Power, discourse and city trajectories

Examines social theory and contemporary human geography in the context of urban development. Covers theoretical debates in political ecology, the cultural turn in the economy, social relations and scale, space and place, and colonialism and post-colonialism

The future of the city centre: Urbanisation, transformation and resilience – a tale of two Newcastle cities

Recent debates over the content and theoretical orientation of urban studies act as a strong reminder that the nature and existence of the city as a form of spatial urban agglomeration is changing. They have acted positively as a heuristic to inspire critical analysis of urbanisation and helped to illuminate the considerable empirical variation over time and space in urban agglomeration forms. However, in shifting the focus onto the planetary reach of urbanisation, such debates risk deflecting attention away from the city core at a time when it too is being subjected to transformation. The city centre has been taken for granted as critical attention has been given to the impact of development and enterprise in extending the city outwards. The recent proliferation of public and policy interest in the future of the city centre as the archetypal expression of urban agglomeration has not been matched by similar growth in academic and theoretical accounts of its transformation. Drawing on the examples of two city centres, and placing them in the context of the recent debates of urban agglomeration theory, this article seeks to initiate deeper analysis and dialogue about the future of the urban core, including how it is being articulated and by whom. It argues for a greater analytic understanding of the ways in which the city centre as a physical and emotional entity has been so resilient, and advocates for stronger engagement with initiatives seeking to reactivate the city centre as a crucial epicentre of urban agglomeration

The future for city centres : perspectives from the Global South

This brief paper extends the discussion of the future of the centre of cities globally, exploring some insights from two cities in the Global South, Tshwane-Pretoria and Joao Pessoa, to complement the arguments made in Rogerson and Giddings’s recent paper on the Two Newcastles. It suggests that there are key insights relevant to all cities to be learnt from the responses of cities outside in the Global North to pressures on the urban core. Alternative responses that imagine beyond the need to retain and regenerate the historic core merit consideration

Compacting the city centre: densification in two Newcastles

Coherence of city form and consistency throughout the city centre are important objectives, and great differences in density disturb this unity. The city centre is not a project, but a continuous process. Thus, it benefits from fine grain developments on the principle of a rich built environment being generated through small contributions by numbers of people over time. A concept is proposed that densification has positive outcomes up to a point at which negative effects begin to occur. Density is readily measured, but the question remains where the balance point is for each city. There is also a notion that negative impacts may occur before a stipulated density is realised. Support is needed to develop a virtual city model for all cities, and funding to advance city information modelling for all aspects of sustainability, to encourage optimum levels of densification to be achieved

Urban design and the future of the city centre : international perspectives

This chapter explores how a more liberated, critical and sustainable form of urban design is needed to help ensure that city centres around the world continue to retain their unique position in urban systems. Four city centres, from four continents, make the argument that contemporary urban design of central spaces should be more adaptive to local contexts, engaging with local communities and citizens to meet their needs, and be more sensitive in the ways in which global planning and development are applied in each place. Joao Pessoa Brazil, Newcastle upon Tyne UK, Tshwane-Pretoria South Africa, and Newcastle New South Wales Australia were the focus of a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK that brought together international academic partners, including Geovany da Silva, to investigate the on-going ways in which they could be designed and managed in the future. The specific local contexts are expressed to reinforce the variegated challenges faced by each city, and the contrasting and empathetic ways in which local stakeholders could conceive them. These contexts are set in a matrix with the universal perspectives of environment, society, economics, politics, and culture. The perspectives are tailored to the needs of city centres and include – physical planning and sustainable design, community action and social justice, inward investment and the local economy, governance, and identity. The objective is to generate a framework for the development of the future city centre. It is anticipated that such an approach will be applicable to other cities throughout the world

Integrating artificial urban wetlands into communities : a pathway to carbon zero?

In their natural state, wetland ecosystems provide an optimum natural environment for the sequestration and long-term storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. The loss of wetlands under advancing urbanization not only diminishes this capacity for storage, but increases methane and greenhouse gases as the land is disturbed. Nevertheless, there is growing scientific interest in using artificial or constructed wetlands as a way to mitigate the impact of global climate change, with most attention on their use for water management. Using a potential integrated urban wetland site in Glasgow as a case study, this paper critically examines how artificial urban wetlands can contribute to urban net zero targets in terms of their ability for carbon sequestration, and as part of sustainability initiatives more broadly. We find there are several barriers to implementing artificial urban wetlands for carbon drawdown alone, in particular regarding land ownership constraints, uncertainties in capture efficacy and capture quantitation, and eligibility for market-based crediting schemes. These issues make it currently challenging for the carbon reduction contribution of urban wetlands to be quantified and, say, certified to generate revenue to communities through market-based carbon crediting. However, if integrated within wider community-based sustainability initiatives, artificial urban wetlands can support multiple dimensions of sustainability, creating or supporting value far beyond water management and carbon sequestration objectives. Potential co-benefits range from areas such as health and wellbeing, biodiversity, education, food security, behavioural changes and social care. Our findings show that for these co-benefits to be identified, maximised and realised, a place-based approach to urban wetland development must be adopted, engaging stakeholders from the project outset to define and facilitate collaboration towards shared outcomes for society, community and environment. These findings will be relevant to any urban infrastructure development seeking to meet sustainability goals beyond carbon capture

Constructing the future of the city centre : realizing visions

As cities are being asked to transition to a new future shaped by significant social, economic and environmental challenges, renewed attention is being given to the urban development process, and on how this process has to be more inclusive, and the outcomes more coherent. With past notions of masterplans as a single, fixed visionary document being replaced with guiding strategies, open to interpretation, there is a greater need for different disciplines to engage together throughout the development process. This paper explores opportunities and needs for construction management to be more actively involved in the reshaping of the city centre, from the envisioning of its future to the realization of change. Through the lens of the process of change in four city centres across the world, this paper outlines how discussing construction management could beneficially engage with other urban disciplines to create a shared vision for centres as part of local governance. It argues for construction management adopt a wider spatial and temporal perspective that looks beyond specific buildings, site and projects to situate development in the urban and regional systems and to help be part of the envisioning process. Along with more critical engagement in the policy, design and construction processes for construction management, the paper points to a need for more local sensitivity and adaptation including an appreciation of the contribution of public spaces and a different approach to urban development if the city centre is to be more sustainable in future

Corrigendum : Integrating artificial urban wetlands into communities: a pathway to carbon zero?

A corrigendum on Integrating Artificial Urban Wetlands Into Communities: A Pathway to Carbon Zero? by Rogerson, R. J., Horgan, D., and Roberts J. J. (2021). Front. Built Environ. 7:777383. doi:10.3389/fbuil.2021.777383 There is an error in the Funding statement as published. The corrected statement can be seen below. This project was funded by Innovate UK through the UK Government Sustainable Innovation Fund Small Business Research Initiative which ran from October to December 2020. Grant reference No. 76575. The researchers at the University of Strathclyde were sub-contracted by Seawater Solutions, a Glasgow based ecoservices company, to conduct research as part of a wider project on possible urban wetland demonstrators for carbon capture. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Innovate UK. In the original article, there was also a mistake in the legend for Figure 2 as published. The name of Seawater Solutions was missing. The correct legend appears below

Mechanism of Vanadium Leaching during Surface Weathering of Basic Oxygen Furnace Steel Slag Blocks: A Microfocus X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy and Electron Microscopy Study

© 2017 American Chemical Society. Basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steelmaking slag is enriched in potentially toxic V which may become mobilized in high pH leachate during weathering. BOF slag was weathered under aerated and air-excluded conditions for 6 months prior to SEM/EDS and μXANES analysis to determine V host phases and speciation in both primary and secondary phases. Leached blocks show development of an altered region in which free lime and dicalcium silicate phases were absent and Ca-Si-H was precipitated (CaCO 3 was also present under aerated conditions). μXANES analyses show that V was released to solution as V(V) during dicalcium silicate dissolution and some V was incorporated into neo-formed Ca-Si-H. Higher V concentrations were observed in leachate under aerated conditions than in the air-excluded leaching experiment. Aqueous V concentrations were controlled by Ca 3 (VO 4 ) 2 solubility, which demonstrate an inverse relationship between Ca and V concentrations. Under air-excluded conditions Ca concentrations were controlled by dicalcium silicate dissolution and Ca-Si-H precipitation, leading to relatively high Ca and correspondingly low V concentrations. Formation of CaCO 3 under aerated conditions provided a sink for aqueous Ca, allowing higher V concentrations limited by kinetic dissolution rates of dicalcium silicate. Thus, V release may be slowed by the precipitation of secondary phases in the altered region, improving the prospects for slag reuse

Using major events to increase social connections : the case of the Glasgow 2014 Host City Volunteer programme

Despite suggestions of the potential opportunity of using major events to generate wider social connections, most emphasis in event management research continues to be placed on future volunteering as a legacy from event volunteering. This paper examines the impact of a dedicated Host City event volunteer programme associated with the 2014 Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow which sought to use this major sporting event to enhance social connectivity amongst the volunteers. This initiative, designed in response to the perceived failure of legacies arising from recruitment to the main event volunteer programme, sought to leverage social outcomes beyond that of volunteering. Although the quantitative and qualitative evidence gathered at the event time and three years later indicates that the programme failed to realise all its social ambitions, it nevertheless offers valuable insights into policy and practice around how event management can and needs to adapt to help delivery legacies, and to use emerging opportunities to leverage other benefits. This study points to the need for more attention to be given to examine how unanticipated circumstances ahead of events can alter legacy planning and create opportunities for social leveraging