Limiting entry times distribution for arbitrary null sets SETS

We describe an approach that allows us to deduce the limiting return times distribution for arbitrary sets to be compound Poisson distributed. We establish a relation between the limiting return times distribution and the probability of the cluster sizes, where clusters consist of the portion of points that have finite return times in the limit where random return times go to infinity. In the special case of periodic points we recover the known P\'olya-Aeppli distribution which is associated with geometrically distributed cluster sizes. We apply this method to several examples the most important of which is synchronisation of coupled map lattices. For the invariant absolutely continuous measure we establish that the returns to the diagonal is compound Poisson distributed where the coefficients are given by certain integrals along the diagonal.Comment: 33

Inclusive Urbanisation and Cities in the Twenty-First Century

In academic and policy discourse, urbanisation and cities are currently receiving a great deal of attention, and rightly so. Both have been central to the enormous transformation the world has been going through during the past few centuries. Many parts of the world have experienced and are experiencing an urban transformation. While these processes have taken distinct regional forms across Latin America, East and South Asia, and Africa, it is clear that, globally, the urban transformation has coincided with major societal and ecological changes. Some of these developments have been heralded as progress – notably millions of people being lifted out of poverty – while others, such as entrenching inequalities and accelerating climate change, are alarming. In recent years the pro-urban voices have been louder, but accounts of the wonders of cities need to be balanced with a recognition of the violence, inequity and environmentally destructive forces that cities can embody and reproduce. Equally important is to explore how cities and urbanisation can be made to contribute more to human wellbeing and to international and local development goals. This report is particularly concerned with whether and under what conditions more inclusive urbanisation and cities can support these development goals.UK Department for International Developmen

The urban politics of greenspace: exploring community empowerment for greenspace aspirations, justice and resiliences. A participatory action research project in Glasgow

Over the past decade, greenspace policy has grown in prominence, associated with providing opportunities to address health inequality, urban regeneration and climate adaptation. In parallel, within community development, the discourses of community empowerment and resilience are employed as a response to the same challenges. Yet in Scotland’s urban neighbourhoods of highest deprivation, there remains the triple jeopardy of living in proximity to derelict land, poor environmental quality, and ‘the absence of environmental goods’; all of which can be summarised as poor access to good quality greenspace. At the same time, in relation to the lived experience of socio-political marginalisation, both community empowerment and resilience are contested concepts. The aim of this thesis is to identify the enablers and constraints to fulfilling local greenspace aspirations as rights. Central to realising this aim is the theorising of a trivalent conceptualisation of environmental justice (comprising distributional, procedural and recognition dimensions) and an eco-socialist positioning to inform community and urban resilience strategies. First, clarity is sought by distinguishing between five primary discourses. These pertain to climate policy, city planning, public health, community development, and community transformation. Greenspace is then presented as a ‘boundary object’ that intersects the discourses of resilience; and social, environmental and climate justice concerns. The significance of this research is to foreground greenspace aspirations from the perspective of people living with area deprivation. Located in one of the most deprived neighbourhoods in Glasgow, five interrelated participatory action research projects were undertaken over two years, culminating in a neighbourhood greenspace network. Using participatory inquiry generated critical awareness of greenspace inequality and demonstrated local motivation to work collaboratively for greenspace action. It also exposed the deficits in procedural practices to facilitate inclusive decision-making. Conceiving these tensions as the urban politics of greenspace draws attention to the forms, spaces and levels of power within and between local authority and neighbourhood ‘social worlds’. The empirical findings provide important insight into the visceral experience of greenspace inequality; reflect wider concerns about community engagement practices; and problematise empowerment in relation to greenspace policy and land reform. Notwithstanding, this study identifies the potential for developing greenspace networks to provide a ‘one-stop shop’ for bottom-up deliberation and instituting local greenspace priorities. However, in recognition of individual and organisational resilience factors in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, the participatory action research projects also highlight the importance of local authority actors playing a leadership role in procedural implementation, and in facilitating the visions that transpire. In order to do this, existing community engagement budgets and priorities need to be reappraised. Further, a more radical community development practice is required to pursue a rebalance of distributional environmental burdens and benefits, rights and responsibilities. Improving the accessibility and quality of greenspace as a right, I argue, is political. It establishes a coherent thread through diverse greenspace policy objectives and serves to crystallise the strategic and operational gaps between the five discourses of resilience. By doing so, it shifts the debate from assets to rights in order to address sustainability and inequality for neighbourhoods experiencing multiple deprivation

Sustainability Matters

Calgary, Alberta is a culturally diverse urban metropolis. Sprawling and car-dependent, fast-growing and affluent, it is dominated by the fossil fuel industry. For 30 years, Calgary has struggled to turn sustainability rhetoric into reality. Sustainability Matters is the story of Calgary’s setbacks and successes on the path toward sustainability. Chronicling two decades of public conversations, political debate, urban policy and planning, and scholarly discovery, it is both a fascinating case study and an accessible introduction to the theory and practice of urban sustainability. A clear-eyed view of the struggles of turning knowledge into action, this book illuminates the places where theory and reality converge and presents an approach to municipal development, planning, and governance that takes seriously the urgent need to address climate change and injustice. Addressing a wide variety of topics and themes, including energy, diversity, economic development, and ecological health, Sustainability Matters is both a critique of current practice and a vision for the future that uses the city of Calgary as a microcosm to address issues faced by cities around the world. This is essential reading not only for every Calgarian working for a vibrant and sustainable future, but for all those interested in in the future of cities in a post-carbon world

What Are The Implications of The Global Crisis and its Aftermath for Developing Countries, 2010-2020?

Some major ?game changers? beyond the recent economic crisis and food/fuel crisis will have an impact on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to 2015 and afterwards. ?Future-proofing? the MDGs is about thinking how future(s) might impact the Goals, MDG gains, costs, strategies and opportunities for faster progress on poverty reduction. Scenarios?multiple coherent and plausible futures?are a vehicle both for acting on possible future(s) and interpreting their implications. This paper explores the implications for growth and poverty reduction in developing countries of four futures scenarios to address the following question: ?What are the implications of the global financial crisis and its aftermath, regionally and globally, for developing countries, taking a 5?10 year view? The scenarios and modelling were developed through interviews and workshops with a range of stakeholders in the United Kingdom, India and Kenya. This paper takes a structured approach to reviewing outcomes for growth, poverty reduction and the MDGs for different developing economies, against the background of the post-crisis context. The scenarios were developed using a version of the morphological scenarios approach, field anomaly relaxation (FAR). This creates a backdrop of internally consistent futures for policy formation and decision making by identifying and analysing the most significant drivers of change in the global financial and political systems. The scenarios are closely connected to a ?soft? model that identifies possible pathways, causal linkages and transmission variables between the scenarios and associated levels of economic growth and poverty reduction via key economic variables. This permits more granular interpretation of the scenario outcomes than conventional scenario-analysis techniques. The work was financed by Britain?s Department for International Development (DFID). (...)What Are The Implications of The Global Crisis and its Aftermath for Developing Countries, 2010-2020?

A New European Bauhaus for a Culture of Transversality and Sustainability

This article provides a critical study of a New European Bauhaus initiative in the context of transversality, relational nature and sustainability of construction, architecture and civil engineering. Social and environmental factors in this ecosystem of innovation are highlighted, as well as the perspectives of actors within it. The relationships between art, technology and science of historical Bauhaus are assessed. The investigation of transversality was carried out using a visual tool developed by the authors, CATI, considering sustainability as the backbone. The New European Bauhaus is a pool of innovation that is supported by governments, academia, industry, society and the (natural) environment. It aims at social, environmental and cultural sustainability and includes ideas of social transformation. It is necessary to absorb the impact and overwhelming cultural consequences of previous and current Industrial Revolutions, principally relying on cyber–physical systems to generate spaces and collective intelligence. The climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic have increased the need for new approaches, expanding the concept of smart cities to smart territories, taking into account participation in society and general inclusivity

The Importance of Better Buildings. Natural Solutions in a Modern World

Shelter is a human necessity, a concept that has evolved throughout history. The current industrialized world's concept of housing is just another stage, albeit a pervasive one, in the evolution of shelter. This current stage is unsustainable, however, as it uses an unnecessarily large number of resources and pollutes the atmosphere with carbon and other harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Fortunately, there are alternative forms of building to respond to the issues created by the current built environment and limit the impact caused by buildings. Embracing these sustainable techniques is the next step in the evolution of shelter. The challenge therefore lays in creating and raising in the broader public an awareness of the harmful effects of current building practices. As part of this process, significant questions must be posed. For example, how and why are buildings, particularly suburban tract housing and skyscrapers, constructed the way they are currently? What are the effects of these structures on society, both from a climate change perspective as well as from a human happiness perspective? What role does the profit motive play in driving the construction of suburban houses and skyscrapers? What are the ramifications of current society remaining heavily dependent on the extractivist industry as it moves forward? Answering such questions and subsequently setting out specific criteria to be followed in the construction of any building and demonstrating how using natural materials meet these criteria are key in creating a much healthier built environment. If alternative buildings were constructed more widely in the industrialized world, it would create a more sustainable society in many ways, not the least of which by altering the guiding philosophical principles that have contributed to what has become a heavily consumptive way of life. Bringing better building techniques to the forefront of the construction industry is the challenge, and education is the key tool in meeting this challenge. Everyone involved in the alternative building industry is to some degree a teacher and as such must be prepared to effectively promote learning about a more sustainable life, not just to potential clients but to society at large

Memory, identity and food production among Zimbabwean migrants in Durban, South Africa.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.This study answered questions about the experiences and factors considered in food identification and choice among Zimbabwean migrants, the value chain of food choices among Zimbabwean migrants and how this food production process has influenced development in Durban. This study explores qualitative approach methodology focusing on constructivism epistemology to interpret the relationship that exist between migrants and their food using food mapping as a theory and method to explain their experiences while tracing the food. Sixteen semi-structured interviews helped to follow plants of Zimbabwean origin in Durban from production to consumption tracing the developmental effect. Research shows that the experience of Zimbabwean migrants has a linkage to their culture and identity leaving a trace of home feelings while making choices in consideration to economic, biological and socio-cultural factors. Food value chain analysis helped to capture the sustainable impact of the production of these plants on the economic, social, agricultural and environmental developments. It was concluded that the consumption pattern of these migrants has weighty positive effect on the entire populace, thereby bringing about an aggressive transformation in the economic, social, agricultural and environmental interaction

Haste: The slow politics of climate urgency

What does it mean politically to construct climate change as a matter of urgency? We are certainly running out of time to stop climate change. But perhaps this particular understanding of urgency could be at the heart of the problem. When in haste, we make more mistakes, we overlook things, we get tunnel vision. Here we make the case for a ‘slow politics of urgency’. Rather than rushing and speeding up, the sustainable future is arguably better served by us challenging the dominant framings through which we understand time and change in society. Transformation to meet the climate challenge requires multiple temporalities of change, speeding up certain types of change processes but also slowing things down. While recognizing the need for certain types of urgency in climate politics, Haste directs attention to the different and alternative temporalities at play in climate and sustainability politics. It addresses several key issues on climate urgency: How do we accommodate concerns that are undermined by the politics of urgency, such as participation and justice? How do we act upon the urgency of the climate challenge without reproducing the problems that speeding up of social processes has brought? What do the slow politics of urgency look like in practice? Divided into 23 short and accessible chapters, written by both established and emerging scholars from different disciplines, Haste tackles a major problem in contemporary climate change research and offers creative perspectives on pathways out of the climate emergency