Cities, Networks, and Global Environmental Governance

Author: Sofie Bouteligier
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415537517
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 262

Book Description
As a result of global dynamics--the increasing interconnection of people and places--innovations in global environmental governance haved altered the role of cities in shaping the future of the planet. This book is a timely study of the importance of these social transformations in our increasingly global and increasingly urban world. Through analysis of transnational municipal networks, such as Metropolis and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, Sofie Bouteligier's innovative study examines theories of the network society and global cities from a global ecology perspective. Through direct observation and interviews and using two types of city networks that have been treated separately in the literature, she discovers the structure and logic pertaining to office networks of environmental non-governmental organizations and environmental consultancy firms. In doing so she incisively demonstrates the ways in which cities fulfill the role of strategic sites of global environmental governance, concentrating knowledge, infrastructure, and institutions vital to the function of transnational actors.

Culture in Networks

Author: Paul McLean
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745687202
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 201

Book Description
Today, interest in networks is growing by leaps and bounds, in both scientific discourse and popular culture. Networks are thought to be everywhere – from the architecture of our brains to global transportation systems. And networks are especially ubiquitous in the social world: they provide us with social support, account for the emergence of new trends and markets, and foster social protest, among other functions. Besides, who among us is not familiar with Facebook, Twitter, or, for that matter, World of Warcraft, among the myriad emerging forms of network-based virtual social interaction? It is common to think of networks simply in structural terms – the architecture of connections among objects, or the circuitry of a system. But social networks in particular are thoroughly interwoven with cultural things, in the form of tastes, norms, cultural products, styles of communication, and much more. What exactly flows through the circuitry of social networks? How are people's identities and cultural practices shaped by network structures? And, conversely, how do people's identities, their beliefs about the social world, and the kinds of messages they send affect the network structures they create? This book is designed to help readers think about how and when culture and social networks systematically penetrate one another, helping to shape each other in significant ways.

Networks of Outrage and Hope

Author: Manuel Castells
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745695795
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 151

Book Description
Networks of Outrage and Hope is an exploration of the new forms of social movements and protests that are erupting in the world today, from the Arab uprisings to the indignadas movement in Spain, from the Occupy Wall Street movement to the social protests in Turkey, Brazil and elsewhere. While these and similar social movements differ in many important ways, there is one thing they share in common: they are all interwoven inextricably with the creation of autonomous communication networks supported by the Internet and wireless communication. In this new edition of his timely and important book, Manuel Castells examines the social, cultural and political roots of these new social movements, studies their innovative forms of self-organization, assesses the precise role of technology in the dynamics of the movements, suggests the reasons for the support they have found in large segments of society, and probes their capacity to induce political change by influencing people’s minds. Two new chapters bring the analysis up-to-date and draw out the implications of these social movements and protests for understanding the new forms of social change and political democracy in the global network society.

Handbook on Urban Social Policies

Author: Kazepov, Yuri
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1788116151
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 480

Book Description
The importance of subnational welfare measures, and their complex embeddedness in wider multilevel governance systems, has often been underplayed in both urban studies and social policy analysis. This Handbook gives readers the analytical tools to understand urban social policies in context, and bridges the gap in research.

Governance Networks for Sustainable Cities

Author: Katherine Maxwell
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000628868
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 119

Book Description
This book explores the effectiveness of governance networks on the design and implementation of sustainability strategies. European cities are actively developing sustainability strategies to address the impact of climate change. One recent approach many cities have taken is the creation of ‘governance networks’: groups of public, private and third sector organisations, which collaborate to support urban sustainability efforts. Drawing on two case studies in Glasgow and Copenhagen, this book explores the concept of governance networks in theory and practice, revealing how stakeholder collaboration, leadership and innovation within these networks can help or hinder the process. It also highlights the many benefits of these networks, including increased participation in the decision-making process, increased levels of resources and expertise on sustainability issues, as well as stakeholder buy-in for sustainability policies. This book provides recommendations for improving the efficiency of governance networks and will be of interest to academics and practitioners working in the areas of urban governance and sustainability.

Smart City Networks

Author: Stamatina Th. Rassia
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319613138
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 231

Book Description
This book both analyzes and synthesizes new cutting-edge theories and methods for future design implementations in smart cities through interdisciplinary synergizing of architecture, technology, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Implementation of IoT enables the collection and data exchange of objects embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity. Recently IoT practices have moved into uniquely identifiable objects that are able to transfer data directly into networks. This book features new technologically advanced ideas, highlighting properties of smart future city networks. Chapter contributors include theorists, computer scientists, mathematicians, and interdisciplinary planners, who currently work on identifying theories, essential elements, and practices where the IoT can impact the formation of smart cities and sustainability via optimization, network analyses, data mining, mathematical modeling and engineering. Moreover, this book includes research-based theories and real world practices aimed toward graduate researchers, experts, practitioners and the general public interested in architecture, engineering, mathematical modeling, industrial design, computer science technologies, and related fields.

City Networks

Author: Athanasia Karakitsiou
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319653385
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Book Description
Sustainable development within urban and rural areas, transportation systems, logistics, supply chain management, urban health, social services, and architectural design are taken into consideration in the cohesive network models provided in this book. The ideas, methods, and models presented consider city landscapes and quality of life conditions based on mathematical network models and optimization. Interdisciplinary Works from prominent researchers in mathematical modeling, optimization, architecture, engineering, and physics are featured in this volume to promote health and well-being through design. Specific topics include: - Current technology that form the basis of future living in smart cities - Interdisciplinary design and networking of large-scale urban systems - Network communication and route traffic optimization - Carbon dioxide emission reduction - Closed-loop logistics chain management and operation - Modeling the effect urban environments on aging - Health care infrastructure - Urban water system management - Architectural design optimization Graduate students and researchers actively involved in architecture, engineering, building physics, logistics, supply chain management, and mathematical optimization will find the interdisciplinary work presented both informative and inspiring for further research.

Sharing Cities

Author: Duncan McLaren
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262029723
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 461

Book Description
The future of humanity is urban, and the nature of urban space enables, and necessitates, sharing -- of resources, goods and services, experiences. Yet traditional forms of sharing have been undermined in modern cities by social fragmentation and commercialization of the public realm. In Sharing Cities, Duncan McLaren and Julian Agyeman argue that the intersection of cities' highly networked physical space with new digital technologies and new mediated forms of sharing offers cities the opportunity to connect smart technology to justice, solidarity, and sustainability. McLaren and Agyeman explore the opportunities and risks for sustainability, solidarity, and justice in the changing nature of sharing. McLaren and Agyeman propose a new "sharing paradigm," which goes beyond the faddish "sharing economy" -- seen in such ventures as Uber and TaskRabbit -- to envision models of sharing that are not always commercial but also communal, encouraging trust and collaboration. Detailed case studies of San Francisco, Seoul, Copenhagen, Medellín, Amsterdam, and Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) contextualize the authors' discussions of collaborative consumption and production; the shared public realm, both physical and virtual; the design of sharing to enhance equity and justice; and the prospects for scaling up the sharing paradigm though city governance. They show how sharing could shift values and norms, enable civic engagement and political activism, and rebuild a shared urban commons. Their case for sharing and solidarity offers a powerful alternative for urban futures to conventional "race-to-the-bottom" narratives of competition, enclosure, and division.

Urban Food Sharing

Author: Davies, Anna
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447349830
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 126

Book Description
Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. This book explores the history and current practice of food sharing. Illustrated by rich case studies from around the world, the book uses new empirical data to set an agenda for research and action. The book will be an important resource for researchers, policy makers and sharing innovators to explore the impacts and sustainability potential of such sharing for cities.

Communities and Networks in the Ancient Greek World

Author: Claire Taylor
Publisher:
ISBN: 019872649X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 315

Book Description
This volume examines the diversity of networks and communities in the classical and early Hellenistic Greek world, with particular emphasis on those which took shape within and around Athens. In doing so it highlights not only the processes that created, modified, and dissolved these communities, but shines a light on the interactions through which individuals with different statuses, identities, levels of wealth, and connectivity participated in ancient society. By drawing on two distinct conceptual approaches, that of network studies and that of community formation, Communities and Networks in the Ancient Greek World showcases a variety of approaches which fall under the umbrella of 'network thinking' in order to move the study of ancient Greek history beyond structuralist polarities and functionalist explanations. The aim is to reconceptualize the polis not simply as a citizen club, but as one inter-linked community amongst many. This allows subaltern groups to be seen not just as passive objects of exclusion and exploitation but active historical agents, emphasizes the processes of interaction as well as the institutions created through them, and reveals the interpenetration between public institutions and private networks which integrated different communities within the borders of a polis and connected them with the wider world.