Comparative Urbanism and the ‘Asian City': Implications for Research and Theory

While voices in the comparative urbanism literature call for researchers to approach comparison with more experimental and critical methodologies, there remains no consensus on how to design and realize these studies. This essay examines the implications of comparative urbanism for researching the ‘Asian City'. Given the critique of existing modes of comparison embedded in recent calls for a new comparative urbanism, researchers are faced with a number of pressing questions: How do we approach this ‘regional' topic in a way that both resists categorizing the ‘Asian City' as an exotic ‘other', elevating it onto a mythical pedestal, yet appreciates its differences, localisms and unique ‘cosmopolitan vernacular' (Clifford, 1997; Werbner and Modood, 1997)? This essay thus highlights the multiple challenges of applying the comparative lens to the ‘Asian City', arguing that broader conceptualizations of the ‘Asian City' help to address the dangers in isolating Asian research into its own canon of parochial urban theory and offering a greater diversity of possibilities for justifying case selection in comparative approaches. In doing so, we hope that this essay responds to the comparative turn by illuminating to some extent its inherent complexity and methodological challenges.     

Placing the Urban Village: A Spatial Perspective on the Development Process of Urban Villages in Contemporary China

The rapid urbanization of China since the mid‐1980s has led to the development of a new spatial category, the urban village (chengzhongcun). The dominant neoliberal urban development regime approaches urban villages as a social, spatial, economic and political problem, and as targets for aggressive redevelopment and eradication policies. In this article, I propose a spatial perspective that makes use of several theoretical ‘anchors' to analyze the influence of urban village spatiality on its development process and to explore alternatives to the dominant redevelopment model. I begin by examining the spatial conceptualization of the urban village as a non‐place, arguing that this spatial reading undergirds the redevelopment‐by‐demolition model and tends to obscure alternative conceptualizations. I then move on to propose three alternative readings of urban village space, examining it as an everyday space, a liminal space and a neighborhood. Combining these three readings with the ‘non‐place' conceptualization provides a nuanced understanding of urban villages' unique spatial attributes and social roles, by evoking spatial and social processes that take place in most urban villages across China. Taken together, these spatial readings challenge the social and spatial rigidity of dominant representations of urban villages and supply a much‐needed spatially based conceptual framework that can be used to develop new urban planning models.     

基于熵权—模糊综合评价模型的城市土地集约利用评价——以广东省惠州市为例

进行城市土地集约利用评价对加强城市土地集约利用与管理具有重要意义,结合广东省惠州市城市发展现状,从土地投入强度、土地使用强度、土地使用效益和土地生态环境4个方面选取12项指标构建惠州市城市土地集约利用综合评价指标体系,采用熵权—模糊综合评价模型对惠州市2009—2013年城市土地集约利用情况进行综合评价,研究结果表明:(1)2009—2013年惠州市城市土地集约利用水平呈现先下降再上升的波动状态,2012年的水平为近5年最低值;(2)2013年惠州市城市土地集约利用水平虽有所改善,但从整体看,研究时段内集约利用水平都处在"较低~中等"等级。惠州市应该努力转变城市土地管理和利用方式,积极探索"低投入,高产出"的土地集约利用模式,大力发展循环经济,逐步实现城市土地配置科学化、布局合理化、使用高效化,进一步提高城市土地集约利用水平。     

Impact of commuting by workers on household dietary diversity in rural India

Drawing insights from the literature on transformation of rural non-farm employment, pathways from agriculture to nutrition, and linkages between migration and nutritional status of household, we seek to understand differences in dietary diversity across three mutually exclusive types of rural Indian households: where all members work in rural areas, at least one member commutes to urban areas, at least one member has no fixed place of work. Our analysis is based on a nationally representative data set from India for the year 2009–10 and we use propensity score matching methods. We find that as compared to households with no commuters, households with rural–urban commuters have higher dietary diversity; whereas households with no fixed place workers have lower dietary diversity. We also find differences in dietary diversity across households which differ by their primary source of income.     

我国城乡低保标准现状评估研究

我国城乡低保标准现状如何，为社会各界广泛关注。有人认为目前的城乡低保标准偏高，有人认为目前的城乡低保标准偏低，存在一定争议。对各省份2010年到2012年的城乡低保标准进行量化分析表明，我国城乡最低生活保障标准的替代率呈总体上升趋势，大致在合理区间；但城乡之间、地区之间的差距较大，不平衡问题突出，形势不容乐观。     

城市造林工程农户行为意向影响因素研究——以北京市平原造林工程为例

以北京市平原造林工程为例,利用典型项目区调查数据建立结构方程模型,探讨影响退耕农户行为意向的主要因素。结果表明:农户综合素质、家庭经济基础和农户土地依赖性对农户满意度和农户行为意向具有显著正向影响;同时,农户综合素质、家庭经济基础和农户土地依赖性还会通过农户满意度对农户行为意向产生影响。据此,后续城市造林过程中应进一步加强对农户满意度的服务工作,同时根据个体农户特征,对被征地农户在再就业、技能培训、农地补偿等方面开展更具针对性的服务工作。     

价值共创行为分析框架构建 ——基于赋能理论视角

通过文献调查并结合案例的描述性分析,提出数字技术时代价值网络中不同行为主体之间的赋能内涵、关键维度以及基于赋能跨层次效应的价值共创行为分析框架。将"赋能氛围""主体赋能"分别作为价值网络中赋能的宏观维度和微观维度进行概念化。界定了两个维度的关键组成要素,分别包括信息共享、开放性结构、协同规则以及主体关系、资源整合和影响。构建了赋能的跨层次效应模型,分析了赋能的宏观-微观跨层次效应及其对价值网络生态和主体价值创造的影响。     

城市家庭住房不平等:户籍、禀赋还是城市特征？——基于广义有序模型与Oaxaca-Blinder分解

基于中国劳动力动态调查（CLDS）数据，运用广义有序Logit模型实证分析户籍、家庭禀赋和城市特征三类因素对城市家庭住房不平等的影响；运用夏普利值分解、Oaxaca-Blinder分解区分"努力"和"环境"因素、户籍歧视和禀赋效应的贡献。研究发现：户籍可解释住房等级不平等的54.2%；"努力"因素对住房水平起正向作用；在户籍间住房等级不平等中户籍歧视效应占主导，在住房面积不平等中禀赋效应占主导，外地户口居民住房水平低源于"环境"因素趋弱，农业户口居民则源于"努力"和"环境"因素叠加趋弱；由于生活成本效应占主导，城市规模和流动人口占比越大，居民住房等级趋低，而城市土地供给增长有助于提升住房水平。     

Skyscrapers and the economy in Latin America

Skyscrapers are an intellectual challenge for urban analysis because of their imposing visual presence in the city landscape, and because of their environmental and real estate impacts. These characteristics however have not received much attention in the literature, particularly in analyses about Latin American cities. In this paper, we describe and test four theories about record-breaking buildings height: traditional microeconomic theory, game theory, business cycle, and global cities. We use a 2000–2012 panel database of 29 cities from 10 different Latin American countries, in order to contrast the contesting explanations about buildings’ height. We design a baseline model and then, using four different estimation techniques and diverse specifications, find that traditional theory and more strongly, global cities are good predictors of buildings’ height.     

城市三维形态与热环境的相关关系研究——以大连市金普新区为例

由城市各种实体空间结构所构成的三维形态是城市形态的重要组成部分。而城市的空间结构与城市空间环境的热场分布也有着密不可分的关系。本文运用地理信息系统与遥感技术,获取三维形态指标与地表温度,对各因子进行回归分析,建立城市空间形态热场分布研究的回归模型。分析了金普新区空间实体的占空度、错落度、建筑密度等空间形态对城市亮度温度的影响,发现占空度与城市亮温成正相关并且相关性较高,绿化率与亮温成负相关,而建筑密度与错落度对城市热场的影响较小。