Sensing Cittàslow: Slow Living and the Constitution of the Sensory City

ABSTRACT

In 2004 Aylsham, Norfolk, became Britain's second Cittàslow Town (Slow City). Embedded within the slow living ideology of Cittàslow is the assumption that the “better” life it advocates involves heightened sensory experience and concomitant pleasure. In contrast to contemporary fast life, it wishes that “suitable doses of guaranteed sensual pleasure and slow, long-lasting enjoyment [may] preserve us from the contagion of the multitude who mistake frenzy for efficiency” (The Slow Food Companion 2005: 6). In the first part of the paper I analyze how the sensory elements of slow living are represented in the Cittàslow and related Slow Food movement's literature. Then, based on my ethnographic fieldwork centered on Aylsham's Cittàslow events and projects, I examine how the routine and creative sensory practices of the individuals who produce and participate in Cittàslow policies and activities are constitutive of a “sensory city.”     

No Accident: Traffic and Pedestrians in the Modern City

Abstract

This paper considers the rise of traffic accidents in the creation of the modern city. The notion of accidents is deconstructed. There is a brief review of current literature on mobilities and then evidence is presented of the shifting configuration of vehicle–pedestrian accidents. The epidemic of traffic accidents of cities in developing world is noted and explained. The incidence of pedestrian traffic accidents is shown to reflect socio‐economic characteristics such as age, class and status. A review of the literature provides evidence of the ways to ameliorate pedestrian injuries. Walksheds are suggested as a focus of concern. The creation of a more pedestrian‐friendly city is proposed.     

Locative Mobile Social Networks: Mapping Communication and Location in Urban Spaces

Abstract

This study conceptualizes the new spatial logic created by the social use of location aware mobile technologies, analyzing how mobile communities are formed by the mapping of social networks in urban spaces. It explores two main areas with the goal of understanding how locative mobile social networks (LMSNs) challenge the traditional logic of networks. First, it conceptualizes LMSNs by comparing them to (1) traditional transportation and communication networks, and (2) mobile social networks (MSNs). Second, the paper discusses potential social implications of LMSNs, such as privacy, surveillance, and social exclusion.     

The gendered dimensions of bushfire in changing rural landscapes in Australia

This paper examines gender differences in awareness, preparedness and attitudes towards bushfire amongst landholders in rural landscapes affected by amenity-led in-migration in southeast Australia. It considers the potential of conceptualising bushfire not as a gender-neutral natural phenomenon but as an important means by which traditional gender roles and power relations within rural landscapes are maintained. Landholders were found to uphold conventional views of bushfire management as “men’s business” despite changing social circumstances. Consequently, key gender differences exist within landholders’ bushfire risk awareness, bushfire knowledge, the perceived need for bushfire preparedness measures, the willingness to perform certain tasks, and the belief in personal capacity to act. We argue that covert and less visible as well as overt gender roles and traditions are important factors in understanding landholders’ engagement with bushfire management. When gendered dimensions of bushfire are investigated in the context of hegemony, a paradox emerges between women choosing not to take control of their own bushfire safety and women being denied the opportunity to take control. The complex and contradictory actions and attitudes to bushfire that materialise through an analysis of gendered social experiences complicate attempts to create more gender-sensitive frameworks for bushfire management. The tenacious and embedded nature of gender role divisions within both public and private spheres was furthermore found to act as economic, social and political stumbling blocks for empowerment opportunities. Using a mixed-methods research approach, this paper maps out gendered dimensions of bushfire through landholders’ narratives and actions. The implications of these dimensions for bushfire management have direct relevance to recent international discussions of the vulnerability of the growing number of people living in bushfire-prone rural–urban interface areas.     

基于城乡统筹的环城高速公路公共交通运营的建设与管理

分析了在环城高速公路上增设公共交通运营方式的作用,提出了在环城高速公路上建设公共交通运营方式的思路,并针对其建设与管理的方法进行了一定的研究,为完善城乡交通网络,促进城乡统筹发展提供了很好的策略方法。     

Orderly mixing and accommodation in South African codeswitching

'Mixed Language,' a characteristic pattern of language use among African township residents in South Africa, may well include words or full constituents from several languages. However, from both a structural and a social perspective, such speech has a systematic nature. In reference to grammatical structure, within any CP (projection of COMP) showing codeswitching, only one language (the Matrix Language) provides the grammatical frame in the data studied. Also, while speakers from different educational levels engage in codeswitching with similar frequencies, the types of codeswitched constitutents they prefer are different. In reference to the social use of language, we argue that specific patterns of codeswitching indicate how language is both an index of identity and a tool of communication in South Africa. In the codeswitching patterns they use, speakers exhibit strong loyalty to their own first languages. Yet, because they recognize that codeswitching facilitates communication with members of other ethnic groups, they use a number of codeswitching strategies as a means of accommodating to their addressees and simultaneously as a means of projecting multiple identities for themselves.     

略论新感觉派、张爱玲及王朔作品的都市文化特征

文章通过对新感觉派、张爱玲和王朔作品中都市文化的不同内涵的分析，阐述了他们不同的文学价值追求，以及这种不同追求所体现的都市变迁与时代变化特点。同时，通过对他们把握都市现代化进程中带来的异化感所共同立足的个体原则的分析，论述了个体精神追求的不同在大致相同的审美准则中衍生出来的差别。     

地方政府城市环境治理措施的选择问题——以城市“禁摩”为例

地方政府城市环境治理措施的制定和实施,应该遵循坚持实事求是,一切从实际出发的基本原则,并将增进社会福利优先而不是政府政绩优先作为基本前提.能否在实施禁摩的城市范围内,比较准确地划分禁摩与非禁摩区域之间的界线,是检验政府城市环境治理能力的一个缩影.因为就摩托车作为交通运输工具而言,其质量标准的不断提高,公众自觉遵守交通规则意识的加强等,使其可以成为增进社会福利的工具,所以不必要对摩托车"一禁了之",而应该给其发挥作用的合理区间.同时,政府与公众之间禁摩博弈的过程表明,广大人民群众对政府的政策措施的理解和支持,对政府行使其职能具有至关重要的作用.     

Support Networks of Gay Male and Lesbian Youth

The support networks of 90 self-identified urban gay male and lesbian youth (ages 14 to 21 years) are examined. The youth, who are predominantly black and Latino/a, indicated an average of eight persons in their support networks, most of whom were close friends. Other significant groups included were parents, siblings, other relatives, and lovers or partners. A large majority of the support network members knew that the youth were gay or lesbian. Youth were moderately to very satisfied with the support they received from the network members—being more satisfied with the support provided by those who knew of their homosexuality compared to those who suspected or were unaware. Nonetheless, most youth felt that they did not have enough friends, and that they often to seldom felt lonely. These two feelings correlated positively with suicide ideation and attempts; and feeling lonely also correlated positively with drug use.     

JOHANNESBURG INTERIORS

Almost two decades into the post-apartheid era, inner-city Johannesburg – like much of South Africa – remains structured by deeply ingrained forms of physical and imaginative segregation. Building on architect Sarah Calburn's suggestion that one way to address these divisions would be to make the city's external or outside spaces feel more like domestic interiors as well as on the calls of writer Njabulo Ndebele for new forms of public intimacy, this article explores three distinct artistic projects that each attempt to push beyond segregation by opening up private homes for public perusal and/or making public space more intimate and home-like: Kgebetli Moele's novel Room 207, Christoph Gurk's performance art collection X Homes Johannesburg and Terry Kurgan's public photography/digital media experiment Hotel Yeoville. Working with concepts of home, hotels and hospitality, it theorizes the modes of ‘intimate exposure’ these projects enact as forms of hospitality or Derridean ‘hos(ti)pitality’ potentially capable of welcoming diverse groups into a shared public space while at the same time foregrounding inequalities in need of redress. While the role of artistic projects in shaping culture should not be overemphasized, the article also underscores how such works have emerged in contemporary South Africa as vibrant ways of thinking in public and thinking the public.