Search Results (27)

The multi-religious geography of urban streets in India is shaped by the constant negotiation of religious difference in everyday life. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2022, this article examines three religious processions commemorating Sikh, Jain, and Ambedkarite events that take place in the neighborhoods of Somvār Peṭh and Rāstā Peṭh in the city of Pune on the same calendar day, but at different times. Focusing on how these processions occupy, traverse, and temporarily transform shared streets, the article analyzes how religious communities claim public space through material practices, bodily presence, and sensory regimes, while simultaneously navigating political regulation and instrumentalization. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s theory of rhythmanalysis, the study shows how biological, social, and religious rhythms structure the timing, scale, and form of these events, enabling a fragile coexistence in a densely multi-religious urban environment. The article argues that attention to rhythm offers a productive analytical lens for understanding everyday religion in the city, revealing how power, identity, and belonging are negotiated through temporal coordination, embodied adjustment, and contingent forms of sharing public space. Full article

The “Digital Countryside” initiative is profoundly reshaping rural China, transforming traditional villages into complex hybrids of physical realities and virtual networks. However, current research often treats rural space statically and overlooks the dynamic interplay between spatial dimensions in developing regions. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s spatial triad theory, this study proposes a novel framework to examine how the restructuring of physical, social, and digital spaces influences grassroots governance effectiveness. Empirically, this study is based on a dataset covering 108 villages across Jiangsu Province, with 210 valid questionnaires collected from village cadres and representatives. Each questionnaire is linked to a specific village, forming a village-referenced individual-level dataset. The analysis primarily focuses on Northern Jiangsu as a representative developing region, while retaining inter-regional variation for robustness. Using K-Means clustering and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), the results reveal significant spatial heterogeneity, identifying distinct village configurations with uneven developmental paths. Crucially, structural analysis indicates a “saturation effect” where traditional physical infrastructure no longer directly drives governance improvements. Instead, Digital Space has emerged as the dominant engine. However, this digital impact is not automatic; it relies on a critical mediation pathway through “Technological Embedding” and the fostering of multi-actor “Subject Synergy.” Furthermore, avoiding governance “involution” ultimately depends on an institutional imperative: synergy alone cannot directly drive governance efficacy without flexible “Institutional Environment Adaptation.” Most critically, Spatial Justice Perception is identified as a decisive boundary condition; low perceived fairness acts as a “justice trap” that significantly dampens the positive returns of digital investment, underscoring that breaking this trap is essential for promoting sustainable rural development and long-term governance effectiveness in the digital era. Full article

Mount Lu’s transformation from a natural landscape into a Buddhist sacred space provides an important case for understanding how sacred geography was produced in medieval China. Rather than treating sacredness as an inherent quality of a place or as the product of textual representation alone, this article argues that Mount Lu was sacralized through the historical interaction of monastic practice, textual production, and cultural memory. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space, the study examines how Huiyuan (334–416) and his community redefined Mount Lu through monastic settlement, ritual activity, institutional formation, and cultural authority centered on Donglin Temple. It further analyzes how historiographical writing, literary representation, and intertextual circulation extended the mountain’s religious significance beyond the monastic community and consolidated it within broader traditions of literati culture. In this process, Mount Lu became not only a Buddhist sacred site but also a durable site of memory onto which Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian meanings could be projected and renegotiated. By tracing the interaction between embodied religious practice and textual transmission, this article shows that the sacralization of Mount Lu was neither a spontaneous religious phenomenon nor simply the result of state designation, but rather a cumulative historical achievement shaped by monastic initiative, literary circulation, and the long-term work of cultural remembrance. Full article

Singapore Hin Ann Thain Hiaw Keng held its centenary celebration in October 2025. As this event utilized pre-existing or temporary venues, it offers a valuable case for exploring how ritual and theatre contribute to the generation of sacred space. Through the observation of Taoist rituals, puppet theatre, and Puxian opera featured in this event, and by drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s spatial triad, this paper argues that rituals and theatre do not merely occur in pre-existing sacred spaces. Instead, by multiple practices, including spatial planning and the implementation of ritual and theatrical techniques, they transform residences, commercial premises, and public spaces that originally possess secular attributes into spaces that can be experienced and recognized as sacred. Full article

Rapid and large-scale urban transformations destabilize historical continuity in both the material fabric of cities and the theoretical assumptions guiding urban design. This review reconceptualizes tabula rasa and palimpsest as a negative dialectic through which historical dis/continuity can be critically interpreted. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s account of the production of space and Marc Augé’s notion of non-place, tabula rasa is understood not as a neutral void but as a historically produced condition of erasure. Paul Ricoeur’s distinction between reconstruction memory and repetition memory informs an interpretation of the palimpsest as an active process of selective re-inscription, rather than a passive accumulation. Through engagement with Fredric Jameson’s cognitive mapping and Aldo van Eyck’s configurative discipline, the article advances methodological orientations for operating in contexts where historical anchors are attenuated or selectively preserved. Analyses of mapping and superposition techniques in the Parc de La Villette competition proposals by OMA/Rem Koolhaas and Peter Eisenman illustrate how dialectical strategies generate form under conditions of unstable continuity. The study argues that urban design necessitates neither presuming uninterrupted historical transmission nor treating erasure as neutral. By framing tabula rasa and palimpsest as mutually constitutive processes, the article clarifies how historical dis/continuity shapes contemporary urban form and proposes methodological instruments for engaging it critically. Full article

This study investigates the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban informal spaces through a rhythmanalytical lens, offering critical insights for sustainable urban governance and the development of inclusive night-time economies. Drawing on Michel de Certeau’s theory of everyday life practices and Henri Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis, this study interprets the night market as a rhythmic assemblage. This assemblage is interwoven with the strategic, disciplinary rhythms imposed by managers and the tactical, subsistence-oriented rhythms crafted by the vendors. The research finds that urban managers impose a strategic rhythm aimed at order and controllability through the standardization of time, homogenization of space, and institutional clearance. In response, vendors, driven by a subsistence logic shaped by survival pressures develop a repertoire of sophisticated tactical variations. These tactics manifest as flexible uses of time and space to disrupt the established disciplinary framework. Furthermore, based on strong relational networks of “blood, professional, and geographical ties”, dispersed individual tactics can coalesce into a powerful collective rhythm, thereby gaining the capacity for dialog and negotiation in spatial games. The most constructive interactions embody a creative cadence, where vendors proactively integrate local cultural elements into their operations, transforming their practice from resistance into symbiosis, achieving a form of rhythmic harmony with urban development strategies. By integrating rhythmanalysis with the theory of everyday practice, this study constructs the “rhythm game” analytical framework. Its main contribution lies in revealing that the core of power interactions in urban informal spaces is not perpetual confrontation, but rather the contingent possibility of evolution from resistance to rhythmic harmony. This provides crucial theoretical and empirical grounding for understanding the source of vitality in informal spaces and for building a flexible, coordinated, and sustainable governance model. Full article

Serotonergic signaling is traditionally conceived as a transient, vesicle-mediated process restricted to the synaptic cleft. Here, we propose an expanded model in which serotonin can also be inserted into the plasma membrane of neurons and glial cells, forming a stable, membrane-associated reservoir that prolongs its availability beyond classical synaptic timescales. In this framework, the synapse emerges not as a simple neurotransmitter–receptor interface but as a dynamic, multiscale medium where membrane order, hydration, and quantum-level processes jointly govern information flow. Two temporal “tunnels” appear to regulate serotonin bioavailability: its aggregation in synaptic vesicles during exocytosis, and its cholesterol-dependent insertion into neuronal and glial membranes at the tripartite synapse. Lipid raft microdomains enriched in cholesterol and gangliosides thus act as active regulators of a continuum between transient and constitutive serotonin signaling. This extended serotonergic persistence prompts a reconsideration of current pharmacological models and the action of antidepressants such as fluoxetine, which not only inhibits the serotonin transporter (SERT) but also accumulates in lipid rafts, perturbs raft organization, and alters serotonin–cholesterol equilibria, contributing to SERT-independent effects. Grounded in the recently established fundamental parameters of biological systems, this model invites a broader, quantum-informed rethinking of synaptic transmission. Full article

Lipid raft-associated gangliosides facilitate the early stages of SARS-CoV-2 entry by triggering the exposure of the receptor-binding domain (RBD) within the trimeric spike protein, which is initially sequestered. A broad range of in silico, cryoelectron microscopy and physicochemical approaches indicate that the RBD becomes accessible after a ganglioside-induced conformational rearrangement originating in the N-terminal domain (NTD) of one protomer and propagating to the neighboring RBD. We previously identified a triad of amino acids, Q134-F135-N137, as a strictly conserved element on the NTD. In the present review, we integrate a series of structural and experimental data revealing that this triad may act as a conformational transducer connected to a chain of residues that are capable of transmitting an internal conformational wave within the NTD. This wave is generated at the triad level after physical interactions with lipid raft gangliosides of the host cell membrane. It propagates inside the NTD and collides with the RBD of a neighboring protomer, triggering its unmasking. We also identify a chain of aromatic residues that are capable of controlling electron transfer through the NTD, leading us to hypothesize the existence of a dual conformational/quantum wave. In conclusion, the complete conservation of the Q134-F135-N137 triad despite six years of extensive NTD remodeling underscores its critical role in the viral life cycle. This triad represents a potential Achilles’ heel within the hyper-variable NTD, offering a stable target for therapeutic or vaccinal interventions to disrupt the conformational wave and prevent infection. These possibilities are discussed. Full article

Enhancing farmers’ livelihood resilience is a cornerstone of sustainable rural development and poverty alleviation consolidation in developing countries. While tourism has emerged as a prominent rural revitalization strategy, the mediating role of tourism-induced land use transitions in building resilience—and the underlying spatial mechanisms through which these transformations operate—remains inadequately understood. This study integrates Henri Lefebvre’s spatial production theory with land systems analysis to examine how tourism-driven land use transitions influence farmers’ livelihood resilience in rural China. Using provincial panel data and three waves (2018, 2020, 2022) of nationally representative household survey data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we construct a comprehensive tourism development index emphasizing land transformation dimensions and employ panel regression models with instrumental variables and threshold analysis. The findings reveal that tourism-induced land use transitions significantly enhance farmers’ livelihood resilience through three distinct spatial mechanisms: land-based rural infrastructure investment, industrial land structure rationalization, and cultural facility land development. Importantly, this relationship exhibits a double-threshold effect with diminishing marginal returns, and the positive impact is substantially stronger in heritage-rich regions with comparative policy advantages. By establishing land use transitions as a critical spatial production pathway linking tourism to sustainable livelihood outcomes, this study advances land systems science, offering a novel theoretical framework for integrating people–nature interactions in heritage-rich rural areas and practical guidance for strategic land use planning in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Full article

This article examines how metaphors operate in digital media not as descriptive analogies but as structuring forces that shape how technologies are designed, understood, and inhabited. Building on Marianne van den Boomen’s theory of digital material metaphors, it argues that metaphors such as the “desktop,” “cloud,” and “frontier” encode social and ideological assumptions into the infrastructures of computation. These metaphors render digital systems legible while concealing not just the procedural computation that van den Boomen terms depresentation, but the material, ecological, and labour conditions that sustain them. Using my practice-based work c(o)racle, 2025, as a case study, the internet is explored as a metaphorical and material terrain that connects networks of data, water, and craft, interrogating the dominant metaphor of cyberspace as immaterial and untethered, in dialogue with Tim Ingold, Lakoff and Johnson, Henri Lefebvre, and Yuk Hui. Drawing on S. J. Tambiah, Bruno Latour, and Elizabeth Wayland Barber, the essay situates metaphor within broader histories of making and mediation. By activating metaphor as both method and medium, the study proposes a critical reorientation toward digital space as an entangled, situated, and contested environment. Full article

This study investigates how urban park co-governance fosters a sense of belonging among residents and advances the Right to the City. It examines the role of parks in mitigating spatial fragmentation, inadequate living conditions, and relational disconnection in high-density urban environments. As essential green infrastructure, urban parks play a vital role in promoting spatial justice, community cohesion, and resident well-being. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s Right to the City framework, this study introduces the concept of the Right to Urban Park, conceptualised as a bundle of rights: freedom (appropriation), individualisation (socialisation), habitat and to inhabit (differentiation), and key point participation. Focusing on the governance and self-governance of parks in high-density cities, this research mixed qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse a representative case in central Shanghai. The findings show that participation, collective action, and co-governance in urban parks effectively support the Right to the City. Integrating the Right to Urban Park framework into park planning and management enhances diversity, equality, and inclusion, thereby improving urban well-being. This framework plays an important role in fostering enfranchisement, individuation, and association processes that strengthen recognition, sense of belonging, and well-being. Full article

In high-density cities like Hong Kong, green spaces are often characterized by fragmentation and uneven spatial distribution, which negatively impacts their accessibility and equity. To address this issue, studies have proposed the use of informal green spaces (IGSs) as a supplementary component to formal urban green spaces (UGSs). However, the spatial delineation and quantitative analysis of IGSs remain challenging due to the lack of standardized identification and evaluation methods. Building upon the work of urban theorists Henry Lefebvre and Edward Soja, this study explores informal green spaces as third spaces. This study employed remote sensing and GIS technologies to systematically assess the spatial distribution and benefits of IGSs, categorizing them into four types: Urban Interstitial IGSs, Transitional IGSs, Fringe IGSs, and Riparian IGSs. Subsequently, an evaluation framework was constructed across ecological, social, and economic dimensions to quantify the overall value of IGSs. The results reveal that IGS significantly contributes to ecological regulation, social interaction, and economic potential, particularly in urban areas with limited green resources. This demonstrates that IGSs can serve as a vital complement to formal urban green spaces, playing a key role in alleviating green space inequity, enhancing urban livability, and promoting sustainability. Furthermore, this study provides a scientific foundation for precise identification, benefit assessment, and optimized management of IGSs, supporting effective integration and rational utilization in future urban planning. Full article

This article investigates the role of space in the fiction of Jeffrey Eugenides, focusing on The Virgin Suicides (1993) and Middlesex (2002) through the lens of spatial theory. Drawing on key thinkers such as Henri Lefebvre, Michel Foucault, Edward Soja, Yi-Fu Tuan, and Doreen Massey, the study explores how Eugenides constructs spatial environments that not only frame but actively shape the identities, desires, and traumas of his characters. In The Virgin Suicides, suburban domestic spaces are shown to function as heterotopias—sites of surveillance, repression, and mythologized femininity—while Middlesex engages with transnational and urban spaces to narrate diasporic and intersex identity as dynamic, embodied, and liminal. The analysis reveals that Eugenides uses space as both a narrative device and a thematic concern to interrogate gender, memory, and power. Rather than passive backdrops, the novelistic spaces become charged arenas of conflict and transformation, reflecting and resisting dominant socio-cultural discourses. This study argues that space in Eugenides’ fiction operates as a critical register for understanding the politics of belonging and the production of subjectivity. By situating Eugenides within the broader field of literary spatiality, this article contributes to contemporary debates in literary geography, gender studies, and American fiction. Full article

Henri Lefebvre’s “right to the city” has rarely been examined through an intersectional feminist lens, leaving unnoticed the uneven burdens that urban design and policy place on women. This article bridges that gap by combining constitutional analysis, survey data (n = 736), in-depth interviews, and participatory observation to assess how Quito’s public spaces affect women’s safety and mobility. Quantitative results show that 81% of respondents endured sexual or offensive remarks, 69.8% endured obscene gestures, and 38% endured severe harassment in the month before the survey; 43% of these incidents occurred only days or weeks beforehand, underscoring their routine nature. Qualitative narratives reveal behavioral adaptations—altered routes, self-policing dress codes, and distrust of authorities—and identify poorly lit corridors and weak institutional presence as spatial amplifiers of violence. Analysis of Quito’s “Safe City” program exposes a gulf between its ambitious rhetoric and its narrow, transport-centered implementation. We conclude that constitutional guarantees of participation, appropriation, and urban life will remain aspirational until urban planning mainstreams gender-sensitive design, secures intersectoral resources, and embeds women’s substantive participation throughout policy cycles. A feminist reimagining of Quito’s public realm is therefore indispensable to transform the right to the city from legal principle into lived reality. Full article

Most studies on the docking of ivermectin on the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 concern the receptor binding domain (RBD) and, more precisely, the RBD interface recognized by the ACE2 receptor. The N-terminal domain (NTD), which controls the initial attachment of the virus to lipid raft gangliosides, has not received the attention it deserves. In this study, we combined molecular modeling and physicochemical approaches to analyze the mode of interaction of ivermectin with the interface of the NTD-facing lipid rafts of the host cell membrane. We characterize a binding area that presents point mutations and deletions in successive SARS-CoV-2 variants from the initial strain to omicron KP.3 circulating in many countries in 2024. We show that ivermectin has exceptional flexibility, allowing the drug to bind to the spike protein of all variants tested. The energy of interaction is specific to each variant, allowing a classification according to their affinity for ivermectin in the following ascending order: Omicron KP.3 < Delta < Omicron BA.5 < Alpha < Wuhan (B.1) < Omicron BA.1. The binding site of ivermectin is subject to important variations of the NTD, including the Y144 deletion. It overlaps with the ganglioside binding domain of the NTD, as demonstrated by docking and physicochemical studies. These results suggest a new mechanism of antiviral action for ivermectin based on competitive inhibition for initial virus attachment to lipid rafts. The current KP.3 variant is still recognized by ivermectin, although with an affinity slightly lower than the Wuhan strain. Full article