AESOP Digital Archive
Not a member yet
2915 research outputs found
Sort by
The self-build housing in Madrid (Spain): 40 years of struggle
No full textIn a context of increasing commoditization and financialization of housing and the city as a whole, the self-construction of "informal" housing has constituted an alternative in many countries both in the North and in the Global South, however precarious it may be, for those who have been excluded from the "formal" system. Although these forms of production tend to be considered residual in the Global North, they keep creating dissident spaces that interrupt the process of accumulation of capital and challenge the private property, which is one of the fundamental pillars of capitalism. This article analyzes the policies and actions carried out in Madrid (Spain), from 1978 to 2018, in relation to self-built settlements. This analysis shows how the policies and actions carried out have been determined by the place occupied by the affected community, both physical and social, as well as by the way that community is linked to the rest of the power structures. Information regarding historical cases has been collected from existing official documentation, as well as through interviews with the actors involved in them. An analysis of current policies has also been carried out through action-research carried out in a self-built settlement for three years. The information collected has been processed through an analytical framework based on the Giddens’ approach, with a focus on the role of two key actors: the state and the community (allocative structures and authoritative structures). It is considered that this work contributes to assess the achievements of innovative community-based practices, such as the "Plan de Remodelación de Barrios" as well as the results of such practices in terms of satisfaction of community needs and of deeper structural changes.publishedVersio
Thematic villages as the example of neo-endogenous local development in rural areas
No full textThis paper is focused on a set of activities undertaken by the local community of peripherally located Polish village and their various cultural, economic and landscape effects. The selected village of Masłomęcz (Lubelskie Voivodeship) is one of over 50 active thematic villages in Poland and well presents the problem of post-war settlement of people from various parts of the country and the long process of their adjustment to the new living environment. The paper is based on quantitative and qualitative data gathered both infield (observation, individual in-depth interviews, focus group, research walk) and along the desk research (the study of literature, documents on local development strategies). The multithreaded analysis in a local scale enabled to present the anatomy of undertaken activities in the scope of the Theory of Change framework. Thematic village of Goths in Masłomęcz presented as the example of neo-endogenous local development in rural areas of Poland is one of the 33 case studies analyzed along the Horizon 2020 Framework RELOCAL Project.publishedVersio
Twentieth Century Technocracy – A Transition Aborted
No full textThis paper is based on a chapter in the recently published Policy Press book edited by Federico Savini and Mike Raco, Planning and Knowledge how new forms of technocracy are shaping contemporary cities. It shows how technocracy began in the early twentieth century as a campaign for the principle of government by experts, linked to Taylorism, scientific management, planning, and the Third Way; and how and why the term lapsed from political vocabulary in its original usage, expressing faith in social transition through science. But then we see it reemerge in the 1960s in critiques of welfare managerialism, implying an improper capture of democratic institutions by unaccountable expertise. In this sense, top-down planning was commonly criticized as 'technocratic', in contrast to an anticipated transition to participatory democracy. The paper ends in the contemporary era of neo-liberalism, when populist free-marketeers have subverted healthy scepticism about the legitimacy of expertise to undermine all capacity for collective action on the most pressing issues of our time. The history of technocracy is also a history of utopian transitions awaited and aborted. In conclusion it’s all the more important to reaffirm the nexus between democracy and science: the modern world needs more, not less, technocracy.publishedVersio
A Multilevel Urban Landscape Measurement for Zoning Control – A case study of Gushan Kaohsiung in Taiwan
No full textThe zoning control in Taiwan is a legal regulation on land that emphasizes binding land use and density rather than landscape shaping of neighborhood, place, district etc. The current system of zoning and urban design guidelines in Taiwan lacks the perspective of urban landscape and results in high similarity of building and street-block’s fabrics. The purpose of the study is to provide perspectives of urban landscape, architecture, street-network configuration for enhancing the ability of zoning control and urban design guidelines to describe and control urban form in Taiwan. This article firstly presents quantitative measurements to describe urban form and activities in the scales of streets, plots, blocks, and places. Three measurements are Choice measure of Space Syntax, building density measure by Spacemate, and land-use mixture level of Mixed-use Index (MXI). The data is obtained from the field survey into the detail of building form, uses of every floor, gross floor area of each land parcel of study area, Gushan District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. The result supports the information of building density, choice measure, land-use mixture levels in the scales of cadastral land parcels, blocks and places. The measurements and comprehensive classification from the overlay analysis help urban design guidelines of zoning control with the landscape perspective
Managing religious mega-event in a mundane urban community: the case of Muslim Eid al-fitr in Huxi Mosque, Shanghai
No full textAccompanying Shanghai's opening-up and rising-up as a global city, both internal and international Muslim immigrants are rapidly increasing. With a large proportion of the irreligious population, the Chinese government's attitude to religion is neutral. As religious mega-events would require extended open space, the Muslim immigrants have to occupy some public spaces around the mosque to hold religious events, confronting the everyday life of the local residents in the surrounding community. Taking the Eid al-Fitr 2017 in Shanghai Huxi Mosque as an example, we investigated the religious mega-event when it took up the whole streets for a whole day, and interviewed 56 Muslims, 89 locals, and 9 administrators. The results show that the rigid top-down government-enforced management model cannot resolve contradictions between the two groups because different social groups (the muslims and the local residents) have completely different spatial demands. Based on the interview with key informants and survey, preliminary findings suggest that a bottom-up model, for example, a street-based community comprised by residents, Muslims and neighborhood committees, may work better to manage this religious mega-event in a self-organized fashion. First, more channels should be created to express the Muslims' opinions regarding the planning and formulation of both mega-events and daily life. Second, a harmonious cultural atmosphere could be created for the Muslims group by organizing some unique local activities and cultural festivals or temporary markets to enhance mutual understanding between local residents and Muslims. Finally, establishing Muslim cultural community may play an important role in strengthening the understanding of religious culture to the surrounding communities and mitigate the misunderstanding and alienation between locals and Muslims. These findings will generate implications for policy-makers to manage religious mega-events more effectively in a mundane urban community in Shanghai, and other global cities with diverse ethnic groups.publishedVersio
Reflections on Individual Memory in the Transformation of Cultural Heritage Cognitive Context
No full textFrom the perspective of heritage protection, world heritage and national heritage are undoubtedly the carriers of significant historical memory. compare to them our individual memory seems to be small and humble. The material and non-materials that condense human and national memory can be used as cultural heritage. Can the memory be re-recognized from the perspective of heritage protection? Everyone's life should be awed in the long river of history. This article attempts to explore the following three levels of content: First, The wild goose leads to stay a voice, the person leads to stay trace. The Importance of Individual Memory Presentation and Cognition; Second, The context of cultural heritage cognition and its transformation. Thirdly, with the change of cognitive context of cultural heritage, we juxtapose individual memory and major historical memory, and analyze and interpret them as objects. Based on this, supplement the relevant ideas, methods and principles in heritage protection and exhibition. While the historical heritage is recognized, the individual memory is superimposed thus the historical memories with human life
The space-time relations between pedestrians and street vendors: a case study in Suihua, China
No full textThis paper is set in a broad scope of urban walkability research related to street vending practices. How are urban streets temporarily re-calibrated by mobile street vendors and dynamically used by the presence of pedestrians? The empirical basis and temporary data are lacking at a microscale. Using on-site observation and behaviour mapping, this study incorporates both social and physical elements to provide a fine-grained picture of human activity in urban spaces where street vendors operate. This compares the space-time patterns of street activities during four daily periods of three urban street spaces in the smaller Chinese city of Suihua. The empirical evidence produced reveals two co-operations of environment-behaviour interactions (e.g. micro-climates and street characteristics) and socio-spatial relations (e.g. the presence of street vendors and pedestrians). This study interprets a notion of flux in patterns of vending-walking relations, which could reveal an alternative understanding of Chinese urban walkable space via the temporary practices of street vendors. This knowledge and its application of designing active street spaces could benefit future policy-making and urban design practitioners.This research has been fully funded by the China Scholarship Council (No.201608060149) and supported by the Tweedie Exploration Fellowship, Henry Lester Trust and Great Britain-China Educational Trust. I would like to thank Simon Bell, Iain Scott, Chengrun Li, Xi Chen, Junchao Qian and the 9 workshop participants who contributed fruitful discussions and/or parts of the GIS database in this study. I would also like to express my gratitude to Yang Yu, Ruyue Zhao and the 13 students at
Harbin Institute of Technology who supported this methodology development in the early stage.publishedVersio
Well-being, social interaction and physical activity: encouraging healthy behaviours through quality urban design
No full textIn recent years, the healthy city topic has become more and more present in both research studies and urban actions. According with many principles declared in the Quito New Urban Agenda, the centrality of this topic is due to many important factors, including the climate change; the lengthening of human lifespan; the necessity of a wider accessibility in social, physical and environmental sense. Although the recognition of the importance of liveable spaces for keeping people in good health and improve social interaction, it is difficult to demonstrate that good urban design is capable to reduce hearth and other kinds of diseases. However, the increasing in the number of people who spend time, walk and cycle on the streets can be shown easily and this is a first measure to demonstrate the success of the environment from the healthy point of view. Starting from these premises, this work will illustrate the principal definition of healthy city mainly related to public spaces and propose the Charter of urban health, liveability and happiness with 25 principles. The principles – following an holistic approach - should be considered as dynamic, in keeping with the increasingly rapid rates of change in a place and are both a check-list and guide lines for sustainable spaces.publishedVersio
A Study on Establishment of the Flood Protection Standard - A Case Study of Dali River Basin in Taiwan
Get PDFDue to global climate change and rapid urbanization, the increasing impervious areas has resulted seriously human lives and property loss during flood disaster. The design standard of structural engineering measures could not stand with the extremely intensified flood disasters. In addition, such structural engineering measures might mislead the public that such areas are safe. In fact, urban stormwater integration planning and management has been implemented in the worldwide. After setting the flood protection "protection standards" for the region, the plan is adopted according to the standard. As a whole, it is the key to setting a reasonable, objective and scientific regional "protection standard" for the city. Therefore, the study will then clarify the theoretical connotation of “protection standards” and collect domestic and foreign past protection standards. Afterwards, the study will then develop a framework for “protection standards” suitable for operation in Dali River Basin in Taiwan. The cost-benefit analysis will then be applied to do the calculation.publishedVersio
Cities and self-organization : A discussion starting from Rome
Get PDFIn the contemporary city, we are today more and more witnessing different practices and processes of “reappropriation of space”: regeneration of empty buildings, spaces of cultural production, urban gardens, green areas given renewed significance and re-shaped public spaces, and so on. Beside this, we could also mention experimentations that are activating new social services and welfare spaces, and finally squatting projects, which are defining different modes of co-existence, housing and service provision. This is a vast field of activity and experience, with the widespread involvement and the leading role of the inhabitants, organized or not in committees or associations, and other local actors. Such experiences are both illegal and legal, and question the relationship and the very meaning of the institutions. We should even consider in particular micro-practices that are able to broaden and transform the city from the bottom up, alongside more stable forms of social production. A specific kind of “city making” built upon a mix of practices, social relations and modes of local activation