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The aim of this paper is to discuss the problem of describing an urban plot and to propose a definition that can be used in comparative studies of historic towns. The need for a uniform definition results from comparative research using spatial databases and historical GIS (hGIS). The article discusses the problems in vectorization of plots for the purposes of hGIS analyses, as well as the methods of presenting urban plots on historical plans that have been used so far, on the example of the Historic Towns Atlas series. We compared the results of the analysis with the plot definitions appearing in the literature on urban studies. Based on the literature review and research discussed in the article, we developed and proposed a plot definition for the ontology of historical urban spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chicago, the "city of neighborhoods," was a center for 1970s community activism. This article uncovers the history of Northwestern University's Center for Urban Affairs (CUA), which worked behind the scenes to create networks—and supply research—that helped Chicago community organizations be so effective. Their work was directed by two veterans of the civil rights movement, John McKnight and Stanley Hallett. Both were committed to "liberating data" and sharing it with community organizations, who used it to remake institutions so that they served rather than exploited surrounding areas. CUA students and faculty pursued research questions raised by community organizations while questioning existing institutional arrangements. CUA activities cast new light on 1970s neighborhood activism in Chicago, which produced innovations in credit, housing, health, municipal resource allocation, and more. Their approach remains critical today, as urban universities again seek models for nonexploitative, mutually beneficial relationships with surrounding communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the age of socio-ecological crises in which we live, the urgency of understanding the complicated relationship between society and nature is apparent. To achieve this, unfolding the urban metabolism of cities through metabolic flows from the perspective of urban political ecology will grow increasingly essential in the future. This paper aims to explore the concept of urban political ecology as a perspective for understanding emergence of a new urban metabolism in İstanbul in the nineteenth century through metabolic flows of water. The context of "metabolic" emphasizes labor as an agent for the very production of nature as urbanized nature through tap water, waste, and sanitation. It shows the transition and the conflict between the labor-intensive urban metabolism and capital-intensive urban metabolism of İstanbul, which started in the nineteenth century. The metabolic flows of water in terms of infrastructure were affected by the first impacts of foreign capital investments and capitalist relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the case of the bookstore Librería Colombiana and the broad investment portfolio of their owners—the partnership Camacho Roldán & Tamayo—to show how networks of commodity exchange shaped Bogotá's space during the late nineteenth century and its articulation to the rural and the global. I examine the combined speculative investments of the partnership in books, cows, and land to explain how they turned Librería Colombiana into a landmark in the city and benefited from the credit it yielded to further their social standing and economic power. By siphoning off capital from their hacienda to buy foreign books and urban land during the whirlwind of speculation spurred by the urban renovations processes, Camacho Roldán & Tamayo helped connect Bogotá to a global world of books, altering social and spatial relations, and reinforcing the city's domination over its hinterland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the socio-environmental history of a steel mill in Manaus, Brazil, the largest city in Amazonia. The Companhia Siderúrgica da Amazônia Sociedade Anônima, SIDERAMA, an integrated steel mill created in 1961 and liquidated in 1997 after a convoluted history of mismanagement, was part of private and public efforts to colonize the Brazilian Amazon through industrial urbanization. Exploring its impacts at a diversity of scales, the article presents it as a historical case study of planetary urbanization. The steel mill polluted the city of Manaus, and resource extraction to feed it with materials and energy disrupted environments and societies deep into the Amazon rainforest. This process underscores the global reach of urbanization during the second half of the twentieth century and the need to rethink the role of Amazonia during the Anthropocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores airplane manufacturing in twentieth-century Seattle to trace the correspondence between major developmental moments in the city's history and broader transitional moments in American empire. In doing so, it argues that Seattle is best understood as an imperial city characterized by four ongoing features: extensive connections beyond the city's nominal borders; sustained alliance between private commercial interests and the state that made such connections possible; a built environment of technological infrastructure made to serve that alliance; and labor forces, segmented by race, subject to the evolving needs of empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the battles over public history and the transformation of urban public history, focusing on examples from Germantown in Philadelphia and the Boston National Historical Park. The authors argue that good urban history should incorporate collective memory and present diverse perspectives and time periods. They discuss the relationship between urban renewal and historic preservation in Boston and Germantown, noting how preservationists often supported urban renewal efforts despite the destruction of historic neighborhoods. The article also examines the racial dynamics of preservation and raises questions about the role of preservation in gentrification. Overall, it emphasizes the importance of community engagement and inclusive storytelling in the practice of history. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the emergence of environmental history as a field of study, with a focus on New York City. It highlights two books, "Fresh Kills" and "Coastal Metropolis," which explore the history of waste disposal and water management in the city. These books shed light on the challenges and complexities of waste management and emphasize the need for sustainable solutions. The article emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of environmental history and the importance of understanding the city's past to address its current environmental challenges. [Extracted from the article]

This document provides a review of four books on the topic of gentrification from an East Coast perspective. The books offer unique perspectives on the phenomenon of gentrification, focusing primarily on cities along the eastern seaboard. The authors discuss the history and practical application of rehabilitating urban land and buildings, acknowledging the displacement of low-income and minority families while emphasizing the importance of improving urban real estate to prevent decline in property values, crime, and loss of community control. The books explore the origins of gentrification, grassroots movements, and government policies on displacement, with case studies of specific neighborhoods. The review acknowledges the limitations of the books and highlights the need for further exploration of the role of financial institutions and the impact on marginalized communities. [Extracted from the article]

In 1965, impoverished Clevelanders and their allies brought dead rats to City Hall to demonstrate that they alone had the required expertise to write antipoverty policy. They used the rats to educate their representatives about poverty conditions after their unsucessful struggle to gain control over the local War on Poverty. Scholarship on the War on Poverty and welfare rights movement has uncovered stories of innovative women who fought for official and unofficial access to policymaking. But our focus on movement leaders and sympathetic allies has obscured how some of these activists defined democracy. Activists in Cleveland envisioned democracy as a system where those affected by a policy had influence over its crafting. Their radical vision of urban municipal policymaking illuminates that historians have over emphasized the concessions that these women forced from their representatives, an interpretation which has inadvertently privileged access to a seat at the table over their larger goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most spectacular events of the Ottoman experience of modernity was the inauguration of the Ottoman General Exposition in Istanbul in 1863. The ancient Hippodrome, which is one of the most prominent venues of the city and the setting of memorable celebrations and festivals for centuries, hosted the event and provided the visitors with the opportunity to become part of the modern regimes of gaze and spectacle. This article posits three observer roles to reveal the multilayered structure of urban spectacle in mid-century Istanbul, namely the sultanic gaze, spectacle of the ordinary citizens, and the mediated experience of the foreigner. To understand the particularities of each position, I utilize several visual and textual documents about the exhibition event. Though just a single case in Ottoman urban history, the exposition enables us to understand how the new manner of modern urban spectacle emerged during a spectacular public event in Istanbul. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text explores the photographic documentary work on the city of Glasgow by Thomas Annan in the mid- to late nineteenth century. I focus on Annan's most well-known project— The Closes and Streets of Old Glasgow, 1868-1871, which remains the most significant urban focus in his work. I will begin by briefly outlining Annan's position in the history of photography and the relation of his photographic work to the city of Glasgow. Subsequently, I will engage directly with the volume of interest and outline the character of the photographs. Finally, I will provide an analysis of Annan's photographic work and the manner in which he contributed to a classed construction of the city of Glasgow through documentary photography. In particular, I will explore the images themselves through the lens of critical visual theory and relate them to the urban space of Glasgow itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores three recently published books on urban planning that delve into the characteristics and resilience of ideal, iconic communities. One book, "Iconic Planned Communities and the Challenge of Change," offers case studies of planned communities from around the world. Another book, "Sunnyside Gardens," focuses on a specific community in Queens, New York. The third book, "John Nolen: Landscape Architect and City Planner," traces the career of America's first city planner. The article highlights the connections and influences among different planners and designers of these communities, emphasizing the belief that well-designed physical environments can promote social well-being and a sense of community. It also discusses common design elements of planned communities, such as grid patterns, mix of housing types, and the presence of a town center. The article examines the resilience and challenges faced by planned communities over time, using case studies like Sunnyside, Greenbelt, and Seaside to illustrate how they have adapted to changes in transportation, governance, housing preferences, and population diversity. It underscores the importance of community support and a sense of place in preserving the original design and heritage of planned communities, concluding that the quality of the initial planning is vital for ensuring the long-term viability and distinctive features of iconic planned communities. [Extracted from the article]

"The Decorated Tenement: How Immigrant Builders and Architects Transformed the Slum in the Gilded Age" by Zachary J. Violette and "How the Working-Class Home Became Modern" by Thomas C. Hubka are two books that provide insight into the lives of ordinary people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States. These books challenge the dominant narrative that focuses on the wealthy and their lavish homes, instead exploring the housing conditions and changes experienced by the working class and poor. Violette's book specifically examines the tenements in New York City, highlighting how immigrant builders and architects adapted these structures to meet the needs and desires of the new American residents. The books also discuss the tensions between housing reformers and tenants, with reformers often imposing their values on lower-class immigrants who were satisfied with their homes. The text mentions that Violette criticizes reformer Jacob Riis for his views on tenements, while Hubka focuses on the middle 60% of the income distribution and their housing improvements. It notes that Hubka's book lacks a racial analysis, but praises Violette for addressing the anti-Semitism faced by Jewish immigrants. Both books demonstrate the improvement in living standards for working-class people during this time period, with Hubka's book specifically examining the modernization of homes and its impact on people's lives. [Extracted from the article]

This article explores the relationship between architecture and political power during the interwar period, specifically focusing on dictatorships in Italy and Germany. It discusses how dictators used architecture as a tool to express and consolidate their ideologies, shaping cities and creating a sense of national identity. The article provides case studies from different countries to illustrate the diverse approaches and outcomes of these architectural interventions. It emphasizes the importance of understanding this relationship to gain insights into these historical periods. [Extracted from the article]

This article explores the significance of scale in urban history, focusing on Chicago's environmental history. It discusses the influence of William Cronon's book "Nature's Metropolis" on historians' understanding of the city. The article examines various aspects of Chicago's relationship with the natural world, including waste disposal, pollution, and the role of activists. It also addresses current environmental challenges such as the threat of Asian carp and lead water service lines. The article concludes by comparing Chicago's approach to Philadelphia's green infrastructure strategy. Overall, it emphasizes the importance of considering different scales and perspectives to fully comprehend urban environmental history. [Extracted from the article]

In 1893, China boycotted the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in protest of the Geary Act, which renewed Chinese exclusion for ten years. In the absence of an official Chinese exhibit, a group of Chinese American merchants drew upon a set of theatrical elements associated with Chinatown tours to construct the Chinese Village attraction. For two decades, Chinatown tours had functioned as a form of aggregate entertainment featuring a set of archetypes—including the Restaurant, the Joss House, the Opium Den—that advanced the idea that Chinatown was a "Yellow Peril" to white Americans. The Chinese Village took this aggregate entertainment and attached a different cultural message, one which promoted the Chinese Village as a nonthreatening experience defined by consumption, surface aesthetics, and theatrical performance. In advancing this message, the Chinese Village contributed to a cultural shift that redefined understandings of Chinese immigrants for much of the next century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During World War I, mass migration to military manufacturing centers and the suspension of most private construction placed immense pressure on urban rental housing markets. Seeking to address the wartime housing "emergency," Congress established the nation's first public housing programs and federal agents based in major cities implemented informal policies to control rents. After the war, national policy shifted away from assisting struggling tenants to promoting homeownership for those who could afford it. However, empowered by the assistance they had received during the war, Philadelphia tenants continued to insist on the need for government action to curtail evictions and rising rents. Though divided by race, ethnicity, income, and political affiliation, struggling tenants shared the belief that the city's housing problems required collective solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the ways in which debates about urban policy became a space for members of the literate Turkish public to negotiate the boundary between state and society during a period of dramatic social transformation in the 1930s. Inspired by circulating urbanist discourses, Turkish reformers reimagined society from street level up by passing a series of laws which empowered municipalities and abolished the neighborhood muhtar and council of elders, the basic units of local administration since 1829. Eleven years later, however, these offices were reconstituted and absorbed into municipal bureaucracy where they became the focus of heated party politics and struggles across Turkey. The debates which brought about this transformation, I argue, were ultimately about how far into daily life the authority of the government should extend and in what ways Turkey was able to adopt international standards of urbanism in a time of economic and political uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the spatial effects of the ongoing "decommunization" campaign in Ukraine, a state-led attack on Soviet symbols and ideology in the urban space of the capital, Kyiv. We examine decommunization through the lens of an extensive legacy of architectural, urban design, and monumental art projects erected for the celebration of the 1500th anniversary of the city of Kyiv held in 1982. We focus on four ideological narratives and examine the outcomes of decommunization on four monuments. We find that decommunization's effect is limited; Communist symbolism has been annotated with Ukrainian identity symbols or neglected, not demolished. We conclude that decommunization has focused on the comparatively superficial qualities of toponomy and Lenin symbols, that the legacy of Soviet identity in Kyiv's cityscape is much deeper and has proved surprisingly persistent, and that the historiography of the newly independent nation of Ukraine is still in a process of reformation and revision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shawsheen, a model mill village planned and built in Andover, Massachusetts, between 1906 and 1924, was based on the vision of William Wood, then president of the American Woolen Company. It was arguably the most unique textile mill village ever built in New England. The article begins with a discussion of the motivation for the project. It then shifts to a summary of the critical features of Wood's vision and identifies the historic institutional paths that informed him. This is followed by an analysis of how the plan was successfully implemented and an explanation of what happened to Shawsheen over time. The article ends with an interpretation of the significance of the Shawsheen experience in the context of the history of New England mill towns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Israel's civil defense apparatus relies upon a technologically advanced alarm system. Once a rocket is detected, a cellphone app alerts the residents of the targeted area, and only the sirens located close by start wailing. The ability to isolate hundreds of such "alert zones" from one another during conflagrations with the Gaza Strip has been celebrated as the key to Israel's civil and economic resilience. Yet, when the history of this technology is examined, a different picture also emerges. Civil society in Israel has often contested the fragmentation of the country into distinct alert zones and surfaced the social and political inequalities it enhances. By following these claims, this article shows how Israel designed the alert zone system to crumble the traditional notion of emergency and turn it from a collective into an individual experience. The article argues that Israel has shifted the meaning of war, for its citizens, from a political crisis into a series of random events, thus naturalizing the perpetual conflict with the Palestinians, stifling any effective demand for resolving it, and cementing an individualized form of state sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the "spatial turn" in the humanities and social sciences, which emphasizes the importance of considering space in understanding social change. It discusses the works of various thinkers in this field and introduces the concept of crisis and its relationship with space. The article presents case studies from different historical periods and ideological contexts to examine the role of spatial practices and representations in shaping power relations and resistance. It concludes by discussing the sources and scales of analysis that historians can use to study the production of space over time. Additionally, the text examines the relationship between crisis and spatial expressions, particularly in urban spaces. It discusses the concept of crisis and its impact on space, using case studies from World War I in London and surveillance in fascist Italy. The text emphasizes the importance of understanding the production of space during times of crisis. Lastly, the article presents three case studies that explore the production of space in times of crisis. These case studies focus on surveillance in fascist Italy, German occupation policy in Poland during World War II, the construction of controlled neighborhoods in Franco's Spain, and the use of sirens in Israel. These case studies highlight the complex relationship between space, crisis, and power. [Extracted from the article]

Between 1925 and 1928, a fundamental strategy of the Italian fascist regime was the imposition of a political court, the Special Tribunal for the Defense of the State [Tribunale Speciale per la Difesa dello Stato], to control its political enemies and the entire society. One unexplored aspect of the Special Tribunal was its use of long-term surveillance to monitor people brought before the court. Suspects were monitored for long periods even when found innocent or upon release from prison. Blending geographical and historical analysis, specifically HGIS (Historical Geographical Information System), this work contributes to highlight surveillance during the fascist regime, which was less brutal than others not because it was imperfect but because it was sophisticated. Thus, the article also contributes to the understanding of the nature of the Italian fascist regime in comparison to its contemporary counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Mother went in to work tonight, how I hate her on Sunday work!," wrote fourteen years old Kathleen Biddlecombe in her diary, on Sunday, January 13, 1918. Kathleen and her family lived on 6 Cobbett Road, London, in Well Hall Garden Suburb—mostly known today as Progress Estate. Built between January and December 1915, in the first year of the First World War, the estate provided some 1,086 houses and 212 flats for the munition workers of the nearby Royal Arsenal factory in Woolwich. This article examines the First World War history of this housing project, by focusing on the diary of young Kathleen. Using the works of Henri Lefebvre and Michel de Certueau, the article probes the tensions between the ways this space was planned and built—in accordance with the agenda of the Garden City Movement—and the ways it was produced and used by its inhabitants during the war. It uncovers the production of space by the people whose houses were built along the Well Hall Road, where Route 44 of the Tram stopped to take them to and from the munition factory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews four books that challenge the notion that public schools in American cities are meritocratic institutions. The authors argue that public education perpetuates inequalities of race and class, and that school reform alone cannot address urban inequality. The books explore topics such as suburban schooling, the privatization of urban schooling in New Orleans, and the historical roots of educational inequality in Philadelphia. They offer new perspectives on the relationship between equity and urban education, emphasizing the historical factors that contribute to disparities in urban schools. The authors caution against relying solely on education reform and stress the importance of considering local context and broader social issues in addressing educational inequality. [Extracted from the article]

This article delves into the complex relationship between humans and dogs in urban settings. It raises the question of whether dogs would be able to survive and thrive without human intervention, suggesting that dogs have the capacity to adapt and live independently. The article also explores the historical and cultural factors that have influenced the way humans interact with dogs, such as the rise of pet ownership and the containment of stray dogs. It challenges the idea that dogs are simply products of human domestication and highlights the intricate and ever-changing nature of human-dog relationships. Additionally, the article examines the broader issue of how animals are treated and perceived in urban environments, focusing on the exploitation and commodification of animals. It discusses the origins of animal protection laws and the complex relationship between humane organizations and industry. The text also highlights the contributions of Henry Bergh, who founded the ASPCA and advocated for legislative protections for animals. It explores the tension between compassion and necessity in animal welfare and questions the concept of human exceptionalism throughout history. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of recognizing the agency of animals and envisioning a future that involves more collaboration with them. [Extracted from the article]

This article explores the relationship between film and cities, focusing on how cities have influenced cinema and how cinema has shaped our understanding of urban spaces. It reviews four books that examine different aspects of this relationship, including censorship debates in early twentieth-century urban America, Black filmmaking in Los Angeles, location shooting in San Francisco, and the global circulation of urban imagery in film. The books highlight the intersections of regulation, race, and capital in the construction of cinematic representations of cities. The article provides a detailed analysis of each book's contributions to the field of film and urban history. It also discusses the representation of cities in Hollywood films, contrasting the depictions of San Francisco and Los Angeles in films from the late 1960s and early 1970s. The emergence of the L.A. Rebellion filmmakers, a group of Black independent filmmakers who focused on South Central Los Angeles, is also explored. The article mentions the book "Noir Urbanisms," which offers a global perspective on cinematic urban history by examining the portrayal of cities in film noir. Overall, the article emphasizes the importance of considering the political and economic factors that shape the representation of cities in film. [Extracted from the article]

Two opposed conceptualizations of Granada, shared across poetry, painting (and photography) and music, combined to create a contrasting transmedia soundscape of the city throughout the twentieth century. Granada "the Beautiful" responded to the romantic myth of the city and was rooted mainly in the Alhambra, an Arab palace among the mountains, filled with gardens and water fountains. This idealized image could be heard in Manuel de Falla's literary and pictorial dream: Noches en los Jardines de España [Nights in the Garden of Spain] (1916), and also appeared in Federico García Lorca's musical conception of his city (1933). Fifty years later, the democratic transformation of Spain generally led to a punk, poetic deconstruction of the city in Rimado de ciudad [Rhyming from the City] (1983), singing about the margins of the city: Granada "the Wounded", emerging from the suburbia and from the dark streets of the Arab quarter: the Albaicín. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the significance of the Black Arts Movement (BAM) in urban history and its role in social movements during the 1960s and 1970s. It discusses three recent books that delve into the BAM, showcasing its importance in literature and art history. The article also examines two methodological approaches in BAM studies: the critical cultural approach, which analyzes the artistic qualities of BAM works, and the infrastructural approach, which focuses on the local context and networks that shaped the movement. It emphasizes the influence of cities, institutions, and politics on the BAM, as well as the reciprocal relationship between artists and communities. The article concludes by highlighting two recent books that offer promising methods for understanding the intersection of infrastructure and critical cultural approaches in urban history. These books emphasize the impact of the urban environment on artistic expression and community building. [Extracted from the article]

The "politics of infrastructure" reproduces inequality, leaving many urban residents without access to water, sanitation, and other basic services. Inner-city residents in Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, have long coped with poor drainage and waste collection that increases flood and health risks. Drawing upon a wide range of sources, this study examines how a system of patronage and partisan politics in Jamaica has helped to (re)produce this infrastructural deficit that has harmful effects on many inner-city residents, from independence in 1962 to the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, the busiest on record. In doing so, it will enhance understanding of the nature of Jamaican politics at the local level, highlighting that politics of the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC)—the municipal council—was marked by a continuous interaction between citizens, councilors, MPs, and civil servants, and that short-term jobs and contracts were the most important avenues of patronage [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article unearths a meticulous system of residential segregation operative in Grosse Pointe, Michigan—a wealthy suburb of Detroit—from 1945 to 1960. Potential homebuyers were ranked based upon their ethnic descent, nativity, accent, manner of dress, and "swarthiness" of skin, among other characteristics; as such, the Point System stringently measured and indeed vested real estate brokers with the power to construct suburban whiteness. After analyzing what I call the "work of white supremacy" that undergirded the Point System, this article then tracks its demise after well-publicized state and federal hearings. This article then details the community's response to the first "move-ins" of black families in 1964, as well as longer-running liberal integration efforts spearheaded by local activists through the decade's end. Ultimately, the Point System adds to our understanding of production of race and suburban exclusion in the midcentury United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores why New York City's municipal government, together with private benefactors, poured an unprecedented amount of money into the arts during the 1980s, a time of broader austerity. While other public expenditures saw dramatic cuts, the arts were considered essential to the city's future as a center for global capital—as a way to lure financial elites and young professionals to the city, create new forms of revenue-raising consumption, and cement New York's reputation as the ultimate global city. New York had always had a vital arts scene. But in the 1980s, the arts were monetized in new ways to serve capital—and capitalists. Arts and culture were central to the new urban lifestyle that helped produce the explosion of global finance. But as arts and culture increasingly came to be associated with a luxury lifestyle, the arts themselves became a luxury, inaccessible to most New Yorkers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]