On the challenges ahead of spatial scientometrics focusing on the city level

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Governance and Creativity on Urban Regeneration Processes

Governance has become a central topic among policymakers. There is an international consensus that policymaking is evolving from a traditional top-down government approach towards a system of governing that focuses on engaging the citizens within an area (Cabus, 2003). New forms of governance targeting urban competitiveness are increasingly oriented to vertical (between lower and high levels of government and cooperation forms between entities and firms along the production chain) and horizontal (between firms or different municipalities or public and private entities) cooperation (OEDC, 2005). Based on a study research methodology, this article seeks to contribute to answer to the following research questions: i) what is the role of governance in the processes of urban regeneration?; ii) what is the role of governance in the development of creative processes for urban regeneration? and iii) what is the potential of governance to support urban regeneration strategies based on creativity and creative industries?Territorial governance, Creativity, Urban regeneration.

Conception to Construction: Compositional decision-making informed by theories, patterns and processes in the physical, life, and computer sciences

This critical commentary presents my compositional research investigating how theories, patterns and processes in the physical, life and computer sciences have informed my practice. Engaging with the work of composers who have explored related ideas in their work from Xenakis and Ligeti, to Emily Howard, Robert Laidlow and others, this research considers different understandings of the meaning and role of ‘science’ within an artistic practice. I reflect on the methodologies that have emerged as proxies to navigate my interest in scientific concepts within the language of music, including metaphor and collaboration. Scientists involved in collaborations within this project include biochemical engineers and chemists from Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Liverpool, and doctors and health data scientists of Connected Health Cities (CHC) and the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium’s UK Covid-19 group (ISARIC4C). The thirteen works that complete the portfolio track the development of my compositional voice in conjunction with the progression of this research over the degree period, and investigate the topic through structural musical, interaction-based and technological exploration including the use of electronics, augmented instruments, video, and machine learning technologies alongside a broad range of instrumental ensembles. This practice-based research also considers historical and philosophical discussions on the meaning and role of science from the classical era through to the modern scientific method, engaging with Karen Barad’s theory of agential realism and Donna Haraway’s posthumanism to present a view beyond C.P Snow’s ‘two cultures’ (1959). Concluding with reflections on my compositional practice and the developing area of composer/scientist collaborations, this commentary investigates how this body of work contributes new knowledge to this field and discusses the impact legacy of the work itself

Personal indebtedness, spatial effects and crime : a comparison across the urban hierarchy

The recent recession has made understanding the relationship between economic conditions and crime crucial to public debate. In this paper we seek to understand the spatial pattern of property and theft crimes using a range of socioeconomic variables, as well as data on the level of personal indebtedness, for two regions of the UK: London (the capital city) and the North East of England (a peripheral region). Building on earlier published work in this area, this paper will contrast the regression results obtained in both of these regions. This allows a comparison of the factors that are important in explaining the observed pattern of theft and property crimes, including an analysis of the spatial dimension of these factors, between these two regions. Doing so will allow a comparison of the elements that are important in explaining the observed pattern of theft and property crimes across the two regions

Geographies of the global co-editor network in oncology

The co-editor networks of academic journals are generally examined at the journal level. This paper investigates the geographies of the global co-editor network in oncology through the lens of cities. After using different network methods to analyze the global co-editor network, we found that the network can be characterized by a core-periphery structure. The dense core is occupied by many highly interconnected cities, whereas the periphery contains many cities maintaining loose connections with the core cities. The core shows an asymmetric dual sub-core structure. The greater sub-core is constituted by Northern American cities with New York, Washington DC, Boston, Houston, and Los Angeles in the center, whereas the smaller sub-core is formed by Asian cities and centered on Tokyo, Seoul, Osaka, Beijing, and Shanghai. The European core cities do not form a well-outlined sub-core but produce a ringlike shape around the Northern American core. This structure of the co-editor network is a consequence of the prestige effect still characterizing global science. Many European and Chinese journals tend to employ Northern American editors (US-based editors in the first place) to help increase the reputation of the journal. However, US-based journals are more interested in recruiting American editors from the top-ranked national cancer centers and universities rather than outside of the country

European Regional Science: Between Economy of Culture and Economy of Catastrophes (Review of the ERSA 2005 Amsterdam Congress Reports)

ERSA Congress can be seen as laboratory of ideas with broad representation not only European, but also scientists from US, Japan, Korea, Brazil, African and Asian countries. With very high speed new thoughts and phenomena from the European regional scientific community appear on the stages of the ERSA annual Congresses. Three new features were characteristic for the 2005 ERSA Congress in comparison with the previous ones. First, special focus on the factors of density in the regional development. That was not surprising as the meeting was held in the city of Amsterdam with the highest density in Europe where land and space are scarce goods. Second, integrative tendencies in attempt to use natural factors to explain traditional phenomena of the regional science. Issues of land and water management coincide with economic growth and regional development in many reports. Third, for the first time theme of networks and network society was embedded in many sections of the Congress and in the very title of the Congress itself. All these aspects as participants demonstrated could be positive creative factors increasing cultural assets of the European regions, efficiency of the knowledge transfer, leisure activities; or negative as the source of disaster and risk for human beings. Density factors (lack of people or lack of space?) divide European regional science into two sciences – urban for the populated regions and regional for the territories scarcely populated with very different themes, methods and tools of research. Housing markets, urban sprawl and commuting patterns are popular topics in the first case; labour markets and human capital in the second case. New Economic Geography models work smoothly in the first regions but are inappropriate in the second. Competition is harder in the labour markets of the populated regions but is softer in the regions with scattered population where it is substituted by the forces of cooperation. Contemporary regional society can be sustainable only as network society. In the reports networks were examined on different levels: a) as transportation networks in the investment national or interregional projects; b) as policentricity urban structures replacing Cristaller’s hierarchy of central places; c) as public-public, public-private partnerships combining public and private stakeholders in the decision-making process. Transition of the European regions from the industrial to network/service has begun 25 years ago. Position of the concrete region on this route determines clearly the type and intensity of its problem and research agenda. The more advanced is the region or nation on this route the more often terms like “reinventâ€, “rethinkâ€, “revisited†are used in the scientific community. Rediscovery of the old concepts, definitions, essence (as Amsterdam Congress demonstrated) is very creative and challenging process of the post-industrial regional science.