Based on historical case studies in Chicago, John J. Betancur and Janet L. Smith focus both the theoretical and practical explanations for why neighborhoods change today. As the authors show, a diverse collection of people including urban policy experts, elected officials, investors, resident leaders, institutions, community-based organizations, and many others compete to control how neighborhoods change and are characterized. Betancur and Smith argue that neighborhoods have become sites of consumption and spaces to be consumed. Discourse is used to add and subtract value from them. The romanticized image of "the neighborhood" exaggerates or obscures race and class struggles while celebrating diversity and income mixing. Scholars and policy makers must reexamine what sustains this image and the power effects produced in order to explain and govern urban space more equitably.

In an effort to make neighborhoods compatible with 21st century ideals, Talen has produced a singular resource for understanding what is meant by neighborhood--a multi-dimensional, comprehensive view of what neighborhoods signify, how they're idealized and measured, and what their historical progression has been.

Presents a political analysis of the U.S. welfare system as a site of politics for recipients

The present book analyzes the relationship between internal migration, urbanization and democratization in Spain during the period of General Francisco Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975) and Spain's transition to democracy (1975-1982). Specifically, the book explores the production and management of urban space as one form of political and social repression under the dictatorship, and the threat posed to the official urban planning regimes by the phenomenon of mass squatting (chabolismo). The growing body of recent literature that analyzes the role of neighborhood associations within Spain's transition to democracy, points to the importance and radicalism of associations that formed within squatters' settlements such as Orcasitas in Madrid, Otxarkoaga in Bilbao or Somorrostro and el Camp de la Bota in Barcelona. However, relatively little is known about the formation of community life in these neighborhoods during the 1950s, and about the ways in which the struggle to control and fashion urban space prior to Spain's transition to democracy generated specific notions of democratic citizenship amongst populations lacking in prior coherent ideological commitment.

This book explores how and why civic spaces are used by different communities in Asia and what role urban governance and public participation play in the support or demise of communities. Using case studies of contemporary city life throughout, the contributors provide insights into the importance and value of civic space, arguing that civic spaces provide not only the physical sites for civil society to function autonomously; but also provide a sense of place in the form of identity, meaning, memory, history and linkages with the wider world. Each chapter focuses on the production of and access to civic spaces in a particular Asian city, as well as examples of successes and failures that can inform urban policy regarding inclusive, tolerant and socially vibrant city life through focused attention on the provision and continuity of civic space. This book is designed to provide information to policymakers, researchers and students of the developing world regarding the importance and value of civic space in terms of creating and supporting urban communities. As such, The Politics of Civic Space in Asia will be an invaluable resource for those interested in urban planning, urban design, public policy and political science, as well as Asian studies more generally.

Explores the conditions that shape whether and how citizens in rural India make claims on the state for social welfare.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the Second International ICST Conference on Sensor Systems and Software, S-Cube 2010, held in Miami, Florida, USA, in December 2010. The 17 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected and cover a wide range of topics including sensor application programming paradigms, novel sensor applications, sensor network middleware, trust security and privacy, wireless sensor network management and monitoring, and sensor application development support systems.