The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Futures

The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Futures
Author: Robert C. Brears
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 2334
Release: 2023-01-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3030877450
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While urban settlements are the drivers of the global economy and centres of learning, culture, and innovation and nations rely on competitive dynamic regions for their economic, social, and environmental objectives, urban centres and regions face a myriad of challenges that impact the ways in which people live and work, create wealth, and interact and connect with places. Rapid urbanisation is resulting in urban sprawl, rising emissions, urban poverty and high unemployment rates, housing affordability issues, lack of urban investment, low urban financial and governance capacities, rising inequality and urban crimes, environmental degradation, increasing vulnerability to natural disasters and so forth. At the regional level, low employment, low wage growth, scarce financial resources, climate change, waste and pollution, and rising urban peri-urban competition etc. are impacting the ability of regions to meet socio-economic development goals while protecting biodiversity. The response to these challenges has typically been the application of inadequate or piecemeal solutions, often as a result of fragmented decision-making and competing priorities, with numerous economic, environmental, and social consequences. In response, there is a growing movement towards viewing cities and regions as complex and sociotechnical in nature with people and communities interacting with one another and with objects, such as roads, buildings, transport links etc., within a range of urban and regional settings or contexts. This comprehensive MRW will provide readers with expert interdisciplinary knowledge on how urban centres and regions in locations of varying climates, lifestyles, income levels, and stages development are creating synergies and reducing trade-offs in the development of resilient, resource-efficient, environmentally friendly, liveable, socially equitable, integrated, and technology-enabled centres and regions.

The Affective Agency of Public Space

The Affective Agency of Public Space
Author: Asma Mehan
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2024-09-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3111036146
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The Affective Agency of Public Space explores the pivotal role that public spaces play in fostering social inclusion and community cohesion within various settings, including Europe and the United States. This scholarly work underscores the critical importance of developing inclusive public zones that enhance urban life and promote integration and interaction among diverse community groups. It also confronts and debunks common myths about ‘different people,’ actively addressing misconceptions while promoting the recognition of diverse identities and voices. Through a comparative lens, the book presents insightful case studies that illustrate its core themes. Serving as a timely and important academic resource, this text is indispensable for urban planners, educators, architects, designers, and sociologists committed to progressive urban planning methodologies.

Resilience vs Pandemics

Resilience vs Pandemics
Author: Ali Cheshmehzangi
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2024-01-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 981997996X
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The COVID-19 pandemic and other highly transmissible diseases outbreaks have given a new significance to the concept of “resilience”, placing it in the spotlight of built environment-related studies. New directions have emerged from expanding on adaptive planning, urban layouts, urban morphologies, spatial planning, healthy cities, etc. To enhance resilience in the post-pandemic era, various theories, practices, and hypotheses are being formulated by scholars around the world. For this book project, we invite chapter proposals that provide forefront discoveries about the built environment resilience during and after the ongoing pandemic. Historical perspectives of resilience and other highly transmissible diseases are also relevant to understanding the COVID-19 issues. The authors are encouraged to elaborate on critical exploratory, innovative, and cutting-edge research approaches, highlighting the effects of COVID-19 and other highly transmissible diseases in the design, planning, and perception of the built environment. We aim to gather scientific experiences, reviews, analyses, discussions, recommendations, and solutions in the fields of urban planning, urban design, urban management, environmental science, architecture, etc. The book aims to document resilience-related innovations and new perspectives for the built environment, how people’s interactions adapt to new realities, and which mechanisms, tools, and strategies are required for such transformations in the following two scales of the built environments: (1) City/district; research on planning, commuting and mobility, politics, urban configurations, regulations, transmission and prevention, models, top-down processes, innovation processes, etc. (2) Community/neighborhood; research on collaboration, transmission and prevention, isolation and quarantine, social aspects, accessibility to services, technologies, education, policies, and innovative solutions. The book covers a wide range of studies, including physical and non-physical studies, which may refer to the city infrastructure, green/blue spaces, housing, policy-making, health services, social and economic issues, etc. The findings and results contribute to the decision-making of governments, organizations, and institutions, as well as inspire scholars and future research for developing resilience in the post-pandemic era.

Smart Cities and Digital Transformation

Smart Cities and Digital Transformation
Author: Miltiadis D. Lytras
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2023-06-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1804559962
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Smart Cities and Digital Transformation offers a three-tiered approach to tomorrow’s cities in terms of limitless innovation, sustainable development and empowering communities.

COVID-19 Lockdowns and the Urban Poor in Harare, Zimbabwe

COVID-19 Lockdowns and the Urban Poor in Harare, Zimbabwe
Author: Johannes Itai Bhanye
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 147
Release: 2023-12-09
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 3031416694
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This book focuses on the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns on the welfare of the urban poor in the city of Harare, Zimbabwe. The authors look through the lenses of the urban health penalty, the right to the city, complexity theory, and distributive justice theory. These four theories help situate the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on the urban poor in the theoretical foundations that raise issues of how the poor are affected by disease/health pandemics, due to their living conditions. Uniquely, the authors use remote ethnography tools such as rich texts, video diaries and photo uploads to provide evidence-based stories of how COVID-19 mobility restrictions have affected poor urbanites in Harare. The book concludes that the COVID-19 pandemic mandatory lockdowns have deepened social and spatial inequality among the urban poor, threatening their right to the city. The socio-economic impacts can upsurge poverty, increase unemployment and the risks of hunger and food insecurity, reinforce existing inequalities, and break social harmony in the cities, even past the COVID-19 pandemic period. These socioeconomic impacts must be considered to make just cities for all, from a right-to-the-city perspective. The authors recommend that mandatory COVID-19 lockdowns should not only be treated as a law-and-order operation but as a medical intervention to stem the spread of the virus backed by measures to safeguard the livelihoods of the urban poor while also protecting the economy. This means governments should provide social safety nets to informal sector operators whose income-generating activities are affected the most during the time of emergencies like COVID-19. Planners and policymakers should re-envision pandemic-resilient cities that are just, equitable, resilient, and sustainable.

Frontiers in Built Environment, editor’s picks 2023

Frontiers in Built Environment, editor’s picks 2023
Author: Izuru Takewaki
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2024-03-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 2832546013
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Dear readers of Frontiers in Built Environment, As the Field Chief Editor for Frontiers in Built Environment, I am happy to present this curated selection of papers that have made a significant impact within our community. Among the large number of submissions that we received, these 14 papers represent some of the best published in 2023, the year when the journal attained its first impact factor. With many high-quality papers to consider, in selecting these 14 articles we faced the challenging task of how to include papers from across the 15 distinct sections of the journal whilst at the same time achieving a sense of cohesion to the ebook overall. However, amidst this diversity, we noticed a convergence in our highest-quality papers around three pivotal themes that are central to our journal’s mission: resilience, sustainability, and technology. In this way, despite the broad range of topics covered within both our journal and this selection, this ebook can truly be considered representative of our journal as a whole. These carefully chosen papers encompass high-quality original research and comprehensive reviews, which also embody the ethos of innovation and excellence that defines our journal. As the Field Chief Editor, I am thankful to all authors who have enriched our journal with their high-caliber work. I extend sincere appreciation to the dedicated efforts of our editors and reviewers, whose invaluable contributions have been instrumental in shaping Frontiers in Built Environment in 2023.

Dimensions. Journal of Architectural Knowledge

Dimensions. Journal of Architectural Knowledge
Author: Elettra Carnelli
Publisher: transcript Verlag
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2023-12-31
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 383946370X
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»Dimensions. Journal of Architectural Knowledge« is an academic journal in, on, and from the discipline of architecture, addressing the creation, constitution, and transmission of architectural knowledge. It explores methods genuine to the discipline and architectural modes of interdisciplinary methodological adaptions. Processes, procedures, and results of knowledge creation and practice are esteemed coequally, with particular attention to the architectural design and epistemologies of aesthetic practice and research. »Collaborations: Rethinking Architectural Design«, Issue 05/2023, edited by Elettra Carnelli, Federico Marcolini, Fabio Marino, and Rafael Sousa Santos, explores the impact of collaboration on architectural design processes, considering the conditions and implications of their integration into practice and discourse. The issue includes contributions and visual essays as reports from teaching activities, realized or planned architectural projects, theoretical reflections on the topic, and the critical depiction of case studies, all of which concur to the definition of new roles and modes of practice, addressing the significance of collaborations in architectural design.