The Cities and Globalization Network has been created to
provide an interdisciplinary forum from which to examine how contemporary
changes at the global scale have affected city life. Changes in the
restructuring of the economy aided by technological advances have affected the
manner in which people constitute their identities and interact among each other
as well as the manner in which people and urban landscapes are produced and
organized. While broad in scope, the Cities and Globalization Network aims at
establishing a platform where connections, trends, similarities and differences
between localities and people could be analyzed within the context of a global
optic that addresses socio-physical changes. We would like to consider
globalization as an urban condition and from an interdisciplinary perspective
address a broad range of issues that might include but is not limited
to:
people and environment relationships; the constructions of identity
and movement / migration, diasporas, hybridity; comparative/ transnational
studies between cities; building/ rebuilding/ revitalization/
redevelopment/business improvement districts/empowerment zones; social and
cultural movements; new technologies and their impact in the urban context;
media/writing/televizing/filming/digitalizing the city/geographies of the media;
environmental history; sustainability; urban visions; research
methodologies.
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Beyond decibels: Planning the new sounds of the city |
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By: Trevor Cox
In: New Scientist
"City-dwellers may hate traffic noise and loud, late parties, but they enjoy a "vibrant calm" soundscape, says Trevor Cox, and we should cultivate it
I WENT on a "sound walk" in London in spring last year. Thirty people gathered near Euston railway station and then, in absolute silence, we meandered down backstreets, along major roads, through railway stations and ended up in Regent's Park. For 2 hours, we tuned into the city's soundscape. I had not expected to hear birdsong on a backstreet close to a noisy main road, and I was surprised to find that I enjoyed the sound of a lock banging against a bike frame as a cyclist rode by. Nor had I ever realised quite how annoying the sound of roller suitcases was until I heard travellers trundling their luggage into St Pancras station."
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How Architecture Transformed a Violent City |
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How Architecture Transformed a Violent City
In: Utne
By: Danielle Maestretti
Over the past ten or so years, the city of Medellín, Colombia, has undergone a high-profile transformation, shedding its reputation as one of the world’s most violent cities. In an interview with architect Giancarlo Mazzanti in the art magazine "Bomb," former Medellín mayor Sergio Fajardo discusses the vital role of architecture and design in the city’s renewal, which he explains was driven by the concept of “the most beautiful for the most humble”—a departure, or “rupture,” he says, from the notion “that anything you give to the poor is a plus.”
As we reported in November, during Fajardo’s term as mayor (from 2004 through 2007), any reduction in violence was immediately supplemented with a “concrete community improvement.” So as Medellín’s murder rate plunged, many of the city’s poorest neighborhoods became home to sparkling new schools, housing, community spaces, and “library parks...”
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