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This article proposes that Japanese science fiction emerged as an escape from the limits of the realistic representation of the world proposed by Naturalism. It reads three science fiction short stories published in the magazines Tanken sekai (World of Exploration) and Bōken sekai (World of Adventure) between 1907 and 1910 to discuss early science fiction in which authors utilised technoscientific discourse. Engaging in a set of textual practices centred on developments of modern science and technology, these authors developed one of science fiction's distinctive features: anti-mimeticism, a literary mode focused on the depiction of anything that cannot happen in real life. This article focuses on the modalities by which these stories—Tenkūkaikatsu Dōjin's 'Gessekai shinkon ryokō' (Lunar Honeymoon), Ishii Kendō's 'Gessekai dokuryoku tanken' (Self-made Exploration to the Moon), and Hakui Michihito's 'Yukai to benri wo kiwametaru ōgon jidai no tokai seikatsu' (The Extremely Amusing and Comfortable Golden Age of Urban Life)1—employ a rationalistic view of the phenomenal realm to generate fictional worlds that relinquish the dominance of a mimetic representation of reality. An analysis of early Japanese science fiction from the late Meiji period reveals two elements that eschewed the realistic literature such as Naturalism: objective narration and an anti-mimetic base for the fictional world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the dynamics of networks among informal recyclers in Fietas, Johannesburg, South Africa, focussing on how these networks embody their struggle for the "Right to the City." By observing informal recycling activities across various Johannesburg suburbs, the study highlights how recycling not only provides livelihoods for the unemployed but also allows marginalised groups to assert their presence and rights within the cityscape. Building upon Adama's (2012) analysis of urban livelihoods and social networks, this research explores the interactions and spatial practices of informal recyclers in Johannesburg. Informal recyclers develop connections with city stakeholders that demonstrate interdependencies crucial for their survival and claiming space within the city. These networks are vital for accessing resources such as recyclable waste, which provides essential needs like food and shelter. These everyday practices underscore the importance of social connections in building networks that sustain livelihoods and assert a right to belong in the city. The nature of these networks varies by location, policies, and social relations. Some are shaped by power dynamics and monopolies, while others reflect interdependence and mutual support. This paper argues that recognising these diverse networks is key to understanding how informal recyclers navigate the urban landscape. In line with Harvey's (2003) "Right to the City," these networks reflect efforts to reshape urban spaces to meet recyclers' needs, despite structural challenges. As Sung (2021) shows, hierarchies and power dynamics influence access to resources, highlighting the contested nature of urban life for informal recyclers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay pays homage to the late Danish sociologist Henning Bech's groundbreaking work on sexuality, urban life, phenomenology, and modernity. Bech's contributions are praised for their critical yet affirmative perspective, offering insights into the complexities of contemporary society, particularly regarding gender, sexuality, and urban life. Central to Bech's thesis is the idea that the city itself is a dynamic space where sexuality is not only displayed but also actively generated, influencing people's experiences and interactions. He challenges traditional notions of sexuality by arguing that it is not merely an inherent trait but a sociocultural construct deeply intertwined with urban life. By examining the aesthetic and erotic potential of urban spaces, he sheds light on the role of the city in shaping people's tunings and experiences of pleasure. Bech conceptualizes male homosexuality as a form of existence rather than a fixed identity and explores the experiences of the male homosexuals while emphasizing broader shifts in societal attitudes towards sexuality and intimacy. Bech's sociology provides a valuable framework for appreciating the complexities of late modern social life. By foregrounding the aesthetic dimensions of the urban social world and adopting a critical yet affirmative stance, he offers a nuanced perspective that enriches our understanding of contemporary societies. Ultimately, Bech's legacy lies in his ability to provoke thought and challenge conventional wisdom, and thereby stimulating new innovative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through delineating the struggles and challenges of Dalits in making of the Dalit middle class, this article seeks to argue that the struggle and aspiration of Dalits to live a dignified life and urban as a space of 'liberation from caste' represents a high point in making of the new Dalit middle class. However, existing literature about the Dalit middle class revolves around identity, provision of reservation in education, employment and cultural assertion, but many unfolded narratives of the Dalit middle class exist. This article attempts to reveal the struggle and challenges of the new Dalit middle class to achieve the status of the middle class. Keeping this in mind further, this article aims to explore the transformations in everyday life of the new Dalit middle class regarding consumer behaviour and lifestyle. Besides this, the article provides a detailed narrative of the new Dalit middle class and about their experience of caste and class in the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT As the largest minoritised ethnic group in the United States, Latinxs face a greater risk for type 2 diabetes and depression. The aim of the present study was to explore whether the relationship between depressive symptoms and insulin resistance among Latinxs with type 2 diabetes was moderated by toxic stressors arising from urban environmental threat (i.e., uncomfortable or unsafe aspects of city life). A community sample of Latinx adults with type 2 diabetes (n = 121) was recruited from Hartford, Connecticut. Participants self‐reported depressive symptoms and exposure to urban environmental threat using items from the Patient Health Questionnaire and Urban Hassles Index, respectively. Insulin and glucose levels assessed via fasting blood draw were used to calculate insulin resistance using the HOMA‐IR formula. After controlling for demographic, financial and health‐related factors, results from a regression analysis revealed a significant interaction between depressive symptoms and urban environmental threat; more severe symptoms of depression predicted greater insulin resistance, but only amongst those with frequent exposure to urban environmental threats. Findings from the current study suggest that improving urban living conditions may offer an alternate avenue for attenuating the deleterious impacts of depression on type 2 diabetes progression in Latinxs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital gaming has become a major global cultural industry, and many popular video games feature cityscapes. While scholars have critiqued the neoliberal and dystopian representations of urban environments, much less attention is given to how video games offer players a sense of belonging: an immersive city where they can feel at home. Game developers create affective urban worlds to attract and maintain a large player base for continuous revenue. We argue that high-budget and popular video games balance a chaotic urban gamescape with opportunities for privatized homemaking that keep players engaged. First, they use emergent gameplay to simulate the urban environment as sensational places where players must prepare for unpredictable, often dangerous, and violent encounters. Second, they provide players with homemaking opportunities and the means to own and curate private spaces. These opportunities, however, reflect and perpetuate a privatized purpose of homemaking that perpetuates gendered and capitalistic assumptions, socializing players into engaging with urban life in a very selective manner. While we analyze several video games, GTA V provides a specific example of how this homemaking is monetized. Our analysis combines scholarly debates on affective geographies and gamescapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mountain communities of late-first millennium bc Italy have been regarded as non-urban societies that reverted to city life mainly owing to Roman intervention. A growing body of archaeological evidence is uncovering the diversity of settlement forms and dynamics in the region's pre-Roman past, which included sites encompassing a range of functions and social agents. This article presents an in-depth, microscale analysis of one such site, Monte Vairano in Samnium, drawing on perspectives from comparative urbanism. Monte Vairano developed urban characteristics such as a complex socioeconomic profile and political cohesion, as well as potentially more unique features such as an apparently balanced distribution of wealth. These results can shed further light on the diversity of ancient urbanization and its sociopolitical implications in late-first millennium bc Italy and the Mediterranean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, festivals have been propitious spaces and times for the renewal of community ties and the strengthening of identity. With the secularization of contemporary societies, the prominence of urban life and the dynamics of individualization and conflict inherent in capitalist cities, this totalizing character has gradually lost its prominence. But this does not mean that festivals do not continue playing, today, a fundamental role in the processes of socialization and reaffirmation of the sense of belonging, besides the social conflicts. The expression of these has been carried out in the urban space, the ideal physical and symbolic setting for the party. This is the case of the Festes de Gràcia de Maó, where the celebration of its great week does not hide the profound differences that exist within local society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growth, prevalence and influence of private urban governance, scholarship that explores the intimate workings of these manifold and mutating forms remains limited. While these private ventures carry forward elements from the past, the landscape of urban governance has nonetheless undergone profound transformation. Over the past few decades, the global expansion and influence of private governing ventures have reshaped how cities are managed, organised and experienced. This special issue on the New Private Urban Governance examines the constantly evolving modalities of private governance (i.e. business improvement districts/areas, condominium/strata corporations, gated communities, POPS and others) in a global context. Organised around new, interrelated themes of vestiges, ventures and visibility, this issue comprises case studies, syntheses of longstanding empirical projects and novel theoretical/conceptual interventions into political and spatial practices, knowledges and technologies of these privately governed realms. Focused on the spatialisation of politics, vestiges reflects the idea that while neoliberal forms of private urban governance continue to proliferate, they rely and build upon, rather than fully replace, earlier, more public governance practices, logics and spaces. Ventures emphasises that the private and market-oriented thrust of urban governance is heavily predicated on the protection and extraction of value and the intensifying financialisation of urban landscapes and life. Visibility highlights how governing technologies render private urban governance visible and in doing so highlight the politics of space. These three themes together expose the workings of the new private urban governance while invigorating further explorations of this complex phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this extended meditation, I want to build on a key insight from my provocations around the lopsided city: that for all of its forward momentum, the lopsided city remains prone to falling over, of over-reach. This connects to an older interest in faded grandeur, entropy, cracks in the city, and ruins, while being careful to avoid wallowing in purely dystopian representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Division of working and leisure spaces as an early product of modern life has still its traces on urban context. Campus spaces, not only universities, reflect such a programmed structure related to modern everyday life. This paper aims to discuss the changing relationship between working and leisure on varying campus spaces, which embrace these two essential components of modern societies. Many campuses in early Turkey follow similar modernist organisational principles in their design and performs an original path in spatial transformation. Industry, education, and public service campuses, which were established in İzmir during the 1950s, constitute the spatial framework of this paper. The paper aims to trace the leisure areas of three campuses and examine this meticulously programmed life idea under the influence of the changing leisure spatial culture in Turkey from the 1950s to today. These spaces are articulated and examined by their dwellings and social interaction spaces. Besides, the social experience and individual perspectives of campus users are documented and merged with the physical analysis of the working and leisure spaces. Discussing those examples in socio-spatial details underlines the transformation and dissolution of campus idea in urban life and exposes the unique experience of campus spaces of İzmir. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe rise in natural disasters and climate-induced events, such as wildfires, hurricanes, and flooding, has significantly affected urban life. These events can disrupt daily activity and flows of individuals and goods on road and transit networks. To enhance urban resilience against disasters, it’s crucial to study and understand road network vulnerability, utilizing data-driven insights to inform planning and preparedness efforts. The aim of this paper is to develop a data-driven exploratory approach to assess vulnerability in road networks in response to a disruption. To accomplish this, we compare the centrality of road segments before, during, and after disaster, considering the network topological structure and movement activity as it is observed through large tracking data of cellphone traces on the network. The novelty of our approach lies in inferring the impact from movement data, instead of manually removing links from the network. The results obtained from this study suggest that incorporating movement data into the assessment of network functionality provides a more realistic estimation of the road network vulnerability in response to a disruption, compared to solely using network topology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Naming and reputation are key factors in social recognition, a practice observed in Iran since ancient times. Examining these appellations reveals which elements each society considers important for identity and fame. This research employed an analytical-descriptive methodology, considering the evolutionary stages of human societies as a cultural context. The study conducted linguistic analysis within morphological and syntactic frameworks while investigating cultural roots. The research focused on pre-Islamic Iranian fame and surnames, primarily drawing from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and Vis and Ramin, due to their rich repository of ancient Iranian names. Findings indicated that the most common linguistic structures were syntactic combinations of "name + e + father's/grandfather's name", "name + e + city/country name + relative", and "name + e + occupation + relative". In terms of cultural context, kinship relations and paternal/ancestral attribution were most prevalent followed by fame derived from individual skills. These patterns reflected the influence of tribal life and patriarchy. City and country-based fame ranked next, indicating the emergence of urban life. Occupational attribution also occurred frequently, stemming from class-based society and social castes, reaching its peak in Shahnameh and the Sasanian period. Notably, fame constructions with religious content were minimal, suggesting the limited spread of religions in the Late Middle Ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I explore the hypothesis that urban interstices around urban motorways could be intended as spaces of creative, political and performative possibilities not responding to planning and market logic. Urban interstices are context-dependent spaces in a minoritarian position compared to more powerful spaces. Their relationship with planning and investments is ambiguous, because they are by-products of urban processes but temporarily neglected spaces. This leads to a certain degree of freedom in the experimentation of different uses and dynamics. Grounding in Gibson-Graham's politics of possibility, I provide a re-reading of urban motorways as spaces of possibility where undisciplined spatial forms and dynamics are made visible, conceivable and therefore possible. With an ethnographic approach, I explored the daily practices taking place in the interstices of the urban motorway SS 554, which encircles the city of Cagliari, in Sardinia. I provide an understanding of the daily practices of its inhabitants as a form of non-conflictual everyday politics, intended as a practice of producing urban space always-in-the-making. By observing daily life in urban interstices, I highlight the political possibilities that infrastructure entails and suggest an overcoming of the technocratic and normative gaze usually adopted in work on urban motorways. These urban interstices appear to be spaces of possibility, where the discarded pieces of urban processes are appropriated by inhabitants to produce a different urbanity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature regarding the life course and queer migration has shown that many gay men and lesbians seek large cities to live their lives away from the prying eyes of their families and build their sexual identity. In the global south, little is known about the effects that sexuality can have on the migratory trajectories of individuals. In that sense, what happens to the lives of those that have never left their hometowns and have had to find ways to experience their sexuality in these places. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to discuss queer migration, the impact on the lives of the individuals that left their hometowns, others that at one point came back and those that never left in the first place. Based on 21 life course interviews with self-identified LGB individuals in small/medium towns in Brazil, this paper shows how aspects such as closeness to family, educational trajectory, financial stability affects the migration trajectories of LGB individuals that live in small/medium cities. The results show that families are an important influence in the decision-making to migrate, to stay or to return to your hometown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we scrutinise the concept of 'affective atmosphere' at the Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, Germany. By unpacking key moments and elements in the Breitscheidplatz's history, when measures of security and counterterrorism transformed, we investigate how the felt experience of city dwellers and users of the square altered. We argue that the concept of atmosphere, taking the affective dimension of urban life into account, offers an enriching layer of understanding the everyday life in European cities. By focusing on the spatial and affective securitisation that was implemented before and after the attack in 2016, this paper converges everyday urban geopolitics and the concept of affective atmospheres. Bringing together the engagement with experiences of everyday urban life and the atmospheric situation that security and counter-terrorism measure entail in European urban spaces. This paper approximates the felt experience and intangible elements with the help of sensory ethnographies. Shedding light on the aesthetic and sensorial paradoxes of securitisation and counterterrorism measures, hegemonic practices of affective politics and discriminatory spatial expulsion are unravelled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, recreation has become an increasingly important need for urban residents who lead fast and busy lives. Daily recreational activities and spaces enable citizens living in the dynamics of urban life to regain their physical and psychological health with short-term opportunities. In this context, the research questions of the study are: (a) defining the urban dweller's perspectives on the concept of recreation in today's world, (b) investigation whether the dominant recreational preference of the urban population has evolved from nature-based activities to the theme of shopping in the new world order, and (c) the behavioral tendencies of the urban population toward nature-based and shopping-based spaces. The main material of the study is the city of İzmir, and as a method, a face-to-face survey was conducted with 278 people living in the central district of İzmir. As a result of the study, it has been determined that the users prefer the spaces in the metropolitan areas for daily recreation activities. Also, they prefer spaces where they can perform nature-based activities, despite all the consumption-based opportunities in today's conditions. In line with the data obtained from the study, the daily space usage profile of the city of İzmir and its immediate surroundings was revealed, and applicable and sustainable suggestions were developed for improving daily recreation spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the multiple ways in which the lives of urban refugees are impacted by the presence of refugee camps. It builds on a growing body of literature on the urban refugee experience that recognizes the agency exercised in the rejection of the camp. But it also demonstrates how, in countries with an encampment policy, the presence of camps can limit urban refugees' mobility and their ability to take advantage of all that urban life has to offer. It also highlights the consequences of the choice refugees must make between receiving humanitarian aid in a camp and living unassisted in an urban area. The paper draws on qualitative interviews with refugees in Ethiopia, Kenya and Jordan. It presents conclusions on the inadequacy of the international response, which fails to capitalize on the presence of displaced people in cities, to achieve the supposed policy goal of "self-reliance". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Livability is a complex and multifaceted concept, but is important in creating places where people can thrive. Investing in the factors contributing to livability can create more attractive, sustainable, and equitable communities. Livability is important for several reasons. It can affect people's health, well-being, and productivity. It can also influence whether people live in a particular place and whether businesses are willing to invest there. Methods: A survey was conducted to review the top livable cities of India as per the Global Livability Index parameters such as sociocultural, environmental, healthcare, education, and infrastructure aspects. A mixed method approach, having both qualitative and quantitative analyses, was adopted for the survey. The targeted sample size was 100 people, covering stakeholders from around the campus. Findings: As an outcome of the survey analysis, the most livable cities were categorized. Conclusion: In conclusion, policy narratives and frameworks are outlined emphasizing the need and the importance of citizens' participation in assessing the quality of life across Indian metropolitan cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Night lighting is essential for urban life, and the occurrence of faults can significantly affect the presentation of lighting effects. Many reasons can cause lighting faults, including the damage of lamps and circuits, and the typical manifestation of the faults is that the lights do not light up. The current troubleshooting mainly relies on artificial visual inspection, making detecting faults difficult and time-consuming. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce technical means to detect lighting faults. However, current research on lighting fault detection mainly focuses on using non-visual methods such as sensor data analysis, which has the disadvantages of having a high cost and difficulty adapting to large-scale fault detection. Therefore, this study mainly focuses on solving the problem of the automatic detection of night lighting faults using machine vision methods, especially object detection methods. Based on the YOLOv5 model, two data fusion models have been developed based on the characteristics of lighting fault detection inverse problems: YOLOv5 Channel Concatenation and YOLOv5 Image Fusion. Based on the dataset obtained from the developed automatic image collection and annotation system, the training and evaluation of these three models, including the original YOLOv5, YOLOv5 Channel Concatenation, and YOLOv5 Image Fusion, have been completed. Research has found that applying complete lighting images is essential for the problem of lighting fault detection. The developed Image Fusion model can effectively fuse information and accurately detect the occurrence and area of faults, with a mAP value of 0.984. This study is expected to play an essential role in the intelligent development of urban night lighting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we approach urban belonging as place-based affect to understand how it emerges and evolves in qualitatively different ways through everyday interactions with the city. Moving beyond a narrowly defined and fixed notion of urban belonging as feeling at home in place, we examine diverging feelings about Amsterdam during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Confronted with the abrupt reconfiguration of everyday life, some residents felt a strong sense of contentment in relation to place, while others developed more ambivalent feelings. These ranged from anxious detachment, to disenchantment and even alienation and rejection, raising existential questions about their place in the city that reach beyond the pandemic. We demonstrate how these affective inequalities are grounded in everyday practices and evolve through social and material encounters in domestic and public space. Our findings draw attention to the processual and relational nature of urban belonging, highlighting the affective capacities of the city in everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Queer space in South Korea’s primate city Seoul has historically remained excluded or invisible across multiple temporalities: in official histories and accounts of the past, in present urban life, and in planning for the future. This is especially noticeable in the municipal government’s numerous revitalization plans which focus on known ‘gayborhoods’ such as Jongno 3-ga. This article identifies and analyzes the structure of differing queer spatialities present in Seoul through close reading and examination of three films: the auteur produced A Cheonggyecheon Dog (2008), the realist documentary Miracle on Jongno Street (2010), and the archival art film Dadaikseon (2018). In these filmic representations, we observe multiple spatialities in Seoul that reflect the precarity and isolation faced by queer individuals in processes of urban redevelopment, the Janus-faced nature of urban space during the night versus the day which can allow or inhibit queer collectivity, and the dynamic erasure of urban spaces which fall outside of hegemonic norms in the face of urban change and gentrification. In the face of the homogenization of Seoul’s urban space, we argue that the identification of a multiplicity of queer spatialities opens up possibility and alternatives to dominant processes and patterns of urbanization, modernization and homogenization – that is, the more non-normative spatialities, the better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract\nPoints of interestDisabled refugee women can experience a lack of possibilities for social participation in their new country, which can impact their health and well-being. Intersectional approaches that acknowledge the participatory needs of disabled refugees are missing in policies and regulations. This study highlights the capabilities that disabled refugee women use to construct their everyday lives and to experience social participation. For more than one year, interviews and participant observation were carried out with three disabled refugee women. Various qualitative methods have been used to understand the women’s everyday lives in an urban area of Sweden. Through an intersectional lens, unequal conditions that affect social participation and access to the health and social care systems were identified, as were individual resources that women use to overcome barriers that would keep them from participating in the new society.Disabled refugee women’s experiences can offer unique perspectives needed to better understand health and social participation.Participation barriers and opportunities from disabled refugee women’s perspective can be explored by paying attention to everyday practices.This study highlights simultaneous discrimination that leads to inequality and exclusion, such as gender, migration, and disability.Disabled refugee women’s stories illustrate the challenges and capabilities that are neglected in discussions about health and social services.Disabled refugee women’s experiences can offer unique perspectives needed to better understand health and social participation.Participation barriers and opportunities from disabled refugee women’s perspective can be explored by paying attention to everyday practices.This study highlights simultaneous discrimination that leads to inequality and exclusion, such as gender, migration, and disability.Disabled refugee women’s stories illustrate the challenges and capabilities that are neglected in discussions about health and social services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Centre-city neighbourhoods is where residents expect a diversity of residents and an active social life, along with numerous amenities. This study investigates the relationship between the transforming morphology of Over-the-Rhine – a historic centre-city neighbourhood in Cincinnati, Ohio – and its urban social life. Detailed observations and morphological analyses of four new residential projects reveal that typologies that on the face appear urban, in fact promote a suburban lifestyle that prioritizes independence and seclusion and focus on private domestic life, in an urban context. We conclude with a set of strategies to increase the interaction between the private and the public realm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This original photographic work investigates the intersection of street photography and the concept of the flâneur within an Australian urban context. By transforming cityscapes into visual texts, the study captures urban narratives through the absence and reflection of inhabitants, rather than their direct representation. The photographic work employs window reflections as a key technique, introducing multiple visual dimensions to enrich street scenes and overall narratives.Drawing on Baudelaire's notion of the flâneur and Tomanić-Trivundža's three-stage journey of the flâneur (perambulating observation, critical reflection, and production of communicable texts), this work synthesises street photography with flâneur-like observation. It employs a multi-layered visual approach to city streets, representing a less-explored facet of lens-based practice in Australia.While the use of window reflections and the flâneur in street photography are well-established in European and North American contexts, their application in Australian settings remains less explored. This work aims to contribute to the street photography canon by translating these established techniques to Australian cities, offering insights into unique local urban characteristics. By exploring the interplay between global photographic traditions and local realities, this work seeks to provide a fresh perspective on Australian city life through the flâneur lens and reflective urban surfaces, thus expanding the geographical and cultural scope of this photographic tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global human population was 8 billion in 2022 and it is projected to reach 9 billion by 2031, leading to a significant shift in environmental issues with a decline in biodiversity. We need to develop people-centred cities by 2050, since two-thirds of the total population is going to live in urban areas. Cities grow by urbanization of villages. As the cities grow, biodiversity is challenged. India is the second country in the world, next only to Brazil, where green cover is being significantly lost due to deforestation. Gomalas are the lands in the villages reserved for grazing by animals and serve as a lung space for humans when the villages are urbanized. It is time to act to maintain greenery of the gomalas for sustenance of lives in the urban environment. Maintenance of green cover with biodiversity is essential for sustenance of life. We have nearly 1.75 million species on our planet and many more are yet to be discovered. Biodiversity has continued to decline during the past two decades. Nearly 58% of vertebrates and 51% of freshwater species are now extinct and acceleration of extinction of 1,000-10,000 species is predicted during the next decade due to anthropogenic activities. The World Environmental Day theme for 2024 is to 'Protect, preserve and prosper for a greener future' for all on the planet with living and non-living systems in our environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is no denying that the coronavirus pandemic changed our lives. Much has been said, reported, studied and written about its social, economic, political and health implications. What did the pandemic look like? How did and has it influenced urban spatial and material designs along with various mobilities? Drawing on visual ethnographic field data collected from March 2020 to November 2022 in metropolitan Chicago and in Washington, D.C., I examine the materiality, spatiality and visual aspects of the pandemic and the remnants that may have long-term attachments to urban life. To do so, I discuss what I call pandemic spaces – spaces produced through rules, designs, material, and reformulated use in response to and during a pandemic – to show how the COVID-19 pandemic and the concurrent racial justice protests (which happened globally) visually and materially altered urban spaces along short- and long-term trajectories. In doing so, I advance the growing scholarship on the pandemic’s impact and how its infusion in urban spaces requires consideration for urban studies moving forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the 2010–12 earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the subsequent demolition of multiple buildings within the central business district, a host of creative projects emerged intermittently as vacant spaces appeared in the betweenness of demolition and rebuild. This widespread do-it-yourself (DIY) urbanism brought back life and energy to the city. These expressions demonstrated how citizens can be involved in the (re-)making of a city through projects that experiment with ideas about what it means to be urban and what is possible in urban space. These projects inhabit an alter-temporality that treats the future as open-ended and time as an active force in the becoming of things. Understanding the temporality of such urban engagement in Christchurch holds significance for understanding the value of open experimentation in cities in general and the importance of process to urban learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Metropolitan Intimacies. An Ethnography on the Poetics of Daily Life" presents a review of Professor Francisco Cruces Villalobos' book, which focuses on daily life in metropolitan cities such as Madrid, Montevideo, and Mexico City. The author highlights the importance of creating daily life and identity through personal interactions. Cruces analyzes how individuals construct each other through their daily interactions, exploring intimacy in contemporary urban life. The book emphasizes the relevance of personal storytelling and the creation of meaning in modern society, showing how the city and intimacy intertwine in the lives of urban subjects. [Extracted from the article]

A shift in travel behavior is taking place within urban tourism. Experienced repeat visitors want to discover cities away from tourist centers and traditional attractions. They want to gain insights into everyday life in the city and explore it off the beaten track. This phenomenon is called New Urban Tourism (NUT). This paper aims to determine whether NUT is a noteworthy phenomenon in Munich. For this purpose, three research questions were formulated. A qualitative content analysis of travel blog entries about insider tips in Munich was conducted to answer the research questions. The goal was to identify the two insider tips that were most often mentioned. Here, face-to-face interviews with tourists and residents were conducted. The tourists were asked questions about their travel and information behavior to determine whether they could be classified as New Urban Tourists. The residents, in contrast, were asked to indicate whether they notice the presence of tourists and how this influences their perception of the neighborhood. NUT can be described as a notable phenomenon in the city of Munich. Recommendations for future research include examining the impact of NUT on Munich and identifying the specific aspects of urban ordinariness that New Urban Tourists deem worth experiencing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 epidemic has increased its impact on a global scale and created the pandemic process, causing a change in the dynamics of urban life. On the basis of urban life dynamics, the effect of the city-space relationship of the COVID-19 pandemic has gained importance. In this context, the differences in green space usage experiences and habits before and after the Covid-19 pandemic process were examined with a questionnaire applied to 240 people, and the survey results were evaluated with the chi-square statistical method. As a result of the evaluation, it has been revealed that green areas have gained a new meaning and it is a necessity to include accessibility, functions, classification and user experiences in the urban space in planning studies.With the results of the study, the meaning of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the planning studies at the point of creating resilient cities and how to evaluate this meaning within the framework of its application and the points that need attention are examined. Objectives are set in terms of using the results obtained with this study as a resource in planning studies, increasing the quality of urban life and achieving the goals of creating resilient cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The infrastructures of urban Indigenous life are marked by a type of dissonance that constantly confronts settler narratives of who and how Indigenous peoples are. The myriad violences that mark colonial power order urban Indigenous life within an unbearable nexus of assimilation, terror, and dispossession. Such violence places considerable demands on Indigenous peoples' social and material worlds, such that the pressures to visualize, embody, and narrate Indigeneity in the service of a multicultural state are unending. In this article, I outline the politics of emotionality as both threatening to the settler state and a fissure that reveals a desiring for another world. I examine the fixation on the bickering in community meetings at the only urban Indian center in Philadelphia during the 1970s and 1980s to take stock of the ways negative affect is a signal of Indigenous refusals of settler values and marks the city as a zone of affective struggle. The contracts into which Indigenous peoples enter as forms of material survival get leveraged by the state, which demands Indigenous people relinquish sovereignty over their bodies. In the process, the state continues its primary mission to destabilize Indigenous community development and deny the possibilities of futurity. Yet, as Indigenous people push against settler-colonial regulations, the outbursts generated from bickering are affects at the point of refusal of the settler state to determine the totality of Indigenous life. Thus, negative affect, while tense, can generate community by offering an opportunity to reconfigure the terms of social life according to multitribal dialogue as a move toward reclaiming the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban process encompasses vast structures and practices engaged in creating, extracting, and accumulating value in and from the urban landscape. But what is value and how does it attain its coercive power over urban life? The unreflective deployment of axiomatic assumptions regarding the source and substance of value constitutes a form of magical thinking conjuring something out of nothing and transforming an immaterial abstraction into a material force that is real in its consequences. Unpacking the concept of value reveals a contentious debate regarding the ontological status of value as a driver of the urban process. Alternative formulations posit value as intrinsic or extrinsic, objective or subjective, residing in the world or constructed in the mind, driven by universal law or spatially and temporally contingent. Transcending all such dualisms, a transactional approach drawn from Deweyan pragmatism understands value as a co-constitutive interrelation among a valuing subject, an object of valuation, and the enveloping context in which valuation occurs. The delineation of value's ontology is fraught with political consequences for reproducing or altering the urban status quo. The move toward desired outcomes begins with articulating the foundational assumptions that underlie the value practices propelling the urban process in specific situations. Pluralizing value assumptions focuses the problem on the political question concerning whose value(s) prevail in a given situation. This redefinition shifts the focus from ameliorating current practices of extracting value to politically contesting the value commitments at work in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the motivations behind rural mobility have been extensively studied, the factors determining immobility are less discussed. In this study, we applied a quantitative and qualitative methodology built on a theoretical framework based on the literature to analyse primary and secondary data to answer the following question: What factors play a primary role in someone from a relatively disadvantaged rural area deciding in favour of immobility? Our results showed that those who remained in the region surveyed had the resources to build a life elsewhere, but family ties, property, or the fact that the way of life they desired in the city could not be realised bound them to their homeland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, urban philanthropic giving has acquired an increased significance for cities, shaping urban agendas and affecting local decision-making. Contributing to the emerging geographical literature on the impact of philanthropy on urban governance as well as to scholarship on post-foundational geographies, I argue that urban philanthropic giving is related to a post-political regime of multi-stakeholder urban governance. Contrary to being a linear process of managerial consensus politics, the post-politicisation of urban governance emerges as a multidimensional and variegated process of mutations and adaptations. Drawing from Athens, Greece, in the austerity period, I trace the emergence of a new donor-based philanthrocapitalist regime of urban governance and I demonstrate that post-political governance can take diverse forms: from the well-described in existing literature inclusive partnership-based approach to more authoritarian consensus-based governance processes. The aim of the paper is not just to answer if philanthrocapitalism gives rise to a post-political condition or not, but to explore how it is making and remaking (post-political) urban governance of public spaces, urban politics and urban everyday life. In doing so, the paper focuses on Athens Partnership, an intermediate governance organisation that was established to manage and support donations from the private sector to local governments in Athens and explores the ways urban philanthropy impacts on urban governance. Overall, the paper brings forward a renewed, more enmeshed understanding of post-political urban governance through an analysis of the novel philanthrocapitalist regime that emerged in European cities in the context of the recent intersecting crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the relationship between gentrification and the economic-gastronomic landscape in two neighborhoods in downtown Mexico City. The objective is to conceptually readjust these terms and to recognize the singularities of their manifestations in Latin America. To this end, a theoretical framework is constructed that outlines the three epistemological cores for the analysis of gentrification in the region and that articulates such concept with cultural commodification and gourmetization. Through a descriptive quantitative analysis, we examine the transformation of the food landscape through the presence and diversification of gastronomic and retail businesses in the Condesa and Santa María La Ribera neighborhoods. The results show that there is a trend towards an increase in commercial activity under the model of mini-supermarkets and other businesses that diversify and, at the same time, homogenize cultural and gastronomic offerings in these neighborhoods. However, the pandemic affected these neighborhoods in a particular way: while in Condesa the proliferation of these businesses slowed down, in Santa María La Ribera they increased their presence. It is concluded that this analytical argument offers a view that can strengthen the qualitative study of the effects developed by gentrification and its consequences in other areas of urban daily life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the social impacts of COVID-19 on migrants living in three major African cities: Accra, Johannesburg, and Nairobi. Given the importance of social support networks to mobile populations, particularly in areas with limited access to essential services, understanding how the pandemic disrupted social relations underscores the broader health and economic impacts of COVID-19 on migrant communities. Using a large scale 2021 survey of nine migrant neighborhoods located across three African mega-cities, we comparatively analyze migrant social interactions during the first year of the pandemic. We find that while migrant social interactions decreased in Accra and Nairobi, living in Johannesburg was significantly associated with unchanged or increased social interactions in the first year of the pandemic. We situate these findings with municipal and country-level variation of COVID-19 policy responses within each city. In particular, we illuminate how the severity of the pandemic and response in South Africa may have catalyzed opportunities for migrants to increase social engagements within their everyday lives. By understanding how compound challenges impacted migrant life, this paper contributes to the emerging area of comparative studies on the effects of COVID-19 on migrant populations, and urban populations within the Global South more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of lnternational Journal of Geography & Geography Education is the property of Marmara University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Theories of smart urbanism have overlooked the influence of contextual factors on the conception, planning and implementation of digital transformation practices across regions. To articulate this critique, we focus on African cities and draw on a diverse range of urban and regional scholarship. We present the core assumptions advanced in the mainstream literature on smart urbanism and prove their inability to fit the organisation of African urban contexts. Three main research questions emerge from this critical examination and offer new perspectives for expanding knowledge on how smart urbanism challenges recombine with place-based governance approaches, not only in Africa, but globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Electronic Turkish Studies is the property of Electronic Turkish Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Public places play a central role in shaping positive and negative human experiences. They have a profound impact on people's lives, affecting their sense of place, well-being, and overall quality of life. While public spaces have such an impact, little is known about their effects on the overall experiences of people in Saudi cities. Particularly, in Saudi Arabia, the form of public spaces has rapidly evolved and changed in recent years. Therefore, this study examined the impact of urban public spaces on people's experiences, aiming to assess satisfaction levels within the broader context of urban life in Saudi Arabia. Specifically, it investigated the correlation between the public spaces and individuals' perceptions and feelings toward the environment of Taif city. Taif is one of the key cities in Saudi Arabia targeted for significant improvements in quality of life as part of the 2030 vision. Therefore, it is important to study the effects on the residents there. The method used in the study involved quantitative data collected through a survey of 384 participants from Taif, which included questions measuring multiple aspects of the quality of urban public life, including the safety, walkability, social interaction, and functionality of public spaces. The results indicate that people in Taif would face a jeopardised level of satisfaction, as not all elements of the public spaces meet the desired standards. Therefore, their experiences would be impacted negatively if the noted concerns are not addressed. By identifying key urban design elements that impact people's experiences and overall well-being, this research provides a foundation for planners and policymakers to work towards achieving the Saudi vision of creating more liveable and enduring urban environments in Saudi Arabian cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent excavations and survey at the Roman and late antique city of Aeclanum provide important insights into developments across the fourth and fifth centuries CE at this site. Located in the inland region of Hirpinia, on the border of Apulia et Calabria and Campania, Aeclanum was insulated from some of the disasters that plagued the coastal regions in this period. It was, however, struck by two natural disasters: an earthquake in the mid-fourth century and the eruption of Vesuvius in 472 CE. Despite these events, new work suggests that the city remained a vital urban center even into the sixth century. In light of this new evidence, this article explores what the built remains, ceramics, and epigraphy reveal about the changing cityscape, economy, and society of Aeclanum. It further situates this evidence within its regional context to demonstrate how urban living was upheld, even in the face of significant environmental, religious, and administrative change. Our focus is on how human agency—of different forms—is manifest in the material evidence, and how this manifestation varies across available datasets and the networks between them. The availability of different datasets makes it a unique case study in this region and allows us to explore aspects of urban life in greater detail than is possible for many nearby cities. By using a pluralistic approach to material output, these examples reveal that, among some communities, circumstances and events long considered to be catastrophic to urban success were not as absolute as once thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital platforms, such as Google, Amazon, or Instagram, provide a promising spatial fix to urban-economic problems by leveraging technology and data while connecting stakeholders and overcoming spatial barriers to make urban life, consumption, sales, and production more efficient. This article contributes to the debate on digital platforms in economic geography by advancing the emerging lens of the platform fix, adopting a critical standpoint concerning the solutionist viewpoint that presents platforms as a fix for various challenges. The article develops its perspective against the background of 57 semi-structured interviews, 200 conducted standardized questionnaires, and long-term on/offline observations. We aim to provide a platform fix perspective revealing how digital platforms redefine spatial interactions, addressing economic challenges through spatial fixes while becoming established as indispensable infrastructures; however, platform fixes often fail to address underlying issues, leading to platform dependencies and the instrumentalization of actors. Therefore, we suggest a cautious application of urban platforms as solutions and critically evaluate the formation of public–private platform partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: With the continuous progress of urbanization, people's perceptions and experiences of the urban environment are increasingly concerned. Traditional forms of artistic expression can no longer fully meet people's needs for urban perception. Therefore, it is especially important to explore new possibilities of urban perception art with the help of modern technology, especially intelligent technology. OBJECTIVES: The main purpose of this study is to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of utilizing advanced technology for urban perception art expression. Through an in-depth understanding of the urban environment and the perceptual needs of urban residents, as well as existing technological means, artistic expressions that can present urban perceptions more intuitively and vividly are developed. METHODS: This study adopts a combination of field research and art practice. Through urban observation and questionnaire surveys, the subjective experience and needs of urban residents for urban perception were collected. Then, using digital painting and video technology, combined with the principles of perception psychology, urban perception works with artistic and technological senses were designed. RESULTS: A series of urban perception artworks were designed in this study, covering all aspects of urban life, including architectural landscapes, transportation scenes, and humanistic customs. These works enable viewers to perceive the urban environment in a more intuitive and immersive way through digital painting and video technology, as well as real-time data and perceptual feedback. CONCLUSION: By exploring new ways of artistic expression of urban perception, this study provides urban residents with a richer and deeper experience of urban perception. The application of digital painting and video technology, as well as the interaction and feedback with urban residents, opens up new possibilities for the development of urban perceptual art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People responsible for shaping the future of cities often seek valuable tools to assist in their decision-making processes. Using objective, quantified, and analysed data proves highly beneficial when determining where to focus interventions at the city level. Various urban indexes have been established to measure different aspects of urban life, ranging from sustainability to liveability. These indexes encompass multiple dimensions of a city, including mobility and walkability, among others. The age-friendly cities initiative developed indicators for assessing the age-friendliness of cities. Some researchers further refined these indicators to focus on urban planning competencies. Building on this foundation, this article aims to present an Age-Friendly Neighbourhood Index (AFNI) validated by a panel of experts using the Delphi method. This index can serve as a valuable tool for urban planners when they need to prioritise interventions to enhance age-friendliness at neighbourhood scale. The article also outlines the necessary data and measurement techniques for these indicators. The AFNI has been applied to a real case study in the city of Santander (Spain). This application assesses the age-friendliness of various neighbourhoods in Santander, demonstrating the challenges in acquiring sub-local quality data and emphasising the need for data-driven urban management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of O Social em Questão is the property of Faculdades Catolicas - Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study aims to explore the interplay between urban design and social interaction in the digital era, specifically focusing on the integration of digital technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) in urban environments. By examining the historical role of urban design in fostering social interactions and the evolving dynamics with technological advancements, the research seeks to understand the impact of digital technology on social interactions in urban settings. The aim of this study is to investigate the perceptions and experiences of residents in Bismayah City regarding urban design and its role in facilitating social interaction. Through a structured questionnaire, the study collects data to analyze the nuanced impact of digital technology on social interactions, highlighting both the benefits and challenges posed by digital integration. The research aims to provide critical insights into the complex relationship between urban design, digital technology, and social interaction, advocating for a balanced approach in urban planning. The analysis of the collected data reveals that digital advancements can enhance connectivity and create new forms of social engagement in urban environments. However, there are concerns about potential reductions in face-to-face interactions, as well as issues surrounding privacy and socio-economic disparities. The study emphasizes the importance of harmonizing technological integration with human-centric aspects of urban spaces. It provides a roadmap for urban planners, technologists, and policymakers, emphasizing the need to create cities that are technologically advanced while also fostering social interactions and community bonds. The study's findings indicate that while digital technology enhances social connectivity and urban engagement, concerns surrounding privacy, reduced face-to-face interactions, and socio-economic disparities were significant. These findings underscore the importance of integrating robust privacy measures and fostering inclusive urban spaces. The research advocates for a balanced approach that ensures technological advancements contribute positively to social interactions while addressing these critical concerns, offering valuable insights for urban planners and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from Henri Lefebvre’s influential theory, the triad of space production, this article analyzes three urban films released during the early years of the People’s Republic of China: Husband and Wife on the March (1951), Spring is Splendid Color (1959), and Today, I Rest (1959). These films explore the daily lives of Shanghai residents in changing everyday living spaces, from single-room apartments to traditional alleyway neighbourhoods and the expansive community system of Workers’ New Village. The changing spatial configurations serve as the backdrop for the unfolding cinematic narratives, fostering new forms of socialist relationships and interactions. Moreover, a new type of socialist communal life, seamlessly integrated with socialist production, emerged, catalysing the revolutionary reshaping of women’s identities and roles. A socialist community founded on mutual assistance and collective cooperation emerged as a model for social development and bureaucratic governance in the 1950s. This article argues that these three films provide compelling examples of Shanghai’s socialist urban transformation, exploring changes in the daily living spaces of socialist individuals in Shanghai and reflecting the dynamic shaping of socialist subjectivity in the new era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]