Mundus Urbano Re Thinking Urban Development

As we enter a "Mundus Urbano", urban issues become even more central to many professions related to planning. This situation not only reinforces long identified challenges but also generates new ones for which planners from all different fields of inquiry have to re-think their own practice. This book gathers works that reflect recent challenges examined by the fresh eyes of young professionals brought together to stretch conventions towards an innovative approach to urban studies. The reader will find world-wide as well as more localised study cases in four chapters that embed the most up-to-date questions permeating the field: sociocultural production and urban space, urban governance and social challenges, contemporary planning and cooperating in the south and sustainable urban infrastructure. Each of these chapters is introduced by prominent authors such as Prof. Amos Rapoport, PhD. Jaqueline Britto Pólvora, Prof. Guiqing Yang and Cor Dijkgraaf, who have been of great importance during the course of this advanced Master studies.

As we enter a Mundus Urbano, urban issues become even more central to many professions related to planning. This situation not only reinforces long identified challenges but also generates new ones for which planners from all different fields of inquiry have to re-think their own practice. This book gathers works that reflect recent challenges examined by the fresh eyes of young professionals brought together to stretch conventions towards an innovative approach to urban studies. The reader will find world-wide as well as more localised study cases in four chapters that embed the most up-to-date questions permeating the field: sociocultural production and urban space, urban governance and social challenges, contemporary planning and cooperating in the south and sustainable urban infrastructure. Each of these chapters is introduced by prominent authors such as Prof. Amos Rapoport, PhD. Jaqueline Britto Polvora, Prof. Guiqing Yang and Cor Dijkgraaf, who have been of great importance during the course of this advanced Master."

This report provides a new perspective to the nature of urban sprawl and its causes and environmental, social and economic consequences.

Conditions for travel have changed and are still changing the world a world experiencing what John Urry calls the mobility turn . Since World War Two we have been moving faster and going further a fact that has profoundly changed our way of experiencing both the world and ourselves. The explosion of low-cost travel options has similarly had an important impact on the economy, adding to the globalization of markets and transformations in modes of production. It is no longer possible to think of nation-states as autonomous vis-a-vis one another, nor of cities or regions as homogenous spaces delimited by clear-cut borders. Societies, like Western cities, are redefining themselves through mobility. What does this mean for the city for its governability and governance? In this book Vincent Kaufmann assesses the urban implications of the mobility turn. He explores the modern urban phenomenon from the point of view of the mobility capacities of its players their motility. He asks that the reader consider the idea of a city or region as the product or an arrangement of a specific set of motilities. Re-Thinking the City seeks to identify how the motility of individuals, goods, and information acts as an organizing principle or rather, the organizing principle of contemporary urban change, and then aims to examine the consequences for urban governance by exploring the channels through which individual and collective motility can be regulated.

In the last decade a new wave of urban research has emerged, putting comparative perspectives back on the urban studies agenda. However, this research is frequently based on similar case studies on a few selected cities in America and Europe and all too often focus on the abstract city level with marginal attention given to particular local contexts. Moving away from loosely defined urban theories and contexts, this book argues it is time to start learning from and compare across different ‘contested cities’. It questions the long-standing Euro-centric academic knowledge production that is prevalent in urban studies and planning research. This book brings together a diverse range of international case studies from Latin America, South and South East Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East to offer an in-depth understanding of the worldwide contested nature of cities in a wide range of local contexts. It suggests an urban ontology that moves beyond the urban ‘West’ and ‘North’ as well as adding a comparative-relational understanding of the contested nature that ‘Southern’ cities are developing. This timely contribution is essential reading for those working in the fields of human geography, urban studies, planning, politics, area studies and sociology.

The rapid urbanization that began with industrialization has begun to cause many problems. New approaches are emerging today to minimize these problems and make urban areas more livable. These problems include insufficient social facilities in urban areas for increasing populations due to migration and unbalanced use of green areas, water, and energy resources due to urbanization. Careless consumption and the pollution of natural resources will cause people many more problems in the future than they do today in urban development. Many professional disciplines have noticed this unbalanced development in urban areas. Urban areas have larger populations than rural areas today. Urban areas are developed neglectfully. Sustainability is needed as a criterion for urban areas to develop in a more livable and healthy fashion. Sustainable urban development approaches are seen in many fields, ranging from land use to the use of natural resources in urban areas.

This book provides a framework for the design, implementation, and measurement of sustainable urban development in developing countries. It presents the findings of an AGS-sponsored project. Based on case studies in Johannesburg, Gabarone, and Santiago de Chile, the book identifies challenges and potentials for sustainable urban development and suggests alternative ways that governments, city-regions, communities, and planners can respond to these challenges. The introductory part highlights the problem of global urbanization, focusing on cities of sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. The design part includes a context/needs analysis followed by recommendations of broad frameworks for sustainable urban development. The implementation part looks at the institutional and policy framework and strategies necessary for sustainable urban development, while the measurement part deals with the required mechanisms and tools for evaluating sustainable urban development policy and strategies as well as the review of outcomes/impacts (indicators). This publication is of special interest for university researchers and students, international experts, and organizations for sustainable urban development in developing countries, but also practitioners from planning authorities worldwide.