A hundred-year-old street market in Bangalore was demolished in the dead of night last month. The colourful stalls of vendors spilling out onto the streets were illegal encroachments, but how much history and local colour is lost by enforcing the law now after so many years of peaceful coexistence?
Martyrs' Square in Beirut was the focal point for the March 14, 2005 demonstrations that saw Syria relinquish control of Lebanon. How do its citizens now regard this polarising space, and how should placemakers respond to the new resentments and divisions created by this pivotal event? Tanya Gallo investigates.
While most are aware of the need for education and prevention, Noemi Reiner of ARCHIVE highlights the need for stable housing for people living with HIV/AIDS to lower transmission rates and reduce the physical and emotional risks of disease and stress.
Sheila Ochugboju sees much to admire in Mumbai's Dial 1298 for Ambulance but fears the middle class is too small in her own Accra for the model to be replicable there.
While economic development policies might contradict and undermine the needs of the urban poor, slums like Dharavi may incubate industries that can export to the world and should be embraced.
Seminar series funded by the Urban Studies Foundation and the Urban Studies Journal Seminar Series Competition
Seminar series funded by the Urban Studies Foundation and the Urban Studies Journal Seminar Series Competition
There is no better time to witness the shortsightedness of governments than around elections. With municipal elections just around the corner in Mumbai, a whole raft of new promises are being made to certain slum dwellers...
How can we reimagine a public space divided by civil war, sectarianism and redevelopment? Rather than sophisticated urban design, Tanya Gallo argues that allowing public space to retain its indeterminacy will keep it accessible for all citizens.
There is much happiness and much misery amongst the urban poor, as these portraits of three households in Manila testify. The point is not to draw lines between them, but to accept that poverty has several gradations, all of which require assistance.
Governments in many places can exhibit a loss in the basic competencies required for effective urban planning. In the UK and India, some of the slack is picked up by the private and non-profit sectors, with surprising and innovative results.
It is common knowledge that sub-Saharan Africa is urbanising faster than anywhere else in the world ... but what if we're wrong?!
What do the 'DIY urbanism' movement and homelessness have in common? While DIY urbanism is hailed as a creative force, the homeless are still marginalised in many cities.
A freelance writer, researcher and consultant on contemporary urbanism, with specific research interests including public space and the public realm…
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The Global Urbanist is an online magazine reviewing urban affairs and urban development issues in cities throughout the developed and developing world.
Its readers are drawn from the urban policy and international development sectors, and include urban planners, officers in local, national or international government agencies, civil society leaders, and researchers.
