Urban Action Networks

Urban Action Networks
Author: Howard Lune
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2007
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 9780742540842

Urban Action Networks is a study of how communities organize in response to threats to their lives and well being. As HIV/AIDS wreaked havoc on the worlds of some of the most marginal and disenfranchised people in New York, they came together to create a shared response, forming a new organizational field within which their various efforts were coordinated. How the communities of the most affected people organized, reorganized, and redefined the social and political context of HIV/AIDS offers an encouraging glimpse into the way in which marginal communities can convert shared needs into collective action.

From Local Action to Global Networks: Housing the Urban Poor

From Local Action to Global Networks: Housing the Urban Poor
Author: Peter Herrle
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2016-03-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317132130

Over the past two decades it has become widely recognized that housing issues have to be placed in a broader framework acknowledging that civil society in the form of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and their allies are increasingly networking and emerging as strong players that cannot easily be overlooked. Some of these networks have crossed local and national boundaries and have jumped political scales. This implies that housing issues have to be looked at from new angles: they can no longer simply be addressed through localized projects, but rather at multiple scales. The current debate is largely limited to statements about the relevance of individual organizations for local housing processes and tends to overlook the innovativeness in terms of re-scaling those processes and of influencing institutional change at various levels by transcending national boundaries. There is a significant lack of a systemic understanding of such globally operating grassroots networks and how they function in the housing process. This book brings together different perspectives on multi-scalar approaches within the housing field and on grassroots’ engagement with formal agencies including local government, higher levels of government and international agencies. By moving away from romanticizing local self-initiatives, it focuses on understanding the emerging potential once local initiatives are interlinked and scaled-up to transnational networks.

Communities and Networks

Communities and Networks
Author: Katherine Giuffre
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 382
Release: 2013-04-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 074566461X

In Communities and Networks, Katherine Giuffre takes the science of social network analysis and applies it to key issues of living in communities, especially in urban areas, exploring questions such as: How do communities shape our lives and identities? How do they foster either conformity or innovation? What holds communities together and what happens when they fragment or fall apart? How is community life changing in response to technological advances? Refreshingly accessible and built on fascinating case examples, this unique book provides not only the theoretical grounding necessary to understand how and why the burgeoning area of social network analysis can be useful in studying communities, but also clear technical explanations of the tools of network analysis and how to gather and analyze real-world network data. Network analysis allows us to see community life in a new perspective, with sometimes surprising results and insights, and this book enables readers to gain a deeper understanding of social life and the relationships that build (and break) communities. This engaging text will be an exciting new resource for upper-level undergraduate and beginning graduate students in a wide range of courses including social network analysis, community studies, urban studies, organizational studies, and quantitative methods.

Urban Development and Civil Society

Urban Development and Civil Society
Author: Michael Carley
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2013-11-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134200501

The world's population is rapidly urbanizing but the affluence and development often associated with cities are far from equitably or sustainably distributed. Where it was once taken for granted that responsibility for urban development lay with the state, increasingly the emphasis has shifted to market-driven and public-private sector initiatives, which can marginalize the intended beneficiaries - the urban poor - from decision making and implementation. This text outlines the essential conditions for effective urban planning and management by placing bottom-up community initiatives at the heart of the push for equitable and sustainable development in cities. Crucially, the state must engage with both the market and civil society in pursuit of sustainable cities. Presenting a wide-ranging selection of case studies in rapidly urbanizing and transitional countries, from the poorest parts of Africa and Asia to the relatively developed United Kingdom, the authors describe and analyze innovations in how globally disadvantaged urban communities can be engaged in improving their living environments.

Social Innovations in the Urban Context

Social Innovations in the Urban Context
Author: Taco Brandsen
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2016-04-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3319215515

This book addresses the practice of social innovation, which is currently very much in the public eye. New ideas and approaches are needed to tackle the severe and wicked problems with which contemporary societies are struggling. Especially in times of economic crisis, social innovation is regarded as one of the crucial elements needed to move forward. Our knowledge of its dynamics has significantly progressed, thanks to an abundance of studies on social innovation both general and sector-specific. However, despite the valuable research conducted over the past years, the systematic analysis of social innovation is still contested and incomplete. The questions asked in the book will be the following: 1. What is the nature of social innovations? 2.What patterns can be identified in social innovations emerging at the local level? 3.How is the emergence and spread of social innovations related to urban governance? More precisely, which conditions and arrangements facilitate and hinders social innovation? We explore these questions using different types of data and methods, and studying different contexts. In particular, we focus on innovations that aim at solving problems of the young unemployed, single parents and migrants. This analysis is based on original research carried out in the period 2010-2013 in the framework of a European project with a specific empirical research strategy. Research was carried out in 20 cities in 10 different European countries.

Urban Agroecology

Urban Agroecology
Author: Monika Egerer
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 467
Release: 2020-12-16
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1000259501

Today, 20 percent of the global food supply relies on urban agriculture: social-ecological systems shaped by both human and non-human interactions. This book shows how urban agroecologists measure flora and fauna that underpin the ecological dynamics of these systems, and how people manage and benefit from these systems. It explains how the sociopolitical landscape in which these systems are embedded can in turn shape the social, ecological, political, and economic dynamics within them. Synthesizing interdisciplinary approaches in urban agroecology in the natural and social sciences, the book explores methodologies and new directions in research that can be adopted by scholars and practitioners alike. With contributions from researchers utilizing both social and natural science approaches, Urban Agroecology describes the current social-environmental understandings of the science, the movement and the practices in urban agroecology. By investigating the role of agroecology in cities, the book calls for the creation of spaces for food to be sustainably grown in urban spaces: an Urban Agriculture (UA) movement. Essential reading for graduate students, practitioners, policy makers and researchers, this book charts the course for accelerating this movement.

Urban Planet

Urban Planet
Author: Thomas Elmqvist
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages:
Release: 2018-04-26
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1108186963

Global urbanization promises better services, stronger economies, and more connections; it also carries risks and unforeseeable consequences. To deepen our understanding of this complex process and its importance for global sustainability, we need to build interdisciplinary knowledge around a systems approach. Urban Planet takes an integrative look at our urban environment, bringing together scholars from a diverse range of disciplines: from sociology and political science to evolutionary biology, geography, economics and engineering. It includes the perspectives of often neglected voices: architects, journalists, artists and activists. The book provides a much needed cross-scale perspective, connecting challenges and solutions on a local scale with drivers and policy frameworks on a regional and global scale. The authors argue that to overcome the major challenges we are facing, we must embark on a large-scale reinvention of how we live together, grounded in inclusiveness and sustainability. This title is also available Open Access.

Our Warming Planet: Climate Change Impacts And Adaptation

Our Warming Planet: Climate Change Impacts And Adaptation
Author: Martin Parry
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 708
Release: 2021-10-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9811238235

This volume, the second in the Lectures in Climate Change series, covers the full array of climate impacts and adaptation measures. It has been brought together by friends and colleagues of Dr Martin Parry, Co-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2007 assessment on impacts and adaptation. The writers are experts in this field and have been lead authors in many of the IPCC assessments and other major publications.Lectures in Climate Change is a unique combination of written text plus electronic slides that together comprise an informative and up-to-date set of presentations. This second volume, entitled Our Warming Planet: Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation, covers areas of climate impacts related to climate science, methods and approaches, sectors, regional and national studies, and policy and practice.The volume comprises topics such as current and future challenges of climate change, global assessments, downscaling, community-based adaptation, impacts on biodiversity, food systems, water resources, and cities. Research from across the world is presented on making science actionable through assessments, early warning and early action, communicating climate risk, documenting the uptake of adaptation on the global front, and transformation towards systemic resilience.Included with this publication are downloadable electronic slides and accompanying notes of each lecture for students, teachers, and public speakers around the world to be better able to understand and present climate change impacts and adaptation.

Regenerative Urban Development, Climate Change and the Common Good

Regenerative Urban Development, Climate Change and the Common Good
Author: Beth Schaefer Caniglia
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 371
Release: 2019-08-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1351367331

This volume focuses on the theory and practice of the regenerative development paradigm that is rapidly displacing sustainability as the most fertile ground for climate change adaptation research. This book brings together key thinkers in this field to develop a meaningful synthesis between the existing practice of regenerative development and the input of scholars in the social sciences. It begins by providing an expert introduction to the history, principles, and practices of regenerative development before going on to present a thorough theoretical examination by known theorists from disciplines including sociology, geography, and ethics. A section on regenerative development practices illustrates the need to significantly advance our understanding of how urbanization, climate change, and inequality interact at every scale of development work. Finally, the book ends with a serious consideration of the ways in which integrated systems thinking in higher education could result in a curriculum for the next generation of regenerative development professionals. Regenerative Urban Development, Climate Change and the Common Good will be of great interest to students, scholars, and practitioners of regenerative development, climate change, urban planning, and public policy.

International Encyclopedia of Human Geography

International Encyclopedia of Human Geography
Author:
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 7278
Release: 2019-11-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0081022964

International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Second Edition, Fourteen Volume Set embraces diversity by design and captures the ways in which humans share places and view differences based on gender, race, nationality, location and other factors—in other words, the things that make people and places different. Questions of, for example, politics, economics, race relations and migration are introduced and discussed through a geographical lens. This updated edition will assist readers in their research by providing factual information, historical perspectives, theoretical approaches, reviews of literature, and provocative topical discussions that will stimulate creative thinking. Presents the most up-to-date and comprehensive coverage on the topic of human geography Contains extensive scope and depth of coverage Emphasizes how geographers interact with, understand and contribute to problem-solving in the contemporary world Places an emphasis on how geography is relevant in a social and interdisciplinary context