The Emergence of a Collaborative Approach Challenges Hong Kong’s Urban Planning Model

Urban planning in Hong Kong is being transformed with the expansion of civil society and the development of various community movements. They are posing a challenge to current urban planning practices and throwing up conditions for a collaborative approach to urban planning, fashioning alternative strategies

Stefan Al (ed.), Mall City, Hong Kong’s Dreamworlds of Consumption,

Stefan Al, professor of urban design at the University of Pennsylvania, presents a third collection discussing a facet of China’s urban development. In 2012, he focused on southern China’s factory towns, and in 2014 he wrote about urban villages in the same region. This new publication is concerned with commercial centres, especially in the case of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. As the title indicates, Hong Kong is often seen as the quintessential urban object of commercial cent..

New technologies, new tools, new organisation of the city: Towards a new digital planning?

A full digital transformation is unfolding and great hopes are vested in the potentials of digital tools for communication and visualisation in planning processes, for analysing and modelling spatial information, and also for managing whole cities and regions. However, actual practices differ vastly, and the debate increasingly points to the pitfalls and dangers of a disconnect between citizens, spatial justice and democratic decision making. Examples of smart cities show a huge variety of interpretations and implementations in Europe. Therefore, digital tools should not become a goal in themselves, but need a clear societal and spatial vision and open political debates. This chapter looks at digital technologies in spatial planning as an increasingly political agenda in France and in Germany. In many regards, both countries must deal with similar opportunities and challenges posed by digital technologies, companies and global platforms. These are mediated differently through national political and planning systems and a more centralised approach in France versus a muchdecentralised agenda in Germany

New technologies, new tools, new organisation of the city: towards a new digital planning?

A full digital transformation is unfolding and great hopes are vested in the potentials of digital tools for communication and visualisation in planning processes, for analysing and modelling spatial information, and also for managing whole cities and regions. However, actual practices differ vastly, and the debate increasingly points to the pitfalls and dangers of a disconnect between citizens, spatial justice and democratic decision making. Examples of smart cities show a huge variety of interpretations and implementations in Europe. Therefore, digital tools should not become a goal in themselves, but need a clear societal and spatial vision and open political debates. This chapter looks at digital technologies in spatial planning as an increasingly political agenda in France and in Germany. In many regards, both countries must deal with similar opportunities and challenges posed by digital technologies, companies and global platforms. These are mediated differently through national political and planning systems and a more centralised approach in France versus a muchdecentralised agenda in Germany

La carte du sang de l'immobilier chinois, un cas de cyber-activisme

International audienceThe aim of this paper is to explore new forms of social mobilization in urban areas that use the Internet technologies. The development of online social networks offers new possibilities of expression and protest. Web 2.0 is transformed into a digital public space complementary to the traditional physical public space especially when this one is particularly controlled. The Chinese bloody map of real estate is particularly representative of these changes. Published in October 2010, this map uses cooperative knowledge of Internet users to list real estate developments that led to physical violence. These can range from simple protest repression to self-immolation. The checked version of the map shows 85 events and the open version 199 cases. The diffusion of the news of this map in the Chinese and international medias helped to put this social issue on the international political agenda related to urban development and real estate in China.L'objectif de cet article est d'explorer les nouvelles formes de mobilisation sociale en milieu urbain qui utilisent les technologies de l'Internet. Le développement des réseaux sociaux en ligne offre en effet de nouvelles possibilités d'expression et de contestation. Le Web 2.0 se transforme ainsi en un espace public numérique complémentaire de l'espace public physique traditionnel surtout lorsque celui-ci est particulièrement contrôlé. Le cas de la " carte du sang de l'immobilier chinois " est particulièrement représentatif de ces transformations. Mise en ligne en octobre 2010, cette carte coopérative fait appel à la connaissance des internautes pour répertorier les développements immobiliers ayant donné lieu à des violences physiques. Celles-ci peuvent aller de la simple répression de manifestations à des immolations par le feu. La version vérifiée de la carte présente 85 événements et la version ouverte 199 cas. La publication de cette carte a été reprise dans les médias chinois et internationaux, participant ainsi à l'inscription sur l'agenda politique international des enjeux sociaux liés au développement urbain et immobilier chinois

Stefan Al (éd.), Mall City, Hong Kong’s Dreamworlds of Consumption,

Stefan Al, professeur de design urbain à l’Université de Pennsylvanie, présente ici un troisième ouvrage collectif discutant d’une des facettes du développement urbain chinois. En 2012, il s’était déjà intéressé aux villes usines de la Chine du Sud et en 2014 aux villages urbains de cette même région. Cette nouvelle publication porte sur les centres commerciaux à partir du cas de la région administrative spéciale de Hong Kong. Comme le rappelle le titre de l’ouvrage, Hong Kong est souvent ass..