Social Sustainability and Urban Form: Evidence from Five British Cities

10.1068/a4184 ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (9) ◽  
pp. 2125-2142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glen Bramley ◽  
Nicola Dempsey ◽  
Sinead Power ◽  
Caroline Brown ◽  
David Watkins
Keyword(s):  
Urban Form ◽  
Physical Map ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Neighbourhood Environment ◽  
Future Design ◽  
Transport Emissions

Planning and urban policies emphasise ‘sustainability’, but claims that ‘compact cities' are more socially sustainable and acceptable have been controversial and subject to limited empirical testing. After a brief review of the concepts and debate, we set out new empirical evidence based on household surveys linked to neighbourhood physical, map-based, and sociodemographic data for five British cities. Statistical models are developed to account for systematic variations in the main social sustainability outcomes. The results are considered both in terms of the role of particular urban form and locational measures, but also in terms of the broader patterns of effects of packages of measures. Outcomes relating to residential satisfaction, stability, neighbourhood environment, and safety are all shown to be lower in higher density/central places, but it is also shown that a good deal of this apparent effect is due to social and demographic factors. Interaction with neighbours and participation in groups is better at medium densities, controlling for other factors, while use of local services is, as expected, greater in denser, more central locations. These findings indicate that compact cities are not ‘win-win’ on all dimensions of sustainability but, rather, that reductions in transport emissions will have to be weighed against social criteria. In addition, urban form has different aspects, which have differing social effects, and this knowledge could inform the future design of ‘smarter’ urban environments.

scholarly journals Moving the 2030 Agenda Ahead: Exploring the Role of Multiple Mediators toward Perceived Environment and Social Sustainability in Residential Neighbourhoods

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1079
Author(s):  
Massoomeh Hedayati Marzbali ◽  
Aldrin Abdullah ◽  
Mohammad Javad Maghsoodi Tilaki ◽  
Mina Safizadeh
Keyword(s):  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Neighbourhood Environment ◽  
Perception Of Safety ◽  
2030 Agenda ◽  
The Social ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Physical Disorders

Neighbourhood safety represents an important topic of study to illustrate the reasons behind the increases in crime and mitigate its effects in neighbourhoods. This study examines how the social and environmental features of neighbourhoods may influence the social sustainability of residents based on the assumption that the perception of safety and social cohesion mediates the effects of neighbourhood environment on social sustainability. A quantitative method was employed to collect data from residents in a low-rise residential area in Penang, Malaysia. The results of structural equation modelling (SEM) indicated the positive and significant effect of neighbourhood accessibility on perceived disorder, whilst the effect of accessibility on social cohesion was negative. Disorders may comprise social and physical disorders, and may have a negative effect on perception of safety, but not on social cohesion. The relationship between disorders and social sustainability is serially mediated by the perception of safety and social cohesion. This implies that those who perceived high disorderliness in a neighbourhood environment reported a lower level of perception of safety, social cohesion and lower levels of social sustainability. Attempts need to be made to reduce neighbourhood disorderliness to pave the way for 2030 Agenda goals implementation.

Saddam Takes Control

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Helfont
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Intellectual Heritage ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
Religious Landscape

Chapter 1 discusses Saddam Hussein’s rise to the presidency in Ba’thist Iraq in which he inherited an existing relationship between his regime and the Iraqi religious landscape. Saddam also inherited a rich Ba‘thist intellectual heritage, which had a good deal to say about religion, and Islam in particular, and offered what he considered to be powerful tools to face the challenges that lay before him. Chapter 1 highlights the the role of religion in Saddam’s rise to power and the secret polices on religion that he enacted. It will then discuss the initial steps he took to consolidate his power and contain uprisings within Iraq’s religious landscape. His polices reflect a Ba’thist interpretation of Islam that was first articulated by the Syrian Christian intellectual, Michel Aflaq, in the mid-20th century. Under Saddam’s leadership, the Ba’thist regime attempts to impose its ideas on religion.

scholarly journals Investment Portfolio, Democratic Accountability, Poverty and Income Inequality Nexus in Pakistan: A Way to Social Sustainability

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6411
Author(s):  
Muhammad Shahid Hassan ◽  
Haider Mahmood ◽  
Muhammad Ibrahim Saeed ◽  
Tarek Tawfik Yousef Alkhateeb ◽  
Noman Arshed ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Democratic Accountability ◽  
Investment Portfolio ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Distributed Lag ◽  
Autoregressive Distributed Lag ◽  
Short Run

Institutions help to streamline the economic activity-related procedures, where government intervention might be involved. Institutions also play a significant role in social sustainability. The findings using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag approach to cointegration for the period from 1984–2019 reveal that investment portfolio and democratic accountability reduce poverty in Pakistan both in the long and short run. Moreover, democratic accountability helps to reduce income inequality, but the investment portfolio’s role is not significant. The literacy rate helps to reduce income inequality, and inflation increases poverty and income inequality. The remittances increase income inequality, and urbanization increases poverty. To eradicate poverty and income inequality, the governments should be accountable for their actions to the general public while they remain in power. If they do not deliver as per their manifestoes, they will not be reelected in the next election. Moreover, there is a dire need to redefine the role of an investment portfolio to reduce the risk of investment. So, investments would increase economic activities and could reduce poverty and income inequality. This study contributes to the literature by inquiring about the role of the investment portfolio and democratic accountability in social sustainability by reducing poverty and income inequality. This study only considers Pakistan’s economy due to limitations of poverty data availability in other countries. The scope could further be broadened by accessing data for a wider Asia region to test the role of the investment portfolio and democratic accountability to reduce poverty and income inequality.

scholarly journals Influence of Land Use on Avian Diversity in North African Urban Environments

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 434
Author(s):  
Hani Amir Aouissi ◽  
Alexandru-Ionuţ Petrişor ◽  
Mostefa Ababsa ◽  
Maria Boştenaru-Dan ◽  
Mahmoud Tourki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Diversity Index ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Ecological Group ◽  
Avian Diversity ◽  
North African ◽  
Index Method ◽  
Urban Green Spaces

Land cover and use changes are important to study for their impact on ecosystem services and ultimately on sustainability. In urban environments, a particularly important research question addresses the relationship between urbanization-related changes and biodiversity, subject to controversies in the literature. Birds are an important ecological group, and useful for answering this question. The present study builds upon the hypothesis according to which avian diversity decreases with urbanization. In order to answer it, a sample of 4245 observations from 650 sites in Annaba, Algeria, obtained through the point abundance index method, were investigated by computing Shannon-Wiener’s diversity index and the species richness, mapping them, and analyzing the results statistically. The findings confirm the study hypothesis and are relevant for planning, as they stress the role of urban green spaces as biodiversity hotspots, and plead for the need of connecting them. From a planning perspective, the results emphasize the need for interconnecting the green infrastructure through avian corridors. Moreover, the results fill in an important lack of data on the biodiversity of the region, and are relevant for other similar Mediterranean areas. Future studies could use the findings to compare with data from other countries and continents.

scholarly journals What is beyond the edges? Gated communities and their role in China’s desire for harmonious cities

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Badiaa Hamama ◽  
Jian Liu
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Real Estate ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Gated Communities ◽  
Urban Fabric ◽  
Chinese Cities ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Process Of Urbanization ◽  
New Urbanization

Abstract During the rapid process of urbanization in post-reform China, cities assumed the role of a catalyst for economic growth and quantitative construction. In this context, territorially bounded and well delimited urban cells, globally known as ‘gated communities’, xiaoqu, continued to define the very essence of Chinese cities becoming the most attractive urban form for city planners, real estate developers, and citizens alike. Considering the guidelines in China’s National New Urbanization Plan (2014–2020), focusing on the promotion of humanistic and harmonious cities, in addition to the directive of 2016 by China’s Central Urban Work Conference to open up the gates and ban the construction of new enclosed residential compounds, this paper raises the following questions: As the matrix of the Chinese urban fabric, what would be the role of the gated communities in China’s desire for a human-qualitative urbanism? And How to rethink the gated communities to meet the new urban challenges? Seeking alternative perspectives, this paper looks at the gated communities beyond the apparent limits they seem to represent, considering them not simply as the ‘cancer’ of Chinese cities, rather the container of the primary ingredients to reshape the urban fabric dominated by the gate.

68 Examining the role of supportive adults in violence exposure among male youth in urban environments

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (Suppl 2) ◽  
pp. A24.3-A25
Author(s):  
Alison Culyba ◽  
Kenneth Ginsburg ◽  
Joel Fein ◽  
Elizabeth Miller ◽  
Charles Branas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Violence Exposure ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Male Youth

Crime, Deprivation and Social Sustainability—Evidence across States in India

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 354-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramprasad Sengupta ◽  
Sovik Mukherjee
Keyword(s):  
Development Strategy ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Internal Security ◽  
Developmental Factors ◽  
The Development Strategy ◽  
Determining Factors ◽  
Different Types

We focus in this article on the dimension of social sustainability of the development process— particularly on the determining factors of social tension which results in social disruption in violent forms of the different types of crime—murder, property-related, riots in the presence of polarization and Left-wing insurgency across major states in India. This article makes an attempt to explore the role of economic deprivation—thus, resulting in economic inequality and poverty in addition to infrastructural and other socio-economic developmental factors in determining such crimes in this context. While economic growth has a definite positive role in abating such violent forms of crime and their associated tension, the development strategy should give high priority to literacy, internal security and human development for building up peace and a socially sustainable society in India.

scholarly journals Institutional-Political Scenarios for Anthropocene Society

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Hoffman ◽  
P. Devereaux Jennings
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Change Mechanisms ◽  
Main Change

Natural scientists have proposed that humankind has entered a new geologic epoch. Termed the “Anthropocene,” this new reality revolves around the central role of human activity in multiple Earth ecosystems. That challenge requires a rethinking of social science explanations of organization and environment relationships. In this article, we discuss the need to politicize institutional theory as a means understanding “Anthropocene Society,” and in turn what that resultant society means for the Anthropocene in the natural environment. We modify the constitutive elements of institutional orders and a set of main change mechanisms to explore three scenarios around which future Anthropocene Societies might be built—Collapsing Systems, Market Rules, and Cultural Re-Enlightenment. Simultaneously, we use observations from the Anthropocene to expose limitations in present institutional theory and propose extensions to remedy them. Overall, this article challenges organizational scholars to consider a new paradigm under which research in environmental sustainability and social sustainability takes place.

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