Pub Date : 2024-07-29DOI: 10.1177/00420980241264645
Tobias Kuttler
As digital mobility platforms, such as ride-hailing apps, have become more widespread and popular, they have garnered public and scholarly interest as potential solutions to challenges of climate change, insufficient mobility services, urban congestion and pollution. This paper examines the potential of ride-hailing platforms through a more critical lens. Thereby I draw attention to how platform transportation workers in Mumbai, India, produce mobility services by collaboratively linking the social and material resources of the city. Networks and communities of transport workers have long been essential for providing intermediate mobility services in Mumbai, and continue to do so in the platform era. Building on these observations, I inquire whether there is potential for the creation of worker-centric platform models that benefit both the workers and the larger urban majority. Therefore, drawing on my fieldwork in Mumbai, I first explore how the current model of digital mobility platforms in Mumbai reinforces socio-spatial fragmentation in Mumbai while leaving workers with decreasing earnings and rising work pressure. Considering the agency of platform workers, I then aim to uncover how platform workers appropriate platform mechanisms and engage their collective knowledge and experiences in order to improve their working situation. I draw upon these insights to highlight how worker-centric approaches to digital mobility platforms can contribute to more inclusive and sustainable cities.
{"title":"Urban mobilities in Mumbai: Towards worker-centric platformisation beyond ‘urban solutionism’","authors":"Tobias Kuttler","doi":"10.1177/00420980241264645","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980241264645","url":null,"abstract":"As digital mobility platforms, such as ride-hailing apps, have become more widespread and popular, they have garnered public and scholarly interest as potential solutions to challenges of climate change, insufficient mobility services, urban congestion and pollution. This paper examines the potential of ride-hailing platforms through a more critical lens. Thereby I draw attention to how platform transportation workers in Mumbai, India, produce mobility services by collaboratively linking the social and material resources of the city. Networks and communities of transport workers have long been essential for providing intermediate mobility services in Mumbai, and continue to do so in the platform era. Building on these observations, I inquire whether there is potential for the creation of worker-centric platform models that benefit both the workers and the larger urban majority. Therefore, drawing on my fieldwork in Mumbai, I first explore how the current model of digital mobility platforms in Mumbai reinforces socio-spatial fragmentation in Mumbai while leaving workers with decreasing earnings and rising work pressure. Considering the agency of platform workers, I then aim to uncover how platform workers appropriate platform mechanisms and engage their collective knowledge and experiences in order to improve their working situation. I draw upon these insights to highlight how worker-centric approaches to digital mobility platforms can contribute to more inclusive and sustainable cities.","PeriodicalId":51350,"journal":{"name":"Urban Studies","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141794933","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-28DOI: 10.1177/00420980241265033
Renee Zahnow, Jonathan Corcoran
Familiar strangers, individuals who are visually recognisable yet do not engage in verbal conversations, emerge in communal urban places on the way and in between regular daily activities in the home and workplace. Described as invisible social ties and light touch community, familiar strangers represent an understudied and untapped source of sociality that offer promise by way of an antidote to the global increase in reports of loneliness. In this study, we examine the extent to which familiar stranger encounters in communal everyday places might act as an important source of social identity, belonging and perceived attachment. We estimate regression models using data from a 2022 intercept survey of 278 residents in Brisbane, Australia conducted in situ at public parks, transit stations, retail environments, and thoroughfares to estimate the influence of familiar strangers and frequency of visitation on sense of belonging and place attachment. Our results show belonging emerges through familiar stranger encounters in everyday communal places outside of the residential neighbourhood and suggest that coupling urban design features that enhance visible proximity with scheduling that encourages repeated, synchronised visitation can contribute to bounded communities of belonging at everyday communal places.
{"title":"From communal places to comfort zones: Familiar stranger encounters in everyday life as a form of belonging","authors":"Renee Zahnow, Jonathan Corcoran","doi":"10.1177/00420980241265033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980241265033","url":null,"abstract":"Familiar strangers, individuals who are visually recognisable yet do not engage in verbal conversations, emerge in communal urban places on the way and in between regular daily activities in the home and workplace. Described as invisible social ties and light touch community, familiar strangers represent an understudied and untapped source of sociality that offer promise by way of an antidote to the global increase in reports of loneliness. In this study, we examine the extent to which familiar stranger encounters in communal everyday places might act as an important source of social identity, belonging and perceived attachment. We estimate regression models using data from a 2022 intercept survey of 278 residents in Brisbane, Australia conducted in situ at public parks, transit stations, retail environments, and thoroughfares to estimate the influence of familiar strangers and frequency of visitation on sense of belonging and place attachment. Our results show belonging emerges through familiar stranger encounters in everyday communal places outside of the residential neighbourhood and suggest that coupling urban design features that enhance visible proximity with scheduling that encourages repeated, synchronised visitation can contribute to bounded communities of belonging at everyday communal places.","PeriodicalId":51350,"journal":{"name":"Urban Studies","volume":"1021 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141794937","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-28DOI: 10.1177/00420980241262232
Michael R Glass, Jean-Paul D Addie
The potential of infrastructure ‘as a solution’ is currently at the forefront of American political consciousness. Historic levels of investment in infrastructure proffer seismic material, economic, and symbolic transformations at a near-continental scale. However, the present policy context for infrastructure planning in the US is confounded by a mosaic of decision-making authorities that hamper the development of cohesive approaches to sustainable and equitable development. This situation underscores the need to identify how infrastructural futures are assembled and scaled as simultaneously continuous and emergent, old and new, and marked by the diverse capacities of various stakeholders. This paper makes a case for ‘seeing like a region’ when examining transformative approaches to infrastructural change, as infrastructure systems regularly transcend the boundaries of urban space and hence become enmeshed in the goals of broader constituencies and interests. Through a case study of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, we question how infrastructural futures are understood and materialised by the region’s central planning stakeholders. Our analysis pays particular attention to the challenges faced by regional planning organisations when navigating the spatial–temporal frames of incremental and radical change. As the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission operates with limited staff capacity, high regulatory burdens, and short time horizons for budgeting processes, incremental changes to infrastructure often are the best hope for solving regional challenges of structural inequality and uneven access to resources. This demonstrates how the solutions proffered by infrastructural development are confounded by the dynamics that come into focus when evaluated from the regional scale. Yet we also identify possibilities for regional approaches that foster equitable urban futures within the spatial envelopes created by infrastructural systems and imaginaries that transition from reactive ‘infrastructural solutions’ to a proactive materialisation of ‘infrastructures as solutions’.
{"title":"Bridging ‘infrastructural solutions’ and ‘infrastructures as solution’: Regional promises and urban pragmatism","authors":"Michael R Glass, Jean-Paul D Addie","doi":"10.1177/00420980241262232","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980241262232","url":null,"abstract":"The potential of infrastructure ‘as a solution’ is currently at the forefront of American political consciousness. Historic levels of investment in infrastructure proffer seismic material, economic, and symbolic transformations at a near-continental scale. However, the present policy context for infrastructure planning in the US is confounded by a mosaic of decision-making authorities that hamper the development of cohesive approaches to sustainable and equitable development. This situation underscores the need to identify how infrastructural futures are assembled and scaled as simultaneously continuous and emergent, old and new, and marked by the diverse capacities of various stakeholders. This paper makes a case for ‘seeing like a region’ when examining transformative approaches to infrastructural change, as infrastructure systems regularly transcend the boundaries of urban space and hence become enmeshed in the goals of broader constituencies and interests. Through a case study of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, we question how infrastructural futures are understood and materialised by the region’s central planning stakeholders. Our analysis pays particular attention to the challenges faced by regional planning organisations when navigating the spatial–temporal frames of incremental and radical change. As the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission operates with limited staff capacity, high regulatory burdens, and short time horizons for budgeting processes, incremental changes to infrastructure often are the best hope for solving regional challenges of structural inequality and uneven access to resources. This demonstrates how the solutions proffered by infrastructural development are confounded by the dynamics that come into focus when evaluated from the regional scale. Yet we also identify possibilities for regional approaches that foster equitable urban futures within the spatial envelopes created by infrastructural systems and imaginaries that transition from reactive ‘infrastructural solutions’ to a proactive materialisation of ‘infrastructures as solutions’.","PeriodicalId":51350,"journal":{"name":"Urban Studies","volume":"74 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141794894","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper extends the debate on medium-sized cities as active designers of place-specific neoliberal identities by reporting relevant findings from Bologna, European Capital of Culture in 2000 and a UNESCO City of Music since 2006. The study identifies the formal relationships of collaboration among local musicians as a relevant proxy to discuss the individualisation of the pop-rock music scene and its variations between 1978 and 2019. For this purpose, formal Social Network Analysis is combined with semi-structured interview analysis and archival research. The findings reveal decreased levels of social cohesion among artists and establishes a link between growing individualisation in the local music scene and an increasing tourist-orientation in the city.
{"title":"The creative city’s swan song? The individualisation of the music scene in Bologna, UNESCO City of Music","authors":"Sabrina Pedrini, Massimo Giovanardi, Raffaele Corrado","doi":"10.1177/00420980241257791","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980241257791","url":null,"abstract":"This paper extends the debate on medium-sized cities as active designers of place-specific neoliberal identities by reporting relevant findings from Bologna, European Capital of Culture in 2000 and a UNESCO City of Music since 2006. The study identifies the formal relationships of collaboration among local musicians as a relevant proxy to discuss the individualisation of the pop-rock music scene and its variations between 1978 and 2019. For this purpose, formal Social Network Analysis is combined with semi-structured interview analysis and archival research. The findings reveal decreased levels of social cohesion among artists and establishes a link between growing individualisation in the local music scene and an increasing tourist-orientation in the city.","PeriodicalId":51350,"journal":{"name":"Urban Studies","volume":"356 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141794893","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-28DOI: 10.1177/00420980241258298
Astrid Pennerstorfer, Dieter Pennerstorfer, Michaela Neumayr
This article examines inequalities in the spatial accessibility of childcare between high- and low-status neighbourhoods in the city of Vienna and asks (i) whether specific public and non-profit provider types contribute to these inequalities and (ii) which factors may cause these inequalities in a mainly tax-funded childcare system. For our analysis, we combine data on the location and characteristics of childcare providers with spatially granular information on demand and neighbourhood characteristics. The results show that two provider types – church-related and independent non-profit providers – are mainly responsible for the higher accessibility of childcare in neighbourhoods with higher socio-economic status. Specifically independent providers charge significantly higher prices and offer more special services in these high-status areas. Public funding of a large part of the production costs, therefore, seems insufficient to ensure equal access in all neighbourhoods. These findings suggest that the exclusive comparison between public, private non-profit and private for-profit providers often found in the literature may be too narrow.
{"title":"Unequal access to childcare in cities: Is equal public funding sufficient?","authors":"Astrid Pennerstorfer, Dieter Pennerstorfer, Michaela Neumayr","doi":"10.1177/00420980241258298","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980241258298","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines inequalities in the spatial accessibility of childcare between high- and low-status neighbourhoods in the city of Vienna and asks (i) whether specific public and non-profit provider types contribute to these inequalities and (ii) which factors may cause these inequalities in a mainly tax-funded childcare system. For our analysis, we combine data on the location and characteristics of childcare providers with spatially granular information on demand and neighbourhood characteristics. The results show that two provider types – church-related and independent non-profit providers – are mainly responsible for the higher accessibility of childcare in neighbourhoods with higher socio-economic status. Specifically independent providers charge significantly higher prices and offer more special services in these high-status areas. Public funding of a large part of the production costs, therefore, seems insufficient to ensure equal access in all neighbourhoods. These findings suggest that the exclusive comparison between public, private non-profit and private for-profit providers often found in the literature may be too narrow.","PeriodicalId":51350,"journal":{"name":"Urban Studies","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141794897","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Private renting increasingly comprises a complex ecosystem of actors who assemble housing within the market, and collect rental income and data from tenants, and data on the material assets themselves. Our analysis – at the intersection of rentier and platform capitalism – focuses on landed (material real estate) and technological (digital infrastructure and data) property in Australia’s private rental system. Drawing out relationships between the various actors – landlords, rental property managers and real estate agencies, software developers and providers, property developers and investors – and both their properties and their uses of Proptech (property technology), we show how housing and technology are being leveraged for profit in new ways. In Australia, landed property retains its precedence for established (individual and institutional) landlords, whose interest in Proptech relates to enhancing or value-adding to rental housing assets. For Proptech and institutional real estate players seeking to consolidate both landed and technology property, capturing the tech landscape is increasingly important; indeed, securing control and/or consolidation of technology property is a key motivation for building and/or using Proptech among the largest property developers. Our findings show how rent extraction operates across and between different types and scales of property and market actors, and in new ways that differentiate the figure of the rentier while upholding the dynamics of the rentier model.
{"title":"Proptech and the private rental sector: New forms of extraction at the intersection of rental properties and platform rentierisation","authors":"Dallas Rogers, Sophia Maalsen, Peta Wolifson, Desiree Fields","doi":"10.1177/00420980241262916","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980241262916","url":null,"abstract":"Private renting increasingly comprises a complex ecosystem of actors who assemble housing within the market, and collect rental income and data from tenants, and data on the material assets themselves. Our analysis – at the intersection of rentier and platform capitalism – focuses on landed (material real estate) and technological (digital infrastructure and data) property in Australia’s private rental system. Drawing out relationships between the various actors – landlords, rental property managers and real estate agencies, software developers and providers, property developers and investors – and both their properties and their uses of Proptech (property technology), we show how housing and technology are being leveraged for profit in new ways. In Australia, landed property retains its precedence for established (individual and institutional) landlords, whose interest in Proptech relates to enhancing or value-adding to rental housing assets. For Proptech and institutional real estate players seeking to consolidate both landed and technology property, capturing the tech landscape is increasingly important; indeed, securing control and/or consolidation of technology property is a key motivation for building and/or using Proptech among the largest property developers. Our findings show how rent extraction operates across and between different types and scales of property and market actors, and in new ways that differentiate the figure of the rentier while upholding the dynamics of the rentier model.","PeriodicalId":51350,"journal":{"name":"Urban Studies","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141794934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-27DOI: 10.1177/00420980241262197
Jason Hackworth, Prentiss Dantzler
The burgeoning growth of racial capitalism work within urban studies (RCUS) has garnered considerable attention. In this critical commentary, we embark on an examination of existing scholarship to ascertain its theoretical relevance within this domain. Our inquiry reveals a predominant focus on the plight of individuals ensnared in the web of everyday racial capitalism. The existing body of work predominantly directs its gaze towards what we term ‘spaces of victimisation’, while largely neglecting those who derive advantages from this system. Transcending from the study of victimisation to the exploration of spaces characterised by benefit presents formidable challenges. We consider some of the challenges to making the leap from spaces of victimisation to spaces of benefit: the routineness of benefit, the scale(s) of benefit, and the remoteness of benefit. In sum, we suggest how the application of RCUS might confront these multifaceted challenges, offering a unique vantage point for critical analysis.
{"title":"Racial capitalism in urban studies: From spaces of victimisation to spaces of benefit","authors":"Jason Hackworth, Prentiss Dantzler","doi":"10.1177/00420980241262197","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980241262197","url":null,"abstract":"The burgeoning growth of racial capitalism work within urban studies (RCUS) has garnered considerable attention. In this critical commentary, we embark on an examination of existing scholarship to ascertain its theoretical relevance within this domain. Our inquiry reveals a predominant focus on the plight of individuals ensnared in the web of everyday racial capitalism. The existing body of work predominantly directs its gaze towards what we term ‘spaces of victimisation’, while largely neglecting those who derive advantages from this system. Transcending from the study of victimisation to the exploration of spaces characterised by benefit presents formidable challenges. We consider some of the challenges to making the leap from spaces of victimisation to spaces of benefit: the routineness of benefit, the scale(s) of benefit, and the remoteness of benefit. In sum, we suggest how the application of RCUS might confront these multifaceted challenges, offering a unique vantage point for critical analysis.","PeriodicalId":51350,"journal":{"name":"Urban Studies","volume":"74 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141794900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-27DOI: 10.1177/00420980241262705
David A McDonald
One of the primary impediments to the realisation and success of remunicipalisation can be financing. Not all remunicipalisations require additional funding, but the costs of bringing services back in-house can be enormous, preventing remunicipalisation efforts from getting off the ground and constraining what is possible once in place. This article discusses the conditions under which financing is necessary for remunicipalisation and examines a variety of (potential) sources of funding. It compares the financial needs of ‘pragmatic’ versus ‘transformative’ remunicipalisations and discusses the availability and suitability of different sources of financing for each. The paper also asks whether remunicipalisation provides an opportunity to ‘definancialise’ public services, exploring the pros and cons of different funding options in this regard, with a focus on the potential for public banks to play a role in reducing the influence of private finance in the public arena.
{"title":"(De)Financing remunicipalisation","authors":"David A McDonald","doi":"10.1177/00420980241262705","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980241262705","url":null,"abstract":"One of the primary impediments to the realisation and success of remunicipalisation can be financing. Not all remunicipalisations require additional funding, but the costs of bringing services back in-house can be enormous, preventing remunicipalisation efforts from getting off the ground and constraining what is possible once in place. This article discusses the conditions under which financing is necessary for remunicipalisation and examines a variety of (potential) sources of funding. It compares the financial needs of ‘pragmatic’ versus ‘transformative’ remunicipalisations and discusses the availability and suitability of different sources of financing for each. The paper also asks whether remunicipalisation provides an opportunity to ‘definancialise’ public services, exploring the pros and cons of different funding options in this regard, with a focus on the potential for public banks to play a role in reducing the influence of private finance in the public arena.","PeriodicalId":51350,"journal":{"name":"Urban Studies","volume":"74 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141794935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-25DOI: 10.1177/00420980241265050
Saeed Ahmad
{"title":"Book review: Streets in Motion: The Making of Infrastructure, Property, and Political Culture in Twentieth Century Calcutta","authors":"Saeed Ahmad","doi":"10.1177/00420980241265050","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980241265050","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51350,"journal":{"name":"Urban Studies","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141764136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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