Studies on the framing of the refugee crisis have focused on media and political discourses, revealing contrasting views and an increasing politicization of immigration. However, the ...framing-of-asylum discourse in relation to the reception and settlement of asylum seekers in local communities has so far received less attention, especially when conflictual dynamics emerge. This article investigates the ways in which experts at different levels make sense of how the refugee crisis has unfolded in local communities in Italy. Insofar as asylum governance has become a contentious issue, it looks at conflictual situations. The research challenges the binary between humanitarian and fear frames by suggesting the prevalence of a managerialist frame focusing on a problematic implementation of asylum policies. Taking into consideration the opinions of local experts, it also reveals a shift from a fear frame to an inconvenience frame, which denies xenophobic discourses on invasion or social/public disorder in local communities, but finds other reasons to deny acceptance. The article also adds to the study of the horizontal dynamics between public and private actors, which are central, especially at the local level, and introduces refugees as subjects who actively participate in the “battleground” of asylum governance. Therefore, claims about a negotiated order between different tiers of governance within the multilevel governance approach are challenged.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) and related tools are commonly used to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of waste treatment scenarios. This manuscript presents a mini-review of studies ...published over the last 10 years in Italy and aims to investigate how life cycle thinking tools are applied to assess the environmental sustainability of local-level waste policies. Results reveal that different waste flows, technologies and policies have been investigated independently and in varying detail. Review suggests that boundary selection significantly affects LCA results; integration of different waste systems is therefore crucial to avoid spatial or temporal shifts of environmental impacts. Moreover, the description of methodological characteristics, limitations and transversal aspects of Italian waste management studies allows various stakeholders to assess the reliability of past and future research for waste policy planning and rebound effects prevention. This review also highlights the need to define minimum requirements of transparency and ease of reporting of the studies to private and public stakeholders. Finally, the paper investigates whether using both the organisational LCA and the life cycle sustainability approach for the overall waste management process may be useful to develop a standard method to address multi-functionalities and multiple sites.
This essay is concerned with the planning and densification of suburbs, which present a huge challenge insofar as they form a large area of urbanized land that remains underexploited due to low ...residential density. Drawing on current research in the Paris city‐region, the essay focuses specifically on the difficulty in implementing densification policies in low‐rise suburban areas. It examines the varying degrees of densification fostered by these policies, and builds upon recent urban studies literature on suburban change to trace how suburban areas are being transformed through regulations, instruments and market dynamics associated with densification processes. What kinds of densification policy are being implemented and what are the socio‐economic, political and cultural determinants of each type of regulatory approach? This essay will attempt to answer this question via an analysis of the densification policies being put in place in the municipalities of the Paris city‐region. It will offer in turn a typology of these different policies. It shows that densification is an instrument that can be used to address local political concerns which vary greatly depending on the economic, social and geographical position of municipalities within larger urban areas.
The article contributes to recent discussions on convergence/divergence of local policies for urban security and public safety amid globalization, exploring comparatively local approaches to crime ...prevention and explaining differences/similarities through multilevel connections. I analyze situational prevention, social policy, and proximity/community policing in two “not-so-global” metropolises: Lisbon, where security is the goal of a wide set of policies in many fields, and Memphis, where social problems have become security issues and policing the only game in town. Differing approaches are explained on the grounds of political traditions, neoliberalization of policy, and multilevel relations among polities. I discuss implications for the relation between policy and policing: Police attempts at social outreach amid coupling/decoupling of security with/from urban policy, and the “mission creep” of policing when it is expected to lead prevention. Conclusions advocate that policy reform is necessary at many levels to deal with the intersection of crime, retrenching welfare, and aggressive policing in U.S. cities such as Memphis.
The role of Bulgarian municipalities in the processes of programs that implement EU funds is absolutely undeniable. They are direct or potential beneficiaries of the major part of the operational ...programs – both in the previous and current programming period. More so, they are the beneficiaries of so-called “big projects” (according to the European legislation, projects with budgets over €50 million), which are key infrastructure projects in priority sectors such as transport and water infrastructure. This paper is devoted to these municipalities and their attitudes towards European funds in the context of the overall development of the municipalities. The study is based on empirical research among representatives (n = 73) of the Bulgarian municipalities, and their perceptions on the importance of EU funds and programs for the municipalities’ development.
Resumen En la última década el gobierno de la Ciudad de México ha ido construyendo una imagen de ciudad hospitalaria e intercultural con respeto a la presencia de minorías indígenas, comunidades de ...distinto origen nacional, migrantes y sus familias. Este proceso ha culminado en la promulgación, en 2012, de la “Ley de interculturalidad, asistencia a migrantes y movilidad humana del Distrito Federal”. El artículo se enfoca en el análisis del discurso alrededor de la Ley, su programa y el proceso de implementación de las políticas locales de migración, restituyendo parte de la investigación cualitativa desarrollada en 2016 en la Ciudad de México a través del análisis de documentos oficiales, entrevistas a actores claves, la observación en procesos participativos y eventos así como la observación participante en un albergue para migrantes en la ciudad.
The struggle for public space Cancellieri, Adriano; Ostanel, Elena
City (London, England),
07/2015, Letnik:
19, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The presence of immigration in the European urban landscape contributes to the re-questioning of taken-for-granted use and meanings of the urban texture. In Italian cities, we witness a contemporary ...struggle between different groups and individuals for the physical and symbolical production and appropriation of public space. This paper is based on qualitative research in the city of Padua (north-eastern Italy, Veneto region) on the territory around the railway station where migrants try to seek out symbolic and material resources while using specific spaces. However, in the process of manipulating urban spaces, migrants are accused of surpassing the 'upper threshold of correct visibility'. In other words, the level of visibility of their different bodies as well as the nonconventional uses of urban space challenge a 'spatial order' which is essentially taken for granted as the 'right way'. The paper highlights how local policies and the local mass media create an atmosphere of continuous 'moral panic' through the circulation of a stereotypical image of migrants. The paper concludes by calling for a radical shift in the policymaking process that has to be strongly informed by the physical, symbolical and emotional production of urban space. Difference today typifies the urban dimension of Italian cities and the development of contextual and coherent strategies to manage diverse urban societies is now of utmost importance.
Bicycle use varies strongly between countries, and even between municipalities within the same country substantial variations may exist. This paper analyses to what extent municipality policies ...matter in explaining these variations. It appears that most of the inter-municipality variation in bicycle use is related to physical aspects such as altitude differences and city size, and features of the population (share of youngsters). Differences in ethnic composition also appear to matter. Important policy-related variables are: the number of stops cyclists have to make on their routes; hindrances in road use; and safety of cyclists. In addition the relative position of bicycles with respect to cars (speed, parking costs) also appears to matter. These results shed light on various components of the cyclists' generalised costs, such as those related to accidents and physical efforts, that are not usually considered. We also conclude that cultural tradition, possibly related to ethnicity deserves a more explicit role in travel surveys and the analysis of travel behaviour than it usually receives.
Les sports de plage apportent des éclairages sur les cultures, les territoires littoraux et les sociétés auxquelles ils sont associés. En croisant les contributions en géographie du sport, géographie ...du littoral et géographie du tourisme, cette étude aborde la question de l’évolution des activités et des espaces récréatifs et sportifs pratiquées sur la frange littorale. L’analyse conduite sur l’ensemble des sports de plage combine plusieurs sources : observations directes, publications en sciences humaines et sociales, informations recueillies via Internet (collectivités, associations, fédérations, quotidiens régionaux…), entretiens avec des acteurs publics et privés en interaction sur les territoires littoraux. L’étude de la diversité des sports de plage permet de réinterpréter les enjeux, les lieux et les conditions de développement de ces activités ludosportives. Tout en relevant les aspects dichotomiques (cadre fédéral/cadre ludosportif) elle ambitionne de dégager les transformations et les tendances en cours dont la dominante tient à des pratiques en quête d’hédonisme dans un environnement récréatif et sportif.
This paper discusses the role and use of emotion in public policy. Approaching emotions from the standpoint of narrative analysis, it offers a detailed account of the way emotions were storied and ...enrolled in a specific local policy process: the construction of a memorial to the abolition of slavery between 1998 and 2012 in Nantes, France, a former slave trade port. The article finds evidence that emotions are a powerful instrument for framing problems and solutions and making sense of a new policy instrument. However, it also argues that the ability of policy actors to enroll emotions in meaning-making operations is structured by dominant policy beliefs and constrained by power relations.
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