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Urban nightscapes: spatiotemporal narratives and lived perceptions, the case of nighttime Lisbon
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017The basis in writing this article is the dialectical relationship between urban space and human, focusing on the interaction that these two factors demonstrate during the night. In this context, the research interest is directed on the way the urban nightscape experienced from users on the possibilities of (public) space at night and how they affect human behavior and management of leisure, and conversely, on how the nightscape is affected and reshaped by the behavior and social practices of the users, especially young people. It has to be noted that selecting the investigation of the urban nightscape as culture forming space, it was assumed that research will be primarily based on the behavioral approach of night life in the city. Moreover, the urban experience is examined in the aspect of the night as a leisure or recreation time, therefore, it does not concern those who consider night time as working hours. Additionally, in this case, the time limits of night are specified approximately, in order to meet research needs. If we consider that at midnight according to the etymology of the word has been signified as "the middle of the night", night lasts from the time the sun goes down (between 19: 00-20: 00) to 21: 00- 22:00, followed by initiation of the night, lasting until dawn (5:00 to 6:00). Therefore, to overcome this ambiguity, it has been chosen to be noted as the beginning of the night, the time period of 22:00, which coincides the time out for many people and especially for youths.Published versio
Social segregation in Athens’ metropolitan area in the pre-crisis period
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017This paper seeks to explore social segregation trends in Athens metropolitan area in the very first years of the economic crisis, and discuss the socio-spatial patterns of the metropolitan population, based on the 2011 statistical census data. The spatial aspect of social structures introduces a different dimension on social segregation trends, reflecting segregative outcomes of different socio-economic processes around the world. Varied and nuanced forms of social segregation present in various cities around the world, altering the way of measuring and evaluating the character of the progress. Nevertheless, a potential rise in social segregation depends upon certain mechanisms that allocate residential areas to different social groups (Maloutas, 2007). Hence, the contemporary economic crisis changes in turn the social impact of economic restructuring, and social segregation comes to terms with new realities. Up until the early 2000s Athens hadn’t undergone intense processes of socio-spatial division. Residential segregation in Athens remained relatively low by international standards before the outbreak of the economic crisis. During that period, the metropolitan area of Athens constituted a paradox paradigm of social segregation and social polarization, partially due to the spatial structure of the housing market and to the respective policy framework. Undoubtedly, eight years on since the outbreak of the crisis, the urban space of Athens has been exposed to the socially dividing effects of globalization, experiencing rising social inequalities, demographic changes, marginalization of lower income strata, reduction of social mobility, high unemployment rates, etc (Maloutas, 2007). Exploring the factors that contribute to the development of social segregation patterns in Athens and elsewhere, one should certainly identify social polarization. According to some authors (Sassen, 1991), social polarization is the key factor for the generation of such phenomena. However, various approaches of social segregation claim that the impact of globalization on cities is more complex and diverse than social polarization alone. Hence, it has been underlined that both the formation of socio-spatial structures and the distribution of social groups along residential areas constitute dynamic processes whose roots are identified not only at the economic restructuring process but also at several other factors of regulatory, social, and cultural origin (Préteceille, 1995; Hamnett, 1994; Maloutas, 2014; Marcuse and van Kempen,2002). Particularly in the case of Athens, the institutional and regulatory framework is considered to be the primary agent to define socio-spatial patterns. In this context, it is useful to draw attention to the particularity and the complexity of socio-spatial trends in the Greek capital city, and to approach social segregation as a dynamic and multifactorial phenomenon.Published versio
Olympic legacies and city development strategies in London and Rio; Beyond the Carnival mask
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southLegacy has risen up the Olympic agenda in the 21st century as a rationale for hosting the Games and for the spatial transformations of cities that have accompanied this. In particular the ‘urban legacy’ of Olympic city building has been evident in host cities influenced by global policy models such as the 1992 Barcelona games. From 2003 ‘promoting a positive legacy’ was added to the IOC Charter and became a criterion in assessing bids. Yet there is no agreed definition of legacy and it is therefore a complex and contested concept open to many different interpretations and the subject of political debate and action over its conceptualisation and realisation.
Equally contested is how legacy is to be interpreted and understood. While some academic accounts have been geared to how to achieve legacy within normative policy discourses (see for example Davies, 2012; LERI, 2007) others have taken a much more critical stance focusing on the displacement and lost alternatives that constitute the ‘dark side’ of legacy (Thornley, 2012; Broudehoux and Sanchez, 2013). This is often accompanied by a theoretical understanding which sees mega-events and their urban transformations as manifestations of neo-liberal urbanisation, entrepreneurial governance and the entrenchment of socio-spatial polarisation. Following Hardy (1999), mega-events and their legacies are the ‘carnival mask’ or ‘circuses’ (de Souza, 2012) which act to soften and hide these unequal processes. Depicting the spread of Olympic city-building as a result of the top-down transfer of a universal urban policy has become common (Gibbons and Wolff, 2012b).publishedVersio
The urban land question. Dis/possessive collectivism: property & personhood at city's end
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southWell after the Great Recession has supposedly ended, foreclosures and bank-led evictions continue in American cities. In this paper, I examine the work of one poor people’s movement, the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign, which resists evictions, occupies foreclosed homes, negotiates loan modifications with banks, and seeks to create new policy frameworks for housing rights. Organized around a simple but elegant motto, “Homeless People in Peopleless Homes,” the movement is an unusual combination of militant activism and a human rights framework. Inspired by housing struggles in different parts of the world, especially Brazil and South Africa, it serves as a node in a globally interconnected geography of urban protest. At the same time, the movement works with an explicit understanding of segregation, situating ongoing evictions not just as a symptom of neoliberalization but instead of long histories of racial banishment in the U.S. context.
The study of the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign raises issues that I believe are of pressing importance in planning theory as well as in struggles for spatial justice. I am interested in how poor people’s movements fighting displacement and dispossession assert a logic of ownership and possession over land. In other words, how do they simultaneously contest and consolidate the category of property? I call such claims to property the politics of emplacement, a politics of defending territory and home.publishedVersio
Stuck in a present-past moment: the Everyday urban life of public spaces in conflict
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south‘Good’ public spaces generate positive experiences, and encounters with a high degree of diversity within the urban context as explained by Sophie Watson. These public spaces are intrinsic urban components, which have the ability to span across time, and generations. They provide an aesthetic experience according to John Dewey, an enjoyable or intriguing experience, which gets imprinted in memory through the integration of the subject within the public space environment. Moreover, public spaces are conducive to direct or indirect interaction not only with the environment but also with other users as explained by Jan Gehl. Returning to such a public space in the present retrieves the past through memories, and gives the possibility of a repeated experience in the future. Also, public spaces are the mnemonic devices for collective memories as stated by Michael Hebbert; they knit a common ground based on shared social practices as indicated by Henri Lefebvre. In this manner, these spaces are a beacon of hope for social integration in divided societies, noting that divisions are caused by panoply of urban-based conflicts. Exploring contexts in conflict provides the opportunity to further understand the role of public spaces in volatile, unstable situations, which challenge the rights of urban inhabitants to use and shape their public spaces. Contestations among various actors about public spaces- including state authorities, property developers, and different groups of urban inhabitants- leave tangible and intangible traces that affect the past, present and future of everyday urban living. A fertile ground for conducting this exploration is the capital city of Lebanon, Beirut. This is a city that has witnessed a fifteen-year war between 1975 and 1990, and still witnesses different types of instabilities ever since. Beirut’s urban fabric is a palimpsest reflecting different historical periods with their natural growths, deformations and happenings.publishedVersio
Initial considerations on orthodox and heterodox theories of heritage conservation Catherine Jacqueline
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southThis paper aims to make an initial reflection on the differences between the different theories of cultural heritage conservation. Seeking thus to contribute to the analysis of contemporary challenges of planning built heritage conservation in Brazil, by recognizing the dichotomy between orthodox and heterodox theories of conservation (meaning of Lixinsky and taken over by Wells, 2015).
In the heritage conservation management field as well as in the academic field of research on heritage preservation in Brazil, difficulties in the application of the principles and assumptions of the property cards and other official documents of which Brazil is a signatory, as UNESCO's Conventions, for example, are often criticized. The basic law of preservation of the Brazilian national heritage (Decree-Law No 25/1937) and conservation practices are based on a theoretical framework of European origin, whose same premises date back to the pioneering efforts of heritage conservation of the Renaissance in Italian Quattrocento (Choay, 2001). Far from denying the importance of the trajectory of heritage preservation in Brazil, which saved numerous monuments of destruction in its heroic phase (Fonseca, 2005), it must be recognized that today, in the face of intense social and urban changes in globalized cities, we face with huge technical, social, cultural, political and economic challenges in the field of heritage conservation.publishedVersio
Reflections on the ideas of the ‘Occupy Estelita’ protest in Brazil
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southThe purpose of this paper is to shed light on one of the many faces of the public protests in Brazil –Ocupe Estelita (Occupy Estelita), an urban occupation movement in the city of Recife whose focus centres around an urbanization model that its citizens desire for the city.
In 2013, Brazil was rocked by numerous protests in at least 11 major cities. The protests, also known as Manifestações dos 20 centavos (20 Cent Demonstrations), first began in June when the city and state of São Paulo increased transportation fares by 20 centavos (roughly USD$0.09).
The protesters’ cause erupted and expanded to include other issues, and Brazilian streets flooded with hundreds of thousands of protesters, especially after heavy police repression was used against them. They protested on a host of issues, out of frustration with government policies, and it was out of these public demonstrations that a new slogan "It’s Not Just 20 Cents" emerged.
Brazilians took to the streets demanding more from their government – better public services, urban transit, education, health care and security -- instead of overspending on the 2014 FIFA World Cup and prioritizing a mega-event over the basic needs of its citizens.
These demonstrations constitute the largest collective action of ordinary citizens in the country since the impeachment of President Fernando Collor de Mello in 1992; they led to major national and international repercussions, with similar public demonstrations being held by Brazilians living abroad in countries such as Portugal, France, Germany, and Canada.publishedVersio
Urban Land: Rough Landing: Planning Theory meets C21 Urbanism
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southLanding? Despite constantly invoking inclusive concepts such as democracy, social justice or right to the city, planning theory has remained largely silent on key factors shaping the vast majority of contemporary cities – particularly in the global South-East. These include, intra-alia, land regimes, mass immigration and refugeeness, urban citizenship, collective identities, violence, and the emergence of (neo) colonial relations in many of the world's large cities. These are not only central to the making and transformation of the urban, but strongly intertwined with spatial public policies, that is, planning.
The paper argues and demonstrates, that in order to be effective, planning theory must 'land' into the material and political reality prevalent in the majority of cities during the early C21. To do this, it will have to build on promising new beginnings already evident in the literature, and seriously deal with new types of urbanism surfacing in all corners of the world, typified by what Sophie Watson termed 'the stubborn realities' of the global South-East.publishedVersio
High-quality public spaces as the key to planning a great city: Bocaiuva, MG, as a case study
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southAccording to Tuan (1983), space and place are two distinct concepts, which require attention to their definitions. If we think of space as something, which enables movement, we can infer that place is pause, therefore, the existing pauses on the movement make the location become a place. The research subject of this current study is the city and how meaningful its public spaces are as to planning a great city by making people occupy these places, as well as how public spaces make a city work by contributing to its “image” (Lynch, 2011).
Amanda Burden (2014) states that “cities are fundamentally about people, and where people go and where people meet are at the core of what makes a city work. So even more important than buildings in a city are the public spaces in between them”.publishedVersio
An urban heritage that transform to survive: the case of Gençlik Parkı
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southUrban parks are considered as very dynamic elements that both reflect socio economic transformations and contribute to shape those social and economic conditions. The current study focuses on the case of Geçlik Parkı (Youth Park) in Ankara, Turkey to examine how the park has transformed with respect to changing social and economic conditions. Occurred transformations have been analysed in four periods (1900-1950: early republican period, 1950-1980: rural migrations and urban change, 1980-2000: decline of the park, 2000-present: rebirth within Islamic neoliberalism). Each period is analysed on the basis of its social and economic character, cultural specificities and spatial dimension with particular emphasis on Gençlik Parkı.
The first period covers the establishment of the Republic of Turkey and its spatial implications. The city of Ankara selected as the capital of the republic and considered as the concretisation ground of the early republican ideals. The city has been planned according to aesthetical and functional standards as urban planning has been considered as a tool to realise a number of social and cultural policies. Being part of the process Gençlik Parkı appeared as an urban element that both reflect the social and economic aims of the early republic and as a tool to intervene into social and economic processes to form modern and secular westernised society. In this period Gençlik Parkı has been highly utilised by the inhabitants of Ankara as a social, cultural and sport centre.publishedVersio