Urban religion beyond the city: theory and practice of a specific constellation of religious geography-making, Religion, DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2023.2174913

The concept of urban religion demands us to start operationally with analyzing characteristics of urban environments and their impact on religious forms of communication. Yet this notion was not necessarily designed to apply only to the city and related phenomena exclusively observed in city spaces. Practices, beliefs, even institutions developing as urban religion spread out beyond the city. Thus, the geography of lived urban religion and of agents of urbanity is different from what the same people imagine and geographically locate as city space. This article intends to develop the conceptual tools for analyzing this blurring of boundaries produced by religious semantics, discourses and practices interacting with implicit and explicit border-constructions linked to practices of ‘urbanity’. The highly debated ‘urban’ or ‘anti-urban’ character of ancient Christianities serves as our point of departure for developing comparative tools

Networks in Berlin’s Music Industry – A Spatial Analysis

In addition to a distinct regional concentration of the branch in a few, large metropolitan areas in Germany, Berlin shows inner-city (inner-regional) concentrations of the music industry and its players linked with the value chain as well as branch-relevant institutions. By means of a written survey of companies in the media and IT industries in Berlin and Brandenburg plus expert interviews, an analysis of the Berlin music branch, regarding its spatial as well as organizational concentration and how this concentration is perceived by companies, has been carried out. A comparison of the results within the branch and with the Brandenburg region can be made on the basis of a differentiation of the media branch in the analysis. This analysis found that creative milieus are of particular importance as they perform the role of being the driving force in developing the field of music. Therefore this paper examines spillovers into this industry, as a first step of spatial concentration in terms of networks of music companies, institutions, and the specific and innovative milieu and the geographical dimension of knowledge. Furthermore, evidence has been found through the use of economic and socio-cultural indicators. Urbanization economies become especially clear (apparent) for the region in the examination of Berlin’s music industry with their intersectoral integration and cross-sectoral stimilus to settlement and formation of companies.

Associations between health and different types of environmental incivility : a Scotland-wide study

Objectives: Concern about the impact of the environment on health and well being has tended to focuson the physical effects of exposure to toxic and infectious substances, and on the impact of large scale infrastructures. Less attention has been paid to the possible psychosocial consequences of people's subjective perceptions of their everyday, street level environment, such as the incidence of litter and graffiti. As little is known about the potential relative importance for health of perceptions of different types of environmental incivility, a module was developed for inclusion in the 2004 Scottish Social Attitudes survey in order to investigate this relationship. Study design: A random sample of 1637 adults living across a range of neighbourhoods throughout Scotland was interviewed. Methods: Respondents were asked to rate their local area on a range of possible environmental incivilities. These incivilities were subsequently grouped into three domains: (i) street level incivilities (e.g. litter, graffiti); (ii) large scale infrastructural incivilities (e.g. telephone masts); and (iii) the absence of environmental goods (e.g. safe play areas for children). For each of the three domains, the authors examined the degree to which they were thought to pose a problem locally, and how far these perceptions varied between those living in deprived areas and those living in less deprived areas. Subsequently, the relationships between these perceptions and self assessed health and health behaviours were explored, after controlling for gender, age and social class. Results: Respondents with the highest levels of perceived street level incivilities were almost twice aslikely as those who perceived the lowest levels of street level incivilities to report frequent feelings of anxiety and depression. Perceived absence of environmental goods was associated with increased anxiety (2.5 times more likely) and depression (90% more likely), and a 50% increased likelihood of being a smoker. Few associations with health were observed for perceptions of large scale infrastructural incivilities. Conclusions: Environmental policy needs to give more priority to reducing the incidence of street levelincivilities and the absence of environmental goods, both of which appear to be more important for health than perceptions of large scale infrastructural incivilities

The impact of urbanisation on nature dose and the implications for human health

This is the final version. Available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.The last 100 years have seen a huge change in the global structure of the human population, with the majority of people now living in urban rather than rural environments. An assumed consequence is that people will have fewer experiences of nature, and this could have important consequences given the myriad health benefits that they can gain from such experiences. Alternatively, as experiences of nature become rarer, people might be more likely actively to seek them out, mitigating the negative effects of urbanisation. In this study, we used data for 3000 survey respondents from across the UK, and a nature-dose framework, to determine whether (a) increasing urbanisation is associated with a decrease in the frequency, duration and intensity of nature dose; and (b) differences in nature exposure associated with urbanisation impact on four population health outcomes (depression, self-reported health, social cohesion and physical activity). We found negative exponential relationships between nature dose and the degree of urbanisation. The frequency and duration of dose decreased from rural to suburban environments, followed by little change with further increases in urbanisation. There were weak but positive associations between frequency and duration of dose across all four health domains, while different dimensions of dose showed more positive associations with specific health domains in towns and cities. We show that people in urban areas with a low nature dose tend to have worse health across multiple domains, but have the potential for the greatest gains from spending longer in nature, or living in green areas.D.T.C.C, H.L.H. and K.J.G were supported by the Fragments, Functions, Flows and Urban Ecosystem Services project, NERC grant NE/J015237/1, funded under the NERC Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Sustainability program

The great outdoors: how a green exercise environment can benefit all

The studies of human and environment interactions usually consider the extremes of environment on individuals or how humans affect the environment. It is well known that physical activity improves both physiological and psychological well-being, but further evidence is required to ascertain how different environments influence and shape health. This review considers the declining levels of physical activity, particularly in the Western world, and how the environment may help motivate and facilitate physical activity. It also addresses the additional physiological and mental health benefits that appear to occur when exercise is performed in an outdoor environment. However, people's connectedness to nature appears to be changing and this has important implications as to how humans are now interacting with nature. Barriers exist, and it is important that these are considered when discussing how to make exercise in the outdoors accessible and beneficial for all. The synergistic combination of exercise and exposure to nature and thus the 'great outdoors' could be used as a powerful tool to help fight the growing incidence of both physical inactivity and non-communicable disease. © 2013 Gladwell et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Moving through the city with strangers? Public transport as a significant kind of urban public space

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Negotiating urban change. Strategies and tactics of patrimonialization in Hackney Wick, East London

The heritage category function of building collective identity, condensing in specific goods, tangible or intangible, a set of locally significant values and practices, has been often pointed out to show its use in managing relations between the authorities and local communities (Simonicca 2015). This happens nowadays with a particularly conscious approach in urban planning, not only in the practices and rhetorics of institutions, but also in the quotidian experience of people who develop their own informal planning. In this discussion, the heritage arguments become an appropriate tool to handle and shape the change, especially when these processes have a deep impact in the everyday lives of communities and territories, like in cases of gentrification

An Examination of Ethnic Hierarchies and Returns to Human Capital in the UK

This article focuses on the returns to human capital of migrants and minorities in the UK. The question of whether skills and qualifications are properly utilized is very pertinent given the global competition for skilled migrants and the aim of European and British markets to attract such workers. Using data from Understanding Society (2009 to 2017) we find that there is a clear evidence of ethnic hierarchies with black Caribbean and black African minorities generally most disadvantaged, while other white UK-born have the best outcomes compared to the white British. Western migrants generally do very well, but new EU migrants have high levels of employment, and low returns to their qualifications and relatively high levels of over-qualification. Foreign qualifications are generally discounted, and more so for migrants with less certain legal status or low language skills. Public sector employment plays an important role and is associated with the higher economic placement of migrants and minorities in the UK. There are some worrying trends however. Highly skilled migrants, particularly black migrants as well as those from Eastern Europe, come in with high qualifications, but their jobs do not match their skill levels

Toward a Mutual Change of Religion and Urban Space: A Comparative Perspective

From a historical perspective, cities have served as more than mere locations where religious practices are observed; they have consistently exhibited an elevated level of historical documentation. The claim advanced here is that the interrelationship between religious change and urban development necessitates thorough analysis. It is imperative to critically examine the significant developments in local and trans-local religions, particularly emphasising their distinct urban contextual factors. At the same time, such urban conditions, the practices, and discourse that shape the understanding of these conditions as urban are not independent variables in the study of religious change. Rather, they are influenced by religious practices and individuals, thereby forming a reciprocal relationship. The choice of areas is an assumption that the pertinent aspect in establishing a connection is the spatial character of religious practices and ideas and their material manifestation in physical space. The article concisely examines various aspects related to the transformation of urban spaces and religious practices. These include the process of monumentalising urban areas and gods, the public display and the articulation of communication with God and gods, the imaginative and widespread utilisation of scripture in religious activities and thought, the increasing division of labour and professionalisation, the emergence of individual urban actors who are not solely defined by their ancestral lineage, the formation of religious groups, the religious organisation of time and the influence of temporal concepts on religious ideas and practices, and lastly, the conceptualisation of alternatives to urban life through the religious exaggeration of rural and natural environments. Such a cursory review of religious changes in urban settings and their impact on urbanism does not yield any definitive assertions on these developments. However, the collective evidence confirms the effectiveness of the presented approach