| 1. |
- Arsovski, Slobodan, et al.
(författare)
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Can urban environmental problems be overcome? The case of Skopje—world’s most polluted city
- 2018
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Ingår i: Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series. - : Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika/Nicolaus Copernicus University. - 1732-4254 .- 2083-8298. ; 40:40, s. 17-39
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The condition of the environment is one of the most fundamental concerns of cities worldwide, especially when high levels of pollution and environmental destruction exert immense impact on people’s quality of life. This paper focuses on Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, which often tops the charts as the world’s most polluted city. Despite associated problems such as congestion, ill health, and premature death, Macedonia’s scarce resources are instead spent on controversial projects, such as ‘Skopje 2014’, involving creating a national identity through massive and extremely costly constructions of neo-classical government buildings, museums and monuments. The aim of this paper is to compare the situation of Skopje to environmentally oriented activities conducted in several Polish cities and to discuss the possibility of their implementation in Skopje. Considering the scale and scope of Skopje’s environmental problems, the paper offers some priorities for action, including solutions that emphasize institution building, technical input and self-governance. It also highlights a number of economic, ecological, and socio-cultural contradictions involved in the process of achieving sustainable development.
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| 2. |
- Biegańska, Jadwiga, et al.
(författare)
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Ruralities of oblivion: When structural weakness gets swept under the carpet
- 2017
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Ingår i: International Conference on Challenges and Opportunities of Structurally Weak Rural Regions in Europe: ”Social Innovations and Social Enterprises Acting Under Adverse Conditions”, Adam Mickiewicz University / RurAction, 4–6 December 2017, Poznań, Poland.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Structurally weak rural regions in Europe face multiple challenges. Their below-average economic productivity and insufficient supply of physical and social infrastructure have opened up for questions on how to curb these downward spirals and keep people away from the precipice. One notable oversight is that the term “rural areas” can be vastly misleading, especially in the context of development. In Poland, in the wake of the fall of Communism, it became apparent that bad economic situation, infrastructural deficits and social polarization were most prominent in the former State Agricultural Farm (PGR). Almost three decades later, the waning academic interest in these farms left little conceptual guidance for the politicians to grab onto, and consequently most estates remain in an ever aggravating limbo. Considering PGRs the epitome of rurality in view of the ideas informing the direction of contemporary “rural development” prompts a different way of looking at the problem. In this presentation, we investigate the concept of rurality in the discursive tenor of policy formulation and contrast it with richly contextualized empirical examples from central Poland. Our findings suggest that in order to be efficient policy must take into account the role of the concept of rurality in creating structural weakness, because a problem is not “rural” unless we make it “rural”. This means that such mode of cultural labeling may miss that many ubiquitous problems transcend spatial demarcations, whereupon standard conceptualizations of rurality usually end up in failure and disappointment. This, we argue, is especially the case with “inconvenient” ruralities like post-PGR estates, which effectively get swept under the carpet.
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| 3. |
- Kwiatkowski, Michał, et al.
(författare)
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Dysfunctional landscapes vs. quality of life : Krajobrazy dysfunkcjonalne a jakość życia
- 2017
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Ingår i: 23rd Interdisciplinary Landscape Seminar "Landscape vs. health and quality of life" (XXIII Interdyscyplinarne Seminarium Krajobrazowe "Krajobraz a zdrowie i jakość życia"), UMCS / PTTK / PTG, 21–22 September 2017, Lublin and Nałęczów, Poland.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Quality of life is a complex concept that incorporates many different material and immaterial aspects, but in general refers to the well-being of people, groups or societies, and has been used widely, not least as an indicator of both mental and physical health. The system transformation of 1989 affected the quality of life in both rural and urban areas in Poland. It also contributed to the crystallization of certain cultural landscapes, hitherto illegible due to the inhibition of spatial processes encountered during Communism. After a quarter-century of free market economy, it became apparent that the progressive social polarization that followed was most prominent in environments striated by a special landscape type – “socjałki”. Their dysfunctional character has been noticeable in a wide array of dimensions: unemployment, poverty, social anomies and pathologies, claiming attitudes, substandard housing, and ghettoization. The main characteristic, however, was their equal prevalence in both urban and rural areas, creating peculiar and developmentally insoluble landscapes of dysfunctionality. The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of the rural-urban dichotomy on the quality of life of visceral people inhabiting those areas. Using in-depth interviews and detailed questionnaire surveys, we arrive at the conclusion that socjałki are distinct landscapes from a health-related perspective, and are poorly explicated using conventional analytical tools. We suggest they could benefit from being studied and evaluated on the basis of commonalities other than the rural-urban dichotomy.
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| 4. |
- Kwiatkowski, Michał, et al.
(författare)
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Solving the unsolvable? Pollution as a factor creating the modern outpost of unsustainability : Решавање на нерешливото? Загадувањето како фактор што создава модерено упориште на неодржливост
- 2018
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In December 2017 Skopje topped the charts as the world’s most polluted city. And while this was merely a fleeting moment, Skopje’s case is emblematic of a much more common and disturbing phenomenon: an increasingly complex web of entanglements that both cause and maintain what could be described as ’modern outposts of unsustainability’. In the case of Skopje, specifically, pollution does not come isolated, but appears onto an equally alarming canvas of geopolitical disrepute, identity crisis, acute poverty, staggering corruption and ethnic tensions. In times of rapid changes and unpredictability, great social challenges no longer come one by one; what makes them great is their ever-greater entanglement in one other, in the vein of Rittel’s now classical concept of a ‘wicked problem’. This means that we may have to embrace the dynamism it involves, without ever satisfying any particular standard for completeness. To this background, the challenge undertaken in this presentation is to address Skopje’s pollution problem eclectically, by addressing its interlocking problems of unsustainability through the prism of cultural contingents. By comparing Skopje’s dire situation to solutions implemented in other parts of Europe, the presentation makes a signal contribution to the sustainability agenda by proposing a number of priorities for action, including an emphasis on institution building, technical input and self-governance. The presentation also highlights a number of economic, ecological, and social contradictions involved in the process of striving for sustainable development.
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| 5. |
- Sofeska, Emilija, et al.
(författare)
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Solving the unsolvable? Pollution as a factor creating the modern outpost of unsustainability : Решавање на нерешливото? Загадувањето како фактор што создава модерено упориште на неодржливост
- 2018
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Ingår i: International Conference “Pollution of cities in the Republic of Macedonia: What are the solutions?”, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts / Research Center for Environment and Materials, 1–2 November 2018, Skopje, Macedonia.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In December 2017 Skopje topped the charts as the world’s most polluted city. And while this was merely a fleeting moment, Skopje’s case is emblematic of a much more common and disturbing phenomenon: an increasingly complex web of entanglements that both cause and maintain what could be described as ’modern outposts of unsustainability’. In the case of Skopje, specifically, pollution does not come isolated, but appears onto an equally alarming canvas of geopolitical disrepute, identity crisis, acute poverty, staggering corruption and ethnic tensions. In times of rapid changes and unpredictability, great social challenges no longer come one by one; what makes them great is their ever-greater entanglement in one other, in the vein of Rittel’s now classical concept of a ‘wicked problem’. This means that we may have to embrace the dynamism it involves, without ever satisfying any particular standard for completeness. To this background, the challenge undertaken in this presentation is to address Skopje’s pollution problem eclectically, by addressing its interlocking problems of unsustainability through the prism of cultural contingents. By comparing Skopje’s dire situation to solutions implemented in other parts of Europe, the presentation makes a signal contribution to the sustainability agenda by proposing a number of priorities for action, including an emphasis on institution building, technical input and self-governance. The presentation also highlights a number of economic, ecological, and social contradictions involved in the process of striving for sustainable development. ................................................................................................................................................................................................... Во декември 2017 година Скопје се најде на врвот на листите како најзагаден град во светот. И додека ова беше само минлив момент, случајот на Скопје е симбол на многу почест и вознемирувачки феномен: се создава се повеќе комплексна мрежа на нестабилност која предизвикува и одржува она што може да се опише како "модерно упориште на неодржливост". Во случајот со Скопје, конкретно загадувањето, не е повеќе изолирана појава, туку истото се појавува на подеднакво алармантно поле на геополитичко загрозување, криза на идентитетот, акутна сиромаштија, корупција во запрепастувачки размери, како и етнички тензии. Во време на брзи промени и непредвидливост, големите социјални предизвици повеќе не доаѓаат еден по еден; она што ги прави велики е нивното сè поголемо меѓусебно испреплетување, а во духот на сега веќе класичниот концепт на Рител (Rittel) за "зол проблем". Ова значи дека можеби ќе треба да ја прифатиме динамиката што ја вклучува, без да се задоволи некој посебен стандард за комплетноста. Во таа смисла, предизвикот што го преземаме во оваа презентација е на еклектичен начин да го посочиме проблемот со загадувањето на Скопје, преку нагласување на проблемите поврзани со неодржливост и преку призмата на културните контингенти. Преку споредба на алармантната состојба за Скопје со решенија кои се спроведени во другите делови/градови на Европа, оваа презентацијата дава иницијален придонес кон агендата за одржливост, предлагајќи бројни приоритети за превземање на активности, ставајќи акцент и на зајакнување на институциите, технички допринос и самоуправа. Преку оваа презентација, исто така, се нагласуваат бројни економски, еколошки и социјални противречности вклучени во процесот на стремеж кон одржлив развој.
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