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The rise of the notion of ‘inclusion’ in urban planning, seen in phrases like inclusive city, calls for a critical analysis of its evolving meaning and its spatial, social and political implications. Paradoxically, the meaning of urban inclusion has narrowed such that it now primarily refers to accessibility for people with disabilities. At the intersection of urban studies and critical disability studies, our article investigates the conceptions, criteria and modes of production underlying the implementation of urban inclusion in Singapore's ‘Enabling Village’, a purportedly inclusive space opened in 2015. We use a mixed‐methods approach, analysing official narratives and conducting site visits to understand the site as both an appropriated and a branded space. We show that, in Singapore, the inclusion agenda interacts with the city‐state's distinctive approach to planning and governance, where social issues are ‘engineered’ and give rise to replicable operational models. Our hypothesis is that implementing the inclusive city through the production and promotion of ‘inclusive’ urban projects such as the Enabling Village fuels the expansion of Singapore as a state‐led ‘entrepreneurial city’ (Harvey, Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography 1989; 71(1):3–17). In particular, operationalising ‘urban inclusion’ in this way allows for the reinvention of Singapore as a global urban model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Street vending is an important source of livelihood for many urban dwellers in Africa but remains a challenge for urban policy and planning. This paper uses Ghana as a case study to examine how street vending is treated in urban policy frameworks. We use qualitative content analysis to critically review four major urban policies that shape the planning, development, and management of Ghanaian cities. Our findings reveal a misalignment of local urban policies with national policy on the regulation of street vending. The regulation of street vending is unclear, contradictory, and ineffective, failing to provide a clear policy direction and adequate planning tools for integrating street vending into urban spaces. We argue that these policy inconsistencies persist due to power imbalances and governance challenges, with local authorities maintaining ambiguous policies that benefit powerful stakeholders while keeping street vendors in a state of insecurity. We call for more coherent and inclusive policies that recognize the socioeconomic value of street vending and foster more inclusive urban spaces. We also highlight the need for reformed urban governance that empowers marginalized voices and builds cross-scale alliances to address the complexities of urban informality and support the informal economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study aimed to evaluate the preferences, expectations, and sense of safety of blind or visually impaired persons regarding three types of pedestrian phasing with audible pedestrian signals configurations that exist in Quebec City (Canada). These include: 1) exclusive phasing with non-directional audible pedestrian signals; 2) exclusive phasing with directional audible pedestrian signals; and 3) concurrent phasing with directional audible pedestrian signals. Thirty-two blind or visually impaired persons were asked to complete a survey. Their preferences and expectations regarding audible pedestrian signals were documented through a series of simulations. Their sense of safety regarding the three existing configurations were also documented. Subsequently, semi-directed, individual interviews with 11 of the individuals who had completed the survey were conducted to build off the collected information. No formal consensus regarding many of the issues discussed were established as participants' responses varied too significantly. However, findings suggest that the exclusive phasing with directional audible pedestrian signals configuration is perceived to be the safest option by the participants. This study may have practical implications on the design of intersections (e.g., selection of a type of pedestrian phasing with audible pedestrian signal) and the training of blind or visually impaired pedestrians. The addition of audible pedestrian signals to pedestrian signals heightens the sense of safety of blind or visually impaired persons. This study may have practical implications on the design of intersections with audible pedestrian signals and the selection of a type of audible pedestrian signals based on intersection characteristics. Since many participants reported a lower sense of safety when faced with concurrent phasing, it is recommended that more intensive orientation and mobility interventions be provided to blind or visually impaired pedestrians who use this type of traffic signals. Educating road users about blind or visually impaired pedestrians appears also essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the integration of universal design, access to urban greenspaces, which provide multiple health benefits, has been restricted among people with disabilities, particularly in developing countries. This article argues that the sole use of the seven principles of universal design is inadequate for urban greenspace planning as it consistently fails to prevent serious injuries, accommodate multiculturalism, and disregard subjective feelings when addressing people with disabilities. Additional approaches, including a safety strategy, diverse cultural behavior acceptability, and emotional design through landscape naturalness, are considered to improve accessibility, thereby reducing urban health inequalities and achieving an inclusive city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The An-Nuur Mosque is one of the components forming the Alun-Alun area in Batu City. This area has been designed as a strategic city area and has functioned as a tourist attraction supporting Batu City as an international tourist city. Therefore, the An-Nuur Mosque has to be inclusive, accommodating people with disabilities. This study aims to explore the dimensions and criteria for forming an inclusive mosque. This is a qualitative research using coding analysis techniques. The data collection techniques used observation and in-depth interviews conducted with eight disabled respondents in Batu City. The results of the analysis showed that an inclusive mosque is formed by three dimensions and several criteria; those are the physical dimension (internal circulation, external circulation, facility], social dimension (assistance from others, conflict with transportation drivers], and management dimension (mosque administrators). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks back at a creative research project conducted in Geneva, Switzerland, which, by experimenting between art and science, sought to understand how citizen narratives can participate in the making of an urban plan. The approach presented here brought together geographers, architects, and novelists. Citizen narratives produced at writing workshops imagined the city of the future in ways that significantly contrasted with visions gathered from events organised by public authorities. These narratives were taken up by the novelists, who helped produce a piece of fiction containing the power to reveal the qualities of the present. This piece has since become a novel. By discovering what their future city could be, participants in this project were led to identify the places that should be preserved. Their narratives thus helped identify an ordinary heritage that could be included in an urban planning document. This reflective look at a project that gradually took shape could be useful to anyone wishing to conduct creative research in urban planning, particularly from the perspective of a more inclusive city.

While being celebrated as the ideal of inclusiveness, cities also constitute the place of different types of discrimination, which some public policies intend to tackle. The “urban” has also been pointed out as the locus where vice and lust concentrate, leading public policies to develop regulations for public space aiming to maintain the social order of the city. This, in turn, contributes to the definition of the contours of urban moral economies, which are continuously shaped by processes of in/exclusion. Hence, crucial is the need to further explore how cities can be welcoming to their dwellers and newcomers, as well as the role public policies (have to) play in the vision of the future of an open and inclusive city. In so doing, social work is certainly called upon to play a major role based on its historical presence in cities and its know‐how in accompanying transitions. How does social work contribute to the definition of an inclusive city? By presenting new and original research that draws on various case studies as well as theoretical reflections across disciplines, this thematic issue aims to provide answers to this question to better understand the role of social work in the shaping of an open and inclusive city.

Urban spaces are always contested and, as such, permeated by processes of inclusion and exclusion. Since the 2000s, new types of governmental public order services have been established in Switzerland specialized in dealing with socially marginalized individuals, groups, or areas. Without having police powers, they proceed with socio‐communicative methods typical in outreach social work. Based on our ethnographic research and drawing on Foucault‐inspired governmentality studies we elucidate the socio‐preventive risk management of two types of order services: While the welfare type aims to protect public spaces of attractive urban centers from social marginality, the neighborhood watch type is concerned with improving the coexistence of residents of marginalized housing developments. As the former wants to keep socio‐spatial in/exclusion of social marginality in motion and prevent its fixation in certain places, the latter works towards the inclusive socio‐spatial entrenchment of residents in segregated housing developments. Both dynamics—inclusion and exclusion—are closely intertwined and utilized for the governance of public spaces. The “inclusive city” should not be celebrated as a dull ideal and must be confronted with its own socio‐spatial mechanisms of exclusion.

Within the contemporary debate about what could be broadly called the “challenge of inclusion,” three major interrelated trends can be identified: First, a growing dissatisfaction with the traditional approach known as multiculturalism, which in Europe led to the emergence of interculturalism as a new approach to managing cultural diversity; second, the shared acknowledgment that the concept of diversity must be reconsidered in terms of super‐diversity and properly understood through an intersectional lens; third, the emergence of cities as pivotal new players in a multi‐level framework. Notwithstanding the growing interest in the topic of inclusion, the theoretical level is still limited by strong barriers among different disciplines, and the practices of promotion of social inclusion often result in a few specific projects characterized by an episodic nature and, consequently, by very limited impact in the middle‐ to long‐term. This article critically analyzes how Barcelona is re‐conceptualizing and developing its understanding of interculturalism as the basis for building its self‐image as a European model of an inclusive city. After a brief overview of the formulation of interculturalism as a contemporary approach to managing diversity at the city level, I analyze the development and implementation of interculturalism in Barcelona. Finally, by focusing on some initiatives selected in the project Bones Pràctiques Socials, I critically discuss some of the main opportunities and challenges for the promotion of social inclusion stemming from the cooperation between municipal institutions and social actors in Barcelona.

While being celebrated as the ideal of inclusiveness, cities also constitute the place of different types of discrimination, which some public policies intend to tackle. The “urban” has also been pointed out as the locus where vice and lust con‐ centrate, leading public policies to develop regulations for public space aiming to maintain the social order of the city. This, in turn, contributes to the definition of the contours of urban moral economies, which are continuously shaped by processes of in/exclusion. Hence, crucial is the need to further explore how cities can be welcoming to their dwellers and newcomers, as well as the role public policies (have to) play in the vision of the future of an open and inclusive city. In so doing, social work is certainly called upon to play a major role based on its historical presence in cities and its know‐how in accompanying transitions. How does social work contribute to the definition of an inclusive city? By presenting new and original research that draws on various case studies as well as theoretical reflections across disciplines, this thematic issue aims to provide answers to this question to better understand the role of social work in the shaping of an open and inclusive city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks back at a creative research project conducted in Geneva, Switzerland, which, by experimenting between art and science, sought to understand how citizen narratives can participate in the making of an urban plan. The approach presented here brought together geographers, architects, and novelists. Citizen narratives produced at writing workshops imagined the city of the future in ways that significantly contrasted with visions gathered from events organised by public authorities. These narratives were taken up by the novelists, who helped produce a piece of fiction containing the power to reveal the qualities of the present. This piece has since become a novel. By discovering what their future city could be, participants in this project were led to identify the places that should be preserved. Their narratives thus helped identify an ordinary heritage that could be included in an urban planning document. This reflective look at a project that gradually took shape could be useful to anyone wishing to conduct creative research in urban planning, particularly from the per‐ spective of a more inclusive city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the contemporary debate about what could be broadly called the “challenge of inclusion,” three major interre‐ lated trends can be identified: First, a growing dissatisfaction with the traditional approach known as multiculturalism, which in Europe led to the emergence of interculturalism as a new approach to managing cultural diversity; second, the shared acknowledgment that the concept of diversity must be reconsidered in terms of super‐diversity and properly under‐ stood through an intersectional lens; third, the emergence of cities as pivotal new players in a multi‐level framework. Notwithstanding the growing interest in the topic of inclusion, the theoretical level is still limited by strong barriers among different disciplines, and the practices of promotion of social inclusion often result in a few specific projects characterized by an episodic nature and, consequently, by very limited impact in the middle‐ to long‐term. This article critically ana‐ lyzes how Barcelona is re‐conceptualizing and developing its understanding of interculturalism as the basis for building its self‐image as a European model of an inclusive city. After a brief overview of the formulation of interculturalism as a contemporary approach to managing diversity at the city level, I analyze the development and implementation of intercul‐ turalism in Barcelona. Finally, by focusing on some initiatives selected in the project Bones Pràctiques Socials, I critically discuss some of the main opportunities and challenges for the promotion of social inclusion stemming from the coopera‐ tion between municipal institutions and social actors in Barcelona. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban spaces are always contested and, as such, permeated by processes of inclusion and exclusion. Since the 2000s, new types of governmental public order services have been established in Switzerland specialized in dealing with socially marginalized individuals, groups, or areas. Without having police powers, they proceed with socio‐communicative meth‐ ods typical in outreach social work. Based on our ethnographic research and drawing on Foucault‐inspired governmentality studies we elucidate the socio‐preventive risk management of two types of order services: While the welfare type aims to protect public spaces of attractive urban centers from social marginality, the neighborhood watch type is concerned with improving the coexistence of residents of marginalized housing developments. As the former wants to keep socio‐spatial in/exclusion of social marginality in motion and prevent its fixation in certain places, the latter works towards the inclusive socio‐spatial entrenchment of residents in segregated housing developments. Both dynamics—inclusion and exclusion—are closely intertwined and utilized for the governance of public spaces. The “inclusive city” should not be celebrated as a dull ideal and must be confronted with its own socio‐spatial mechanisms of exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IntroductionInclusive city approach seeks to increase citizens' access to urban services and infrastructure through targeted and accessible investments.The city of Tabriz facing a major challenge in terms of the three basic dimensions of the inclusive city (spatial, social and economic inclusion); Because access to affordable infrastructure, land and housing (spatial dimension), the right to the city and participation in the urban management process (social dimension) and access to equal opportunities has become a major issue for urban development managers. Therefore, considering the issues and problems raised, the present study seeks to identify the factors affecting the inclusion of the city of Tabriz, to level the ten regions in terms of indicators.Data and MethodThe research method is descriptive-analytical. The steps and methods of conducting research, can be summarized in three steps. In the first step, the Delphi method has been used to identify the key factors of inclusive city. In the second step, Vensim model was used to find the cause and effect relationship between key factors. Then, VIKOR model was used to identify areas in terms of having the characteristics of an inclusive city and their ranking.Results and DiscussionBased on the Delphi model, the key and influential factors on the formation of an inclusive city in the metropolis of Tabriz by thematic axes are presented in the table below.Table 1-1. Factors affecting the formation of an inclusive city in the metropolis of TabrizAxisKey factorsSpatial scaleLocalNationalInternationalEconomicEconomic reconstruction * Employment * Informal employment* Economic replacement* Inclusive growth* Distribution of opportunities* SocialMigration * Mobility* access to information** Feeling of security* Citizenship rights** Right to the city* Smart City* Sustainable Development***Social Equality* Quality of Life* Social Justice** EnvironmentalResilience** transportation planning* Infrastructure** Environmental sustainability** Reduce water loss* Make up for lost water* Waste Management* Natural quality of urban space* Water saving* PoliticalGovernance** Innovation* Stability** Political participation** political power** SpatialAffordable housing* Public spaces* Spatial justice* Land Use* Source: Results of the author's studiesAfter identifying the effective factors and confirming their relationship to the formation of the inclusive city, these factors were modeled through Vensim software. The purpose of this software is to find optimal solutions in different situations that need to be analyzed. This software has the ability to simulate the dynamic behavior of systems by identifying causal loops and finding leverage points. Then, in order to analyze the cause-and-effect relationship (factors extracted in the Delphi model), key factors were entered into the relevant software. Findings obtained from Vensim model, show the effectiveness of two factors of spatial justice and resilience in the inclusive development of Tabriz.Then, in order to ranking the ten districts of Tabriz, the VIKOR model was used. Research indicators have been extracted according to the review of theoretical foundations and studies conducted in the field of inclusive city and urban sustainability. Therefore, after collecting the data and combining them, the raw data matrix of each criterion was defined in the study area. The decision matrix consists of options (rows) and criteria (columns). Our options are the ten districts of Tabriz metropolis and our criteria are 14 criteria that are given in the raw data table. The results of VIKOR model indicate that the comprehensiveness indicators of Tabriz city areas do not depend on the location of urban areas according to the north and south of the city. So that regions 9, 6, 2 and 8 have a good situation in terms of inclusive indicators. Areas 10, 1 and 4 are in the worst condition.ConclusionThe study of inclusive cities, requires study the city in all economic, social and spatial dimensions. Accordingly, the Delphi model was used to investigate the factors affecting the inclusiveness of the city of Tabriz. The results of the Delphi model show that the main factors of the inclusiveness of Tabriz city, can be divided into four main categories. Part of the factors is related to the economic situation of the city (or community) which includes economic growth, unemployment, land and housing prices and other economic and financial factors. Another part is related to structural issues, laws and regulations and general policies and even infrastructures and popular institutions that affect the formation of an inclusive city in the city of Tabriz. Social and environmental causes are other factors that affect the future of these developments. In order to identify the most influential factors and cause and effect relationships between factors, the Venice model was used. The results of Vensim model show that the two factors of resilience and spatial justice have the greatest impact on leading the city of Tabriz to inclusiveness. The results of VIKOR model show that the inclusive indicators of Tabriz city areas do not depend on the location of urban areas with respect to the north and south of the city. So that regions 9, 6, 2 and 8 have a good situation in terms of inclusive indicators and regions 10, 1 and 4 are in the worst condition.

Purpose: The article aims to examine how cities incorporate diversity and inclusion into their policies and marketing practices. Design/methodology/approach: The research was carried out using a case study with an exploratory qualitative approach. The case study was conducted involving two European cities, Barcelona and Wroclaw. The content analysis of official documents and publicised materials was the basis for describing each city's inclusive strategic policies and marketing initiatives. Considerations based on the literature review and case study led to the conclusions about the strategic role of diversity and inclusion context in city marketing and the use of inclusive marketing in cities' practices. Findings: By supporting diversity and inclusion, inclusive marketing contributes to developing inclusive cities by creating a climate of equal opportunity and stimulating stakeholder engagement. Marketing cities through diversity and inclusion also strengthens internal and external city image. Practical implications: The article's considerations highlight the essential role of diversity and inclusivity in marketing cities. Demonstrating the value, possibilities, and ways to implement inclusive marketing can contribute to its broader and more strategic use in the practice of cities. Originality/value: Despite growing challenges, inclusive marketing in a territorial context has so far been an understudied area. The article launches the scientific discussion on diversity and inclusion in city marketing, forming the basis for further exploration and developing model solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the smart city concept has developed rapidly and has gradually become the most popular urban concept. However, the advent of the new century has been accompanied by the emergence of many other emerging city concepts. For these emerging urban concepts, such as a resilient city, low-carbon city, sponge city, and inclusive city, it needs to be clarified how these concepts relate to a smart city. In this paper, the scientometrics software Pajek was used to analyze the publication activities of the city concept and two-mode keywords co-occurrence network with cities. Meanwhile, the study also explores these concepts' global development and correlation. Further, it also analyzes the core problems that each city concept addresses through a literature review. It was observed that although the research content of these four city concepts is different from that of smart cities, they are conceptually and technologically connected with them. The development of smart cities can accelerate the smart development of other city concepts. At the same time, it can acquire and absorb more advanced models from other city concepts to enrich itself. The results suggest that the development of city concepts should be more comprehensive to help cities become more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable, which has important implications for urban policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, lifestyles changed completely. This new normality damages human psychology and mental health. Hence, new approaches must be considered while shaping public spaces to accommodate the pandemic life. This paper aims to show the importance of exploiting outdoor spaces to save people’s mental health. Accordingly, an online survey is conducted and analyzed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for more precise answers. Afterward, the most important public spaces during the pandemic are extracted; consequently, another questionnaire has been held to validate these items. The last one has been run through a machine learning technique to classify and categorize the users’ different preferences in three situations only. It was found that 85,17% of the sample declared the importance of outdoor public spaces. However, future research is needed to rethink urban spaces’ design and to relocate the activities done within indoor public spaces to the outdoors to maintain human mental health.

Half the world's population now lives in cities, and this figure is expected to reach 70% by 2050. To ensure future cities offer equity for multiple age groups, it is important to plan for spatially inclusive features such as pedestrian accessibility. This feature is strongly related to many emerging global challenges regarding health, an ageing population, and an inclusive society, and should be carefully considered when designing future cities to meet the mobility requirements of different groups of people, reduce reliance on cars, and encourage greater participation by all residents. Independent travel to public open spaces, particularly green spaces, is widely considered a key factor that affects human health and well-being and is considered a primary motivation for walking. At the same time, unfavourable steepness and restrictive access points to open spaces can limit accessibility and restrict the activities of older adults or people with mobility impairments. This paper introduces a novel open access proximity modelling web application, PedestrianCatch, that simulates pedestrian catchments for user-specified destinations utilising a crowd-source road network and open topographic data. Based on this tool, we offer a multi-criteria evaluation approach that considers travel speed, time, urban topography, and visualisation modes to accommodate various simulation needs for different urban scenarios. Two case studies are conducted to demonstrate the technical feasibility and flexibility using the proposed evaluation approach, and explain how new renewal strategies can be tested when designing a more inclusive neighbourhood. This evaluation tool is immediately relevant to urban designers, health planners, and disability communities, and will be increasingly relevant to the wider community as populations age, while the corresponding analysis approach has a huge potential to contribute to the pre-design and design process for developing more walkable and accessible communities for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article substantiates the essence and necessity of the use of innovative approaches to the formation and implementation of public policies of urban revitalization in the context of the latest concepts of urban development, namely: Compact City, Green City, Smart City, Creative City, Inclusive City, Cittaslow, Happy City, Learning City. The relevant proposals on the innovation policy of revitalizing cities are brought forward based on the analysis of the provisions of each of the chosen concepts. It is determined that there does not exist a single city where only one of the latest concepts of city development was implemented. In practice, we observe the multi-vectorness and combination of urban policies, which came to replace traditional sectoral views. Regarding the policy of urban revitalization, innovative approaches focus on the transformation of degraded areas into urban environments favourable for human life and activities in line with the needs and interests of their inhabitants. Revitalization should be considered both in terms of its impact on a specific degraded area and as having long-term synergetic effects on the city as a whole. It was found that the basis for innovative policies of urban revitalization is laid by human-oriented programmes of sustainable renewal of areas. The programmes are premised on taking into account a variety of concepts and combining a number of activities, specifically: organization of a compact multifunctional environment (Compact City); formation of an ecologically friendly environment for human life and activities (Green City); arrangement of urban space taking advantage of modern technologies and innovations (Smart City); creating conditions for life, activities and cooperation of creative people (Creative City); ensuring a full-fledged multidimensional inclusion of all the inhabitants (Inclusive City); realization of the internal potential of an area depending on local identity (Cittaslow); raising the level of public and individual happiness (Happy City); promotion of the culture of lifelong learning of all the inhabitants (Learning City). It is noted that innovative solutions for overcoming the crisis phenomena of degraded urban areas should be individualized depending on the local specificity and potential, the state of economic, physical, human and other capital of a particular city. In this case, the development of human capital of an area is increasingly becoming the key factor of its renewal, which presupposes organization of the inhabitants’ training, improving their qualifications and skills. It was substantiated that the revitalization policy is expedient to develop from the perspective of ensuring multiplicative impact on the development of a city as a whole. The efficiency of the policy implementation depends on the leveraging of resources (financial, intellectual, etc.) from different sources through partnerships. The main criterion of policy effectiveness is the ability of a revitalized urban area to develop sustainably, satisfying the needs of all stakeholders. Indicators of the policy success is not only the living standards and quality of life of the inhabitants, but also the condition of the natural environment, levels of tolerance, trust, empathy, social cohesion, education, happiness, etc.

Despite the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, many cities are still struggling to facilitate inclusive playgrounds. This paper contributes to our understanding of the everyday landscapes of disabled childhood, by investigating the play‐policy of Dutch municipalities via a mixed‐methods approach. Our online survey reveals that 90 per cent have a play‐policy, although the length and content of these documents vary extensively, and accessibility and inclusive play are often lacking. Additionally, we focus on the play‐policy of two municipalities in the east of the Netherlands. Interviews with civil servants, play professionals and families with disabled children show that municipalities willingly respond to parents' requests for playground changes. Though resulting in tailor‐made adjustments, this also configures disability as an individual problem. Parents and policy‐makers also highlight different expectations regarding playground adjustments and investments. The paper therefore calls for open communication to avoid disabled children being involuntarily absent in public space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many local governments engaging in sustainable urban development also have a growing interest in becoming inclusive too, brand themselves as such and develop policies to become inclusive cities. However, knowing what exactly this entails and how it can be achieved is not always quite straightforward and requires thorough theoretical and empirical exploration. Consequently, we present a systematic deconstruction of the inclusive city concept in order to develop a better understanding of the main features and dimensions; this is done by means of both a bibliometric analysis and qualitative literature review. The results indicate that inclusiveness is multidimensional and comprised of spatial, social, environmental, economic, and political dimensions in which the characteristics of participation, equity, accessibility and sustainability are sometimes interwoven. Overall, the inclusive city is not merely a precondition for the creation of just space, well-being, and environmental responsibility, but also an opportunity to take stock of interests of stakeholders in cities and to create local public value. The findings have implications for urban policy and practice, more specifically, the clarification of the inclusive city concept and conceptual dimensions will provide significant reference for policymakers and practitioners to make prudent decisions in the process of creating an inclusive city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of ZARCH: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Architecture & Urbanism is the property of Universidad de Zaragoza 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 current migration flows toward Europe are having a significant impact on social composition, economy, urban services, and on the physical dimensions of cities. Cities have a key role in developing immigration policies and sustainable accommodation models, that can promote an inclusive society as well as local development. Due to the persistence of migratory flows, these models of integration and development cannot be supported by an emergency condition, but they should be based on systematic strategies. This paper presents a series of accommodation models and urban policies, coming from international experimental projects, that we argue can foster integration and urban development. These strategies show the potentials of immigration in boosting urban transformation and regeneration. Innovative strategies for dealing with immigration are based on flexible tools, typically from temporary habitat (housing modules, light construction systems, customized solutions) that find a place inside the city. Integrated design strategies use the existing city as a frame being filled up by flexible houses, through urban densification or regeneration process. Housing dissemination, temporary and flexible architectural solutions and inclusive process are the drivers for developing a flexible habitat, at the base of a more sustainable and democratic city.

Half the world’s population now lives in cities, and this figure is expected to reach 70% by 2050. To ensure future cities offer equity for multiple age groups, it is important to plan for spatially inclusive features such as pedestrian accessibility. This feature is strongly related to many emerging global challenges regarding health, an ageing population, and an inclusive society, and should be carefully considered when designing future cities to meet the mobility requirements of different groups of people, reduce reliance on cars, and encourage greater participation by all residents. Independent travel to public open spaces, particularly green spaces, is widely considered a key factor that affects human health and well-being and is considered a primary motivation for walking. At the same time, unfavourable steepness and restrictive access points to open spaces can limit accessibility and restrict the activities of older adults or people with mobility impairments. This paper introduces a novel open access proximity modelling web application, PedestrianCatch, that simulates pedestrian catchments for user-specified destinations utilising a crowd-source road network and open topographic data. Based on this tool, we offer a multi-criteria evaluation approach that considers travel speed, time, urban topography, and visualisation modes to accommodate various simulation needs for different urban scenarios. Two case studies are conducted to demonstrate the technical feasibility and flexibility using the proposed evaluation approach, and explain how new renewal strategies can be tested when designing a more inclusive neighbourhood. This evaluation tool is immediately relevant to urban designers, health planners, and disability communities, and will be increasingly relevant to the wider community as populations age, while the corresponding analysis approach has a huge potential to contribute to the pre-design and design process for developing more walkable and accessible communities for all.

Successful inclusion is a subject that addresses the question of how well a society can prevent discrimination and ensure access to information, products, services, and spaces for all. Disability may not necessarily lead to exclusion, unless society fails to respond to the needs of people regardless of their impairment. Digital tools combined with ethnographic research may help researchers explore users' needs, perceptions, behaviors, and attitudes and can aid in understanding the interactions between the human, the space, and the digital within the urban realm. This paper thus outlines a diversity of digital tools in the context of the disability-inclusive city. Through ethnographic encounters with Joe, Ann, and Vanessa, we then explore how these tools can be applied to practice. Centering on Joe, we attempt to exemplify some of the key issues that need to be addressed when looking into the terrain of disability, the city, and digital tools. This paper explores how mobile phones and mobile applications can support people with disabilities in accessing the city and its services. The research also explores how modern technology, such as mobile applications can support city officials in understanding better what makes cities more disability friendly. With the help of Joe, Vanessa and Ann from Maribor, Slovenia, the authors have tried out a selected number of mobile applications and observed how these can help people with disabilities use the city and its services. The research with Joe, Vanessa and Ann showed that mobile phones and mobile applications can be useful for moving around the city, but people with disabilities may still face difficulties using mobile phones while moving. The research also showed that technology can make cities more disability friendly, but it cannot remove all the barriers that people with disabilities face in their everyday lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International standards govern the installation of detectable warning surfaces in urban environments. However, the application of these standards at the local level poses many challenges due to contextual differences. The aim of this qualitative cross-sectional study was to evaluate the usability of detectable warning surfaces installed in Quebec City (Canada) with people with visual impairments. Nineteen participants with various profiles visited two sites where the detectable warning surfaces had been installed. They tested the surfaces as well as adjacent urban facilities following a pedestrian route. They were then interviewed about what they thought of the detectable warning surfaces: their usefulness, messages transmitted, locations chosen, how safe they make users feel, types of environment in which they should be installed, how detectable they are, their advantages and disadvantages, and any desired improvements. Generally, the participants understood the messages transmitted by the warning surfaces and were in favor of their installation. They identified some disadvantages and suggested various improvements. The results of this study provide important information concerning the usability of detectable warning surfaces for partners and stakeholders in Quebec City and also contribute to the international literature in this field. Detectable warning surfaces increase the readability or use of road infrastructures by people with visual impairments. They make it easier for them to get around independently. This project supports the importance of establishing an effective communication plan, particularly with the aim of clarifying the contexts of implantation and the messages transmitted by the detectable warning surfaces to the people with visual impairments. Training could systematically be offered to them by an orientation and mobility specialist. It is also important to inform and educate the general public and bus drivers about the presence of detectable warning surfaces. Information could be transmitted via some community organizations and the public transit networks. In order to effectively coordinate the implantation process of detectable warning surfaces, communication and consultation between the various stakeholders are essential, including the designers, the municipalities and the concerned government authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past 30 years, Copenhagen has undergone a great transformation. From an ageing, indebted city with fleeing industries and inhabitants, it has become one of the happiest cities in the world according to different city rankings. Copenhagen has based its resilience on a dynamic economy and a green and inclusive urban environment for its inhabitants. This has materialized through a comprehensive urban development strategy. The city has launched the revitalization of several declining neighborhoods over the course of decades with the objective of building a liveable city with ambitious economic, social and environmental objectives and that offers every citizen a homogenous urban and social fabric. The aim of Copenhagen is to make the city liveable, so all aspects of citizens’ lives are taken into consideration in an inclusive strategy of urban planning, making cities and inhabitants more resilient to shock and stresses.

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Ranking cities is considered an effective instrument to rate and qualify the specific image of cities and encourage them to define and improve sustainable development strategies, but it has also been criticized for generating biased outcomes. Recently, the number of rankings for inclusive cities is rising, in fact along with growing investments in inclusive city projects and initiatives. The inclusive city rankings have both the strength to enhance lesson-drawing and self-improvement and the weakness to exacerbate competition among un-equals. In this article, nine different ranking systems for assessing urban inclusion are scrutinized and compared. Based on relevant theory regarding inclusive urban development and ranking systems, a methodology to compare and assess ranking systems is established, building on different quality aspects. The findings indicate that although for most ranking systems much essential information to understand how they produce results can be retrieved, motivations for generating these inclusive city rankings can be moral, utilitarian, or a combination of both, and that evaluation methods and dissemination of the results sometimes lack transparency and timeliness. Some metrics are incomplete and/or biased toward specific dimensions and indicators. The consistency across the ranking systems in producing the best-performing cities is much stronger than that of the worst-performing cities. Moreover, an obvious developed-developing gap was observed in the sense that most high performers are in Europe and to a lesser extent Nord-America, while the bottom 25 % are primarily in developing countries. Finally, suggestions are given to make methodologies for inclusive ranking systems more transparent, comprehensive and less biased. • A methodology is developed to help analyze how nine ranking systems generate varied results as to the most inclusive cities. • An overview of the specific features, strengths and weaknesses of each of those nine city ranking systems. • Analyzing the five dimensions of the inclusive city ranking system: social, economic, political, environmental, and spatial. • An overview of which cities are top 25% and bottom 25% in terms of inclusion for all nine city ranking systems. • The outcomes of inclusive city rankings tend to reinforce existing stereotypes and partly depend on how it is funded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multicultural city is one of the major issues within the political Agenda as well as one of the prominent research topics, also due to the recent increasing of migratory flows throughout Europe. Within this framework, urban policies have been included in decisionmaking processes regarding cultural inclusion and social cohesion: cities have been considered the outpost of cultural diversities and dialogues. According to this scenario, the research focuses on European initiatives at urban level oriented at increasing the cultural inclusiveness. Challenges, issues and opportunities have been explored from a specific perspective: how local authorities and communities deal with this challenge in terms of spatial and social equity. By applying a case study approach, bottom up experiences, social innovation practices, community-led initiatives as well as traditional top down projects dedicated to the multicultural city have been collected and analyzed. The results of the survey show a scenario in which both bottom up initiatives and community engagement processes can be catalyst of a self-sustaining intercultural development.

Malaysia, in the Malaysia Urban Forum (MUF) 2019 aims to realize the vision of the World Urban Forum (WUF) 2018 theme of 'Cities 2030, Cities for All: Implementing the New Urban Agenda' that is in line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The introduction of the Malaysian Standard started in 1990 but not acknowledged until the establishment of the Persons with Disabilities Act in 2008 and gazetted in the Uniform Building By- Laws (UBBL) amendments despite the slow pace of accessibility awareness in urban development and implementation. The methodology compares the establishment of notable Inclusive and Accessible Cities with their planning strategies of implementing Universal Design. Findings and results will determine inclusive city's strategies from each case study documented and device a framework of projection for cities' inclusivity. Conclusively, this study would determine the anticipation of Malaysian urban cities to be Inclusive and Accessible in 2030 by strategising action plans and a framework for ten (10) year planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract China's household registration system allows local governments to control migration by limiting migrants' eligibility to local public services. Many cities exclude migrant residents from important social benefits, which reduces labor mobility and contributes to the socioeconomic gap between migrants and urban natives. This study measures the extent of China's local migration restriction from the perspective of inclusive provision of public services and explains cross-city disparities. We define urban inclusiveness as the extent to which migrants can access social benefits provided locally and construct an urban inclusiveness index using factor analysis. We find significant cross-city differences in urban inclusiveness toward migrants. Statistical analyses suggest that local fiscal capacity and labor demand, instead of cultural tradition, are the major determinants of urban inclusiveness. We further use the gap between the inclusiveness toward high- and low-skilled migrants to measure local skill-based migration selectivity. We find that more developed cities, i.e., cities with larger populations, higher levels of gross regional product per capita, and greater shares of industrial sector, are more selective based on migrants' skills, while cultural openness does not help bring down skill-based selectivity. Our research suggests an instrumental view of migrants in China's urban policy that contributes to social inequality and the lack of labor mobility, which can restrict China's development in the long term. Highlights • An urban inclusiveness index measures the extent to which migrants can access local social benefits in China's cities; • Local fiscal capacity and labor demand, instead of cultural factors, explain disparities in urban inclusiveness in China; • Developed cities are more selective based on migrants' skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]