Browsing by Subject "Urbanization"

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Advance in housing right or accumulation by dispossession? : how social housing is used as policy tool to promote neoliberal urban development in China and in Mexico
(2018-12) Chen, Yu, (Ph. D. in sociology); Ward, Peter M., 1951-; Roberts, Bryan R., 1939-; Charrad, Mounira M; Rodriguez, Nestor P; Eisenman, Joshua; Jimenez Huerta, Edith
Social housing is defined as the housing production supported by the public sector with the purpose of improving housing access and condition for low-income urban population. This dissertation discusses the social housing boom in China and in Mexico in 2000s and 2010s. I ask what motivates the governmental agenda to make and implement social policy for low-income populations in these two developing countries with very different political economies. Drawing on mixed-methods, this dissertation undertakes three levels of comparison. At the national level, social housing develops through different approaches in the two countries: a government-centered approach in China, and a market-centered approach in Mexico. The variations in these approaches are the result of the existing housing regime when the neoliberal transformation of housing and urban policy started in these two countries in the 1980s and 1990s. At the local level, local governments’ different roles in social housing development reflect their different urban agendas, which can be further attributed to the political and the land regimes in the two countries. Yet a common denominator of the two cases is the close alliance between the local governments with developers. Finally, at the community and household level, I argue that social housing in China and in Mexico does not represent an advance in housing rights for the low-income urban population, but rather a wave of accumulation by dispossession. I conclude that, in contrast to the post-war social housing development in advanced industrialized countries, in which the State acts as a force of de-commodification and social provider of essential services, social housing in China and in Mexico is used as a tool for the expansion of real estate and financial capital towards the urban low-income population. This leads us to rethink the nature of social policy in the neoliberal era: disguised as a form of “welfare”, it is used as a tool and venue to facilitate the advance of neoliberal projects such as financialization towards vulnerable social groups.
The Appearence of American-Influenced Homes in Mexico
(2023-05) Morales Puente, Lizet Yolanda
Globalization, migration, and urbanization are phenomena experienced across the globe, producing changes in people, cultures, and nations. One of these changes is the evolution of the materials and designs of houses. Within recent years there has been an increase in the number of American-influenced housing appearing in Mexico. This paper investigates how the primary building material for traditional Mexican houses, adobe, a sun-dried mud brick that is cheap and advantageous in the Mexican climate, has declined in use in favor of foreign materials such as concrete and cinder blocks. I also track the trend of US-inspired architectural stylings becoming more prevalent in Mexico. I also seek to understand the motivation behind homeowners deciding to transition away from traditional materials and designs when it comes to constructing new homes, and how the local community feels about their appearance in their own neighborhoods. This paper also discusses the various ways, including remittances and illicit financial streams, that these new homes are funded. In order to answer these questions, I focused on the small rural community of Moctezuma in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and interviewed homeowners and community members who live there. My interviews with the homeowners have led me to the conclusion that homeowners have built these houses for personal reasons, such as to provide support for their families or to act as a vacation or retirement home, but also that adobe is no longer the most inexpensive material in the market when compared to modern materials. I was surprised to find that community members are embracing this change in housing. In the end, the research showed that this shift in material and style in houses reflects how separate nations may exchange cultural ideas through immigration and economic connections.
Architectural Design and Urban Planning
(1988-10-03) Duany, Andres
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Los caballos de Troya de los invasores: estrategias campesinas en la conquista de la gran Lima
(1990) Adams, Norma; Golte, Jürgen
The city walls of Pompeii : perceptions and expressions of a monumental boundary
(2013-05) Van der Graaff, Ivo; Clarke, John R., 1945-; Davies, Penelope J. E., 1964-; Papalexandrou, Athanasio; Taylor, Rabun M.; Riggsby, Andrew M.; Thomas, Michael L.
Fortifications often represent the largest and most extensive remains present on archaeological sites. Their massive scale is the primary reason for their survival and reflects the considerable resources that communities invested in their construction. Yet, until recently, they have largely remained underrepresented as monuments in studies on the ancient city. Beyond their defensive function city walls constituted an essential psychological boundary protecting communities from unpredictable elements including war, brigandage, and more elusive natural forces. These factors have led scholars to identify fortifications as playing a distinct role in the definition of a civic identity. Nevertheless, beyond the recognition of some general trends, a definitive diachronic study of their performance within a single urban matrix is still lacking. This dissertation examines the city walls of Pompeii as an active monument rather than a static defensive enclosure. The city preserves one of the most intact set of defenses surviving since antiquity which, in various shapes and forms, served as one its defining elements for over 600 years. Pompeii’s fortifications, through construction techniques, materials, and embellishments, engaged in an explicit architectural dialogue with the city, its urban development, and material culture. Their basic framework changed in response to military developments, but their appearance is also the result of specific political and ideological choices. As a result, the city walls carried aesthetic and ideological associations reflecting the social and political organization of the community. This study is the first of its kind. It provides a diachronic examination of the Pompeian fortifications by assessing their role in the social and architectural definition of the city. The walls were subject to appropriation and change in unison with the ambitions of the citizens of Pompeii. From their original construction through subsequent modifications, the fortifications expressed multivalent political, religious, and social meanings, particular to specific time periods in Pompeii. This analysis reveals a monument in continuous flux that changed its ideological meaning and relationship to civic identity, in response to the major historical and social developments affecting the city.
Connecting backyard wildlife habitats in Austin, TX : case study of Wildlife Austin
(2009-12) Koone, Emily Anna; Dooling, Sarah
Urbanization is considered one of the leading threats to biodiversity and wildlife habitat (McKinney 2002; Shochat et al. 2006). Urban environments are humandominated systems, yet they support wildlife habitat and provide meaningful ecological functions. Methods to conserve biodiversity and minimize habitat loss and fragmentation in urban environments include utilizing private residential yards and gardens to enhance habitat connectivity. Private residential yards or gardens designed to attract and support wildlife are known as backyard habitats and wildlife gardens. The City of Austin, Texas initiated Wildlife Austin in 2007. Wildlife Austin coordinates backyard habitats in Austin as a National Wildlife Federation Community Wildlife Habitat [trademark]. My research analyzes the goals of the Wildlife Austin from the perspective of landscape ecology and urban ecology; reviews research related to backyard habitats in order to identify ways of enhancing habitat connectivity for bird communities; and provides recommendations for a more scientifically grounded approach and management in the promotion of backyard wildlife habitat.
The decline of traditional clientelist parties : the case of the Partido da Frente Liberal in Brazil
(2012-08) Lloyd, Ryan Samuel; Greene, Kenneth F., 1969-; Dietz, Henry
In this report, I analyze the worldwide decline of traditional clientelist political parties over the past century. To do this, I investigate the collapse of the Partido da Frente Liberal (PFL), a traditional clientelist party in Brazil who has experienced a rapid decline in support over the past decade. I argue that the PFL (renamed the Democratas in 2007) has entered a decline over the past decade because spending on social programs by the Brazilian federal government has reduced extreme poverty considerably over that same period. This reduction of poverty, in turn, has led many poor Brazilians to desert the PFL/D for parties such as the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT). I conduct multivariate statistical analysis on an original dataset to support my argument.
Donald Judd Guest Lecture
(1992-03-09) Judd, Donald
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Floating Pao in the Stream
(1991-02-28) Itō, Toyoo
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Highest & best use : strategies for growth management and agriculture and prairie conservation in the SH130 corridor
(2008-05) Abee-Taulli, Pamela Jo, 1960-; Butler, Kent S.
The population of central Texas is increasing rapidly, and urbanization and suburban development continue amid projections of unprecedented growth to come. How is this affecting the expanses of rich agricultural land and remaining scraps of Blackland Prairie upon which the agricultural industry of east central Texas was built? State Highway 130 is partially complete – providing an urban-area bypass intended to alleviate traffic on I35 between San Marcos and Georgetown. In view of the building of this new transit and development corridor to the east of I35, on the eastern edge of Austin, what can be done to preserve agriculture and native prairie on Austin’s urban fringe? In this PR, I examine this question in terms of two essential components: growth management and land conservation. There are numerous studies on the structures and efficacies of growth management tools and of land conservation strategies, but there is little discussion of the role of growth management in relation specifically to urban and urban-fringe agriculture. I begin with a literature review, surveying the current state of study and practice with regard to growth management and open space & agricultural land conservation. This is followed by a case study of state-level open space conservation policy in Georgia, from which I draw lessons relevant to my case. The next step is to frame the potential management and conservation policies presented win the literature review and case study within the context of local practices, thus narrowing the focus of analysis to the confines of my study area: an approximately 20-mile wide, 58-mile long corridor along a portion of SH130. To gauge the possibilities for management and conservation within the study area, I have produced a matrix of jurisdictions and policy options, and an inventory of vacant land. Using the matrix I analyze, on the one hand, the relevant legal codes available to each jurisdiction, and on the other hand, local attitudes toward growth and agriculture. The land inventory is a graphic presentation – through GIS mapping – of factors critical to the potential preservation of open space. The final operation is to sketch a larger proposal within which this study would fit as a preliminary step. Here I suggest an implementation plan, based on the Envision Central Texas model, and recommend directions for future research.
Identification and quantification of municipal water sources contributing to urban streamflow in the Austin, Texas area
(2013-05) Snatic, Jonathan Wells; Banner, Jay L.; Sharp, John Malcolm, Jr., 1944-
Previous studies have shown that municipal water can provide a substantial surface water and groundwater recharge source for the Edwards aquifer in central Texas. Knowledge of how water sources to urban watersheds change with urbanization is essential for sustainable water resource management. The range for 87Sr/86Sr values for Austin municipal water (0.7086–0.7094) is distinct from that of naturally occurring phreatic groundwater (0.7076-0.7079) and stream discharge in many rural watersheds (0.7077– 0.7084). Many streams in urbanized Austin watersheds have elevated 87Sr/86Sr values (0.7085–0.7088) relative to these rural streams. These differences demonstrate the potential for Sr isotopes to serve as a tracer of municipal water inputs to urban streamflow. A few urban streams and springs, however, have 87Sr/86Sr values higher than those of municipal water. Soil is the likely source of these elevated values. Spatial variability in the distribution of high 87Sr/86Sr soil and temporal variability in soil-exchangeable Sr contributions to groundwater may result in naturally high streamflow 87Sr/86Sr values, making the identification and quantification of municipal water as a streamflow source using Sr isotopes unreliable in some instances. Temporal variability in climatic conditions and resulting changes in effective moisture can result in distinct natural groundwater 87Sr/86Sr and Mg/Ca ratio variations, due to differences in overall groundwater residence times and water-rock interaction. Unlike natural water sources, municipal water inputs to urban watersheds peak during the summer (and periods of drought) when natural recharge inputs (precipitation) are minimal or nonexistent. Thus, proportions of natural vs. municipal water sources in the streamflow of some highly urbanized streams vary seasonally, resulting in distinct 87Sr/86Sr and Mg/Ca temporal trends, based on the recharge source. In some urban watersheds, municipal water appears to be a significant streamflow component during dry periods. However, temporal variation in natural Sr inputs to vadose and phreatic groundwater may result in the overestimation of municipal water contributions to streamflow and groundwater recharge during relatively wet periods.
John Kenneth Galbraith Guest Lecture
(1992-09-23) Galbraith, John Kenneth
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Kukeri : ritual and performance
(2012-05) Veltchev, Proletina Koitcheva; Mickey, Susan E.; Lewis, Anne
Kukeri is a documentary film investigating the Surva tradition performed in the Pernik region of Bulgaria. The film was shot in Bulgaria, in the winter of 2011/2012, over the course of three weeks, and will be completed in August of 2012. During this creation process, I acted as the creator, director, and guide, and facilitated an artistic process that was shared with my cinematographer, Drew Xanthopoulos. Surva is a ritual performance whose purpose is to chase away evil spirits, ensure a good harvest, health, and perpetuate the life cycle: birth, death, and rebirth. Much of the performance is strictly regulated by tradition and rooted in an agrarian society that is thousands of years old. The society is quickly changing due to urbanization and globalization, and this is having drastic effects on the tradition itself. Inspired by a sense of homesickness for my Bulgarian culture, this project was a study of the transitory aspects of cultural tradition. It assayed topics of ethnography, anthropology, and folk costume, but at its root were more complex topics of the value of cultural traditions and the effects of globalization on one of the oldest rituals in the world.
Michael Dennis Modern Campus Plan Lecture
(1990-02-28) Dennis, Michael
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Migration, ethnic economy and precarious citizenship among urban indigenous people
(2014-08) Bariola, Nino; Rodríguez, Néstor
This thesis contributes to our understanding of the impacts of political, social and economic dynamics of contemporary “free-market cities” on indigenous people that leave their traditional territories to settle on Latin American metropolises. The thesis examines the case of indigenous Shipibo migrants from the Amazon that have occupied in Lima, Peru a landfill site owned by the municipal government, and developed there a shantytown. The analyzes of the case sheds light on the innovative strategies that the Shipibo resort to in order to survive in the absence of formal jobs and social programs, and even despite recurrent threats to their social and cultural rights. Through the production of traditional handicraft, they collectively become ethnic entrepreneurs and enter the vast urban informal economy. Beside its interesting consequences for local politics and gender relations, this ethnic economic practice also becomes a way of group making and community building. After prolonged waits –during which the state appeared intermittently and with ambiguous messages–, the Shipibo finally face they most dreaded fear: eviction. Upon confronting this situation, and lacking the clientelistic networks in which Andean migrant peasants could count on in past decades, the Shipibo utilize a innovative repertoire of contained contention to appeal to the leftist municipal authority and thus articulate functional alliances with the goal of gaining land tenure.
New methods for quantifying and modeling estimates of anthropogenic and natural recharge : a case study for the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer, Austin, Texas
(2011-05) Passarello, Michael Charles; Pierce, Suzanne Alise, 1969-; Sharp, John Malcolm, 1944-; Cardenas, Bayani R.
Increased population and recent droughts in 1996 and 2009 for the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer have focused attention on groundwater resources and sustainability of spring flow. These springs serve as a local iconic cultural center as well as the natural habitat for the endangered Barton Springs salamander. In response to the potential compromise of these vulnerable groundwater resources, a two-dimensional, numerical groundwater-flow model was developed for the Barton Springs / Edwards Aquifer Conservation District and other governmental entities to aid in aquifer management. The objective of this study is to develop new methods of quantifying and distributing recharge for this model. The motivation for conducting this study includes the following: recent availability of more extensive data sets, new conceptual models of the aquifer system, and the desire to incorporate estimates of urban recharge. Estimates of recharge quantities and distributions for natural and artificial sources were implemented within this model to simulate discharge at Barton Springs and water-level elevations from January, 1999 to December, 2009. Results indicate that the new methods employed generated good agreement amongst simulated and observed discharge and water-level elevations (Root mean square error of 0.5 m3 sec-1 and 10.5 m, respectively). Additionally, these recharge calculations are decoupled from Barton Springs discharge which eliminates the circular logic inherent with the previous methodology. Anthropogenic, or artificial, recharge accounts for 4% of the total recharge between January, 1999 and December, 2009. Using observed data to quantify contributions from leaky utility lines and irrigation return flows, recharge estimates were completed with spatial and temporal resolution. Analyses revealed that on a month by month basis, anthropogenic contributions can vary from <1 to 59% of the total recharge. During peak anthropogenic recharge intervals, irrigation return flow is the most significant contributor. However, leakage from utility lines provides more total recharge during the study period. Recharge contributions from artificial sources are comparable to the mid-size watershed contributions over the ten-year analysis period. Urban recharge can be a critical source for buffering seasonal fluctuations, particularly during low flow periods. Outcomes are relevant for habitat conservation, drought response planning, and urban groundwater management.
Poder y conflicto social en el Valle del Mantaro, 1900-1974
(1974) Alberti, Giorgio; Sanchez Enriquez, Rodrigo
Power moves : Houston, Texas and the politics of mobility, 1950-1985
(2014-05) Shelton, Kyle Krumdieck; Green, Laurie B. (Laurie Beth); Jones, Jacqueline; Bsumek, Erika M.; Hoelscher, Steven D.; Melosi, Martin V.
This dissertation argues that between 1950 and 1985 a diverse collection of residents from the Houston, Texas metropolitan area used debates about the planning, construction, and meaning of transportation structures—primarily highways and mass transit systems—as opportunities to claim political power and to influence the future of their neighborhoods and city. As they contested these systems, Houstonians articulated competing notions of the politics of mobility. In addition to concrete political decisions about transportation, this term also encompasses the daily transportation decisions of Houstonians and the meanings those residents ascribed to the infrastructure that carried them across the city. The politics of mobility uniquely illuminates the intersection of politics, culture, and urban development in Houston. Who wielded the power to make choices about Houston’s transportation networks and how the balance of that power changed over time are central questions of this dissertation. Until the late 1950s and early 1960s, a collection of nearly all white and male elected officials, professional planners, and private developers held immense power over the city’s decision-making process, but never completely controlled it. The actions of citizens outside that group forced leaders to acknowledge, if rarely embrace, the perspectives that citizens held about transportation and the politics of mobility. By the mid-1970s, aided by changes in federal oversight and citizen participation regulations, as well as by their own assertions of political power, an increasingly diverse set of Houstonians—African American, ethnic Mexican, and white, urban and suburban, rich and poor—possessed more influence over the city’s transportation choices. By engaging in these debates, Houstonians challenged the city’s racial, economic, and decision-making status quo. The choices made in Houston’s struggle over the placement of highways and the creation of a public transit authority sheds light onto the foundations of Houston’s unique built environment and offers a model for understanding similar forces at work in other auto-centric southern and western, “Sunbelt” cities, such as Los Angeles and Atlanta. Further, these conflicts illuminate why older cities in the Northeast and Midwest and younger ones in the West and the South developed such divergent urbanization patterns and transportation practices.
Quantifying the role of agriculture and urbanization in the nitrogen cycle across Texas
(2012-05) Meyer, Lisa Helper; Yang, Zong-liang; Dickinson, Robert E.; Breecker, Daniel O.
Over-enrichment of nutrients in coastal waters has been a growing problem as population growth has enhanced agricultural and industrial processes. Enhanced nitrogen (N) fluxes from land to coast continue to be the result of over fertilization and pollution deposition. This over-enrichment of nutrients has led to eutrophication and hypoxic conditions in coastal environments. This study was conducted along the Gulf of Mexico, through the state of Texas, in order to quantify all agricultural and industrial sources of N in a region which contains a large precipitation gradient, three major metropolitan areas, and one of the top livestock industries in the United States. Nitrogen inputs from fertilizer, livestock, crop fixation, and oxidized deposition from both dry and wet atmospheric processes were quantified and compiled into a Texas Anthropogenic N Budget (TX-ANB). In addition, comparisons and regional enhancements were made to the Net Anthropogenic Nitrogen Input dataset (NANI toolbox), which is a national dataset developed at Cornell University by Hong et al. [2011]. These enhancements ultimately will help understand the full pathways of anthropogenic influences on coastal systems in a regional setting. All three datasets (NANI, NANI Regional, and TX-ANB) indicate agriculture to be the primary contributor to the N cycle in Texas, with TX-ANB showing 38% of inputs from fertilizer, 37% of inputs from livestock, and 2% of inputs from legumes. N input due to atmospheric deposition of oxidized N clearly highlights urban areas, indicating a strong influence of urbanization on the N cycle due to anthropogenic impacts; 23% of N input in Texas is the result of deposition of oxidized N. Quantification of inputs spatially indicates a strong enhancement of N from human influence in the coastal plain where nutrient export is heightened by major storm events. This enhancement of N along a coastal drainage area will likely have a negative impact on downstream environments.
(Re)constructing a Brazilian model city : discourses of exceptionalism in making and imagining Curitiba, 1900-1945
(2013-12) Ross, Evan Mark; Garfield, Seth, 1967-
My dissertation examines the putative success of Curitiba, the Brazilian capital of Paraná, and seeks to understand how it came to be touted as the model city of Brazil. The standard explication for Curitiba’s success credits the power of a single city agency, the Urban Planning and Research Institute of Curitiba (IPPUC), and the vision of its first president, Jaime Lerner. According to this narrative, in 1971 IPPUC formalized a broad urbanistic vision for the city’s growth and initiated projects aimed at improving traffic congestion, expanding green space, and increasing city and social services. I argue that the narrative of the institute’s contributions provide an incomplete genealogy of Curitiba’s success. It fails to examine the historical context of the city’s status and does not consider the significance of publicity campaigns in sustaining this image. Also, IPPUC’s story is not only tendentious but derivative. My historical research shows how IPPUC has rearticulated longstanding tropes that celebrate the region’s unique characteristics -such as Curitiba’s edenic cityscape and its European social composition- and has recycled deterministic arguments related to race, ethnicity, and geography. My dissertation demonstrates that exceptionalist discourses have circulated for more than a century. I trace these claims from the 1880s to the 1940s and investigate how and why they changed over time. I show that politicians first initiated efforts to promote the region at the turn of the twentieth century to attract European colonists. Over the next fifty years, politicians, elites, and intellectuals forwarded new claims that positioned Curitiba and Paraná as ideal locations for economic and social development. Planning specialists from around the world have closely studied Curitiba’s urban development, but in their analyses they have largely failed to consider the intellectual and social constructs that undergird this story of progress. My dissertation focuses on century-old celebratory claims about Curitiba and reveals the epistemological roots of the current explications of the city’s success.