The root of the problem: The bad, the good and the ugly urban spaces and their impacts on the human behaviors (original) (raw)
THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM: THE BAD, THE UGLY AND THE GOOD URBAN SPACES
City & Security, 2013
Civilisation is the advanced social development that is believed to owe its origin to human interaction in cities. The first decade of this Century was marked by deep economic and political changes provoking some irreversible transformations in the socio cultural organization and the physical structure. These changes can be explained by the failure of the economic models on which were worked out the different policies of development and principles of growth and management. The city might be seen as a coin with double faces: it is a space of opportunities, culture and challenges; it is also a space of the anonymous and precarious life. So cities do not always have a civilising effect. In the 1960's, there was an unprecedented rural immigration towards the cities located particularly in the North of the country. These cities went through very deep socio-physical metamorphoses. This paper examines these metamorphoses and the occurrence of unsecure spaces in terms of street robbery and residential burglary, perception of security and streets segments attributes such as connectivity, length, street lighting, appearance, escape routes, residences visual and physical barriers, visual and physical connections between residences and the public open space, land use and type of housing unit.
Civilisation is the advanced social development that is believed to owe its origin to human interaction in cities. The first decade of this Century was marked by deep economic and political changes provoking some irreversible transformations in the socio cultural organization and the physical structure. These changes can be explained by the failure of the economic models on which were worked out the different policies of development and principles of growth and management. The city might be seen as a coin with double faces: it is a space of opportunities, culture and challenges; it is also a space of the anonymous and precarious life. So cities do not always have a civilising effect. In the 1960's, there was an unprecedented rural immigration towards the cities located particularly in the North of the country. These cities went through very deep socio-physical metamorphoses. This paper examines these metamorphoses and the occurrence of unsecure spaces in terms of street robbery and residential burglary, perception of security and streets segments attributes such as connectivity, length, street lighting, appearance, escape routes, residences visual and physical barriers, visual and physical connections between residences and the public open space, land use and type of housing unit.
The researchers of the Institute of Criminology from Mantua (FDE) invite all the operators of social security, public administrators, academics and not least “citizens” to discuss about a problem became important in our society: the insecurity. When it becomes pathological, INNES proposes to fight against this situation investing on the strengthening of social bonds. The invitation is to discuss and compare about it during the conference days of November 2015 (26-28) in Mantua, city that hold the European program INNES about the strengthening of social relationships that is the soul of this very conference. A model of society, more competitive and less supportive, originates fears that, being many and diversified, are difficult to isolate, conducing to the disappearance of that social connective tissue that for centuries granted a network of collective protection. Privatizing fear and insecurities means live them alone and no as a community, so bear alone these serious burden. As defence to fears, human being -often- adopts autonomously strategies of closure and protectionism that, take to limits not so extreme, they leave us even more alone and suspicious towards the “others than oneself”. More alone, so more scared. Since 2013, a group of researchers from Mantua related to the Institute of Criminology of Mantua (FDE), together with researchers of the Foundation Politechnic of Milan, is involved in the study of insecurity of citizens in the small residence areas, thinking about which are the potential incentives for inverting the deviation of individualism and for arriving to promote the practice of construction and strengthening of neighbourhood bonds among citizens, for being less alone. The interest is that of conducing the citizen to reconsider his/her city as a place to rediscover, revitalise and at the same time a place in which we can test a new, modern, utilization of the urban space, that for definition is a public place naturally created for the socialisation, meeting among people and for this must be shared, safe and available to everybody. Many are the neighbourhoods that have been (and they are even now) theatre of the first realization of this programme and of the concept of “social cobweb” (Sandri et. Al., 2014). The development of solidarity, social cohesion and the possibility to take their urban space back are some of the key instruments that the community can use in order to fight against fear and insecurity of citizens.
Used inevitable every single day, by all people, despite the age, social class, economic status of ethnicity, public space represents a great deal in our wellbeing and in the image of the city. In particularly, residential public spaces do have a high economic, social and emotional importance. The present empirical study aims to highlight the first step in a complex process of planning. The observation of the most important issues of the residential public spaces in Bucharest represents the foundation of future researches themes like urban planning, social wellbeing and segregation, urban image and urban identity. Considering the recent history of the city the main focus is set on the elementary challenge to adapt the democratic modern life style and expectation to a predominantly socialist urban structure.
Re-Imagining the City: Municipality and Urbanity Today from a Sociological Perspective
vice or recreational spaces, communication routes, urban equipment, etc.). Th erefore the city comprises not only a fabric, but also a laboratory of social realms with their structural-material consequences of varying scale, range, and signifi cance. Such a diverse array of aff airs and problems makes some concessions as to the form of their analysis and description. Th is book is not a mere collection of academic texts. Th e reader will fi nd here regular scientifi c articles of theoretical, empirical or methodological nature along with a number of texts 30 Małgorzata Dymnicka References
Urbanity (urbanitas, Urbanität, urbanité, urbanità, urbanidad…) - An Essay
Religion and Urbanity Online , 2020
This article deals with the meaning and the historical change of the term urbanity with the aim of making urbanity as an analytical term fruitful. Since urbanity is both a historical concept and the object of analysis, a brief semantic history must be undertaken. It takes us (at least) back to the time of the Roman Republic, experiences a change of meaning in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, and shows how urbanism and urbanity finally found their way into scientific discourse, starting with the social sciences about 100 years ago. Far from representing a uniform concept, it is also often normative or based on quantitative, measurable criteria, thus neglecting practices and ideas. All this (historical change, regional differences, tendency towards normativity in scientific discourse) makes it seem necessary to venture a new approach. My proposal is therefore to understand urbanity as a concept of form that allows for the analysis and better understanding of spatiotemporal configurations, practices and representations in relation to cities.
LANGUISH AFTER SAFETY IN THE URBAN LIFE
In the contemporary city safety issue became very important due to every day threats from basic criminal actions to the extreme acts of terrorism. The quality of urban life, freedom of mobility, enjoying the open space and various events depend of realistic situation but also personal feeling. It seems that we (as citizens or travelers), are desperately seeking for calmness and easiness, so this anxiety is rising a logic question can we help somehow as professionals, beside the measures that are in scope of society – government and politics. The urban strategies for safer places are different, from more surveillance by police, security sector, cameras – CCTV or voluntary organized citizens, to the technical and urban design elements that basically protect, reduce attempts of threats, minimize casualties of assaults or even limit excess to the selected points of interest. The new doctrine is between two goals: to have lovable, in appearance and identity still original space and to provide all elements of defense urban design and architecture standards. It is not easy to produce something that will fulfill all demands, especially because in some aspects the differences are great, but it is good to keep in mind that the care for space is crucial for care about users and their urban habits.
City: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy; action
books.google.com
What happens at the interface of states and urban poor populations that live in informal settlements? How are academic disciplines, such as law, architecture or economics, and technical instruments, such as computer software, summoned to the interactions between experts from state or city governments and the laypeople whose housing and lives the former's work is meant to improve? This paper reflects on these questions as it examines two different experiments, one historical and another from the recent past, in housing provision or amelioration for the residents of informal settlements. In post-revolutionary Portugal, the SAAL (Serviço de Apoio Ambulató rio Local) housing program (1974-76) included 'technical' brigades of legal, architectural and economic experts tasked to help shanty town dwellers improve their housing conditions, either by assisted self-building or classic new-build. It was a clear example of the progressive urban politics of the time, or dialogical technical democracy avant la lettre. Some 30 years later, in Lisbon during the late 2000s, as a part of an urban regeneration program devised within the framework of multicultural urban politics and delegative forms of democracy, a detailed survey of non-and substandard houses was carried out with a bespoke computer software, which aimed at representing the technical feasibility of rehabilitation, rather than replacement, of those dwellings. Both experiments constituted platforms with the stated objective of working for the community and through which new state-citizen relationships were to be forged with the urban poor, but how were the latter's knowledges and wishes integrated?
Introduction to Urban Anthropology and Sociology
Ksiegarnia Akademicka Publishing eBooks, 2022
to root people in a given location that were ex diversis climatibus -from other places. 4 These specific features of the European city, created as part of a longue durée process, make it a unique, a "living" primer for learning about European heritage, its wealth and multiculturalism. This was also the main goal of the research project "European Cities in the Process of Constructing and Transmitting of European Cultural Heritage", which led to the creation of this volume. Researchers from four partner universities: the Jagiellonian University (Poland, project coordinator), Università degli Studi dell' Aquila (Italy), Matej Bel University Banská Bystrica (Slovakia) and Universidad de Deusto Bilbao (Spain), set out to analyse the city understood as a tool for finding a cultural community among the national heritage of the partner countries and the cultural heritage of Europe. This is especially important in a period which is witnessing increased migration, leading to both cultural diffusion and hybridization. The book is primarily aimed at academic teachers and BA and MA students who are interested in the processes of European integration, European heritage, and urban studies. The perspective adopted by the authors focuses on the processes which have shaped and transferred the cultural heritage of Europe, defining its multicultural and transnational character, which are the basis for shaping the social and cultural unity of Europeans, European identity and active citizenship. The book consists of two parts: one theoretical and the other practical. The first part comprises articles aimed at introducing readers to the pertinent theoretical and methodological aspects surrounding the issues discussed. The second part is more of a textbook in scope and presentation, with the articles focusing on tasks and supplementary texts for independent work on various issues related to European heritage and urban issues. The first part opens with an article by Paweł Kubicki, Introduction to Urban Anthropology and Sociology, in which the author analyses certain key concepts in the field of urban anthropology and sociology, ranging from the Chicago School (social ecology), through the humanistic turn and the semiotics of cities, the neo-Marxist approach, to contemporary concepts relating to global cities. As a result, some of the crucial phenomena and processes characteristic of European cities are analysed. The first is the analysis of the causes and effects of the urban crisis, leading to such situations as gentrification, social inequalities, 4
Urban Form and Urban Security: Insights from a Southern Italian Neighbourhood
2015
Contemporary cities are affected by several challenges. Rapid urbanisation processes combined with unstable economic conditions, uncontrolled physical development and social exclusion, political instability make difficult the understanding of “security and safety” dynamics, often interconnected with a combination of factors. A mix of social, economic and physical decay often contribute to create appealing conditions for criminal activities. This paper discusses how urban safety and security dynamics are related with urban planning and its implementation, by drawing insights from an urban area belonging to a Southern Italian city, Reggio Calabria. More in general, it will be emphasized the relationships between urban planning and related implementation and urban security in bligthed neighbourhoods. Evidences from the case study show that the status of decay of the urban environment, often consequence of implementation gaps inurban policies and lack of management capabilities, contrib...