Current neighborhood planning and policy often rely on the delineation of neighborhood boundaries. However, this reliance can marginalize various groups, particularly racial identities, whose definitions, experiences, and perceptions of where they live may diverge significantly. In a changing area of Detroit, we conducted 46 semi-structured interviews in which residents named, drew, and described their neighborhood. Our findings revealed a stark contrast: While most white residents drew boundaries defined by historic designations, developers, or the city government and often used broad, generalized descriptions, many Black residents did not identify with the concept of neighborhood altogether. Instead, they defined community through organizations such as block clubs and described the area with detailed personal narratives. This study demonstrates how administrative maps of neighborhoods often reify the spatial privilege of wealthy, white-defined areas while rendering invisible Black-defined areas that have nevertheless cultivated their own localized governance, community, and identity.
Urban areas are becoming strategic sites in the ongoing sustainable energy transition, driven by the new opportunities and imperatives presented by decentralized sustainable energy technologies. However, the presence of cities in the global clean energy landscape remains underwhelming. Despite national programs encouraging urban energy transition in India, the response has largely failed to meet the goals. The existing literature has primarily attributed this to a lack of technical and financial capacity and to the limited legislative role of urban governments. This paper deepens these arguments and offers a more layered view through the case study of Surat in Gujarat, India. I argue that India's clean energy transition is unfolding within the traditional frameworks and templates that propped up the conventional energy systems, entrenching incumbent power hierar chies. Increasing institutionalization is leading to increased centralization, narrowing the scope of participation for newer actors, including local urban governments. Surat's case study demonstrates that city governments are keen to respond to local challenges by capitalizing on the opportunities presented by sustainable energy sources. However, the enduring success of their initiatives will depend on supportive agential, structural, and institutional reforms initiated by the powerful elites within India's energy governance landscape.
Cities are experiencing new forms of pressure as tourism-related services concentrate in specific areas with limited space and resources, posing challenges for urban planning and land-use regulation. While the concentration of tourism accommodation has been widely examined, less attention has been devoted to understanding how urban form characteristics interact with the spatial distribution of tourism-related services and how these patterns evolve over time. This paper addresses this gap by analyzing Bilbao, a post-industrial city that has transformed into an urban tourism destination. By integrating urban morphology with tourism-service indicators, the study develops a spatiotemporal framework to examine the interaction between Tourism Exposure and Tourism Pressure. In addition, it constructs a cartographic time series to identify the evolution of Tourism Saturation patterns at the city-block scale. The findings suggest that Tourism Saturation does not spread randomly throughout the city but instead emerges through the reinforcement of established tourism hotspots. Furthermore, the temporal analysis reveals a growing spatial selectivity in the distribution of tourism services, leading to higher levels of tourism saturation within the historic core. As urban tourism continues to evolve, the study offers valuable evidence for policymakers seeking to design place-specific strategies to manage tourism in highly exposed areas.
