bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Regional Planning
Authors: Schmidt Stephan
Published: April 2019

This entry presents an overview of regional planning understood as interlocal metropolitan‐level planning and coordination. It reviews the history of regional planning and presents a regional typology. It examines common justifications for regional planning: to promote environmental sustainability, increase efficiencies in public service delivery, enhance intrametropolitan equity, provide for economic growth, and to build capacity for regional resiliency. It also reviews hindrances to the formation of regional planning, including the role of the private sector, fiscal federalism, the degree of municipal fragmentation, and the role of public policy. For contrast, international comparisons are made where appropriate.
Regional Governance
Authors: Tomaney John
Published: April 2019

In recent decades there has been a growing academic and policy focus on the economic and political role of urban and regional institutions as a factor in the development process. A concern with regional governance is in part a product of the increasing demand on the part of cities and regions for greater political autonomy. These claims may reflect the affirmation of regional or national identities or a more pragmatic assertion by local elites that decentralized decision‐making allows for the application of policies better fitted to diverse geographical contexts. The decentralization (or devolution) of governmental authority to the urban and regional scale can be observed on a global scale. Many cities and regions have built up the political, fiscal, and administrative capacity to act with at least some autonomy from their national governments. Many states therefore are now characterized by systems of multilevel governance, urban or regional “growth coalitions” and have helped to underpin processes of “territorial competition,” in which cities and regions vie with each other in the struggle for investment and resources. Questions of power, politics, and democracy loom large in the matter of regional governance.
Relational Economy
Authors: Simone AbdouMaliq
Published: April 2019

Conventional economic calculations view individuals as largely autonomous entities maximizing self‐interest through the acquisition of resources and positions through which to provide to others goods and services that fulfill specific needs and desires. In contrast, relational economy points to the ways the conjunction of people and things affected in these transactions generate unanticipated results and opportunities, where things and people may be used according to the identities through which they are conventionally understood but where different mutations can also occur. The objects transacted index a particular relationship between actors that is always in transition, as the implications of the transaction may ramify across different aspects of the actors' lives, enabling or constraining them in doing and thinking certain things as a function of the transaction itself.
Reterritorialization
Authors: Yang Chun
Published: April 2019

Contemporary globalization has reconfigured the scalar organization of capital's dynamic of de‐ and reterritorialization. The process of reterritorialization is defined as the reconfiguration and rescaling of forms of territorial organization such as cities and states, which constitutes an intrinsic moment of the current round of globalization. Reterritorialization describes the processes by which economic or other activities are rearranged in new spatial configurations not necessarily corresponding with established state‐centered geographies. During the process the state's role as a form of (re)territorialization tends to be distinct from the structural significance of the national spatial scale in circumscribing capital flows, economic transactions, urban hierarchies, and social relations. The role of the national scale as a level of governance is being radically redefined in response to the current round of capitalist globalization and reterritorialization.
Right to the City
Authors: Busquet Grégory
Published: April 2019

This paper aims to explore the concept of “right to the city” as theorized by the French sociologist Henri Lefebvre in 1968, as a right to emancipation of everyday life and to collective appropriation of space. It also aims to analyze its evolution in social movements, be they local or global, and in intellectual and academic circles, since this theory is reused and updated by “radical geography” in a neoliberal context. As a right to collective use of space and everyday life, it struggles against the general shift toward homogenization and standardization, segregation, privatization and commodification of space, while promoting a more democratic city based on self‐management. It teaches us urban space is both a political product and a political instrument.
São Paulo
Authors: Rolnik Raquel
Published: April 2019

With over 20 million inhabitants, São Paulo is a world city. This entry explores the logic behind the apparent chaos, that is, the urban policy choices that led to contemporary challenges: mobility, housing, and sanitation. An unequal city where both the richest and the poorest live, with gated communities side by side with slums, but also a cultural melting pot that is far from being harmonious. It is a city of walls where cars are predominant but also a city where public spaces have been recently taken back.
Self‐Help Housing
Authors: Ward Peter M.
Published: April 2019

While self‐help housing is most frequently analyzed in developing countries, this entry describes how it is also widespread in Europe, Canada, and the USA, where, historically, vernacular self‐building was commonplace in rural villages and among frontier homesteaders. In urban areas, too, notable self‐help housing experiences are a feature throughout the twentieth century, while today self‐building and self‐management of dwelling development and expansion continue to be a primary method of housing production in low income peri‐urban neighborhoods in Texas and Southern states. In addition, self‐help improvements and DIY (do‐it‐yourself) are an important element in home improvement and housing refurbishment among middle income populations in contemporary Europe and the USA. Widely analyzed in developing countries, self‐help became a significant driver of low income housing development in informal settlements as an outcome of rapid urbanization in the second half of the twentieth century and the inability of the public and private sectors to meet housing demand. From the late 1970s, public policies became largely supportive of self‐help, installing basic infrastructure in previously unserviced communities and providing households with legal title to their homes.
Seoul
Authors: Park Se Hoon
Published: April 2019

Seoul is the capital and the largest metropolis of South Korea. In the past six decades, Seoul has experienced a dramatic transformation from the administrative center of an agriculture‐based society to a national and regional powerhouse with cutting edge technology and culture. Seoul has foremost been developed as the capital of a developmental state, but now the city is increasingly pressed by regional and global competition and the neoliberal economic environment. This entry deals with Seoul's past transformation and tasks that lie ahead from demographic, economic, and urban policy perspectives.
Skyscrapers
Authors: Wood Antony , Safarik Daniel
Published: April 2019

A skyscraper is a tall building with multiple floors. Originally developed to accommodate emerging corporations amid limited land space in late‐nineteenth‐century North America, skyscrapers are now found all over the world. Recently, a growing number of skyscrapers have been built in Asia, as the economies of nations such as China have grown in recent decades. As the world rapidly becomes more urban, skyscrapers will become an increasingly important building type. As their role deepens, the feats of innovation and engineering that have made skyscrapers ever taller and more spectacular may also be applied to evolve their contributions to urban vitality and environmental quality.
Southwest China
Authors: Ptak Thomas , Yu Yi , Su Xiaobo
Published: April 2019

This entry on southwest China offers a broad summary of the region's urban and regional characteristics, in addition to outlining core issues. It provides an overview of the historical context which is crucial to understanding southwest China's contemporary position. Major phases of industrialization in urban centers, the social mosaic, development strategies, and drivers of social and political instability are detailed. These components serve to deliver a broad understanding of the region while illustrating current and future challenges to be addressed.
Spatial Analysis
Authors: Hao Pu
Published: April 2019

Spatial analysis is a set of techniques for deriving new information and knowledge from spatial data. It is distinguished from other types of analysis because the results of spatial analysis are dependent on the locations of the objects being analyzed. Spatial analysis is useful for gaining an understanding of where geographic features and phenomena are located and the spatial relationship or spatial interactions between the features and phenomena. The recent development of geographic information technologies has facilitated the widespread application of spatial analysis, making it an increasingly important analytical tool for scientific research and decision‐making.
Spatial Fix
Authors: Herod Andrew
Published: April 2019

Developed largely by Marxist geographer David Harvey, the concept of the “spatial fix” has been central to efforts to theorize uneven development under capitalism. The term refers to how capitalists seek to make the economic geography of capitalism in certain ways, either to facilitate accumulation or to try to temporarily address crises of overaccumulation by spatially and/or temporally displacing these crises. Significantly, in recent years labor geographers have adopted and adapted the concept, arguing that workers also have a vested interest in ensuring that capitalism's economic landscapes are made in some ways and not in others.
Spectacle
Authors: Gotham Kevin Fox
Published: April 2019

Spectacle is a major concept scholars use to theorize and analyze emergent forms of urban redevelopment, entertainment, and tourism events and activities. This essay reviews current scholarship on the different conceptualizations of spectacle and highlights the burgeoning scholarship on the sociospatial impacts and consequences of the proliferation of entertainment venues and tourism‐oriented spectacles. Against monolithic conceptions of spectacles as instruments of hegemony, this essay identifies the irrationalities, contradictions, and crisis tendencies associated with the proliferation of entertainment, tourism, and consumption. Because spectacles construct and mediate fundamental social controversies, they have contradictory effects, partly legitimating the system, and partly delegitimizing it. Importantly, tourism and related spectacles and mega‐events unleash conflicts between inclusion and exclusion, democracy and capitalism, domination and resistance, and, in doing so, create new openings for struggle, resistance, and transformation.
Squatters
Authors: Aguilera Thomas , Smart Alan
Published: April 2019

Important contributions have been made to our knowledge of squatters in sociology, anthropology, geography, political science, planning, and architecture. In addition, there is research led by international organizations, agencies, and NGOs. Squatting is the occupation of vacant land or buildings, without the consent of the owner. But squatting involves a wide range of activities, claims, goals, resources, locations, and relationships with authorities, and squatters can have many different profiles. A common response has been the creation of typologies. A central problem has been fragmentation of the approaches to the study of squatters. Interested in different dimensions, these literatures are separated by cleavages. Five main cleavages can be identified around which research is organized: North/South, urban/rural, survival tactics/social movements, buildings/lands, inhabitants/policies. Distinct approaches by scholars with different backgrounds and theoretical interests limit our ability to understand the phenomenon. This entry attempts to address the diversity of issues and debates around them.
Stop‐and‐Frisk Policing
Authors: Haldipur Jan
Published: April 2019

“Stop‐and‐frisk policing” is a police strategy utilized by the New York Police Department (NYPD). While some directly attribute New York City's crime decline to the practice, it has been widely criticized for its overuse and selectivity – disproportionately affecting communities of color. In 2013, Federal Judge Scheindlin ruled that the rights of thousands of black and Latino New Yorkers had been violated by current “stop, question, and frisk” tactics, calling for an independent monitor to be appointed.
Subaltern Urbanism
Authors: Butola Balbir Singh
Published: April 2019

The past 300 years have been obsessed with discourses centering on nation‐state and citizenship. The post‐World War II period witnessed a major paradigm shift toward the significance of global cities in creating a more humane world. Scholars from the Global South criticized these narratives for their developmentalism and Eurocentrism and advocated an alternative epistemology and methodology for analyzing urbanization in the Global South. The inspiration for an alternative came from what took place around the turn of the twenty‐first century, particularly the rise of subaltern historiography, the success of Danny Boyle's filmSlumdog MillionaireandLagos/Koolhaasby Dutch film director Bregtje van der Haak at Academy and BAFTA award ceremonies, and the publication of journalist Simon Crerar's report on the Mumbai Slum Tour. Ananya Roy, the protagonist of “subaltern urbanism,” opines that this particular concept is the most appropriate to analyze the people's economy‐centric urbanization in the Global South. But omission of historicity and counterhegemony, the core themes of Gramsci's subaltern approach, in her analysis has restricted the analytical rigor of her methodology. The concept of “carnival city” will be able to overcome most of the limitation of the subaltern urbanization.
Subsidized Affordable Housing (Homeownership)
Authors: Goytia Cynthia , Cristini Marcela
Published: April 2019

Availability of and access to affordable housing are at the core of the housing policy in most countries. Over time, implementation of this policy has switched from direct public intervention (housing construction) and hidden subsidies to direct subsidies (interest rate subsidies, tax rebates). In developing countries, supply side and financing subsidies have been partially replaced by up‐front demand subsidies, with successful experiences in Latin America (Chile, Costa Rica). A further useful step to gain policy efficacy should include the rigorous evaluation of alternative housing policies through economic impact analysis. The redistributive effects of different type of subsidies on homeownership attainment and the implications from a welfare economic point of view still need to be better assessed in theory and policy.
Suburban Segregation
Authors: Mantiñán María José Piñeira
Published: April 2019

Suburban segregation is the action and effect of separating the population in suburban spaces according to socioeconomic, ethnic, and cultural criteria. Segregation can be different according to minorities, since it depends on the assimilation of the behavior of the minority community and external factors, such as the attitude of the reception groups, discrimination by institutions, and the cohesion of the group itself. Traditionally, segregated residential areas have been associated with separate neighborhoods through physical or psychological barriers, ghettos, violence, delinquency, and drugs. The Chicago School was the first to study these processes, which were much more intense in American cities than in European cities. However, since the mid‐twentieth century suburban segregation has also been associated with urban sprawl. The centrifugal movement of the population from the central sectors of the city to the metropolitan areas, in search of a better quality environment and better housing and services, has extended processes of impoverishment and increased social segregation in the consolidated neighborhoods.
Suburban Stories
Authors: Smith Nick R.
Published: April 2019

Suburban stories serve as an index of the state of suburbia and its role in the larger culture. This entry discusses the stories of US suburbia, focusing on the evolving representation of suburbia in US television. In 1950s sitcoms, suburbia emerged as an idyllic landscape of domesticity and middle‐class affluence. In subsequent decades, this idealized image of suburbia has been adapted to reflect contemporary social and cultural sensibilities, including gender equity. In the past two decades, much US television, including shows such as
The Sopranos
,
Breaking Bad
, and
Mad Men
, has turned this image on its head, instead representing suburbs as rife with crime, venality, and deceit.
Sydney
Authors: Forrest James , Ruming Kristian
Published: April 2019

Modern Sydney is a world city by virtue of its global economic integration, corporate headquarters, and degree of global economic integration. It is Australia's largest receiver of immigrants, especially those from non‐English‐speaking backgrounds. It faces problems associated with change from a previously (pre‐mid‐1970s) manufacturing to a contemporary information and financial services base, and socially with its status as Australia's largest EthniCity. Attempts to control rapid post‐World War II growth have been largely unsuccessful, but, as Australia's now most expensive city, efforts aimed at residential consolidation and new approaches to provision of infrastructure are being developed to address the city's planning problems.
Temporary Uses of Spaces
Authors: Gribat Nina , Misselwitz Philipp
Published: April 2019

This entry deals with the issue of temporary uses of spaces as a particular form of urban development based on use agreements that allow for the use of vacant land or buildings for a nominal – or no – rent. Such forms of land use have been developed in many European cities that underwent periods of urban restructuring or shrinkage. The entry distinguishes temporary use from squatting and examines the ways in which temporary use has become a particular planning strategy. In addition, the entry provides an overview of affirmative and critical academic discourses around temporary use.
Territoriality
Authors: Gold John R.
Published: April 2019

Territoriality is an important part of the way in which individuals and groups bring the environment under their control. After an introduction that defines territoriality as the processes and mechanisms by which people establish, maintain, and exert control over bounded portions of the Earth's surface, this entry has four further sections. The first argues that the roots of territoriality stem from culture rather than instinct. The next considers instances of territoriality overlain by conflict and inequality. It examines use of territoriality by dominant groups in society to exert control over others and surveys cases of territorial behavior deployed by residents in defence of
their
neighborhoods. The third part deals with debates about the linkage of territoriality with defensible space and urban resilience. The final part argues that, once established, borders and boundaries are seldom challenged. As such, territoriality can become an intrinsically positive part of the reliable background to everyday urban life, endowing space with symbolic meaning, helping to promote belonging, and reinforcing identity.
Territory/Territoriality
Authors: Elden Stuart
Published: April 2019

“Territory” and “territoriality” are widely used in urban research, but often in a general, nonspecific sense that effectively relies on the idea that a territory is a “bounded space,” or the understanding that territory is the outcome of territoriality. This entry disentangles these uses, looking at economic, political, legal, and strategic senses of the urban–territory relation. Finally it outlines the challenge of “methodological territorialism.” What is described as “methodological territorialism” is really a challenge to the bounded nature of territorial conceptions. Just as work on territory can learn from work reconceptualizing the urban, the same is true in reverse: breaking out of the bounded sense of territory is crucial.
Theory of Rent Gap
Authors: Orueta Fernando Diaz
Published: April 2019

Formulated for the first time in the late 1970s, the theory of rent gap analyzes gentrification from the perspective of production. In rent gap theory gentrification is a structural result of the operation of land and housing markets and therefore priority is given to the study of the key players and especially the developers. This theory explores the historical evolution of the processes of gentrification and its presence in new geographies, emphasizing the need to take into account the global processes of urbanization and the study of territorial stigmatization and population displacement. Since its appearance an intense and rich academic debate has been fueled with interpretations of gentrification that give a central character to cultural aspects.
Tourist City
Authors: Spirou Costas , Judd Dennis R.
Published: April 2019

Tourism has emerged as a major driver of urban economic development, as cities focus on employing existing cultural assets and developing new ones. All this is set in motion for the purpose of improving their urban identity and translating that reconstituted image into opportunities for growth. Significant investments in an associated, physical infrastructure in sport, entertainment, recreation, and tourism are now part of the cultural planning strategies that are central to this new agenda. Museums, sports stadiums, and convention centers, along with upgraded public spaces and urban beautification initiatives, are key elements of this rapidly developing policy direction. Cities view this urban rebranding as a recruiting mechanism capable of attracting new economy entrepreneurs and workers. The making of the tourist city is taking place within complex social, political, and economic conditions.
Urban Ecology
Authors: Dooling Sarah
Published: April 2019

Urban ecology emerged in Europe and North America from the natural sciences as ecologists became concerned about the impacts of rapid rates of urbanization on biota and biogeochemical processes. Broadly, the goals of urban ecological research include minimizing the science–policy gap, establishing cities as legitimate objects and sites for ecological research, and addressing real‐world problems through synthetic, interdisciplinary research. The evolution of urban ecology in North America includes an “ecology in the city” and “ecology of the city” approach. This entry concludes with four proposals to ensure the relevancy of urban ecology in a rapidly changing, increasingly inequitable, and novel world.
Urban Frontier
Authors: King Colby R. , Burt Samantha
Published: April 2019

Urban frontier refers to spaces in or around a city in which (re)settlement and new forms of economic development are emerging, often as a result of incoming capital investment associated with an often racialized political struggle between long‐standing and newly settled residents. Turner and Wade were among the first to describe the urban frontier. Smith's examinations of gentrification revealed how the frontier terminology invokes images of manifest destiny and reveals patterns of change and social upheaval in which long‐standing inhabitants are often marginalized by the settlers of the frontier space through revanchism. The frontier term continues to be juxtaposed with urban spaces, and is invoked in descriptions of unincorporated or unregulated areas with a rapidly growing population, such as disused spaces in Berlin and Detroit and squatter settlements, where disinvestment has led to a lack of functional regulation and practices of DIY urbanism.
Urban Governance
Authors: Lukas Michael
Published: April 2019

In this entry different notions of urban governance are presented, from the diagnosis of living in the era of new networked forms of governance, through normative usages of the term in the form of public policy recipes, to understandings of urban governance as a theoretical field and analytical toolbox. It is discussed how these different notions play out in dissimilar ways in the Global North and the Global South, in the former prevailing debates being about modes of governance in general and the role of urban neoliberalism in particular, while in the latter the focus of urban governance research is often on issues such as informality, poverty, and social movements. Finally, the principal critiques and frontiers of urban governance practice and research are discussed with regard to the relation between urban governance and democracy, the question of power relations, the overemphasis on neoliberalism as explanatory force, and the need to profoundly internationalize the debates on urban governance.
Urban Heritage
Authors: Roders Ana Pereira
Published: April 2019

Urban heritage is a social construction, a selection of resources in urban contexts which communities hold in common and deem valuable and, therefore, are willing to conserve. Urban heritage can be designated under varied legal status, such as municipal, national, and world heritage. Urban heritage can refer to a variety of urban resources, such as tangible, intangible, movable, immovable, natural, cultural, digital, and analogue. Urban heritage is the product of a traditional model of resource consumption and production, whereby urban resources can be destroyed or forgotten, unless deemed valuable and/or listed as heritage. The exception is to conserve and reuse urban resources. Urban heritage is a notion at risk of extinction during the twenty‐first century with its expanding definition and the further enhancement and adoption of more sustainable models of resource consumption and production.
Urban Landscape/Urban Form
Authors: Bergamini Kay
Published: April 2019

Urban form is the concrete manifestation of the physical expression of the city as a result of the transforming action of the human being, with a greater or lesser influence of physical and environmental variables, as well as the content or history that they present. Urban landscape highlights more patently the man–nature relationship that occurs in the territory in a permanent transformation, where its inhabitants' perception plays an important role in its comprehension. In this entry the history of approaches and studies on this issue is reviewed, including in particular a description from the perspectives of urban morphology, as an approach focused on the anthropic aspects that generate physical or visible manifestations.
Urban Liveability
Authors: Aliste Enrique
Published: April 2019

Urban liveability must be understood as an interdisciplinary logic and practice. It can be seen as a perceived notion of well‐being and social cohesion among residents of an urban area, produced by the confluence of the material conditions of architecture and urban design, and access to goods and services (broadly speaking social services, property and public infrastructure, health services, environmental, and cultural services, among others) which support a healthy and sustainable lifestyle, and give residents this perceived notion of liveability.
Urban Metabolism
Authors: Saguin Kristian
Published: April 2019

Urban metabolism refers to the socioecological exchange processes and transformations in cities. Different fields deploy the concept in various ways, rooted in nineteenth‐century work in biology and Marxist theory. Using urban metabolism as a metaphor, a research paradigm, or a methodological tool, studies have ranged from industrial ecological accounting of material energy flows in cities to a focus on the historical production of socionatures in urban political ecology. The multiple meanings and broad scope of metabolism have initiated debates on the usefulness of the concept but have also created spaces for interdisciplinary dialogues that integrate methods and approaches in understanding urban environmental change.
Urban Migration
Authors: Guizardi Menara
Published: April 2019

From the late eighteenth century through the first half of the nineteenth century the Industrial Revolution, triggered by the countries of Northern Europe, caused a series of transformations in socioterritorial organization and in population mobility worldwide. The relationship between the planet's rural and urban areas was inverted and cities began to appear as concentrated poles of political and economic power. This was mainly caused by urban migration which at that time was understood as the displacement of populations from the countryside to the city. The twentieth century witnessed this process gain strength: spreading across the world's continents until, at the turn into the twenty‐first century, globalization of the economy would make urban migration patterns flexible and diverse. This entry historically places the emergence of the conceptual juxtaposition between migration and cities, investigating at what point these issues became central to human beings' social organization.
Urban Morphology/Urban Form
Authors: Chiaradia Alain J. F.
Published: April 2019

This entry provides a general overview of urban morphology, covering the contributions of the three pioneering schools: Italian, British, and French. An overview of the main theoretical traditions is followed by a discussion of the fundamental shift in focus that sees the linking of urban morphology to impacts and a corresponding change in methodology. Finally, the entry examines the main challenges faced by theoretical and empirical research.
Urban or Downtown Renaissance
Authors: Stoker Robert P.
Published: April 2019

An urban renaissance revitalizes city space to attract businesses, residents, and visitors. Renaissance projects align city space with changing opportunities, tastes, and lifestyles. Downtown areas are often targeted for renaissance projects. The motivation to undertake renaissance projects is rooted in competition between cities to attract residents and investment capital. Local pro‐growth coalitions that seek to increase the market and tax value of urban land promote renaissance projects. Gentrification and aggressive policing methods used to control disadvantaged populations are key controversies related to urban renaissance projects.
Urban Regional Regeneration
Authors: Granger Rachel C.
Published: April 2019

This entry traces the shifting balance in the political and definitional significance of regeneration. The role of a more proactive regeneration is examined as a significant area of activity that has emerged and dominated the regeneration landscape for the last two or three decades. While the entry begins by considering what regeneration means, how it evolved, and how it is interpreted, case study material is presented to assess the impact of the physical transformation of places through urban renewal, to the wider needs of urban and regional areas. This provides an important framework for discussing the contemporary critical issues and dilemmas now facing practitioners, and how this shapes the postrecession landscape.
Urban Social Movements
Authors: della Porta Donatella , Subirats Anna
Published: April 2019

This entry addresses urban social movements as an actor of growing importance in urban governance. After describing urban social movements, the entry reviews some of the main interpretations of the conditions for the development of urban social movements as well as their characteristics in the most recent waves of protests. Issues of spatiality in social movement activities are also discussed. Finally, some suggestions for better integration of research on urban social movements in the broader field of contentious politics are put forward.
Urban Underclass
Authors: Perelman Mariano D.
Published: April 2019

The concept
urban underclass
has been used to describe a group of individuals that are below the working class and are unemployable – that is, people who cannot earn their living by selling their labor. The concept is linked to marginalized ways of living in marginalized places of living (such as ghettos). The concept gained relevance at the end of the 1970s and over the following decade, especially in the United States. The concept has been used in different forms and has been defined in distinct ways. Scholars agree that there is no precise definition of the objects, processes, and problems it describes. New studies have brought fresh perspectives to the understanding of poor people's lives and contribute to an understanding that does not blame the poor for their condition. They suggest a structural and subjective scale in the understanding of urban poverty.
Urban Warfare
Authors: Spesny Sara León
Published: April 2019

Urban warfare refers to a range of military operations conducted in cities. Cities have a political, economic, social, and cultural significance that are determinant in warfare tactics. When compared to other landscapes, the sociopolitical and infrastructural specificities of cities make them the most challenging of war operations. Urban violence has shaped the dynamics of cities around the world in different forms. As with all conflicts, urban operations have different origins, related to political, religious, drug‐war, racist, nationalistic, or terrorist and counterterrorist motives. Urban warfare impacts the political, economic, social, and urban aspects of cities, generating shifting dynamics. But beyond infrastructural and urban transformations, contemporary urban operations account for new local nonstate and international actors, such as increasing privatized parties and humanitarian organizations. Certain trends such as globalization, increasing connectivity, but also transnational terrorism and new conflicting parties make war and violence especially relevant to think about in contemporary urban landscapes.
Welfare Capitalism
Authors: Benassi David , Mingione Enzo
Published: April 2019

The term “welfare capitalism” is used in two ways. On the one hand, it refers to the critical interpretations of the controversial impact of capitalism on social protection. From this point of view, the diffusion of capitalism creates a deficit of social protection. On the other hand, welfare capitalism is at the center of the field of study that has tried to explain the diversified features of the welfare state in different national contexts. Here, we explore the historical transition from preindustrial to industrial society and the link between capitalism and welfare. We then discuss different lines of interpretation of capitalist development and the consolidation of the welfare state in Western countries after World War II. Finally, we discuss the current relevance of the concept in a context of postindustrial transformations where social and economic change, globalization, and financialization are changing the connection between capitalism and welfare.
White Flight
Authors: Dilworth Richardson , Gardner Todd
Published: April 2019

The term “white flight” originated specifically with regard to school desegregation. Though Supreme Court decisions such as
Brown vs. Board of Education
(1954) and
Swann vs. Charlotte‐Mecklenburg Board of Education
(1971) should ostensibly have decreased segregation in schools,
Milliken vs. Bradley
(1974) made it possible for white parents living in a central city in which there was a large black population to avoid integration by moving to an outlying suburban school district in which there were very few, if any, black children. Most available evidence suggests that this is in fact what happened; the massive migration of African Americans from the Southern states to Northeastern and Midwestern cities after World War II was matched by the migration of white Americans out of those same cities and into the surrounding suburbs. Yet more recently, whites are moving back into cities while an increasing number of blacks are moving into the suburbs.
World City
Authors: Machimura Takashi
Published: April 2019

The concept “world city” appeared in the realm of urban studies in the 1980s, as a term that theorizes emerging urban hierarchy in the era of globalization. Although it was originally based on a critical theory that pointed out the contradictions faced by modern cities, its main idea soon became used as a convenient policy package by the world's urban policy‐makers for selling the objectives and strategies of cities. Both as an analytic and political model, the world city held significant influence within a short period; however, the theory also endured much criticism and brought about controversy. Yet as globalization increased in scale and power, capitalism overtook the “world city” vision. What was subsequently revealed was the rather dull figure of the city, falling behind an ever accelerating society. A rethinking of the meaning of the world city as a new urban experience may now be needed.
Digital Cities
Authors: Stollmann Jörg
Published: April 2019

The term “digital city” – like “smart city” – is an umbrella term advocating the implementation and distribution of information and communication technology (ICT) in the city. Even though the term itself lacks a clear definition, at the beginning, the digital city discourse emphasized citizen involvement, coproduction, and knowledge‐sharing. Today, where processes of digitization are increasingly steered by ICT companies and government programs, a reevaluation of this discourse brings to the fore the common agenda behind contemporary citizen‐led or citizen‐oriented digital tools supporting a more democratic urban development.
Urban Education
Authors: Eizaguirre Santiago
Published: April 2019

Urban education refers to areas of research that explore the contextualization of educational problems in urban settings affected by social segregation. The concept originated and is commonly used in English‐speaking countries, especially the United States. In European academic literature, and especially in non‐English‐speaking countries, its use has been less evident. This entry considers the evolution of the concept in the United States and its presence in specifically European research. The contribution sketches the main current lines of research that situate the concept in relation to the study of spatial segregation and school choice, learning strategies in vulnerable contexts, the role of families and the community in school performance, and the adaptation of teaching staff to urban challenges.
Berlin
Authors: Holm Andrej
Published: April 2019

Berlin is the capital of Germany. Because of its history of urbanization, Berlin possesses a polycentric urban structure. In the nineteenth century, the city emerged as a European prototype of effective urban administration and municipal self‐government. From large Wilhelminian tenements to world heritage sites of the early communal housing estates to the modernist buildings of the postwar period in the West and the socialist housing estates in the East, Berlin's history is still present in the built environment. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the city's reunification, Berlin had to undergo a comprehensive transformation of its urban structure.
Jacobs, Jane
Authors: Breske Ashleigh , Hirt Sonia
Published: April 2019

Jane Jacobs was a renowned American Canadian author and activist, best known for her “commonsense” contributions to urbanism and urban planning. Her book
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
is considered one of the most significant books on urban planning policy ever written. In this book Jacobs advocated mixed‐use principles, retrofitting urban neighborhoods, and participatory planning. She also coined some important terms such as “sidewalk ballet” and “eyes on the street” to describe elements of successful, safe neighborhoods. These terms are still in use today. Jacobs also wrote several other highly influential books on urbanist, economic, and political topics throughout her long career.
Moving to Opportunity (MTO)
Authors: Rosenblatt Peter
Published: April 2019

The federal Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing demonstration program (MTO) was designed to test the potential of public housing to provide an opportunity for poor families to change their lives by moving to better‐off neighborhoods. The program offered families a chance to move to low‐poverty neighborhoods and used an experimental design with a control group that allowed researchers to test prominent theories about the role that neighborhoods play in shaping life outcomes for adults and children. While initial outcomes were mixed, more recent analyses suggest that moving out of high‐poverty neighborhoods at a young age can have significant impacts on future earnings and college attendance. MTO also shows the need to learn more about the mechanisms that drive neighborhood selection among low income households.
New Urban Sociology
Authors: Gottdiener Mark
Published: April 2019

The concept of a “new urban sociology” refers to a paradigm shift in urban sociology that began in the 1970s and established a dominant approach. This approach emphasizes Marxist and post‐Marxist urban political economy (class, race, gender, agenda‐setting major businesses in commerce, banking, and real estate, and the involvement of government officials at all levels in influencing, if not determining, the outcomes of social activities in settlement space), the independent role of organized and constructed space itself, as first articulated by Henri Lefebvre, and the role of culture, symbols, signs, themes, and processes of signification in settlement space activities. This entry covers the content of the new paradigm, its applications, its differences from the previous paradigm in sociology, and the ways in which important new work applies the dominant paradigm to current and future conditions in urbanized settlement space.
Olmsted, Frederick Law
Authors: Abbott Carl
Published: April 2019

Frederick Law Olmsted was a central figure in the modernization of the United States and in the development of its cities. His variegated career overlapped with many of the important events and trends of nineteenth‐century America – agricultural reform, slavery and the Civil War, conservation, the World's Columbian Exposition, suburbanization, and, most centrally, the development of urban parks. Key projects included Central Park in New York, Prospect Park in Brooklyn, the Fenway in Boston, the town of Riverside in Illinois, and the grounds of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Olmsted is considered to have created the first fully professional landscape architecture firm in the United States; and he contributed to the development of theories of urbanization and urban life.
Race Riot
Authors: Lorr Michael J.
Published: April 2019

Race riots are periods of hostility and instability, usually caused by a public occurrence that has explicit or implicit racializing or racist meanings. Some examples of contemporary race riots are the 2014–2015 Ferguson, Missouri riots and the 2015 Baltimore, Maryland riots in response to Freddie Gray's killing by the police. Both of these recent examples created and reinforced the Black Lives Matter movement and the countermovements Blue Lives Matter and All Lives Matter. Prior to these riots, the 1992 LA riots occurred after the acquittal of the police officers in the Rodney King trial and the race riots of 1968 resulted from the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. After race riots there is an outburst of interest in studying why they occurred. For example, the 1968 race riots resulted in the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, also known as the Kerner Commission Report.
Simmel, Georg
Authors: Langman Lauren , Purifoye Gwendolyn
Published: April 2019

While cities have existed for millennia, with the rise of modern capitalism the city became the center for the new, rational, exchange economy based on profits measured by cash values. Georg Simmel was one of the first sociologists to study the nature of the modern city, not only in terms of its architecture and commerce, but in terms of the culture of urban life and its relationship to the everyday lives of its people. Perhaps most notably, given the density of the populations, the busy streets and markets, and, increasingly, the proliferation of artificial lighting, the typical demeanor of the dweller of the metropolis was a blasé indifference which served as a protective mechanism from the overstimulation of urban life. Simmel's observations on urban life, the nature of objective and subjective culture, and the unique kinds of interactions specific to the city influenced a number of American sociologists.
Sociability
Authors: García Marisol , Tegelaars Michiel
Published: April 2019

Sociability refers to different forms of social interaction and human association. The concept, in both descriptive and normative senses, can be found in many branches of study. In sociology the concept occupied a central place in the work of Georg Simmel, who developed and presented it as a sociological ideal type. He saw sociability as a pure form of association in which individuals interact with their material interests and passions held in abeyance for the sake of the mutual enjoyment of each other's company. After him a good many scholars have elaborated on the concept, either extending, criticizing, or attempting to measure it. In cultural and social historiography the concept of sociability has been used to focus on the many places and occasions and ways in which people have come together, spontaneously and voluntarily, outside the formal institutions of their societies. Modern views of sociability incorporate the concept in the study of Internet‐mediated social relations, in urban planning, and in the formation of newer concepts such as social capital and social cohesion.
Social Disorganization
Authors: Walker Jeffery T.
Published: April 2019

There is perhaps no theory of urban environment specifically related to crime that was more successful in establishing new knowledge in a variety of fields than social disorganization theory. Developed within the burgeoning study of the urban environment, social disorganization theory drew from the disciplines of sociology, biology, urban affairs, and criminology. The work of Shaw and McKay was among the most influential of its time and spawned a line of research that remains strong and is growing in the twenty‐first century.
Spatial Inequality
Authors: Fischer Mary , Li Angran
Published: April 2019

Neighborhoods reflect social inequalities, but also serve as locations for perpetuating inequalities because of the multiplex ways in which resources and opportunities are tied to spatial locations. This entry explores the theoretical perspectives and methodological techniques used to understand the relationship between social inequality and location in residential space. It also discusses some of the latest research on the intergenerational transmission of spatial inequality. It concludes by highlighting promising new policy directions to address place‐based social inequities.