Beyond the variety of their situations, French small cities are marked by demographic, social and economic weaknesses that make them socially and territorially vulnerable, particularly in the ...municipality center and the town center. Based on a sample of 439 municipalities of less than 20,000 inhabitants, beneficiaries of the "Petites villes de demain" or "Action Cœur de ville" programs, 69% of these cities experienced a decrease of their population between 2013 and 2018, 88% of them had a share of vacant housing higher than the French average and 92% had a share of people over 65 years old higher than the national average. However, these trends must be distinguished from one territory to another, depending on the regional and local contexts, and also on the way in which local actors, whether public or associative, take account of these fragilities. Indeed, any analysis in terms of vulnerability implies taking into account the capacity for resistance or recovery on the part of the populations concerned, and the public actions or local strategies implemented. How can we use the notion of vulnerability to consider the dynamics of small cities, between attractiveness and ageing, revival and devitalisation, fragility and resilience? And to what extent do local actors integrate these situations of vulnerability into their strategies? This text starts from a theoretical discussion on the notion of vulnerability, approached in its social and territorial dimensions, to propose a measurement and an exploratory cartography of the fragility of small French cities, considered on the level of their town center. A local field study of two small cities in the Eure-et-Loir region (the small town of Nogent-le-Rotrou and the market town of Authon-du-Perche) highlights the interplay of actors at work and considers the vulnerabilities identified as potential resources for the development of the territories.
In 1985, Rick Asher and G.S. Gai, jointly edited a volume published by the American Institute for Indian Studies that was titled Indian Epigraphy. Its Bearing on the History of Art. The volume ...carried 50 papers, short, succinct, but truly important for art historians - the result of a conference held at Varanasi in 1979. My review for the Journal of Asian Studies ended with the comment that this was a book that would find itself on the shelf of any library interested in South Asia. My paper today is a tribute to Rick and his unerring sense of areas of significance in the field in which we have all involved ourselves over the years.
Town and parish councils are the English government bodies closest to local people. Hierarchically, they are subordinate to both national and higher tier local governments (unitary, county and ...borough/district councils). Town councillors represent approximately 11,000,000 people; one-fifth of the population of England. Their mainly small towns will be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union (‘Brexit’). To what extent is not known, but councillors will have roles to play in determining how their towns respond. This paper presents and discusses the views of 156 respondents to an online survey, some of whom were also interviewed. Councillors, town clerks, academics, and interested individuals with policy and practical experience of the sector contributed. Although respondents’ views differ (eg, as to whether town councils should have more powers), most believe they will have to do more. Indeed, they want to do more, especially in relation to planning, housing and transport. They are, however, uncertain about how to achieve their aims, given the constraints of time and resources on a mainly volunteer body, their partial dependence on higher-tier authorities, and the need for, as some strongly believe, effective monitoring of standards, performance, transparency, and accountability.
Au-delà de la diversité de leurs trajectoires, les petites villes françaises sont marquées par un ensemble de fragilités démographiques, sociales ou économiques qui les rendent vulnérables sur les ...plans social et territorial, en particulier dans leurs centres (commune-centre et centre-ville). Sur un échantillon de 439 communes de moins de 20 000 habitants, bénéficiaires des programmes Petites villes de demain ou Action Cœur de de ville, 69 % connaissent une baisse de leur population entre 2013 et 2018, 88 % d’entre elles ont une part de logement vacants supérieure à la moyenne française et 92 % ont une part de plus de 65 ans supérieure à la moyenne nationale. Ces tendances sont toutefois à différencier selon les territoires, au regard des contextes régionaux et locaux, et aussi de la prise en compte de ces fragilités par les acteurs locaux, qu’ils soient publics ou associatifs. En effet, toute analyse en termes de vulnérabilité implique la prise en compte de la capacité de résistance ou de rétablissement de la part des populations concernées, et des actions publiques ou stratégies locales mises en œuvre. En quoi la notion de vulnérabilité est-elle opératoire pour penser les dynamiques des petites villes, entre attractivité et vieillissement, renaissance et dévitalisation, fragilités et résilience ? Et dans quelle mesure les acteurs locaux intègrent-ils ces situations de vulnérabilité dans leurs stratégies d’action ? Ce texte part d’une réflexion théorique sur la notion de vulnérabilité, abordée dans ses dimensions sociales et territoriales pour proposer une mesure et une cartographie exploratoire de la fragilité des petites villes françaises, appréhendées à l’échelle de leur commune-centre. Une étude de terrain menée localement à l’échelle de deux communes d’Eure-et-Loir (la petite ville de Nogent-le-Rotrou et le bourg d’Authon-du-Perche) permet de faire ressortir les jeux d’acteurs à l’œuvre et d’envisager les vulnérabilités identifiées comme de potentielles ressources pour le développement des territoires.
Transacting as Art, Design and Architecture: A Non-Commercial Market re-performs the original event #TransActing: A Market of Values as a printed text with the ambition of investing in the published ...word and image at least some of the original market’s depth and liveness. Holding fast to the experimental ethos of Critical Practice, this anthology does not shy away from risk when the aim is expanding the fields of art, design and architectural research. The authors’ distinct but also overlapping forms (practical, poetic, analytical, etc.) track with the plurality of voices the processes that have nurtured the cluster as it has worked internationally for more than a decade to produce unique projects.The book opens with contributions that reflect on TransActing as collaborative practice-based research. The introduction contextualizes this popup market within London’s long history of local marketplaces. Cued by emerging government policy on market sustainability, the tripartite of place, people and prosperity helps to frame TransActing. Taking a different approach, a partial self-portrait of Critical Practice traces TransActing’s becoming over more than a decade of activity and five years of research on value. This is followed by an account of the market’s physical infrastructure: the prototyping of bespoke stalls which were built from recycled materials, an approach inspired by an early example of open-source furniture design. This comes to life in the next section: polyphonic observations on the stalls in use and the market more generally. The stallholders’ reflections capture the experience of those directly involved and are richly illustrated with images of or related to their stalls. The second part of Transacting as Art, Design and Architecture is composed of commissioned texts to contextualise the market by weaving together references from various fields. These include celebrating the value system of TransActing, especially its critique econometrics. Closely connected to the latter, which was occasioned by Critical Practice’s tenth anniversary, is the subsequent paper's consideration of invisible, feminized labour, which is as undervalued as it is indispensable to cultural production. Taking a slightly different tack is the use of architectural theory (past and present) to trace the transforming nature of the public market, especially as an arena of consumerism. This is followed by an account that looks at the experience of TransActing from the perspective of its local currency. This story is followed by a conversation on the art market and/or the markets of art. This brings the reader to a manifesto-like text that calls for solidarity through publishing, understood as the co-production of meaning through a distributed social process. The penultimate contribution to this collection considers TransActing as a built environment with reference to the market’s shelters and platforms. Finally, a glossary rounds off and opens up the publication as a resource. This compilation of key terms adds nuance to the language used throughout this publication to indicate its resonance in the discourse of Critical Practice.The collection aims to prioritize practice-based insights as an alternative to knowledge-based ones. In this way the book aims to be a refreshing take, one that moves art-research discussions beyond the creation of knowledge. As such, this book will appeal to all those involved in the ‘research turn’ in contemporary cultural production, including those working in institutions and organizations, especially ones with strong community engagement programmes, as well as independent practitioners working in social and socially engaged practice.Primary readership will be practitioners of art, design, curating and architecture and students studying in these fields. The secondary audience will include cultural producers, theorists, educators and others who are interested in how art and other forms of creative practice can challenge the ‘usual’ financial circuits of value and open up alternatives.
This empirical research contributes to the study of experiences gained from attending festivals and events; an area of increasing academic interest. It does this by developing an understanding of how ...experiential value is co-created at small-scale cultural events, and in what form. Here, these events are characterised as markets or fairs typically located in a town centre setting, and with an audience of less than 10,000. Using case study methodology, qualitative data were collected from multiple stakeholders at three separate small-scale events in the UK: a folk music festival; a food festival; and a farmers' market, via semi-structured interviews, questionnaire surveys, observation and documentary analysis. Four determinants emerged as important influencers of the overall event experience: sense of belonging; atmosphere; place; and reputation, along with the concepts of authenticity (Jeannerat, H. (2013). Staging experience, valuing authenticity: Towards a market perspective on territorial development. European Urban and Regional Studies, 20(4), 370-384. doi:10.1177/0969776412454126) and immersion (Carù, A., & Cova, B. (2006). How to facilitate immersion in a consumption experience: appropriation operations and service elements. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 5(1), 4-14. doi:10.1002/cb.30). When viewed in this holistic way, experiential value is revealed as a complex yet delicate balance, which is easily disturbed. Policymakers and event planners need to take account of this in combination with local policy objectives when considering an events-focused economic development strategy. Experiential value created by a small-scale event in one location is not easily replicated elsewhere.
Market/Place Berndt, Christian; Peck, Jamie; Rantisi, Norma M
03/2020
eBook
Markets are seemingly omnipresent features of our economic landscape, and yet they do not exhibit a singular, essential or universal form. What are we to make of the fact that markets are never ...self-contained and self-regulating, but instead are tangled up and co-produced with all manner of governmental, social, and political processes? Furthermore, how are we to explain the persistent and often unruly “geographies" of markets, the causes and consequences of which remain elusive? From a variety of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives, this collection of original essays probes the question of how to think about markets spatially, and how to make sense of the geographies of marketization. In the process, Market/Place opens new frontiers for the emergent field of critical market studies, problematizing the “geography of markets" as an issue not only for self-identifying economic geographers, but as a demanding, interdisciplinary question.
The Low Countries-an area roughly embracing the present-day Netherlands and Belgium-formed a patchwork of varied economic and social development in the Middle Ages, with some regions displaying a ...remarkable dynamism. Manors and Markets charts the history of these vibrant economies and societies, and contrasts them with alternative paths of development, from the early medieval period to the beginning of the seventeenth century. Providing a concise overview of social and economic changes over more than a thousand years, Bas van Bavel assesses the impact of the social and institutional organization that saw the Low Countries become the most urbanized and densely populated part of Europe by the end of the Middle Ages. By delving into the early and high medieval history of society, van Bavel uncovers the foundations of the flourishing of the medieval Flemish towns and the forces that propelled Holland towards its Golden Age. Exploring the Low Countries at a regional level, van Bavel highlights the importance of localized structures for determining the nature of social transitions and economic growth. He assesses the role of manorial organization, the emergence of markets, the rise of towns, the quest for self-determination by ordinary people, and the sharp regional differences in development that can be observed in the very long run. In doing so, the book offers a significant contribution to the debate about the causes of economic and social change, both past and present. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/history/9780199278664/toc.html
The "Hikayat Banjar," a native court chronicle from Borneo, characterizes the irresistibility of natural resource wealth to outsiders as "the banana tree at the gate." Michael R. Dove employs this ...phrase as a root metaphor to frame the history of resource relations between the indigenous peoples of Borneo and the world system. In analyzing production and trade in forest products, pepper, and especially natural rubber, Dove shows that the involvement of Borneo's native peoples in commodity production for global markets is ancient and highly successful and that processes of globalization began millennia ago. Dove's analysis replaces the image of the isolated tropical forest community that needs to be helped into the global system with the reality of communities that have been so successful and competitive that they have had to fight political elites to keep from being forced out.
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