5,423 research outputs found

    Cosmopolis, integrating migrant communities into local environments in Helsinki

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    Nowadays the high flow of population migrations from developing to developed countries is converging on most of the segregated areas in the urban environments. The grouping of these population groups that have gathered in specific locations are becoming physically and mentally segregated communities. Immigrant groups clustering in specific zones or neighbourhoods of cities make native residents to avoid or move out for various reasons causing mental barriers and bad reputation areas within urban contexts. In sub urban areas, this mental barriers are complemented by physical barriers, giving rise to mentally and physically segregated areas in developed metropolis. Finland presents a great potential to develop multicultural urban environments, due to the existing social mixing policy. On the other hand, the vast inhabitant migration from rural areas in the 60’s (Vaattovaara et al. 2010) resulted in urgent need of housing buildings, developing high rise neighbourhoods in sub urban areas based on the modern model of a car-based city. This model is evidently problematic nowadays due to the various physical barriers, isolating this areas from urban life, therefore producing spatial segregation. The main aim of the thesis is to study spatial segregation of neighbourhoods with high percentage of immigrant groups in Helsinki. Jakomäki, a suburb located on the northern borders of Helsinki, is chosen as a case study to develop a strategic proposal for better integration. There is a potential to integrate the suburb in parallel to the development of the capital city latest master plan; the developing of Malmi airport and the Boulevardization. The aim of this thesis is to integrate the physical space and the migrant communities in the local environment, in order to reach a cosmopolis. By taking in consideration urban goals established by UN Habitat Europe and the City of Helsinki, the project aims to impact at the urban, the district and the neighbourhood level; for triggering the development of the north part of Helsinki while benefiting local inhabitant communities and encourage mental and spatial integration

    LANGUAGE USE IN PUBLIC SPACE (LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE STUDY IN SHOPPING CENTERS IN MAKASSAR CITY)

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    The purpose of this research is; 1) describe the linguistic landscape used in the Makassar City shopping center; 2) describe the dominant use of language in the linguistic landscape; and 3) knowing the reasons for using foreign languages in the linguistic landscape in shopping centers in Makassar. This research is a qualitative research designed descriptively. The locus of this research was in three shopping centers in Makassar City, namely Panakukang Mall, Nipah Mall and Ratu Indah Mall. Data is collected through documentation techniques. Analysis was carried out using qualitative techniques through data collection procedures, data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion/verification. The results of the study show that the types of landscapes found in shopping centers in Makassar City are top-down and bottom-up linguistic landscapes. The bottom-up landscape type is dominant in shopping centers in Makassar. In addition, foreign languages, especially English dominate the linguistic landscape in shopping centers in Makassar City. This is motivated by several factors, self-image (business image) and efforts to strengthen brand makers as an attraction for consumer

    The Rebirth of the Neighborhood

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    This essay argues that new urban residents primarily seek a type of community properly called a neighborhood. “Neighborhood” refers to a legible, pedestrian-scale area that has an identity apart from the corporate and bureaucratic structures that dominate the larger society. Such a neighborhood fosters repeated, casual contacts with neighbors and merchants, such as while one pursues Saturday errands or takes children to activities. Dealing with independent local merchants and artisans face-to-face provides a sense of liberation from large power structures, where most such residents work. Having easy access to places of sociability like coffee shops and bars permits spontaneous “meet-ups,” contrasting with the discipline of professional life. Such a neighborhood conveys an indigenous identity created by the efforts of diverse people over time, rather than marketing an image deliberatively contrived to control the perceptions of customers. At its best, a neighborhood provides a refuge from the ennui of the workplace and the idiocy of consumer culture, substituting for churches (or synagogues), labor unions, and ethnic clubs that structured earlier urban social life. What changes in land use law have contributed to or supported this transformation to neighborhood-based living? Several legal developments outside land use seem very important. Perhaps the most central legal development has been local government legal protections for gays, who often have been in the vanguard of the revival of urban neighborhoods. Crime reduction has significantly enhanced urban living since the 1970s, but which laws have contributed what to that reduction is a matter of intense debate. Civil rights laws and immigration reform have arguably nurtured a comfort with multi-ethnic urban neighborhoods that has turned discrimination and resentment to a comfort with and even celebration of diversity. But changes in land use law, broadly understood, also helped provide the context for the revival of neighborhoods. This brief essay highlights those aspects of land use law that have supported this new urbanization since the founding of the Fordham Urban Law Journal. The claim is not that legal reforms caused the revival, but that they contributed to a broader social trend. These reforms have supported neighborhood revival primarily by securing the physical environments people want to live in. The three chief legal tools for neighborhoods have been zoning for urban form, historic district preservation, and environmental protection

    The role of local facilities in fostering social interaction in suburban housing developments in England

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    Mixed-use development, in the form of local facilities, has been promoted by the UK government in new housing developments as an urban form which provides opportunities for people to interact which in turn is seen as a prerequisite for ‘building new communities’. There is a lack of empirical evidence testing the claimed relationship between the provision of local facilities, their use and social interaction levels at them. Therefore, the aim of this research is to determine whether these claimed relationships exist and to what extent local facilities are used as service providers and to what extent they constitute places of frequent social interaction. In order to investigate the different factors affecting local facility use and social interaction at those facilities, the factors were grouped into those relating to the facilities themselves (including micro-scale, urban design features), the area the facilities are located in and the profile of the users. The methodology adopted in this research is primarily quantitative, using a survey questionnaire and structured observations to collect the data and the nature and extent of relationships were investigated through statistical analysis and behaviour mapping techniques. The findings show that a number of factors positively influence frequent use and frequent social interaction at local facilities. With regard to the role of local facilities as service providers, the findings highlight the importance of providing adequate and accessible local facilities for different groups of residents, but also highlight that perceived homogeneity and social ties between residents in the wider area influence whether local facilities are used. The findings also support the assertions that local facilities can make a contribution towards the building of communities through constituting places of frequent social interaction. However, this only extends to certain facility types and certain residents, questioning the government’s implied assertion that communities can be built as long as any mix of facilities is supplied in any type of neighbourhood. Furthermore, perceived homogeneity in the area the users lived in was found to influence the frequency of social interaction at local facilities. This has wider policy implications regarding the role local facilities can play in reducing social segregation

    Downtown Revitization: A Functionalist Analysis

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    Social Sustainability: Planning for Growth in Distressed Places—The German Experience in Berlin, Wittenberg, and the Ruhr

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    Although German plans for growth, both in the Ruhr Valley and in Berlin, have included traditional environmental and physical planning elements, they have also embraced social sustainability and the inclusion of nontraditional planning elements in their strategies for community development. These planning elements are designed to enhance the regional self image and the image that is portrayed to visitors and to instill optimism for the community’s future economic growth. Social sustainability planning involves aggressive and symbolic investments indirectly designed to enhance a community’s investment attractiveness
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