Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Religion, Local Produce And Sustainability At Religious Sites In Hungary, Alan Clarke, Ágnes Raffay

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

There is a growing awareness of sustainable practices at religious tourism sites and we have observed this in Hungary, with the focus shifting from one aspect of sustainability to incorporating all three major aspects, the environmental, the economic and the socio-cultural (Rees and Wackernagel, 1996). Although the economic aspect used to be predominant (Shackley, 2001; Mangeloja, 2003) now we can find more examples of practices that aim to promote socio-cultural sustainability, while taking the natural environment also into account (Tanguay et al, 2010).

Several religious tourism sites have started to offer local produce in their souvenir shops and to incorporate …

Development, Security And Displacement: An Ethnographic Case Study Of Rocinha And Other Key Favelas In Rio De Janeiro, Marcos D. Burgos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study highlights the complex and generally overlooked relationship between development, urban space, and security, and does so through a multiyear ethnographic study of Rocinha, Brazil’s largest favela (slum/squatter community).

Since 2007 unprecedented resources have been devoted towards improving Rio de Janeiro’s favelas (slums), mainly in the form of large-scale favela upgrading and security programs. Coinciding with the historic improvement schemes in Rio, and in large part responsible for them, Brazil’s economy experienced one of its most sustain period of growth during the first decade of the twentieth century. For the first time, strong economic growth and a historic decrease …

The Cost Of Poverty: The Perpetuating Cycle Of Concentrated Poverty In New Jersey Cities • A Comprehensive Budgetary Analysis Of Four Urban New Jersey Municipalities, John S. Watson Institute For Public Policy Of Thomas Edison State University, New Jersey Urban Mayors Association, The Anti-Poverty Network Of New Jersey, Fund For New Jersey

Urban Mayors Policy Center

This report examines the problem of concentrated poverty in the State of New Jersey. Both the individual and the long-term economic consequences of concentrated poverty are well- documented in social science research. The report adds to that knowledge by examining the practical, budgetary consequences faced by urban centers that are characterized by high poverty levels. The report focuses on four cities, which are represented in the New Jersey Urban Mayors Association (NJUMA) — Bridgeton, Passaic, Perth Amboy, and Trenton. While these regions vary considerably, they all share one important fact: their poverty rates are double or triple the New Jersey …

No. 02: The Urban Food System Of Maputo, Mozambique, Abel Chikanda, Inês Raimundo

Hungry Cities Partnership

The city of Maputo, with a population of around 1.3 million, has been at the forefront of urbanization in Mozambique. While the Southern African country has posted impressive macro-economic growth rates in the last two decades, there has been only limited formal sector employment generation. Most of its working population is absorbed in informal employment and self-employment. The informal food economy is easily the most important source of food in Maputo. Almost all households regularly obtain food from informal sellers; over 90% at least once a week and many on a daily basis. For many households, daily purchasing is necessitated …

The Return Of Food: Poverty And Urban Food Security In Zimbabwe After The Crisis, Godfrey Tawodzera, Liam Riley, Jonathan Crush

Hungry Cities Partnership

The nadir of Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis in 2008 coincided with the implementation of a baseline household food security survey in Harare by AFSUN. This survey found that households in lowincome urban areas in Zimbabwe’s capital were far worse off in terms of all the food insecurity and poverty indicators than households in the other 10 Southern African cities surveyed by AFSUN. The central question addressed in this report is whether food security in Zimbabwe’s urban centres has improved. AFSUN conducted a follow-up survey in 2012 that allows for direct longitudinal comparisons of continuity and change. The status of …

Migration And Food Security: Zimbabwean Migrants In Urban South Africa, Godfrey Tawodzera, Jonathan Crush

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report examines the food security status of Zimbabwean migrant households in the poorer areas of two major South African cities, Johannesburg and Cape Town. The vast majority were food insecure in terms of the amount of food to which they had access and the quality and diversity of their diet. What seems clear is that Zimbabwean migrants are significantly more food insecure than other low-income households. The primary reason for this appears to lie in pressures that include remittances of cash and goods back to family in Zimbabwe. The small literature on the impact of migrant remittances on food …

No. 01: The Urban Food System Of Nanjing, China, Zhenzhong Si, Jonathan Crush, Steffanie Scott, Taiyang Zhong

Hungry Cities Partnership

With a population of 8.2 million people, Nanjing is the 14th largest city in China. China became a predominantly urban nation in 2011, when its urban population surpassed its rural population for the first time. The declining farming population and area of farmland along with the increased food consumption of urban residents have had significant implications for China’s food security, including in cities such as Nanjing. As with many other Chinese cities, Nanjing’s informal economy has become an important source of income for the poor, including migrant workers. Since the beginning of economic reform in 1978, street vendors have become …

Food Remittances: Migration And Food Security In Africa, Jonathan Crush, Mary Caesar

Hungry Cities Partnership

By drawing attention to the importance of food remittances for urban and rural food security and identifying the current knowledge gaps, this report contributes to the study of the relationship between migration and food security and creates a platform for the design of a new research agenda. Across Africa, there is considerable evidence of a massive informal trade in food, including staples, fresh and processed products. While most cross-border trade in foodstuffs is a result of commercial transactions by small-scale traders who buy in one country and sell in another, an unknown proportion is actually food remittances on their way …

The Return Of Food: Poverty And Urban Food Security In Zimbabwe After The Crisis, Godfrey Tawodzera, Liam Riley, Jonathan Crush

Hungry Cities Partnership

The nadir of Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis in 2008 coincided with the implementation of a baseline household food security survey in Harare by AFSUN. This survey found that households in lowincome urban areas in Zimbabwe’s capital were far worse off in terms of all the food insecurity and poverty indicators than households in the other 10 Southern African cities surveyed by AFSUN. The central question addressed in this report is whether food security in Zimbabwe’s urban centres has improved. AFSUN conducted a follow-up survey in 2012 that allows for direct longitudinal comparisons of continuity and change. The status of …

Slum Or Sustainable Development? A Case Study Of Sodom And Gomorrah In Accra, Ghana, Benjamin Effah Oppong

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has been successful in demolishing a few slums in the City of Accra. However, Sodom and Gomorrah, also known to be a squatter and an illegal settlement in the City of Accra continues to prosper. This study examines the benefits and shortcomings of slums with specific reference to Sodom and Gomorrah and why it has avoided all demolition attempts by AMA. It also examines whether slums can be improved to promote sustainable urban development in Ghana. The researcher explored these issues with surveys which elicited the opinions and experiences of slum dwellers in Sodom and …

Afroreggae And Grupo Cultural Afro Reggae: A Study Of The Early Years, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

The following study of AfroReggae and Grupo Cultural Afro Reggae (GCAR) calls attention to Brazilian presence and community organizing in the field of Hip Hop studies with a long memory framework: placing AfroReggae and GCAR in a long history of Africana resistance through music in Latin America. !990s GCAR group arises when reggae and Hip Hop music had become new global forms of solidarity among urban marginalized youths worldwide, making use of old and new strategies of social healing (Fernandes 2011). A close look at lyrics from the Hip Hop fusion band and the associated nonprofit organization shape the concepts …

Small Jazz Ensembles And Ideals Of Urban Social Interaction, Kaori Otera Chen

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

There is general consensus in urban theory that "community" is good. Nevertheless people in communities may or may not interact to a significant extent with one another nor engage in intertwined social lives, yet tend to claim within-group unity and harmony. A musical model of interaction and engagement may offer a new perspective on the dynamics of community. By listening closely I explore how musicians in small jazz ensembles interact with one another and function during their collective music-making processes and find a set of musical behaviors that exhibits an ideal model for human interaction and engagement in the social …

Local Governmental Development Of Alternative Food Systems In Distressed Urban Areas, Jeremy Earle

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Alternative food systems (AFS) projects are designed to address issues of environmental justice, food security and insecurity, community health disparities between the affluent and the poor, and access to healthful foods in distressed urban areas. Past research has questioned the efficacy and long-term viability of such interventions, particularly in distressed primarily Black urban areas. The purpose of this intrinsic case study (ICS) was to understand the ways in which local governmental entities collaborated with each other and with nongovernmental partners to help develop an AFS in South Florida through the creation of a market garden called the PATCH. Critical race …

Resident-Led Urban Agriculture And The Hegemony Of Neoliberal Community Development: Eco-Gentrification In A Detroit Neighborhood, Theodore Pride

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation employs a Gramscian framework as an alternative approach to understand the utilization of neoliberal community-based development—which advocates free-market schemes to development, and a refocus from institutional and structural causes of poverty to endogenous community forces (social capital and community capacity building)—by low-income residents in hyper-abandoned and disinvested urban neighborhoods. Using a case study of resident-led neighborhood development in the low-income neighborhood of Brightmoor in Detroit, Michigan, I show how “everyday discourse” of urban decline in Detroit and the possible rehabilitation of the city shape the “common sense” understanding of the “problem-and-solution equation” associated with the process of neighborhood …

Proximity To Children: A Geospatial Approach To Understanding The Relationship Between Fast Food And Schools, Andrew Atwong

CMC Senior Theses

In a time when Americans are waking up to the health consequences of consuming fast food, researchers have discovered that fast food restaurants seem to be located in greater concentrations near primary or secondary schools. While this phenomenon affects the food environments of some children and carries implications as to their short term and long term health (which has also been well researched), this paper focuses primarily on fast food restaurants that are within walking distance of schools. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to integrate geospatial, business, demographic, and food quality data, I use linear regressions to examine whether and …

Solidifying Segregation Or Promoting Diversity? School Closure And Rezoning In An Urban District, Thomas J. Shields

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Purpose: Layered with myriad considerations, school closure and rezoning processes in urban school systems are politically fraught with the potential for damaging consequences. This article explores the politics and impacts of a closure and rezoning process in Richmond, Virginia, through the lens of themes applicable to urban school systems and students across the nation. These include the intersection of closure and rezoning with growing White reinvestment in urban school systems, as well as the importance of focusing on diversity and equity during a time of intense pressure to close schools.

Research Methods/Approach: Drawing on the case of Richmond, Virginia, we …

Adopting The Lifelong Communities Initiative In The Atlanta Metropolitan Area, Corneil Montgomery

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The older adult population has been growing since 1950. The quality of life of older Atlanta citizens may be reduced if adopted Lifelong Communities (LLC) initiative principles are executed poorly or not at all. The purpose of this case study was to describe and explore the experiences of local government officials in Atlanta, Georgia who have adopted LLC initiatives. Research questions focused on local government officials' experiences adopting the LLC initiative, their use of the LLC principles, as well as the benefits and challenges encountered when integrating principles within organizations and communities to ensure quality of life for persons served. …

Perceptions Of The Homeless Toward Nonprofit Human Service Provider, Lequan M. Hylton

Theses and Dissertations

As the debate intensifies regarding developing remedies to meet the needs of America’s homeless, one solution is for governmental agencies to collaborate with and employ organizations from the nonprofit sector to assist with the needs of the homeless population. Included in the nonprofit sector, faith-based organizations (FBOs) have historically been a source of debate and contention in terms of collaborations with the government. However, Presidents Reagan, George H. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama have embraced the idea of including FBOs in the pool of service providers offering human services. In the Richmond, Virginia region, FBOs and nonreligious nonprofit …

How To Make Suburbia Less Sprawling, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Review of Retrofitting Sprawl, edited by Emily Talen.

Which Came First, People Or Pollution? A Review Of Theory And Evidence From Longitudinal Environmental Justice Studies, Paul Mohai, Robin Saha

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

A considerable number of quantitative analyses have been conducted in the past several decades that demonstrate the existence of racial and socioeconomic disparities in the distribution of a wide variety of environmental hazards. The vast majority of these have been cross-sectional, snapshot studies employing data on hazardous facilities and population characteristics at only one point in time. Although some limited hypotheses can be tested with cross-sectional data, fully understanding how present-day disparities come about requires longitudinal analyses that examine the demographic characteristics of sites at the time of facility siting and track demographic changes after siting. Relatively few such studies …

Beyond Fruit: Examining Community In A Community Orchard, Emily Jane Becker

Dissertations and Theses

The Fruits of Diversity Community Orchard, located in Portland, Oregon in an affordable housing neighborhood, is a site of alternative food provisioning in which a group of people, organized by two nonprofits, work together to manage fruit and nut producing plants. Through conversations with volunteers who participate regularly and participant observation, this study explores the questions: What does community mean in the context of a community orchard? In what ways does partnering with a nonprofit from outside the neighborhood influence community and the way the project is operationalized?

This thesis situates community orchards within the literature on alternative food networks …

La Bicicultura De Cochabamba: ¿La Bici Es De Todos?, Lucy Bergwall

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Este proyecto investiga la cultura del ciclismo en la ciudad de Cochabamba. He elegido esta ciudad porque tiene una historia de ser una ciudad de ciclismo urbano pero ha perdido esta característica en las últimas décadas con el incremento de los autos en las calles. Sin embargo, hace unos años que ha empezado a crecer otra vez el ciclismo, en las formas de deporte y de transporte. Esta investigación se enfoca en las preguntas: ¿es la bici de todos? ¿Quiénes son los usuarios de bicis en Cochabamba y quiénes están excluidos o no representados en los grupos de ciclismo? Gracias …

Migration Governance And Migration Rights In The Southern African Development Community (Sadc): Attempts At Harmonization In A Disharmonious Region, Belinda Dodson, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

This paper examines prospects for enhanced regional migration governance and protection of migrants’ rights in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Migration in this region is substantial in scale and diverse in nature, incorporating economic, political and mixed migration flows. In addition to movements between countries within the region, migrants also come from across the African continent and even further afield. At its foundation in 1992, SADC as an institution initially embraced a vision of intra-regional free movement, but this has not become a reality. If anything, there has been a hardening of anti-migrant attitudes, not least in the principal …

Ngos, Community Associations, And Corporations In Partnership: Crosssectoral Collaboration In Serviluz, Fortalezace, Leila Reynolds

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study will explore the relationships between corporate funding partners, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the communities they work in (through the lense of community associations). Specifically I will examine the relationship between the NGO Instituto Povo do Mar (IPOM), the Associação dos Moradores do Serviluz (AMS), and the state controlled oil corporation PetroBras. PetroBras operates a refinery known as the Refinaria Lubrificantes e Derivados do Nordeste ( Lubnor ) within the neighborhood Serviluz, in Fortaleza, Ceara, and has become involved financially and socially in the neighborhoods surrounding the Lubnor . In this particular neighborhood, these three sectors work closely together …

Power, Housing, And The Powerhouse Of Engaged Learning, Sarah C. Valoven

SPACE: Student Perspectives About Civic Engagement

This paper navigates an engaged learning internship experience at a social justice organization during its effort to preserve affordable housing within their community. Affordable housing availability in Chicago has diminished over the decades in the wake of gentrification and economic development, causing the displacement of lower-income occupants. As a student traversing the inner workings of society, the engaged learning course surfaced questions about power, policy and community organizing through the direct exposure to social justice issues. The goal of this course was to inspire students to become civically engaged through active community service with local organizations, and seek answers to …

Conveniently Located Disaster: Socio‐Spatial Inequality In Hurricane Sandy And Its Implications For The Urban Sociology Of Climate Change, Gordon Douglas, Liz Koslov, Eric Klinenberg

Faculty Publications, Urban and Regional Planning

Hurricane Sandy was a major event with major implications for how sociologists think about the relationship between climate change and crisis in urban areas. The storm’s impact on New York provides a valuable case for considering how to study the impacts of climate change on large, densely settled cities with vulnerable hard infrastructure and highly complex social conditions that produce differentiated experiences across many different communities. This working paper considers data at several levels of analysis with the aim of assessing neighborhood inequalities in the impacts of such extreme weather. Drawn from the authors’ ongoing research project on unequal vulnerability …

Understanding Fruit And Vegetable Consumption: A Qualitative Investigation In The Mitchells Plain Sub-District Of Cape Town, Catherine Pereira, Milla Mclachlan, Jane Battersby

Hungry Cities Partnership

Objectives: Many South Africans do not consume enough fruit and vegetables. However, people are generally aware of the benefits of adequate consumption. To understand this gap between knowledge and practice, this study investigated underlying factors influencing consumption through a qualitative, cross-sectional, descriptive case study conducted in Mitchell’s Plain, Cape Town.

Methods: Four focus groups to gain broad understanding and 15 interviews with strategically selected individuals influential in food preparation, distribution or consumption, to gain in-depth understanding of specific factors influencing fruit and vegetable consumption were conducted.

Results: The study identified a number of drivers of fruit and vegetable consumption patterns. …

Design Research: Typography Within The Israeli Linguistic Landscape, Shayna Tova Blum

Faculty and Staff Publications

A linguistic landscape signifies language used within a physical or virtual public space, in which communication is presented in typographic form, portraying a message to an audience. Within the state of Israel, the linguistic landscape presents a unique situation in which it is common to view municipal and commercial multilingual signs that are designed using Hebrew, English, and Arabic letterforms. By studying the diverse linguistic landscape within Israeli urban environments, the article offers perspectives on the use of multilingual visual language, based on discussions with five Israeli designers in the summer of 2015.

Transforming Impossible Into Possible (Tip): A Group Work Model In Workforce Development, Philip Young P. Hong

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

This presentation introduces a newly developed social work group intervention model in workforce development. Transforming Impossible into Possible (TIP) program empowers participants to develop self-awareness, confidence, hope, goal-orientation, leadership, accountability, conscientiousness, and grit, it is anticipated that it improves both employment and retention outcomes.

The Ville: Cops And Kids In Urban America, Updated Edition [Table Of Contents, Foreword, Preface], Greg Donaldson

American Studies

In Brownsville’s twenty-one housing projects, the young cops and the teenagers who stand solemnly on the street corners are bitter and familiar enemies. The Ville, as the Brownsville–East New York section of Brooklyn is called by the locals, is one of the most dangerous places on earth—a place where homicide is a daily occurrence. Now, Greg Donaldson, a veteran urban reporter and a longtime teacher in Brooklyn’s toughest schools, evokes this landscape with stunning and frightening accuracy.

The Ville follows a year in the life of two urban black males from opposite sides of the street. Gary Lemite, an enthusiastic …