Hebe Verrest

Fighting the odds: strategies of female caregivers of disabled children in Zimbabwe

Caregivers of disabled children face numerous challenges in meeting their child’s needs. Research on Zimbabwean caregivers of disabled children is limited. Yet the difficult socio-economic, political and institutional context is expected to complicate the caregiving task. This article examines the resources and caring strategies of female caregivers in Mutare, Zimbabwe, using a well-being framework. Through a mixed-methods approach, the data reveals that external support is extremely limited, particularly due to stigma and a weak state. Caregivers are mostly self-reliant and their strategies focus on enabling themselves to take care of their child.

Bipolar antagonism and multipolar coexistence: framing difference and shaping fear in two Caribbean cities

This article proposes a new approach to urban geographies of fear, focusing on the connection between fear and cultural understandings and representations of difference. Much of the existing work on the relationship between fear, urban space, and social difference tends to take social difference as more or less given. In this article, we argue that how differences (such as ethnic, political or class differences) are framed has strong implications for geographies of fear. The article suggests that dualistic and nondualistic framings of difference influence levels of fear and that this becomes visible in the use and perceptions of urban space, and in the built environment through the erection of physical barriers. These spatial factors, as they limit mobility and interaction, tend to reproduce the specific framing of difference. Two discursive modes of representing difference are discussed. The first, ‘bipolar antagonism’, is based on a dualist rhetoric of irreconcilable opposites. This is contrasted with ‘multipolar co-existence’, in which social categories are understood as multiple or hybrid, with flexible or fluid boundaries, and as not necessarily antagonistic. This argument is elaborated through a comparative analysis of social–cultural and spatial processes in two Caribbean cities: Kingston, Jamaica, and Paramaribo, Suriname.

Geographies of urban governance: advanced theories, methods and practices

Part I: Theories of Urban Governance.- 1. Setting the Scene: The Geographies of Urban Governance.- 2. Theorizing Governance.- 3. Governance Networks: Conceptualization, Genealogy, and Research Frontiers.- 4. Beyond the Network Effect: Towards an Alternative Understanding of Global Urban Organizations.- 5. Governing Beyond Cities: The Urban-Rural Interface.- Part II: Instruments, Methods and Practices of Urban Governance.- 6. Instruments of Urban Governance.- 7. Participatory Instruments and Practices in Urban Governance.- 8. Geo- ig Data and Urban Governance.- 9. Scenario-building as a Process and Tool in Urban Governance.- Part III: 10. An Inclusive Development Perspective on the Geographies of Urban Governance.

Beyond the Network Effect: Towards an Alternative Understanding of Global Urban Organizations

Global organizations providing network relations for cities are bourgeoning. Organizations such as Metropolis, UN-Habitat, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, the Global Compact Cities Programme, and the C40, as well as City-to-City arrangements, have become increasingly important to managing urban networking and global urban governance. The growing literature on global urban networking tends to assume that networking is bringing positive outcomes for urban development and that increased connectivity is making a significant difference to enhancing political engagement in itself. In practice, there is considerable interchange happening, and globally accessible websites and global newsletters outlining the latest and best practices are omnipresent. However, to what extent networked relations provide direct guidance for governance, let alone change existing paradigms, remains unclear. This chapter explores the added value of networked relations, asking more specifically how different forms of networking and various forms of knowledge exchange are acknowledged in efficaciously enhancing work in urban sustainability.

An Inclusive Development Perspective on the Geographies of Urban Governance

Urban governance in cities is shaped by, and shapes, global discourses. These discourses shape the discussion of how governance should be organized, what forms it takes, what kinds of governance instruments, methods and data are used and what urban governance practices may look like. Much of this is presented in gender- and place/space-neutral, objective language and complex scientific jargon, which obfuscates the highly political nature of the shifts in governance and associated governance theories, instruments, methods and practices. It is assumed that these dimensions can be scaled up and down and transferred to different contexts. Close examination reveals, however, that many of these are being used in the service of the most powerful, while the shift from government to (network) governance creates the illusion of empowering all. In practice, accountability, legitimacy, legality and equity are compromised as the most powerful actors influence the governance process. In the process, public goods and services are being privatized; infrastructure developments relocate the poor and serve the rich; market/economic instruments are replacing regulatory ones; big data and maps can be used manipulatively; and network governance and participatory processes may be more disempowering than empowering. This chapter argues for a deconstruction of discourses, theories, instruments, methods, technologies, practices and outcomes to ensure that these are used in the service of human well being and their ecosystems. This deconstruction should build on an understanding that place specificities are highly relevant and that urban governance is situated in a produced space. Moreover, cities and urban governance do not operate in a vacuum but are related to and intertwined with processes at other scalar levels.

Setting the Scene: The Geographies of Urban Governance

This chapter sets the context for the discussions on the geographies of urban governance in this book. It highlights the current themes of urban governance and how the recent wave of globalization has changed the geographies of urban governance in nine ways – by shaping dominant discourses about societal organization; through changing the goals, opportunities and arenas of urban development; by making cities prominent actors in transformation processes through decentralization and economic and capitalistic production; through the shift towards fragmented cityscapes; by enhancing a network society stimulated by increased digitalization, informatization, spatialization and ubiquitous computing; through the great acceleration in resource use, ecospace pollution and causing global climate change; through rescaling, but also re-territorialization; by changing the power of cities; and by transforming the drivers of change at various spatial levels. The geographical approach unpacks place as context; space as being absolute, relative and/or relational; scale as spatial, temporal, jurisdictional and institutional; and human-environment interactions. The governance approach examines the opportunities and limits of governance beyond government within the context of changing geographies. Together they help understand the variety of socio-spatial configurations and patterns in cities. The book examines current governance patterns from the perspective of inclusive development, which is seen as including human wellbeing and protecting ecosystems. In doing so, it tries to understand how governance can contribute to the development of just and resilient cities.

Elaborating the urbanism in smart urbanism: distilling relevant dimensions for a comprehensive analysis of Smart City approaches

ABSTRACT Over the last decade, Smart City has increasingly become a popular urban policy approach of cities in both the Global North and Global South. Such approaches focus on digital and technology-driven urban innovation and are often considered to be a universal solution to varied urban issues in different cities. How Smart City policies operate in contemporary cities is being examined in the emerging, but still underdeveloped, academic field ‘smart urbanism’. The considerable consequences of Smart City strategies call for critical engagement with the rationale, methods, target group and implications of Smart City approaches in different urban contexts. The aim of this paper is to further such critical engagement by distilling dimensions absent in current smart urbanism. We do so by exploring both the academic field of critical urbanism and smart urbanism and through that develop our contributions to the smart urbanism debate from existing theoretical and conceptual approaches within critical urbanism. We distilled three dimensions that require further development to facilitate a comprehensive analysis of what Smart City policies mean for contemporary urban life: (1) the acknowledgement that the urban is not confined to the administrative boundaries of a city; (2) the importance of local social-economic, cultural-political and environmental contingencies in analysing the development, implementation and effects of Smart City policies; and (3) the social-political construction of both the urban problems Smart City policies aim to solve and the considered solutions. As such, we argue that there is a lack of consideration for ‘the urbanism’ in smart urbanism.

The mixed role of local communities in home-based economic activities in Caribbean cities

This chapter focuses on home-based economic activities (HBEAs) in two Caribbean cities. These income-generating activities are financially, socially and spatially strongly integrated within the household. In the Global South they are, after paid work, the most often performed type of livelihood activity. HBEAs vary in terms of type of activity, the role they play in livelihoods, and how space, skills, labour and funds are used in their operation. The chapter addresses the relationship between HBEAs and the institutions and social relations functioning at the neighbourhood level. It asks how these neighbourhood relations are shaped by the role HBEAs play in household livelihoods and by their patterns of operation. Empirical findings show that for HBEAs neighbourhood relationships are extremely complex and provide HBEAs with huge benefits but also pose core constraints. Most HBEAs rely on the community for their market. Positive aspects for the operators are general support by community members and the familiarity with and short distance to the market. On the negative side, the neighbourhood as market is small and has limited purchasing power. Operators are forced to sell goods very cheaply, have to deal with huge competition and need to provide unreliable credit. They are limited in their ambition to grow because this will trigger negative reactions from neighbours. HBEAs that are informal and provide modest and supplementary incomes and have the community as a market are much more affected by neighbourhood relations than HBEAs that operate in a more formal manner.

The development of Paramaribo in the second half of the century

Visitors to early twentieth-century Suriname would enter Paramaribo from the wharf in the Suriname River. Their first sight was the row of impressive colonial mansions along the Waterkant. Looking to their right, they would see Fort Zeelandia, located along Oranjeplein, the main city square. The tropical breeze would mitigate the colony’s oppressive humidity and motorized traffic was sparse. Since the 1960s, Zanderij airport, later renamed Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport, has become the main entrance point to Suriname. Consequently, entering the city has become a very different experience. The airport is situated approximately 40 kilometers south of Paramaribo in the district of Para and can be reached only by a two-lane road. Traffic south of Lelydorp indicates that a plane is due to arrive or depart. Driving along the road toward the city one travels through the savannah demarcating the transition from the rainforest to the coastal zone. Tiny Amerindian and Maroon settlements break the monotony of woods and grasslands. This changes abruptly when entering Lelydorp. This former desa has evolved into a bustling suburb, well known for its Javanese food stalls. After Lelydorp, the sprawl of modern-day Paramaribo begins in the district of Wanica. Significantly, the road that was known as Pad van Wanica (Wanica Path) has been renamed Indira Gandhiweg (weg means road ), reflecting urbanization as well as Hindustani emancipation and globalization.