Search Results (25)

Unbalanced population growth, especially in developing countries, has exacerbated the waste problem. This issue is alleviated by waste pickers who play a vital role in recycling, the city’s circular economy, and sustainability strategies. The article aims to create an alternative form of communication by analyzing the daily lives and work patterns of waste pickers through various instruments, contributing to urban sustainability policies. Most studies on waste pickers have focused on broader trends and have not explored the lives of waste pickers in-depth. As a result, effective communication has not been established, and practical solutions have not been developed. This study directly addresses this gap and examines the daily lives and work practices of waste pickers in the metropolis of Istanbul, using ethnographic and grounded theory methodologies. It analyzes these findings with the MAXQDA program and proposes alternative solutions. The methodology generated verbal and spatial data from waste pickers, which were organized using an extensive coding system and, as a result, categorized under four selective codes. Through diagrams created from the theoretical codes used in the coding process, the narratives of waste pickers and their spatial production and usage were correlated, enabling a thorough analysis of waste pickers. This code model presents a challenging reevaluation of the traditional approach to urban sustainability in local systems by recognizing waste pickers as often overlooked yet essential actors and agents of sustainability in the city. Full article

This research explores the underappreciated traditional cold-water baths of Western Anatolia, once integral to the region’s agrarian culture. Due to waves of change, which had markedly begun by the pandemic in 2019 and the aftermath of the 2020 Samos earthquake, there has been a growing interest in living in peri-urban areas, resulting in the invasion of agricultural grounds by new construction, mainly including detached houses with gardens. Such a harsh growth not only threatens the fertile lands, but also the irreplaceable cultural heritage they embrace. In this regional frame, this study focuses on three surviving baths within the Karaburun Peninsula, casting light on their current precarious state as relics of a diminishing rural way of life and local heritage. The traditional cold-water baths, constructed amidst agricultural fields for seasonal use in select villages throughout İzmir, stand as unique exemplars of rural architecture. Characterised by their singular domed chambers and their reliance on water from adjacent wells, these structures today face abandonment and disrepair. Through a multi-disciplinary lens blending ethnography, oral history, and spatial analysis, this paper portrays these unassuming yet culturally impactful baths, elucidating their intrinsic value within the heritage domain. The inquiry contributes significantly to the heritage conservation discussion, highlighting the broad spectrum of values beyond mere historical interest. By articulating the symbiotic relationship between heritage and its community, this research underscores the pressing need to weave these baths into the fabric of current social structures, safeguarding their place within the collective memory. Full article

Cities in sub-Saharan Africa are growing at an unprecedented rate, resulting in the significant expansion of peri-urban spaces. Postcolonial planning reflects the instrumental rationale continued by colonial legacies and largely fails to take the realities of the peri-urban population into account. As the example of Maputo, the Mozambican capital, demonstrates, the consequences are far-reaching. Implementing individual land titling programs promotes the commodification of space and the individualization of collective life, while the modernist vision of a homogeneous physical order leads to the socio-spatial alienation of existing residents and large-scale displacements. Employing a life-world approach in Alfred Schütz’s tradition, this paper brings the everyday reality of peri-urban dwellers into focus, offering a renewed planning agenda. Building on place-based research and life-world analytical ethnography, the reconstruction of practices and experiences illuminates the “paramount reality” of everyday life in Maputo as necessary entry points for an urban planning agenda that reconciles both the life-world of the people and the instrumental realities of state and planning actors. Applying a life-world perspective to urban planning reveals a realistic and inclusive approach grounded in the experience and social reality of the people living in the “ordinary city”. Full article

Employing a social support perspective allows us to examine the experiences of migrant women in assembly lines using WeChat to explore the relationship between social support and their subjective well-being. Th paper takes advantage of the digital ethnography method to investigate Chinese rural–urban women using WeChat in Tianjin, China. Utilizing a snowball sampling approach to search for 47 interviewees, this study conducted in-depth face-to-face interviews. The research discovered that activities organized by companies, digital information, and virtual communication, to some extent, provide Chinese migrant women with social support, consequently positively influencing their subjective well-being. It is undeniable that the use of WeChat seems to conceal the inequality, imbalance, and many other issues behind this phenomenon. Even so, this discovery will help researchers investigate migrant women’s urban inclusion and mental health in the future. Full article

Literature on African urbanism has generally lacked insight into the significant roles of hunters and fishers as city founders. This has resulted in a knowledge gap regarding the cultural foundation of the cities that could enhance policy frameworks for sustainable urban governance. This article examines corollaries related to the complementarities of hunting and urbanism with case studies from the ethno-linguistic Yoruba region in southwestern Nigeria. Through qualitative methodologies involving ethnography and the (oral) history of landscapes of hunting from the pre-colonial and (British) colonial periods, as well as tracing the current cultural significance of hunting in selected Yoruba cities, the article reveals data that identify hunters and fishers as city founders. It shows that hunting, as a lived heritage, continues to be interlaced with cultural urban practices and Yoruba cosmology and that within this cultural imagery and belief, hunters remain key actors in nature conservation, contributing to socio-cultural capital, economic sustainability, and urban security structures. The article concludes with recommendations for strategies to reconnect with these value systems in rapidly westernizing urban Africa. These reconnections include the re-sacralization of desacralized landscapes of hunting, revival of cultural ideologies, decolonization from occidental conceptions, and re-definition of urbanism and place-making in light of African perspectives despite globalization. In doing so, the article contributes to a deeper understanding of the interconnections between the environmental and societal components of sustainability theory, agenda, and practice in urban contexts; underscores the societal value of lived heritage, cultural heritage, and cultural capital within the growing literature on urban social sustainability; and sheds more light on southern geographies within the social sustainability discourse, a field of study that still disproportionately reflects the global northwest. Full article

This article discusses collaborative ethnography as a meaningful source for spatial research, in particular, for participatory methodologies in urban planning and placemaking processes. It investigates the experiences with co-creation and co-research in different research projects to gain insight into the performance of collaborative ethnography as a technique to explore and enrich local knowledge. To better understand the possible causal relationships between the experience gained in the projects and the learnt lessons, we also identify recommendations for improving research methodologies to be applied in placemaking. This article concludes that collaborative ethnography is an effective tool for adding value to spatial co-research and co-creation processes. It opens opportunities for the co-production of space, ideas and knowledge, contributing at the same time to better informed decision-making. It also helps improve ideas and gather insights into the spatial needs of focus groups. Full article

Access to transport is key to people’s movement in cities, their social participation, and personal development. People with mobility disabilities (PMDs) face additional barriers when using public transport. The objective of this study is to identify the dilemmas that PMDs face in their daily mobility practices and their coping strategies, in particular the ways in which these dilemmas and strategies are influenced by both personal and environmental characteristics. We conducted ethnographic research, utilizing narrative interviews, life stories, focus groups, and participant observations. Our aim was to analyse multiple experiences of mobility in situations of disability in Quebec City, Canada. This study engages the following research question: how do PMDs navigate their social environment, considering the impact of personal, social, and physical landscape factors on their mobility strategies? Depending on the accessibility of fixed-route public buses and the availability of public paratransit services, what are the dilemmas that PMDs face and how do they shape their mobility strategies? Using the three-dimensional model of narrative analysis, we present a narrative ethnography of participants’ dilemmas and strategies about their experiences on public transport. Five dilemmas are examined. Through this methodology, we propose to extend the study of “constellations of mobility” by including the notion of strategies as an experiential outcome between personal and physical landscape factors, practices, and meanings of mobility. This offers new research perspectives both in disability and mobility studies and in the understanding of urban accessibility experiences in situations of disability. Full article

Slum formation is a visible outcome of population growth, rapid urbanization, economic and political policy. Currently, there are approximately one billion slum dwellers, representing approximately thirty percent of the global population. As evident, slums as a critical issue will remain in the upcoming decades. The discipline of architecture should consider the issue of a slum in its curriculum, especially within the design studios. This research attempts to integrate the slum topic within the fourth year undergraduate architecture curriculum and develop a pedagogical framework concerning architectural design projects that focuses on slum topic. The Graduation Research & Preparation (ARC 403) course and Graduation Project (ARC 402) course are modified in order to be responsive to the slum topic. The novelty of the framework can be categorized as follows: the proposed framework is context specific. It is based on an interdisciplinary approach to architecture and ethnography. It utilizes ethnographic tools for collecting data during fieldwork. It values research throughout the design process. A research-based approach prepares young architects for future complex challenges. It requires the young architects to utilize research and build an inventory of collected data, which can guide them during the design process as a reference point. It attempts to increase the awareness of the young architect regarding the discourse on social sustainability. It values social equity, quality of life, and well-being as core indicators of social sustainability and tries to integrate the indicators within the curriculum. The aforementioned indicators can guide young architects to reach strategic decisions to achieve sustainable design solutions. Full article

Regional rural systems respond to global environmental change with multi-dimensional transformation. However, in the widespread traditional agricultural areas, rural transformation is often seen as invisible and sometimes remains hidden by official statistics of urbanization and industrialization at a regional level. The study implemented field survey and ethnography methods, exploring the trajectory and driving paths of rural transformation in traditional agricultural areas. The findings indicate that the dominant livelihood experienced a transitional trajectory from traditional farming to jujube-oriented and then to a non-farming livelihood. Furthermore, the land use showed an eco-transformation from farmland to forest land, and from cultivated land gradually to uncultivated land. We also find that the household behaviors actively or passively adapted to environmental effects, such as climate change, market change, urbanization impact, and policy regulation, and then drove non-agricultural transformation and eco-transformation in traditional agricultural areas. Based on these findings, the study confirms that there is a clear rural transformation in traditional agricultural areas, and reveals that the Loess Plateau turned green from bottom to top. Finally, the study calls to take the road of green transformation, and proposals are presented in terms of ecology, livelihood, and industry. Full article

Urban green spaces provide environmental, economic, societal and health benefits to cities. However, policy and planning interventions aiming to improve usage have often led to unintended consequences, including, in some circumstances, an actual decline in usage. Previous research has identified factors influencing the use of urban green space, more often with a focus on the ‘quality’ and physical features of the space, rather than on the broader social factors. This study aims to unpack the complexity of factors that influence the use of urban green space through the application of Systems Thinking. A qualitative mixed-method approach integrating System Dynamics with rapid ethnography was adopted to elicit the views of local residents in Thamesmead, London. A thematic analysis of interviews was undertaken to systematically map the causal relations between factors, which were compared to wider stakeholders’ views. Our findings highlight the relevance of dynamics and social influences on the use of green space, which include social interactions and stewardship, health conditions, availability of services and amenities. These are factors that are underexplored in the literature and, sometimes, overlooked in urban green space policy by decision-makers. We infer that attendance of urban green spaces requires time, which may be occupied in other practices determined by local conditions and needs. Expanding the spatial and temporal boundaries of investigation, wider than debates on ‘quality’, should, in our view, increase the chances of identifying critical influences and foster an increased use of green space. Full article

Since the mid-twentieth century, Latin American rural territories have undergone significant transformations. One of the leading causes is the expansion of large-scale operations that exploit natural resources for world market exportation with low processing. In this paper, we study the changes in agricultural activities, livestock, and land use in the Calama oasis (the Atacama Desert, northern Chile) in relation to the growth of large-scale copper mining and other chained processes (urbanization and increased demand for water resources); based on a mixed methodology combining descriptive statistics, archival and bibliographic review, ethnography, and spatial analysis. We present the results through a historical reconstruction of the analyzed dimensions and their relationships, accounting for contradictory dynamics in time and space. We identify how mining and urban growth promote some agricultural and livestock activities under certain economic and political conditions, while in other contexts, these activities have been severely weakened, seeing increasing urbanization of rural land, rural-urban pluriactivity, and a growing deagrarianization. Full article

Jogging is the most practiced physical activity in the west. This form of light running appears a solution to the health problems caused by the sedentary of contemporary dwelling and affirmed the role of the extensive use of urban space as a key to individual well-being and health. The COVID-19 pandemic and the imposition of lockdowns imposed a new form of kinesthetic morality based on domestic confinement; a morality that is in open contrast to that of jogging. The article explores this conflict and its consequences in terms of perception of the urban environment and the society among joggers. Based on case study research conducted in 2020 in Alessandria, NW Italy, this study delves into this abrupt change and explores how the urban spatiality changed for the joggers. In so doing, it asks what this event teaches us about the development of new, more effective, urban policies. Full article

The public space of a park is one of the most important carriers of social interaction and cultural practice in urban areas. Taking an ethnography of Taijiquan in Chengdu (China) as a case study, this article explores the production of Taijiquan’s “park culture space” (PCS). Our analysis revealed that the development of PCS not only transformed “public space” in the park to a “private space” through Taijiquan practice and exchange but also transformed “material space” in the park into “social space” with identification. We found that working on the process of self-managing Taijiquan’s “park culture space” included the democratic operation mechanism of communication and consultation, the cooperative operation mechanism of mutual benefit, and the incentive operation mechanism of balancing interests. Taijiquan’s “park culture space” was the reproduction of public space that was not only bonded with Taijiquan practice but was also reconstructed and expanded by Taijiquan practitioners. Furthermore, it involved the return of Taijiquan practitioners’ historical memory and collective life experience alongside the construction of Taijiquan practitioners’ group identity and the development of self-organization. Full article

This paper investigates the government-led maker movement in Shenzhen, China by deploying Michel de Certeau’s concepts of “strategy” and “tactics”. While there is a growing body of literature surrounding the maker movement, the discrepancy between the maker movement presented in urban policies and its participants’ actual practices is underexplored. Situating the exploration in the Chinese context, this article looks into how state intervention shapes the maker movement and actors’ participation. This work starts with considerations of political economy to demonstrate how the “Make with Shenzhen” campaign as a strategy fits into the government’s creative city agenda. It then draws upon the findings of a longitudinal ethnographic study to illuminate how discourses, institutions and apparatuses are tactically appropriated by individuals to mobilize symbolic, monetary, social and political resources to serve their interests. We argue that these tactical practices can potentially lead to meaningful changes in the city of Shenzhen and the everyday life of its people. By juxtaposing the strategy of the “Make with Shenzhen” campaign with the tactical practices surrounding it, this study offers insight into the challenges and possibilities brought about by the city-wide learning and making in the Chinese context. Full article

Since the 1960s, post-war modernist heritage has been largely criticised and victimised by the public opinion because of its material failures and elitist social projects. Despite these critiques, post-war modernist heritage is being reassessed, revalued and in some places successfully rehabilitated. There is a growing recognition that most of the critiques have often been the result of subjective and biased value and taste judgments or incomplete assessments that neither considered the urban design nor the users’ experiences. This paper aims to contribute to these reassessments of post-war modernist urban heritage legacies. To do so, it places the user’s social experiences and uses, and the urban design at the centre of the analysis, by using a combination of ethnographic methods and urban design analysis and focusing on the public spaces of Southbank Centre in London, the UK’s largest and most iconic and contested post-war modernist ensemble with a long history of conservation and regeneration projects. Taken together, the findings demonstrate the importance of including the users’ social experiences and uses in the conservation and regeneration agendas if we want to achieve more objective and inclusive assessments. Full article