INTRODUCTION The so-called ‘information society’ is an increasingly urban society. The ‘digital age’ is an age which is dominated by cities and metropolitan regions to an extent that is unprecedented in human history. However, up until the late 1990s, the complex links between cities and electronic communications generated a curiously scarce literature. Since their inception, urban studies, pol...

Carole Rakodi is a Professor of International Urban Development in the International Development Department, School of Government and Society, University of Birmingham, England. She is a geographer and town planner, who has worked as a professional and researcher in developing countries for many years, mainly in Africa. Her main interests are in urban governance and politics, urban land, liveli...

Cities in developing countries are expanding at a tremendous rate and informal settlements (where 40 to 80% of city dwellers live) occur in unplanned urban areas. In planned cities in developed countries, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and cellular automata (CA) are favourable tools for modelling urban dynamics. This paper discusses the growth of informal settlements, describes the tools ...

China is undergoing a rapid transformation from a rural, peasant based society into an urban one. This radical change has had a profound effect on the Chinese population due to advancement through job opportunities and new modes of consumption, contributing to a huge spatial shift of population from countryside to city. This effect on China’s urban growth has resulted in a rise in the middle cl...

This article presents an overview of current and potential applications of living technology to some urban problems. Living technology can be described as technology that exhibits the core features of living systems. These features can be useful to solve dynamic problems. In particular, urban problems concerning mobility, logistics, telecommunications, governance, safety, sustainability, and so...

Urban environment has undergone many transformations in order to function effectively as society changes. Since the Industrial Revolution, cities have provided extensive industrial areas, high-capacity transport, and a huge quantity of housing and offices. However, the development and expansion of urban areas since 18th century have brought about serious environmental problems as well as effici...

As communication technology becomes increasingly sophisticated and hierarchical power diminishes in Western Society, there is a concomitant increase in the complexity of public and private collective behavior and in the information and communication needed to support healthy cities. This paper uses complexity theory to set forth a framework for mediated urban nervous systems which facilitate sh...

Medicinal and Aromatic Plants • Lilium • Fire Blight • Tomato Diseases • Grapevine Breeding and Genetics • Urban and Peri-Urban Horticulture • What Do We Mean by Quality? Food Fights • Intellectual Property: Defining Horticultural Assets and Implications for Horticultural Research and Development • Southern African Society for Horticultural Sciences • Carrot: History and Iconography • The Biolo...

based on a gender equity perspective and within a pluralistic civil society, women should have equal rights for presence in and use of urban open spaces. despite this, various factors decrease their presence including inappropriate design of space, as well as socio-cultural obstacles. since women’s major place of presence and activity has traditionally been in or near home, neighborhood open sp...

urban areas formation and development are considered as the main symbols of prosperity. in the early nineteenth century, when there the global evolution was at its astonishing rate and cities, with their active economic elements, found an outstanding role, iranian society involved internal crisis. this not only ended the political and economic role of cities in important interactions off but al...