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The purpose of this paper is to analyse urban transformation as a tourism resource. Tourism is undeniably a powerful motor for urban transformation but in return, urban transformation can represent a resource for actors related to tourism. More precisely this paper focuses on one major transformation of modern cities: gentrification.

The central hypothesis of this paper is that gentrification accompanies tourism, but that gentrification itself may also become an object of the tourist gaze. The paper focuses on local guides and small touristic entrepreneurs in order to identify the tensions that might arise. The presentation of two guided tours – “Subculture Brixton Nightlife Tour” and “Where Brooklyn At?” – will enable us to explore how the gentrification of Brixton (London) and Brooklyn (New York) may be used as a tourism resource for local private entrepreneurs.

Results presented here are based on ethnographic methods such as observation as well as content analysis and semi-directive interviews. Mobilising the historical concept of “slumming”, this paper proposes an extended conceptual framework, “neo-slumming”, to analyse evolving tourism practices in modern cities, practices that are considered here as tourism’s new frontiers.

However, as tourism transforms cities, the process itself is now of interest to tourists and thus becomes a resource for sector businesses (Naef, 2018). Yet studies about the touristification of urban transformation are still quite rare. This analysis aims to fill this gap by looking at the way a process, such as some spectacular, rapid or radical transformation of the urban fabric, can become a touristic resource associated with specific narratives and representations. In this context, the tourist gaze (Urry, 2002) is directed on a resource characterised by its ongoing change.

Externalization that became prominent in 1980s with the globalization brought along dramatic changes in social and spatial areas. The social, cultural and economic events that took place on an international level thanks to globalization made the impact of change felt which was reflected on the urban space and, therefore, on the house, resulting in an increase in the importance of the residential sector. Externalization and developed economic structure enabled more investments into houses which introduced a concept of housing populated in urban fringes starting from the city centers. The housing concept which was shaped by the impacts of the urban transformation after 1980 turned into a new emerging lifestyle in Istanbul in 2000s. Accordingly, the study aims to establish the position of housing in Istanbul and new meanings formed by the socio-cultural changes. In this sense, housing before and after 1980, globalization, gentrification, urban transformation, spatial segregation, socio-economic and cultural aspects were discussed based on the structural benchmarks, and 4 different housing forms, namely the “Loft”, “Residence”, “Terraced House”, and “Gated Communities”, with individual structural examples. This study, thus, aims to question the form of tenancy of these houses created through varying concepts and concerns today. The results obtained showed that the housing as an indicator of cultural life in Istanbul has turned into a lifestyle that is shaped by similar aspects and commercial concern, despite different approaches or production forms, eliminating the traces of the cultural life of the society.

Studies showed that a proactive delivery system employing innovative artificial intelligence (AI) in urban services might perform better. This has become an important national policy for many countries. Thus, this study aims to explore the influence of AI in urban services in Malaysia.

Official documents such as Structure Plan and Government Transformation Programme Policy Document covering various levels of cities in Malaysia, articles related to urban studies mostly written by researchers regarding urban growth in Malaysia and the Urban Development Bulletin from the Federal Department of Town and Country Planning from 1957 to date were reviewed and analysed.

The findings show that the influence of AI in urban services has long existed and been carefully planned by local authorities since colonial times. The development of global digital technology influences the upgrading of AI in urban services in Malaysia. Also, the success of AI in these municipal services is influenced by the rate of information technology literacy among the urban population. These developments have led to the definition of a conceptual city.

This paper's findings and conclusion were based on reviewed literature but did not compromise the strength of this paper. Thus, as part of the implications for future research, mixed-methods research design has been suggested.

As part of the implications, this article intends to promote AI in urban services in Malaysia and other developing countries with similar urban services challenges.

This paper encourages AI applications in urban services because it enhances service delivery performance. This intends to key stakeholders to promote AI via policies across Malaysia's urban services as part of the study implications.

China’s capital Beijing is a special case of fast urbanization and monocentric development, resulting in major efforts to implement polycentric structures. The purpose of this paper is thus centered on understanding the phenomenon of an established edge city and the level of integration regarding all daily activities of its residents.

Since the end of the 20th century, Chinese cities have been witnessing rapid urban growth and expansion. One of the major planning challenges has been the implementation of polycentric urban structures to enforce integrated urbanism and thus less dependency on commuting to few main commercial and business centers. The methodological approach includes various mapping efforts and field studies to investigate the currently produced urban landscape and highlight the rather challenging reality of edge cities being produced in a very short period of time.

This paper explores one of Beijing’s biggest edge cities, known as the Yizhuang Development Area, which was created by an investment initiative of the municipal government. The city has been developed with a strong focus on functional planning aspects rather than a dynamic diversification of walkable districts with emerging identities.

This investigation attempts to add some new insights into the contemporary urbanism in Chinese edge cities and the general problem of missing urban design initiatives to enhance the overall urban quality of diversity and social interaction.

Asian cities have witnessed changes in the urban landscape and social behaviour in the past decades. As a result of a continuous transformation of urban centres, the sense of place is often subdued by a global culture and imagery that may have impacted the people’s perception and experience of the city. This paper dwells into the urbanites’ relationship with historical urban places in the context of Kuala Lumpur city, Malaysia. Based on a qualitative inquiry, this paper presents the way in which these places shape the perception, knowledge, emotion, and memory of the urbanites. Findings indicate that urbanites’ experience, role, length of association, and age provided varying reactions that defined the attachment, knowledge, and memory about the places. Place attachment was reflected in the economic and cultural dependency on the places. The cultural significance of the place was manifested in its diversity within the colonial, multi-cultural, and multi-ethnic identity. Thus, reinterpretation of culture and tradition should take into consideration the continuity of place legacy, heritage, and sociocultural values. Despite the urbanites’ strong identification and knowledge of the built heritage, preserving place identity is a challenging task due to the complexity of the physical environment and the urban life.

The purpose of this paper is to bring a new perspective on the meaning of resilience in Indonesia’s main urban settlement type, known as kampung. The paper reviews kampung in major urban centres in Indonesia, but focuses on a case study of Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city. Despite effectively accommodating the majority of Surabaya’s population, kampung inhabitants are stigmatised and kampung are viewed as slum-like habitats. Such a pejorative view neglects to consider the importance of kampung and ignores their inherent and potential resilience. It is important to study both the risks and resilience of kampung so that they can be developed to address social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities in Southeast Asian cities.

A comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify the risks and resilience of kampung. Key themes were mapped from the literature and used to construct a framework for understanding and enhancing resilience within this distinctive vernacular settlement type. In addition, a place-based approach constructed from remote sensing and field studies provide a deeper understanding of the structure of this urban settlement type.

Kampung play an important role in housing the majority of Surabaya’s population and are an intrinsic part of the city’s urban structure. The characteristics and conditions of kampung vary throughout Indonesia. Surabaya has a variety of kampung types which demonstrates distinctive forms of both risk and resilience. This research finds that there are many positive dimensions of kampung and that this vital form of settlement is well suited to support the growth and sustainability of Southeast Asia’s emerging megacities.

This paper evaluates the current state of knowledge on risk and resilience of kampung within Surabaya. To gain a clearer understanding of why kampung are resilient, long-term field work and deeper analysis of kampung, in particular the social and physical structures, are needed.

Planning for high-density urban development needs to integrate kampung as a part of existing and new urban settlements to accommodate diverse populations.

This paper demonstrates that knowledge on kampung resilience is relevant to the adaptation of existing urban settlements and the future development of new urban settlements. This paper contributes a clearer understanding of why kampung in Surabaya are not slums and establishes a framework that supports the development of kampung as a resilient and functional settlement type in current and future urban developments. Considering the large and rapidly growing populations who depend on kampung in the Southeast Asian region, this research is of considerable significance.

The term New Normal has become a buzzword to describe the anticipated changes in human life across the globe due to the impact of COVID-19. The paper's purpose is challenging the surrender for the notion of the “New Normal” and constructing a framework by which a call for understanding the practice of architecture, urbanism and city planning before the COVID-19 and contest its responsibility towards the city and the community.

Methodologically, literature review, analysis of emerging positions and interviews are the selected tools for conducting the research. The paper adopts a position perceiving COVID-19 has provided an opportunity for reflections and revisions about the way people dwell on Earth. The paper aims at analyzing the positive impacts of COVID-19 in sociological and urban perspective.

Consequently, the main finding of the paper, calls for reviving the forgotten normal in the way places, neighborhoods and cities are designed and planned. Lessons learned from the lockdown time and the actions taken will be analyzed with special attention to Gulf States.

In months, New Normal developed as the most used expression since the spread of the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic marked the year 2020 with one of the biggest public health crises of all time, threatening to take away millions of lives. It is already initiating a massive economic crisis, triggering further negative consequences for human life, wellbeing and lifestyle. Numerous researchers illustrate that through history, humans faced the challenges of epidemics and pandemics and were able to use their will, capacities, resources and courage to resist and survive.

Pandemics such as COVID-19 have caused a critical reassessment of urban spaces. This paper examines the city's relationship to concepts such as the individual, society, creativity, production and power to understand the causes and effects of urbanization. Cities, especially the globally significant ones – such as Wuhan, Milan, Madrid, Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles – are disproportionally affected. Thus, the pandemic is evolving into an urban crisis, forcing us to reconsider our deeply held beliefs about good city form and the purpose of planning.

The nature of the architectural, urban and planning theory and practice, is responsible for looking ahead, formulating visions and offering alternatives. Consequently, the methodological approach adopted in the paper is structured on three main pillars. First, observing, monitoring, and provide diagnosis (what we learned from isolation). Second, understanding the local, regional and global context as the COVID-19 crisis creates a ripple of change on all levels and requires both global and local understanding. Third, formulating visions and looking ahead

Suffering from epidemics and pandemics is new to our time and our contemporary experience but not new to the history of humankind. Revisiting the concepts of the New Normal vs. the Forgotten Normal and use the outcomes to construct an alternative framework for producing places in the post COVID-19 paradigm crystalize the value and originality of the paper.

In 2009, Malaysia saw a unique approach to public service improvement. The National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) was designed to enhance governmental performance by breaking down silos across ministries so that resources could be pooled and a leap in value of service is secured. This paper aims to examine the extent to which the NBOS has catalysed inter-agency collaboration and delivered improvements to public services.

The study adopts a qualitative approach drawing on data collected through semi-structured individual interviews with key informants complemented with information from other sources. The interview evidence has been triangulated with those obtained through group discussions, personal observations and review of official records and publications.

The paper shows that despite some teething problems, the NBOS has performed commendably. It has made notable inroads in promoting cross-agency collaboration, demonstrating evidence of improved service delivery and cost savings for the government. In short, it has produced results in areas where previous reforms have performed poorly.

The paper adds to the limited literature on collaborative management in developing countries. The Malaysian experience suggests that leadership and commitment at the highest level, an effective governance structure, participation of key actors at various stages and a blend of top-down and bottom-up approaches to project development and management are among the critical success factors for a collaborative approach.