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Transforming cities towards eco-cities constitutes a significant effort in mitigating and adapting to climate change. The implementation of legal acts and diverse environmentally oriented sectoral policies plays an important role in that process. The objective of this paper is to determine the antecedences and effects of the transformation of cities in accordance with the eco-city concept in Poland in the context of implemented policies, legislation and initiatives. The study reviews the normative acts and programme-strategic documents that provide the framework for the shift towards eco-city at the international and EU level, as well as identifying changes in legislation and policy initiatives resulting from their implementation at national and local level. A set of 24 original indices referring to six aspects of the eco-city (waste management, water and wastewater management, transport and urban mobility, application of RES in energy engineering, air quality, and urban green areas) were applied in multi-criterion analyses in selected case studies. This permitted us to identify the key factors that power the transition towards eco-city. The legal and policy measures are implemented in a top-down approach. Actions are usually initiated at national level and implemented by local authorities, who operate according to their assigned tasks and using dedicated tools (e.g. LEPs, SUMPs). Significant effect of the implementation of eco-city solutions were identified in waste management, sustainable transport, urban mobility, and air quality improvement. Recommendations for future measures include implementing plans and demonstrative projects of eco-cities or eco-districts, conducting complex pro-ecological measures, and increasing the role of bottom-up actions ; Transforming cities towards eco-cities constitutes a significant effort inmitigating and adapting to climate change. The implementation of legal acts anddiverse environmentally oriented sectoral policies plays an important role in thatprocess. The objective of ...

Transforming cities towards eco-cities constitutes a significant effort in mitigating and adapting to climate change. The implementation of legal acts and diverse environmentally oriented sectoral policies plays an important role in that process. The objective of this paper is to determine the antecedences and effects of the transformation of cities in accordance with the eco-city concept in Poland in the context of implemented policies, legislation and initiatives. The study reviews the normative acts and programme-strategic documents that provide the framework for the shift towards eco-city at the international and EU level, as well as identifying changes in legislation and policy initiatives resulting from their implementation at national and local level. A set of 24 original indices referring to six aspects of the eco-city (waste management, water and wastewater management, transport and urban mobility, application of RES in energy engineering, air quality, and urban green areas) were applied in multi-criterion analyses in selected case studies. This permitted us to identify the key factors that power the transition towards eco-city. The legal and policy measures are implemented in a top-down approach. Actions are usually initiated at national level and implemented by local authorities, who operate according to their assigned tasks and using dedicated tools (e.g. LEPs, SUMPs). Significant effect of the implementation of eco-city solutions were identified in waste management, sustainable transport, urban mobility, and air quality improvement. Recommendations for future measures include implementing plans and demonstrative projects of eco-cities or eco-districts, conducting complex pro-ecological measures, and increasing the role of bottom-up actions ; Transforming cities towards eco-cities constitutes a significant effort inmitigating and adapting to climate change. The implementation of legal acts anddiverse environmentally oriented sectoral policies plays an important role in thatprocess. The objective of ...

The aim of this thesis is to study waste produced by households in cities through waste prevention processes. In the context of a strong growth in private consumption and fast replacement of obsolete items, the amount of waste has increased sharply. In these circumstances, sustainable development policies has made the reduction of waste a priority. While nuisances associated with waste tend to shrink but are often accompanied by distance and discredit on the waste territories, local recycle centers (also called reuse centers or thrift shops) are booming. Our initial research focuses on understanding how these places - that adopt an ecological and/or social approach- contribute to modifying the rapport citizens have to their rejects and transform their relationship with the urban and social environment. We also look at the involvement of these recycle centers in the making of a sustainable city. This research is innovating by mobilizing several fields of geography: studies on places, proximity, geography of trade and consumption as well as the citizens' initiatives in urban life. Reuse is seen as the recirculation of waste which takes place in specific "new consumption's" territories. To understand the change in the value of waste in these territories, reuse is analyzed from its aesthetic experience that creates a new relation to waste. The research focuses mainly on the Greater Paris – an urban metropolis – whose results are contrasted with an exploratory work conducted in New York ; L'objectif de cette thèse est d'étudier la redéfinition du rapport aux rebuts produits par les ménages, dans la ville à travers les procédés de prévention des déchets. Dans un contexte de croissance de la consommation et du remplacement rapide des objets obsolètes, la quantité de rebuts a fortement augmenté. La réduction des déchets est devenue un enjeu prioritaire pour les politiques de développement durable. Alors que la réduction des nuisances liées aux déchets s'accompagne souvent d'une aseptisation des villes, d'une mise à ...

The aim of this thesis is to study waste produced by households in cities through waste prevention processes. In the context of a strong growth in private consumption and fast replacement of obsolete items, the amount of waste has increased sharply. In these circumstances, sustainable development policies has made the reduction of waste a priority. While nuisances associated with waste tend to shrink but are often accompanied by distance and discredit on the waste territories, local recycle centers (also called reuse centers or thrift shops) are booming. Our initial research focuses on understanding how these places - that adopt an ecological and/or social approach- contribute to modifying the rapport citizens have to their rejects and transform their relationship with the urban and social environment. We also look at the involvement of these recycle centers in the making of a sustainable city. This research is innovating by mobilizing several fields of geography: studies on places, proximity, geography of trade and consumption as well as the citizens' initiatives in urban life. Reuse is seen as the recirculation of waste which takes place in specific "new consumption's" territories. To understand the change in the value of waste in these territories, reuse is analyzed from its aesthetic experience that creates a new relation to waste. The research focuses mainly on the Greater Paris – an urban metropolis – whose results are contrasted with an exploratory work conducted in New York ; L'objectif de cette thèse est d'étudier la redéfinition du rapport aux rebuts produits par les ménages, dans la ville à travers les procédés de prévention des déchets. Dans un contexte de croissance de la consommation et du remplacement rapide des objets obsolètes, la quantité de rebuts a fortement augmenté. La réduction des déchets est devenue un enjeu prioritaire pour les politiques de développement durable. Alors que la réduction des nuisances liées aux déchets s'accompagne souvent d'une aseptisation des villes, d'une mise à ...

The aim of this thesis is to study waste produced by households in cities through waste prevention processes. In the context of a strong growth in private consumption and fast replacement of obsolete items, the amount of waste has increased sharply. In these circumstances, sustainable development policies has made the reduction of waste a priority. While nuisances associated with waste tend to shrink but are often accompanied by distance and discredit on the waste territories, local recycle centers (also called reuse centers or thrift shops) are booming. Our initial research focuses on understanding how these places - that adopt an ecological and/or social approach- contribute to modifying the rapport citizens have to their rejects and transform their relationship with the urban and social environment. We also look at the involvement of these recycle centers in the making of a sustainable city. This research is innovating by mobilizing several fields of geography: studies on places, proximity, geography of trade and consumption as well as the citizens' initiatives in urban life. Reuse is seen as the recirculation of waste which takes place in specific "new consumption's" territories. To understand the change in the value of waste in these territories, reuse is analyzed from its aesthetic experience that creates a new relation to waste. The research focuses mainly on the Greater Paris – an urban metropolis – whose results are contrasted with an exploratory work conducted in New York ; L'objectif de cette thèse est d'étudier la redéfinition du rapport aux rebuts produits par les ménages, dans la ville à travers les procédés de prévention des déchets. Dans un contexte de croissance de la consommation et du remplacement rapide des objets obsolètes, la quantité de rebuts a fortement augmenté. La réduction des déchets est devenue un enjeu prioritaire pour les politiques de développement durable. Alors que la réduction des nuisances liées aux déchets s'accompagne souvent d'une aseptisation des villes, d'une mise à ...

This issue is a product of the WATERLAT-GOBACIT Network's Thematic Area (TA) 3, the Urban Water Cycle and Essential Public Services. TA3 brings together academics, students, professionals working in the public sector, workers' unions, practitioners from Non-Governmental Organizations, activists and members of civil society groups, and representatives of communities and users of public services, among others. The remit of this TA is broad, as the name suggests, but it has a strong focus on the political ecology of urban water, with emphasis on the politics of essential water services (both in urban and rural areas). Key issues addressed within this framework have been the neoliberalization of water services, social struggles against privatization and mercantilization of these services, the politics of public policy and management in the sector, water inequality and injustice, and the contradictions and conflicts surrounding the status of water and water services as a public good, as a common good, as a commodity, as a citizenship right, and more recently, as a human right. This issue complements previous work published as Volume 6 No 2 in June 2019 and addresses the significance of community participation in the management and monitoring of water sources, and in the organization of essential water services in rural and periurban communities. The work has been organized by Marcela Morales-Magaña, National School of Higher Studies, Unit Morelia, Michoacán, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) Jaime Paneque-Gálvez, Research Centre on Environmental Geography, also at UNAM in Morelia, Michoacán, México, and Alejandro Torres-Abreu, Transdisciplinary Institute of Social Research-Action, University of Puerto Rico, campus Humacao, Puerto Rico. The collection features four articles focused on experiences from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, presenting research results, some originated in the authors' recent doctoral dissertations.

This issue is a product of the WATERLAT-GOBACIT Network's Thematic Area (TA) 3, the Urban Water Cycle and Essential Public Services. TA3 brings together academics, students, professionals working in the public sector, workers' unions, practitioners from Non-Governmental Organizations, activists and members of civil society groups, and representatives of communities and users of public services, among others. The remit of this TA is broad, as the name suggests, but it has a strong focus on the political ecology of urban water, with emphasis on the politics of essential water services (both in urban and rural areas). Key issues addressed within this framework have been the neoliberalization of water services, social struggles against privatization and mercantilization of these services, the politics of public policy and management in the sector, water inequality and injustice, and the contradictions and conflicts surrounding the status of water and water services as a public good, as a common good, as a commodity, as a citizenship right, and more recently, as a human right. This issue complements previous work published as Volume 6 No 2 in June 2019 and addresses the significance of community participation in the management and monitoring of water sources, and in the organization of essential water services in rural and periurban communities. The work has been organized by Marcela Morales-Magaña, National School of Higher Studies, Unit Morelia, Michoacán, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) Jaime Paneque-Gálvez, Research Centre on Environmental Geography, also at UNAM in Morelia, Michoacán, México, and Alejandro Torres-Abreu, Transdisciplinary Institute of Social Research-Action, University of Puerto Rico, campus Humacao, Puerto Rico. The collection features four articles focused on experiences from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, presenting research results, some originated in the authors' recent doctoral dissertations.

The aim of this thesis is to study waste produced by households in cities through waste prevention processes. In the context of a strong growth in private consumption and fast replacement of obsolete items, the amount of waste has increased sharply. In these circumstances, sustainable development policies has made the reduction of waste a priority. While nuisances associated with waste tend to shrink but are often accompanied by distance and discredit on the waste territories, local recycle centers (also called reuse centers or thrift shops) are booming. Our initial research focuses on understanding how these places - that adopt an ecological and/or social approach- contribute to modifying the rapport citizens have to their rejects and transform their relationship with the urban and social environment. We also look at the involvement of these recycle centers in the making of a sustainable city. This research is innovating by mobilizing several fields of geography: studies on places, proximity, geography of trade and consumption as well as the citizens' initiatives in urban life. Reuse is seen as the recirculation of waste which takes place in specific "new consumption's" territories. To understand the change in the value of waste in these territories, reuse is analyzed from its aesthetic experience that creates a new relation to waste. The research focuses mainly on the Greater Paris – an urban metropolis – whose results are contrasted with an exploratory work conducted in New York ; L'objectif de cette thèse est d'étudier la redéfinition du rapport aux rebuts produits par les ménages, dans la ville à travers les procédés de prévention des déchets. Dans un contexte de croissance de la consommation et du remplacement rapide des objets obsolètes, la quantité de rebuts a fortement augmenté. La réduction des déchets est devenue un enjeu prioritaire pour les politiques de développement durable. Alors que la réduction des nuisances liées aux déchets s'accompagne souvent d'une aseptisation des villes, d'une mise à ...

The aim of this thesis is to study waste produced by households in cities through waste prevention processes. In the context of a strong growth in private consumption and fast replacement of obsolete items, the amount of waste has increased sharply. In these circumstances, sustainable development policies has made the reduction of waste a priority. While nuisances associated with waste tend to shrink but are often accompanied by distance and discredit on the waste territories, local recycle centers (also called reuse centers or thrift shops) are booming. Our initial research focuses on understanding how these places - that adopt an ecological and/or social approach- contribute to modifying the rapport citizens have to their rejects and transform their relationship with the urban and social environment. We also look at the involvement of these recycle centers in the making of a sustainable city. This research is innovating by mobilizing several fields of geography: studies on places, proximity, geography of trade and consumption as well as the citizens' initiatives in urban life. Reuse is seen as the recirculation of waste which takes place in specific "new consumption's" territories. To understand the change in the value of waste in these territories, reuse is analyzed from its aesthetic experience that creates a new relation to waste. The research focuses mainly on the Greater Paris – an urban metropolis – whose results are contrasted with an exploratory work conducted in New York ; L'objectif de cette thèse est d'étudier la redéfinition du rapport aux rebuts produits par les ménages, dans la ville à travers les procédés de prévention des déchets. Dans un contexte de croissance de la consommation et du remplacement rapide des objets obsolètes, la quantité de rebuts a fortement augmenté. La réduction des déchets est devenue un enjeu prioritaire pour les politiques de développement durable. Alors que la réduction des nuisances liées aux déchets s'accompagne souvent d'une aseptisation des villes, d'une mise à ...

The aim of this thesis is to study waste produced by households in cities through waste prevention processes. In the context of a strong growth in private consumption and fast replacement of obsolete items, the amount of waste has increased sharply. In these circumstances, sustainable development policies has made the reduction of waste a priority. While nuisances associated with waste tend to shrink but are often accompanied by distance and discredit on the waste territories, local recycle centers (also called reuse centers or thrift shops) are booming. Our initial research focuses on understanding how these places - that adopt an ecological and/or social approach- contribute to modifying the rapport citizens have to their rejects and transform their relationship with the urban and social environment. We also look at the involvement of these recycle centers in the making of a sustainable city. This research is innovating by mobilizing several fields of geography: studies on places, proximity, geography of trade and consumption as well as the citizens' initiatives in urban life. Reuse is seen as the recirculation of waste which takes place in specific "new consumption's" territories. To understand the change in the value of waste in these territories, reuse is analyzed from its aesthetic experience that creates a new relation to waste. The research focuses mainly on the Greater Paris – an urban metropolis – whose results are contrasted with an exploratory work conducted in New York ; L'objectif de cette thèse est d'étudier la redéfinition du rapport aux rebuts produits par les ménages, dans la ville à travers les procédés de prévention des déchets. Dans un contexte de croissance de la consommation et du remplacement rapide des objets obsolètes, la quantité de rebuts a fortement augmenté. La réduction des déchets est devenue un enjeu prioritaire pour les politiques de développement durable. Alors que la réduction des nuisances liées aux déchets s'accompagne souvent d'une aseptisation des villes, d'une mise à ...

On-the-spot settlements of medical bills for internal migrants enrolled with a social health insurance program outside of their residential location have been encouraged by the Chinese government, with the intention to improve equality in healthcare services. This study compared the use of health services between the internal migrants who had local health insurance coverage and those who did not. Data (n = 144,956) were obtained from the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey. Use of health services was assessed by two indicators: visits to physicians when needed and registration (shown as health records) for essential public health services. Multi-level logistic regression models were established to estimate the effect size of fund location on the use of health services after controlling for variations in other variables. The respondents who enrolled with a social health insurance scheme locally were more likely to visit physicians when needed (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.06–1.30) and to have a health record (AOR = 1.47, 95% CI = 1.30–1.65) compared with those who enrolled outside of their residential location: a gap of 3.5 percentage points (95% CI: 1.3%–5.8%) and 6.1 percentage point (95% CI: 4.3%–7.8%), respectively. The gaps were larger in the rural-to-urban migrants than those in the urban-to-urban migrants (AOR = 1.17, 95% CI = 0.93–1.48 for visiting physicians when needed; AOR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.54–0.93 for having a health record). The on-the-spot medical bill settlement system has yet to fully achieve its proposed potential as inequalities in both medical and public health services remain between the internal migrants with and without local health insurance coverage. Further studies are needed to investigate how on-the-spot settlements of medical bills are implemented through coordination across multiple insurance funds.

Driven by the proliferating digitization of services, an increasing number of new mobility services evolved recently, bearing chances to improve living and working conditions especially in rural areas. Even though such "Smart mobility" (SMo) solutions are mainly introduced in urban areas so far, they also offer promising opportunities for organizing sustainable transport solutions in less densely populated areas, given the innovation adaption is tailor-made to rural needs. Up to now, diffusion research has particularly focused on the investigation of urban innovation phenomena, research on innovation implementation in rural areas is much rarer (Doloreux et al. 2007; Eder 2019). The same applies to research scope of transport geography that is mainly focussing on urban contexts. Rural areas are characterised by various disadvantages due to their slightly pronounced regional innovation systems (RIS) (Cooke 1992; Koschatzky 2001) and hence particularly dependent on alternative strategies for implementing SMo. The successful innovation implementation depends on their "regional absorptive capacities" (RACAP, Cohen/Levinthal 1990; Niosi/Bellon 2002) and the constitution of the political actors at the meso-level as well as the individual preferences of the users at the micro-level. Due to their adoption or rejection decision, users have a pivotal influence on the innovations' success (Rogers 2003; Antonelli 2006). However, previous studies only obtained independent analysis on one of these two levels, an integrated and joint consideration is still pending.With regards to the multi-level concept by Dopfer et al. (2004) this thesis hence investigates the requirements for implementing SMo in rural areas analysing both, the implications from the meso-level as well as the user preferences at the micro-level likewise. Following Creswell's (2003) "mixed methods" approach, qualitative as well as quantitative methods are jointly applied. The focus of the different methodological steps lies on the qualitative expert interviews ...

The aim of this thesis is to study waste produced by households in cities through waste prevention processes. In the context of a strong growth in private consumption and fast replacement of obsolete items, the amount of waste has increased sharply. In these circumstances, sustainable development policies has made the reduction of waste a priority. While nuisances associated with waste tend to shrink but are often accompanied by distance and discredit on the waste territories, local recycle centers (also called reuse centers or thrift shops) are booming. Our initial research focuses on understanding how these places - that adopt an ecological and/or social approach- contribute to modifying the rapport citizens have to their rejects and transform their relationship with the urban and social environment. We also look at the involvement of these recycle centers in the making of a sustainable city. This research is innovating by mobilizing several fields of geography: studies on places, proximity, geography of trade and consumption as well as the citizens' initiatives in urban life. Reuse is seen as the recirculation of waste which takes place in specific "new consumption's" territories. To understand the change in the value of waste in these territories, reuse is analyzed from its aesthetic experience that creates a new relation to waste. The research focuses mainly on the Greater Paris – an urban metropolis – whose results are contrasted with an exploratory work conducted in New York ; L'objectif de cette thèse est d'étudier la redéfinition du rapport aux rebuts produits par les ménages, dans la ville à travers les procédés de prévention des déchets. Dans un contexte de croissance de la consommation et du remplacement rapide des objets obsolètes, la quantité de rebuts a fortement augmenté. La réduction des déchets est devenue un enjeu prioritaire pour les politiques de développement durable. Alors que la réduction des nuisances liées aux déchets s'accompagne souvent d'une aseptisation des villes, d'une mise à ...

Among emerging studies of the global political economy and ecology of electronic waste (or e-waste), few directly explore the already complex waste trades and materialities in relation to the general political ecology of water, flood control, dredging, and neoliberal ecological restoration. Even fewer focus on how this political-ecological challenge is unfolding in a West African context where ocean-based e-waste trades have played a dominant role. This article engages this particular domain of blue economic critique by focusing on Ghana in general and what we shall call "blue political ecologies of e-waste" in particular. The article focuses on e-waste politics unfolding in and around the Korle Lagoon in Accra, Ghana. The Korle Lagoon is an urban marine space of intensive land use, toxic waste disposal, social life, and urban ecological restoration. Amidst heavy contamination, there are attempts to rehabilitate the lagoon through the Korle Lagoon Ecological Restoration Project, an ecological science and restoration project focused on the Lagoon and its river system in the metropolitan area of Accra. It showcases the neoliberal complexities of ecological restoration. Importantly, situated in a multi-use marine environment, the project also highlights, we argue, a political ecological moment that is both about things 'blue', like water quality concerns, but also about other things non-blue such as contestation over land and housing, 'green' international NGO intervention on e-waste risk mitigation, and desires for new urban ecologies. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted between 2015 and 2018, this article contributes to blue political-ecological research and critique in Africa by asking: how do e-waste politics leak into discussions of the blue economy along the Korle Lagoon in Ghana? What are the promises and prospects of a blue political ecology of e-waste in general, and in Africa in particular?Key Words: Political ecology, Ghana, e-waste, lagoon contamination, ecological restoration

Can art legitimise squatting? We examine this question through two case studies: Metropoliz in Rome – an old industrial building occupied by a multiethnic community – and Cavallerizza Reale in Turin – a historical complex occupied by active citizens. Both experiences use art, and the capital of attention and market value associated to it, as a tool to protect themselves from eviction. But art has become in the last decades both an economic good in which to invest capital and an instrument of neoliberal and post-fordist urban policies, linked to concepts such as Florida's "creative class". Now, members of precisely this class, who supposedly benefit from this model, engage, alongside others, in urban resistance. If using art in this form is an intelligent way to exploit it's market value to protect projects aiming at the right to the city or rather means to succumb, at last, to the dominant model, is debated also among the activists themselves.Key words: Squatting, Art, Right to the City, Creative Class, Self-OrganizationL'arte può legittimare le occupazioni illegali? L'articolo affronta la questione attraverso due casi studio: Metropoliz a Roma - ex-edificio industriale occupato da una comunità multietnica - e la Cavallerizza Reale a Torino, complesso storico occupato da cittadini attivi. Entrambe le esperienze utilizzano l'arte e l'attenzione pubblica e il valore di mercato associati ad essa come strumento per proteggersi dal rischio di sgombero. L'arte però è diventata negli ultimi decenni anche un bene economico in cui investire e uno strumento di politiche urbane neoliberiste e post-fordiste, legate a concetti come quello di "creative class" di Florida. Ora proprio alcuni membri della classe creativa, che avrebbero dovuto beneficiare di questo modello, si impegnano in esperienze di attivismo urbano. Usare l'arte in questa forma può essere un modo per sfruttare il suo valore di mercato per tutelare progetti mirati al diritto alla città o significa piuttosto soccombere al modello dominante? Parole chiave: Squatting, Arte, Diritto alla città, Creative Class, auto-organizzazione