URBAN REVOLUTION, V.G.Childe,1950.pdf

Implosion/Explosions: Towards a Study of Planetary Urbanization, ed. Neil Brenner, 2014

The current transformation process in the Arab world and particularly in Egypt is intensely related to a growing demand for public participation in the political decision making processes. The participation of residents in local urban development, and especially in the regeneration of informal settlements, is a new experiment that challenges the involved stakeholders and institutions.On an international scale, the academic debate and practical examples shows a rich variety of models and best practices of residents’ participation in urban planning and neighborhood revitalization, which might provide valuable input and lessons learned to be critically reflected on in the current phase of transformation. Therefore, the Berlin University of Technology (TU Berlin) together with its Egyptian partner, Ain Shams University, facilitated a Summer School titled “New Urban Revolution in Greater Cairo” sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in October 2011 for 25 Egyptian students from different fields of study. Local and international experts from academic and practical fields introduced concepts of participatory regeneration, creating a medium for intense exchange during the interdisciplinary thematic workshops. Finally, a community action planning activity was conceptualized and carried out in one particular neighborhood of Greater Cairo that involved local residents in the planning of their community. The results of this community workshop were presented to the involved stakeholders and institutions.

2010

According to Thomas Jefferson, America was to be an "agrarian Republic"-a pastoral farmland, a different world from the dirty and decaying cities of monarchical Europe. Yet, by Jefferson's day, it was already too late. North America had been dotted with great metropolises and minor towns for thousands of years, and new waves of European and African settlers founded hundreds of new ones as well. Indeed, for many early migrants, America was itself a "city on the hill"an urban image for a new society. In this course, we will survey American urban history from those early days to the present, focusing in the second half specifically on Los Angeles, where new forms of decentralized urbanism took form in the twentieth century. We will explore not only suburbia and freeways, Disneyland and other quasi-urban outposts, but also the changing character of the inner city in the mid-twentieth century, as well as radical efforts to reform existing American cities. In the process, we encounter the American city of today-multicentered, privately planned, decentralized, and multiethnic. We will conclude by asking whether contemporary developments in urbanism-the changing character of public space, the turn to privatism, and the neglect of public transport infrastructures, challenges to democracy and equality-are ultimately compatible with the American dream of the "city on the hill" for the twenty-first century. REQUIREMENTS This course combines extensive discussion, some lecture, and a substantial amount of writing. In this course, you will be required to write three 4-5 page argumentative essays, each of which will gauge your response to a set of readings in light of previous texts, in the process refining your thinking about the significance of these ideas. In addition to these essays, I will collect brief reading analyses that you must submit every class. These papers must be submitted both in paper form and via Moodle by the beginning of class on their due date. Note that papers turned in late without explicit permission will be penalized as much as 10% per day, so please talk to me in advance if an emergency begins to arise that might jeopardize your ability to complete any assignment on time. This class is essentially a seminar, where informed interaction is essential. In order to develop an environment where constructive thinking and collegial interaction can develop, attendance and participation in class will be mandatory. More than two absences will result in a lowering of your participation grade, as will failure to come to class adequately prepared.

Buccellati, G. 1977. “The «Urban Revolution» in a Socio-Political Perspective.” Mesopotamia 12: 19–39.

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2007

The argument of the book is contextualized within two main human trends acknowledged to promote development: urbanization and economic growth. It is recognized that these two trends have been developing unevenly across global regions, accompanied by city-scale environmental problems, coined 'brown', 'grey' and 'green' burdens. The first type refers to local environmental health problems associated with water and sanitation policies, the second type refers to city-regional burdens such as air pollution, and the third type refers to global burdens impacting on life-support systems. While these environmental burdens have traditionally been associated with a city's level of income, the book suggests that, due to rapid global changes in investment, production, trade and consumption, brown, grey and green burdens are in fact identifiable in lowincome cities as well as in affluent cities. The exposure to this combination of environmental burdens in a single city prompts the development of multi-scalar urban policies and forms of governance. The book comprises 13 chapters; the initial chapters, written by the editors, offer the theoretical approach which sustains the main argument of the book. The remaining chapters analyse the theoretical approach by applying it to cases related to the following issues: environmental health (Satterthwaite; Bostoen et al.; Songsore and McGranahan) and motorization levels (Lee; Kenworthy and Towsend) in neighbourhoods within a single city and between low and middle-income cities (Kundu); the evaluation of ecological footprints in affluent cities (Haughton; Ravetz); and the importance of political agendas and multi-scalar economic and political relationships (Connolly; Brugmann). The cities on which the case studies are focused cover a wide range of countries, dedicating special emphasis to the cities of Accra, Mexico City, Delhi and Manchester. At a regional level, emphasis is given to the cities of SouthEast and East Asia. Based on the 'urban environmental transition' theory (UET), developed by Gordon McGranahan and colleagues (McGranahan et al., 2001), the argument of the book is developed a step further by sustaining that the UET model involves other political and social factors which the original thesis does not consider. The UET model, as explained by one of the contributors, argues that: as cities develop, the priority environmental challenges would. .. shift from those relating to the 'brown agenda'-including water supply and sewerage-to those pertaining largely to the 'grey agenda'-such as industrial pollution and vehicular emissions. And as the cities enter the post-industrial phase, they are confronted with 'green' agenda challenges such as greenhouse gas emissions, ozone-depletion substances. .. and increasing volumes of municipal waste (p. 179). The political and social factors which contribute to the development of the UET thesis can be categorized by the reader into four dimensions. 1 Time-space telescoping: this concept emphasizes that urban development patterns and environmental burdens in lower and middle-income cities 'occur sooner (at lower levels of income), increase faster (over time) and emerge more simultaneously (as compared to the sequential patterns experienced in the now developed world)' (p. 51). Views expressed in this section are independent and do not represent the opinion of the editors.

Journal of Urban Affairs, 2011

The purpose of our paper "What is Urban Studies?" was to provide a general empirical description of the field, from its origin to the present. We sought to approach this problem as systematically and impartially as possible. At no time did our goals include normative prescriptions of what the field should or should not contain.