People are the target: urban destruction in the 21st century

Urban destruction in the 21st century has already turned out to be different from 20th century experience. Aerial bombardment, which destroyed so many cities in Europe and Asia during two world wars, was based on assumptions about how cities collapse, bringing down economies and regimes with them, and about the superiority of air power as the means of destruction. Both were flawed. In World War II, the destruction of cities was intended to shorten a conflict; in the 21st century, military tactics which concentrate the increased weight, firepower, and effectiveness of military units in urban battles on the ground actually prolong conflict. Evacuation and exile appear to be the main objective: depopulation lowers the human capital of countries and depresses their economies; moreover, the increased number of refugees can be turned into an instrument to exert leverage on other countries, destabilizing regions far removed from the war zone. Cities destroyed in world wars were rebuilt; cities destroyed in today’s urban battles, often in fragile, unstable states, may be left in ruins for years, to be replaced by new cities with a change of population. Urban destruction in the 21st century raises questions about how to make cities safer, and about urban relocation and reconstruction

Cities & the Sea

Originally published in 1978. Josef Konvitz provides a broad comparative study of European port cities since the Renaissance by examining how they were built and rebuilt in the context of urban industrialization. Konvitz argues that as seafaring became more critical to Western civilization, intellectuals and rulers placed more importance on urban planning. Planning looked different, of course, in various European cities. In Paris, riverside planning was patched into the existing frame of the city, whereas Scandinavian towns on the Baltic were over-designed to accommodate a degree of maritime trade unsustainable for cities writ large. In the eighteenth century, city planning fell out of vogue, and new solutions were introduced to help solve the problems created by urban development. With a series of helpful maps, Konvitz's book is an important source for urban historians of early modern Europe

La cartographie et les travaux publics, 1820-1870

No abstract available

Imaginary Cartographies: Possession and Identity in Late Medieval Marseille by Daniel Lord Smail

No abstract available

Représentations urbaines et bombardements stratégiques, 1914-1945

Concepts of Strategic Bombing, 1914-1945. Strategic bombing encapsulated a certain set of assumptions about how cities function and urban populations behave. These assumptions, which show many points in common with statements by contemporary writers and social scientists, highlighted the instability of the urban crowd, and its dependence upon a permanent infrastructure for public services. Area bombing sought to precipitate panic in the urban crowd, m the expectation that social disorder associated with air raids would bring a government closer to surrender. Precision bombing sought to destroy critical factories in the industrial economy and vital links in supply routes, but it also extended its scope to include vital public services upon which industry, transportation and urban populations all depended in the expectation that the destruction of these services would cripple an enemy's industrial economy. Air raids caused less economic and social disorder than expected. Yet few analysis of air raids examined the urban assumptions on which the strategy of bombing rested. The life of cities in air war, however, can illuminate certain aspects of urban existence which cannot be as easily apprehended during peace.Konvitz Josef W. Représentations urbaines et bombardements stratégiques, 1914-1945. In: Annales. Economies, sociétés, civilisations. 44ᵉ année, N. 4, 1989. pp. 823-847

Maps and Politics by Jeremy Black

No abstract available

What's Wrong with this Picture?

Do networks of urban utilities make cities more alike in Europe? What has been the diffusion of urban technologies and models of urban development in both directions between Europe and North America in the twentieth century? How are cities with a high concentration of research and development activities different? To answer questions such as these, Mikael Hard and Thomas Misa have assembled a team of scholars writing mostly about the United States and Central and Western Europe. The political context and nature of long-term infrastructure decisions and the economics of investment and utilization are given insufficient attention, but the empirical material is rich, diverse, well-illustrated and instructive

City Building in the Twentieth Century. European Campaign for Urban Renaissance. Document AH-RU (81) 22

No abstract available

Jeffrey M. Diedendorf (éd.), Rebuilding Europe's Bombed Cities

Konvitz Josef W. Jeffrey M. Diedendorf (éd.), Rebuilding Europe's Bombed Cities. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 46ᵉ année, N. 3, 1991. pp. 702-703

即將到來的公共服務革命: 對城市和大學意義 = The coming revolution in public services: What it means for cities and universities

No abstract available