Transforming Towns

Transforming Towns PDF Author: Matthew Jones
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000245004
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
Towns have undergone dramatic and rapid change over the last century. Declining historic cores are surrounded by sprawling low-density housing, industrial and retail estates. The character and sense of place at the heart of rural towns and villages is under threat. By drawing people away from town centres, these developments erode the sense of community and public life. This book demonstrates how contemporary architecture, community engagement and thoughtful urban design can contribute to the creation of thriving small communities. It addresses a lack of inspiration and ideas for architects and designers working in small communities and promotes a character-based approach to designing and planning 21st century towns.

Transforming Towns

Transforming Towns PDF Author: Matthew Jones
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000245004
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
Towns have undergone dramatic and rapid change over the last century. Declining historic cores are surrounded by sprawling low-density housing, industrial and retail estates. The character and sense of place at the heart of rural towns and villages is under threat. By drawing people away from town centres, these developments erode the sense of community and public life. This book demonstrates how contemporary architecture, community engagement and thoughtful urban design can contribute to the creation of thriving small communities. It addresses a lack of inspiration and ideas for architects and designers working in small communities and promotes a character-based approach to designing and planning 21st century towns.

Transforming Cities with Transit

Transforming Cities with Transit PDF Author: Hiroaki Suzuki
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821397508
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
'Transforming Cities with Transit' explores the complex process of transit and land-use integration and provides policy recommendations and implementation strategies for effective integration in rapidly growing cities in developing countries.

The Geographical Transformation of China

The Geographical Transformation of China PDF Author: Michael Dunford
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131761478X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
The aim of this book is to examine the transformation of the geography of China in the years since the start of China's policy of reform and opening-up in 1978, as seen through the eyes of Chinese geographers. Throughout that period, Chinese geographers have studied these environmental, economic, political and cultural processes closely, drawing on sources that are far from easy to access, and have published their results in Chinese. Much of this research has underpinned the Chinese government's assessment of policies and the policy choices at different levels, yet it is not well known outside of China. This volume deals with aspects of the socio-economic geography of China's transformation including its changing relations with the rest of the world, although it also deals with the impact of China's development path on the country's ecological systems. Each chapter deals with aggregate trends and specific cases to show the ways in which the particular characteristics of China's economic and social order (economic organization, political system and cultural model and values) have shaped and are shaped by its geography.

Newcomers to Old Towns

Newcomers to Old Towns PDF Author: Sonya Salamon
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226734110
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
2004 winner of the Robert E. Park Book Award from the Community and Urban Sociology Section (CUSS) of the American Sociological Association Although the death of the small town has been predicted for decades, during the 1990s the population of rural America actually increased by more than three million people. In this book, Sonya Salamon explores these rural newcomers and the impact they have on the social relationships, public spaces, and community resources of small town America. Salamon draws on richly detailed ethnographic studies of six small towns in central Illinois, including a town with upscale subdivisions that lured wealthy professionals as well as towns whose agribusinesses drew working-class Mexicano migrants and immigrants. She finds that regardless of the class or ethnicity of the newcomers, if their social status differs relative to that of oldtimers, their effect on a town has been the same: suburbanization that erodes the close-knit small town community, with especially severe consequences for small town youth. To successfully combat the homogenization of the heartland, Salamon argues, newcomers must work with oldtimers so that together they sustain the vital aspects of community life and identity that first drew them to small towns. An illustration of the recent revitalization of interest in the small town, Salamon's work provides a significant addition to the growing literature on the subject. Social scientists, sociologists, policymakers, and urban planners will appreciate this important contribution to the ongoing discussion of social capital and the transformation in the study and definition of communities.

Transforming Cities

Transforming Cities PDF Author: Nick Corbett
Publisher: Riba Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
Cities can be transformed by better quality public space and Revival in the Square explains how to do it. In a clear and accessible way, it provides an insight into how design strategies for public spaces can revive our cities. The book is based on real experience and provides an effective bridge between strategy and action on the ground. Endorsed by Richard Rogers, international architect and chief adviser to the Mayor of London and by Jon Rouse, chief executive of the Housing Corporation, Revival in the Square is highly relevant to anyone interested in the role of public squares in urban regeneration. The book demonstrates how uncluttered and joined up public spaces can be built to promote civic values and commercial competitiveness and how squares can bring people together for a more positive, shared experience of urban living. It gives practical guidance on creating the high quality public space that is required for an urban renaissance. Fully illustrated throughout with international examples of best practice, Revival in the Square is an important contribution that links strategy and design to the delivery of a better built environment. Revival in the Square demonstrates how the city square has always been at the heart of public urban life. In today's world, as cities compete in the global market place, their image and quality of life are increasingly important. Governments around the world are encouraging city authorities to work with the private sector to invest in regeneration and urban design - and new city squares are providing a focus for this activity. The various governmental, professional and commercial organizations involved with the design, development and management of public space have traditionally been divided into separate disciplines, resulting in a fragmented system characterized by communication gaps between the main stakeholders. Transforming Cities: Revival in the Square explains how to close the gaps through strategic leadership, management, and high quality design - all helping the delivery of an urban renaissance. The book has two main themes. Firstly, it is about how the decision-making infrastructure can be improved; secondly, it is about the physical design and management required to create and maintain sustainable public spaces. The book shows that if people are to be aware of the complexity and variety of the society they are a part of, and if they are to appreciate notions of civic identity and respect for others, there must be a place they can occasionally see and experience a diverse cross section of that society - and this is one of the key functions of the city square.

A Modern History of European Cities

A Modern History of European Cities PDF Author: Rosemary Wakeman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 135001768X
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
Rosemary Wakeman's original survey text comprehensively explores modern European urban history from 1815 to the present day. It provides a journey to cities and towns across the continent, in search of the patterns of development that have shaped the urban landscape as indelibly European. The focus is on the built environment, the social and cultural transformations that mark the patterns of continuity and change, and the transition to modern urban society. Including over 60 images that serve to illuminate the analysis, the book examines whether there is a European city, and if so, what are its characteristics? Wakeman offers an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates concepts from cultural and postcolonial studies, as well as urban geography, and provides full coverage of urban society not only in western Europe, but also in eastern and southern Europe, using various cities and city types to inform the discussion. The book provides detailed coverage of the often-neglected urbanization post-1945 which allows us to more clearly understand the modernizing arc Europe has followed over the last two centuries.

Towns, Ecology, and the Land

Towns, Ecology, and the Land PDF Author: Richard T. T. Forman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107199131
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 637

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Book Description
A pioneering book highlighting the dynamic environmental dimensions of towns and villages and spatial connections with surrounding land.

Nordic Welfare Cities

Nordic Welfare Cities PDF Author: Magnus Linnarsson
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040040985
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
This book examines Nordic cities from 1850 and their transformation from traditional, oligarchic towns to modern, inclusive welfare cities. In the contemporary world, the role of cities as hotbeds for progressive change has become increasingly topical. Historical studies on how Nordic cities addressed social and environmental questions a hundred years ago and how they eventually created new and inclusive policies for the future is a useful contribution to the current debate. The concept of the welfare city is addressed and elaborated upon to analyse the attempts by urban authorities to solve the problems following industrialization and urbanization. From the late nineteenth century, municipal public services promoted the integration of new groups in the urban community including workers, immigrants, women and children. The contributions in this book analyse various examples of welfare and public services that include infrastructure and transport systems, health care, housing conditions, outdoor life and entertainment. The chapters highlight the arguments and considerations promoting welfare policies, while also addressing differences between the Nordic countries. The evolution of the Nordic welfare city was a process of several overlapping phases or dimensions. This volume will be of value to students and scholars alike interested in urban history, social and cultural history and European history.

Urban China Reframed

Urban China Reframed PDF Author: Wing-Shing Tang
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000404412
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
Given China’s rapid economic growth and massive urbanization, no one in the world can ignore what is happening in urban China. This book is a critical review of existing urban China research, which is found wanting due to the decontextualized use of theories and concepts developed in the West. Urban China Reframed: A Critical Appreciation consists of epistemological, theoretical and methodological contributions to remedy these limitations by focusing on a number of relevant topics. First, models are widely employed in any study, and China nowadays has invoked models like city system, zones and global city in socio-economic development. How to interpret them in terms of knowledge production in a strong party-state? Second, given the global prevalence of neoliberalism, it is an important debate whether neoliberalism is applicable to China. Third, what is urban ideology in China? How to contextualize it? Are debates about the differentiation between the city and urbanization relevant to China? Fourth, massive rural-urban migration in China has taken place within its mega rural-urban dual system, an institution that has persisted since the 1950s. How does it manifest nowadays? Fifth, has the town-country divide in China, like in the West, disappeared? If not, how can one interpret China’s town-country relations, within the politics and administration of the Chinese state? Sixth, how to decipher the territorial development in the Pearl River Delta, the "world’s factory," under the auspices of the state? The collection of essays in this volume contributes to the theoretical understanding of urban China. The chapters in this book were originally published in the Eurasian Geography and Economics.

Routledge Handbook of Urban Planning in Africa

Routledge Handbook of Urban Planning in Africa PDF Author: Carlos Nunes Silva
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351271822
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
This handbook contributes with new evidence and new insights to the on-going debate on the de-colonization of knowledge on urban planning in Africa. African cities grew rapidly since the mid-20th century, in part due to rising rural migration and rapid internal demographic growth that followed the independence in most African countries. This rapid urbanization is commonly seen as a primary cause of the current urban management challenges with which African cities are confronted. This importance given to rapid urbanization prevented the due consideration of other dimensions of the current urban problems, challenges and changes in African cities. The contributions to this handbook explore these other dimensions, looking in particular to the nature and capacity of local self-government and to the role of urban governance and urban planning in the poor urban conditions found in most African cities. It deals with current and contemporary urban challenges and urban policy responses, but also offers an historical overview of local governance and urban policies during the colonial period in the late 19th and 20th centuries, offering ample evidence of common features, and divergent features as well, on a number of facets, from intra-urban racial segregation solutions to the relationships between the colonial power and the natives, to the assimilation policy, as practiced by the French and Portuguese and the Indirect Rule put in place by Britain in some or in part of its colonies. Using innovative approaches to the challenges confronting the governance of African cities, this handbook is an essential read for students and scholars of Urban Africa, urban planning in Africa and African Development.