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July 16, 2008

Nowheresville, China. pop.5m.

Hefei Welcome to China's backwater - population five million

Hefei is nowheresville. Even in China, lots of people have never heard of it. China has witnessed such rapid growth in the last decade that even the cities you've never heard of are twice the size of Paris.

"As with so many Chinese cities, half of Hefei is a building site. So the drive from the airport will take you through rubble-strewn streets that, in the rains of last month, lay half submerged by great puddles of oily, brown water. [...]To say Hefei is nondescript is unfair not just its residents but to a hundred similar cities across China. "

 

April 28, 2008

Pitfalls in paradise

Why Palm Jumeirah is struggling to live up to the hype.

Palmdub Low-paid workers and villa gripes cast a cloud over 'eighth wonder of the world' in Dubai.

" ...this is no picture-book desert island. Its size is the most arresting characteristic for newcomers. An eight-lane motorway is at the Palm's trunk, and each frond is a mile long. Meanwhile, there is yet more expansion, with 40 hotels being built on the breakwater. [...] A nagging guilt for some is the quality of life of the migrant construction workers who built all this. Most are from India and Bangladesh and they travel in bus convoys from labour camps in the desert each morning. "

April 21, 2008

living hope in the city: shaping local urban communities

6th Biennial National Consultation on Urban Ministry JULY 2008

Sa_003 The Biennial Consultation on Urban Ministry, hosted in Pretoria, South Africa, by the Institute for Urban Ministry, has become an important meeting place for people who are deeply committed to their cities. Download ium_consulation_flyer.pdf

The Consultation is preceded by the meeting of the Society for Urban Theology Download SUT2008.doc

March 26, 2008

Expanding urban learning

The latest newsletter from the Ecologies of Urban Learning program at NYTS.

NymapGentrification, depression, Harlem and more.

Download eol_newsletter_volume_2_issue_2_hot_off_the_press.htm

March 22, 2008

Ghetto fabulous

Alex Bellos in New Statesman

Scarred by violence and political repression, Brazil's shanty towns have responded with an outpouring of Brafroreggae_2 art, music and film. But as "favela chic" becomes all the rage in the west are we in danger of glamorising slum life?

" Usually, the noise that governs favelas is the sound of gunfire. What you hear in AfroReggae is a sonic revolt: the regime of sounds that were suffocated by bullets returning to be heard. There are many different sounds . . . it's not a cacophony but an aesthetic posture intimately linked to an experience of favela life."

SUCCESS AND THE CITY

Learning from International Urban Policy

Latest Policy Exchange report

Logo "Collectively, the message from these cities is clear: the most successful have the powers and ambition to initiate change, the freedoms to think and be innovative with policy, and the mechanisms to hold local change to account. Giving cities powers alone, however, cannot buck geography. The most successful also benefit strongly from their location, size and accessibility, and these are sometimes difficult areas to bring within the bounds of policy."

March 12, 2008

SCUPE Congress on Urban Ministry 2008

Advancing God's Reign in Our Cities  CONFERENCE BROCHURE 15-18  April  2008    Chicago

Chicago_024_2The Congress on Urban Ministry, organised by SCUPE - the Seminary Consortium on Urban Pastoral Education ,  is a biennial event of Christians engaged in and passionate about urban ministry.  This year the Congress will be focusing on Creating Redemptive Communities, Releasing Prophetic Imagination through Story, and Engaging in Justice, Reconciliation and Restoration.

March 10, 2008

"An unsuccessful city has closed its mind to the future."

Cities on the edge of chaos

Image1_2 Deyan Sudjic, co-editor of Endless City, asks if the city of the future will be a vision of hell or a force for civilised living?
"Cities are made by an extraordinary mixture of do-gooders and bloody-minded obsessives, of cynical political operators and speculators. They are shaped by the unintended consequences of the greedy and the self-interested, the dedicated and the occasional visionary."

"We need more than platitudes" Jonathan Meades reviews Endless City

January 28, 2008

What's it like to live or work in a Le Corbusier building?

The pearl of the Punjab

Chand Chandigarh, built on the baking plains of northern India, is one of Le Corbusier's greatest achievements. But does the city deserve World Heritage status?‘Le Corbusier designed Chandigarh for people: there are cycle tracks for the poor and playgrounds for the children. The architecture is really neat and clean, with green space and buildings in balance. People from outside do not think it is India.'   

Sayonara, salaryman

From The Economist print edition

Japan_thurssat4_002 Once the cornerstone of the economy, the paternalistic relationship between Japan's companies and their salaried employees is crumbling.

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