Search results for "urban studies"
showing 10 items of 240 documents
The production of “rhythms of responsibility” for childcare in a post-socialist society
2021
Drawing on 32 face-to-face interviews with mothers and childcare providers in Latvia, this paper examines the mundane mobilities. We argue that attention to mundane mobilities reveals crucial arran...
Sustainable Food vs. Unsustainable Politics in the City of Palermo: The Case of an Organic Farmers' Market
2011
The island of Sicily, Italy, and its main city, Palermo, appear an ideal scenario for sustainable food provisioning: the former being the first region in Italy for organically cultivated land, the latter Italy's fifth largest city. This article explores ideals and practices of sustainable urban food systems through an example of environmental consumer activism in Palermo. It does this by narrating the story of an organic farmers' market created by citizens and producers. The article reflects critically on understandings of food-related ‘sustainability’ held by the actors involved, showing the difficulties of operationalizing the concept for qualitative, socio-cultural research. It also high…
Subversion of land-use plans and the housing bubble in Spain
2011
The exceptional rhythm of the construction of residential dwellings in Spain between 1997 and 2006 and its geographical contrasts are explained by a time of economic expansion, a political and social context favourable to unlimited growth and excessive and untempered municipal land-use plans with passive or complicit regional governments. The lack of effective land-use regional plans and the discrediting of municipal land-use plans are a manifestation of a deliberate subversion of public planning to subordinate the public interest to the developer's demands. This article concludes by presenting a panorama of the disturbing consequences of this urban development model.
Ethical E-Participation
2014
The most recent forms of e-participation seem to provide new issues that need to be discussed. One such discussion involves the role of GIS. Can an ethically aware GIS be conceived? What does it mean for a GIS to be ethical at all? Throughout this paper, first the authors create a theoretical framework to encompass four key elements that lead us to the definition of ethical digital mapping: GIS ethics, social justice, power, and participation. Then they introduce the concept of PPGIS (Public Participation GIS), and argue that only a ‘qualitative turn' can enhance their importance in decision-making processes. Finally, the authors discuss an experiment that is currently taking place in Paler…
Disentangling Housing Supply to Shift towards Smart Cities: Analysing Theoretical and Empirical Studies
2022
The search for a pleasant home has concerned people ever since. Paradoxically, people are facing strong difficulties in finding a decent place to settle their lives in cities. As such, the housing market regained momentum in connection with the development of Smart Cities, where life quality of residents is strongly emphasized. Well-being in the metropolis is affected by a wide variety of factors with housing supply being among the most important, hence stirred by financing costs, construction costs, vacancy rate, sales delay, inflation rate, housing stock, price of agricultural land, and regulation. The present article reviews empirical studies on housing supply for a better understanding …
The need for guaranteed social and labour compliance clauses in public contracts: An approach to the Spanish case
2023
The work provides the contributions of an empirical study recently carried out by the University of Valencia (Spain) in collaboration with the Generalitat Valenciana (Regional Government). The work is mainly based on a qualitative methodology using in-depth interviews open to experts in the field (specifically 13) and on the presentations of renowned speakers at the 12th Economy Week of Alzira (Valencia), to which a content analysis was applied. Based on the results obtained and the multidisciplinary academic literature (labour relations, sociology, public administration and social responsibility), the debate concerns the feasibility of public administrations establishing, among their contr…
A Double-Hurdle model of urban green areas valuation: Dealing with zero responses
2008
Due to the widespread support for public parks and open spaces in urban areas, there is an increasing need to analyse the social benefits that are generated by such amenities. The city of Valencia (Spain) has a large park that can be considered its green backbone due to its transversal layout running along 9 of the 19 districts into which the city is divided. A contingent valuation survey was therefore conducted in order to obtain the non-market benefits derived from the use of this park by the inhabitants of Valencia. In addition, to deal with the large number of zero responses obtained, a Double-Hurdle model was applied. The results show that this model is more appropriate than other, sim…
La Kalsa è un giardino. Resistenza e partecipazione alla vita urbana del centro storico di Palermo, dei ruderi di guerra e della vegetazione spontane…
2023
Palermo è molti paesaggi; è una geografia di luoghi esagerati in grado di generare una condizione di costante stupore in chi la attraversi. Le molte anime di popoli diversi che l’hanno abitata e di quelli che ancora la abitano costituiscono un mosaico fatto di relazioni strettissime e inedite tra piante, animali, uomini, mare e luce. Il presente contributo intende restituire una lettura (certamente non esaustiva in quanto sarebbe impossibile farlo), di alcune condizioni di convivenza che sono state osservate all’interno degli spazi aperti della città (in particolare nel suo quartiere Kalsa). Queste sono interessanti perché ci mostrano come legami spontanei tra specie viventi e oggetti diver…
Accessibilità post-pandemia: riflessioni sullo spazio pubblico
2021
The correlation between the psycho-physical well-being of citizens and the provision of green areas has been one of the cornerstones of urban planning since its inception, as its constant commitment to adapt cities and territories to emerging challenges. The spread of SARS-Cov-2 has changed the relationship between citizens and urban space. The public space, has been limited and banned, confining citizens within their private space and the psycho-physical well-being of citizens depended only on the quality of the domestic space.The pandemic represents a moment of reflection and research for the disciplines that deal with the quality of life of citizens. The pandemic crisis may be an opportu…
Centri commerciali e città pubblica? Il caso Palermo
2012
Palermo è l’ultima delle maggiori città italiane ad essere investita dall’apertura di grandi centri commerciali secondo il modello dominante in tutta Europa a partire dagli anni ottanta (quello delle gallerie multimarca, per intenderci). Ancora agli inizi dello scorso decennio, infatti, al vertice della piramide commerciale della città si trovavano strutture di vendita di medie dimensioni, perlopiù localizzate all’interno degli insediamenti produttivi previsti lungo la circonvallazione. La rapidità e la portata con cui queste iniziative stanno ridisegnando la geografia economica della città produce enormi questioni di equlibrio urbanistico e riassetto infrastrutturale nell’area urbana, ques…