Flyovers and elevated highways are built in many global cities to privilege the movement of elites and separate spatial movement. However, they often displace large numbers of poorer residents and further segregate access to mobility. While touted as symbols of modernity, these projects actually reflect ongoing struggles over who can freely move and are contested by those with constrained mobility. Alternatives are being explored in some cities that repurpose this space for equitable public use rather than private automobility.
Elite avenues: Flyovers, freeways and the politics of urban mobilityStephen Graham
Development and planning elites across many of the burgeoning megacities of the Global South still work powerfully to fetishise elevated highways or flyovers as part of their efforts at ‘worlding’ their cities. In such a context, and given the neglect of such processes in recent urban and mobilities literatures, this paper presents an international and interdis- ciplinary analysis of the urban and vertical politics of raised flyovers, freeways and express- ways. It argues that such highways need to be seen as important elements within broader processes of three-dimensional social segregation and secession within and between cities which privilege the mobilities of the privileged. The paper falls into six sections. Following the introduction, the complex genealogies of flyover urban design are discussed. Discussion then moves to the vertical politics of flyovers in the West Bank and post-Apartheid South Africa; the elite imaginings surrounding flyover construction in Mumbai; the political struggles surrounding the ribbons of space beneath flyover systems; and the efforts to bury or reappropriate the landscapes of raised flyovers.
At iomob we seek to transform urban mobility from its current fragmented state towards a decentralised internet of mobility marketplace. This white paper seeks to explore emerging trends and future directions towards more seamless access to public and private mobility services.
Transportation Planning for Car Free Living: The Evolution of Zurich, Switzer...TheLastMile
This is the story of the development of an alternative approach to transportation planning and how it has transformed the city. We start the story in the 1960s when the government plans for moving trams from the surface to underground was rejected in a referendum. In 1973, a similar plan was rejected. As part of this fight the activists developed a 'People's Plan for Prioritizing Transit' which still serves as the conceptual underpinning of transportation planning in Zurich to this day.
Histories of the Future in Contemporary Megastructures
An exploration of the development of multi-level cities around the world, and their links to historic futurism
Supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, this ebook highlights a dozen of CityLab's favorite stories from the 2014 series on how Americans will travel tomorrow.
Elite avenues: Flyovers, freeways and the politics of urban mobilityStephen Graham
Development and planning elites across many of the burgeoning megacities of the Global South still work powerfully to fetishise elevated highways or flyovers as part of their efforts at ‘worlding’ their cities. In such a context, and given the neglect of such processes in recent urban and mobilities literatures, this paper presents an international and interdis- ciplinary analysis of the urban and vertical politics of raised flyovers, freeways and express- ways. It argues that such highways need to be seen as important elements within broader processes of three-dimensional social segregation and secession within and between cities which privilege the mobilities of the privileged. The paper falls into six sections. Following the introduction, the complex genealogies of flyover urban design are discussed. Discussion then moves to the vertical politics of flyovers in the West Bank and post-Apartheid South Africa; the elite imaginings surrounding flyover construction in Mumbai; the political struggles surrounding the ribbons of space beneath flyover systems; and the efforts to bury or reappropriate the landscapes of raised flyovers.
At iomob we seek to transform urban mobility from its current fragmented state towards a decentralised internet of mobility marketplace. This white paper seeks to explore emerging trends and future directions towards more seamless access to public and private mobility services.
Transportation Planning for Car Free Living: The Evolution of Zurich, Switzer...TheLastMile
This is the story of the development of an alternative approach to transportation planning and how it has transformed the city. We start the story in the 1960s when the government plans for moving trams from the surface to underground was rejected in a referendum. In 1973, a similar plan was rejected. As part of this fight the activists developed a 'People's Plan for Prioritizing Transit' which still serves as the conceptual underpinning of transportation planning in Zurich to this day.
Histories of the Future in Contemporary Megastructures
An exploration of the development of multi-level cities around the world, and their links to historic futurism
Supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, this ebook highlights a dozen of CityLab's favorite stories from the 2014 series on how Americans will travel tomorrow.
Super-tall and Ultra-deep: The Cultural Politics of the ElevatorStephen Graham
Entire libraries can be filled with volumes exploring the cultures, politics and geo- graphies of the largely horizontal mobilities and transportation infrastructures that are intrinsic to urban modernity (highways, railways, subways, public transit and so on). And yet the recent ‘mobilities turn’ has almost completely neglected the cultural geographies and politics of vertical transportation within and between the buildings of vertically-structured cityscapes. Attempting to rectify this neglect, this article seeks, first, to bring elevator travel centrally into discussions about the cultural politics of urban space and, second, to connect elevator urbanism to the even more neglected worlds of elevator-based descent in ultra-deep mining. The article addresses, in turn: the historical emergence of elevator urbanism; the cultural significance of the eleva- tor as spectacle; the global ‘race’ in elevator speed; shifts towards the ‘splintering’ of elevator experiences; experiments with new mobility systems which blend elevators and automobiles; problems of vertical abandonment; and, finally, the neglected ver- tical politics of elevator-based ‘ultra-deep’ mining.
THE FUTURE OF LAND, WATERWAY, AIR AND SPACE TRANSPORTATION MEANS.pdfFaga1939
This article aims to present the major innovations that are expected to occur in land transport (urban, road and rail), waterway transport, air transport and space transport in the future. What will land, waterway, air and space transportation of the future be like? The answers to this question are presented in this article.
Super-tall and Ultra-deep: The Cultural Politics of the ElevatorStephen Graham
Entire libraries can be filled with volumes exploring the cultures, politics and geo- graphies of the largely horizontal mobilities and transportation infrastructures that are intrinsic to urban modernity (highways, railways, subways, public transit and so on). And yet the recent ‘mobilities turn’ has almost completely neglected the cultural geographies and politics of vertical transportation within and between the buildings of vertically-structured cityscapes. Attempting to rectify this neglect, this article seeks, first, to bring elevator travel centrally into discussions about the cultural politics of urban space and, second, to connect elevator urbanism to the even more neglected worlds of elevator-based descent in ultra-deep mining. The article addresses, in turn: the historical emergence of elevator urbanism; the cultural significance of the eleva- tor as spectacle; the global ‘race’ in elevator speed; shifts towards the ‘splintering’ of elevator experiences; experiments with new mobility systems which blend elevators and automobiles; problems of vertical abandonment; and, finally, the neglected ver- tical politics of elevator-based ‘ultra-deep’ mining.
THE FUTURE OF LAND, WATERWAY, AIR AND SPACE TRANSPORTATION MEANS.pdfFaga1939
This article aims to present the major innovations that are expected to occur in land transport (urban, road and rail), waterway transport, air transport and space transport in the future. What will land, waterway, air and space transportation of the future be like? The answers to this question are presented in this article.
Super-tall and ultra-deep: The Politics of the ElevatorsStephen Graham
Entire libraries can be filled with volumes exploring the cultures, politics and geographies
of the largely horizontal mobilities and transportation infrastructures that are
intrinsic to urban modernity (highways, railways, subways, public transit and so on).
And yet the recent ‘mobilities turn’ has almost completely neglected the cultural
geographies and politics of vertical transportation within and between the buildings of
vertically-structured cityscapes. Attempting to rectify this neglect, this article seeks,
first, to bring elevator travel centrally into discussions about the cultural politics of
urban space and, second, to connect elevator urbanism to the even more neglected
worlds of elevator-based descent in ultra-deep mining. The article addresses, in turn:
the historical emergence of elevator urbanism; the cultural significance of the elevator
as spectacle; the global ‘race’ in elevator speed; shifts towards the ‘splintering’ of
elevator experiences; experiments with new mobility systems which blend elevators
and automobiles; problems of vertical abandonment; and, finally, the neglected vertical
politics of elevator-based ‘ultra-deep’ mining.
52.3 - CASE ANALYSIS FUNDING THE RAILROADS2.3 - .docxalinainglis
5
2.3 - CASE ANALYSIS: FUNDING THE RAILROADS
2.3 - Case Analysis: Funding the Railroads
Susan A. Student
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Running head: 2.3 - CASE ANALYSIS: FUNDING THE RAILROADS 1
2.3 - Case Analysis: Funding the Railroads
I. Summary
The speculative benefits of a transcontinental railroad were easy enough to articulate: there was fertile land out west for migrants to farm, gold and silver to be mined in California, and of course it was a matter of national pride (Ambrose, 2000). According to Ambrose (2000), the whole country was clamoring for it to be done, yet few were crazy enough to invest as “the risks of financial failure and ruin were huge” (Union Pacific, n.d. para. 3). Ultimately, funding was provided by the United States government via the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, “mostly in the form of land grants to the railroads; the railroads would sell the unused land to fund the construction” (Ambrose, 2000, p. 47). Much of the land was all but worthless at the time, but it was assumed that as transportation cost were reduced, the land would become more valuable (Garrison & Levinson, 2014; Ambrose, 2000).
II. Problem
The problem is multifaceted. Unfortunately for the railroad companies, they could not sell most of the land until after the railroad was built, and they could not build the railroad without the proceeds of the land sales (Ambrose, 2000). Some relief came with the Pacific Railroad Act of 1864 which doubled land grants and (more importantly) provided the ability to borrow against the land grants by issuing bonds (Union Pacific, n.d.). However, even with doubled bonds and the ability to borrow against them, the transcontinental railroad had major financing difficulties (Ambrose, 2000; Union Pacific, n.d.).
On the other hand, Illinois representative E.B. Washburn (as quoted in Ambrose, 2000) called the 1864 bill “the most monstrous and flagrant attempt to overreach the government and the people…” (p. 94), charging that the Wall Street elites pushing for funding were only out to profit off the public (Ambrose, 2000). Eglin Air Force Base Archaeologist Benjamin Aubuchon (personal communication, August 17, 2016) affirms that while the Pacific Railroad Acts were instrumental in building the transcontinental railroad, many railroad corporations in the Southeastern U.S. were formed with no intention of following through. In Northwest Florida, the timber-rich land was usually promptly sold for lumber (or turpentine operations in the early 1900s) as soon as it was acquired, whereupon shareholders pocketed the profits as corporations went bankrupt, abandoning the vast majority of the proposed railways (B. Aubuchon, personal communication, August 17, 2016).
III. Significance of the Problem
While the public was eager to see the transcontinental line built, putting taxpayer’s money behind the project was out of the question (Ambrose, 2000). Offering land grants was seen as a way to.
DOXIADIS
HUMAN SETTLEMENT AND PLANING
CONSTANTINOS APOSTOLOU DOXIADIS
THEORY OF EKISTICS
Minor shells- Micro-settlements- Meso-settlements- Macro-settlements-Ekistics Logarithm Scale:-
BY EVOLUNITARY PHASE
BY FACTOR AND DISCIPLINE
CASE STUDY: ISLAMABAD
Master Plan
Comparison of Land cover
CONCEPT OF CITY PLANNING
ROAD NETWORK & HIERARCHY
ROAD NETWORK & TRANSPORT
HOUSES AND STREET PATTERN
GRID SYSTEM
CURRENT CHALLENGES FACED BY THE CITY
Denver: Building a Livable Streets Movement.naparstek
A presentation by Streetsblog Founder and MIT Visiting Scholar Aaron Naparstek.
Congress for New Urbanism Colorado
March 19th, 2013 4-6pm.
Tattered Cover LoDo
1628 16th St, Denver, CO
Similar to Elite Avenues: Flyovers, Freeways and the Politics of Urban Mobility (20)
Bunkering down the geography of elite residential basement development in londonStephen Graham
Much has been written about the “luxified skies” – “high-rise”, “super-prime” housing for the super-rich – that has been sprouting up across London. Thus far, less attention has been paid to what has been happening to the subterranean city. The “luxified skies” are highly visible reminders of elite “verticality” but, what we might term, “luxified troglodytism” is also an important aspect of London’s changing geometries of wealth, power and architecture. In this paper, we map out in detail the emerging subterranean geography of residential basement development across London since 2008. The very wealthy, it turns out, have been “bunkering down” across certain parts of London, to an extent hitherto little understood. Some 7,328 new residential basements underneath existing houses had been granted planning permission up to late-2019. Over 1,500 of them are of a size that their locations might best be thought of as marking out a distinct plutocratic “basement belt”.
Vertical : The city from satellites to bunkersStephen Graham
A revolutionary reimagining of the cities we live in, the air above us, and what goes on in the earth beneath our feet
Today we live in a world that can no longer be read as a two-dimensional map, but must now be understood as a series of vertical strata that reach from the satellites that encircle our planet to the tunnels deep within the ground. In Vertical, Stephen Graham rewrites the city at every level: how the geography of inequality, politics, and identity is determined in terms of above and below.
Starting at the edge of earth’s atmosphere and, in a series of riveting studies, descending through each layer, Graham explores the world of drones, the city from the viewpoint of an aerial bomber, the design of sidewalks and the hidden depths of underground bunkers. He asks: why was Dubai built to be seen from Google Earth? How do the super-rich in São Paulo live in their penthouses far above the street? Why do London billionaires build vast subterranean basements? And how do the technology of elevators and subversive urban explorers shape life on the surface and subsurface of the earth?
Vertical will make you look at the world around you anew: this is a revolution in understanding your place in the world.
Offering a critical response to the dominant vision of the smart city, this talk seeks to look beyond the seductive imagery and hype that surrounds emerging smart city paradigms. In their place, it explores arrange of critical perspectives to smart city planning that are emerging across the social sciences and activist communities, in various places across the world. These critiques centre, broadly, on ways in which smart city paradigms radically deepen urban surveillance ; the way they embed power into corporate urban operating systems; the way the glossy hype and marketing hides tendencies toward authoritarianism and centralized power ; and the way in which ‘smart’ city labels are used to camouflage the construction of highly elitist urban enclaves. The talk will finish by exploring efforts to mobilise digital media to more democratic and egalitarian urban vision.
Transcending the surface graham: The New Techno-Utopian Dreams (and Realities...Stephen Graham
A presentation about a range of utopian projects for moving about cities above and below the surface via tunnels. orbital travel, supersonic airliners and vertical take off and autonomous 'sky taxis'.
Subterranean urban politics: Insurgency, sanctuary, exploration and tourismStephen Graham
A presentation, drawing on my book 'Vertical', exploring the politics of the urban subterranean. The wide-ranging discussion explores the subterranean as a source of class threats and insurrections; as a sanctuary; as a space of exploration; and as a site for tourism.
This presentation is a call for critical urban research to address the vertical as well as horizontal aspects of social inequality. It seeks, in particular, to explore the important but neglected causal connection between the demonisation and dismantling of social housing towers constructed in many cities between the 1930s and 1970s and the contemporary proliferation of
radically different housing towers produced for socio-economic elites. The argument begins with a critical discussion of the economistic orthodoxy, derived from the work of Edward
Glaeser, that contemporary housing crises are best addressed by removing state intervention
in housing production so that market-driven verticalisation can take place. The following two sections connect the rise of such orthodoxy with the ‘manufactured reality’—so
central to neo-liberal urban orthodoxy—that vertical social housing must necessarily fail because it deterministically creates social pathology. The remainder of the paper explores
in detail how the dominance of these narratives have been central to elite takeovers, and ‘luxification’, of the urban skies through the proliferation of condo towers for the super-rich.
Case studies are drawn from Vancouver, New York, London, Mumbai and Guatemala City and the broader vertical cultural and visual politics of the process are explored. The discussion finishes by exploring the challenges involved in contesting, and dismantling, the hegemonic dominance of vertical housing by elite interests in contemporary cities.
Vertical noir: Histories of the future in urban science fictionStephen Graham
Unerringly, across its whole history, urban science fiction has offered up imagined cities that
operate about remarkably similar and highly verticalised visions. These are heavily dominated
by politics of class, resistance and revolution that are starkly organized around vertically
stratified and vertically exaggerated urban spaces. From the early and definitive efforts
of H.G. Wells and Fritz Lang, through J.G. Ballard’s 1975 novel High Rise, to many cyberpunk
classics, this essay – the latest in a series in City on the vertical dimensions of cities1 –
reflects on how vertical imaginaries in urban science fiction intersect with the politics and
contestations of the fast-verticalising cities around the world. The essay has four parts. It
begins by disentangling in detail the ways in which the sci-fi visions of Wells, Lang,
Ballard and various cyberpunk authors were centrally constituted through vertical structures,
landscapes, metaphors and allegories. The essay’s second part then teases out the
complex linkages between verticalised sci-fi imaginaries and material cityscapes that are
actually constructed, lived and experienced. Stressing the impossibility of some clean and
binary opposition between ‘factual’ and ‘fictional’ cities, the essay explores how verticalised
projects, material cities, sci-fi texts, imaginary futures, architectural schemes and urban theories
mingle and resonate together in complex, unpredictable and important ways which do
much to shape contemporary urban landscapes. The third section of the essay explores such
connections through the cases of retro-futuristic urban megaprojects in the Gulf and forests
of towers recently constructed in Shanghai’s Pudong district. The essay’s final discussion
draws on these cases to explore the possibilities that sci-fi imaginaries offer for contesting
the rapid verticalisation of cities around the world.
Vertical: The City From Satellites to Bunkers Stephen Graham Stephen Graham
A presentation outlining some of the themes to my new book, 'Vertical: The City From Satellites to Bunkers' (Verso, 2016).
"A revolutionary reimagining of the cities we live in, the air above us, and what goes on in the earth beneath our feet
Today we live in a world that can no longer be read as a two-dimensional map, but must now be understood as a series of vertical strata that reach from the satellites that encircle our planet to the tunnels deep within the ground. In Vertical, Stephen Graham rewrites the city at every level: how the geography of inequality, politics, and identity is determined in terms of above and below.
Starting at the edge of earth’s atmosphere and, in a series of riveting studies, descending through each layer, Graham explores the world of drones, the city from the viewpoint of an aerial bomber, the design of sidewalks and the hidden depths of underground bunkers. He asks: why was Dubai built to be seen from Google Earth? How do the super-rich in São Paulo live in their penthouses far above the street? Why do London billionaires build vast subterranean basements? And how do the technology of elevators and subversive urban explorers shape life on the surface and subsurface of the earth?
Vertical will make you look at the world around you anew: this is a revolution in understanding your place in the world."
See https://www.versobooks.com/books/2237-vertical
Vertical noir: Histories of the future in urban science fictionStephen Graham
Unerringly, across its whole history, urban science fiction has offered up imagined cities that operate about remarkably similar and highly verticalised visions. These are heavily dominated
by politics of class, resistance and revolution that are starkly organized around vertically stratified and vertically exaggerated urban spaces. From the early and definitive efforts
of H.G. Wells and Fritz Lang, through J.G. Ballard’s 1975 novel 'High Rise', to many cyberpunk classics, this essay – the latest in a series on the vertical dimensions of cities –reflects on how vertical imaginaries in urban science fiction intersect with the politics and contestations of the fast-verticalising cities around the world. The essay has four parts. It begins by disentangling in detail the ways in which the sci-fi visions of Wells, Lang, Ballard and various cyberpunk authors were centrally constituted through vertical structures, landscapes, metaphors and allegories. The essay’s second part then then teases out the complex linkages between verticalised sci-fi imaginaries and material cityscapes that are actually constructed, lived and experienced. Stressing the impossibility of some clean and binary opposition between ‘factual’ and ‘fictional’ cities, the essay explores how verticalised
projects, material cities, sci-fi texts, imaginary futures, architectural schemes and urban theories mingle and resonate together in complex, unpredictable and important ways which do much to shape contemporary urban landscapes. The third section of the essay explores such connections through the cases of retro-futuristic urban megaprojects in the Gulf and forests of towers recently constructed in Shanghai’s Pudong district. The
essay’s final discussion draws on these cases to explore the possibilities that sci-fi imaginaries offer for contesting the rapid verticalisation of cities around the world.
Vertical ground: making geology graham icus 2016Stephen Graham
Key note presentation at the Island Cities and Urban Archipelagos 2016. 07-12 March 2016, Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong
See http://www.islandcities.org/icua2016.html
Life support: The political ecology of urban airStephen Graham
Humans, increasingly, manufacture their own air. In and around the three-dimensional
aerial environments within and above urban regions, this manufacture of air reaches particular
levels of intensity. For a species that expires without air in two or three minutes,
this anthropogenic manufacture of air is of incalculable importance. Curiously, however,
urban air remains remarkably neglected within the political–ecological literatures. Accordingly,
this paper suggests a range of key themes, which a political ecology of urban air needs
to address. These touch upon the links between global warming, urban heat-island effects
and killer urban heatwaves; urban pollution crises; the paradoxes of urban pollution; horizontal
movements of polluted air; the vertical politics of urban air; the construction of vertical
condominium structures for elites; the vicious circles that characterise air-conditioned
urbanism; heat-related deaths of workers building air-conditioned structures in increasingly
hot climates; the growth of large-scale air-conditioned environments; and, finally, the
manipulation of urban air through political violence.
Vertical cities: Representations of urban verticality in 20th-century science...Stephen Graham
Vertical cities: Representations of urban verticality in 20th-century science fiction literature
Lucy Hewitt and Stephen Graham
This paper seeks to intersect two recent trends in urban research. First, it takes seriously the recognition that established traditions of research concerned with urban space have tended to privilege the horizontal extension of cities to the neglect of their vertical or volumetric extension. Second, the paper contributes to the resurgence of interest among social scientists in the validity of fiction – and especially speculative or science fiction – as a source of critical commentary and as a mode of knowledge that can exist in close reciprocity with non-fictional work. From these two starting points the paper develops a reading of the dialogue between the representations of vertical urban life that have featured in landmark works of 20th-century science fiction literature and key themes in contemporary urban analysis.
Water Wars in Mumbai
Stephen Graham, Renu Desai, and Colin McFarlane
Beyond the Pale
The Mumbai Mirror, January 8, 2010. A photograph shows a line of proud Mumbai police officers standing behind row upon row of what appear at first sight to be rusted machine guns (see fig. 1). But this is not one of the arms caches regularly unearthed to demonstrate the force’s effectiveness against the myriad terrorist networks that regularly target urban sites in contemporary India. Rather, the objects are water booster pumps, confiscated in a new campaign of dawn raids targeting “water theft” by slum dwellers in the Shivaji Nagar and
Govandi districts (see fig. 2 map below).
“Stealing Water to Earn a Few Bucks?” the headline reads. “Pay a Hefty
Price!” (Sathe 2010). The article details how the raids are being backed up by new legal moves to criminalize certain uses of water. Hundreds of people, arrested for installing and using the pumps, are to be prosecuted under draconian and nonbailable laws such as the Prevention of Damages to Public Property Act. All this activity is portrayed unproblematically as a heroic response to the threat that water theft in slums poses to the wider, formal, legitimate, and law-abiding city. “Pilferages, if not controlled,” writes the author, “could exhaust the potable water reserves before the next monsoon” (Sathe 2010).
Such statements tap into a mainstream discourse according to which recent poor monsoons have led to a major “water crisis” in Mumbai, necessitating radical, emergency measures to address widespread “water theft” or “water pilferage”— especially by the urban poor. What such discourses occlude, however, are the ways that current systems of urban water provision work to systematically dehydrate and profit from urban slum communities, while water wastage by the affluent and their preferred urban facilities goes unchecked.
Life support the political ecology of urban air (Paper)Stephen Graham
Humans, increasingly, manufacturer their own air. In and around the three-dimensional aerial environments within and above urban regions, this manufacture of air reaches particular levels of intensity. For a species which expires without air in two or three minutes, this anthropogenic manufacture of air is of incalculable importance. Curiously, however, urban air remains remarkably neglected within the political-ecological literatures. Accordingly, this paper suggests a range of key themes which a political ecology of urban air needs to address. These address, in turn, the links between global warming, urban heart-island effects and killer urban heat-waves; urban pollution crises; the paradoxes of urban pollution; horizontal movements of polluted air; the vertical politics of urban air; the construction of vertical condominiums structures for elites; the vicious circles that characterised air-conditioned urbanism; heat-related deaths of workers building air-conditioned structures in increasingly hot climates; and, finally, the growth of large-scale air-conditioned environments.
Life-support: The Political Ecology of Urban Air (Presentation)Stephen Graham
Humans, increasingly, manufacturer their own air. In and around the three-dimensional aerial environments within and above urban regions, this manufacture of air reaches particular levels of intensity. For a species which expires without air in two or three minutes, this anthropogenic manufacture of air is of incalculable importance. Curiously, however, urban air remains remarkably neglected within the political-ecological literatures. Accordingly, this paper suggests a range of key themes which a political ecology of urban air needs to address. These address, in turn, the links between global warming, urban heart-island effects and killer urban heat-waves; urban pollution crises; the paradoxes of urban pollution; horizontal movements of polluted air; the vertical politics of urban air; the construction of vertical condominiums structures for elites; the vicious circles that characterised air-conditioned urbanism; heat-related deaths of workers building air-conditioned structures in increasingly hot climates; and, finally, the growth of large-scale air-conditioned environments.
Vigar, Geoff, Stephen Graham, and Patsy Healey. "In search of the city in spa...Stephen Graham
Summary. This paper addresses the ways in which urban regions are represented in contemporary urban policies. In doing so, it critically examines how urban trends are reflected in diverse notions of ‘cityness’ in contemporary policy discourses about spatiality and territoriality. Through a detailed case study of the use and construction of the word ‘city’ in a range of urban governance contexts in Newcastle upon Tyne, this paper analyses the political work done by diverse representations and invocations of ‘cityness’ in contemporary urban governance. Such representations matter because the way in which contemporary cities are conceptualised influences policy formulations and policy outcomes. In addition, considerable emphasis is being placed in contemporary urban policy on ‘joining-up’, ‘integrating’ and co-ordinating governance efforts. How conceptions of the city are mobilised to do such integrating work provides insight into the challenge such ambitions present. The evidence from the case study suggests that the capacity of local actors to think about the processes of change in metropolitan regions, and to define the ways in which they can respond, is often limited, as they struggle to define what their ‘city’ actually might be these days. This tends to be to the detriment of collective attempts to maximise conditions for citizens and for investment.
Graham, Stephen. "Bridging urban digital divides? Urban polarisation and info...Stephen Graham
The societal diffusion of information and communications technologies (ICTs) remains starkly uneven at all scales. It is in the contemporary city that this unevenness becomes most visible. In cities, clusters and enclaves of ‘superconnected’ people, rms and institutions often rest cheek-by-jowel with large numbers of people with non-existent or rudimentary access to communications technologies. In such a context, this paper has two objectives, reected in its two parts. The rst part of the paper seeks to demonstrate that dominant trends in ICT develop- ment are currently helping to support new extremes of social and geographical unevenness within and between human settlements and cities, in both the North and the South. The paper’s second part aims to explore the prospect that such stark ‘urban digital divides’ might be ameliorated through progressive and innovative policy initiatives which treat cities and electronic technologies in parallel. It does this using a range of illustrative exemplars from a variety of contexts
Crang, Michael, Tracey Crosbie, and Stephen Graham. "Variable geometries of c...Stephen Graham
Summary. This paper proposes a new way of conceptualising urban ‘digital divides’. It focuses on the ways in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) unevenly affect the pace of life within the urban environment. Based on a detailed case study of how ICTs are being used in an affluent and a marginalised neighbourhood in Newcastle upon Tyne, the paper suggests that urban digital divides need to be understood as more than uneven patterns of access. They emerge in this work as more than the presence or absence of specific technological artefacts. Rather, it is argued that different styles and speeds of technologically mediated life now work to define urban socio- spatial inequalities. The paper distinguishes between two such key styles and speeds. First, the paper argues that affluent and professional groups now use new media technologies pervasively and continuously as the ‘background’ infrastructure to sustain privileged and intensely distanciated, but time-stressed, lifestyles. Secondly, more marginalised neighbourhoods tend to be characterised by instrumental and episodic ICT usage patterns which are often collectively organised through strong neighbourhood ties. For the former, mediated networks help to orchestrate neighbourhood ties; for the latter, it is those neighbourhood ties that enable on-line access.
Book Formatting: Quality Control Checks for DesignersConfidence Ago
This presentation was made to help designers who work in publishing houses or format books for printing ensure quality.
Quality control is vital to every industry. This is why every department in a company need create a method they use in ensuring quality. This, perhaps, will not only improve the quality of products and bring errors to the barest minimum, but take it to a near perfect finish.
It is beyond a moot point that a good book will somewhat be judged by its cover, but the content of the book remains king. No matter how beautiful the cover, if the quality of writing or presentation is off, that will be a reason for readers not to come back to the book or recommend it.
So, this presentation points designers to some important things that may be missed by an editor that they could eventually discover and call the attention of the editor.
7 Alternatives to Bullet Points in PowerPointAlvis Oh
So you tried all the ways to beautify your bullet points on your pitch deck but it just got way uglier. These points are supposed to be memorable and leave a lasting impression on your audience. With these tips, you'll no longer have to spend so much time thinking how you should present your pointers.
Dive into the innovative world of smart garages with our insightful presentation, "Exploring the Future of Smart Garages." This comprehensive guide covers the latest advancements in garage technology, including automated systems, smart security features, energy efficiency solutions, and seamless integration with smart home ecosystems. Learn how these technologies are transforming traditional garages into high-tech, efficient spaces that enhance convenience, safety, and sustainability.
Ideal for homeowners, tech enthusiasts, and industry professionals, this presentation provides valuable insights into the trends, benefits, and future developments in smart garage technology. Stay ahead of the curve with our expert analysis and practical tips on implementing smart garage solutions.
Between Filth and Fortune- Urban Cattle Foraging Realities by Devi S Nair, An...Mansi Shah
This study examines cattle rearing in urban and rural settings, focusing on milk production and consumption. By exploring a case in Ahmedabad, it highlights the challenges and processes in dairy farming across different environments, emphasising the need for sustainable practices and the essential role of milk in daily consumption.
Expert Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Drafting ServicesResDraft
Whether you’re looking to create a guest house, a rental unit, or a private retreat, our experienced team will design a space that complements your existing home and maximizes your investment. We provide personalized, comprehensive expert accessory dwelling unit (ADU)drafting solutions tailored to your needs, ensuring a seamless process from concept to completion.
Can AI do good? at 'offtheCanvas' India HCI preludeAlan Dix
Invited talk at 'offtheCanvas' IndiaHCI prelude, 29th June 2024.
https://www.alandix.com/academic/talks/offtheCanvas-IndiaHCI2024/
The world is being changed fundamentally by AI and we are constantly faced with newspaper headlines about its harmful effects. However, there is also the potential to both ameliorate theses harms and use the new abilities of AI to transform society for the good. Can you make the difference?
You could be a professional graphic designer and still make mistakes. There is always the possibility of human error. On the other hand if you’re not a designer, the chances of making some common graphic design mistakes are even higher. Because you don’t know what you don’t know. That’s where this blog comes in. To make your job easier and help you create better designs, we have put together a list of common graphic design mistakes that you need to avoid.
Transforming Brand Perception and Boosting Profitabilityaaryangarg12
In today's digital era, the dynamics of brand perception, consumer behavior, and profitability have been profoundly reshaped by the synergy of branding, social media, and website design. This research paper investigates the transformative power of these elements in influencing how individuals perceive brands and products and how this transformation can be harnessed to drive sales and profitability for businesses.
Through an exploration of brand psychology and consumer behavior, this study sheds light on the intricate ways in which effective branding strategies, strategic social media engagement, and user-centric website design contribute to altering consumers' perceptions. We delve into the principles that underlie successful brand transformations, examining how visual identity, messaging, and storytelling can captivate and resonate with target audiences.
Methodologically, this research employs a comprehensive approach, combining qualitative and quantitative analyses. Real-world case studies illustrate the impact of branding, social media campaigns, and website redesigns on consumer perception, sales figures, and profitability. We assess the various metrics, including brand awareness, customer engagement, conversion rates, and revenue growth, to measure the effectiveness of these strategies.
The results underscore the pivotal role of cohesive branding, social media influence, and website usability in shaping positive brand perceptions, influencing consumer decisions, and ultimately bolstering sales and profitability. This paper provides actionable insights and strategic recommendations for businesses seeking to leverage branding, social media, and website design as potent tools to enhance their market position and financial success.
2. 1. Introduction
Development and planning elites across many of the
burgeoning megacities of the global south still work
powerfully to fetishise elevated highways or flyovers as
part of their efforts at “worlding” their cities.
Given the neglect of such processes in recent urban
and mobilities literatures, what follows presents an
international and interdisciplinary analysis of the urban
and vertical politics of raised flyovers, freeways and
expressways.
I argue that such highways need to be seen as
important elements within broader processes of three-
dimensional social segregation and secession within
and between cities which privilege the mobilities of
the privileged.
3. Built at extraordinary expense for the small
percentage of car-driving commuters – the
bicycles, motor-scooters, auto rickshaws (or their
local equivalents) and often even buses of the
urban poor often being banned by criminal
sanction – these putative symbols of modernity,
technological advancement and a ‘race’ towards
‘globalness’ are inevitably hacked through densely-
built urban landscapes.
However, despite the pivotal role of raised
expressways and flyovers in symbolizing urban
elites’ efforts at asserting purported ‘global city’
status in their cities, flyovers and expressways have
been in neglected critical urban research and
‘mobilities turn’
“The concrete and tarmac of large transport
projects, despite their visibility and ubiquity, have
largely been neglected in analyses of globalising
cities and urban ‘worlding’” Andrew Harris (2013)
4. Politics of ‘Large Technical systems’: The politics of
access to highway networks for the public buses
used by poorer communities present another
frequent area of contestation. Historically, fierce
debate still rages as to whether the low, bus-
stopping bridges over Robert Moses’ iconic parkway
system, a network built to connect Manhattan with
New York’s coasts in the 1950s and 1960s, were
intentionally built at that height to prevent poorer,
non-white bus-reliant communities from accessing
the system
5. 2. “Ribbons of Steel and Concrete”:
Flyover Genealogies (Graebner, 2007).
Efforts to build flyovers are striking for
the way they involve “the promotion of a
space divorced from and devoid of
human bodies” (Robertson, 2007).
“When night intervened, the passage of
cars along the autostrada traces
luminous tracks that are like the trails of
meteors flashing across the summer
heavens” (Le Corbusier, cited in Jackson,
2001; 71).
What is striking is how the current fetish
of the raised highway in global south
cities – in cities as diverse as Santiago,
Cairo, Mumbai, Manila, Bangalore,
Bangkok, Jakarta, Tehran, Istanbul,
Guangzhou, Dubai, Buenos Aires,
Dhakka, Riyadh, Rio, Nairobi and
Shanghai – mirror a similar
preoccupation that gripped Europe and
North America in the 1960s and 1970s.
Megastructural zeal: e.g. Paul Rudolph, NYC
7. Expressway as ‘urbicide’:
“it seemed to come from another
world. First of all, hardly any of us
owned cars: the neighborhood itself
and the subways downtown, defined
the flow of our lives. Besides, even if
the city needed a road... they surely
couldn’t mean what the stories
seemed to say: that the road would
be blasted directly through a dozen
solid, settled, densely populated
neighborhoods like our own: that
something like 60,000 working and
lower-middle class people, mostly
Jews, but with many Italians, Irish
and Blacks throw in, would be
thrown out of their homes”
(Marshall Berman,1983; ).
8. Flyover and highways construction always
involves powerful struggles over the
politics of who’s movement matters, and
who can be systematically constrained or
interrupted, within contested boundaries
and territories.
In some conflict zones, such as the West
Bank, the ability of flyovers and highways
to forcibly separate space has allowed
planners of systems of flyovers, tunnels
and cuttings to construct a fractal, three-
dimensional series of border lines.
3. Flyover Apartheid: The West Bank and Post-Apartheid South Africa
9. 3D, apartheid, topology:
“Some more grandiose Israeli projects have proposed
highways to bypass Palestinian towns in three dimensions.
The Tunnel Road, for example, connects Jerusalem with the
southern settlements of Gush Etzion and further, to the
Jewish neighbourhoods of Hebron. To accomplish this, it has
to perform a double contortion: stretched up as a bridge
spanning over a Palestinian cultivated valley, it then dives
into a tunnel under the Palestinian Bethlehem suburb of
Beit Jala.” (Weizman, 2002)
10. Militarised ribbons for the ‘kinetic
elite’
“Massive, permanent structures;
they flow, giving the feeling of
‘natural’ connections with no
artificial borders, yet they claim
land by their very routes; they are
banal and can be made to look
inoffensive and even benign and
attractive” (Jeff Halper)
11. ‘Cemented Dispossession’
E.g. Road 443: Jewish commuters are
whisked ever faster and further, Palestinians
have experienced radically reduced levels of
mobility. Their journey times, where
journeys are possible at all, have
dramatically extended since the road was
built, a problem worsened by Israeli
checkpoints and increasingly aggressive
soldiers.
“Children from the [village] of Attira could
not be driven to school and now have to
walk long distances to get there. In addition,
because they are not allowed to pass over
the existing road bridge they are obliged to
pass under a rainwater drain conduit under
Road 443 to reach school. In rainy seasons
this passage becomes full of mud and water.”
Omar Jabary Salamanca (2014)
12. N2 Highway, Cape Town: “open hostility to the non-motorised
body.” (Twidle, 2017)
20 km stretch of South Africa’s N2 highway that connects Cape
Town International airport with the citycentre
CCTV, criminalising legislation, rising fences and aggressive
landscaping of spiked rocks – “preventative rock fields”
Reporting on a “corridor crisis,” local press report that, on
average, 26,000 people manage to cross the barriers and enter
the highway strip every day.
Protests and gangs attack and interrupt “Achilles’ heel of the
aspirant world-class city” (Twidle, 2017)
”Still stuck on the island, crouched on your marks, getting set.
Waiting to go you are amazed (as you often are) that your soft
pudding of a body has made it even this far in the world, given
all the hard surfaces everywhere, the field of deadly forces you
navigate through each day, the fast-moving torrents of steel and
rubber just metres away – and here is your tiny, fragile human
infrastructure, perched on the edge of the N2” (Twidle, 2017;
74).
13. 4. Global City Dreams: Flitting Over the Poor
50 new flyovers, for the 8% of the population
with cars, to create Mumbai as “next
Shanghai”
Vision Mumbai, 2003 report by Bombay First
group of real estate and industrialists] elites in
2003 “All world-class cities have express ring
freeways”, the report argued. And Mumbai – a
city deemed by the report to be stuck in
“reverse gear” – must have them too. A major
programme of flyover construction was
necessary, the report suggested, "such that a
freeway can be accessed from any point in the
city in less than 10 minutes"
“Air-conditioning on, music blaring, we
accelerate from the last set of traffic lights
onto the flyover. Signs flash-by: PROHIBITED:
pedestrians, cycles, hand-carts, bullock-carts;
NO ENTRY: bus, lorry; [and] one depicting a car
travelling upwards at 45 degrees...” Andrew
Harris
14. Autophilia Unbound:
“Elevated Bliss” on “VIP Roads”
The Economist: As the flyover is entered.
“The swarm of auto-rickshaws fades”. Once
elevated above the sea things improve
further: “if you open the window the air is
fresh”; “if you put your foot down you can
hit racing speed” (Economist , 2012).
15. Policy Through the Windscreen
“Traffic dividers are a visible indication of whom the hundreds
of kilometers of new road space are intended for” (Anand,
2006).
Nasser Munjee, of Mumbai’s stock exchange, laments that
such policies are necessary because “this cannot be the first
sight for a foreign dignitary landing in Mumbai” (cited in
Harris, 2013).
“Administrators and political representatives” in Mumbai
“make transportation policy for the city as they see it through
the windscreens of their air-conditioned cars…Automobiles
are markers of class and upward mobility. And these dreams
must remain intact and safe from danger” Nikhil Anand
(2006),
16. Salma, a resident of the Rafinagar shanty town – a place regularly
threatened with demolition by the state – puts it bluntly. “The
government wants to make [Mumbai into] Shanghai,” she says.
“We don’t oppose Shanghai. But [the government] comes and
crushes us and goes away, like [one might crush] ants”.
“Can Shanghai be made on the graves of the poor?” (cited in
Graham et al, 2013).
17. Mathikere neighbourhood, Bangalore: New raised, tolled expressways, to “virtually
fly over” ground level constraints.
Those evicted offered in tiny brick cubes below the freeway. One resident: “It is
really risky to live under a flyover. The constant vehicular movement disrupts our
daily lives” (quotes cited in Gangadhar, 2010).
18. 5. Ribbons of Potential? “Imagine a Mumbai where
people are given priority over automobiles”
(Urbzoo, n.d.).
‘Urbz’ NGO attempting to build night shelters,
pocket parks and play spaces beneath the City’s
flyovers
“What better place to open up a little room for the
citizens of the city? With a few small interventions
and amenities, we believe that this patch of land
could be completely transformed and that if With a
few small interventions and amenities, we believe
that this patch of land could be completely
transformed and that if given the chance, these
slender patches of space would find a host of uses
that would be constantly changing over time,
responsive to collective need” (Urbz, n.d.).
19. Erasing Flyovers and Expressways
Widespread demolition in affluent cities:
San Francisco, Embarcadero freeways.
Portland, the Harbor Drive freeway has been replaced a 37-acre
waterfront park.
Seoul: Ahyeon and Cheonggyecheon
20. Ash Sakula Architects (2012) “High way”on
London’s Westway flyover, a large-scale
imitation of the Promenade Plantée in
Paris and the High Line in Manhattan
“This is London’s belvedere, a high
vantage point paced out in a great arching
skyline of chestnut trees deeply rooted,
literally, in a timber framed spine hosting
commercial and social enterprises who
animate, cultivate and safeguard the park,
and whose presence pays for the whole
caboodle. Each of them gets some land
where a thick layer of bio-remediated
topsoil supports a continuously productive
urban growing environment that makes
every business, café and restaurant along
the High Way food self-sufficient” (Sakula,
2012).