Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Imagined Cities, Real Futures: Simcity And The Co-Production Of Urban Dystopias, Samuel Gerald Collins

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

While the author of this chapter agrees with anthropologists who reject an urban studies predicated on postmodern surfaces and insist that we analyze cities in regional, national and global contexts of political economy, he nevertheless suggests that the urban imaginary has never been so important: Movies, television and music have proven all too useful in the continued vilification of an urban underclass. In 2001, in order to explore the role media might play in the structuring and delimitating of the ways we think about cities, Collins assigned SimCity, a computer simulation game combining models of urban development with cellular automata, …

On Mccomiskey And Ryan's City Comp: Identities, Spaces, Practices, Matthew Ortoleva

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

City Comp: Identities, Spaces, Practices is a collection of essays that address the intersections of composition studies and place studies. But don't look for any sublime vistas or sweeping landscapes in this volume. Rather, City Comp is an engagement with urban spaces and the citizens, teachers and students who write, work and live in these spaces. The (auto)ethnographic, narrative style of the collection is common to composition studies, but this volume resists the kind of self-therapeutic tendencies that are often found with such an approach. Rather, City Comp makes a critical exploration of the historical, political, cultural and …

Whistler’S Fog And The Aesthetics Of Place, Bruce Janz

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

The concept of place has usually been understood as either a phenomenological, epistemological, or ethical category. An understanding of place as aesthetic or rhetorical, on the other hand, tends to focus on the widely varied uses of the concept. First, I sketch out the wide range of uses of place, that have been drawn from writings on the concept. These uses are not definitions of place, but rather functions that the term performs. Place stands in for other ideas, and allows access to different aspects of human experience. Second, I will draw from this range of uses some ideas about …

Rhetorics Of Place: The Importance Of Public Spaces And Public Spheres, Michael Benton

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

This special issue's emphasis on the rhetorics of place is a claim that our physical places are shaped and understood through the public sphere by the various communities of meaning competing for attention, and, in which public opinion is formed and policy decisions are made (Sanchez-Casal and Macdonald, 10-14; Strickland,165; also see Arendt; Borradori; Calhoun; Escobar; Fraser; Glissant; Habermas).

On Joel Weishaus' Forest Park: A Journal, Rania Masri

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

How do we define place? How do we develop our sense of identity and how do we recognize that development? With our constantly changing locations and with our locations themselves constantly changing into more urbanized areas, how do we locate and understand ourselves within our idea of place? How does our relationship with 'nature' touch our lives? In essence, how do we live, with - and within - ourselves?

On Cadava And Levy's Cities Without Citizens, Matthew Wolf-Meyer

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

What, the editors of this collection ask in their introduction, is the nature of the relationship between cities and the people who inhabit them? And how do the historical situation of cities and their citizens limit the potentiality of new modes of subjectification? These are surely evocative questions, and as the editors remark, increasingly necessary ones, as the city is quickly becoming the organizing principle for global flows (of bodies, capital, law, etc.), but, in the collection that follows, the contributing authors barely scratch the surface of these issues, nor do they properly problematize such latter-day master narratives …

Placemaking: A Democratic Project, Lynda H. Schneekloth, Robert G. Shibley

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Democracy in a post-industrial society such as the United States is increasingly characterized as a system of governance orchestrated by the media to shape a mass of passive consumers who live in non-places. Because of the scale and structure of the political economy, we have come to understand the body politic as an adversarial system in which the primary responsibility of the citizen is to vote and consume. After 9/11, an additional alienating element, fear, has entered into our national imagination of passivity leading many people to believe that they are collectively powerless in the face of unknown terrors. If …

Loss, Attachment, And Place: A Case Study Of Grand Isle, Louisiana, David Burley, Pam Jenkins, Joanne Darlington, Brian Azcona

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

This study examines how residents of a Louisiana barrier island think about place in light of slow and rapid onset of coastal land loss. The island community has always faced change due to hurricanes, development, and erosion. Today the island, as well as the region, is faced with great environmental change due to coastal land loss. This paper uses a phenomenological approach to examine how change, caused by a range of environmental factors, is transmitted and understood by residents of Grand Isle, Louisiana. Residents convey a heightened awareness of place attachment, communicated through elements of fragility and uniqueness, that we …

Nurturing Sense Of Place Through The Literature Of The Bioregion, Patrick Howard

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

This paper explores the possibility that a participatory engagement with the literature of the bioregion, in this case the North Atlantic coast, may work against the life alienating tendencies of our modern culture, to reaffirm and renew our children’s consciousness of and sensitivity for their place in a larger Earth community. We are in need of another way of knowing our place, a way to activate and reactivate the complex articulations and relations of things. Through the literature of the bioregion and a bodily, imaginative and participatory engagement with the other-than-human, children can return to the conditions of human embeddedness …

On Joel Weishaus' Forest Park: A Journal, Christine Cusick

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

I tend to have an often stubborn suspicion of the convergence of art and technology, language that loses and finds us in the throes of new and unbound understanding somehow, seems diminished when the materiality of its record cannot be felt, when visceral responses cannot make a palimpsest of the text through the marginalia of an earnest reader. And so, when I first heard mention of a highly respected poet and thinker chronicling his time-felt ruminations and intuitions on cyberspace, I was initially hesitant to pursue the encounter. However, my hesitation quickly turned to humble engagement as I …

Supposing A Space: The Detecting Subject In Paul Auster’S City Of Glass, Richard Swope

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

No abstract provided.

Processes Of Embodiment And Spatialization In The Writings Of Paul Auster, Markus Rheindorf

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Processes of embodiment and the spatialization of interior categories such as thought and memory are defining characteristics of Paul Auster's novels, essays, and poetry, and a brief survey of these aspects can offer a new perspective on Auster's oeuvre as an organic whole. It is the underlying assumption of this paper that the transformation of interior into exterior constitutes a specific instance of the transpositional processes discussed therein. Within the theoretical framework of cultural studies -- as opposed to the more narrowly defined literary studies -- such transformations can be regarded as processes of embodiment, that is to …

Urban Terrorism: Strategies For Mitigating Terrorist Attacks Against The Domestic Urban Environment, John J. Kiefer

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

This study identifies strategies to mitigate the impact of terrorist attacks against the domestic urban environment. It uses multiple qualitative research methods to identify patterns of attack used by terrorists against urban targets in the United States and suggest ways for policymakers to mitigate the effects of a terrorist attack through not only physical, but also organizational, political, legal, and social strategies. It uses case analysis, literature review, and interviews with experts in domestic terrorism preparedness to develop and suggest solutions.

Terrorism, as with other criminal acts, can best be met by implementing strategies to mitigate the impact of this …

An Analysis Of The Changes In The Proportional Distribution Of Poverty Between Metropolitan Statistical Areas And Their Central Cities, Billy W. Godair

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

This study examined Wilson's hypothesis that economic restructuring accompanied by spatial redistribution of employment opportunities coupled with rising skills requirements for employment provide an explanation for the increasing concentration of metropolitan area poverty in its central city. This study also assesses the influence that racism, represented by racial residential segregation (Index of Dissimilarity), may have on the distribution of metropolitan poverty (Massey 1990, 1994; Massey, Gross and Shibuya, 1994; Feagin, 1999, Orfield, 1992). Additionally, this study will expand Wilson's hypothesis by examining the influence that these variables (economic infrastructure, skills mismatch, and racial residential segregation) have on central city income …

The Regional Public-Private Civic Infrastructure Of Hampton Roads And Its Impact On The Implementation Of Economic Development Initiatives, James Andrew Probsdorfer

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

This study analyzes the effectiveness of a network of five regional organizations to promote economic development in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Using a case study methodology, data collected from organizational documents, media reports, and personal interviews was categorized and triangulated to determine how many regional economic proposals were implemented from 1990 to 2000. This analysis created a regional timeline from which was produced a regional inventory of economic proposals. This study concluded that the regional economic development organizations in Hampton Roads have a fragmented network and their output has been influenced by regional factors.

Specifically out of a total of nineteen …

Factors Which Contribute To Successful Schools For Disadvantaged Students: An Exploratory Case Study Of Two Urban Elementary Schools In Norfolk, Virginia, Lula Saunders Sawyer

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

This exploratory case study examines the perceptions of parents, teachers, students and principals on eight factors of school effectiveness. Two low income elementary schools in the City of Norfolk, Virginia served as the research setting for this study. Though both schools consist almost entirely of African American students, and are otherwise similar in demographics, they have achieved at different levels. While one has been recognized as a national model, based on continuous improvement in students' academic achievement, the other has not attained the same level of achievement, based on standardized test scores.

A case study methodology has been used to …

Planning The Twentieth-Century American City, By Mary Corbin Sies And Christopher Silver. Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore And London, 1996, And Magnetic Los Angeles: Planning The Twentieth-Century Metropolis, By Greg Hise. Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore And London, 1997 (Book Reviews), Robert Wojtowicz

Art Faculty Publications

(First Paragraph) Planning has been a part of the American landscape since the establishment of the first colonial outposts, but it was not until the early twentieth century that the field's protagonists organized and professionalized. Also a relatively recent phenomenon is the field of American planning history, which for many years was the neglected stepchild of urban history and the distant cousin of architectural history. Over the past decade, however, a steady outpouring of interdisciplinary research has garnered for the field well-deserved recognition within the academy. At a time when more established disciplines are increasingly torn by ideological differences and …

Municipal Involvement In International Relations, John Jack William Hilgers

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

The purpose of this study is to examine municipal involvement in international relations in the United States. This municipal phenomenon is occurring concurrently with both a shift away from the traditional nation-centric structure of international relations under the influence of globalism as well as a sharp decline in intergovernmental aid. The research questions were: (1) What are the indicators that define municipal involvement in international relations? and (2) What is the extent of that involvement?

Extensive qualitative and research was conducted in the form of an exploratory literature survey which was set forth in narrative analysis to overcome the paucity …

Managerial Roles And Entrepreneurship In Non-Profit Urban Arts Agencies In Virginia, Beth Joan Novitch Rossheim

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

The future of the arts in Virginia depends on knowing how arts agencies are functioning and surviving at a time of resource decline. What roles do managers play in administering agencies? What business and management skills do managers use to maintain an agency and to relate to the community? How do managers handle cutbacks? Does entrepreneurship create more viable arts agencies?

Bivariate data analysis separated managers into four role groups: entrepreneur, administrator, artist, and caretaker, according to their perceived degree of programmatic creativity and documented access to organizational resources. Managerial role types were compared with management behaviors to discern significant …

The Implementation Of Neighborhood Conservation Projects In Portsmouth, Virginia, 1960-1990, Robert Brooke Albertson

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

The study describes and analyzes the implementation of federally-funded neighborhood conservation programs in two of Portsmouth, Virginia's oldest urban neighborhoods by addressing four research questions: (1) To what extent is there variation in the implementation of neighborhood conservation projects in differing neighborhood settings? What are the factors that account for such differences? (2) To what extent are the neighborhood conservation projects distributive or regulatory programs, and what forms of conflict and/or cooperation result from this? (3) What is the intergovernmental context of neighborhood conservation projects, and how does this affect the nature of bargaining and negotiation among governmental units? and …

The Influence Of Cohesive Groups On The Ethical Behavior Of Public Employees: An Analysis Of An Urban University, Patricia Bellin Strait

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

Ethics problems permeate all aspects of public agencies. This is especially true in urban areas where public workers have frequent interactions with large numbers of civilians. The results of unethical behavior often have very tangible effects with perhaps the most serious consequences being the deterioration of public services and the destruction of public trust.

This dissertation explores Milton Fisk's Group Ethics Theory which states that ethical behavior varies according to cohesive group membership. In order to investigate Fisk's theory, an ex post facto study was performed within a single urban university. The primary independent variable was group membership. Data was …

An Assessment Of The Utilization Of Permanent And Temporary Classrooms As It Relates To Cost And Efficiency In Selected School Divisions, E. Carlton Bowyer

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

In the mid-1900s there were over eighty thousand public school buildings in the United States housing approximately thirty-nine million pupils. Many were constructed thirty or forty years earlier and have approached the end of their useful life without requiring major retrofitting or replacement. Rising construction costs prompt school systems to investigate alternative means of housing rapidly growing student populations. This study traced the historical background of the school facility and the development of school construction relative to the function of education.

The focus of this study was to ascertain the current use of temporary and permanent housing in the fifty …

The Emergence Of A Medical School In Hampton Roads, John Pierce Flemming Iv

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Studies

This dissertation documents the early years in the campaign by community leaders in Norfolk and adjacent cities to establish a local medical school as a means to improving the quality of medical education in the Hampton Roads area. Although attention is focused on the period 1959 to 1973, it is not strictly limited to this period of time.

The methodology for this dissertation is based heavily upon oral research. As one historian pointed out, "What better way to learn about a particular time than from the mouths of those who lived it." Approximately forty individuals instrumental in the founding of …

Volunteer Trustees In Urban United Way Agencies, Rosemarie Scoti Cook

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of role and function of trustees and chief professional officers (CPOs) in non-profit, human services agencies that are members of the United Way of South Hampton Roads. Thousands of volunteer hours are expended annually in serving on boards of directors in the Hampton Roads area. These trustees who serve are legally accountable for the agencies, and have certain duties prescribed by their by-laws. However, role confusion and conflict exist over specific duties of trustees.

Responsibilities of for-profit board members were divided into four areas: management--control and oversight; adherence to legal …

The Impact Of Public Investment On Urban Revitalization: A Case Study On The Redevelopment Of Downtown Norfolk, Virginia 1935-1985, Marvin W. Lee

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Studies

This study focuses on downtown revitalization. It examines the effect of public investment in Downtown Norfolk in relation to various theories that have been developed to explain the growth of the central cores of cities.

A chronology is presented of the events that marked the beginning and the first fifty years of redevelopment in Downtown Norfolk, Virginia. Through reliance on newspaper articles, interviews and other documented sources, a record is provided that attempts to give deeper insight into the struggle that transformed slums and blight in downtown to a revitalized center of social and economic activity. This historical review allows …

The Urban Gestation: City Building In Wilmington, Delaware, Dennis Signorovitch

History Theses & Dissertations

Abstract unavailable.