A coalition of leftist political groups, civic movements, and grassroots organizations led by social activist Ada Colau won the Barcelona municipal elections of 2015 and is now governing the Catalan ...capital. The key to this success may well have been its critical positioning in relation to its tourism. Until recently considered a best practice in urban regeneration and a successful global destination, Barcelona has seen in the last 2 years a radical change in the public perception on tourism: from “manna from heaven” to serious issues that are affecting the quality of life of its citizens.This article looks into the factors that may have determined this political change, from the growth of tourism beyond what could be considered a critical threshold for an urban system, to the development of a critical discourse on tourism by the new coalition—attributed to its peculiar constituency and working methods—and the role of the media in airing this discursive shift. The article follows the thread of the “growth machine” theorizations and questions whether the increasing dimension of tourism in urban societies could be a driver for regime changes.
The hard branding of the culture city looks to the power and practices of commercial branding and its packaged entertainment and emporiums. Jackson in particular suggests that the pejorative ...public-private dialectic may be unhelpful, and that: notions of consumer citizenship need to be carefully situated in and socially differentiated. New cultural facilities also suffer the fate of brand decay and the high maintenance, that is reinvestment, required to retain market share. The development of city-centre and redundant industrial and docklands areas of cities, creating new settlements, festival waterfronts, and centres of government control and business, can be seen as an early form of branding the city by the imposition of the post-medieval grid, boardwalk and promenade. In the past these reclaimed city centre spaces housed national institutions government offices, palaces, museums and galleries and public squares, such as the imperial palaces in Vienna and Paris, the museum island in Berlin.
The research deals with the historic center of Barcelona between 1979 and 2011. The period is marked by a continuity of government unique in democratic systems, which has allowed the development of ...almost complete administrative, urban and cultural processes.
The experience of Barcelona has been extensively studied and celebrated. Now, with the period of social democrat administration came to an end and architectural criticism more open to accommodate more scientific readings of that experience, the paper proposes an approach to the Barcelona Model through the study of the regeneration of Ciutat Vella (the historic center of Barcelona). The reasons for this choice are the crucial role that the historical centers have in European cities and in the peculiarities of the transformation of the old city in Barcelona. Parallel to the historical reconstruction , the study deals with the interaction between architecture and politics with respect to management and transformation of the urban reality, taking into account how economic and political globalization, on the one hand, and cultural and technological evolution, on the other hand, have changed the scenery of urban and architectural planning in recent years.
The first part is an introduction and gives the coordinates in terms of edition and historic bases indispensable for understanding the thesis.
In the second part, the research overviews thirty two years of planning and interventions in Ciutat Vella in a detailed explanation supported by data, documents and experiences. The period 1979-2011 is divided into four stages, treated in four sections: during the 1979-1986 stage, architects and politicians work together to fill the basic urban needs; from 1987 to 1996, the new administrative tools and Olympic success impart a strong acceleration to the renewal; from 1997 to 2004, the transformations reach their acme, thus raising protests and hopes; in the last step 2005-2011 , the architecture focuses on specific problems while the visionary policy fades. In this second part we have eight case studies (presented two at the end of each section) whose story and whose design features are considered to be representative of broader issues discussed in the text. The cases are: the square and gardens Emili Vendrell; square Mercè; the Fossar de les Moreres; the Rambla del Raval; the residences of so-called Porta Cambo; the square of the Vila de Madrid; the square George Orwell; Carrer Joaquín Costa.
The third and final part of the work (that of the apparatuses), contains a bibliography and a list of media sources. In th is part there are also three interviews with key people in the transformation process described: novelist Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (met in 2001); former major Joan Clos; architect and politician Itziar González.
The thesis takes the transformation of Ciutal Vella during the thirty years of socialist administration as a base to start a broader discussion about the relationship between architecture (cultural and technicalwise), historic city (as a physical and social multi-layered reality) and politics (considered as a combination of program, strategy and management) as a key to understanding the meaning of the contribution that architecture can make to the improvement of the city and society in the new global realities.
The transport infrastructure generates benefits in efficiency and interchange of goods and people. The increase of accessibility induced by transport infrastructure in a region causes employment ...growth, which causes a more positive economic future for the affected area by the infrastructure. The purpose of this book is presented to the practitioners, researchers and students as a comprehensive framework around the transport infrastructure for the following:
i. Transport infrastructure, their economic influence and the territorial transformation.
ii. The active mobility infrastructure, the design and the habitat influence in urban areas.
iii. The fundamentals and main approaches around road infrastructure and pavement management.
iv. The fundamentals and main approaches around road infrastructure, pavement design, assessment and management in road and airport pavement.
v. An approach toward the assessment and management of railway infrastructure and the urban policies of tram systems in Europe.
The transport infrastructure diversity presented in this book offers a valuable and representative point of view concerning its importance, considering the assessment aspects, management and especially the challenges in the field.
Peer Reviewed
ObjectiveAsbestos is a known human carcinogen, with evidence for malignant mesothelioma (MM), cancers of lung, ovary, larynx and possibly other organs. MM rates are predicted to increase with a power ...of time since first exposure (TSFE), but the possible long-term attenuation of the trend is debated. The asbestos ban enforced in Italy in 1992 gives an opportunity to measure long-term cancer risk in formerly exposed workers.MethodsPool of 43 previously studied Italian asbestos cohorts (asbestos cement, rolling stock, shipbuilding), with mortality follow-up updated to 2010. SMRs were computed for the 1970–2010 period, for the major causes, with consideration of duration and TSFE, using reference rates by age, sex, region and calendar period.ResultsThe study included 51 801 subjects (5741 women): 55.9% alive, 42.6% died (cause known for 95%) and 1.5% lost to follow-up. Mortality was significantly increased for all deaths (SMR: men: 1.05, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.06; women: 1.17, 95% CI to 1.12 to 1.22), all malignancies combined (SMR: men: 1.17, 95% CI to 1.14 to 1.20; women: 1.33, 95% CI 1.24 to 1.43), pleural and peritoneal malignancies (SMR: men: 13.28 and 4.77, 95% CI 12.24 to 14.37 and 4.00 to 5.64; women: 28.44 and 6.75, 95% CI 23.83 to 33.69 and 4.70 to 9.39), lung (SMR: men: 1.26, 95% CI 1.21 to 1.31; women: 1.43, 95% CI 1.13 to 1.78) and ovarian cancer (SMR=1.38, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.87) and asbestosis (SMR: men: 300.7, 95% CI 270.7 to 333.2; women: 389.6, 95% CI 290.1 to 512.3). Pleural cancer rate increased during the first 40 years of TSFE and reached a plateau after.DiscussionThe study confirmed the increased risk for cancer of the lung, ovary, pleura and peritoneum but not of the larynx and the digestive tract. Pleural cancer mortality reached a plateau at long TSFE, coherently with recent reports.
ObjectivesModels based on the multistage theory of cancer predict that rates of malignant mesothelioma continuously increase with time since first exposure (TSFE) to asbestos, even after the end of ...external exposure. However, recent epidemiological studies suggest that mesothelioma rates level off many years after first exposure to asbestos. A gradual clearance of asbestos from the lungs has been suggested as a possible explanation for this phenomenon. We analysed long-term trends of pleural and peritoneal cancer mortality in subjects exposed to asbestos to evaluate whether such trends were consistent with the clearance hypothesis.MethodsWe used data from a pool of 43 Italian asbestos cohorts (51 801 subjects). The role of asbestos clearance was explored using the traditional mesothelioma multistage model, generalised to include a term representing elimination of fibres over time.ResultsRates of pleural cancer increased until 40 years of TSFE, but remained stable thereafter. On the other hand, we observed a monotonic increase of peritoneal cancer with TSFE. The model taking into account asbestos clearance fitted the data better than the traditional one for pleural (p=0.004) but not for peritoneal (p=0.09) cancer.ConclusionsRates of pleural cancer do not increase indefinitely after the exposure to asbestos, but eventually reach a plateau. This trend is well described by a model accounting for a gradual elimination of the asbestos fibres. These results are relevant for the prediction of future rates of mesothelioma and in asbestos litigations.
Despite the available information on cancer risk, asbestos is used in large areas in the world, mostly in the production of asbestos cement. Moreover, questions are raised regarding the shape of the ...dose response relation, the relation with time since exposure and the association with neoplasms in various organs. We conducted a study on the relationship between cumulative asbestos exposure and mortality from asbestos related diseases in a large Italian pool of 21 cohorts of asbestos-cement workers with protracted exposure to both chrysotile and amphibole asbestos.
The cohort included 13,076 workers, 81.9% men and 18.1% women, working in 21 Italian asbestos-cement factories, with over 40 years of observation. Exposure was estimated by plant and period, and weighted for the type of asbestos used. Data were analysed with consideration of cause of death, cumulative exposure and time since first exposure (TSFE), and by gender. SMRs were computed using reference rates by region, gender and calendar time. Poisson regression models including cubic splines were used to analyse the effect of cumulative exposure to asbestos and TSFE on mortality for asbestos-related diseases. 95% Confidence Intervals (CI) were computed according to the Poisson distribution.
Mortality was significantly increased for 'All Causes' and 'All Malignant Neoplasm (MN)', in both genders. Considering asbestos related diseases (ARDs), statistically significant excesses were observed for MN of peritoneum (SMR: men 14.19; women 15.14), pleura (SMR: 22.35 and 48.10), lung (SMR: 1.67 and 1.67), ovary (in the highest exposure class SMR 2.45), and asbestosis (SMR: 507 and 1023). Mortality for ARDs, in particular pleural and peritoneal malignancies, lung cancer, ovarian cancer and asbestosis increased monotonically with cumulative exposure. Pleural MN mortality increased progressively in the first 40 years of TSFE, then reached a plateau, while peritoneal MN showed a continuous increase. The trend of lung cancer SMRs also showed a flattening after 40 years of TSFE. Attributable proportions for pleural, peritoneal, and lung MN were respectively 96, 93 and 40%.
Mortality for ARDs was associated with cumulative exposure to asbestos. Risk of death from pleural MN did not increase indefinitely with TSFE but eventually reached a plateau, consistently with reports from other recent studies.
ObjectiveAsbestos causes mesothelioma (MM) and cancer of lung, ovary, larynx and possibly other organs. Risk reduction after cessation of exposure and at long latency is debated. For MM, the ...predicted increase of rates with time since first exposure (TSFE) might be attenuated by fibre clearance. The ban of asbestos use in Italy gives an opportunity to measure long term risk in formerly exposed workers.MethodsIn a pool of 43 Italian asbestos cohorts (asbestos-cement, rolling stock, shipbuilding and other industries), standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) were computed for the major causes, with consideration of time factors (period, duration, latency). The functional relation between pleural cancer mortality rates and TSFE was evaluated using Poisson regression, including a term for fibre clearance.ResultsThe study includes 54,409 subjects (6,054 women): 55.3% alive, 43.0% died (cause known for 94%; 789 pleural cancers), and 1.7% lost to follow-up. Mortality was increased for all causes (SMR = 1.06; p < 0.001), all malignancies (SMR = 1.18; p < 0.01), pleural and peritoneal malignancies (SMRs = 14.66 and 6.95; both p < 0.01), lung (SMR = 1.26; p < 0.01) and ovarian cancer (SMR = 1.39; p < 0.05). Pleural cancer rate increased during the first 40 years of TSFE and reached a plateau thereafter. The model including asbestos elimination fitted the data much better than the traditional model (p = 0.0004; estimated asbestos elimination rate of 5% per year).DiscussionOur results provide information on the risk after asbestos exposure, even for rarer diseases. Increased risk for ovarian cancer is confirmed. Results agree with the hypothesis that pleural cancer risk, rather than increasing indefinitely, reaches a plateau at long latency, coherently with asbestos clearance from the lungs. As a consequence, early exposures to asbestos cannot be considered to be the exclusive determinant of the long term development of pleural cancer, with implications also for the risk related to non occupational exposure and for asbestos removal.
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