Other cities in crisis can learn from Detroit’s bankruptcy-fostered Degrowth Machine Politics.

The city of Detroit was one of the major casualties of the 2008 financial crisis, finally filing for bankruptcy in July 2013. Seth Schindler looks at how the city’s bankruptcy has acted as a catalyst for change. He writes that Detroit has moved from a ‘growth machine politics’ characterised by a push for economic growth at the expense of urban services, to a policy of ‘degrowth’ which rejects fiscal austerity in favor of economic diversification and creative land use

"Garbage is Gold" : waste-based commodity frontiers, modes of valorization and ecological distribution conflicts

Waste is increasingly viewed as a resource rather than an externality. However, new waste management regimes must be introduced in order for value to be created, enhanced and captured. We refer to these regimes as modes of valorization, and they establish the conditions that allow waste to become a commodity frontier. The production of waste-based commodity frontiers is often accompanied by dispossession, and this explains why conflicts surrounding the ownership over and control of waste have proliferated worldwide. This article introduces a special issue of Capitalism Nature Socialism that includes papers focused on the establishment of new modes of valorization and concomitant impacts in India, South Africa, Turkey and the U.S

The new cold war and the rise of the 21st‐century infrastructure state

From Wiley via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2020-03-07, rev-recd 2021-05-03, accepted 2021-06-14, pub-electronic 2021-08-02Article version: VoRPublication status: PublishedFunder: American Association of Geographers; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100010262Funder: Association of Asian Studies, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002367Funder: University of Colorado Boulder; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100007493Abstract: The unipolar international order led by the USA has given way to a multipolar order with the emergence of China as a great power competitor. According to many commentators, the deterioration of Sino–US relations in recent years heralds a “new Cold War.” The new Cold War differs from its namesake in many respects, and in this paper we focus on its novel territorial logic. Containing the USSR was the overriding objective of American foreign policy for nearly four decades, but in contrast, the USA and China are engaged in geopolitical‐economic competition to integrate territory into value chains anchored by their domestic lead firms through the financing and construction of transnational infrastructure (e.g., transportation networks and regional energy grids). We show this competition poses risks as well as opportunities for small states to articulate and realise spatial objectives. We present cases from Nepal and Laos that demonstrate that by hedging between China and the USA and its partners, their governments are able to pursue spatial objectives. In order to achieve them, however, they must implement significant reforms or state restructuring. The result is the emergence of what we term the 21st‐century infrastructure state, which seeks to mobilise foreign capital for infrastructure projects designed to enhance transnational connectivity

Interrogating China’s Global Urban Presence

This paper examines the socio-economic and geopolitical outcomes associated with infrastructure development across multiple scales. Starting from the premise that planetary socio-technical transformations in this vein have distinctly national drivers, we focus on the urban agency of Chinese-led investment. The paper explores how different forms of infrastructural development generated by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) affects transformations in the political and material fabric of cities and their host regions. We approach BRI-related infrastructural practice through three interconnected optics – discourse, instruments, and politics – so as to interrogate the articulation of projects linked to the BRI within the material site of the urban. Based on theorisations of infrastructure from an urban perspective and a critical review of literature on the BRI itself, we develop three illustrative case studies at different spatial scales and within different geographic contexts – in Pakistan, Central Europe and the UK. To examine the cases as well as their embeddedness in broader debates on the topic, we use a systematic review methodology relying on a wide variety of sources. We offer comparative and relational perspectives on the manner in which these relatively diverse cases demonstrate China’s role as a global urban actor

Granger causality for circular variables

In this letter we discuss use of Granger causality to the analyze systems of coupled circular variables, by modifying a recently proposed method for multivariate analysis of causality. We show the application of the proposed approach on several Kuramoto systems, in particular one living on networks built by preferential attachment and a model for the transition from deeply to lightly anaesthetized states. Granger causalities describe the flow of information among variables.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Beyond a state-centric approach to urban informality: Interactions between Delhi’s middle class and the informal service sector

Since the ‘discovery’ of the informality in the early 1970s, its conceptualization has been significantly expanded beyond economic activity to include land-use and service provision. While informality often refers to that which is beyond the reach of the state, urban scholars focused on cities in the global South have shown that governments actively contribute to its production. This article presents original research on relations between middle class residents and informal-sector workers in Delhi, India. It demonstrates that middle-class associations establish localized regimes that confer legitimacy on the work of street hawkers and waste workers, their use of urban space and the provision of services (e.g. waste collection). Thus, the state is one actor among many that seeks to govern cities, and in many cases localized governance regimes are imposed by non-state actors. I argue that the state should not serve as a key reference point for identifying informality. Instead scholars should focus on governance regimes imposed by state and non-state powerbrokers, and conceptualize informality as that which remains unregulated

A Significant Excess in Major Merger Rate for AGNs with the Highest Eddington Ratios at z \u3c 0.2

Observational studies are increasingly finding evidence against major mergers being the dominant mechanism responsible for triggering an active galactic nucleus (AGN). After studying the connection between major mergers and AGNs with the highest Eddington ratios at z = 2, we here expand our analysis to z \u3c 0.2, exploring the same AGN parameter space. Using ESO VLT/FORS2 B-, V-, and color images, we examine the morphologies of 17 galaxies hosting AGNs with Eddington ratios , and 25 mass- and redshift-matched control galaxies. To match the appearance of the two samples, we add synthetic point sources to the inactive comparison galaxies. The combined sample of AGN and inactive galaxies was independently ranked by 19 experts with respect to the degree of morphological distortion. We combine the resulting individual rankings into multiple overall rankings, from which we derive the respective major merger fractions of the two samples. With a best estimate of fm,agn = 0.41 ± 0.12 for the AGN host galaxies and fm,ina = 0.08 ± 0.06 for the inactive galaxies, our results imply that our AGN host galaxies have a significantly higher merger rate, regardless of the observed wavelength or applied methodology. We conclude that although major mergers are an essential mechanism to trigger local high Eddington ratio AGNs at z \u3c 0.2, the origin of of this specific AGN subpopulation still remains unclear

Perceptions of Drinking Water Service of the ‘Off-Grid’ Community in Cimahi, Indonesia

From MDPI via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: accepted 2021-05-13, pub-electronic 2021-05-17Publication status: PublishedFunder: Newton Fund; Grant(s): pfact 71290Funder: Kementerian Riset dan Teknologi/Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional; Grant(s): 2/E1/KP.PTNBH/2020, 2/E1/KP.PTNBH/2021The establishment of decentralized drinking water systems in urban areas is technically and financially feasible, and these ‘off-grid’ systems can complement investment in traditional piped water systems. However, users often see ‘off-grid’ systems as the second-best option, compared to citywide piped water systems. Thus, although they are designed to improve access to water and reduce inequality, they can be perceived by users as infrastructural manifestations of extant inequality. In this paper, we present original research on the perceptions of users in Cimahi, Indonesia, surrounding their access to water and willingness to use and maintain ‘off-grid’ infrastructure. The majority of respondents used groundwater and packaged water as their primary water sources, and paid approximately twice the maximum tariff of piped water service. We interpreted the survey data with the theory of planned behavior framework and determined that respondents demonstrated a willingness to pay fees for ‘off-grid’ water systems, participate in water supply programs, and switch to new water sources. These intentions were affected by their attitude towards the behavior, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control to various degrees. The findings are useful for those designing strategies to introduce novel water delivery systems aimed at improving water access for diverse and disadvantaged socioeconomic groups in urban areas in the Global South

Networked buffering: a basic mechanism for distributed robustness in complex adaptive systems

A generic mechanism - networked buffering - is proposed for the generation of robust traits in complex systems. It requires two basic conditions to be satisfied: 1) agents are versatile enough to perform more than one single functional role within a system and 2) agents are degenerate, i.e. there exists partial overlap in the functional capabilities of agents. Given these prerequisites, degenerate systems can readily produce a distributed systemic response to local perturbations. Reciprocally, excess resources related to a single function can indirectly support multiple unrelated functions within a degenerate system. In models of genome:proteome mappings for which localized decision-making and modularity of genetic functions are assumed, we verify that such distributed compensatory effects cause enhanced robustness of system traits. The conditions needed for networked buffering to occur are neither demanding nor rare, supporting the conjecture that degeneracy may fundamentally underpin distributed robustness within several biotic and abiotic systems. For instance, networked buffering offers new insights into systems engineering and planning activities that occur under high uncertainty. It may also help explain recent developments in understanding the origins of resilience within complex ecosystems. \ud \u

Interplay between Interferon-Mediated Innate Immunity and Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus

Innate immunity is the first line of defense against viral infection, and in turn, viruses have evolved to evade host immune surveillance. As a result, viruses may persist in host and develop chronic infections. Type I interferons (IFN-α/β) are among the most potent antiviral cytokines triggered by viral infections. Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is a disease of pigs that is characterized by negligible induction of type I IFNs and viral persistence for an extended period. For IFN production, RIG-I/MDA5 and JAK-STAT pathways are two major signaling pathways, and recent studies indicate that PRRS virus is armed to modulate type I IFN responses during infection. This review describes the viral strategies for modulation of type I IFN responses. At least three non–structural proteins (Nsp1, Nsp2, and Nsp11) and a structural protein (N nucleocapsid protein) have been identified and characterized to play roles in the IFN suppression and NF-κB pathways. Nsp’s are early proteins while N is a late protein, suggesting that additional signaling pathways may be involved in addition to the IFN pathway. The understanding of molecular bases for virus-mediated modulation of host innate immune signaling will help us design new generation vaccines and control PRRS