Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

No. 01: South Africa At War: Food Insecurity, Migrant Exclusion And Covid-19 Policies, Jonathan Crush, Sean Sithole

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

The policy audit critically examines the South African government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly focusing on the militaristic enforcement of lockdowns and the resulting food insecurity and exclusion of migrant populations. The report aims to inform policy-makers about the impacts of these policies and provide recommendations for crisis management.

On 27 March 2020, South Africa imposed a nationwide lockdown to combat the spread of COVID-19. This lockdown, enforced by the police and the military, was characterized by stringent measures including curfews, bans on inter-provincial travel, and the closure of non-essential businesses. These measures, while necessary to control the pandemic, …

Unveiling Environmental Justice In Two Us Cities Through Greenspace Accessibility And Visible Greenness Exposure, Md Shahinoor Rahman, Mahbubur Meenar, S. M. Labib, Ted Howell, Deepti Adlakha, Ben Woodward

School of Public Health Faculty Publications

Uneven access to greenspaces or visible greenness is an environmental justice (EJ) issue. In this paper, we use a social equity lens to develop geospatial models that measure convenient walking access to urban greenspaces such as parks and street-level green exposure en route to greenspaces. We utilized earth science, geospatial, and demographic datasets to develop two models—Greenspace Accessibility and Visible Greenness Exposure—and applied them in Camden and Jersey City, USA, two communities experiencing environmental injustices. Modeling results show that greenspace accessibility is a concern in both cities, with Jersey City experiencing more prominent disparities. We observed significant positive relationships in …

Launchpad And Homebase: Columbus Ohio’S Arts Ecosystem, Rachel Skaggs, Amanda Tobin Ripley

International Journal of Regional Issues in the Arts

This article draws critical attention to strengths and needs within the arts ecosystem of Columbus, Ohio. Relying on interviews and focus groups with artists and arts leaders, we establish three themes as the most prevalent and cross-cutting among artists and arts leaders: needs for community building, paid work, and space. Based on these stated needs, we identify two aspects of the arts ecosystem in Columbus: launchpad and homebase, neither of which fully support artistic careers. We argue that with investment will also come the opportunity to develop a stronger ecosystem that allows artists to live, work, and thrive in Columbus.

Waterhouses : Landscapes, Housing, And The Making Of Modern Lagos, Mark Duerksen

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Waterhouses is about the places the people of Lagos have inhabited, imagined, and made home for the past two centuries. It asks what a house in Lagos is and explores how the answer to that question has been historically constructed and reconstructed in turn with the city’s changing landscapes. Written for historians of African and Atlantic history, scholars and practitioners of urbanism, and anyone looking to make sense of Africa’s most populous metropolis today, the book is an approachable history of how houses and water have formed modern Lagos.

The book argues that in the coastlands from which Lagos rose, …

Insurance Coverage And Flood Exposure In The Gulf Of Mexico Region: Risk, Social Vulnerability, Urban Form, And Scale, Anissa J. Hyde

LSU Master's Theses

Increasing flood losses in the Gulf of Mexico pose serious threats to resilience and insurability. The purpose of this study is to understand how scale, social vulnerability, risk and urban form relate to NFIP insurance coverage and flood exposure. Our multilevel models identify that flooding is significantly clustered by region and counties, especially shoreline counties. Our measures of risk suggest that the FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas underestimates risk and exposure when compared with Flood Factor, and that there is some compensation in terms of insurance coverage, suggesting a pattern of adverse selection. Older housing stock appears both less insured …

Natural Resource Factors Promoting Urban And Rural Integrated Development In The New Era: Target Selection And Policy Design, Zhimin Zhang, Guohua Yuan, Ruilin Liu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Reconstructing the reverse flood of natural resource elements in rural and urban regional systems is the basic form of requirement for realizing urban-rural integration. Taking target selection-realistic obstacles-institutional demand-system construction as the logical main line, starting from the current situation of natural resource element allocation under the framework of urban-rural integrated development, it sorted out the problems existing in the urban-rural integrated development of natural resources such as asymmetrical property rights design, inconsistent bearing plans of various types, lack of natural resource revenue sharing mechanism, and poor asset flow channels and trading systems, with unified layout, power return, paid use, …

Archetypal Energies And Global Mental Health, Carroy U. Ferguson

Psychology Faculty Publication Series

As a keynote speaker at the Global Mental Health Conference 2024, held at Sophia University, Costa Mesa, CA, in-person and virtually, August 16-18, 2024, my topic was "Archetypal Energies As A Framework for Self-Empowerment and Well Being". The theme of this 2024 global conference was: Enlightened Minds, Compassionate Hearts, and Embodied Wisdom. To supplement my keynote address, I wrote this blog article titled "Archetypal Energies and Global Mental Health".

Resolving Nigeria’S Security Conundrum: A Comprehensive Regional Analysis, Lukman Ahmed Lawal, Beacon Mbiba, Salamatu Kassah

Journal of African Conflicts and Peace Studies

Abstract

This article analyses the regional variabilities of insecurity in Nigeria to propose a suitable approach to understanding their peculiarities. It argues that the dominant military interventions and one-size-fits-all approaches are inappropriate for resolving the country’s myriad security challenges. The Regional Security Complex Theory offers a theoretical basis to contextualise the complex security challenge in Nigeria. There is a need to unbundle the dynamics for each of the regions. Syntheses from the six geopolitical zones indicate that although the security challenges manifest in precarious living conditions, the drivers differ. The article recommends that interventions analyse and identify underlying factors for …

Batavia In The19th Century: A Russian Diplomat's Criticism Of The Capital Society And The Colonial System Of The Dutch East Indies, Ahmad Fahrurodji

International Review of Humanities Studies

ABSTRACT This article analyzes the traces of diplomatic relations between the Russian Empire and the Dutch East Indies in the late 19th century. The views and criticisms of the Russian Consul in Batavia became one of the important milestones of cultural relations between the two nations in the future. This research is a cultural history research using historical research method and structural approach. The documents used are diplomatic reports that have been published in the original language (Russian). By using the theory of hermeneutics, this article aims to see how Batavia and the people in it interacted and acted from …

Extension Efforts To Address The Current National Housing Crisis, Michael J. Dougherty, Melissa B. Hamilton, Bradley Neumann

Journal of Extension

Housing is a basic need. The National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals (NACDEP), Land Use Planning Community of Practice held a virtual forum in December 2021 on the national housing crisis. The session revealed common challenges communities face when addressing these issues locally. As a follow-up to that session, this paper summarizes Extension perspectives on community housing issues discussed during the session, reviews the literature on Extension programs related to housing, and makes the case for a national peer learning and communications network to address these difficult and urgent community housing challenges.

No. 25: Responses To Covid-19 By Internal Migrants In South African Cities, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera, Maria Salamone, Zack Ahmed

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

This paper explores the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on internal migrants in the urban centres of Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa. Focusing on the socio-economic and livelihood challenges faced by this population, the research utilizes a survey conducted in 2023 to investigate how the pandemic exacerbated existing vulnerabilities. Results highlight significant disruptions in employment, increased economic hardship, and heightened health risks among migrants, particularly those living in low-income neighbourhoods. Despite the hardships, very few migrants intended to permanently return to their rural origins, indicating a complex interplay between economic necessity and pandemic-induced constraints. The findings underscore the unique challenges …

No. 24: Food And Health Security Among Burmese Migrant Domestic Workers In Singapore Amid Myanmar’S ‘Triple Crisis’, Brenda Yeoh, Franchesca Morais, Theodora Lam, Kristel Acedera, Bittiandra Chand Somaiah

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

Migrating overseas to work as domestic workers is an increasingly important livelihood strategy for capital-poor women in Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar. However, the recent COVID-19 pandemic and civil unrest in Myanmar has highlighted the entrenched precarities and uncertainties attached to this migration strategy. The health crisis has further heightened the importance of remittances and food security for migrants and their sending households. Food production, food systems and access to food supplies in the country have been especially hit by political instability, the energy crisis and inflation. This paper explores issues concerning the food and health security of female …

No. 26: Pandemic Precarities And Remittance Narratives In The Global South, Jonathan Crush, Sujata Ramachandran

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

The COVID-19 pandemic has been referred to as a great disruptor of global migration leading to a crisis of immobility caused by public health lockdowns, closed borders, and the suspension of visa processing. Layoffs and retrenchments of migrant workers led to widespread hardship and an intensification of pre-pandemic precarity, as well as disrupted remittance channels and flows. Against this backdrop, the paper provides an overview of current debates about the relationship between COVID-19 and international migration in the context of South-South migration. We assess how pre-pandemic South-South migration flows were disrupted by the pandemic and the evidence for a crisis …

Project Turnkey Evaluation, Anna Rockhill, Sarah Mercurio, Franklin Holcomb Spurbeck

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

In 2020-2021 Oregon legislators approved $74.7 million to assist communities to purchase local motels and convert them into emergency shelters. The goal was to help keep people safe during COVID and to address the need for housing for victims of the wildfires in light of the deficit of appropriate shelter resources facing the state. A total of 19 projects received funding, and by 2023 all of the projects were providing services to people experiencing homelessness. Combined, this resulted in 865 new units of emergency shelter-- a 20% increase in the state’s supply. According to an analysis done by Oregon Community …

Environmental Sustainability In Universities Of The Gulf South, Carol T. Lunn

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Universities and colleges are uniquely qualified to serve as community showcases on incorporating environmental sustainability across education, research, operations and leadership. Campuses can serve as living laboratories that benefit students, employees and the local community. The Whole Institution Approach to sustainability promotes active engagement of the entire school in a holistic way. Leadership plays a key role in embedding sustainability across curriculum, research, operations and community engagement.

The purpose of this study was to research universities of the Gulf South to determine what environmental sustainability practices they have in place and examine if there are trends related to university characteristics. …

Guest Editor's Note, Rajiv Thakur

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

The Adaptation Wedge: Capacity-Building Scenarios For India’S Cities, Jagan Shah

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

The increasing frequency and severity of floods, heat waves, and storm surges impacting global cities, combined with the growing morbidity in public health, necessitates prompt and effective climate action. Adaptation and mitigation require adequate and appropriate institutional, technical, and societal capacities—all of which are in short supply in most low- and middle-income country cities that are experiencing growth while suffering vulnerabilities. Although national governments are alerted to climate risk and the imperatives of planning, financing, and managing climate transitions, their responses to capacity constraints and approaches to capacity building display neither urgency nor scale. We use a scenario-building methodology to …

Statement From The Indiana Academy Of The Social Sciences And Board Of Directors

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

The Decline Of Republican Democracy And Rise Of The Techno-Authoritarian State: Reading Dystopian Novels In Hindi Literature, Manindra Nath Thakur

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

In the past few decades, the nature of capitalism has changed fast as it has lost its philosophical justification based on the principle of the common good. There have been many avatars of the idea of the “common good”: “white man’s burden to civilize the world,” “welfarism,” and “neoliberal concept of freedom of choice.” Capitalism now seems to have moved in a new direction, however, and it has failed to produce any further philosophical justification for its existence as a mode of production despite generating unprecedented economic inequality. Consequently, there is a rising tension between capitalism and democracy in societies …

Economic Development In Legacy Cities: Current And Emerging Challenges And Opportunities, Neil Reid, Sujata Shetty, Jane Adade

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

As manufacturing employment has declined in the traditional manufacturing regions over the past decades, many communities have experienced population loss and overall economic decline. Local economic development professionals have had to grapple with long-term structural changes in the economy as well as short-term jolts. To gain insights into the changing landscape of economic development, we interviewed economic development practitioners in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The interviews focused on their perception of current and emerging challenges and opportunities with respect to economic development in their respective communities. Having identified the major challenges and opportunities, we asked them to articulate the …