more street photos:
Friday, February 15, 2013
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Call for papers: T2M's 11th conference: 2013 Kouvola/St. Petersburg – Transport and borders
The International Association for the History of Transport, Traffic
and Mobility (T²M) calls for papers to be presented at its 11th annual conference, which will take place in Kouvola, Finland and in St. Petersburg, Russia on September 25th -28th 2013.
The Local Organising Committee of The International Association for
the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility (T²M), (The Centre for
Railway Culture REILIA of the University of Helsinki and The Petersburg
State Transport University) invite all academic researchers and
practitioners working on history, sociology and politics of transport,
traffic and mobility, border studies and transportation technology to
participate in the Conference, a scientific meeting dedicated to the
study of transport and borders in all parts of the world.
The Conference will take place in Kouvola, Finland and St. Petersburg, Russia, on September 25th-28th,
2013. These cities provide an ideal setting for discussing the role of
borders in transport, travel and mobility research. The conference will
include an opportunity to visit two countries; in and outside of the
European Union. The conference will start in Kouvola on September 25th. On September 27th the conference will move by train from Kouvola to St. Petersburg to embark on the second part of the conference.
The T²M Annual Conference is open to papers and sessions on any field
or topic of historical and social science mobility studies. However, we
especially invite the submission of single papers or full sessions
(three papers) on any topic related to “transport and borders”. Besides
physical and national-state borders, many other kinds of borders impede
and shape mobility: cultural borders, which can divide cities and
regions, mental borders, which limit individual space of manoeuvre and technical borders.
The T²M Conference offers opportunities to use cross-disciplinary
approaches to refocus on crossing the borders in new and innovative
ways, such as
- Maritime on land and sea boundary issues
- Mobile and hyper borders
- Mental and cultural borders
- Natural environment and shifting borders
- Spaces beyond the state
- Borders, migration and Diasporas
- Travelling on and across borders
- Transcending borders
- Technical borders and technical compatibility
The final deadline for proposals is April 15th, 2013. The
proposal must include a short abstract, the title of the presentation,
the name of the presenter(s), CV, e-mail address of the author(s),
contact number and information on audiovisual needs. Papers must be sent
to: submissions@t2m.org.
read more
more calls for papers:
Call for papers: Global climate change, biodiversity and sustainability: challenged and opportunity, April 15-18, 2013, Egypt
Call for papers: JDR’s Special Issue on Great East Japan Earthquake
Call for papers: RESPAG 2013: Regional Planning, Spatial Planning, and Strategic Governance
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Sustainable Urban Development and the Chinese Eco-City: Concepts, Strategies, Policies and Assessments
by May Hald
The need for sustainable urban planning and development reached an important point in 2007, when half of the world’s population was defined as living in cities. This need is especially true for a country like China, where an unprecedented urban-rural migration has been taking place since 1978. Such a mass movement has posed many sustainability challenges for Chinese cities; for example, China is home to 16 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world. Now China’s leaders are attempting to use the country’s transition to a market economy and integration into the global economy to advance environmental and social issues, also on an urban level. One way the country is confronting urban growth and sustainability challenges is through an eco-city development approach. The eco-city concept is relatively new in China, and is being used in cities such as Tianjin and Dongtan near Shanghai. Whether eco-cities address the main problems associated with urban development and sustainability, however, rests on a broader, more fundamental planning approach that would streamline the goals and priorities of a large number of stakeholders, focus on existing city problems and look at small-scale eco- initiatives for answers, and thus remains in question.
photos of Rizhao, China:
more about urban China:
China’s Hangzhou Public Bicycle: Understanding Early Adoption and Behavioral Response to Bikesharing
Chinese bike-sharing dwarfs US and European programs
The Unsquared Circle of Old Shanghai
SOM wins Beijing Bohai Innovation City Master Plan Competition
Can Chongqing's Urbanization Survive China's Shrinking Workforce?
Emergy synthesis for the urban ecosystem health of four municipalities in China
A Chinese eco-city: City of dreams, Still on the drawing-board
Friday, February 1, 2013
Integrating Transport, Land-Use Planning and Environment Policy in European Countries
by Harry Geerlings and Dominic Stead
Various recent policy documents stress the need for the integration of sector policies. Several studies have recently been carried out looking at various aspects of policy integration, especially with respect to the integration of transport, land use planning and environment policy. Although literature in this area of research is growing, it is still however quite limited and rather sectoral. Most of the research is mainly technical and mainly focuses on policy options, instruments or assessment methods, rather than on decision-making processes and/or implementation issues. Little attention has been given to organisational and/or institutional aspects of policy integration and how this relates to theories from organisational, policy or political sciences. This paper provides an overview of theoretical frameworks for analysing policy integration and reviews policy documents and recent major research projects with links to policy integration (particularly within Europe). The paper aims to give a historical perspective on policy integration, summarise recent research, identify key ressearch gaps, consider the transferability of research results and identify promising new areas for future research. The paper is divided into four sections. The first section provides a historical overview of changes and trends in policy perspectives, focusing on the European level. The second section contains a review of literature (from both policy documents and theoretical literature) concerning policy integration. The third section summarises recent research projects (mainly funded by the European Commission) relevant to the integration of transport, land use planning and environment policy. This section also considers the issue of policy transfer. The final section contains conclusions and a number of recommendations for future research in this area.
read more land use planning: