| 1. |
- Krzysztofik, Robert, et al.
(författare)
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Landscapes with different logics: A physicalistic approach to semantic conflicts in spatial planning
- 2017
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Ingår i: Quaestiones Geographicae. - : Walter de Gruyter GmbH. - 2081-6383 .- 0137-477X .- 2082-2103. ; 36:4, s. 29-45
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper deals with the ways of categorising landscapes as ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ using a physicalist approach, where these terms have special meaning. The aim of this paper is to elaborate on the question whether such a division is still meaningful with regard to anthropogenic landscapes, not least in spatial planning. The concerns raised in this paper depart from the increasingly complicated structure of geographical space, including that of anthropogenic landscapes. Our standpoint is illustrated using cases of landscape ambiguities from Poland, Germany, Romania and Greece. Leaning on frameworks of physicalist (mechanicistic) theory, this paper suggests an explanation to the outlined semantic conflicts. This is done by pointing to the relationality between the impact of centripetal and centrifugal forces, the specifics of socio-economic development, as well as the varying landscape forms that emerge from the differences within that development.
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| 2. |
- Krzysztofik, Robert, et al.
(författare)
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Environmental hazards and urban abandonment: Case studies and typological issues
- 2015
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Ingår i: Geografiska Annaler. Series B. Human Geography. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0435-3684 .- 1468-0467. ; 97:4, s. 291-308
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The article discusses the phenomenon of urban abandonment as a result of environmental hazards. Seen as an outcome of environmental drivers, the underlying assumption is that a characteristic of environmental hazards is their spatial and temporal constancy of impact, whereby processes and phenomena having taken place in the past have their analogies in the present. In order to generate insights for future research and policy development, there is a need to pay greater attention to the precarious relationship between humans and the natural environment, not least by drawing lessons from the past through the study of historical cases. The article clarifies the dynamic interactions of drivers and their progression through various stages of urban abandonment. This is done by recourse to an analysis of some general trends and an in-depth examination of three selected case studies from Poland. It has two objectives. The first is to identify the historical role of environmental drivers in the process of urban abandonment, while the second one is to contribute to the typology of environmentally related processes of urban abandonment in order to better identify future calamities. With respect to the former, the findings reveal that the relation between environmental hazards and urban abandonment is pertinent in regions with specific geographic conditions and pertains only to certain categories of urban settlements. With respect to the latter, by drawing on these findings, we propose some alterations and amendments to McLeman’s comprehensive model of settlement abandonment in the context of global environmental change.
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| 3. |
- Krzysztofik, Robert, et al.
(författare)
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The concept of urban hibernation
- 2016
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Ingår i: European Planning Studies. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0965-4313 .- 1469-5944. ; 24:2, s. 316-343
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Today, as a result of fast-paced societal transformations, many small towns face severe developmental challenges and an uncertain future. Departing from the broader theory of developmental disequilibrium, we launch the concept of urban hibernation to explain the process of periodic small-town regress. The concept—along with its key stages and turning points—is presented to the background of urbanization processes encountered in Poland. At the same time, the focus on small towns offers an alternative and more context-sensitive explication to eclectic development models inherent to larger cities. As such, we argue that the concept of urban hibernation is apt to serve as a more precise research and planning tool in the context of small towns, and particularly in the critical moments of rise and recession. By applying a historical perspective, we address the importance of proper identification of the various and ever-changing city-forming factors, including their role for spatial planning at different scales. Urban hibernation should thus be considered as an intrinsic part of the geographic environment, which, due to the volatility of its socio-economic components, transcends the traditional rural–urban divide. Our conceptual contribution may thus serve as a background for a fuller understanding of the variability and dynamics of intra-urban structures.
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| 4. |
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Anatomy of a 21st-century sustainability project: The untold stories
- 2020
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Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (refereegranskat)abstract
- What does a sustainability project look like in the 21st century? Not the glossy version, but the naked truth? Tired of manicured, over-theorised accounts of the ‘musts’ and ‘shoulds’ of sustainability transitions, we got to the bottom of things; actually, to the very bottom of the project hierarchy: the individual. Our point of departure is that projects are nothing but temporarily interconnected people. This means that if we don’t know what people do and what they think about their work, we will never be able to create a deeper understanding of the project, its rationale and future impact. Making use of the autoethnographic method, this book provides critical insights into what it’s like being part of a 21st-century project. Building on unfiltered first-hand contributions from 73 authors representing the five organs of a project’s anatomy – the brain (theoreticians), the skeleton (leaders), the limbs (strategists), the heart (local stakeholders) and the lungs (researchers) – the book covers all the important aspects of contemporary project-making: (1) projectification as a societal phenomenon; (2) sustainability as the main project buzzword; (3) transdisciplinarity as a hot working method; (4) economy as the invisible project propeller; (5) space as the contextual project qualifier; (6) gender and integration as the obstinate orphans of project-making; (7) trends as the villains of thoughtless project mimicry; (8) politics as the “necessary evil” of projects; and (9) knowledge production as the cornerstone of all project work. The book ends with an extensive critical analysis of what makes a project tick and how to avoid project failure. We infer that talking about project outcomes and impacts is just that… talking. What makes a difference is what can be done to the project in itself. Three important virtues – the ABC of project-making – emanate from this book’s 40 chapters: building good relationships (Affinity), having the guts to make a change (Bravery), and showing willingness to learn (Curiosity). These are the basis for the successful execution of future sustainability projects, where complexity, unpredictability and desperation will become a staple force to recon with. The original contribution of this book is to shed light on the silent triumphs and hidden pathologies of everyday project-making in an effort to elevate individual knowledge to a level of authority for solving the wicked – yet project-infused – problems of our time.
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| 5. |
- Dymitrow, Mirek, et al.
(författare)
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Deprivation and the rural-urban trap
- 2018
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Ingår i: Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie. - : Wiley. - 0040-747X .- 1467-9663. ; 109:1, s. 87-108
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Departing from the idea that cultural mechanisms are capable of allowing for conceptual dichotomies to create oppression, this article challenges the engrained tradition of using ‘urban/rural’ as guiding labels in societal organization when seen through the prism of deprivation. Two Polish deprivation-ridden estates – one ‘urban’ and one ‘rural’ – were investigated. Having taken account of the residents’ everyday lives in the socio-economic, material and discursive dimensions, our results indicate that the notions of rurality and urbanity imbricate and leapfrog meaningful territories at the local level. Realizing the danger of deploying stereotypes as beacons in governance, from this richly contextualized account we draw that many problems today are space-independent and cannot be attenuated by following development paths reinvented in the name of some empirically questionable yet culturally sustained and politically ontologized spatialities. This, then, calls for rethinking both the discursivity and the elusiveness of rural-urban thinking in the context of deprivation.
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| 6. |
- Dymitrow, Mirek
(författare)
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Changing landscapes and rural-urban awareness: Conceptualizing rurality and urbanity through the prism of experiential space
- 2013
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Ingår i: Changing European Landscapes: Landscape ecology, local to global. IALE 2013 European Congress, 9-12 September 2013, Manchester, UK.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Throughout the developed world, rural areas are in economic, social, and visible transition, to a significant degree as a result of urbanization. Realizing that a changing society is in constant need of redefinition, the rural-urban distinction is especially important to look into on a systematic basis. One reason is that although the outdatedness of the rural-urban dichotomy is widely acknowledged it is still largely sustained, not least in rural and urban development policies which are still conducted separately. Such practice may seem questionable in the face of the progressive blurring of these concepts, making them all the more subjective. In that light, there is a need to capture that subjectivity’s logic and anchor it locally, where the effects of policy eventually materialize. As such, taking into account the perception of local residents could help mitigate the subjectivity enclosed in the referential framework of those who exert power, mainly specialists and planners. In this paper, it is assumed that the concepts of rurality and urbanity are not only a result of the changing conditions in particular places but also of the changing theoretical perspectives on what is regarded rural or urban. In result, both tracks equally affect the material – i.e. the very real – lives of people who inhabit these areas. Ultimately, when some seemingly innocuous awareness-shaping processes coupled with the broader concepts of rural and urban are ignored, there may be ramifications when the locally perceived and the centrally defined fail to converge. Consequently, this paper is not about ideas on how ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ areas should be organized and managed. Rather, it foregoes such actions by focusing on the cognitive phase that precedes any kind of labeled development. By assuming a humanistic perspective, the concepts of ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ are discussed with emphasis on local perception and experiential space as important factors in their current understanding. There are indications that this dimension is locally significant and that the perception of rurality/urbanity is much derived from the physical characteristics of the lived environment, despite the rural and urban having been lately largely regarded as social constructs. In light of the critique of the emergent material turn, the potential of the concept of ‘landscape’ is explored, here seen as a bridge holding together the physical and the subjective tenets of rural-urban awareness. It is argued it could serve as a useful conceptual tool for creating context of the conflicting envoys on how rurality/urbanity should be understood, and particularly so in times of extensive land use changes induced by urbanization.
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| 7. |
- Dymitrow, Mirek, et al.
(författare)
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Sustainability—differently
- 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. 7-16
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- It is increasingly appreciated how all societies contain many ‘wicked problems’ or socio-cultural challenges that are multidimensional, hard to pin-down and consequently extremely challenging to solve. Obtaining functional and inclusive societal organization is not a simple matter of ‘doing it’ by subscribing to winning formulae as there are, for example, many choices to be made in the process. Moreover, given that conceptual frameworks always guide thoughts, judgments and actions, how we relate to ‘sustainability’ specifically becomes relevant if we aim to achieve a more liveable society. This journal issue expressly engages with the consequent need to recognise this complexity. It assembles a set of ‘brave’ takes on far-advanced problems bedevilling conventionally conceptualised paths towards sustainability. Arguing against oversimplification that comes from domination of polarizing concepts and unquestioned practices and rhetorics, the aim is to foster explorations into new territories from which we may learn. Ultimately, the desire to deconstruct pernicious divisions and create new hybrid syntheses can progress sustainability.
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| 8. |
- Dymitrow, Mirek
(författare)
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The effigy of urbanity or a rural parody? A visual approach to small-town public space
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Cultural Geography. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0887-3631 .- 1940-6320. ; 31:1, s. 1-31
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The urban square has been a distinguishing characteristic of European cities for millennia. However, in the context of small towns, where the square is often the sole identifier of their physical urbanity, its role differs from that of large towns. This fact is substantial within national administrative systems that endorse desirable urban status to rural settlements endowed with an urban morphology. It is also important in times of extensive EU-subsidized actions aimed at improving the quality of public space in small underresourced towns. However, many projects fail to draw from and respond to the specifics of the local context, and, by focusing on the details and disregarding the basics, they may defeat their purpose. Departing from extensive field observations in Poland, this paper puts theoretical framework and current trends in urban design into relation to various elements of a square’s spatial configuration in order to arrive at degrees of their urban significance. By interpreting the fundamental values embedded in the morphology of market squares, this paper attempts to isolate the cultural archetypes that shape our perception of such places as urban. The proposed analysis could be used to meet the main goal of market square revitalization, namely to visually articulate urbanity.
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| 9. |
- Haysom, Gareth, et al.
(författare)
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Food systems sustainability: An examination of different viewpoints on food system change
- 2019
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Ingår i: Sustainability. - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 11:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Global food insecurity levels remain stubbornly high. One of the surest ways to grasp the scale and consequence of global inequality is through a food systems lens. In a predominantly urban world, urban food systems present a useful lens to engage a wide variety of urban (and global) challenges—so called ‘wicked problems.’ This paper describes a collaborative research project between four urban food system research units, two European and two African. The project purpose was to seek out solutions to what lay between, across and within the different approaches applied in the understanding of each city’s food system challenges. Contextual differences and immediate (perceived) needs resulted in very different views on the nature of the challenge and the solutions required. Value positions of individuals and their disciplinary “enclaves” presented further boundaries. The paper argues that finding consensus provides false solutions. Rather the identification of novel approaches to such wicked problems is contingent of these differences being brought to the fore, being part of the conversation, as devices through which common positions can be discovered, where spaces are created for the realisation of new perspectives, but also, where difference is celebrated as opposed to censored.
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| 10. |
- Kotze, Shelley, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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Transboundary research collaborations : An evaluation against 11 principles of transboundary research
- 2019
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Ingår i: MiReKoc – 15th Anniversary Conference on Migration and Development in the ‘Global South’: “Research Challenges and Implications”, Migration Research Center at Koç University, 24–25 October 2019, Istanbul, Turkey.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- It is widely acknowledged that transboundary research collaborations are critical in supporting evidence-based actions to address global issues, such as sustainable development. Normally taking the form of universities or research institutions from the North and South working together, collaborations study a particular set of issues through a variety of activities through which both research partners pool their resources, share and co-create knowledge. This presentation focuses on one such example of a transboundary collaboration, the Sweden-Kenya Interactive Learning Lab (SKILLs), a collaboration between Gothenburg, Sweden, and Kisumu, Kenya, facilitated by Mistra Urban Futures. Starting as an exchange of PhD students between the two platforms in 2012, SKILLs has now developed into a collaboration programme with the overall aim of contributing to sustainable urban development in the two contexts. A mass of theoretical literature exists about how transboundary collaborations should be organised, how academics and practitioners might behave in its facilitation and how could be better facilitate. However, there is a lack of empirics which detail how transboundary collaborations are organised, how academics and PR actioners do behave and how activities are facilitated. Our evaluation seeks to address this gap through the evaluation of the SKILLs platform against the Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries’ (KFPE) 11 principles for transboundary research collaborations. The evaluation takes the form of semi-structured interviews with pervious and current platform managers, as well as key participants, including researchers and PhD students, in both contexts, with interviewees being asked to score the SKILLs platform against the 11 said principles. The evaluation is expected to add to the limited existing empirical knowledge about how the process of transboundary is enacted, and provide a point of consideration for the structural asymmetries, unspoken assumptions and operational constraints that can affect what is deemed successful within transboundary collaborations.
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