1,720,963 research outputs found
Dubai City. Exploring the model pitfalls and perspectives. Shaping space and society for high-speed urban development.
No full textIn the last decade, Dubai has certainly proved to be one of the most dynamic ‘emerging cities’ of all time. Behind record figures, however, the process was fuelled by a very precise territorial development logic. Territory, space and society were conceived from a quite unique perspective, so as to catalyse and sustain the rapid establishment of the city worldwide. ‘Section’, ‘thematise’ and consequently also ‘segregate’, seem to have been the key methods adopted. The purpose of this article is to examine the mechanisms and consequences of this sort of territorial planning, thus aiming at a better understanding of the pitfalls and challenges that this process entails. In particular, the theory put forward for the context examined suggests that the mechanisms generating urban segregation have been completely reversed from a mere ‘ex post’ result to a powerful ‘ex-ante’ development tool
Productive landscapes as strategic assets for urban communities re-invention: key insights from Detroit
No full textThe present paper addresses one of the key research trajectories identified at the IPSAPA- ISPALEM XVI International Interdisciplinary Conference, entitled: “The reinvention of abandoned urban communities: costly fake or a genuine renaissance?”. In particular, it seeks to provide an insight into some of its possible answers through the lens of the “landscape-cultural mosaic in transition” of the North-American City of Detroit and, more specifically, through the productive landscapes’ geographies recently emerging there.
The context of contemporary Detroit has been identified as especially relevant setting for the above-mentioned theme examination since it represents a unique crossroad between the condition of progressive abandonment of space, on one hand, and its gradual “reinvention” through productive landscapes, on the other. Due to the heavy reorganization of one of the core economic sectors of the City – the car industry – during the last decades its social, cultural and spatial integrity was put under unbearable pressure. A violent “shrinking” process took place taking more than half of its inhabitants away: once designed to host 2.5 million, today Detroit is a home to only 713,777 (2010 census) people. Furthermore, this whopping demographic loss was paired by a deepening economic crisis throwing more than one third of the current citizens below the poverty line (Pothukuchi 2011). As a result, along with the social matrix of the city, the spatial one was progressively eroded as well: today there are as many as 100,719 parcels laying vacant in Detroit (Detroit Works 2012).
And yet, what makes Detroit a so stimulating case for investigation are not so much the numbers describing its decline, whereas those testifying the growing momentum for transition toward a new beginning. Recently, the city has become widely known for its grassroots initiatives reclaiming control over open spaces and defending citizens’ right to high-quality and supportive urban environments. These initiatives represent unique urban laboratories where the productive landscapes regenerative potential is being incrementally tested. Presently “there are more than 875 urban gardens and farms and 9 registered Farmers’ Markets in Detroit” (ibid.). A living urban heritage that may arguably represent one of the key strategic assets for the city’s negative trends reverse. What is more, it is worth noticing that its magnitude is already seriously challenging the assumption that local food belongs exclusively to the rural development domain.
By reflecting on some of the social, spatial and economic evidences emerged so far, the present paper aims to further examine this latter hypothesis. As a structuring framework for the analysis, three overarching figurative dimensions – disenchantments, dynamics and dissolves – advanced at the Conference have been adopted. The first section briefly introduces the Detroit context and highlights the trends characterizing the disenchanted “motor city” giant. Throughout the second and main section the productive landscapes (PLs) role within the emerging positive transformative dynamics is discussed. A third section is dedicated to a set of transversal considerations that aim to provide a further insight into the possible dynamics’ interpretations and their possible perception as transition dissolves instead of ultimate ends. Finally, the main findings and outlooks for future research are synthetically summarized in the paper’s conclusive section
Empowering local food connections for resilient city-regions. Planning through foodsheds or terroir?
No full textThis essay explores two antinomic approaches adopted by planning to describe food production and supply systems deeply rooted in local communities. The first is based on the concept of a ‘foodshed’ and puts the accent on sustainability and ‘resilience’, while the second refers to the notion of ‘terroir’, with the emphasis on oneness and the intrinsic value of locally produced food. Through a reading of English and Italian case histories, the essay critically analyses the two approaches, their feasibility and the different results achieved in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. The analysis is organised in two sections, each of which introduces the case history with a brief theoretical introduction. In the conclusions, the antinomy between the two approaches is re-examined and possible research developments on the subject are identified
Hybridization as a new paradigm of urban and territorial development: a glance over a newly EU emerging city
No full textThe present paper aims to explore the urban hybridization phenomenon as an integral part of contemporary society growth dynamics and spatial organization. In particular, it will be examined its diffusion within newly emerging post-iron curtain European contexts, in order to grasp the ongoing dimension of the process and outline some of its main features. It is important to notice that the peculiarity of these specific environments is due, above all, to their rapid transformation producing the almost simultaneous formation of new urban asset patterns and development models.
A core part of the work will be constituted by the analysis of some of the typical diffused city hybrid forms, paying major attention to the progressively heterogeneous landscapes and ground-scapes juxtaposition, along with the increasing urban edges uncertainty. The latter’s alteration and proliferation will be intended as a rather complex evolution process and, as a result, requiring a vaster and multilayer periphery cognition formulation. There will be treated, therefore, some of the contemporary spatial configurations generally identifiable as: new public open spaces and container-like attractors, market streets, new city gates and highway-scapes, new specialized areas, downtown and super-sites urban hybrids.
Furthermore, the study will take advantage of the comparison between newly emerging (with central attention to the Sofia City context) and already affirmed urban realities (as the Milan City context), so to put in evidence some of the common mechanisms and generative factors acting throughout the different social, political and territorial milieus
Food Policy Councils as strategic catalyst for innovation in city- region governance and planning
No full textDuring the last decade an increasing awareness regard the 'new food equation' (Morgan and Sonnino 2010) – and the very tangible challenges that entails – started growing significantly among different governments in the Global North. In only few years time a unique 'wave' of worldwide institutional attention has arisen and a new generation of urban and regional planning tools – the 'food strategies' – was born (the Toronto, London, Amsterdam and New York ones represent only a small part of them). Nevertheless, in order to make 'food system thinking' operable on governance level and turn visions into reality, a high degree of 'creativity' (Kunzmann 2004) and innovation was being required from local administrations. Perhaps one of the most compelling answers that stemmed from this pressing demand is represented by the so-called 'food policy councils' (FPCs). As Mark Winne observes: "Though lacking authority and respectable budgets, these entities have become de facto food system planning agencies" (Winne 2004: 15).
The present paper will advance the hypothesis that FPCs (and alike organisations) in many occasions have constituted the strategic catalyst that made it possible for 'food planning' visions to 'travel' through different "institutional sites in a governance landscape, penetrate governance processes and sediment into governance cultures" (Healey 2007: 23). In particular, by taking advantage of relevant examples from both North-American and Western-European cities, the influence of three distinct aspects over such transformative dynamics will be examined. A first area of investigation will focus on how conditions like FPCs 'location' and 'degree of integration into a city government' (Dahlberg 1994) increase or weaken their credibility and 'persuasive' capacity. Such conditions will also be examined with relation to the necessary factors for delivering more 'electoral cycle'-proof strategies. The paper will then explore how the different strategies' predominant connotations (health, labour, 'zero carbon' growth, poverty, etc.) reflect different city departments 'sensitizing' and, accordingly, diverse food system governance 'capacities' (Mendes 2008) development. Finally, in the third part, will be addressed the relevance of 'scale' and how the 'food planning' inherent complexity is fostering the gradual engagement of multiple governance levels (e.g. the city of Boston, having already a city FPC, has asked for the establishment of a state-wide one, while New York City is doing vice-versa). The paper will conclude rising some key questions on the relationship between cities' size and the opportunities for the sustainable food paradigm to transform their 'mainstream' planning processes and cultures (Healey 2004)
新兴城市背景下的绿道 乌托邦还是创新 良机 ‘Greenways in an Emerging City Context: A Utopia or A Chance for Innovation?’
No full textFrom project to process: school gardens as vehicle for territorial sustainability. A case study from the Milan metropolitan area.
No full textThe study will examine at first the great importance of food education by framing it in the wider context of some globally present critical phenomena. Accelerated urban population growth, dramatic shrinking of rural areas and food systems as well as progressive unsustainability are today profoundly altering our territories and ways of living. A key occasion for a worldwide reflection upon the latter is represented by the Milan 2015 EXPO, that however should be imagined not as limited temporal event but instead should be a stimulus for creating a higher awareness. Accordingly to this vision, in its core a part of the paper will analyze a bottom-up design and social experience, located in the Milan metropolitan area, that chooses the schools' network as a strategic mean for both future generations education and adult public sensitizing. In particular, the study will illustrate how a micro-architectural project (vertical garden prototype), if intended as a process (discussion and action catalyst involving simultaneously designers, public and private actors, and children), has the potential to address in effective way the poor conditions of current food education. The vertical garden, realized by the same students, is in fact conceived as a starting point for exploring broader themes like: food systems, water in urban environment, food packaging and recycling. Thus, the process goes beyond the school garden boundaries and aims at real positive impact for the overall territorial development. Within the conclusive section the paper will discuss the main difficulties to tackle with, and the potentialities to be valorized and experimented in other contexts
The challenge of integrating sustainable food systems and spatial planning: strengthening the European research agenda
No full textTwelve years after the Pothukuchi and Kaufmann seminal study, the “food system” has not only ceased to be a “stranger to the planning field” (2000), but it has become the trigger for “one of the most important social movements of the early twenty-first century in the global north” (Morgan, 2009): “food planning”. Indeed, in less than ten-years-time: more than hundred articles on the topic have been published in international planning and architecture scientific journals and magazines; leading planning associations on both sides of the Atlantic, as APA and AESOP, have established specific sustainable food planning focus groups (2005, 2009); and a dedicated World Town Planning Day conference was recently held (2010). What is more, this growing research interest did not evolve in isolation, but instead was coupled by an equally relevant statutory engagement: in fact, during the same period, more than thirty urban and regional food system strategies were released by different local administrations worldwide and, importantly, the first planning-department-led one was pioneered in Europe.
By fully acknowledging the relevance of this dynamic food system planning momentum, the present paper will draw the attention to one of its most challenging and hitherto under-researched nodes: the effective integration of the food prism into the spatial planning rationale and field of practices. In order to address this challenge, three emblematic metropolitan contexts – Amsterdam, New York and Milan – and their recent advancements in this direction will be closely explored. In particular, some insights into the analytic, design and organisational dimensions of the integration will be contingently provided. Last but not least, through the specific case-studies examination, the paper will advance the proposition that for further strengthening the European research agenda a twofold approach is needed. On one side, a greater dialogue across the emerging landscape of European food planning experiences should be sought and encouraged, while, on the other, the identification of valuable knowledge-building opportunities ought to span beyond geographical limits
Global cities re-imagining the region: the emerging "foodshed" paradigm. Exploring key challenges and opportunities for resilient communities building through food systems analysis and planning.
No full textThe present paper will examine the relationship between regional planning and the recently (re)emerged food systems territorial perspective. By means of comparative analyses, there will be discussed some of the core food planning challenges and resilient communities opportunities, currently being acknowledged within leading global cities’ contexts. In particular, it will be investigated whether and how the still fluid ‘foodshed’ concept may contribute to a more integrated and cross-sectorial regional planning stance.
One of the key findings of the paper is that, today, the statement: “cities that are strategic sites in the global economy tend, in part, to disconnect from their region” (Sassen 1994: 52), is being progressively overturned. The world’s greatest innovation generators are now demonstrating a remarkable interest in weaving more regionalized and locally-sensitive food systems. What is more, the latter appear to have gathered a significant momentum and to have successfully ‘travelled’ (Healey 2007) through governance levels, at the point of influencing the governance culture. Food planning is recognized as “one of the most important social movements of the early twenty-first century in the global north” (Morgan 2009: 343). In addition, being intrinsically multi-scale and multidisciplinary in nature, regional food networks are seen as particularly strategic for multiple objectives achieving and effectively ‘more for less’ providing. Last but not least, the paper argues that the ‘foodshed’ framework is progressively being conceived as a ‘new form of spatial visioning’ and a tool for ‘relational geographies’ capturing
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