The Main Challenges Of Creating More Socially Equitable Cities Of The 21st Century?

In “New Axioms for Reading the Landscape: Paying Attention to Political Economy and Social Justice,” Don Mitchell incorporates old ideas from Peirce F. Lewis’s original “Axioms for Reading the Landscape.” At the same time, Mitchell includes new ideas into his axioms. In Axiom 1, he explains that “the landscape is not produced through ‘our unwitting autobiography’ (as Lewis describes it), but as an act of (social, not individual) will” (2007, 34). He also stresses the idea that landscape should be produced as a commodity. In contrast, Neil Smith explains the main causes behind gentrification. Smith explains how gentrification happens through a process which he calls “rent gap” (1979, 545). In gentrification, the landscape is a commodity because it loses and gains monetary value through disinvestment and investment.

The term “Gentrification” was coined by British sociologist Ruth Glass in 1964 to describe the influx of the middle class displacing lower class worker residents in urban neighbourhoods; her example was London, and its working class who resided in the London Borough of Islington. The term was published in Ruth Glass’ book ‘London: aspects of change’ she stated that ‘One by one, many of the working class neighbourhoods of London have been invaded by the middle-classes—upper and lower.’ she also claimed that ‘Once this process of 'gentrification ' starts in a district it goes on rapidly, until all or most of the original working-class occupiers are displaced and the whole social character of the district is changed.’ Gentrification is a multifaceted phenomenon which has been defined differently over the years, there is no concrete definition. Before we look at whether Gentrification is actually damaging the lower class society, we must first focus on the causes of Gentrification and then we may proceed to look at its effects.

It is no secret that homelessness is quickly becoming an epidemic in the United States, but the homeless population is not one secular demographic. For every person in the US living on the street, there is a unique story of how they got there; nonetheless, that is not to say that many of these stories are without some commonalities. Along with homelessness, there is another issue plaguing American cities, but this issue is much more covert, and exists under a guise of improvements like fancy apartments and trendy restaurants. Gentrification is defined as “the process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste” (Erikson); but what that definition fails to mention is the discourse it has on the

Given the various discussions, it is clear that the city is a long way from equality. Policies need to be put into that ensure anyone found discriminating another individual, be it in words or denying services to anyone faces proper justice. All people are worthy of basic social services that are inclusive of good healthcare and amenities such as housing.

In chapter three, Sharkey will identify and explain the four components for why inequality in urban neighborhoods is ongoing. He explains that the lack of upward mobility in the African American populations is due to the incomplete progression into civil rights, implementation of policies and programs that have instituted racial inequality, reorganizing urban labor markets, and an ineffective response to economic

In Jeff Ferrell’s “Tearing Down the Streets Adventures in Urban Anarchy”, it introduced themes of image of the city, rights to the city, and given different examples of anarchist activities in urban environments. In my opinion, I enjoyed the book’s narratives on urban cities trying to clean the streets of unwanted acts and people; along with the collective movements attempting to retake the open space and streets. However, Ferrell’s actions in his daily life to retake space are questionable. Ferrell considers cities are changing their images by undergoing “Disneyfication” (Ferrell, 2001, p. 8) with unnecessary security, planned entertainment and making it ‘beautiful’. Ultimately, it forces authorities to restrict and isolate unwanted acts

The urban space not only reflects the profound changes in people's lives, but also reveals many social problems. Different element which includes the building, neighborhoods, housing and transportation create a sense of spatial relationship and emphasize the importance of equality in opportunity and comprehensive development. According to the article of “Why Spatial, Why Justice, Why LA”, Edward W. Soja defines the concept of “spatiality justice” as, “an integral and formative component of justice itself, a vital part of how justice and injustice are socially constructed and evolve over time” (1, Soja). In this way, he illustrates that the spatial justice becomes fundamentally important in our society and the struggle over geography is

Capitalism, is inherently structured by the West to privilege the West, and the outcry in Vancouver is just an example of the West’s overall assumption that structure and security will forever be provided under the auspicious of neoliberal economy. But the reason Vancouver is in this housing mess is because of neoliberalism. Neoliberal economics are not supported by economic theory or historical experience; it is a luck of the dice type toss up situation (Brock et al, 2012, p. 110). Gold’s failure to include free-market capitalism into her address of Vancouver’s housing chaos, has arguably contributed to propagating and racially polarizing Chinese individuals as the sole face of the housing tragedy. Analyses of Gold’s piece under a Marxist lens will be provided in order to expose a micro example of the global North’s overall neocolonial undertone. Gold’s sympathy and support for the middle-upper class outcry pursuing government to enact policy to oust Chinese investors from the housing market, will be compared to global institutions such as the IMF, World Bank, and free- trade agreements, in order to unearth a larger symptom of the Global North’s poor sportsmanship, and neocolonialist practices. Furthering the argument that when neoliberalism disregards the West’s interests, and serves to privilege someone else’s, the West cannot take the heat. And intern responds by

The population living in these areas before the arrival of gentrification, characteristically those in low income occupations, can find themselves displaced both physically and socially. This is one of the most serious impacts that gentrification can have on a neighbourhood and its community. Social displacement can impact negatively on the community in a gentrified area, causing social polarisation between the different social classes and leading to community conflict. Atkinson (2002) collected statistics from many pieces of research - including his previous work – which explored the relationship between gentrification and the displacement of the working class. By doing this Atkinson could clearly display the impact displacement is having,

The Urban Age is the current age where we are living now as the majority of human population is living within an urban settlement or urban environment such as cities, towns and slums. With the rapid increase of urbanization, the demand for private and public spaces is growing. Private spaces falls under things such as houses, apartment and office spaces. Whilst while the public are things such as public municipal parks, public malls and community oval. The issue that is being shined upon in this essay within our current cities spaces is the ever growing privatization of public spaces. Bradley L Garret a journalist for the guardian wrote an article on how cities such as Los Angeles has become a victim of this and he emphasizes the fact that

Neoliberalism is a terminology that defines a wide range of economic policies that emphasize the freedom of trading and deregulation of the market. Although the term is rarely used by mass media or government report, it is important to understand how influential it is and what allows it to spread all over the world after 1970s. In this paper, I will be discussing the fact that the neoliberalism we see today is not the inevitable result of social progression; instead, it was adapted to the era and social status of its emergence.

What is an urban revolution? Why is it important for cities to have one? What are that factors that cause these revolutions? In the articles The Urban Revolution by V.Gordon Childe, The Right to The City by David Harvey and lastly, What Type of Public Transit for What Type of Public? by Kafui A. Attoh, displays the different ways the residents in a city react to the social inequality and human rights.

The process of people moving into cities, which is called urbanisation, was happening around the world in past decades. It causes cities to have more labourers and resources than before. This makes a big contribution to the social development of cities. Thanks to these social developments, public services are becoming better in these areas. Citizens can enjoy a better life by access these public services such as better medical care, more education resources and well-built transport. It means an equitable society can be created. An equitable society means citizens can have more opportunities to access social resources and to live a better life. This essay will argue that

In the article, “Gender, Class and Urban Space: Public and Private Space in Contemporary Urban Landscapes” Liz Bondi, puts forth her perspectives about the possible interconnections between gender dichotomy ,urban public /private space or city/suburb dichotomies and how separable or intertwined they are with each other. She attempts to further provide evidence that ‘the ideal of separate spheres’ (Bondi, Pg.162.) continues to affect our lives .She states that gentrification and class is intertwined in this dynamic interaction between gender and space. Bondi identifies these ‘dichotomies’ as duos, be it city/suburb, public /private or male/ female. She points out to the associations between masculinity -public space - city and femininity - private space - suburbs and that these interconnections are look upon as ‘ideologies rather than reality’ (Bondi 2013). The conclusions Bondi presented are based on the empirical evidence she collected which seem to lack abstractness, i.e they are specific to certain location at a certain time. But the interpretations and the data collected reflect the complex character of the urban realm, gender and the interplay between the two. They exhibit characters of being separate as well as being interwoven, distinct, ‘disentangled and a dismantled’ as well as overlapping each other. Although Bondi seems to acknowledge this complexity; she overlooks its importance in her selection of the research site and sample size.

Addressing problems in urban communities should remain first priority. Poverty has been growing faster in many cities throughout America. Residents of poor urban areas face many sets of challenges that our community developers are not addressing that can alleviate issues within urban communities. If we can come together to fight against poverty, we can call for revitalization, we need many more new strategies to tackle problems that aren’t contained. Many authors address poverty within suburban communities as well; with discussions of suburbanization- that poverty is moving from cities to suburban areas as if the major problem of poverty is no longer an urban problem. However, a large proportion of residents in urban cities are poor compared to poor residents living suburbs. In the article Sampson “Neighbourhood and community: collective efficacy and community safety” Sampson discusses collective efficacy and community safety he believes if residents within the community control behaviors happening in the community and persons’ in the community can control behavior for a safer environment. He says he mostly focuses on “policy-related ideas that are tied mainly to crime and public safety, and do not rely excessively on formal mechanisms of control for example, mass incarceration that may ultimately erode the foundations of social capital and lead to the de-legitimation of government institutions in disadvantaged communities.” Inner cities in the United States generally have