Transience and durability in Japanese urban space

The thesis addresses the research question “What is transient and what endures within Japanese urban space” by taking the material constructed form of one Japanese city as a primary text and object of analysis. Chiba-shi is a port and administrative centre in southern Kanto, the largest city in the eastern part of the Tokyo Metropolitan Region and located about forty kilometres from downtown Tokyo. The study privileges the role of process as a theoretical basis for exploring the dynamics of the production and transformation of urban space. Three aspects of temporal experience identified by Giddens – routine, biographical and institutional time – are adopted as a framework for considering how the dynamics of social reproduction are expressed in terms of transience and durability within urban form. A methodology is developed to explore the changing interrelationship between six conceptual ‘entities’ – the individual, household, dwelling, establishment, premises and site. Metrics are identified for each to facilitate a consistent analysis over time of the changing relationship between these based on a formal diachronic longitudinal survey. An analysis of the spatial transformation of the material form of the city between 1870 and 2005 was completed based primarily on recording the changing use over time of about 4,500 sample points. The outcome of the study is presented in five substantive chapters. The first considers characteristics of the layout of neighbourhoods and dwellings that have endured largely through their close association with processes of social reproduction. The following four chapters examine chronologically the evolution of the city, documenting transformations in urban form and their expression in terms of changing use of volumes of space, the characteristic infrastructure, premises and dwelling types, and how these relate to broader trends in Japanese history. The final chapter summarises the interrelationship of these transformations and draws some conclusions concerning what promotes transience and durability in an urban environment

Geography in the South African curriculum in relation to developments in the teaching of the subject overseas

The mind and character of an individual can be fostered by the subjects which have proved themselves to be of value in improving the education of man, not only from scientific, but also from moral and aesthetic stand points. The question is whether or not geography as a subject fulfils this requirement. For this it must have a distinctiveness of aim and a limitation of content. Civilization today is passing through great crises. Wars, rumours of wars, cold wars, economic crises, exhaustion of natural resources etc. are reported daily in the newspapers. Education of a certain type is needed - an education which will develop in man a deep concern for the freedom and good life of his fellows, and some understarding of the major problems of the world and possible solutions. Man is no longer a unit of a small self-contained community, but has his responsibilities as a citizen, firstly of his own country and secondly of a world community. Upon his solutions to the problems of the world depend to some degree the progress and development of his town, country, of the world generally. Education therefore ought to train the child to take his place in the world, not only as a man, but as a citizen. Children must be taught to think and reason for themselves. Geography as a subject lends itself magnificently to the general education of men and the development of good citizens. Geography can help to teach pupils to understand and experience the adult world. South Africans are fortunate in that geography is a compulsory subject up to standard seven. In high school beyond this level it is not offered by all schools