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Hear from a public library director of a small library in Michigan. The author assumed the role as a first-time library director. This column explores the opportunities and challenges of taking on a directorship of a small public library. An emphasis on customer service and building the library into a community player is a key theme. The library's relationship to the city and other city departments is also discussed. Leading a public library through the COVID pandemic is touched on as well. This column is a glimpse into the operation of municipal government and public libraries. Smaller public libraries are special places in a community and this column helps you understand how they function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the role of cow protection in resisting labour struggles in Bombay’s cotton mills from the birth of industrialization in the 1850s to its eventual decline in the 1990s. Relying on public discourse in newspapers, government reports, and union documents, it shows that cows, sacred to Hindus, became a symbol of identity and a basis for elective affinity between mill owners, political/religious leaders, and a pro-capital city government. Mill owners funded cow protection societies, political/religious leaders supported cow protection and mediated directly with mill owners, and the state offered legitimacy, further resisting the negotiating power and innovations of labour unions to demand better living and working conditions. By implicating cow protection (identitarianism/communalism more broadly) in the political economy of industrial capitalism, this essay shifts attention from its primarily nationalist, majoritarian, and often agrarian discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study seeks to understand under which conditions cities enact inclusionary policies and practices for irregular migrants. Previous research points out the influence of political ideology, local autonomy, economic capacity, diversity, or civil society alliances. We argue that a city's proactive and supportive stance towards irregular migrants may not be explained fully by one or another single factor, but rather by their combination. Through a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis of 13 European cities, it was found that the combination of a political discrepancy between the local government and national state, as well as local alliances between the municipality and local civil society organizations, is a necessary condition for municipalities to take a proactive and supportive stance towards irregular migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban areas are emerging as "strategic sites" in the ongoing sustainable energy (SE) transitions. This has rekindled the importance of urban governments in initiating this transition urgently, a departure from the actors managing more mainstream centralized energy governance. However, while there is a growing international and academic interest in urban energy transitions, the political presence of cities in the global clean energy landscape remains largely underwhelming. Scholars studying urban energy transitions or governance have often pointed toward the lack of material and knowledge capacities of the urban governments as the key barrier for their muted actions. I argue that decision-making by urban governments with respect to clean energy adoption needs deeper inspection wherein aspects such as capacity, or the lack of it, are symptoms of underlying power contestations and conflicts that are negotiated in multi-level governance systems. The scholarship of power captures the ideas of contestation, control, and acquiescence, going beyond the ideas of cooperation prevalent in multilevel governance. In this article, I juxtapose these with concepts from multi-level governance and socio-technical studies to offer an analytical framework for understanding energy decision-making by city governments. The framework presented in this article attempts to capture both direct and indirect forms of power, their operationalization, and manifestation in constituting identities, actual decisions (and indecisions) as well as the conditions of decision-making. I also use the framework to understand the role of power in sustainable energy decision-making in three cities in India as an illustration of possible application of the framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies about the politics of southern cities, particularly Latin American cities, need to pay more attention to the political institutions behind urban governance. These institutions, additionally, were not created by design but are a product of intertwined historical processes. This article analyzes the main features and transformations of Latin American local governments, their politics, and governance, looked at from the angle of their historical formation. Mobilizing arguments from urban studies and political science usually developed apart, I start with the legacies of two intertwined historical processes—urbanization(s) and state formation(s)—to later observe their recent transformations since the recent return(s) to democracy. The reconstruction of these intertwined historical trajectories and of the effects of the present democratic period help to jointly explain the most important features of the politics of local governments in Latin America that influence their governance and actions—capacities, political grammars, actors, and coalitions—as well as their recent transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non‐status people face a socio‐legal precariousness that contradicts the promises of an inclusive city. Marking Toronto's tenth anniversary of its “sanctuary city” policy, our research assesses the progress and potential of social planning and municipalist agendas to support irregularised residents. Drawing from interviews with service providers, city officials, and non‐status citizens in Toronto, we propose a decolonial politics of urban citizenship recognition we call “non‐status citizenship”. This concept addresses specific paradoxes related to irregularisation, access, jurisdiction, and regularisation. By framing our discussion around these paradoxes, we highlight the discomfort and transformative potential of non‐status citizenship for immigration regimes in sanctuary cities. We argue that recognising non‐status citizenship goes beyond notions of urban citizenship to claim formal recognition and security, which resolves the four paradoxes theoretically, politically, and practically. We also emphasise the role of cities in expanding service delivery and calling out the failure of planning across levels of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Popular politics—a heterogeneous set of grassroots demands and subjectivities antagonistic to dominant power blocs—finds itself at a crossroads in Latin America. In Argentina and Chile, progressive governments have failed to curtail a resurgent populist‐right despite, as recently as 2019, appearing to be on the brink of a new centre‐left hegemony. This paper argues that paying attention to the spatiality of popular politics demonstrates a failure to articulate popular politics within a national movement, either neglecting them (under Boric in Chile) or incorporating them in a top‐down strategy that erased particularities (under Fernández in Argentina). It does so from the vantage point of two neighbourhoods at the urban margins in Buenos Aires and Santiago. Bringing together Ernesto Laclau's work on populism together with Henri Lefebvre's relational understanding of urban space, it analyses how popular demands and subjectivities have been articulated in relation to national progressive politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Toronto's urban PATH, a 30 km network of underground pedestrian tunnels and elevated walkways that connect shopping areas, residential towers, mass transit and downtown destinations. Both as a case and heuristic, this paper situates Toronto's PATH as an assemblage of private urban governance forms, exploring emergent and evolving constellations of power and responsibility for governing city space that defy easy distinctions of 'public' or 'private'. As an urban assemblage, the PATH comprises potential and actual entities and associations, and is an accumulation of encounters. Never a stable or static entity, the PATH and its governance, we argue, is provisional, revealing constantly evolving connections, alignments and political-economic potentialities. We contend the PATH serves as a palimpsest of mutating governing relations; a multiplicity of meanings, visions and encounters etched into the built environment. By focusing on public and private vestiges, wayfinding, and visibility, and private verticalising ventures, we highlight how practices, logics, processes, urban actors and their histories collide to form fragile, provisional urban alignments and visions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article titled "Urban Affairs Review: A Retrospective on the 2010s" discusses the emergence of urban politics as a significant field of study and its relevance to understanding broader patterns in American politics. The authors highlight the importance of race in shaping the urban vote, with racial divisions being a key factor that outweighs class divisions. They also note the distinctiveness of the Black vote and the relevance of party and ideology in explaining voting patterns. The article emphasizes the value of studying urban politics for understanding national politics and addresses the unique institutional structures and limitations of local governments. The authors also mention the increased availability of data and its impact on the field of urban politics research. Overall, the article demonstrates the significance of urban politics in providing insights into American democracy. [Extracted from the article]

This study evaluates the impact of intermunicipal cooperation on public procurement (PP) performance, based on the Italian experience. We use both a fixed-effects regression model and alternative matching estimators to analyse a sample of 50,905 Italian public works contracts awarded by municipalities and municipal unions (MUs) between 2012 and 2020. Our results indicate that while local centralisation does not necessarily lead to significant cost savings in the procurement phase, MUs outperform individual municipalities in the execution phase, especially in terms of reducing delivery delays. We conclude that while MUs do not necessarily lead to strong economies of scale, they do improve efficiency during contract execution. This highlights the alternative benefits of PP centralisation beyond cost savings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to assess the dietary habits and anthropometric parameters of shift workers in Calabar Municipality, Cross River State, Nigeria. A cross-sectional descriptive study design was employed, with a study population consisting of shift workers in various organizations within the municipality. The sample size was determined to be 200 using Bluman's formula, with multi-stage and random sampling techniques used for participant selection. Informed consent was obtained, and inclusion criteria ensured participants were current shift workers residing in Calabar Municipality. Data were collected using structured questionnaires and analyzed descriptively, with measures of central tendency and frequencies used. Anthropometric measurements were taken, including weight, height, waist circumference, hip circumference, and BMI. Results showed that the majority of respondents were female (63.0%) and aged between 18-29 years (39.0%). Most had tertiary education (73.5%) and earned between 150,000 and 299,000 Naira monthly (61.0%). Dietary habits revealed that 55.5% of respondents ate three meals daily, with 87.0% consuming snacks mostly at work. The average BMI was 24.46 kg/m² for males and 25.67 kg/m² for females, indicating a statistically significant difference between sexes. Waist circumference was 90.00 cm for males and 83.94 cm for females, while hip circumference was 105.14 cm for males and 97.44 cm for females. Both waist circumference and WHR were significantly different between males and females, with males having higher values. Shift workers in Calabar Municipality exhibit varied dietary habits, with significant differences in anthropometric parameters between males and females. It is recommended to implement interventions aimed at promoting healthier eating habits among shift workers. These interventions are crucial for mitigating potential health risks linked to irregular dietary patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article approaches belonging using the conceptual tool of urban imaginary to demonstrate how a certain place can be represented in different ways, offering different scenarios for the emergence, explanation, and experience of belonging. Urban politics in St. Petersburg and Russia, in general, generate controversial imaginaries of the city and attach different meanings to belonging, forcing street artists to strike a balance between the hegemonic structures of governance and capitalism, local (national) and global (western), rebellion, and dependency, notably, to fulfill their ideas of belonging. Using sticker artists in St. Petersburg, based on ethnographic data, the article shows how young people assimilate several urban imaginaries and, following the logic inherent in each of these, position themselves and their activity in the city. Sticker artists are described as urban agents, who, by participating in place-making and transforming urban space using stickers, find their subjectivity and opportunities to wield microscale power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Shanghai industrialised, its Chinese and European residents suffered the scourge of coal-powered cities: smoke. Air pollution became a multi-sensory reality. Residents could see, smell, feel and taste the smoke that shrouded the city. Inspired by anthropologists and historians of the senses, we mined Chinese- and English-language sources to document the emergence of experiences of air pollution in Shanghai. Concerns began earlier than other historians have appreciated. The vigorous complaints from all parts of Shanghai society illuminate how the city's governments attempted to respond to the crisis and mitigate the toxic consequences of industrialisation. We found many obstacles to the success of the governments' approaches. While other scholars have emphasised Shanghai's fractured governance, we also found evidence of financial conflicts of interest, industry obfuscation and anti-Chinese racism. Our work expands the understanding of the history of air pollution in China and offers a model that can be used to extend global histories of air pollution beyond their traditional focus on Europe and North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities increasingly address climate change, e.g. by pledging city-level emission reduction targets. This is puzzling for the provision of a global public good: what are city governments' reasons for doing so, and do pledges actually translate into emission reductions? Empirical studies have found a set of common factors which relate to these questions, but also mixed evidence. What is still pending is a theoretical framework to explain those findings and gaps. This paper thus develops a theoretical public choice model. It features economies of scale and distinguishes urban reduction targets from actual emission reductions. The model is able to explain the presence of targets and public good provision, yet only under specified conditions. It is also able to support some stylized facts from the empirical literature, e.g. on the effect of city size, and resolves some mixed evidence as special cases. Larger cities chose more ambitious targets if marginal net benefits of mitigation rise with city size—if they set targets at all. Whether target setting is more likely for larger cities depends on the city type. Two types are obtained. The first type reduces more emissions than a free-riding city. Those cities are more likely to set a target when they are larger. However, they miss the self-chosen target. Cities of the second type reach their target, but mitigate less than a free-riding city. A third type does not exist. With its special cases, the model can thus guide further empirical and theoretical work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on water security in Mykolaiv, a city of 0.5 million inhabitants in southern Ukraine, in the situation of scarcity of usable water resources caused by climate change and military operations. This problem arose after the Dnipro-Mykolaiv water pipeline was destroyed in April 2022 as a result of military operations and the supply of drinking water to the city was cut off. To ensure that the city's population has constant access to sufficient water of acceptable quality, a search for alternative water sources and a climate risk assessment were carried out for the new municipal water supply system from the Southern Bug River. The possible change in flow and its intra-annual distribution under the influence of climate change was modeled using the WaterGAP2 hydrological model and climate projections under the SSP1-2.6 and SSP5-P8.5 scenarios. It was found that under the SSP1-2.6 scenario, the reduction in river flow will be insignificant (up to a maximum of 14% in the far future) and there will be no restrictions on the city's water supply from this section of the river in the near (2021-2050) and far (2051-2080) period. The maximum water withdrawal for municipal water supply and the minimum environmental flow will reach their maximum value only in August (56% of the projected flow), which is not critical. Under the SSP5-8.5 scenario, in the long-term perspective of 2051-2080, the largest decrease in runoff will occur from May to October, and the water withdrawal will increase to 40-79% of the projected flow. The use of the research results not only in water management, but also in municipal administration, and their dissemination in territorial communities will contribute to the successful adaptation of socioeconomic and environmental processes in the region and can bring successful benefits not only to the economy, but also to communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractSince 2008, financial actors and practices have become increasingly embedded within US rental housing markets. The growing consolidation of rental real estate into corporate hands has contributed to higher rents, more eviction filings, and more systematic tenant harassment aimed at forcing tenant turnover. Until recently, the influence of ‘corporate landlords’ on local housing markets was largely unregulated and unconstrained. This paper compares novel policy strategies to regulate the tenant-landlord relationship in two California cities, focusing on enforcement mechanisms and the role of the municipal government. Both policies, San Francisco’s ‘Union at Home Ordinance’ and Los Angeles’s ‘Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance’, were developed in response to public pressure to regulate corporate landlords and give tenants recourse in the context of unfettered rental housing financialisation. Using policy documents and data collected through the Los Angeles Housing Department and the UC Berkeley Labour Centre, alongside interviews with tenants and organisers who have utilized the ordinances, this paper argues that Union at Home–which is enforced by tenants as opposed to the municipal government, renders organising a ‘housing service’, and imposes an obligation on landlords to negotiate with tenants associations–appears to more effectively redress the power dynamics in the rental housing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In marginalized communities where traditional political channels are often inaccessible, social movements and protests have emerged as vital platforms for voices seeking to challenge established power structures. This study reveals a compelling shift in recent decades as these neighborhoods undergo economic transformation and gentrification. It uncovers a distinct pattern of activism characterized by the emergence of middle-class ethnic entrepreneurs and business owners who engage in activism from within the urban economy and political systems. This qualitative case study, conducted within a Latino community in the U.S. delves into the activism of this actor, providing a deeper understanding of how this pattern, which both challenges and engages with the system, gives rise to local political conflicts and accusations of ‘class betrayal’, and cooptation. By utilizing a ‘place-based’ mobilization model and examining the interplay between ethnic and class affiliations, this study enriches our understanding of political protests and activism in ethnic/racial communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract\nPLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARYStudy purposeStudy approachStudy findingsStudy implicationsThe article draws from institutional and social vulnerability theories and examines the determinants of climate risk transparency by local governments. Using data from Florida cities, the study investigates the impact of membership in climate networks and local socioeconomic and sociodemographic factors on web-based climate risk transparency. The findings support the view that membership in climate compact organizations, such as the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) and Southeast Florida Regional Climate Compact (SEFRCC), serve as institutional factors that lead to climate risk disclosures and contribute to improved adaptive governance and transparency. It also shows that college education, which likely enhances individuals’ ability to search for, interpret, and use information regarding climate risk, contributes to the decision to disclose information. Lastly, it reveals that bigger cities are more likely to disclose climate risk to mitigate these threats because disasters in large urban centers affect businesses and commuters and cause more significant damage than in smaller towns.This research investigates what factors contribute to local governments’ web-based climate risk transparency. Specifically, it examines whether membership in professional networks, such as the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) and Southeast Florida Regional Climate Compacts (SEFRCC), as well as local financial, economic, and social conditions, improve the likelihood of cities disclosing climate risk on their websites.The researchers collected data from the official websites of city governments in Florida on whether they disclose climate risk and whether cities are members of ICLEI and SEFRCC. The city’s socioeconomic and sociodemographic data are from the U.S. Census Bureau. The researchers analyzed the data to see if there was a relationship between disclosing climate risk on websites on the one hand and membership in professional networks and local conditions on the other.The findings show that network participation influences the likelihood of local governments disclosing climate risk on their websites. The findings also show that bigger cities and cities with more college-educated residents are more likely to disclose climate risk on their websites.The result suggests that professional networks are important because they influence local choices. It also shows that a college education, which likely enhances individuals’ ability to search for, interpret, and use information regarding climate risk, contributes to the decision to disclose information. Lastly, bigger cities are more likely to disclose climate risk to mitigate these threats because disasters in large urban centers affect businesses and commuters and cause more significant damage than in smaller towns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aimed to identify the role of the agricultural sector in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs). One of the SDGs related to the agricultural sector was Goal 2, zero hunger. Before assessing the extent of the agricultural sector's role by measuring the achievement level of indicators in Goal 2, another challenge in evaluating sustainable development progress was data availability. This study employed a case study approach in two areas: Madiun District and Madiun City. The research findings revealed that in Madiun District, out of the 11 indicators in Goal 2, 4 indicators lacked data. In terms of achievement levels, five indicators were achieved and two were not achieved. In contrast, Madiun City had data for each indicator, with eight indicators achieved and three not achieved. The research concluded that data availability for development indicators at the municipal government level was significantly better compared to the district level. The urgency of data availability lies in obtaining an overview of sustainable development achievement in a region and determining future steps through policies and strategic measures, particularly in supporting sectors like agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the changes and stability of urban governance through the lens of smart city policy in Barcelona. It argues that the concept of smart cities is flexible and can be applied to both the neoliberal and participatory models of urban governance. Smart city policies undergo gradual rather than radical changes, with public–private relationships remaining stable despite fluctuations in the prominence of different actors. Comparing the smart city policy approaches of two ideologically opposite local governments, this study reveals similarities in the use of the scale, which is limited to local and global dimensions, and dismissal of metropolitan scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, there has been a growing awareness of the importance and desirability of fostering the involvement of more actors, and in particular local communities, in the protection of cultural heritage. Since universities have long been asked to become promoters of actions aimed at increasing society's general level of well-being through interventions with cultural, social, and educational implications via technology transfer and knowledge sharing, a mutual collaboration between different researchers of the Politecnico di Torino, public administrations, and local communities has been consolidated over the last few years to provide a proactive contribution to both the preservation of cultural heritage and the social and economic development of the territories. A new educational methodology with direct and mutual collaboration between teachers and students, local communities, and policymakers was tested. The experiences conducted so far testify to the university's ability to fulfil its training, research, and "Third Mission" tasks, both by responding to the needs of the territory and by transmitting up-to-date work methodologies, disciplinary skills, attention to context, and dialogue with local communities. The work carried out, appreciated by citizens and municipal administration representatives, was able to provide hints and stimuli for new opportunities and actions to be undertaken, foreshadowing possible development trajectories of the contexts investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trafficking of illegal substances is a global issue. Tamaulipas, a northeastern state in Mexico, is strategically located for drug trafficking to the United States by organized crime. In this study, drug seizure events conducted by the Mexican government in the main cities of Tamaulipas between 2017 and 2022 are analyzed. It was noticed that there was a decrease in events from 2017 to 2020, followed by a slight increase in 2021. Marijuana was the most seized drug, with cocaine and amphetamines following behind. The frequency of drug seizure events was higher in the border cities of Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, and Matamoros due to their international commercial bridges with the USA. Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa showed a high amount of marijuana seized. In Matamoros, a coastal city, the quantity of cocaine seized was the highest. Results suggest that substances seized were intended to be illegally transported to the USA through Mexican border cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Amazon rubber boom (1850–1930) devastated Indigenous nations that had remained for centuries at the borders of European empires and the nation-states that replaced them in South America. The arrival of the Peruvian rubber company Casa Arana to the Igaraparaná and Caraparaná Rivers in 1899 marked the conquest and colonization of the Murui-Muina nation and their ancestral lands. This essay examines the escape of Murui-Muina clans from Casa Arana and the ethnogenesis of a new kind of Murui-Muina society in the municipality of Leguízamo, in Colombian Amazonia, where they resettled. It argues that although the fleeing clans managed to escape from Casa Arana, the continued contact with rubber tappers, Capuchin missionaries, and Colombian government officials during their flight introduced fundamental changes to Murui-Muina life. However, once settled in Leguízamo, they were able to recreate Murui-Muina life and became the basis of the Indigenous communities that exist today in the municipality. The first two sections follow the fleeing clans along the Putumayo and Caquetá Rivers during the first three decades of the twentieth century; the following section considers their arrival to Leguízamo; and the final section analyzes the ethnogenesis of a new kind of Murui-Muina society in the municipality during the second half of the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the challenges of controlling short-term rentals (STR) in an era of intermediation by digital platforms, focusing on the process of regulatory enforcement. Drawing on evidence from large European cities, it investigates how public authorities identify and tackle STR deemed illegal, how operators of illegal STR seek to escape detection, and the relationships between city governments and digital platforms in the process of regulatory enforcement. The article shows what digitalisation and 'platformisation' do to the possibility of (local) state regulation of housing informality and illegality in the European context. As platforms have been reluctant to release individualised STR listings to local authorities, the latter have had to rely on imperfect, 'DIY' methods of data gathering in the physical and digital worlds, in the context of attempts to regulate STR for public interest objectives such as the protection of the long-term residential stock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Although they play a key role in shaping local efforts, there is limited research on how city officials define sustainability as it is practiced in their communities. To address this limitation and contribute to planning research, we leveraged a unique nationwide data set of sustainability definitions provided by the sustainability lead in more than 400 U.S city governments. Our study's qualitative analysis of these statements complements existing research by exploring emerging themes on how sustainability is perceived and practiced at the local level. Results indicated that practitioners' conceptualizations reflected five general orientation categories: action, aspiration, emotion, process and organization, and progress. We evaluated the association of these general orientation categories with cities' administrative arrangements, political environments, resources, and capacities. Findings suggested that supportive contexts were associated with city sustainability staff defining sustainability in aspirational terms, as opposed to emphasizing progress or discrete actions. Takeaway for practice: We examined how city sustainability leaders characterize its practice, using their own words provided in response to an open-ended survey question. We found that organizational context, including the presence of a sustainability budget, staff, and political support, was associated with differences in the fundamental nature of the responses provided. This is important because these local government officials influence how the broad objective of sustainability is practiced in their communities. Overall, our research adds value to the planning profession by assessing how sustainability professionals defined sustainability with greater nuance than previous studies and establishing a departure point for explaining why such differences exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, municipal governments across Canada have made efforts to attract and retain newcomers in mid-size cities. This paper reports on a community-based photovoice research project to explore immigrant experiences securing professional employment in Durham Region, Ontario. Nine immigrants from diverse origins provided their photographs and written reflections and participated in semi-structured individual interviews and focus groups; they discussed the images representing their experiences in more depth and proposed calls for action to facilitate needed changes. The whole research cycle was informed by feminist intersectionality to illuminate the role of macrostructural forces operating in the socio-economic context of immigrant lives. The project findings testify to (1) the existing services’ failure in assisting immigrants to face systemic challenges: find meaningful learning opportunities, create strong networks, and address bureaucratic demands; (2) the experiences of rejection, judgement, misrecognition, and devaluation of immigrants from recruiters, employers, employment services staff and residents; and (3) the resistance of these challenges by the immigrants through perseverance, positive outlook, and support of family and compatriot community. These findings make it clear that having services that focus on individual job search or professional skills is insufficient: solutions require the participation of the entire society. They highlight the urgency of municipal action to change the local social and service provision climate by including immigrant voices and experience in decision-making about services and policy development and educating social and employment services personnel, employers and the community in anti-racism and immigrant experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents Nesting Ferality, a performative installation that examines how feral rose-ringed parakeets are represented online and governed in Dutch cities. Expanding existing research at the interconnection of artistic practice and cultural geography, the installation incorporates and performs quantitative and qualitative data in an exhibition space. The project deploys everyday digital technologies in novel ways to reshape people's perception and to explore how artists and geographers can collaborate to foster new environmental politics and mobilise new publics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socio-spatial divisions between districts in the North and South have marked the port-city of Marseille since the post-World War II urban reconstruction period. This article analyses the decades spanning the 1940s to the 1960s Vieux Port area as well as the HLM (Habitation à Loyer Modéré, or rent controlled properties) building projects in the North of the city. This reveals a dual strategy deployed by urban planners as well as municipal and national government officials in response to an increasing immigrant workforce involving relocation into HLMs and (re-)designing public spaces. City planners, architects, and officials aimed to reconfigure the neighbourhoods in which people were to be housed and to strengthen the narrative of Marseille as a Mediterranean gateway, attracting investors and tourists, a process which also helped the city to gain a favourable reputation in Europe. The way in which urban planning, social housing initiatives, and public space designs unfolded in post-World War II Marseille has played a pivotal role in shaping the city's present-day social and geographical divisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are regarded as spaces of co-production of the social sphere, leaving diverse imprints on the memory and discourse of individuals within society. This study investigates these differences by categorizing them according to generations, focusing on the components of urban identity as perceived, lived, transformed, and interacted with by different generations within the city. The aim is to uncover the type of identity the city offers to various generations and the generation-oriented breakpoints in the production of collective memory. This research is intertwined with themes of urban politics, urban memory, and urban-public space, providing an opportunity to not only observe the generation gap but also to discern the distinct dynamics of the city. It underscores the importance of considering the generation gap in the city's collective accumulation and urban politics. The study draws on data from in-depth interviews with 12 participants, comprising three individuals from each of the X, Y, Z, and Baby Boomer generations, all of whom were born, raised, and currently reside in Eskişehir. Through an examination of factors such as age, upbringing, and life experiences, the research delves into how these elements shape individuals' senses of identity and attachment to the urban environment. Additionally, it explores how generational perspectives influence attitudes towards urban development, cultural identity, and community engagement in Eskişehir. By delving into these aspects, the study aims to provide deeper insights into how generational differences manifest within the context of urban identity in this specific city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past 20 years, twice-daily thoracic radiotherapy with concurrent chemotherapy has been the treatment of choice for limited-stage small-cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC), which has a poor prognosis. We aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of high-dose, accelerated, hyperfractionated, twice-daily thoracic radiotherapy (54 Gy in 30 fractions) versus standard-dose radiotherapy (45 Gy in 30 fractions) as a first-line treatment for LS-SCLC. This open-label, randomised, phase 3 trial was performed at 16 public hospitals in China. The key inclusion criteria were patients aged 18–70 years, with histologically or cytologically confirmed LS-SCLC, who had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0–1, and who were previously untreated or had received one course of cisplatin or carboplatin and etoposide. Eligible patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive volumetric-modulated arc radiotherapy (VMAT) of 45 Gy in 30 fractions to the gross tumour volume or VMAT with a simultaneous integrated boost of 54 Gy in 30 fractions to the gross tumour volume starting 0–42 days after the first chemotherapy course. Both groups received 10 fractions of twice-daily thoracic radiotherapy per week. The planning target volume was 45 Gy in 30 fractions in both groups. Patients with responsive disease received prophylactic cranial radiotherapy (25 Gy in 10 fractions). Randomisation was performed using a centralised interactive web response system, stratified by ECOG performance status, disease stage, previous chemotherapy course, and chemotherapy choice. The primary outcome was overall survival in the intention-to-treat population. Safety was analysed in the as-treated population. This study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov , NCT03214003. From June 30, 2017, to April 6, 2021, 224 patients (102 [46%] females and 122 [54%] males; median age 64 years [IQR 58–68]) were enrolled and randomly assigned to the 54 Gy group (n=108) or 45 Gy (n=116) group. The median follow-up was 46 months (IQR 33–56). The median overall survival was significantly longer in the 54 Gy group (60·7 months [95% CI 49·2–62·0]) than in the 45 Gy group (39·5 months [27·5–51·4]; hazard ratio 0·55 [95% CI 0·37–0·72]; p=0·003). Treatment was tolerable, and the chemotherapy-related and radiotherapy-related toxicities were similar between the groups. The grade 3–4 radiotherapy toxicities were oesophagitis (14 [13%] of 108 patients in the 54 Gy group vs 14 [12%] of 116 patients in the 45 Gy group; p=0·84) and pneumonitis (five [5%] of 108 patients vs seven [6%] of 116 patients; p=0·663). Only one treatment-related death occurred in the 54 Gy group (myocardial infarction). The study was prematurely terminated by an independent data safety monitoring board on April 30, 2021, based on evidence of sufficient clinical benefit. Compared with standard-dose thoracic radiotherapy (45 Gy), high-dose radiotherapy (54 Gy) improved overall survival without increasing toxicity in a cohort of patients aged 18–70 years with LS-SCLC. Our results support the use of twice-daily accelerated thoracic radiotherapy (54 Gy) with concurrent chemotherapy as an alternative first-line LS-SCLC treatment option. Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology–Linghang Cancer Research, the Wu Jieping Medical Foundation, and Clinical Research Fund For Distinguished Young Scholars of Peking University Cancer Hospital and Beijing Municipal Administration of Hospitals Incubating Program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Navigating the convergence of domestic governance and international investment law presents multifaceted challenges in an ever‐globalizing world. The recent bankruptcy of the Birmingham City Council in September 2023, burdened by substantial debt from equal pay claims, serves as a poignant example, illustrating the potential widespread effects of local financial crises on international investment protections and obligations. The discourse explores the complexities arising from municipal insolvencies and the implications of such local fiscal policies on international investment obligations. The lens of international arbitral tribunals sheds light on the dilemmas faced when local realities vie with global responsibilities, especially concerning investor protections and Bilateral Investment Treaties. Decentralized states add another layer of intricacy, balancing regional policies with overarching international commitments. As the landscape of international investment law transforms, both state entities and investors must understand and adapt to the evolving interplay. The synthesis of these two realms is crucial in today's globalized era. Through proactive policy‐making, stakeholder dialogues, and a keen understanding of both local and global dynamics, a harmonious fusion of domestic objectives and international obligations can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The handling of plastic waste remains an ongoing environmental issue in Indonesian municipalities. The aim of this study is to employ Material Flow Analysis (MFA) to assess the efficacy of two central waste banks in Metro City: Bank Sampah Induk (BSI) Wijaya Kusuma and BSI Sidomakmur. The research examines the extent in which these facilities help foster a circular economy and minimize plastic waste by recycling three different forms of plastic: polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and polypropylene (PP). Qualitative data was gathered through stakeholder interviews, literature reviews, observations, and close inspection of the processes utilized to treat the collected plastic waste. The study determines both BSI efficacy by comparing the plastic intake and exit flows and figuring out how much garbage is left over after processing. By shredding and recycling into pelletized plastic, BSI Wijaya Kusuma was able to reduce waste by 88.4%, which helped to promote a circular economy. BSI Sidomakmur, on the other hand, showed little technological expertise by employing a compactor resorting to external partnerships to further recycle despite achieving a 96.4% reduction. Even with these facility-level achievements, the aggregate effect of both waste banks only contributes 1.2% to the overall reduction of plastic waste in Metro City. In order to strengthen regional circular economy efforts, this study emphasizes the necessity of more extensive waste bank integration and technology advancements. The results give stakeholders and policymakers important information for enhancing waste management plans and advancing sustainable economic models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to contribute to the debate on the rise of independents in local politics and the underlying factors driving this trend in Europe by investigating the situation in Czechia, a post-communist country with a highly fragmented local government system. This study uses statistical analyses of electoral data from the 2010, 2014 and 2018 local elections to test the relevance of supply-side and demand-side explanations of the rise of independents. The analysis results show that the political strength of independents in Czech local elections has steadily increased during the last decade. Both tested theoretical models are valid but the effects of supply-side and demand-side factors are highly conditioned by municipalities' population sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A good cooperative relationship between politics and administration is essential to good governance and efficient decision making in public organisations. This study of the cooperative relationship is based on the notion that politics and administration is intertwined, making interaction between politicians and administrators necessary. The study focuses on how political fragmentation affects cooperative relations between politics and administration. Using data from both Norwegian mayors and municipal directors (436 respondents from 303 municipalities), the effects of three different types of political fragmentation are investigated: number of political parties in council and the steering coalition, the Laakso-Taagepera index, and ideological distance between parties. The findings indicate that cooperative relationships get worse with increasing ideological distance and improves with political fragmentation in the council under the conditions of divided government (political parties in the steering coalition spanning both sides of the left–right dimensions). Implications for the study of political–administrative relations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the recurring economic crises, the literature on fiscal savings behaviour has expanded its scope from state governments relying on budget stabilisation or rain-day funds to local governments mainly using general fund balances. While many studies have explored the determinants of local savings behaviour, few have taken fiscal interactions among local governments into account. To fill out this gap, this study explores whether spatial interdependence in fiscal slack exists horizontally between counties and vertically across counties and municipalities through the unreserved fund balance of local governments in New York State from 1996 to 2016. The empirical findings indicate that horizontal interdependence in fiscal slack among county governments exists in the short-run, while vertical interdependence is observed across counties and municipalities in the long-run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic resources within the jurisdiction of local governments in China shape the external financing environment of enterprises. However, few studies have focused on China's unique political hierarchy, which results in differentiated access to economic resources for different levels of local governments and substantially affects local corporate financing constraints. This paper examines the impact of city political hierarchy on firm financing constraints among Chinese A‐share listed firms from 2004 to 2019. We use the 200,000 population criterion for delineating the political hierarchy of cities in 1927 as the cutoff for fuzzy regression discontinuity design to identify causal effects. The results show that the greater a city's political rank is, the lower its financing constraints are. The mechanism suggests that the central government provides more financial and political resources to high‐level cities, directly and indirectly influencing the financing constraints of firms. In addition, high‐level cities' government preferences, bank loans, debt financing costs, and business credit are vital channels at the firm level. However, this effect varies depending on the ownership and size of the firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The national long-term development strategy includes the development of tourism as a core component. This program is supported by the issuance of special regulations Letter No. 17 of 2016 addressed to the Mayor of Banda Aceh on the Introduction of Halal Tourism. The current research aims to analyze and examine the policies of the Banda Aceh City Government in organizing Halal Tourism and providing supporting facilities and infrastructure for it. The method used is qualitatively descriptive. Both primary and secondary data sources are employed. Data were obtained through interviews, observation, and documentation. Based on the results of the research and findings in the field, it was found that the Banda Aceh City Government's policy in organizing Halal Tourism in Banda Aceh City is considered to be good and its implementation is also good because of the high community support while carrying out the policy. However, improvements in facilities and infrastructure are still needed to perfect the introduction of Halal tourism in Banda Aceh City. The findings show that t the implementation of halal tourism policies in the City of Banda Aceh is supported by a large number of people who ensure that the City of Banda Aceh becomes a city that adheres to Islamic law and participates in supporting and advancing halal tourism in the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines how two major strategy formulation approaches influence city governments' decision to collaborate. Collaboration with governmental and nongovernmental actors gives rise to varying levels of risks, which can be managed by using the appropriate strategy formulation approach. Using data from a national survey of cities, we find that formal strategic planning catalyzes cross-sectoral collaboration but is not associated with government-to-government collaboration. Logical incrementalism has a consistently negative relationship with collaboration regardless of sector. The findings indicate that collaboration can be limited by city governments' capacity to undertake formal strategic planning and their propensity to engage in incrementalist decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do government counterinsurgency efforts affect local public health financing during civil conflicts? We investigate this question in the context of the protracted conflict in Colombia. Using data on antinarcotics operations and health transfers from the central government to municipal governments, we employ both panel estimations and an instrumental variable to address concerns of endogeneity. We first show evidence of a government discretionary power over the allocation of health transfers. We do not find evidence that counterinsurgency operations causally affect health transfers to municipalities. Our results rule out political alignment between mayors and the national governing party as an intermediary factor that could influence the flow of fiscal transfers in municipalities exposed to the conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic incentive is thought a good intervention type that can encourage residents to do food waste sorting by many cities' government in China. However, there is a lack of long-term, large-scale study. So the business-led incentive scheme was studied by a case study in Nanjing, China, which focuses on food waste sorting. The results showed that the incentive can encourage at most an average 37% of residents to start and then continue to do food waste sorting regularly. Later, the incentive cannot encourage more even with many non-economic interventions. And most of these participating residents (31%) were encouraged at the first 12 months. The results also showed that house price had a negative relationship with the community sorting performance. The comparative study results showed that the community committee must be involved in the non-economic interventions to encourage more residents to take part; otherwise, the company will fail even after many attempts. So the government should apply the incentive policy by dialectical view in food waste sorting. And the incentive scheme should involve all the stakeholders to apply non-economic interventions to encourage more residents to do food waste sorting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The centrality of human resources in the provision of healthcare suggests that Human Resource (HR) management and the use of Human Resource analytics – use of digital data to better understand, assess, plan and organize the workforce - can play an important role in this. However, data driven decision making in the field of human resource management is lagging, and the appropriation of HR analytics in the healthcare sector is limited. Aim: The current study explores the role of HR departments and the adoption of Human Resource analytics in four municipalities in Norway to obtain insights into what influences the use or lack of use of HR analytics. Methods: Empirical data were generated through qualitative interviews with fourteen individuals working in HR departments, the municipal administration, and the healthcare services. Structurational theory guided the analysis. The findings show that none of the municipalities made extensive use of data to inform decision making related to human resource management or workforce planning. Results and conclusion: Three conditions hampered or made irrelevant the use of HR analytics: a decoupling between the services and HR, a weak data-culture, and HR and decision-making processes involving a plurality of stakeholders. However, there were changes underway in all municipalities related to the role of HR and HR analytics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aims to explore the development status of the supply level of professional public health resources in Beijing Municipality, analyze the areal differences and spatial distribution characteristics of the supply level in 16 districts, and provide a scientific basis for promoting the balanced development of the supply level of professional public health resources in each district of Beijing Municipality. Methods: Based on panel data from Statistical Yearbook of Health Work in Beijing Municipality and Health and Family Planning Work in Beijing Municipality from 2014 to 2022. Using the entropy method to measure the supply level of professional public health resources in Beijing, employing the Dagum Gini coefficient and Kernel density estimation method to analyze the spatial differentiation characteristics and dynamic evolution process of the supply level, and using heat maps to display the spatial distribution of the supply level in various districts of Beijing. Results: The Dagum Gini coefficient of the supply level of professional public health resources in Beijing Municipality decreased continuously from 0.3419 in 2014 to 0.29736 in 2020, then gradually increased, showing a trend of initially decreasing and then increasing overall spatial differences. The spatial differences mainly stem from differences between areas. The kernel density curve shows that the supply level of professional public health resources in Beijing Municipality gradually increased, slightly decreased after 2021, and did not form a situation of two or multi-level differentiation. Conclusion: From 2014 to 2022, the supply level of professional public health resources in Beijing Municipality showed an overall upward trend, but attention should be paid to the decline after 2021; spatial differences initially decreased and then increased, and the differences between areas is the main source of the overall difference in Beijing. Therefore, the Beijing Municipal Government should focus on narrowing the differences between areas, determine the allocation and management of public health resources based on the actual situation of core areas, promote coordinated development within and outside areas, and thus enhance the supply level of professional public health resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid rapid urbanization in the developing world, there is growing interest in the effects of urban context on political behavior. An underexplored element of urban context is the built environment itself—the physical architecture and design of urban space—which can structure how residents interact both with each other and with the state. Drawing on street network data and an original survey from urban Ghana, I suggest that more gridded, orderly neighborhoods reduce the social interactions residents have with neighbors, lower embeddedness in political problem‐solving networks, and depress electoral turnout. Rather than making residents more legible to state officials, gridded streets make the local state and political realm less legible to residents by reducing opportunities to forge politically valuable social ties in a context of clientelist politics. The paper demonstrates that greater focus is needed on built environments to understand the social structures undergirding grassroots urban politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving more sustainable adaptation to social-environmental change demands the transformation of the narratives that provide the rationale for risk governance. These narratives often reflect long-standing beliefs about social and political relationships, ascribe actions and responsibilities, and specify solutions to risk. When such solutions are implemented through material investments in landscapes, these narratives become embedded in physical infrastructure with long legacies. Dominant narratives can mask a range of divergent problem framings. By masking alternatives, narratives can contribute to the persistence of unsustainable governance trajectories. Decision-support tools have begun to represent narratives as drivers of system dynamics; making narratives visible can reveal opportunities for more sustainable governance. We present the results of the project "The Dynamics of Multi-Scalar Adaptation in the Megalopolis", a dynamic, exploratory model of socio-hydrological risks in Mexico City that was designed to both endogenize and simultaneously challenge the dominant narratives that characterize water-risk governance in the city. Qualitative data characterize dominant narratives at city and borough scales. An agent-based model, informed by multicriteria decision analysis and coupled with hydrological, urbanization, and climatic model inputs, permitted the development of exploratory governance scenarios designed to challenge dominant narratives. Scenarios revealed how dominant narratives may contribute to the persistence of vulnerability "hotspots" in the city, despite stated goals of equity and vulnerability alleviation. Participatory workshops with representatives of the city government illustrate how making such narratives visible through exploratory modeling can lead to a questioning of prior assumptions and causal relations, recognition of a need for intersectoral collaboration, and insights into potential management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pterygoplichthys ambrosettii (Holmberg, 1893) is indigenous to the middle/lower Paraná basin and has been intentionally introduced to several continents, including North America, Asia and Europe. In Brazil, the presence of allochthonous P. ambrosettii has been documented in the Upper portion of Paraná River, São Francisco River, and Doce River. This study aims to report the first documented occurrence of P. ambrosettii in the Mucuri river basin, located in the municipality of Mucuri, Bahia, Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the ironies of education, especially under-funded K-12 public education, is that although it is a field that significantly creates the future, the concerns of the present are so intense and so varied, that people working within these systems find themselves almost entirely in reactive mode. My work, and that of my colleagues, is focused on bringing strategic foresight into public education, giving system leaders, their staff, and their internal and external communities tools, approaches, and ways of thinking with which to engage intentionally with the future, and to build a sense of collective agency about the future. This paper is based on key learnings from over a decade of taking US school districts and their diverse communities - students, family members, staff, community partners, business partners, faith leaders and city government officials - through future visioning processes. The paper describes three approaches that have been integral to developing Futures Literacy in groups with widely divergent relationships to the future, ranging from fear or avoidance to unexamined beliefs that privilege will maintain and protect, and on to anticipatory hope for a more just, more sustainable world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global tourists have started to conquer their fear and anxiety, recover travel interest instead, while mounting countries have paused territorial lockdown. Municipal administration and civic willingness also offer hope to tourism in China. Chinese inbound and outbound tourism is coming into light. Among those entry-exit travel demand, three necessary travel motivations overwhelm leisure orientation, namely family-visiting, medical and business demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]