged that urbanization and the mega-city are the critical issues of habitat and human settlements. Evidence suggests that with some rurbanization there is also counter urbanization, the ruralization of cities, and, perhaps most important, a growing urbanization as city-country interactions intensify. Habitat for all and habitat for a healthy, sustainable planet demands our openness to these new concepts and realities. It demands an integrated, balanced, approach which helps a wide range of living settlement nodes, large and small, to nurture each other. Global City and Global Village must go hand in hand. Our planetary and human health depends on it.     

Debatable Marriages: Marriage and Child Marriage in Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

This article examines marriage and the constitution of familial relationships in Saudi Arabia, with a specific focus on one form of marriage that has recently become an issue of public, political, and religious discussion, that of “child marriage.” The situation within Saudi Arabia is compared with gendered relationships in other countries, most notably those in Western Europe, with specific attention given to the United Kingdom. It is argued that policy developments in Saudi Arabia need to be seen in the context of wider Saudi culture, Sharia law, and religious interpretations of the Koran.     

美国撤军伊拉克后伊朗和沙特的抗衡

美国从伊拉克撤军后对伊拉克安全稳定的最大挑战是地区势力的角逐,尤其是伊朗和沙特在该地区的竞争将对伊拉克的安全和稳定带来重要影响。沙特担心伊朗将利用其在伊拉克的影响来使其在美国撤军后在地区称霸。本文讨论伊朗和沙特之间的竞争以及该竞争对伊拉克未来稳定的影响。     

My Village Is Dying? Integrating Methods from the Inside Out

The purpose of this paper is to confront the notion of “decline” at the village level by illustrating a more immersive approach to sociological and demographic research within rural and remote communities. The research uses case studies of three villages in Australia, Canada, and Sweden, all of which have been labeled as “declining villages,” typified by population loss, an aging population, high rates of youth outmigration, and loss of businesses and services. This paper argues that focusing solely on quantitative indicators of demographic change provides a narrow view of rural village trajectories and ignores subtle processes of local adaptation that are hidden from quantitative data sets. Our research integrates quantitative data from the “outside” with qualitative data from the “inside,” including visual ethnography, to develop a more balanced perspective on how villages have been changing and what change could mean locally. These objectives are accomplished by revisiting a Dirt Research methodology applicable to a broad range of research into rural and remote villages.     

试析中国与沙特阿拉伯的石油合作

沙特阿拉伯是世界第一大原油生产国和出口国,中国是世界第二大石油消费国和消费量增长最快的石油进口国.沙特需要为其巨大的能源储量寻找新的市场,中国需要海外能源满足经济增长的需要.因此,两国在能源领域存在着相互依赖关系.正是这种相互依赖关系推动着中沙关系的稳步发展,本文力图运用政治经济学的分析法对中沙石油合作做出理性分析与判断.     

Alune incantations: Continuity or discontinuity in verbal art?

Throughout this century some Alune-speaking villages in the eastern Indonesian province of Central Maluku have experienced rapid sociopolitical and ecological change. Concomitant with these changes, language shift from Alune to the regional Malay variety, Ambonese Malay, is also occurring. This paper draws on a corpus of 45 incantations collected in two Alune villages which have been dissimilarly affected by the processes of change. The utilisation of a limited corpus of modern incantations in one village indicates a substratum of specialised indigenous sociocultural knowledge which has persisted in that site despite language shift and sociopolitical change. Comparison between traditional and contemporary forms of this genre of verbal art reveals structural differences and the extensive use of lexical items from languages other than Alune. Despite linguistic discontinuity, the endurance of incantations in this contemporary Christian society provides some continuity with pre-Christian Alune practices and may be viewed as a response to external events which are driving social, cultural and linguistic change.     

村落共同体的当代命运:四个观察维度

去社会学化、去社会理论化的村庄研究忽略了以下四个问题:(1)在批判社会学的视野里,村庄面临市场力量的持续冲击,后者要求土地和劳动力全部从共同体中分离,纳入作为价格形成体系的市场。故村庄转型的核心问题就是听任市场力量,还是保留村落共同体。(2)在专业社会学的视野里,如果承认现代社会还需要小型、地方性共同体的存在,以满足非市场经济性质的互助与交换,并发挥情感和社会认知方面的功能,就意味着要承认村落共同体的农业经济支撑条件在现代可能松动剥离,但它作为社区共同体仍然是正常的现代社会的基本资源;它能否在空前复杂的推压力量下采取恰当的过海策略,实现与社会的联结,首先取决于国家和社会把何种社会视为正常。(3)在公共社会学的视野里,地方性共同体是否被视为公民社会的敌人,首先取决于公民社会被视为应基于方法论个人主义之上还是方法论社群主义之上。从后一立场看,恰当的村落共同体不是公民社会的敌人。(4)在政策社会学的视野里,国家应该在允许农村劳动力向城市转移的同时,积极发展乡村社区,并且在解决城乡社区的经济社会不平等问题的基础上发展城乡社区衔接,避免加快城市化与建设新农村两大国家战略之间出现断裂。     

美国在沙特军事基地的战略演变

美国在沙特的军事部署经历了前沿行动基地、主要行动基地与合作安全基地三个阶段。决定其战略部署的主要因素包括美沙共同应对伊朗拥核崛起、伊拉克安全局势的恶化和海湾地区恐怖主义威胁的上升等。美国在沙特的军事基地加深了美国、沙特和伊朗之间的安全困境。同时,由于美沙双方在安全领域存在结构性互补关系,未来军事合作仍是美沙全方位合作的重点领域。     

加入世贸组织后沙特阿拉伯的政府管理

加入世贸组织是沙特的战略选择。在带来发展机遇的同时,世贸组织的规则也对沙特的政府管理提出了根本性挑战。特殊的国情和发展经历使沙特的政府管理正处于转型时期,其行政体制、法律体系、管理理念以及公务员队伍都与世贸规则的要求存在一定差距,经过近些年的改革和调整,沙特已在一些方面取得了进展,但存在的问题仍不容忽视。     

Demonstrating Professional Vision: The Work of Critique in Architectural Education

This study provides an account of how architectural competencies are made visible in the work of critique in architectural education. It shows how critics enact a set of disciplined visual practices through which architectural qualities of proposed buildings become available for competent remark. Particularly prominent among these practices is the seamless fusion of gestural elaborations of architecture's designed objects with the envisaged spaces of a hypothetically perceived built environment. Furthermore, critics topicalize the communicative and rhetorical organization of the presentation as a designed object in itself. In shifts between topicalizations of proposed buildings and the designed representations of those buildings, critics construe qualities of the buildings as simultaneously visible and invisible: visible to the critic, but invisible to potential other viewers. This practice subjects students' work to a variety of pedagogically configured gazes. The student's socialization into a specialized field of practice, in which objects are designed according to professional rationalities that go beyond what is readily visible or accessible to the nonarchitect, is thereby made accountable for the communicative demands of professional practice.