Urban Sociology

Hip-Hop Hybridity for a Glocalized World: African and Muslim Diasporic Discourses in French Rap Music

by David Drissel

Urban Schism, Social Strains: Exploring the Collective Identities of Youth in Contemporary Belfast

by David Drissel

Anarchist Punks Resisting Gentrification: Countercultural Contestations of Space in the New Berlin

by David Drissel

Ethnicity and machine politics

by Jerome Krase

This is a book I co-wrote with Charles La Cerra: Ethnicity and Machine Politics: The Madison Club of Brooklyn. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1992.

The future of UK housebuilding

by Chris Goodier

Lo Stato attacca. Pianura risponde. Scenari, strategie, tattiche ed azioni della rivolta anti-discarica nella periferia occidentale napoletana

by Marco De Biase

published in "Biopolitica di un rifiuto. Le rivolte antidiscarica a Napoli e in Campania", Petrillo A. (edited by), Ombre Corte, Verona 2009.

2011 The three anthropological approaches to neoliberalism, in International Social Science Journal, Vol 61 (202) : 351–364.

by Mathieu Hilgers

International Social Science Journal, Volume 61, Issue 202, 2011: 351–364.

For around fifteen years now, anthropology has been engaged in the study of neoliberalism. What contribution does the... more For around fifteen years now, anthropology has been engaged in the study of neoliberalism. What contribution does the discipline have to make to a debate largely monopolized by economics and political science? To answer this question, the present article returns to the major texts and highlights the three perspectives from which anthropology has approached neoliberal expansion: culturalist, systemic and the approach based on governmentality. Each has its own epistemological presuppositions and a specific conception of anthropology, globalization and neoliberalism. The article highlights the relevance and limitations of these approaches.

2012, « The Historicity of the Neoliberal State », in Social Anthropology, volume 20, n° 1, pp. 80-94

by Mathieu Hilgers

Debate with Loic Wacquant “Three Steps to a Historical Anthropology of Actually Existing Neoliberalism." Social Anthropology, 20, 1, with responses in the next issue: Jamie Peck, Nick Theodore, and Neil Brenner, Stephen Collier, Daniel Goldstein, Johanna Bockman, Don Kalb...

Creating Healthy Communities: An examination of the relationship between land use mix, neighborhood public realm engagement and neighborhood social capital

by William B. Burns

This research provides a confirmatory based analysis starting with the land planning concept of land use mix and... more This research provides a confirmatory based analysis starting with the land planning concept of land use mix and exploring its explanatory affect upon resident perception of their built environment in terms of proximity of recreation and retail destinations and the resident's potential inclination to access these destinations by non motorized travel - walking or bicycling. This research also examines resident engagement and interaction within the neighborhood public realm and its potential relationship with neighborhood level social capital and the potential relationship of these phenomena with the aforementioned resident’s perceptual and attitudinal orientation towards their built environment. This research seeks to add empirical based research to the public policy discussion with regard to the decision of the type of future land development patterns in Central Florida.
There are two overarching types of community design patterns; the traditional design pattern, which generally reveals a higher level of “land use mix and proximity of destinations” and the conventional suburban design pattern, which generally is indicative of a lower level of land use mix (primarily single use) and proximity to destinations. Virtually all of the Florida landscape has been developed with the conventional suburban design pattern over the last sixty years.
In the past, several planning based initiatives have been undertaken by planning and academic entities which examine differing outcomes associated with the implementation of traditional and suburban design patterns with regard to the amount of undeveloped land impacted by growth in the seven county regions which comprise Central Florida. Two major studies, the Penn Design Study (2004) sponsored by the University of Central Florida Metropolitan Center for Regional Studies and the “How Shall We Grow” (2006) study sponsored by MyRegion.org in association with the Orlando Chamber of Commerce, provided scenarios associated with future growth outcomes over the next fifty years. These study initiatives concluded that a different pattern for future growth, different from the conventional suburban pattern, is advisable in order to reduce adverse impacts to Florida’s environment. These studies supported the implementation of a more traditional pattern of growth, with its more compact density, mixed use and high connectivity as the preferred form of future land development.
Although these studies provided a very informative evaluation from an environmental perspective, they did not extend the differing growth scenarios to a “healthy communities” perspective. This research endeavors to begin to fill that gap through empirical based research using a confirmatory model approach that addresses the relationship between the phenomena of outdoor public realm engagement, primarily in the form of outdoor physical activity, and neighborhood level social capital, in relation to level of land use mix and proximity to destinations. This research posits a mechanism, using structural equation modeling, to determine their relationship with one another. Perhaps this addition to the discussion would serve to provide a fuller evaluative resource to citizens and policy makers for consideration as to the type of design pattern to embrace for future development.

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.”

Socio-spatial Exclusion, Community Reactions to Homelessness, India

by Malte Warburg Sørensen

This report examines the dynamics of how socio-spatial exclusion and how it plays out around homeless shelters in the... more This report examines the dynamics of how socio-spatial exclusion and how it plays out around homeless shelters in the Indian city of Hyderabad. Using the concept of NIMBY (Not-In-My-Back_Yard), the analysis reveals how exclusion is based on the construction of prejudices, how community opposition evolves, and how different stakeholders use a variety of strategies in order to make push their agenda forward. Finally, the report relates the findings from the analysis to broader societal issues in India, particularly the themes of governance and participation.

Urban Planning in the Slum Areas of Mavoko and Nairobi

by Malte Warburg Sørensen

This report examines the urbanization processes occuring at the periphery of Nairobi, specifically the municipality of... more This report examines the urbanization processes occuring at the periphery of Nairobi, specifically the municipality of Mavoko. Based on case studies of different slum areas, three main barriers to sustainable development are identified: firstly, the distorted housing marked of Nairobi, secondly the political system in Kenya and finally the planning capacities of the Mavoko Municipal Council. The report points out the short-comings of current approaches to slum and suggests more sustainable solutions.

Forscher als Normbrecher: Das Experiment als empirischer Zugang der Rechts-, Raum-und Sozialforschung

by Martin Klamt

Location Based Social Media-Considering the Impact of Sharing Geographic Information on Individual Spatial Experience

by Florian Fischer

Globalização e gentrificação: teoria e empiria

by Walter Rodrigues

published in SOCIOLOGIA, problemas e práticas, nº29, 1999

Planeamento e Governança Territorial

by Walter Rodrigues

published in CIDADES, nº10, 2005

The Role of the Public Institution in Iconic Architectural Development

by Matt Patterson

Forthcoming in Urban Studies (accepted March 2012).

Research on iconic architecture has often related its popularity to global political-economic trends like... more Research on iconic architecture has often related its popularity to global political-economic trends like neoliberalism and urban entrepreneurialism, but has often overlooked the immediate clients who commission these buildings. Quantitative analysis demonstrates that the majority of these clients are public cultural institutions. In order to explain the affinity between this organizational form and iconic architecture, this paper develops a model of the public institution based on its need to establish public legitimacy and attract outside support. To further develop this model, the paper presents a comparative case study of two museum expansion projects in Toronto: Daniel Libeskind’s Royal Ontario Museum, and Frank Gehry’s Art Gallery of Ontario. The study addresses the underlying motivations behind the projects, the role of global trends like neoliberalism, and how the unique logic of the public institution structured the development process itself.

In Between Public and Private: Emerging Spaces in Cities

by Matt Patterson

Presented at Emerging Realities: A Social Sciences Graduate Conference, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, October 15th, 2011

Is it still possible to talk about public space in an age when the shopping mall and the public square are... more Is it still possible to talk about public space in an age when the shopping mall and the public square are increasingly hard to differentiate? Urban scholars have frequently argued that we are experiencing an "end" of public space. In this paper, I argue that public spaces are not necessarily disappearing, but that we need to re-think how we define space.  Moving away from strict political-economic criteria such as ownership or economic function, I advocate for a new definition of public space based on notions of legitimacy and perceptions of collective ownership. In order to develop these ideas, I discuss three very different sites in Toronto that fall somewhere between public and private: a small downtown park, a suburban strip mall, and a sugar factory. In each case it is evident that the perceptions and actions of people do not necessarily reflect the political-economy of the spaces.

Towards an Urban Arts Democracy: Conversation Under the Cosmopolitan Canopy

by Carolyn Chernoff

"Sociology of Entertainment in Istanbul" (İstanbul'da Eğlencenin Sosyolojisi), BirGün daily newspaper Book Supplement Interview, 12.11.2011

by Volkan Aytar

"Sociology of Entertainment in Istanbul" (İstanbul'da Eğlencenin Sosyolojisi), BirGün daily newspaper Book Supplement Interview, 12.11.2011

"Sociology of Entertainment in Istanbul" (İstanbul'da Eğlencenin Sosyolojisi), BirGün daily newspaper Book... more "Sociology of Entertainment in Istanbul" (İstanbul'da Eğlencenin Sosyolojisi), BirGün daily newspaper Book Supplement Interview on our co-edited book, "Entertainment in Istanbul" Istanbul Bilgi University Press, 12.11.2011