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City and urban spaces are concepts which have a direct relation with all different aspects of human life in every historical era. These concepts are not only affected by social, cultural, philosophical, political, economical, and other variables but also are the indicators of these issues in every place and time. Before the modern era, which is referred as the "traditional" era and in Iran parallel with the collapse of the Safavid dynasty, urban spaces had their skeleton and functions which have been formed gradually over centuries. However, these urban spaces started physical and functional development with the influence of modernity and modernism along with the Qajar dynasty (1800-1900 A.D) in Iran. During this era, there were different socio-political movements all over the country due to the influence of modern thoughts, of which the Mashruteh (constitution) movement is the most noticeable. These movements, which were not observed before that in Iran, are reflected in Iranian cities in urban spaces like squares, adding to the functions of these spaces. This was mostly realized in the famous cities of Iran, namely Tehran and Tabriz. Through the organization of modern revolutions in these places, the leaders of the modern movements changed the meaning and concept of urban spaces and introduced new functions into them. According to the findings of this paper, there was a major development in the structure and organization of urban spaces of Iran due to the influence of modern thoughts. This paper's focus is on Tabriz, the city which was influenced more than other cities of Iran regarding the physical changes in that era. The findings revealed that changes have occurred in several different scopes including the creation of new functions in the previously established urban spaces, which had not such a function before, the creation of new structures in city, and finally the emergence of new behaviors such as the Mashruteh revolution through going on strike in the public places of the city. Although these behaviors originated from modern thoughts, their realization was due to the existence of urban spaces and urban squares. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the development of telecommunication technologies, and above all since the emergence of the Internet, the traditional concept of space has radically changed. The characteristic "Space of Place" (A. Giddens) of modernity has been replaced with the "Space of Flows" (M. Castells), a dynamic space shaped by the mobility of information, people and resources. This "Space of Flows" means a new spatial imaginary based on concepts such as ubiquity or deterritorialization, where the physical space seems to disappear or to "compress" (D. Harvey) in favour of the virtual space of communication, Cyberspace. This paper intends to analyze-from the point of view of social imaginaries-how this new spatial model is reflected and configured, not only through urban or social transformations, but also through its interpretation and representation in artistic practices. So, the aim of this paper is to show-by studying different examples of artistic works that use locative media, new cartographies or telepresence systems-how the notion of "Space of Flows" is giving rise to new imaginaries and spatial experiences that reflect these transformations of the space. Additionally, the aim is to show how artistic practices, through their new ways of expressing spatiality, can be an important means to reflect, question and review from a critical point of view, this spatial model of flows in the Information Era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In “The Parallax View (2006), Slavoj Žižek identifies a class of social antagonisms as a “traumatic kernel, a fundamental antagonism that escapes symbolization (24). These antagonisms can be glimpsed only through internal contradictions. They serve to hold the society in a state of tension, neither completely disrupted, nor allowed to stabilize. We use Žižek’s framework to investigate the tensions underling Beijing’s physical and psychical remapping, and, in particular, we use the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics as evidence for the emergence in Beijing of a third cartography of the city, one that has overwritten the Imperial and Maoist organizations of city space. This third mapping corresponds to Soja’s definition of “thirdspace in that it represents a space where the city’s history is thoroughly subsumed into a system of global image making. The ceremony completes a process where the city becomes identified with its filmic image. The apparent success of the modernization of Beijing, a success which animates the ceremony, might seem to promise a continuous flow linking the old to the new. But that continuity is better understood as the continuity created by a nostalgia film. It is the triumphant conversion of history into easily consumable imagery fit for consumption in what Rey Chow calls the “global regime of value making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the summary of a conference that focused on normative spatial planning in the historic cultures in Europe and Asia. It was held from March 9-11, 2011 in Heidelberg, Germany. Topics under discussion at the conference included the ritual construction of space in the ancient Near East, the socio-political identities in the dynasties in Mesopotamia, as well as the settlement structures and spatial organization during the colonization of the Ionian Coast of Italy.

This article examines family and community daily life and its relationship to human development, having as a reference the following dimensions: family composition, educational, economic and housing conditions, habitat, family communication, relations with neighbors, conflict resolution and community shared activities. Priority is given to an integrating rather than individualized perspectivo of family and community everyday life, conceiving these two areas as energizing lines and catalysts of human development in terms of social spaces, protection, fondness, care and welfare. However, the results show that adult members have low academic preparation, focusing on the type of economic activity and/or work performed, in family income and therefore how they meet their needs for food, clothing, housing, health and recreation. In this regard, the study provides information and suggests courses of action for private and public institutions, the academy and professionals for the development of comprehensive programs and strategies aimed to early intervention and prevention of risk factors that may affect family members' biopsychosocial welfare. The design used in this research was not experimental, the type of observational study, the descriptive and interpretative level and mixed method, comprising quantitative and qualitative data, according to Shoveller (2006). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

物质性的空间一是指自然物理空间，二是指社会空间即社会关系。空间生产包括 空间中的生产和空间本身的生产两个向度的内涵。这两个向度内涵之间的关系和物理 空间生产与社会空间生产之间的关系构成了空间生产中两大基本关系。这两大基本关 系的辩证内涵表明，空间生产根本上可以归结为社会关系再生产。由此，关于空间生 产问题的讨论就发生了一个根本性的意义转换，即从对象到视阈的意义转换。以此来 审视，当代中国城市建构理念尚存在某些偏差，即对象与视阈的意义断裂与分离，由 此造成了当代中国城市化进程中一些不必要的风险和代价。关键词: 对象 视阈 空间生产 空间批判 意义转换 Physical space refers to both natural space and social space, that is, social relations. Space production includes production in space and of space. Relations between these two dimensions and between physical space production and social space production constitute two basic relations in space production. The dialectical connotation of these two basic relations manifests the truth that space production can basically be summed up as reproduction of social relations. Therefore, arguments about space production can be seen as involving a fundamental shift of importance from object to perspective. Seen in this way, there remain some errors in ideas about today's Chinese urban construction, that is, the rupture and separation of object and perspective, resulting in unnecessary risks and costs in the progress of modern Chinese urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the documentation of Pakistani Taliban's practice of targeting space of public interaction for terrorism in Pakistan. The military conflict in Afghanistan involving U.S.-led coalition forces and the Taliban has brought that violence to the country's soil. It also notes that conflict in Pakistan has replicated all three forms of documentation involving foreign forces, local forces, and insurgents.

This study concerns how the society produces its own spaces according to the historical period depending on Henri Lefebvre's conceptualisation of 'production of space' and his argument that every mode of production creates its own spaces and the new spaces call for new social relations. The building process of Republican Turkey as modernity and a nation state project entails a process of spatial construction. Ankara as the capital city represents the spatial configuration of the Republic regime and includes its political, economic and social objectives. Thereby the analysis of spatial production of Ankara is significant to examine the construction process of nation state. The main aim of this study is to analyse the production of urban space of Ankara with an emphasis on social and political relations of planning and architecture in early republican period (1923-1950). In the examining the production process, Ataturk Boulevard as a spine of the city, and its squares are taken as spatial forms. The spatial representations and practices will be investigated in the observational domains; the buildings and monuments in relation to the squares and Boulevard in Ankara. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives -- To describe aspects of the 21st century role of the public library as a physical space by observing the actual use of a selection of public libraries. This study seeks to reveal how patrons are using and experiencing these institutions as spaces and how patrons and staff characterize the role of public libraries in communities. Methods -- A multiple case study design was used to examine three urban and three small town public libraries within Nova Scotia, Canada. A triangulated set of methods including patron interviews and questionnaires, staff interviews, and seating sweeps was used to develop answers to the research questions. Results -- These public libraries are functioning as successful public places in that they are community spaces used in a multitude of ways and where patrons feel welcome. These libraries play important roles in the lives of respondents and, while respondents were willing to give critical feedback, they generally described the spaces positively. Patron use and experience of these library spaces can be broken into three themes that describe the roles of public libraries in communities. These include the role of provider of books and information, provider of access to technology and provider of a social space where members of the public are welcome. Conclusions -- Patron experiences in Nova Scotia public libraries show that libraries are vibrant places that are highly valued by their communities. A number of common themes about the use and perception of these spaces emerged, yet when examined individually each library was also revealed to be a unique place, reflecting the particular qualities of the community and the physical space of the library building itself. It is clear that public libraries are complex institutions which play a variety of valuable roles in the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which investigates the attitudes of the public about labor unions, and determines whether socio-economic factors including race, family income and education affects attitudes towards labor unions in the U.S. The study obtained data by mailing questionnaires to a random sample of 6,000 residents in seven metropolitan areas in Tennessee. The study suggests that nonwhites, people in the lowest and second-highest income level and less-educated groups have positive attitudes toward labor union while people in the highest income level are less likely to have positive attitude toward labor unions.

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to evaluate the scaling assumptions and component structure of and present normative data for the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) using a sample of US adults (N = 503), both overall and across demographic subgroups and (b) to provide new data regarding the relationship between the two RSES subcomponents of self-competence (SC) and self-liking (SL), and other demographic and clinical variables. As hypothesized, all psychometric tests supported theunderlying structure of the RSES. Overall RSES scores varied significantly across age, racial and ethnic, education, employment status, income, and marital status groups. Furthermore, differences between SC and SL were also found across groups differing in gender, age, employment status, and marital status groups. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed, with an emphasis on clinical relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay argues for a particular motion, “clinamen” or swerve, as the animating force of renewed democratic social space. The argument proceeds historically and conceptually, first by recounting the “gridding” of the western expanse in the antebellum era; second, by tracing Margaret Fuller's unique mode of travel throughout this expanse in 1843. Drawing on the late work of Louis Althusser, I conclude by extrapolating from Fuller's travels an “aleatory style,” conceptualized around the transformative power of clinamen. The semiotic renewal of democratic social space, I argue, emerges through the splendor and surprise of the swerve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bitácora Urbano/Territorial is the property of Bitacora Urbano/Territorial and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The city of Singapore has a very short history of 185 years. However, since 1972 , Singapore has been confronting significant transformations owing to different agendas and priorities of the city government. The present morphology of the city can be best described as the accumulation of different layers, carefully controlled and manipulated by the State through planning and design. Hence, the public spaces within the city are formed as a result of the interactions among these layers. The inclusion of each layer not only shapes the physical form of the public space, but also adds a newer set of meaning by adding new functional role within the existing fabric. This article is a result of the preliminary investigation of a research project that observes the urban transformation of Singapore from 1972 to 2005 within the framework of this layered morphology. It will delve deeper to discern and identify the layers that act as the main determinant for shaping the urban public spaces in Singapore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review critically evaluates the existing research literature on the peer relationship problems of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Empirical evidence suggests that children with the disorder are severely impaired in the social area and strongly rejected by peers. The purposes of this article are to provide a review of key contributing factors to the peer relationship problems of children with AD/HD and to outline intervention options that have been supported as beneficial for children with the disorder. Finally, the article provides a framework to understand and address the complex social problems of children with the AD/HD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Vienna, globalisation has restructured urban society in terms of de-industrialisation, occupational change, migration and unemployment. This paper focuses on the restructuring of urban society and the related neighbourhood changes in Vienna from 1971 to 2001. The study applies social area analysis and factorial ecology to identify the underlying dimensions in the formation of socio-spatial patterns and neighbourhood change through a cross-sectional analysis. The analysis does not directly reveal a trend towards spatial polarisation but rather supports the concept of emerging structural differentiations in a ‘quartered city’. Social housing policies on entitlements and the city's withdrawal as a housing developer just as it was embarking on subsidised urban renewal have contributed to an accentuation of structural differences. Extending the analysis to the Vienna metropolitan region indicates that suburbanisation is reinforcing a socio-spatial polarisation within the city proper, exacerbated by the territorial fragmentation of social housing policies between the city and its suburban region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysing the social situation of hyperghettos in Chicago and the banlieues in Paris, Loïc Wacquant goes far beyond the empirical comparison by detecting the underlying logics of social polarization. Thus, he contends that each society produces its own social inequalities through its respective power relations and that place matters for social exclusion processes. This fact, however, should not be analysed simply by structural factors. Therefore, a theory of space is needed by which it is possible to explain the inner logics of socio-spatial exclusion. Following the theory of the self-recruiting of the upper classes by Pierre Bourdieu (the structure–habitus–practise reproduction formula) this theory has to connect the macro level (market economy, neoliberal regulation, the production of images, goals and attitudes towards social justice, etc.) which explains the logics of regulation and class composition, the meso level (territories and places with their own logics, social structures and social relations in networks — bridging or bonding) and the micro level (with its subjective constructions of realities and everyday behaviour). The commentary concludes with the question why critical books like Urban Outcasts are so rare and argues that the ‘economy of awareness’ is negatively impacting on the scientific community. Résumé Dans Urban Outcasts (Parias urbains) , analyser la situation sociale des hyperghettos de Chicago et des ‘banlieues’ de Paris conduit Loïc Wacquant au-delà de la comparaison empirique en détectant la logique sous-jacente de la polarisation sociale. En conséquence, il affirme que chaque société produit ses propres inégalités sociales au travers des relations de pouvoir en place, et que le lieu joue un rôle dans les processus d'exclusion sociale. Néanmoins, ce fait ne devrait pas être analysé uniquement selon des facteurs structuraux. Il faut donc une théorie de l'espace permettant d'expliquer la logique interne de l'exclusion socio-spatiale. Partant de la théorie de Pierre Bourdieu sur l'auto-recrutement des classes supérieures (formule de reproduction: structure, habitus, pratique), cette théorie doit relier trois niveaux: le niveau macro (économie de marché, régulation néolibérale, production d'images, objectifs et attitudes en faveur de la justice sociale, etc.) qui explique la logique de la régulation et de la composition des classes; le niveau méso (territoires et lieux ayant chacun leur logique, leurs structures sociales et leurs réseaux de relations sociales, qu'ils soient bonding ou bridging ); le niveau micro (avec ses interprétations subjectives des réalités et du comportement au quotidien). En conclusion, le commentaire se demande pourquoi les livres critiques comme Urban Outcasts sont aussi rares et préconise que ‘l'économie de l'attention’ a un impact négatif sur la communauté scientifique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the result of the survey about the housing conditions of young families in Cheliabinsk, Russia. It discusses the situation of young families' housing situation and explores the moral force of changes and prospects of those who need housing with the ways on how to resolve the current situation. A comparative analysis on respondent's assessments was made and the total number of people surveyed was 1, 025, 58 percent where 26 percent are aged twenty and below. The survey shows that housing conditions are unsatisfactory among large proportion of young families in the country, however, there has been a positive force in efforts to address the problem for young families.

A place is generally identified by its varying physical, activity, social and meaning (connotative) characteristics. In this paper, the “Model of Responsive Public Space” is defined by these four aspects and each of them has its own special indicators as shown in previous studies on this subject. To examine this model and evaluate the interactions between these dimensions, experimental studies were carried out in two stages. In the first stage, open-ended structured interviews were carried out with 70 participants to adjust the model with personal opinions about public spaces in Qazvin city, Iran. In the second stage a questionnaire was used to explore the effect of the four dimensions on each other. 598 users of a selected public space participated in this study. The results were analyzed by SPSS software applying a Pearson correlation test and Excel software. These results indicate that not only in theory but also in practice, public spaces have four distinct aspects that must be taken into consideration when creating a responsive public space. The most significance correlation is that between the meaning and the social dimension of public spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Semata: Ciencias Sociais e Humanidades is the property of Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Servicio de Publicaciones and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

While for some Sydney's gay scene is a space of sexual liberation, for Asian-Australians it's also a space of racial segregation. Drawing on ethnographic research in gay venues in Sydney and employing Deleuze and Guattari's notions of 'striated space' and 'territorialisation', this paper explores the ways that racialised sexual desires constitute spatial formations and practices that literally confine gay Asian males into ghettos within gay space. The second part of this paper asks what processes of deterritorialisation are at play in gay spaces that might enable possibilities of connecting bodies not reducible to race. Using an autoethnographic and performative mode of address, I draw on a sexual encounter in a gay dance party in order to chart a set of affective connections, which, while not demolishing race, is nevertheless irreducible to it. In doing so I put forward a model of desire that forces us to rethink what queer space might look like. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will investigate the role of metaphors of the closet and coming out in the early works of openly gay Australian writer David Malouf, from the exploration of his childhood home in 12 Edmondstone Street, to the is-he-isn't-he conjectures of Johnno, to the literary leap from the closet represented by An imaginary life. Read as autobiographies and as attempts to firstly understand and then deconstruct both the metaphoric and lived spaces of the closet, these stories and journeys are outings in many senses; most importantly, they represent the plotting of a path—narrative and spatial—out of the repressive space of the closet, and then to somewhere beyond. Portraying a preference for fluid identities and multiple meanings, Malouf asserts that we must come out of the closet that is heteronormativity, embarking on an outing in search of a queer utopia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice of 'coming out again'—relinquishing a non-heterosexual identity and having to subsequently come out again as something else—can have an enormous impact on feelings of belonging in particular social spaces, such as in the gay and lesbian community. These feelings are manifested through the perceived boundaries around sexual identity categories and the specific rules and expectations about how sexual identities should be performed in particular communities. Drawing on interviews with seven Australian women who once identified as lesbian but who had subsequently relinquished this sexual identity, this article examines the boundaries around lesbian identity and the role of the authentic lesbian discourse on women relinquishing their lesbian identities. I describe the consequences that these discourses had for participants on their sense of belonging within both lesbian identities and lesbian communities, and argue that these boundaries are responsible for some women seeing identity change as their only option when they cannot fit into the authentic lesbian discourse. Furthermore, the particular boundaries around lesbian identity contain the space available for the performance of sexual identity, rather than allowing for a genuine fluidity of sexuality and the inclusion of diverse ways of performing sexual identities within non-heterosexual communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social area analysis has been developing as a method of factorial ecology. Factor analysis interprets factor structure using a few factors that possess big factor loading. Moreover, factor analysis ignores some factors with small factor loading. Therefore, it is pointed out that factor analysis may present a rough interpretation of the factor structure. In order to avoid this problem, the cluster analysis method is adopted. In statistical analysis software such as SPSS, hierarchical cluster analysis and K-means methods are generally adopted. Because neither method has the algorithms that extract the most suitable solution, analysts have to decide which solution is most suitable. Thus, it is said that using the cluster analysis method is very difficult. The KS method cluster analysis can avoid these problems. Using the KS method, a structural comparison was drawn between the Tokyo and Keihanshin metropolitan areas. Data sets of the population census, which was carried out in 2000, were used. Further, the data sets of establishment and enterprise census, which was carried out in 2001, were also utilized. Both data sets were obtained free of cost. The units of analyses were cities, wards, towns, and villages, which were within a radius of 70km from Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, and Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi, and the total number of units was 471. With regard to the Tokyo metropolitan area, social areas that were similar to the ones found by priority studies were discovered. With regard to the Keihanshin metropolitan area, a multiple core structure was discovered. It is believed that the KS method cluster analysis has the possibility to become one of the standard methods for social area analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of Pierre Bourdieu's work describes struggles over symbolic capital and hierarchies among the economic and cultural elite. However, his theories and concepts are not exclusive to studies of those with power. By using Bourdieu's conceptualizations of social space, capital and habitus, the article discusses the hierarchies and struggles over symbolic capital at the bottom of societies. The analysis is grounded in interviews and fieldwork with ethnic minority youths on the streets of Oslo, Norway. Analysing the violence among the young men, the article argues that marginalized ethnic minorities and certain groups of refugees use particular strategies in order to accumulate symbolic capital. They have embodied experiences that can be transformed into forms of 'street capital' favourable in a violent street culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around us, the society structure and external field, such as government policy, the newspaper, the internet and other mass media, play a special role in shaping the attitudes, beliefs and public opinion. For studying the role of the society structure and the external field, we propose a new opinion model based on the former models. With computer simulations of opinion dynamics, we find that the smaller the clustering coefficient and the society size, the easier the consensus phase is reached and other interesting results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on Inayat Khan's life and wartime achievements. It highlights the performative aspects of embodiment as a process of making and doing the work of bodies and of becoming a body in a social space. It focuses on Khan's lived experience of embodiment as an undercover agent in France and analyzes the perils and pleasures of state-sanctioned passing.

The article presents a reply by Peter Tyler and Angela Brennan in response to comments that were published in the periodical "Urban Studies" regarding their article "Assessing the effect of Area Based Initiatives on Local Area Outcomes." The authors argue that contrary to previous comments, social scientists need to examine issues associated with area-based initiatives when establishing social policy. The authors also mention that community involvement indicators can often be difficult to interpret, yet feel that the reported data in the article is sufficient.

This article relates the author's participation in the One Square Foot project, a creative partnership between the University of Exeter, Cyprus echo-art, and Theatre Alibi. The project requires participants to select a square foot which in a way has personal significance to them and using the first person, must tell a story about the site. The author realized that the project made both the site and self extroverted. She believes the process encourages an engagement between a place and oneself.

Post-colonial movements for independence are voices of autonomy and independence before the onslaught of global organizations and cultures. This paper introduces the second set of themed papers in Gender, Place and Culture (see 13.2) which contains some of these voices, emanating from intensely private as well as communal and street kitchens; where women proclaim their visibility, economic value as food producers and transformers. The essays by Christie on the fiesta kitchens of central Mexico, Schroeder on the community kitchens of Bolivia and Peru, Robson on Islamic kitchens in rural Nigeria, Wardrop on the street vendors of south Durban and Pascali on Italian migrant kitchens in North East America, all acknowledge the vital contexts of 'development', urbanization, migration and industrialization to their stories, while also highlighting powerful elements of resistance and autonomy within the kitchen. As such the Western gaze records not so much the impacts of globalization as its cooking and transformation into something new, a hybrid dish, customized for local consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on extensive ethnographic field research with multiple women and kitchens in two central Mexico communities, this article argues for kitchenspace - indoor and outdoor spaces where food preparation takes place - as gendered territory. Using a feminist political ecology approach, it explores private and semi-public space in the everyday, household kitchen and the fiesta or 'smoke' kitchen at the center of community celebrations. Marked as gendered territory by distinct social boundaries and gendered, discursive strategies, kitchenspace is vital to the maintenance of traditional forms of organization and generational transmission of cultural and embodied knowledge. This article questions assumptions about 'the kitchen' as a site of social isolation and women's oppression that often characterize feminist approaches. It considers embeddedness in local social and spatial contexts and the importance of everyday life in private and public spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analysed factors influencing smallholders' market participation, using wealth-ranking factors. Two hypotheses were tested: that (1) wealth status and (2) wealth-ranking factors are positively related to market participation. Significant and positive relationships were found between wealth-ranking factors (labour, number of livestock, implements, bicycles, food availability, area of land cultivated and crops sold) and wealth status. Wealth status and wealth-ranking factors were positively and significantly correlated with the number of different kinds of cash crops sold. However, household characteristics not indicated as wealth-ranking factors, such as age, gender and literacy level, related insignificantly to market participation. Labour was the most important wealth-ranking factor explaining market participation. This analytical tool can be used to assess the wealth-ranking factors that influence market participation. It can help identify strategies for improving this participation and may also be used to assess the way a cash crop development project affects a household's wealth status.1Respectively, Professor and Head of Discipline of Community Resources, School of Agricultural Sciences and Agribusiness, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg; Agricultural Manager, World Relief International; Lecturer, Rural Resource Management; and Professor, Applied Plant Sciences, School of Agricultural Sciences and Agribusiness, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg. The authors gratefully acknowledge the co-operation of the farmers, the João Ferreira dos Santos Company, German Agro Action, OXFAM and Acção Cristã Interdenominacianal da Saúde. The authors also express gratitude to World Relief International and the Swedish International Development Agency in Mozambique for making available the WR-SempreVerde facilities to collect the data used in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The articles in this volume explore contemporary urbanization in a variety of contexts, with a particular focus on issues of scale and on understanding cities as embedded in broader social relations. From New York City to Los Angeles, from tile suburbs of Philadelphia to the state of Indiana, we see new spatial, social, and cultural forms emerge and interact, often in unexpected ways. Despite their diversity, these articles are linked together by three common themes: competition, privatization, and politics. Through anthropological analysis of these themes, along with close attention to the changing nature of space, place, and scale, these articles demonstrate the value of all urban anthropology that focuses not just on the city, but on the dynamic process of urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the theoretical and methodological status of Amartya Sen's entitlement approach is discussed. The point of departure for the discussion is Caf Dowlah's criticism in this issue of the International Journal of Social Welfare of Sen's analysis of the 1974 famine in Bangladesh. In his article, Dowlah criticises Sen for not giving a full empirical account of the socio-political situation, primarily the widespread corrup-tion in Bangladesh at the time of the famine in question. In my view, even if this criticism is correct, it is not strictly essential to the factual and normative status of Sen's entitlement approach. I argue further that Dowlah's reading of Sen in this context implies an empiricist standpoint that is in general alien to Sen's entitlement approach. I contest the normative claim that by neglecting to give substantial treatment to the wide-spread corruption in Bangladesh Sen had trivialised the con-ditions of the population, and offer an alternative hypothesis; namely, that factual accounts of corruption, however relevant, seldom fulfil the requirements of methodological rigour char-acteristic of the discipline of economics with its deductive models. The article examines the formal, legalistic focus of the entitlement approach and discusses its consequences. The article takes up the problems of validation and falsification in relation to an empiricist interpretation, and a deductive ration-alist interpretation, respectively, of the entitlement approach. The conclusion is that both interpretations have distinct problems. The empiricist interpretation must contend with the problem of what constitutes the empirical basis of inductive generalisa-tion; the deductive interpretation must contend with the problem that the universal applicability of nomenclatures is more defini-tional than explanatory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bangladesh confronted two formidable food crises in 1972 and 1974. While the government succeeded in averting a widely predicted famine in the first case, it failed to prevent an actual famine in the later case when such a cataclysmic disaster was least anticipated. Evidence suggests that the 1974 famine was caused by successive onslaughts of natural disasters such as floods and droughts, and man-made disasters such as the government's inability to import foods, the directing of subsidised food to the politically vocal urban population, an abrupt fall in food aid and political and administrative corruption that encouraged massive hoarding and the smuggling of food grain. This article argues that Noble Laureate economist Amartya Sen's seminal analysis of the 1974 Bangladesh famine on the basis of his ‘entitlement approach’ fails to capture most of these circumventing factors. The article also argues that by undermining the politico-administrative dynamics of the famine, and by applying his entitlement approach only half-heartedly in examining it, Sen somewhat trivialises the sufferings of a famine-affected population under a corrupt and inefficient political regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study approaches the new problems placed in the access to leisure spaces and equipments, located in the great urban centers, from the rearrangement of these spaces, the displacement of the equipment concentration of the center to the noble areas of the cities, and the centralization in the city-headquarters in relation to the peripheral cities. It also reflects on the implications for the elaboration of leisure sectorial policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sozialer Sinn is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The number of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in British town centres has rapidly increased in recent years. These increases are mirrored in Europe and North America. In Britain many of these cameras videotape town centres, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. How do CCTV systems account for the space of the town centres in which they operate? What theoretical sensibilities can we use to engage with CCTV spatial accounting? To what extent do terms such as ‘professional,’ ‘legal’, ‘sociotechnical’ and ‘mundane’ enable adequate renditions of spatial-accounting activity? In this paper I will argue that engagement with the accomplishment of mundane public flows and specific incidents of accountable otherness can initiate a discussion of these questions and initiate an alternative to panoptic renditions of CCTV. The discussion will seek to draw together a potentially tense and disruptive theoretical combination of ethnomethodology and science and technology studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on Vygotsky's (1997a) concept of fossilized behavior, this study examines the cultural fault lines between the imagined community (Anderson, 1991) of early childhood education and some Australian Indigenous families. Through creating a social space within which Indigenous families could examine dominant and taken-for-granted discourses within early childhood education, participants could make visible assumptions and beliefs about early childhood education in Australia. Through this study, cultural tools were identified for supporting professionals to re-imagine new landscapes for early childhood education in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The profound structural changes in society over recent years are reflected in the deepening of social, economic and political inequalities, which have characterized our reality and that of several Latin American countries. In this social setting, violence appears as a disturbing phenomenon due to its varied expressions and environments of development. This growing social vulnerability fosters delinquency resulting in a safety crisis as its major effect. The widely accepted relevance of current insecurity in the field of social and legal phenomena requires a response from government as well as social organizations. Its effects on the restriction of social well being and its massive implications deserve to be included in research agendas with the objective of integrating research and intervention strategies. Unsafe city life is a problem with great incidence in human beings, politics and economics, and it questions the capacity of government and control entities to preserve human rights. Therefore, the incidence of this phenomenon is twofold: it affects the quality of life at an individual level and the processes of community development at a collective level due to their political and economic impact. In this paper, the final version of the Unsafe City Life Questionnaire (Cuestionario de Inseguridad Urbana -- CIU) is described. It attempts to be a specific psychological instrument which measures insecurity, considering insecurity as the current phenomenon that affects the health of urban inhabitants in the city of San Luis (Argentina). This paper deals with theoretical foundations and psychometric characteristics of the inventory, and it provides the scales resulting from the administration of the CIU to a large sample of young people divided into two groups: crime victims and non-crime victims. From the statistics viewpoint, the reliability of the questionnaire, i.e. its internal consistency, has been studied and demonstrated using the alpha coefficient. To examine its stability and structure validity, we factor analyzed the answers. Also, the degree of discrimination between the groups was studied by the analysis of mean differences taking into account, in this research, the influence of gender. The CIU is a tool meant to discover and/or prevent the consequences of stress caused by violence. Thus, it will be possible to make psychological interventions on the impact produced by the direct experience or by the threat of crime. The results have been highly satisfactory showing that CIU is a reliable, valid and precise instrument for clinical practice and psychosocial research. We hope the CIU is taken into account when specific policies for protecting the young are laid down. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Neighborhood characteristics have been associated with poor maternal and child health outcomes, yet conceptualization of potential mechanisms is still needed. Census data have long served as proxies for area level socioeconomic influences. Unique information captured by neighborhood inventories, mostly conducted in northern US and Canadian urban areas, has shown important aspects of the community environment that are not captured by the socioeconomic and demographic aggregated individual statistics of census data. In this paper, we describe a neighborhood data collection effort tailored to a southern urban area. Methods: This study used data from the Pregnancy, Nutrition and Infection (PIN) prospective cohort study to describe neighborhoods where low- and moderate-income pregnant women reside. Women who participated in the PIN study and who resided in Raleigh, NC and its surrounding suburbs were included (n = 703). Neighborhood attributes captured by the inventory included litter, housing condition, road condition, and social interactions that informed theoretical constructs of physical incivility, territoriality and social spaces. US Housing and Population Census 2000 data at the block group level were also assessed to identify the unique contribution of directly observed data. We hypothesize that neighborhood environments can influence health through psychosocial mediated pathways that lead to increased stress, or through disadvantage leading to poor neighborhood resources, or by protective attributes through increased social control. Results: Findings suggest that directly observed neighborhood attributes distinguished between different types of areas in which low-income pregnant non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black women lived. Theoretically informed scales of physical incivilities, territoriality and social spaces were constructed and found to be internally consistent. Scales were weakly associated indicating that these constructs capture distinct information about these neighborhoods. Physical incivilities, territoriality and social spaces scales were poorly explained by traditional census variables used to proxy neighborhood environment. Conclusion: If neighborhoods influence health through psychosocial mediated pathways then careful detailing of neighborhood attributes that contribute to stress or deterioration, beyond traditional socioeconomic status, are needed. We believe that measuring physical incivility, territoriality and social spaces as expressions of underlying issues of maintenance and social communication make important contributes to this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social area analysis tends to view the city as constituted of a mosaic of socially homogeneous containers. The Chicago model views the mosaic as compactly organised around one centre and as a response to geometrically deduced forces. The Los Angeles model views social areas to be socially constituted in a more dispersed geometry. Our model, verified in this study, shows that globalising cities may produce highly heterogeneous residential spaces, even in highly ethnic societies. We propose to start the analysis from individuals' behaviour, with respect to their actual daily life-spaces and social networks. We argue that, under these conditions, a multilayered spatial model better describes the socio-spatial reality of cities that integrate people in the globalising world. Each layer represents a socially constituted space which integrates participants in a particular social network. Members of the network manage their daily life in these spaces, which are not necessarily continuous, and in many cases expand into wide and sometimes even global horizons, creating thereby interstices with other groups' social spaces. In most cases, there are partly open social networks among layered social areas but, in one-third of the cases, protagonists developed social networks only with colleagues from their own ethnic group, avoiding interlayered networks. This may lead to social segregation even in residentially heterogeneous areas. In such cases, segregation is the result of a lack of social networks among layers. However, segregation may also follow the traditional model, in which a group concentrates in an ethnically homogeneous residential space. This may develop in areas claimed by one social group constituting a segregated territory and having intraethnic networks limited to the specific ethnic territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article begins with an account of significant events and socio-political relationships in the history of Rwanda, leading to mass murder and genocide in 1994. An explanation is then offered of these crimes, based on an analysis of certain ecological, economic, cultural and political factors specific to Rwanda, but shared to an important extent by much of East Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

All societies have needed images and representations for expressing and identifying themselves. If this condition does not exist, internal fragmentation occurs in which only objectives and interests of a strictly individual nature are possible. This conjunction of two orders of reality, the individual and the collective orders, make society an extremely complex area needing rules and institutions capable of permitting the free interplay of both levels. In this article, the emergence of new public space of politics is being examined in relation to the complexity of society. As an introduction, public spaces is linked to the development of the concept of the individual. Thus, any return to tribal, communal, or other similar forms of life might end up hindering the individual's development and also impeding the formation of an authentic public space. Another thing, the configuration of the modern State is especially relevant with respect to the public space. A process of secularization occurs which makes a set of transformations like individualism, freedom of conscience, and politization, favorable to the development of the public sphere. All of these concepts are associated with the eruption in European societies of processes that favor the development of the individuals as well as the reorganization of political life. Furthermore, since the end of the 1960s, politics has entered into a process of permanent crisis. These peculiarities of the modern politics have directly affected the configuration of the public space. The public area, in which politics must enter into competition with other actors and institutions, is now established by the frameworks of the communications media. In the article, this is the one referred to as the new public space.

The article reflects on the broader definition of the urban environment by identifying important dimensions of the urban experience to improve both the critique, admiration and the creation of urban areas. A description of several dimensions is offered which include density, public space, variety and memory. The author believes that the definitions and dimensions of urban can help guide the transformation of areas which have urban condition as their goal by pointing out what should be modified, what needs to be added, and what might be left to change on its own.

Copyright of Canadian Studies in Population is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The author suggests policy corrections for the improvement of abandoned inner cities. He presented his observations on the current efforts made by government agencies that focused on real estate renewal, urban designers who focused on architecture aimed at the middle and higher classes, and the absence of efforts for improving the conditions of the residents. The author's proposals were: the encouragement of entrepreneurship, the provision of backyard spaces in dwelling design for home-based businesses, and zoning revisions that permit the operation of small businesses. It is his view that inner city redevelopment should encourage micro-businesses, and that neighborhoods should be designed in ways that provide opportunity for residents to improve their economic condition.