Urban Geography

High Life: Condo Living in the Suburban Century

by Matthew Lasner

Forthcoming from Yale University Press in 2012

Today, one in five homeowners in American cities and suburbs lives in a multifamily home rather than a single-family... more Today, one in five homeowners in American cities and suburbs lives in a multifamily home rather than a single-family dwelling. As the American dream evolves, precipitated by declining real estate prices and a renewed interest in city living, many predict that condos will become the predominant form of housing in the 21st century. In this unprecedented study Matthew Gordon Lasner explores the history of co-owned multifamily housing in the United States, from New York City's first co-op, in 1881, to contemporary condo and townhouse complexes coast to coast. Lasner explains the complicated social, economic, and political factors that have increased demand for this way of living, situating the trend within the larger housing market and broad shifts in residential architecture. He contrasts the prevalence and popularity of condos, townhouses, and other privately governed communities with their ambiguous economic, legal, and social standing, as well as their striking absence from urban and architectural history.

Senior Honor Thesis

by Eric Chuhao Chan

Regional unemployment and industrial restructuring in Poland

by Francesco Pastore

Co-authored with Andrew Newell.
Eastern European Economics, 2006, 44(3): 5-28.
(also available as IZA DP, n. 194, November 2000, University of Sussex DP, n. 63, May 2000, e CELPE DP, n. 51, February 2000)

This paper studies regional unemployment inequality in Poland. We find that regions experiencing greater change in... more This paper studies regional unemployment inequality in Poland. We find that regions experiencing greater change in industrial structure have higher unemployment rates. We also find that high-unemployment regions have higher inflow rates to unemployment rather than longer spells of unemployment. These findings suggest that regional unemployment varies importantly with job destruction in Poland. Econometric analysis of the determinants of employment to unemployment flows reinforces this impression. We use our estimates to assess the extent to which regional unemployment variation is due to economic restructuring. We show that this cannot be done unambiguously, and offer reasons why many previous attempts to separate out the effects of restructuring on unemployment have been unsuccessful.

A Cartographic Fade to Black: Mapping the Destruction of Urban Japan

by cary karacas

Co-authored with David Fedman, Stanford University, Department of History

In this paper we examine the history, production, and use – practical and rhetorical – of maps created by the United... more In this paper we examine the history, production, and use – practical and rhetorical – of maps created by the United States government during World War II as related to the development and execution of aerial bombing policies against Japan. Drawing from a range of maps and primary documents culled from libraries and archives in the United States, we argue that maps provide an important, and hitherto neglected, means through which to trace the exploration and eventual embrace of the incendiary bombing of Japan’s cities. In particular, our aim is to show how maps, along with the men who made and used them, played a central role in the planning and prosecution of air raids on urban Japan. We also address the mobilization of American geographers into the war effort, the re-configuration of America’s spatial intelligence community during World War II, and the ways in which maps were constructed in the context of total war.

The future of UK housebuilding

by Chris Goodier

Briefing: challenging lock-in through urban energy systems

by Chris Goodier

Définir l'intermédiarité par le système des mobilités spatiales

by Hadrien Commenges

Urban Geopolitics 8 Years on. Hybrid Sovereignties, the Everyday, and

by Sara Fregonese

Geography Compass, Volume 6, Issue 5, pages 290–303, May 2012

Urban events like 9-11 and the Arab Spring have deeply marked the first two decades of a century in which the majority... more Urban events like 9-11 and the Arab Spring have deeply marked the first two decades of a century in which the majority of the world population will live in cities. This essay reviews present and potential future debates about the relation between cities and geopolitics, particularly the work of urban geopolitics. I trace three debates centred on three relationships: that between city and sovereignty; between official and everyday urban practices; between violent and peaceful geographies. I point towards three avenues of potential engagement of geographers with the theme of geopolitics and the city. The first avenue leads to appreciating the complex relationships between the state and the non-state that are nowadays increasingly relevant and visible. The second concerns geographies of the everyday, the unofficial, and the unplanned. The third concerns the possibility for an urban geopolitics of peace and its inclusion, rather than focussing exclusively on war and its avoidance.

Collective memory and the politics of urban space: an introduction

by Derek Alderman

Rose-Redwood, Reuben, Derek H. Alderman, and Maoz Azaryahu. 2008. “Collective Memory and the Politics of Urban Space.” GeoJournal 73(3): 161-164. Introduction to special issue (guest edited by Reuben Rose-Redwood, Derek Alderman, and Maoz Azaryahu).

The Use of Green Space for Urban Communities

by Bram Vanhoutte

In: Green Days. A multidisciplinary project on art and nature. 2012

To grasp the utility of green space, it’s important to understand the thinking around urban communities, which is... more To grasp the utility of green space, it’s important to understand the thinking around urban communities, which is sketched out concisely in this contribution. The second part of this text focuses on the effects of green space on community, and the mechanisms involved. We close with a discussion on green space in the city, and its role.

Cerdà and Barcelona: The need for a new city and service provision

by Montserrat Pallares-Barbera

Citation:
PALLARES BARBERA, M.; BADIA, A.; DUCH, J. (2011). Cerdà and Barcelona: The need for a new city and service provision. Urbani izziv, volume 22, no. 2, pp.: 122-136. http://urbani-izziv.uirs.si/en/Urbaniizziv/tabid/95/Default.aspx
UDC: 911.375.1(460)
DOI: 10.5379/urbani-izziv-en-2011-22-02-005.

Barcelona GIS:
1-CITATION:
Pallares-Barbera, M. and Duch, Jordi (2012).Barcelona Urban Evolution from 1860. Harvard University: WorldMap.
http://worldmap.harvard.edu/maps/Barcelona_urban_evolution/CRC
2- CITATION: In using this map, cite it as: Pallares_Barbera, M., Badia, A., Duch, J. (2011) Urban Planning and service provision in the Cerdà Barcelona. Harvard University Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences Center for Geographical Analysis. montserrat.pallares@uab.cat. http://worldmap.harvard.edu/maps/Barcelona_Cerda_1860/DC

This paper examines Ildefons Cerdà’s 1860 Plan for the Urban Expansion of Barcelona; specifically, how and why it was... more This paper examines Ildefons Cerdà’s 1860 Plan for the Urban Expansion of Barcelona; specifically, how and why it was conceived in a unique way, in which the provision of services to the population was an important part. Cerdà based his expansion proposal on an in‑depth socio‑statistical study of old Barcelona’s population conditions. The high mortality rates of the working‑class population and poor health and education conditions pushed Cerdà to design a new type of urban planning, which he defined as “urbanism”. In his proposal for the new city, he planned the location of services such as marketplaces, schools and hospitals. The first part of this paper introduces the urban and political preconditions of Barcelona and the statistics on which Cerdà based his contribution. The second part uses location theory and a geographic information system (GIS) to analyse the pattern of location and the population served by markets and hospitals. In addition, topographic maps from 1926 and 1975 are used to study the development of the expansion up to when it was fully developed. The evolution of the city differed from Cerdà’s proposal, partly due to unexpected increases in population density, the built environment, and higher amounts of building occupation. Nevertheless, Cerdà’s layout of streets and avenues has prevailed.
Keywords: urban planning, location theory, optimisation, wellbeing, GIS, spatial decision support system

Daniel Libeskind in Singapore: Reflections on Reflections at Keppel Bay (in Italian)

by Denis Bocquet

Published in: Il Giornale dell'Architettura, 2012, n.105, p.12

On the occasion of the opening of the Reflections at Keppel Bay (architect Daniel Libeskind) gated community in... more On the occasion of the opening of the Reflections at Keppel Bay (architect Daniel Libeskind) gated community in Singapore, a reflection on the urban transformations at work in the city-State


Key words: Singapore, Architecture, Urban Planning, Daniel Libeskind, Keppel Bay, Keppel Group, Vivocity, harbour, cruise, casino, resort, tourism, gated communities, urbanity, Bishan Park, Dreisetl, PUB, Public Utilities Board, ABC Waters, Active, Beautyful, Clean, Ballang River, CH2M Hill Engineering, Emscher Park, Ruhr, nature, city, reverse engineering

“"Peace is Our Only Shelter"”: Questioning Domesticities of Militarization and White Privilege

by Jenna Loyd

2010. Antipode. 43(3): 845-873

This paper traces how Los Angeles peace activists tried to make visible the grave domestic effects of Cold War... more This paper traces how Los Angeles peace activists tried to make visible the grave domestic effects of Cold War militarization. Women Strike for Peace went beyond a focus on the productive relations between the state, military and industry captured by the term “military-industrial complex” to analyze how reproductive spaces were part of this complex. In opposing war, they challenged what I am calling militarized domesticities: how war-making shapes the ‘home front’ and home as the spaces national security states claim to protect. I build on feminist antiracist intersectionality theories to situate the military-industrial complex per se within broader processes of the militarization of society and daily life. The questions become how do gendered processes of militarization – that work in conjunction with relations of white privilege – produce and connect differently situated ‘private’ spaces or home places? How might strategies for dismantling the military-industrial complex emerge from the contradictions of these processes?

Neoliberalism and geography: expansions, variegations, formations

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2010. Neoliberalism and geography: expansions, variegations, formations. Geography Compass. 4 (8), 1025-1038.

The pervasiveness of neoliberalism within the field of human geography is remarkable, especially when we consider its... more The pervasiveness of neoliberalism within the field of human geography is remarkable, especially when we consider its virtual absence from the literature less than a decade ago. While the growing attention afforded to neoliberalism among geographers is new, the phenomenon of neoliberalism is not. This paper traces the intellectual history of neoliberalism and its expansions across various institutional frameworks and geographical settings. I review the primary contributions geographers have made to the literature, and specifically their recognition for neoliberalism’s variegations within existing political economic matrixes and institutional frameworks. Contra the prevailing view of neoliberalism as a pure and static end-state, geographical inquiry illuminates neoliberalism as a dynamic and unfolding process. The concept of ‘neoliberalization’ is thus seen as more appropriate to geographical theorizations insofar as it recognizes neoliberalism’s hybridized and mutated forms as it travels around our world. I also consider some of the most salient ways that neoliberalism has been theorized among human geographers. In particular, I highlight understandings of neoliberalism as a hegemonic ideology, as a policy-based approach to state reform, and as a particular logic of governmentality, arguing that while there are significant differences between these various formations, it may also be important to work beyond methodological, epistemological, and ontological divides in the larger interest of social justice.

The Multicultural City and the Politics of Religious Architecture: Urban Planning, Mosques and Meaning-Making in Birmingham, UK

by Richard Gale

Strumenti cartografici per la tutela e pianificazione del suburbio di Roma: dalla Carta dell’Agro Romano alla Carta per la Qualità nel Nuovo Piano Regolatore

by Marina Marcelli

with L. Asor Rosa,  P. Rossi, L. Sasso d’Elia, in Semestrale di Studi e Ricerche di Geografia, 2007,1, pp. 61-84

Beyond Aššur: New Cities and the Assyrian Politics of Landscape

by Ömür Harmansah

Harmanşah, Ömür; 2012. "Beyond Aššur: New Cities and the Assyrian Politics of Landscape," Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 365: 53-77.

This article investigates the making of Assyrian landscapes during the late second and early first millennia b.c.e.... more This article investigates the making of Assyrian landscapes during the late second and early first millennia b.c.e. From the late 14th century b.c.e. onward, the Assyrians designated the emergent core of their territorial state as the “Land of Aššur” in their royal inscriptions. However, over the course of the next several centuries, the cultural geography of the Land of Aššur was continuously redefined while gradually shifting northward from the arid environs of the city Aššur to the well-watered and resourceful landscapes around the confluence of the Tigris and the Upper and Lower Zab Rivers. Contemporaneously, the landscapes of the Upper Tigris basin (southeastern Turkey) and the Jazira witnessed extensive settlement and cultivation as Assyrian provinces and frontiers. Drawing on archaeological survey evidence and a critical reading of the textual accounts of urban foundations, this paper argues that such mobility of Assyrian landscapes was part and parcel of broader processes of environmental and settlement change in Upper Mesopotamia. Assyrian annalistic texts point to an elaborate rhetoric of landscape that portrays state interventions in the form of city foundations and building programs, construction of irrigation canals, planting of orchards, opening of new quarries, and settlement of populations. Furthermore, the making of commemorative monuments such as rock reliefs and stelae allowed the Assyrian state to inscribe symbolically charged places in foreign landscapes and incorporate them into the narratives of the empire. By drawing attention to the long-term trends of settlement in Upper Mesopotamia during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages and the agency of landscapes, the article contextualizes the Assyrian political rhetoric of development at the time of a highly fluid world of geographical imagination.

After December: Spatial Legacies of the 2008 Athens Uprising. In Upping the Anti vol 10.

by Dimitris Dalakoglou

See: http://uppingtheanti.org/journal/article/10-after-december-spatial-legacies-of-the-2008-athens-uprising/

The cold-blooded police killing of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in the Athens neighbourhood of Exarcheia on... more The cold-blooded police killing of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in the Athens neighbourhood of Exarcheia on December 6, 2008 sparked an unprecedented wave of protests and rioting. These protests quickly spread not only throughout Athens and the majority of Greek cities but also beyond the country’s borders. Around the world, more than 200 solidarity actions took place in December alone. During the riots and clashes that followed Grigoropoulos’ death, police departments, banks, government ministries, and other public buildings in Athens came under near-daily attack, while universities, high schools, town halls, and other buildings were occupied by demonstrators across the country. This episode ­– a major insurrection sparked by a single incident of police brutality – has attracted considerable attention from global social justice movements. The question of the uprising’s aftermath remains on many people’s minds. Before considering the legacies of the uprising, however, it’s useful to look at how the events of December 2008 became possible in the first place.

The Decayed-Core Periphery Model: A Marxian Contribution to Urban Economics

by Michael J. Thompson

Draft

The reality of urban poverty in many cities in the U.S. and the apparent inability of many of these areas to develop,... more The reality of urban poverty in many cities in the U.S. and the apparent inability of many of these areas to develop, even during times of economic expansion, has not been adequately explained either through modern neo-classical models or through the traditional Marxian literature on urban poverty and uneven regional development. This paper argues that there is a specific category, or city-type, present in the landscape of the modern American economy which can be explained through a reversal of the structural core-periphery model of which Marxian economics has made extensive use. This new model will show how urban-suburban disparities occur and endure in advanced capitalism as a result of the interaction between macroeconomic restructuring and a city’s internal loss of scale economies. Specifically, it argues that the effects of the spatial movement of capital acts to construct a permament and enduring relation of economic and social decay in many urban cores and, as a result, a permanent structure of inequality between de-industrialized ghettoes and their more affluent suburbs. I also provide a model for this phenomenon which I refer to as the “decayed core-periphery model.”

• ‘Celticism in Exile: the London Gaelic League, 1917-21’, in Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, vol. xxx (September 2011)

by Darragh Gannon