Suchergebnisse

This report documents the increase in labor migration in Asia and looks a t how finance and technology can aid its positive impact on home countries. As diasporas increase, governments have reached out to citizens abroad to provide them with financial instruments. Remittance channels have long been consolidated, but financial technology is changing the ways in which migrants remit—reducing fees and opening opportunities for new actors. One occupation driving labor migration, and incurring its own challenges, is work in information technology (IT). This report examines some of the latest developments in financial products and technology aimed at labor migrants from and in Asia, and disc erns the factors determining the success of mobile IT workers from India. The four chapters in this report draw on issues raised and discussed during the Seventh Roundtable on Labor Migration in Asia: Finance and Technology to Increase the Positive Impact of Migration on Home Countries, held in Manila on 18–19 January 2017. The event brought together regional experts and policy makers and was co-organized by the Asian Development Bank Institute, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the International Labour Organization, and the Asian Development Bank. The report's introductory chapter reviews recent regional migration trends. Two statistical annexes provide an overview of migration flows within Asia and between Asia and other regions.

OBJETIVO El objetivo de la presente Tesis Doctoral es analizar de manera integral y transversal la configuración urbana de una ciudad mediterránea de tamaño medio como es Lorca en un periodo temporal que discurre entre 1940 y 1979 (Dictadura de Franco, desde el final de la Guerra Civil hasta la celebración de las primeras elecciones democráticas municipales). Se trata de un intervalo en el que Lorca, en su singular contexto geográfico, sufre la mayor transformación urbana de su historia contemporánea, alimentada por cambios que se producen en su estructura económica, demográfica y social. Partiendo de una ciudad tradicional de aspecto monumental y recogido, su configuración reciente la conducirá a ser una ciudad más grande, más compleja y más moderna. Este desarrollo será asimétrico pues el gran crecimiento periférico que experimenta el casco urbano será a costa de dos espacios emblemáticos que se ven seriamente amenazados: el Casco Histórico, en aguda descomposición, y la Huerta, que se ha convertido en una dinámica área periurbana. METODOLOGÍA La metodología empleada en esta Tesis Doctoral ha sido la Hipotético-Deductiva, la cual se desarrolla siguiendo los siguientes pasos: observación del fenómeno a estudiar, creación de una hipótesis para explicar dicho fenómeno, deducción de consecuencias o proposiciones más elementales que la propia hipótesis, y verificación o comprobación de la verdad de los enunciados deducidos comparándolos con la experiencia. Ello obliga al investigador a conectar la reflexión racional y la observación de la realidad, algo que es inherente a la práctica profesional de un geógrafo. Luego, la reflexión racional tiene como pilares fundamentales el trabajo científico: consulta directa de fondos de Archivos relativos a la cuestión a estudiar; consulta de bibliografía general y especializada; consulta de hemerotecas y videotecas; tratamiento, depuración y contraste de datos estadísticos; manejo de cartografía y de fotografías antiguas y actuales; trabajo de campo por la ciudad; etc. que es lo que verdaderamente demuestra las hipótesis sobre el terreno. RESULTADOS — En el paisaje urbano de Lorca se pueden hallar prácticamente todas las fases del Urbanismo español reciente: formas de crecimiento, tipologías edificatorias, morfología urbana. — Lorca tiene una disposición en planta marcadamente lineal, resultado de la interacción continuada de una serie de elementos naturales y antrópicos que fomentan o impiden el crecimiento urbano, y de la aplicación de diferentes instrumentos de planificación urbanística, lo cual interfiere en su funcionamiento interno. — Los vaivenes demográficos, económicos y sociales que ha experimentado el municipio, con sus etapas de retroceso, estancamiento o expansión, tienen su reflejo en el plano urbano y en el paisaje de la ciudad. — La administración de un municipio tan extenso, donde además la dispersión de la población rural es máxima, supone un serio desafío para llevar los servicios urbanos básicos a todos los lugares, lo que ha ralentizado su desarrollo. — La ciudad heredada ha sido la gran damnificada del desarrollo de Lorca. El traslado de la población a las nuevas áreas de prestigio y los intereses especulativos, han acabado por degradar hasta una situación límite la zona monumental, seña de identidad de la ciudad. — La aprobación del Plan General de 1967 crea un nuevo marco legal que va a legitimar toda la producción urbanística, ya sea acertada o no, teniendo la ejecución de los Planes Parciales y los Estudios de Detalle un protagonismo indiscutible en la configuración de la nueva Lorca. — De manera paralela, se produce la ampliación y modernización de los servicios urbanos básicos (centros escolares, sanitarios, asistenciales, deportivos, etc.) que vienen a incrementar el nivel de bienestar de la población. OBJETIVE The main objective of the present doctoral thesis is to analyze urban configuration of a medium Mediterranean city like Lorca between 1940 to 1979 period (since the end of the Spanish Civil War to the Democracy period). In this moment is when Lorca suffered the most important urban transformation in its history as a consequence of economic, demographic and social structure changes. The city appearance before this moment was a traditional and monumental place that changed since this moment in a bigger, more complex and modern city, with an asymmetric and outlying growth. To do this, the historic city would be partially destroyed and the Lorca´s fertile region would be a suburb. METHODOLOGY The survey has been created according to the hypothetical – deductive method, that consists in to observe and study the phenomenon to create a hypothesis that explain it, to deduce possible consequences and to make a comparison between documents and experience. As a consequence, a geographer has to connect rationalist and experience, where the first is fundamental to the scientist work. To do it, the geographer has to consult archives, general and specializing bibliography and statistical information such as newspaper and periodicals libraries, video libraries, treatment, depuration and verification statistic information, cartography and ancient and present photographs, fieldwork, etc. that demonstrate the true hypothesis. RESULTS — In Lorca's urban landscape we can see a lot of phases of the Spanish recent urbanism: forms of growth, different building typologies and urban morphology. — Lorca has a linear plan as a result of interaction of natural and human elements that prevent or encourage urban growth and because of urban planning, which interfere in the internal functioning. — Town planning and city landscape is consequence of demographics, economics and social changes, besides backward step, stagnation or expansion phases. — Lorca is a large municipality where rural populations live much dispersed. In addition, the administration of this landscape is really difficult. As a result, to have urban basic services to all delegations suppose a serious challenge, something that has supposed a slow development in the history. — The inherited city has been the victim of Lorca's development. The monumental zone is the real identity of the city but it is been destroyed because of people tend to abandon the area to live in new prestige areas and as a consequence of speculative interests. — The «new Lorca» is the result of the General Plan, sanctioned in 1967, where Partial Plan and Detailed Studies make those changes possible and legitimize all new buildings (good or bad for the city). — Parallel the last point, the level of well-being of population has been increased thanks to increase and modernization of urban basic services such as schools, hospitals and other facilities.

We actually do make, in our PhD research work, a tough choice on studying mobility at the crossroads of Territorial Intelligence Process and Sustainable Mobility through Communication Science sensitive approach with the help of IT (Information Technologies). Because mobility, or absence of, can lead to isolation (may be seclusion) or even exclusion, especially for the most vulnerable people, is a subject of high political and scientific relevance, raising questions and involving processes far beyond the usual and specific questions of transportation (Bonnet, Desjeux, 2000, p. 201). We stress the point about the link between « Territorial Intelligence and Sustainable Mobility » with a focus on shared displacement, goods and people, which means, and can be seen as, a social communication factor and development of territorial equilibrium; We conducted a simultaneous study both in East Africa and Euro Mediterranean space (PACA and Corsica), to recap learned lessons. Bertacchini, Girardot, and Grammacia (2006), shown Territorial Intelligence (IT) as a theory, posture, and bottom-up approach of collective intelligence based on citizen's approach of territorial development. And for that purpose, we underlined the need of action based on analysis of travel needs of residents and how to create new ways of structuring mobility offer through the development of communications suggested by Territorial Intelligence (IT), social cohesion, conviviality, equity, assumptions of IT and with the ability of communication to promote territorial mediation. For local stakeholders mobility is a matter of life and at the crossroads of their daily economic and social life, mobility is an issue with multiple challenges: impact on global warming, rights to mobility, economy development, jobs accessibility, town planning and environment, road safety and public health. The need for mobility can be addressed or even satisfied by several ways, either by responding to the need for mobility, or by providing a response to the mode of mobility. Thus, the transportation sector needs using information technology. These information technologies are studied through numerous ways on mobility and non-mobility, particularly focusing on how reducing physical displacements made necessary and call for the control of greenhouse gas emissions. Information technologies by hybridizing territories, as described within Territorial Intelligence assumptions, can be tools for a comprehensive and sustainable management of territorial displacements. ; La mobilité, en particulier la mobilité urbaine est aujourd'hui un thème d'une grande actualité politique et scientifique, qui soulève des questions et engage des démarches qui vont bien au-delà des problématiques habituelles des transports (Bonnet, Desjeux, 2000, p.201). Au centre de la vie quotidienne, économique et/ou sociale des acteurs locaux, la mobilité est un problème aux multiples enjeux : impact sur le réchauffement climatique, droit à la mobilité, économie, urbanisme et cadre de vie, équilibre entre ville et campagne, sécurité routière et santé publique. Le besoin de mobilité peut être traité, voire satisfait, de plusieurs façons, soit en apportant une réponse au besoin de déplacement soit en apportant une réponse au mode de mobilité. La question de la mobilité est un des enjeux majeurs pour l'accès aux emplois comme aux services dans les territoires et lorsque celle-ci se heurte au manque de transports collectifs, publics et privés, ce manque entraîne l'isolement voire l'exclusion, surtout pour les populations les plus fragiles avec pour corollaire la saturation des infrastructures routières par le recours à l'utilisation intensive des véhicules individuels dans les zones péri-urbaines. Ainsi, le secteur des transports a besoin d'utiliser les technologies de l'information. Ces technologies de l'information (TI) sont au centre de nombreuses réflexions sur la mobilité et la non mobilité, en particulier dans le cadre de la réduction des déplacements physiques rendus nécessaire par la maitrise des émissions de gaz à effet de serre. Les technologies de l'information en hybridant les territoires, peuvent être des outils d'une gestion globale et durable des déplacements territoriaux. Dans cette recherche, nous avons mis l'accent sur le croisement de l'« Intelligence Territoriale et mobilité durable » avec une orientation sur le déplacement partagé, biens et personnes, facteur de communication sociale, et de développement d'équilibre territorial en menant en parallèle une double étude entre l'Afrique de l'Est (la CAE) et l'Euro Méditerranée (PACA et Corse), pour en tirer des enseignements. Bertacchini, Girardot, et Grammacia (2006), présentent l'intelligence territoriale (IT) comme étant une théorie, posture, et démarche ascendante d'intelligence collective fondée sur une approche citoyenne de la valorisation territoriale. Nous avons insisté sur la nécessité de fonder l'action sur une analyse fine des besoins des habitants en matière de déplacement et comment inventer de nouvelles modalités d'organisation des services par le développement des stratégies de communications qui s'inspirent de l'intelligence territoriale (IT), la cohésion sociale, la convivialité, l'équité, les hypothèses de l'IT et la capacité de la communication à promouvoir la médiation territoriale

We actually do make, in our PhD research work, a tough choice on studying mobility at the crossroads of Territorial Intelligence Process and Sustainable Mobility through Communication Science sensitive approach with the help of IT (Information Technologies). Because mobility, or absence of, can lead to isolation (may be seclusion) or even exclusion, especially for the most vulnerable people, is a subject of high political and scientific relevance, raising questions and involving processes far beyond the usual and specific questions of transportation (Bonnet, Desjeux, 2000, p. 201). We stress the point about the link between « Territorial Intelligence and Sustainable Mobility » with a focus on shared displacement, goods and people, which means, and can be seen as, a social communication factor and development of territorial equilibrium; We conducted a simultaneous study both in East Africa and Euro Mediterranean space (PACA and Corsica), to recap learned lessons. Bertacchini, Girardot, and Grammacia (2006), shown Territorial Intelligence (IT) as a theory, posture, and bottom-up approach of collective intelligence based on citizen's approach of territorial development. And for that purpose, we underlined the need of action based on analysis of travel needs of residents and how to create new ways of structuring mobility offer through the development of communications suggested by Territorial Intelligence (IT), social cohesion, conviviality, equity, assumptions of IT and with the ability of communication to promote territorial mediation. For local stakeholders mobility is a matter of life and at the crossroads of their daily economic and social life, mobility is an issue with multiple challenges: impact on global warming, rights to mobility, economy development, jobs accessibility, town planning and environment, road safety and public health. The need for mobility can be addressed or even satisfied by several ways, either by responding to the need for mobility, or by providing a response to the mode of mobility. Thus, the transportation sector needs using information technology. These information technologies are studied through numerous ways on mobility and non-mobility, particularly focusing on how reducing physical displacements made necessary and call for the control of greenhouse gas emissions. Information technologies by hybridizing territories, as described within Territorial Intelligence assumptions, can be tools for a comprehensive and sustainable management of territorial displacements. ; La mobilité, en particulier la mobilité urbaine est aujourd'hui un thème d'une grande actualité politique et scientifique, qui soulève des questions et engage des démarches qui vont bien au-delà des problématiques habituelles des transports (Bonnet, Desjeux, 2000, p.201). Au centre de la vie quotidienne, économique et/ou sociale des acteurs locaux, la mobilité est un problème aux multiples enjeux : impact sur le réchauffement climatique, droit à la mobilité, économie, urbanisme et cadre de vie, équilibre entre ville et campagne, sécurité routière et santé publique. Le besoin de mobilité peut être traité, voire satisfait, de plusieurs façons, soit en apportant une réponse au besoin de déplacement soit en apportant une réponse au mode de mobilité. La question de la mobilité est un des enjeux majeurs pour l'accès aux emplois comme aux services dans les territoires et lorsque celle-ci se heurte au manque de transports collectifs, publics et privés, ce manque entraîne l'isolement voire l'exclusion, surtout pour les populations les plus fragiles avec pour corollaire la saturation des infrastructures routières par le recours à l'utilisation intensive des véhicules individuels dans les zones péri-urbaines. Ainsi, le secteur des transports a besoin d'utiliser les technologies de l'information. Ces technologies de l'information (TI) sont au centre de nombreuses réflexions sur la mobilité et la non mobilité, en particulier dans le cadre de la réduction des déplacements physiques rendus nécessaire par la maitrise des émissions de gaz à effet de serre. Les technologies de l'information en hybridant les territoires, peuvent être des outils d'une gestion globale et durable des déplacements territoriaux. Dans cette recherche, nous avons mis l'accent sur le croisement de l'« Intelligence Territoriale et mobilité durable » avec une orientation sur le déplacement partagé, biens et personnes, facteur de communication sociale, et de développement d'équilibre territorial en menant en parallèle une double étude entre l'Afrique de l'Est (la CAE) et l'Euro Méditerranée (PACA et Corse), pour en tirer des enseignements. Bertacchini, Girardot, et Grammacia (2006), présentent l'intelligence territoriale (IT) comme étant une théorie, posture, et démarche ascendante d'intelligence collective fondée sur une approche citoyenne de la valorisation territoriale. Nous avons insisté sur la nécessité de fonder l'action sur une analyse fine des besoins des habitants en matière de déplacement et comment inventer de nouvelles modalités d'organisation des services par le développement des stratégies de communications qui s'inspirent de l'intelligence territoriale (IT), la cohésion sociale, la convivialité, l'équité, les hypothèses de l'IT et la capacité de la communication à promouvoir la médiation territoriale

La ciudad de Tui, situada al suroeste de la provincia de Pontevedra, fue el contexto escogido para realizar esta Disertación, centrada en el comercio y el urbanismo de dicha ciudad. Esta, destaca por su centro histórico‐artístico, el cual viene padeciendo un deterioro importante a nivel arquitectónico y urbano en los últimos años, tras las diversas transformaciones sociales, económicas y políticas, que permitieron el desenvolvimiento de la ciudad con nuevas necesidades. El objeto de estudio de este trabajo es el espacio urbano de Tui, identificado mediante una lectura diacrónica de la situación del comercio. Los objetivos se centraron en determinar el impacto del abandono del centro histórico, mediante las dinámicas urbanas, focalizándose principalmente en las actividades comerciales, para poder definir, posteriormente, indicadores prospectivos para la regeneración del centro histórico, con base en el urbanismo comercial. Estos indicadores, servirán de base para en un futuro poder mejorar la situación en la que se encuentra la ciudad. La metodología de esta Disertación se basó fundamentalmente en tres fases. En la primera, se realizó una contextualización política, social y principalmente económica de Tui, de modo a poder profundizar un mayor conocimiento de la ciudad en la que se va a realizar el trabajo. Seguidamente se efectuó una revisión del estado de arte, con respecto al urbanismo comercial para poder asentar el posterior análisis de la ciudad mediante la convergencia y la interrelación de los datos anteriores. Para este cometido fue necesario utilizar el análisis documental, datos socioeconómicos, la encuesta o la observación directa. Además de la superposición de elementos gráficos para poder plasmar una lectura crítica e interpretativa del espacio urbano de Tui. De este modo, se han podido observar las grandes transformaciones en la estructura comercial y urbana de la ciudad debido a los cambios experimentados por la sociedad en las últimas décadas. Asimismo, se han estudiado los diferentes desplazamientos y hábitos de los tudenses, así como sus preferencias o necesidades para poder profundizar más en el estudio de la ciudad de manera más directa. Por último, tras el análisis y la convergencia de datos, se han podido establecer las condiciones finales sobre el estado actual de la ciudad y como este podría ser mejorado para que la estructura comercial, actualmente en decadencia por la situación que se está viviendo, pueda mejorarse y ayudar a que el centro histórico recupere su vitalidad. ; Abstract: The city of Tui, situated southwest of the province of Pontevedra, was the context chosen for this dissertation focused on the trade and the urbanism of the city. The city, noted for its historical and artistic centre, has been suffering a significant deterioration on architectural and urban levels in recent years, following the various social, economic and political transformations, which allowed the development of the city with new needs. The purpose of this paper is to study the space urban of Tui, identified by a diachronic reading of the trade situation. The objectives were to determine the impact of the abandonment of the historic centre by urban dynamics, focusing mainly on commercial activities, to subsequently define prospective indicators for regeneration of the historic centre, based on the commercial development. These indicators form the basis for a future the situation in which the city lies will be improved. The methodology of this dissertation was based mainly on three stages. In the first one, a political, social and economic contextualization of Tui is presented, in order to be able to dig a deeper knowledge of the city where all the work will be performed. Then a review of the state of the art was created with respect to the commercial development. It was made to settle the subsequent analysis of the city through convergence and interrelation of the above data. For this purpose it was necessary to use the document analysis, socioeconomic data, survey or direct observation. Moreover, it was used the overlapping of graphic elements to capture a critical and interpretive reading of urban space in Tui. Thus, it was possible to observe the major changes in the commercial and urban structure of the city due to those experienced by society in recent decade changes. Also, we have studied the different movements and habits tudenses and their preferences or needs to go deeper into the study of the city more directly. Finally, after the analysis and data convergence, it has been able to establish the final terms of the current state of the city and how it could be improved so that the trade structure, currently in decline for the situation we are living, can be improved and help the historic centre to regain its vitality.

Abstract This doctoral thesis defines the relationship between the urban and rural in the 21st century, and focuses on food as a key component. The fact that food is, for the most part, produced in the countryside and then transported to the city has a significant influence on this very unbalanced relationship today. The main goal was to show that it is necessary to bring agriculture, urban gardening, the breeding of domestic farm animals, and beekeeping back to the city, which would have a positive affect on both the city and the countryside. All of this is already taking place at the local level, within the neighbourhoods of our cities and through the work of self-organised activities and initiatives, which have been taken up by city residents themselves. One example of this is the community garden, a new model of gardening which offers fertile ground for growing vegetables and to test various forms of co-existence, different ways of designing spaces, the creation of alternative values, and a positive vision for the future of city residents. In 2010, I co-created the community urban garden Beyond a Construction Site, which is the central part of this artistic research. Throughout the entire four-year process of creating this community garden, theory and artistic practice were intertwined, and informed one another. This community garden is an example of a self-organised and self-managed community space located in a residential neighbourhood in the centre of the city of Ljubljana, and as such is a typical example of urbanism from the bottom up. I placed the creation and development of our community garden in a dialogue with the formal way of arranging urban gardening in Ljubljana, a top-down approach, which the city has been carrying out intensively since 2007. I compared the solutions being proposed by the city of Ljubljana for organising urban gardening with the way it is organised in other European cities, the UK, and the USA. I also researched the recent rapid growth of self-organised initiatives which are focused on the local production of food and seek to find more economic and ecologically friendly models to visibly influence the future of cities and the countryside. Here, community gardens play an important role, as in addition to the production of food they are also spaces for the criticism of existing urban policies, a self-organised revitalisation of neglected spaces, and places of resilience, because they differ from that which real estate agencies, large financial companies, and city authorities desire them to be. The community garden Beyond a Construction Site has become living proof that, through a group action, the residents of a neighbourhood can influence existing city policies and the future of both their own neighbourhood and that of the entire city. The initiators of this garden are artists and architects, and we began this community garden in the context of an art festival, which also shows that art can influence the processes of everyday life and help to create much needed spaces within cities to serve various purposes. Our community garden has also shown itself to be an important platform for the exchange of knowledge on organic gardening, ecology in everyday life, and critical architecture, as well as serving to connect related initiatives. Together with these other initiatives we are stronger, and are influencing structural changes within city politics, thereby also co-creating the future of Ljubljana. This community garden is helping us to redefine our relationship with the city and re-awaken the desires and actions of residents connected with realising their fundamental right, the right to the city. My other artworks, which I am presenting in the context of this doctoral thesis, show an optimistic vision for the future of cities. The video animations Back to the City (2011) and The Right Balance (2013), as well as the accompanying collages, visualise a city of the future where urban and rural practices live together side-by-side. This vision is being realised by city residents themselves, with their active participation in the creation of community gardens, growing their own vegetables, urban beekeeping, and by having egg-laying hens in their gardens. My desire was also to present the theoretical concept and scientific research to a non-academic public, and to people without specialised training. Using the method of storytelling I included knowledge from the research into the video animations and collages. In this way my artistic work, with an intentional playfulness, challenges today's faith in science and theoretical concepts, as well as directing attention to working with common sense, with one's own hands, and with the earth. This can contribute to a change in the still dominant anthropocentric view of nature, which is an urgently needed change for our future. Keywords: rural, urban agriculture, community gardens, urban beekeeping, the bottom-up approach to urban planning, alternative spaces

Abstract This doctoral thesis defines the relationship between the urban and rural in the 21st century, and focuses on food as a key component. The fact that food is, for the most part, produced in the countryside and then transported to the city has a significant influence on this very unbalanced relationship today. The main goal was to show that it is necessary to bring agriculture, urban gardening, the breeding of domestic farm animals, and beekeeping back to the city, which would have a positive affect on both the city and the countryside. All of this is already taking place at the local level, within the neighbourhoods of our cities and through the work of self-organised activities and initiatives, which have been taken up by city residents themselves. One example of this is the community garden, a new model of gardening which offers fertile ground for growing vegetables and to test various forms of co-existence, different ways of designing spaces, the creation of alternative values, and a positive vision for the future of city residents. In 2010, I co-created the community urban garden Beyond a Construction Site, which is the central part of this artistic research. Throughout the entire four-year process of creating this community garden, theory and artistic practice were intertwined, and informed one another. This community garden is an example of a self-organised and self-managed community space located in a residential neighbourhood in the centre of the city of Ljubljana, and as such is a typical example of urbanism from the bottom up. I placed the creation and development of our community garden in a dialogue with the formal way of arranging urban gardening in Ljubljana, a top-down approach, which the city has been carrying out intensively since 2007. I compared the solutions being proposed by the city of Ljubljana for organising urban gardening with the way it is organised in other European cities, the UK, and the USA. I also researched the recent rapid growth of self-organised initiatives which are focused on the local production of food and seek to find more economic and ecologically friendly models to visibly influence the future of cities and the countryside. Here, community gardens play an important role, as in addition to the production of food they are also spaces for the criticism of existing urban policies, a self-organised revitalisation of neglected spaces, and places of resilience, because they differ from that which real estate agencies, large financial companies, and city authorities desire them to be. The community garden Beyond a Construction Site has become living proof that, through a group action, the residents of a neighbourhood can influence existing city policies and the future of both their own neighbourhood and that of the entire city. The initiators of this garden are artists and architects, and we began this community garden in the context of an art festival, which also shows that art can influence the processes of everyday life and help to create much needed spaces within cities to serve various purposes. Our community garden has also shown itself to be an important platform for the exchange of knowledge on organic gardening, ecology in everyday life, and critical architecture, as well as serving to connect related initiatives. Together with these other initiatives we are stronger, and are influencing structural changes within city politics, thereby also co-creating the future of Ljubljana. This community garden is helping us to redefine our relationship with the city and re-awaken the desires and actions of residents connected with realising their fundamental right, the right to the city. My other artworks, which I am presenting in the context of this doctoral thesis, show an optimistic vision for the future of cities. The video animations Back to the City (2011) and The Right Balance (2013), as well as the accompanying collages, visualise a city of the future where urban and rural practices live together side-by-side. This vision is being realised by city residents themselves, with their active participation in the creation of community gardens, growing their own vegetables, urban beekeeping, and by having egg-laying hens in their gardens. My desire was also to present the theoretical concept and scientific research to a non-academic public, and to people without specialised training. Using the method of storytelling I included knowledge from the research into the video animations and collages. In this way my artistic work, with an intentional playfulness, challenges today's faith in science and theoretical concepts, as well as directing attention to working with common sense, with one's own hands, and with the earth. This can contribute to a change in the still dominant anthropocentric view of nature, which is an urgently needed change for our future. Keywords: rural, urban agriculture, community gardens, urban beekeeping, the bottom-up approach to urban planning, alternative spaces

Abstract This doctoral thesis defines the relationship between the urban and rural in the 21st century, and focuses on food as a key component. The fact that food is, for the most part, produced in the countryside and then transported to the city has a significant influence on this very unbalanced relationship today. The main goal was to show that it is necessary to bring agriculture, urban gardening, the breeding of domestic farm animals, and beekeeping back to the city, which would have a positive affect on both the city and the countryside. All of this is already taking place at the local level, within the neighbourhoods of our cities and through the work of self-organised activities and initiatives, which have been taken up by city residents themselves. One example of this is the community garden, a new model of gardening which offers fertile ground for growing vegetables and to test various forms of co-existence, different ways of designing spaces, the creation of alternative values, and a positive vision for the future of city residents. In 2010, I co-created the community urban garden Beyond a Construction Site, which is the central part of this artistic research. Throughout the entire four-year process of creating this community garden, theory and artistic practice were intertwined, and informed one another. This community garden is an example of a self-organised and self-managed community space located in a residential neighbourhood in the centre of the city of Ljubljana, and as such is a typical example of urbanism from the bottom up. I placed the creation and development of our community garden in a dialogue with the formal way of arranging urban gardening in Ljubljana, a top-down approach, which the city has been carrying out intensively since 2007. I compared the solutions being proposed by the city of Ljubljana for organising urban gardening with the way it is organised in other European cities, the UK, and the USA. I also researched the recent rapid growth of self-organised initiatives which are focused on the local production of food and seek to find more economic and ecologically friendly models to visibly influence the future of cities and the countryside. Here, community gardens play an important role, as in addition to the production of food they are also spaces for the criticism of existing urban policies, a self-organised revitalisation of neglected spaces, and places of resilience, because they differ from that which real estate agencies, large financial companies, and city authorities desire them to be. The community garden Beyond a Construction Site has become living proof that, through a group action, the residents of a neighbourhood can influence existing city policies and the future of both their own neighbourhood and that of the entire city. The initiators of this garden are artists and architects, and we began this community garden in the context of an art festival, which also shows that art can influence the processes of everyday life and help to create much needed spaces within cities to serve various purposes. Our community garden has also shown itself to be an important platform for the exchange of knowledge on organic gardening, ecology in everyday life, and critical architecture, as well as serving to connect related initiatives. Together with these other initiatives we are stronger, and are influencing structural changes within city politics, thereby also co-creating the future of Ljubljana. This community garden is helping us to redefine our relationship with the city and re-awaken the desires and actions of residents connected with realising their fundamental right, the right to the city. My other artworks, which I am presenting in the context of this doctoral thesis, show an optimistic vision for the future of cities. The video animations Back to the City (2011) and The Right Balance (2013), as well as the accompanying collages, visualise a city of the future where urban and rural practices live together side-by-side. This vision is being realised by city residents themselves, with their active participation in the creation of community gardens, growing their own vegetables, urban beekeeping, and by having egg-laying hens in their gardens. My desire was also to present the theoretical concept and scientific research to a non-academic public, and to people without specialised training. Using the method of storytelling I included knowledge from the research into the video animations and collages. In this way my artistic work, with an intentional playfulness, challenges today's faith in science and theoretical concepts, as well as directing attention to working with common sense, with one's own hands, and with the earth. This can contribute to a change in the still dominant anthropocentric view of nature, which is an urgently needed change for our future. Keywords: rural, urban agriculture, community gardens, urban beekeeping, the bottom-up approach to urban planning, alternative spaces

This doctoral thesis defines the relationship between the urban and rural in the 21st century, and focuses on food as a key component. The fact that food is, for the most part, produced in the countryside and then transported to the city has a significant influence on this very unbalanced relationship today. The main goal was to show that it is necessary to bring agriculture, urban gardening, the breeding of domestic farm animals, and beekeeping back to the city, which would have a positive affect on both the city and the countryside. All of this is already taking place at the local level, within the neighbourhoods of our cities and through the work of self-organised activities and initiatives, which have been taken up by city residents themselves. One example of this is the community garden, a new model of gardening which offers fertile ground for growing vegetables and to test various forms of co-existence, different ways of designing spaces, the creation of alternative values, and a positive vision for the future of city residents. In 2010, I co-created the community urban garden Beyond a Construction Site, which is the central part of this artistic research. Throughout the entire four-year process of creating this community garden, theory and artistic practice were intertwined, and informed one another. This community garden is an example of a self-organised and self-managed community space located in a residential neighbourhood in the centre of the city of Ljubljana, and as such is a typical example of urbanism from the bottom up. I placed the creation and development of our community garden in a dialogue with the formal way of arranging urban gardening in Ljubljana, a top-down approach, which the city has been carrying out intensively since 2007. I compared the solutions being proposed by the city of Ljubljana for organising urban gardening with the way it is organised in other European cities, the UK, and the USA. I also researched the recent rapid growth of self-organised initiatives which are focused on the local production of food and seek to find more economic and ecologically friendly models to visibly influence the future of cities and the countryside. Here, community gardens play an important role, as in addition to the production of food they are also spaces for the criticism of existing urban policies, a self-organised revitalisation of neglected spaces, and places of resilience, because they differ from that which real estate agencies, large financial companies, and city authorities desire them to be. The community garden Beyond a Construction Site has become living proof that, through a group action, the residents of a neighbourhood can influence existing city policies and the future of both their own neighbourhood and that of the entire city. The initiators of this garden are artists and architects, and we began this community garden in the context of an art festival, which also shows that art can influence the processes of everyday life and help to create much needed spaces within cities to serve various purposes. Our community garden has also shown itself to be an important platform for the exchange of knowledge on organic gardening, ecology in everyday life, and critical architecture, as well as serving to connect related initiatives. Together with these other initiatives we are stronger, and are influencing structural changes within city politics, thereby also co-creating the future of Ljubljana. This community garden is helping us to redefine our relationship with the city and re-awaken the desires and actions of residents connected with realising their fundamental right, the right to the city. My other artworks, which I am presenting in the context of this doctoral thesis, show an optimistic vision for the future of cities. The video animations Back to the City (2011) and The Right Balance (2013), as well as the accompanying collages, visualise a city of the future where urban and rural practices live together side-by-side. This vision is being realised by city residents themselves, with their active participation in the creation of community gardens, growing their own vegetables, urban beekeeping, and by having egg-laying hens in their gardens. My desire was also to present the theoretical concept and scientific research to a non-academic public, and to people without specialised training. Using the method of storytelling I included knowledge from the research into the video animations and collages. In this way my artistic work, with an intentional playfulness, challenges today's faith in science and theoretical concepts, as well as directing attention to working with common sense, with one's own hands, and with the earth. This can contribute to a change in the still dominant anthropocentric view of nature, which is an urgently needed change for our future. Keywords: rural, urban agriculture, community gardens, urban beekeeping, the bottom-up approach to urban planning, alternative spaces

Diese ideologiegeschichtliche Dissertation hat die ideologischen Voraussetzungen, Inhalte und Ziele außenpolitischer Vorstellungen zum Gegenstand, die in den ersten (Krisen-)Jahren der Weimarer Republik (1918-1923) von der deutschvölkischen Bewegung - teils basierend auf aus der Vorkriegszeit tradierten Ideologemen - entwickelt und propagiert wurden. Einleitend analysiert und definiert sie die ideologischen Grundlagen deutschvölkischen außenpolitischen Denkens: das Politik- und Außenpolitikverständnis der Deutschvölkischen, deren Verständnis von Krieg und Militär als Mittel der Außenpolitik sowie deren Rassismus als zentralen Fixpunkt des deutschvölkischen Menschenbildes. Rassenantisemitismus erweist sich dabei als integraler, wenn auch von den Deutschvölkischen besonders betonter Bestandteil eines übergeordneten Rassismusbegriffes und wird deshalb nicht isoliert betrachtet. Das bedeutet für die Einordnung des Deutschvölkischen Schutz- und Trutzbundes (DVSTB), dass er anders, als in der bisherigen Forschung geschehen, als Rassistenbund und nicht ausschließlich als Antisemitenbund zu interpretieren ist. Im Februar 1919 gegründet, stieg der DVSTB bis zu seinem annähernd reichsweiten Verbot im Sommer 1922 aufgrund seines von Anbeginn reichsweiten Ortsgruppennetzes und seiner rasanten Mitgliederentwicklung (Sommer 1922: ca. 150.000 bis 180.000 Mitglieder) innerhalb der sonst von der Zersplitterung in viele, häufig nur regional agierende Klein- und Kleinstgruppen gepägten völkischen Bewegung zur größten und dominierenden Einzelorganisation auf. Deshalb ist er als für die gesamte Bewegung repräsentative pars pro toto als eingrenzender Rahmen dieser Untersuchung ausgewählt worden. In einem weiteren Analyseschritt wird herausgearbeitet, wie die Deutschvölkischen die aus ihrer sozialdarwinistischen Sicht wichtigsten, da mächtigsten, stärksten Völker ("Engländer", US-Amerikaner, Franzosen und Russen) in ihrem rassistischen Menschenbild verorteten und welche tradierten Völkerstereotypen sie dabei verarbeiteten. Darüber hinaus legt die Dissertation dar, wie die Deutschvölkischen die aus ihrer Sicht wichtigsten außenpolitischen Ereignissen ihrer Zeit wahrnahmen und welche Positionen sie - ausgehend von ihrer ideologischen Grundüberzeugungen - dazu bezogen. Insbesondere am Beispiel der bis in die Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts zurückzuverfolgenden Forderung nach "Lebensraum im Osten" geht die Dissertation der über die Jahre 1922/23 weit hinausgreifenden Fragestellung nach, welche langfristigen Ziele, die ab 1933 offizielle Ziele deutscher Außenpolitik werden sollten, bereits zu Beginn der Weimarer Republik in der deutschvölkischen Bewegung entwickelt wurden. Abschließend werden die Kontakte beleuchtet, die der DVSTB - mit geringem Erfolg - versuchte, zu Gesinnungsgenossen im Ausland zu knüpfen, um eine "Völkische" bzw. "Weiße Internatioonale" zu gründen. Im Verlauf der Untersuchung werden Querverbindungen zu anderen zentralen völkischen Ideologiebestandteilen hergestellt, z. B. zu den bestimmenden völkischen Negationen Republik- und Demokratiefeindschaft, Antiparlamentarismus, Antikommunismus, Antiliberalismus, Antifeminismus, Antiindustrialismus und Antiurbanismus. Wiederholt werden die Methoden thematisiert, mit denen der DVSTB außenpolitische Themen innenpolitisch gegen die Repräsentanten und die verfassungsmäßige Ordnung der Weimarer Republik instrumentalisierte. Völkische Positionen zur Außenpoltik werden so in einen übergeordneten Zusammenhang zum völkischen Antimodernismus und somit in einen Gesamtkontext zum vielfältigen Spektrum völkischer Ideologie und Propaganda gestellt. ; This dissertation deals with the partially pre-war based ideological prerequisites, contents and goals regarding foreign affairs designed and propagated by the German "völkisch" movement during the initial (troubled) years of the Weimar Republic (1918-1923). By way of introduction, this paper analyses and defines the ideological prerequisites of the German "völkisch" way of thinking: the understanding of politics and foreign affairs of the German "völkisch" as well as their understanding of war and military as a means of foreign affairs as well as their racism as a central fixing point of the German "Völkisch" picture of mankind. Racial antisemitism turns out to be an integral, but also emphasised part of the generic "Racism" and is therefore not examined isolatedly. This results in a new interpretation of the "Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund" (DVSTB), which was not only an antisemitic organisation, as it was regarded by historians so far, but also a racist organisation. Founded in February of 1919, the DVSTB became the largest and dominating individual organisation until its nearly Reich-wide prohibition in summer of 1922. Its dominance was due to its already in the beginning Reich-wide existing network of "Ortsgruppen" (regional groups) and fast rise of members (summer 1922: approximately 150 000 to 180 000 members).The "völkisch" movement in a whole showed signs of fragmentation into regionally acting small and very small groups. Therefore, the DVSTB was chosen to be the pars pro toto for the movement in the paper. Another step in the analysis examines how the German "völkisch" integrated the (in their social darwinist point of view) most important, because most powerful and strongest people (the "English" US Americans, French and Russians) into their racist picture of mankind and which traditional stereotypes they used for this means. Above that, this dissertation explains how the German "völkisch" perceived the from their point of view most important events in foreign affairs and which position they took up resulting from their basic ideological views. This dissertation explores the question which long-term goals the German "völkisch" movement already developed in the beginning of the Weimar Republic. Gaining "Lebensraum im Osten" (living space in the East), a claim which was already made in the middle of the 19th century, is particularly explained as an example of these goals. These goals proved to be the official German goals in foreign affairs from 1933 on. This dissertation concludes with the contacts to foreign right-wing extremists the DVSTB tried to establish with minor success to found a "völkisch" or "Weiße Internationale" (White International). The analysis shows links to other central parts of "völkisch" ideology, for example "völkisch" negations such as anti-republic as well as anti-democratic views, anti-parlamentarism, anti-communism, anti-liberalism, anti-feminism, anti-industrialism, and anti-urbanism. Repeatedly, this dissertation shows methods the DVSTB used to work against the representatives and against the constitutional order of the Weimar Republic. "Völkisch" views regarding foreign affairs are therefore shown in the superordinate context of "völkisch" anti-modernism and herewith in the overall context of a manifold spectrum of "völkisch" ideology and propaganda.

The large literature on regional inequality in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is hampered by incomplete evidence on price dispersion across space, making it hard to distinguish real and nominal inequality. The two main methods used to calculate spatial deflators have been to price a national basket of goods and services across different regions in the country or else to estimate a food Engel curve and define the deflator as that needed for nominally similar households to have the same food budget shares in all regions. Neither approach is convincing with the data available. Moreover, a focus on tradable goods such as food may be misplaced because of the emerging literature on the rapid convergence of traded goods prices within the PRC that contrasts with earlier claims of fragmented internal markets. In a setting where traded goods prices converge rapidly, the main source of price dispersion across space should come from non-traded items, and especially from housing given the fixity of land. In this paper we use newly available data on dwelling sales in urban PRC to develop spatially-disaggregated indices of house prices which are then used as spatial deflators for both provinces and core urban districts. These new deflators complement existing approaches that have relied more on traded goods prices and are used to re-examine the evidence on the level of regional inequality. Around one-quarter of the apparent spatial inequality disappears once account is taken of cost-of-living differences.

The large literature on regional inequality in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is hampered by incomplete evidence on price dispersion across space, making it hard to distinguish real and nominal inequality. The two main methods used to calculate spatial deflators have been to price a national basket of goods and services across different regions in the country or else to estimate a food Engel curve and define the deflator as that needed for nominally similar households to have the same food budget shares in all regions. Neither approach is convincing with the data available. Moreover, a focus on tradable goods such as food may be misplaced because of the emerging literature on the rapid convergence of traded goods prices within the PRC that contrasts with earlier claims of fragmented internal markets. In a setting where traded goods prices converge rapidly, the main source of price dispersion across space should come from non-traded items, and especially from housing given the fixity of land. In this paper we use newly available data on dwelling sales in urban PRC to develop spatially-disaggregated indices of house prices which are then used as spatial deflators for both provinces and core urban districts. These new deflators complement existing approaches that have relied more on traded goods prices and are used to re-examine the evidence on the level of regional inequality. Around one-quarter of the apparent spatial inequality disappears once account is taken of cost-of-living differences.

In the context of Romania's push toward sustainable and inclusive development, the government has asked the World Bank to support the harmonization of public investments financed by the European Union and the state budget. The current report describes the national program for local development (PNDL's) framework and project cycle and provides an overview of the program's project portfolio in 2014. It also draws a number of preliminary observations and presents some potential policy measures, based on a review of 289 technical-economic documentations (in most cases feasibility studies) for new investments proposed for PNDL financing in 2014. The aim is to understand gaps and opportunities in the PNDL's programming and implementation, and also to help develop the MRDPA's capacity for assessing received proposals. This report seeks to contribute to the overall objective of improving the design and implementation of state-budget-funded investment programs under the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration (MRDPA) - primarily the PNDL. Chapter one gives introduction; chapter two presents PNDL background and portfolio assessment; chapter three presents main challenges related to the quality of projects submitted for PNDL financing; and chapter four presents preliminary observations and policy measures recommendations.

Large-scale simulation and visualization are essential topics in areas as different as sociology, physics, urbanism, training, entertainment among others. This kind of systems requires a vast computational power and memory resources commonly available in High Performance Computing HPC platforms. Currently, the most potent clusters have heterogeneous architectures with hundreds of thousands and even millions of cores. The industry trends inferred that exascale clusters would have thousands of millions. The technical challenges for simulation and visualization process in the exascale era are intertwined with difficulties in other areas of research, including storage, communication, programming models and hardware. For this reason, it is necessary prototyping, testing, and deployment a variety of approaches to address the technical challenges identified and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each proposed solution. The focus of this research is interactive large-scale crowd simulation and visualization. To exploit to the maximum the capacity of the current HPC infrastructure and be prepared to take advantage of the next generation. The project develops a new approach to scale crowd simulation and visualization on heterogeneous computing cluster using a task-based technique. Its main characteristic is hardware agnostic. It abstracts the difficulties that imply the use of heterogeneous architectures like memory management, scheduling, communications, and synchronization — facilitating development, maintenance, and scalability. With the goal of flexibility and take advantage of computing resources as best as possible, the project explores different configurations to connect the simulation with the visualization engine. This kind of system has an essential use in emergencies. Therefore, urban scenes were implemented as realistic as possible; in this way, users will be ready to face real events. Path planning for large-scale crowds is a challenge to solve, due to the inherent dynamism in the scenes and vast search space. A new path-finding algorithm was developed. It has a hierarchical approach which offers different advantages: it divides the search space reducing the problem complexity, it can obtain a partial path instead of wait for the complete one, which allows a character to start moving and compute the rest asynchronously. It can reprocess only a part if necessary with different levels of abstraction. A case study is presented for a crowd simulation in urban scenarios. Geolocated data are used, they were produced by mobile devices to predict individual and crowd behavior and detect abnormal situations in the presence of specific events. It was also address the challenge of combining all these individual's location with a 3D rendering of the urban environment. The data processing and simulation approach are computationally expensive and time-critical, it relies thus on a hybrid Cloud-HPC architecture to produce an efficient solution. Within the project, new models of behavior based on data analytics were developed. It was developed the infrastructure to be able to consult various data sources such as social networks, government agencies or transport companies such as Uber. Every time there is more geolocation data available and better computation resources which allow performing analysis of greater depth, this lays the foundations to improve the simulation models of current crowds. The use of simulations and their visualization allows to observe and organize the crowds in real time. The analysis before, during and after daily mass events can reduce the risks and associated logistics costs. ; La simulación y visualización a gran escala son temas esenciales en áreas tan diferentes como la sociología, la física, el urbanismo, la capacitación, el entretenimiento, entre otros. Este tipo de sistemas requiere una gran capacidad de cómputo y recursos de memoria comúnmente disponibles en las plataformas de computo de alto rendimiento. Actualmente, los equipos más potentes tienen arquitecturas heterogéneas con cientos de miles e incluso millones de núcleos. Las tendencias de la industria infieren que los equipos en la era exascale tendran miles de millones. Los desafíos técnicos en el proceso de simulación y visualización en la era exascale se entrelazan con dificultades en otras áreas de investigación, incluidos almacenamiento, comunicación, modelos de programación y hardware. Por esta razón, es necesario crear prototipos, probar y desplegar una variedad de enfoques para abordar los desafíos técnicos identificados y evaluar las ventajas y desventajas de cada solución propuesta. El foco de esta investigación es la visualización y simulación interactiva de multitudes a gran escala. Aprovechar al máximo la capacidad de la infraestructura actual y estar preparado para aprovechar la próxima generación. El proyecto desarrolla un nuevo enfoque para escalar la simulación y visualización de multitudes en un clúster de computo heterogéneo utilizando una técnica basada en tareas. Su principal característica es que es hardware agnóstico. Abstrae las dificultades que implican el uso de arquitecturas heterogéneas como la administración de memoria, las comunicaciones y la sincronización, lo que facilita el desarrollo, el mantenimiento y la escalabilidad. Con el objetivo de flexibilizar y aprovechar los recursos informáticos lo mejor posible, el proyecto explora diferentes configuraciones para conectar la simulación con el motor de visualización. Este tipo de sistemas tienen un uso esencial en emergencias. Por lo tanto, se implementaron escenas urbanas lo más realistas posible, de esta manera los usuarios estarán listos para enfrentar eventos reales. La planificación de caminos para multitudes a gran escala es un desafío a resolver, debido al dinamismo inherente en las escenas y el vasto espacio de búsqueda. Se desarrolló un nuevo algoritmo de búsqueda de caminos. Tiene un enfoque jerárquico que ofrece diferentes ventajas: divide el espacio de búsqueda reduciendo la complejidad del problema, puede obtener una ruta parcial en lugar de esperar a la completa, lo que permite que un personaje comience a moverse y calcule el resto de forma asíncrona, puede reprocesar solo una parte si es necesario con diferentes niveles de abstracción. Se presenta un caso de estudio para una simulación de multitud en escenarios urbanos. Se utilizan datos geolocalizados producidos por dispositivos móviles para predecir el comportamiento individual y público y detectar situaciones anormales en presencia de eventos específicos. También se aborda el desafío de combinar la ubicación de todos estos individuos con una representación 3D del entorno urbano. Dentro del proyecto, se desarrollaron nuevos modelos de comportamiento basados ¿¿en el análisis de datos. Se creo la infraestructura para poder consultar varias fuentes de datos como redes sociales, agencias gubernamentales o empresas de transporte como Uber. Cada vez hay más datos de geolocalización disponibles y mejores recursos de cómputo que permiten realizar un análisis de mayor profundidad, esto sienta las bases para mejorar los modelos de simulación de las multitudes actuales. El uso de simulaciones y su visualización permite observar y organizar las multitudes en tiempo real. El análisis antes, durante y después de eventos multitudinarios diarios puede reducir los riesgos y los costos logísticos asociados ; Postprint (published version)

Is there a clear distinction between development and decline in contemporary urban life? In this volume we argue that there is not. Irregularities of development express themselves in contrasts, and these contrasts are particularly important outside of metropolitan centres, in places where we can simultaneously observe the signs of development and the symptoms of "development of underdevelopment." The book is divided into two parts, Global and Local Contexts of the Postcommunist City, and The City in Transition—Gentrification, Revitalisation, Activisation. It presents the discussion between Polish and German researchers on the problems of decline/ development in the area of urban studies. The authors are: Jörg Dürrschmidt, Heidi Fichter-Wolf, Katrin Großmann, Annegret Haase, Sandra Huning, Thomas Knorr-Siedow, Bastian Lange, Konrad Miciukiewicz, Jarosław Mikołajec, Michal Nowosielski, Marek Nowak, Dieter Rink, Annett Steinführer, and Marcin Tujdowski.