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Newly created spaces are subject to surveillance and control due to the fact that ensuring that urban spaces are viewed as safe is one of the key priorities for regeneration agencies (Raco, 2003). One such space is the Millennium Quarter in Manchester, which comprises a number of public and private spaces, all of which are policed. This paper draws on data from interviews with various patrollers including a police officer, a private security guard and street wardens. All of these individuals expressed the view that the presence of youths was problematic. An important question here is: why are youths seen as problematic or threatening in such spaces? This question will be answered using the Millennium Quarter and its dominant users (teenagers) as an example.

The purpose of this paper is to interrogate the fate of landfills as waste disposal option in Accra. This becomes imperative since for a long time, efficient disposal of waste remains a neglected issue and potential source environmental hazard.

The study adopted content analysis of literature, in-depth interview schedules with key stakeholders and direct field observations.

Landfills in Accra are in a state of ambivalence due to mismanagement. Improper designing and siting of dumpsites, often in close proximity to water sources and human settlements have created aesthetic and odour nuisances and increase health risks, attracting the wrath, disaffection and distrust of residents.

The study provides an insight into broader issues of landfills and demonstrates Accra's vulnerability to health hazard due to improper waste disposal, which becomes apparent with the least downpour and the subsequent flooding which exposes most drains as de facto receptacles for waste.

From all indications, Accra appears to be on the brink of a landfill void. Though this issue has been an open secret since 2000, it remains unattended to till date and calls for an immediate, well-planned and concerted attention.

This paper adopts qualitative research techniques to delve into a subject matter whose implication has citywide consequences. The method allows for in-depth assessment of the intent and commitment of all key stakeholders, which brings to the fore that landfills will no longer be the cheapest or simplest waste disposal option.

The purpose of this paper is to test critical conservation approaches through conceptual architectural interventions that integrate the evolution of a significant urban building, the Temple of Dagan in Ugarit, the capital of an important Bronze Age civilisation in Syria, with the pre-existing phases of the site and offer a paradigm for the presentation of the city’s evolution. This reflection aims to investigate how far the remaining fabric can frame the original architectural experience of the place allowing the visitors of the ruins to contextualise the architectural development of the temple.

A detailed reading of archaeological reports and the French mission’s architectural interpretation as well as in situ surveys and architectural and urban analyses were carried out to inform this conservation reflection, which primarily explores the potential of critical conservation approaches for key architectural interventions. The main vehicle is a virtual reconstruction approach to probe the proposed critical conservation principles and their success in highlighting the stratigraphy of a site.

The work shows that critical conservation approaches can make a distinct contribution to the understanding of the ruins; in particular, the virtual approach can handle effectively the presentation of the intangible experience of the temple (original processional routes) and its archaeological stratigraphy.

The poor condition of the temple, being exposed for more than 80 years after excavation, have limited further architectural analysis as some evidence is confusing to read in situ. The pre-conservation analysis, therefore, was based more on the archaeological mission’s work, which is comprehensive.

The reconstitution of the temple’s architectural layers in a coherent narrative will have educational value as it will highlight the development of architectural perception and techniques during the Bronze Age. Debate on the application of such tools by managers of the site may enhance the visitors’ appreciation of the ruins. The digital output itself constitutes an engaging material that enhances the public understanding of the site and its rich stratigraphy.

The study is the first attempt to constitute an architectural experience out of the confusing ruins integrating the archaeological evidence in the frame of contemporary conservation and architectural design. As one of the predominant urban artefacts in Ugarit, the Temple of Dagan witnessed at least a millennium of the city’s history and thus the conservation strategy of its intense development and stratification reflects the whole city.

Aims to outline a theoretical and methodological framework for the understanding, design, assessment and benchmarking of knowledge cities (KCs) based on social knowledge capital accounts as common ground for interdisciplinary work between KM and the established field of urban studies and planning. The evolution of urban regions throughout history is analyzed from the perspective of value systems. Under this perspective, the basic configuration of human urban settlements is seen to evolve as the forms of production of social value have done. Alternative concepts of KCs are then discussed, allowing the distinction of three stages of development. Based on this distinction, some critical levels of KC analysis as well as some specific dimensions of urban capital are identified. The requirements for a formal structure of KC capital system are then established as a criterion to identify and value the knowledge accounts of urban regions, specifically in the form of KBD indicators. A taxonomy of capital accounts for KCs – the core part of this work – is introduced and main categories described. Based on these capital accounts, the future of cities is perceived as carrying some critical discontinuities in developmental dynamics. Specifically some breaking points which seem to be implicit and embrionic in any third‐stage KC are discussed. KBD emerges as a disruptive approach that may contribute to overcome the exhaustion of the industrial city and therefore the inertial carry over of its decadence into the future and potentially leapfrog urban regions into the next‐level of communitary value systems.

Imagine, for a moment, human settlements that are organised to overcome and withstand earthquakes or hurricanes, infrastructures that reinforce themselves and seal cracks of their own accord, or buildings that elevate themselves during flooding. Imagine settlements that provide information systems that warn when a tsunami is approaching, or when houses are overburdened and may be liable to imminent collapse due to landslides, fire or other hazards. Such human settlements would secure the livelihood of all their inhabitants, empowering them to cope and deal with natural threats. As with a living organism, these settlements would adjust their social, political and economic systems in such a rapid way that they can account for damage, effect repairs, learn from experience, and retire - urbanely - once they can no longer fulfil their protective and defensible function.

Researchers have generally compared council-manager municipalities against mayor-council forms when seeking to measure the efficiency gains envisioned by early twentieth century reformers. Many studies have used per capita expenditure levels of municipalities as a proxy for efficiency, associating lower spending levels with greater efficiency. This study utilizes the “Adapted Cities Framework” advocated by Frederickson, Johnson, and Wood (2004) which classifies municipalities into five, rather than two, institutional types to analyze per capita expenditure data from a national survey of 1,000 small municipalities. Using OLS regression and other statistical analyses, the authors demonstrate that there is a significant difference between the per capita expenditure levels of the five city types. As municipalities more closely conform to the pure reformed councilmanager model of government, higher per capita expenditure levels are evidenced.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss the development and the structure of a new international master on the subject of urban quality development and management (UQDM), and explore the potential of the process and the outcome in serving as models adoptable by faculty at other universities.

The study has been carried out as action research. Using innovation and user‐producer interaction as the framework, the authors present the development process; the structure, contents and methodology of the programme; and report on their research findings.

UQDM is dependent on human resource development, institutionalised networks and confident exchange of knowledge, and must identify and incorporate multiple environmental, social, economic and cultural aspects. The authors find that at the core of innovative societies, an interlinkage exists between practice (business, civil society, governance) and theory (research, education). The case illustrates how a new curriculum takes time to develop and implement and how it relies on confidence and trust between partners, in this case cities and universities, before being able to plant the seed for a sustainable response to the needs of city administrations. University consortia may be particularly useful as providers of a broad framework and an enabling setting in which diffusion of innovation can occur.

The paper presents a successful approach to developing new curricula. Basing itself on user‐producer interaction within the framework of innovation and innovation theory, the programme addresses urban quality through a multi‐disciplinary and inter‐institutional collaboration between city administrations and universities. Per se, the approach is easily replicable but will require time, effort and dedication by all involved, both during development and in later execution.

The paper reports on a new, unique programme and further places the development of the curriculum and the curriculum itself explicitly in the context of user‐producer interaction and with innovation as the framework. While this framework is widely used both descriptively and prescriptively in product development, it has seemingly yet to be applied extensively for other types of developments, including university educations.

The purpose of this paper is to survey water-governance issues impacting women in Mexico and steps that have been taken to rectify the issues, including factors that impact the success of such ventures.

Various major academic databases were searched for material pertaining to the issue of water management and gender in Mexico, such as EBSCOHost and JSTOR. Both global and regional concerns were a factor in this search. Material was considered on the basis of its recency, academic import, and specificity.

The review finds that though gender has become a primary concern in addressing water management and other environmental issues, debate has occurred as to whether a perspective of gender mainstreaming or gender-specific projects is preferable in addressing this issue. Although success in implementing gender mainstreaming has been attained by several major organizations, there does not yet exist conclusive evidence that this approach yields desired results.

Information about the efficacy of water access programs is not always available and it is frequently inaccurate. Therefore, much information used in this review takes the form of observations about water policy and its efficacy in regard to gendered approaches.

Women and girls are unevenly affected by a lack of access to water, as it is typically women who bear the brunt of managing household water, and they are more significantly impacted by lacking hygiene facilities.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the contours of futures studies that override the ethnocentric epistemological limitations of present studies, which are mono‐civilizational and extrapolations from Western experience.

The paper shows by empirical and conceptual means the inadequacy of present futures studies – based partly on alleged American exceptionalism – which limit the imagination of futurists. The paper then uses a different philosophical base, namely Buddhist process philosophy, which puts change at its inner core to develop a new perspective.

The paper finds that the alleged American exceptionalism is based on founding myths and ground realities not necessarily present in other countries. Huntington and others evoked the role of civilizations before the rise of Asia was being fully noticed. Current US dominance is illustrated to some extent by “everywhere is America”, but in a reverse direction “everywhere is in America” as the world implodes back on the USA through migration and through globalization.

The approach suggested in the paper will provide a more penetrating epistemology for future studies than hitherto ad hoc approaches.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of contemporary architecture in heritage protection, reinterpretation and reuse, an issue that has become increasingly relevant due to the recognition of architectural heritage as a key factor for cultural and economic development.

In Portugal, as elsewhere in Europe, cultural heritage management has often been associated with the creation of new museum spaces, namely, within national monuments and archaeological sites. Drawing on restoration theories and international charters, this paper analyses and compares two parallel interventions recently built inside São Jorge Castle, in Lisbon: the Museum Centre (Victor Mestre and Sofia Aleixo, 2007-2008) and the Archaeological Site (João Luís Carrilho da Graça, 2008-2010). This approach offers insight on the complexity of addressing and reconfiguring the profusion of past transformations within a single monument.

These two complementary museum spaces are representative of different attitudes towards heritage appropriation, substantiating the thesis that musealizing always entails the creation of narratives, which translate history and heritage into architectural and curatorial discourses. Besides meeting the functional requirements of specific museum programmes, such interventions frequently deal with the challenge of opening up new perspectives on the past.

Considering the central role of communication in contemporary museums, this paper discusses how heritage musealization can contribute to the translation of historical evidence into updated iconographies, narratives and dialogues. Furthermore, the unique characteristics of this twofold case study can provide an insightful contribution for a broader debate on the reinterpretation of iconic monuments and sites.