Water delivery in the Global South is characterised by the intertwining and co-existence of diverse practices and materialities, which are commonly associated with 'formal' and 'informal' urbanism in academic debates. This includes piped networks, individual or communal boreholes, wells, water tanks, buckets, water trucks, and other kinds of material infrastructure, as well as different groups of actors involved in providing and consuming water. We argue that conceptualising water delivery as 'hybrid' allows us to focus on the particular, situated socio-material configurations of water delivery and their particular social implications. Drawing on dwelling and building perspective, our study employs semi-structured interviews with water delivery experts and households, and observations, in a low- and high-income neighbourhood in Sunyani, Ghana, to understand the different rationalities underpinning hybrid water delivery and their contributions to social inequalities.
Global discourses on privately owned public spaces (POPS) remain largely confined to Western contexts, while Chinese research predominantly focuses on publicly owned and managed public spaces. This research shifts the focus to POPS in Shanghai, China. It assesses the publicness of 42 POPS in Shanghai, analyzes their spatial design, facility provision, social control, and daily use. Empirical evidence shows that the socio-spatial consequences of the rise of POPS in Shanghai are dynamic and reciprocal, not monolithic. The findings of the research enrich the ongoing global discourses about POPS and provide insights for policymaking.
Knowledge-based urban development (KBUD) addresses urban sustainability in the knowledge era, focusing on fostering trust and stakeholder participation to create knowledge cities. This study critically evaluates the cluster approach, which assumes geographic proximity of knowledge-intensive activities enhances collaboration and knowledge exchange, using Isfahan (Iran) as a case study. Employing social network analysis and the QAP index, findings reveal that increased stakeholder communication does not necessarily improve trust or collaboration, challenging assumptions about specialised spaces like science parks. Instead, the study underscores the value of informal and public urban spaces for knowledge creation, advocating a broader view of urban knowledge.
This paper examines recent planning law reforms in Serbia and Ireland as countries with contrasting planning traditions but shared exposure to neoliberal development pressures. While reforms were justified as responses to systemic rigidity (in Serbia) and investor uncertainty (in Ireland), the analysis reveals a shared systemic tendency towards accommodation of private development interests at the expense of public planning objectives. Both countries converge on a neo-performative logic - where the plan follows the project - centralising planning authority, restricting democratic participation, and expanding project-specific instruments that bypass comprehensive planning. The paper concludes with policy recommendations to safeguard the public-interest function of planning.
Industrial heritage reuse has emerged as a significant phenomenon in Chinese mega-cities, where the state plays a particularly evident role. Existing literature debates the state's true intention in these practices. Examining the Shanghai Urban Space Art Season from 2015 to 2025, especially the latest 2025 Fuxing Island edition, this study proposes that state-led industrial heritage reuse functions as a global urban strategy. Both culturally and economically, the Fuxing Island case demonstrates clear state efforts toward global city making. This evidence suggests a shifting statecraft behind industrial heritage reuse practices, which operates beyond conventional growth-first logics driving real-estate oriented urban development.
Urban kampung revitalisation in Indonesia is frequently planned without children, neglecting its effects on their well-being. This study explores how community-led revitalisation enhances children's well-being through place attachment. Using a qualitative case study in Kampung Kreatif, North Jakarta, 'draw-and-tell' exercises and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 children aged 6-12 and analysed thematically. Children consistently described the renewed neighbourhood as a "happy place," linking well-being to security from cleaner, safer surroundings, agency through new play and participation, and a positive sense of self from collective pride. This study concludes that community-driven revitalisation, builds happier places with children, not merely for them.
Temporary urbanism has gained prominence in urban studies and planning practice, yet most research focuses on the Global North, particularly Europe, while less attention has been paid to the Global South. This article addresses this gap through insights from Latin America, where temporary urbanism reflects socio-spatial conditions shaped by high levels of informality and distinct urban imaginaries. The paper examines how temporary urbanism takes different forms and meanings across European and Latin American contexts, with particular attention to its role in implementing public spaces in informal neighbourhoods.
Although social sustainability is widely recognised as a vague concept, it has become an important aspect of urban planning. However, there is limited knowledge of how urban planners and designers (practitioners) interpret and operationalise it in practice. This paper explores how the concept of urban social sustainability (USS), formulated in planning policy, is conceptualised and translated into practice through operationalisation. The inherent vagueness of USS can allow misalignments between goals and outcomes, questioning the legitimacy of the planning process. The results of 15 interviews with practitioners from Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark reveal that strategies for conceptualising and operationalising USS are interdependent and include an intermediate process of re-conceptualisation. For conceptualisation, practitioners use six strategies, and for operationalisation, they rely on tools like municipal policies, public participation and digital resources. The results show that the translation of USS from conceptualisation to operationalisation is shaped by dimensions of time and scale to re-conceptualise USS. By adopting a semiotic perspective of translation, the study highlights the interpretive agency of practitioners in shaping the meaning of USS, contributing to a deeper understanding of how USS is made actionable in practice and offers insights for policy and tool development in socially sustainable urban planning.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, Algeria's urban agglomerations face persistent water shortages driven by climate change and rapid urbanization, prompting the introduction of intermittent water supply (IWS). This paper examines household adaptation strategies in Algerian social housing using semi-structured interviews. Findings reveal an emerging water pattern characterized by personalized water services, deepening social inequity, and transformed building water cycles. Beyond documenting these practices, this study advances the understanding of hybrid infrastructure governance, urging policymakers to integrate decentralized household adaptations into formal and equitable urban water planning.
This article examines adaptive reuse of silo structures through Kevin Lynch's concepts of landmark and sense of place, focusing on how design interventions mediate the re-entry of industrial heritage into the city image and public realm. Seven international cases are comparatively analysed to assess how fa & ccedil;ade treatment, programme change, and public accessibility shape legibility, symbolic continuity, and place attachment. Findings show that interventions preserving monumental legibility while enabling public encounter support stronger perceived urban integration. The article contributes to urban studies by clarifying how design choices operate within broader heritage-led urban transformation.
Applying a mixed-methods approach, the study examines the impact of residential and school segregation in Gothenburg, Sweden, highlighting the challenges in disadvantaged areas due to education marketization and school choice. Zooming in on the overall distribution of students' school grades, family backgrounds, and school providers in the disadvantaged area, the article explores how these dynamics exacerbate inequalities, with public schools increasingly serving vulnerable students without adequate resources. Interviews reveal strategies principals and students use to navigate the segregated landscape. The findings stress the need for policies that ensure equitable educational opportunities across different socioeconomic and ethnic groups within urban settings.
This article examines citizen science as situated urban politics in Siena, Italy, through two initiatives engaging students, residents, migrants, volunteers, and researchers in documenting everyday urban life and river ecosystems. Drawing on ethnographic engagement, data walks, and interviews, we argue that citizen science produces more than data: it becomes a relational practice through which participants negotiate belonging, enact presence, and challenge epistemic hierarchies in urban governance. The article shows how digital platforms both enable participation and act as epistemic gatekeepers, making friction a diagnostic and transformative force for more responsive urban knowledge practices.
