ICT for all? Access and use of Public ICT Sites in the UK

As part of their "information age' policy agenda, the UK government sees "universal' access to information and communications technology (ICT) being achieved via new and existing public sites, where shared access to new technologies can be made available at little or no cost. State-sponsored augmentation of public ICT access in the UK has involved a variety of initiatives, most notably the recent establishment of a network of over 7,000 "UK Online Centres' located in a variety of distributed sites such as libraries, museums and colleges. Whilst there have been a number of localized case studies of users of public ICT sites, there has been little large-scale "mapping' of how these facilities are being used (and not used) by the general public. Based on a randomized household survey with 1,001 individuals in twelve research areas in the West of England and South Wales - augmented with a "booster' sample of 100 interviews with individuals carried out in public ICT sites in these areas - the present paper seeks to explore: (i) who has access to what forms of public ICT sites; and (ii) who is (and who is not) making use of different forms of public ICT sites. The survey data suggest that, in terms of people's effective access to ICT, public access sites have a relatively slight profile when compared with household and wider family access - perceived to offer ready access to ICT by only a minority of respondents. Moreover, when the use of these public ICT sites is examined, there is little evidence of public ICT sites attracting those social groups who may otherwise be excluded or marginalized from the information age. Given these findings, the paper considers the influences underlying the currently modest impact of public ICT sites on the general population and suggests changes to current public ICT provision that may prompt wider usage of these sites.     

Politics and performance: the implications of emerging governance arrangements for urban management approaches and information systems

Challenges to traditional public sector approaches to urban government have had an impact on various aspects of governance and management, including political arrangements, decision making processes, ways of ensuring accountability, the allocation of roles and responsibilities between public sector agencies and other potential service providers and between different levels of government, and the mobilisation and allocation of financial resources for urban development. These are discussed, drawing in particular on recent research on urban poverty and governance in ten cities in the South. The changing approaches to urban government and management have been accompanied by attempts to define criteria by which urban governance arrangements and performance can be assessed, which are summarised and critically evaluated. Finally, the potential value of a particular set of tools (GIS) for emerging approaches to urban governance is assessed. Their potential for improving the information available to all governance actors is recognised. However, because of their cost and technological and managerial demands, as well as the limited effectiveness of spatial planning and inequalities in access to information, plans for their use must be financially, institutionally and politically realistic.     

Woody plant species richness,composition and structure in urban sacred sites,Grahamstown, South Africa

Sacred sites are important not only for their traditional, spiritual or religious significance, but may also potentially be valuable for biodiversity conservation in human transformed landscapes. Yet, there has been little consideration of sacred sites in urban areas in this respect. Consequently, to better understand the ecosystem service and conservation value of urban sacred sites, inventories of their floral communities are needed. We examined the richness, composition and structure of the trees and shrubs in 35 urban churchyards and cemeteries in the City of Saints (Grahamstown). The combined area of urban sacred sites (38.7 ha) represented 2.2% of the city area and 13.6% of the public green space area. Species richness of woody plants was high, albeit dominated by non-native species. Levels of similarity among sites were low, indicating the effects of individual management regimens. There was no relationship between age of the site and measured attributes of the vegetation, nor were there any significant differences in vegetation among different religious denominations. However, the basal area and number of woody plants was significantly related to site size. These results indicate the significant heterogeneity of urban sacred sites as green spaces within the urban matrix. The significance of this heterogeneity in providing ecosystem services to users of sacred sites and the broader urban communities requires further investigation.     

Public access in the West European countryside: a comparative survey

This comparative study employs the concept of physical rigour to map and measure recreational routes and zones available to the public. The comparison is made for 15 representative countryside districts in four national settings (Great Britain, West Germany, France, and Benelux). Three of the districts are national parks, while the others are 40 × 25 km settled areas chosen to typify the physical and human landscape of their region. Statistical measures of access availability are computed for five levels of access rigour, grading from passive through to arduous. Road or ‘passive’ access is most prevalent in settled districts of West Germany and France, while footpaths providing casual access are most plentiful in West Germany and Benelux. Off-route lands open to the public are most common in sparsely settled upland areas. Polynomial regressions show that both amplitude of relief and type of land cover influence the availability of access types. However, land-use intensity is the strongest determinant of the access regime in all except mountainous areas. Although not investigated statistically, regional and national variations in access availability may be related to the history of land apportionment and to legal/customary constraints on public access. These help to explain exceptionally low degrees of access in Great Britain.     

The interplay of public and private spaces in internet access

The creation of public internet access facilities is one of the principal policy instruments adopted by governments in addressing 'digital divide' issues. The lack of plans for ongoing funding, in North America at least, suggests that this mode is regarded mainly as transitional, with private, home-based access being perceived as superior. The assumption apparently is that as domestic internet penetration rates rise, public access facilities will no longer be needed. Central to this issue are the varied characteristics of publicly provided and privately owned access sites and their implications for non-employment internet activities. What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of these two access modes? More fundamentally, how do people conceptualize public and private spaces and how does this perception influence their online activities? Finally, why do people choose one over the other, and how do they navigate between the two? This article attempts to answer these questions by drawing on data generated within the Everyday Internet Project, a 'neighborhood ethnography' of internet usage. It argues that the conventional view of private and public access facilities as immiscible, fixed alternatives is inadequate. Rather than 'pure' types, they are better understood as offering hybrid spaces whose identity and character are fluid, perceived differently by individuals in light of the activities being performed, life experiences, infrastructure and architecture. The picture emerging from our study is one where public and private access modes intertwine with each other in a variety of ways, their combination offering significant additional value for many users. From a public policy perspective, these findings suggest that if universal access is to be achieved, there is a continuing need for publicly supported broad-spectrum facilities with integrated technical support and learning opportunities, even if domestic penetration rates approach that of the telephone.     

Three categories of urban green areas and the effect of their different management on the communities of ants,spiders and harvestmen

Urban green areas have become an important tool for biodiversity conservation in cities. However, land use and the different management practices applied to these areas determine their effectiveness as biodiversity refuges within cities. In our study, we compare the biodiversity of three bioindicator groups of arthropods (ants, spiders and harvestmen) found in eleven urban green sites in Warsaw (Poland). The studied sites represent three categories of management: botanical gardens, public parks and urban woodlands. Our aim was to determine the effect of the type of management (as urban green categories) on arthropod communities in urban areas.

     

Incorporation and Gated Communities in the Greater Metro-Los Angeles Region as a Model of Privatization of Residential Communities

ABSTRACT

The privatization of urban public space has accelerated through the closing, redesign, and policing of public parks and plazas, the development of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) that monitor and control local streets and parks, and the transfer of public air rights for the building of corporate plazas ostensibly open to the public. In the suburbs, privatization also takes the form of conservation easements that restrict access to public lands, the creation of shopping malls and new town centers relocated within these private commercial developments, and the building of gated residential communities. Accompanying this expansion of private interests are changes in strategies of governance and regional differences in how local governments and residents are encouraging private encroachment on public space. This article focuses this third set of privatization practices by discussing how gated communities manipulate municipal and town planning laws to control public space and tax dollars. To accomplish this task, I discuss the emergence of gated communities as a new form of privatization of urban/suburban space and then tease out the legal and institutional underpinnings of this spatial governance. The geography of gated communities in greater metro-Los Angeles region and their use of the strategy of incorporation to capture public taxes for private use is employed as a model for understanding the future of gating in the United States. The Los Angeles model is then compared to current gating patterns in urban and suburban gated communities in New York and Texas. These manipulations of private land use controls in the United States are not necessarily new, but with gating there is an accelerating trend away from governmental and public control of land use toward an increased reliance on privately created controls. The consequences of this shift toward privatization of land use control is an impoverishment of the public realm and access to public resources, especially public space.     

From Urban to Rural: Lessons for Microfinance from Argentina

The recent success of microfinance for the urban self‐employed contrasts with decades of failure on the part of public development banks for small farmers. This article describes the ways in which rural microfinance organisations have tried to adapt the lessons of urban microfinance to manage the risks and control the costs of the supply of financial services in rural areas. It then asks whether the lessons of urban microfinance are likely to apply in the poorest rural areas of Argentina. The article concludes that microfinance is unlikely to improve access to small loans and small deposits for many of the rural poor in Argentina; distances are too great, farmers too specialised, and wages too high. Improved access depends not on targeting loans by government decree but on strengthening institutions that support financial markets.     

Participation in the city: where do women fit in?

Women's priorities have often been ignored in the design of human settlements, the location of housing, and the provision of urban services. New forms of urban partnership are needed to develop participatory processes which include women and men at all stages of urban development. Participation is most commonly associated with political participation or activity. The author gives an overview of the "gendered city", then looks at how men and women benefit and contribute to urban life, through examples of opportunities for making a living and for using urban resources and services. She then moves away from participation as entitlement to consider participation as empowerment, looking at some problems faced by women in public office and grassroots organizations. The paper concludes in arguing that a gender perspective will not inform urban policy and planning processes automatically. Sections discuss gender and poverty in the city, making a living in the city, urban planning as a gender issue, getting around the city, access to resources and services, violence in the city, women's participation in urban governance, women's representation in public office, community organization and advocacy, men and gender issues, and forging linkages through participation.     

Overcoming fieldwork challenges in urban health research in developing countries: a research note

With rapid growth in the global urban population over the next two decades, health will increasingly have an urban bias. The picture of public health is particularly complex in African cities, where rates of urbanisation, poverty and inequity are high. This paper identifies the main data collection problems encountered within a panel study in low‐income areas of Johannesburg, with special emphasis on sampling, access and partnerships. The paper will be of relevance to anyone considering research in the cities of developing countries, especially in Africa.     

Psychosocial Well-Being of the Elderly and Their Perception of Matured Estate in Singapore

This article explores various relationships between the elderly's psychosocial well-being and components of aging-friendly community (continuity, compensation, connection, challenge, and contribution), in order to understand their perception of a matured estate and to discuss implications in housing neighborhood urban design. Interviews with elderly residents living in Bukit Merah (Redhill), one of the matured housing estates in Singapore with a high percentage of elderly residents, were conducted to understand how eldercare infrastructure and social spaces developed within the fabric of a high-rise, high-density public housing estate can support or inhibit their psychosocial well-being, as indicated by the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Our results postulate that different groups of elderly form friendships and participate in activities in both formal social service centers and informal public spaces. The friendships formed in these places and the convenience of amenities around their houses may affect their perception of their current residences. While the elderly residents are generally satisfied with physical infrastructure, a comprehensive, integrated urban design is further needed to facilitate physical activities, social interactions, and active aging in the elderly in order to enhance their psychosocial well-being.     

Malaria treatment practices among mothers in Guinea

A survey of mothers of young children in Guinea, West Africa (June-July 1988) suggests that individual, sociocultural, and structural factors influence the use of antimalarials for episodes of fever presumed to be malaria. A survey of 243 mothers was carried out in eight different sites (four urban and four rural) in two regions of the country. Among mothers interviewed, use of Western antimalarials for infants and children with fever was acceptable, but access to treatment was problematic. Mothers interviewed were less likely to use antimalarials during pregnancy, partly because of certain misconceptions about their effects and lack of access to the medication. Despite programmatic efforts to promote practices of presumptive treatment of fever among young children and chemoprophylaxis during pregnancy among mothers in towns and villages surveyed, variables associated with low use of antimalarials by mothers and their young children reflect important barriers to the implementation of child survival initiatives.     

Information technology, networks and community voices

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have altered the form and structure of urban centres across the globe. Scholars suggest that hybrid spaces of electronic networks and urban sites herald the future of city planning, representing a fluidity of material place and cyberspace that transforms patterns of city life. This project examines the regenerative capabilities of ICTs in decaying urban neighbourhoods that link virtual networks of community participation and expression with the physical presence of community media centres. Using symbolic interactionism and qualitative interviews, this research suggests that inner-city residents find ICTs to be a key element in neighbourhood and community revitalization. Overall, this research considers the notion that ICTs are integral components of contemporary urban planning.     

Naturalization as a strategy for improving soil physical characteristics in a forested urban park

Ensuring good soil quality is essential to promoting plant growth in urban parks and building ecological resilience into a cityscape. Periodically used to restore a degraded urban ecosystem, parkland naturalization is a management approach designed to facilitate the return of an area to a natural state by largely discontinuing maintenance activities and restricting public access. This study investigates the potential for parkland naturalization to improve soil quality in a forested portion of Kew Gardens Park, Toronto, Canada by comparing soil physical properties in three six-year-old naturalization enclosures with those found in adjacent managed parkland. Soil texture, compaction, bulk density, and surface water infiltration rate were measured at 104 sample sites, while ordinary kriging was used to interpolate two-dimensional prediction surfaces representative of soil properties. Sand and loamy sand were the dominant soil texture classes found across the study site. Highly compacted soil (>2,000 kPa) and soil with a bulk density >1.8 Mg/m³ (values sufficiently elevated to restrict tree root growth and respiration and impair soil water infiltration) were spatially correlated with high pedestrian traffic areas and corridors used by festival and park maintenance vehicles. In contrast, compaction and bulk density measurements in the naturalized areas were at or below thresholds known to impair root function ([`(X)] {{\overline{X}}} at 10 and 30 cm depth: 849 and 1,311 kPa, 1.15 and 1.51 Mg/m<sup>3</sup>, respectively). Similarly, water infiltration rates were rapid ( [`(X)] = 470mm/hr ) \left( {{{\overline{X}}} = {47}0{\hbox{mm}}/{\hbox{hr}}} \right) within the naturalization enclosures but retarded to the point of surface pooling in parkland subjected to regular public use. In the absence of quantitative baseline data, our use of spatial analysis demonstrates that parkland naturalization is a good management practice for restoration of soil physical characteristics. While our results show improvements to soil properties in a relatively short period of time, variability in the soil response rate to parkland naturalization will be dependent upon disturbance history as well as on soil and climate type.     

Urban culture and physical and sports activities. The "sportification" of parkour and street golf as cultural mediation

The article explores the process of "sportification"--i.e., processing physical activity in a sport regulated by a set of rules and standards, legitimized by supervisory institutions--from two originals practices, parkour and urban golf. To study these practices, we crossed the contributions of urban sociology and of the contemporary sociology of sport while respecting the methodological principles of qualitative sociology. A first point concerns the process of"sport" itself, its definition, its various stages, and the role played by communication of stakeholders on public space. The cultural mediation shows us how to institutionalize the movement that represents the "sports" resulted in the same time reconfiguration of physical practices themselves. Recent events illustrate the ongoing reconfiguration, we will detail them. Finally, we show the effects produced by the process on the definition of urban culture and sports: setting sight of activities, enhanced cooperation with the media-cultural, polarization between different types of practical in the case of parkour, around a confrontation between two of the founders.     

Lentic and lotic odonate communities and the factors that influence them in urban versus rural landscapes

Habitat alteration via urbanization has very different effects on even closely related taxa. Most research investigating the ecological effects of urbanization has focused on birds or mammals, resulting in a relatively poor understanding of how the species richness and community composition of invertebrates may change. We quantified differences in species richness of adult odonates (dragonflies and damselflies) at lentic and lotic sites in urban and rural landscapes, and we examined environmental factors that might drive the differences in community composition that we observed. For lotic sites, species richness did not differ between urban versus rural sites for either dragonflies or damselflies. For lentic sites, urban and rural sites contained similar dragonfly species richness, but damselfly species richness was significantly lower at urban sites than at rural sites. Differences in lentic odonate community composition were associated with the amount of urban development within 150 m of each site, mean algal coverage, and distance to the urban center. At lotic sites, water temperature and distance to the urban center were correlated with differences in odonate community composition. The differing responses to urbanization observed in this study were probably a consequence of differences between lentic versus lotic ecosystems and between dragonflies versus damselflies in dispersal capability and habitat specificity. Given that different environmental factors affected these taxa differently in lentic and lotic sites, maintaining the highest level of odonate diversity possible across a landscape will require the use of different management practices for each ecosystem type.     

State Form, Social Order and the Social Sciences: Urban Space and Politico-Economic Systems 1760–1850

Abstract In The Pristine Culture of Capitalism , Ellen Wood argues that the English urban landscape is characterised by lack of elegance, absence of charm and neglect of public services. She traces the origins of this impoverishment to the eradication of pre-industrial capitalist urban culture in the eighteenth century. The paper investigates the claim that English urban culture underwent a significant transformation in the later eighteenth and early nineteenth century. A concern with the public magnificence of London as a means of representing the wealth and power of England is characteristic of eighteenth century treatise on urban improvement. The most influential of which, John Gwynn's London and Westminster Improved , published in 1766, draws upon the spatial linkage of economy, government and power typical of mercantilist thought. The paper argues that as the principles and practices of mercantilism were displaced by the spread of industrial capitalism and the liberal state, a concern with grandeur, elegance and embellishment in urban form was subordinated to the provision of the physical and social infrastructure necessary for the reproduction of labour.     

上海青少年权益保护与发展报告

青少年的合法权益既要依法合情保护,更要依法顺势发展。青少年在身心健康、个人发展、公共参与和福利保障等方面的合法权益得到充分的实现,将有力地促进青少年的全面发展。当前,青少年的生活环境、思想状况和利益诉求发生了深刻变化,青少年权益保护和发展亦出现很多新情况,必须要更新观念,提出新的应对措施。上海城市发展快,不同年龄、不同职业、不同地域的青少年对权益维护需求的差异度较大,同时,来沪青少年绝对数量的相对比重不断上升,他们的权益维护需求和现状应得到更多关注。青少年权益维护面临多重风险与压力,生活高成本已成为上海青少年权益受损的重要原因。培育青少年公共参与意识,引导青少年有序政治参与,都需要在公共政策层面进一步完善,特别是逐步构建上海特色的青少年社会福利保障体系。     

Broadening the Land Question in Food Sovereignty to Northern Settings: A Case Study of Occupy the Farm

Abstract

Land access is an accepted corollary to food sovereignty, long promoted by the transnational agrarian movement La Via Campesina (LVC). LVC's land access politics have evolved with increased incorporation of diverse perspectives, but remain largely focused on achieving ‘integral agrarian reform’ in the global South. Here, I take a case where food sovereignty activists (‘Occupy the Farm’ (OTF)) occupied land owned by a public university in California, the USA, in order to broaden food sovereignty's land access considerations beyond the South, and to analyze conditions where political actions (including occupations) can help achieve changes in land access regimes. The OTF action was successful in challenging cultural norms about property and achieving access, partly due to the occupation having foregrounded multiple appealing narratives that invited participation and wider support. These narratives included agroecology versus biotechnologies; community/public access versus privatization; participatory versus bureaucratic governance structure; and green space/food production versus urban development. The article tests the use of the ‘land sovereignty’ frame in expanding food sovereignty's land politics, to encompass land contestation contexts globally and deal with the particular conditions surrounding lands. The case indicates that land occupations in the North are potentially useful—but uncertain, and very context-dependent—tactics to promote land and food sovereignty.     

Ergonomic aspects to be considered in planning public spaces destined for elderly people

As has happened in many other countries, Brazil has also witnessed an evident change in the question of accessibility over the last twenty years. In line with this theme, that of old age has only become evident in the last two decades. For a long period of time, the elderly have been systematically ignored as an object of investigation and have not been contemplated with consistent public social policies. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to verify the conditions of physical accessibility that allow the elderly to use public spaces, taking as a study case the S?o Gon?alo square and the Solón de Lucena Park, in the city of Jo?o Pessoa--PB, identifying the biological and functional losses suffered by elderly people due to the aging process and verifying the specific physical needs of this segment of the population. Qualitative methods were adopted, such as systematic observations with the production of behaviour maps, in addition to a review of the literature and analysis of the data. The research identified problems related to the physical accessibility of the elderly to public spaces that generate difficulties for displacement, use, information and orientation, contributing to the planning and ergonomic guidelines which aim at improving these environments, such as the use of different and contrasting colours on the urban furniture and floor, for example.