Animals and urban informality in sacred spaces: bull-calf trafficking in Simhachalam Temple, Vishakapatnam

Religion and Urbanism contributes to an expanded understanding of 'sustainable cities' in South Asia by demonstrating the multiple, and often conflicting ways in which religion enables or challenges socially equitable and ecologically sustainable urbanisation in the region. In particular, this collection focuses on two aspects that must inform the sustainable cities discourse in South Asia: the intersections of religion and urban heritage, and religion and various aspects of informality.

This book makes a much-needed contribution to the nexus between religion and urban planning for researchers, postgraduate students and policy makers in Sustainable Development, Development Studies, Urban Studies, Religious Studies, Asian Studies, Heritage Studies and Urban and Religious Geography.

Urban informality in the developing world - Opportunistic urban design processes and prototypes for the developed world

The turn of the twenty first century heralds a fundamental shift in the world’s population towards cities in what has been termed The Urban Age, most visible in the developing world. Instead of the dichotomy of ‘First World models’ and ‘Third world problems’, research has begun to explore the complexities of urban informality revealing new approaches to the complex creation of urban spaces. This paper will analyse the prevailing perspectives in order to develop an understanding of informality as an urban evolution through necessity. Finally through an analysis of professional urban design experiments the paper highlights opportunities and challenges within the developing world for new and exciting urban design processes in the developed world.

Religion and urban policy for South Asia: where next?

Religion and Urbanism contributes to an expanded understanding of 'sustainable cities' in South Asia by demonstrating the multiple, and often conflicting ways in which religion enables or challenges socially equitable and ecologically sustainable urbanisation in the region. In particular, this collection focuses on two aspects that must inform the sustainable cities discourse in South Asia: the intersections of religion and urban heritage, and religion and various aspects of informality.

This book makes a much-needed contribution to the nexus between religion and urban planning for researchers, postgraduate students and policy makers in Sustainable Development, Development Studies, Urban Studies, Religious Studies, Asian Studies, Heritage Studies and Urban and Religious Geography.

Corners, squares and urban identities: perceptions, attitudes and values

In February 2000, the new Victorian Labor Government announced that they were removing the western shard from Lab Architecture Studio's winning Melbourne Federation Square design. then under construction. The specific 'contested terrain' at the intersection of Flinders Street and Swanston Street Walk. Melbourne, allows the exploration of the politics of place construction over time, through an examination of Young and Jackson's Hotel [1861]. St Paul's Cathedral [1886). Flinders Street Station [1912]. the Westin Hotel [1999) and Federation Square. This site brings together architectural and social history, questions public space and identity, and looks at Melburnian's perceptions, attitudes and values. It further demonstrates that the fragmentation of the professions, and fragmentary histories. lead to the preservation of 'bits' of architecture and the destruction of the urban/landscape context, jeopardizing the Identity of place.

Regional and urban Victorian diabetic youth: clinical and quality-of-life outcomes

Objectives: To compare groups of urban and regional Victorian diabetic children and assess their quality of life, diabetes knowledge, access to services and metabolic control.

Methods: Forty-seven children from three regional Victorian communities (Horsham, Warrnambool and Sale; n = 16, 18 and 13, respectively) were compared with 120 age-, sex- and duration of diabetes-matched children attending the Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) diabetes clinic in Melbourne. Quality of life, diabetes knowledge, use of services, and metabolic control were assessed using the child health questionnaire (CHQ PF-50/CF-80); a diabetes-knowledge questionnaire; access to a diabetes nurse educator (DNE), dietitian and complication screening; and indices of mean HbA1C (values are taken every 3 months in the 'yearly HbA1C'), respectively.

Results: Comparisons of CHQ data showed that regional diabetic youth scored significantly lower on most subscales. The greatest deficits were seen in areas of mental health, self-esteem, parent impact (emotional) and family cohesion. Diabetes knowledge and median yearly HbA1C for patients were not significantly different between the regional and urban centres (8.1%, 8.9%, 8.4% and 8.6% at RCH, Horsham, Warrnambool and Sale, respectively). Patients in regional centres had reportedly less access to team-based diabetes care.

Conclusions: Regional youth in Victoria, with similar levels of metabolic control and diabetes knowledge as their urban counterparts, have a markedly lower quality of life, implying a negative synergy between diabetes and the demands of regional lifestyles.

An integrated model of subnational regional and urban economic development : framework of analysis

The mechanism of subnational regional and urban economic development has been studied extensively by economists, geographers, town planners and other academics. The existing widely varying theories of regional economic development are insufficient on their own in explaining how a region can develop and prosper. Each theory has evaluated a few facets of regional economic development. Research from these different perspectives is narrow and prevents any cross-fertilization of research from these diverse theories. Recognition of multiple factors affecting the development process has led the author to create an integrated model of regional and urban economic development. The essay first sets out to describe and explain this integrated model. Each of the components of this new model draws heavily upon seminal work in the field. This model proposes three rings. Each ring is at a different level of abstraction. The determinants of development described in each ring can influence each and every other determinant of development shown in the three-ring structure. This model recognizes that development in any centre, be it regional or urban, nascent or established, is a composite end result of the complex interplay of all the determinants. The essay then goes on to show how this model can provide a broad holistic approach to regional economic development that can assist researchers in their attempts to understand and link its various theories.

Comparison of the work of psychologists in rural and urban settings : implications for professional training

To compare the work practices and training needs of rural and urban psychologists, 774 surveys were sent to psychologists throughout Australia. The psychologists were selected from the Australian Psychological Society (APS) Directory of Psychologists, 1992- 1993. A total of 86 rural psychologists and 282 urban psychologists responded to the survey. The survey comprised of four sections with questions asking respondents their demographic and employment background, past and current training activities, work experience, and relations with community. Results showed that the decision to practice and remain in a rural area was influenced by psychologists’ childhood experience and professional training in a rural setting, A substantial proportion of rural psychologists (28%) had been working in rural practice for five years or less. These rural psychologists were identified as a group that had a demographic and training profile more similar to urban psychologists than their rural colleagues. The employment conditions and training background of rural and urban psychologists were similar, though rural psychologists were more likely to be working in private practice and have undertaken their studies in a rural setting. Rural and urban psychologists rated their undergraduate and postgraduate training in psychology as only somewhat adequate. Training in rural health and community issues received the lowest ratings from both groups of psychologists. The work practices of rural and urban psychologists were also similar. There were some differences in the demographic profile of the client groups seen by the two groups. Rural psychologists reported the type of relations with their communities that are conducive to rural practice. The main evidence of this was that rural psychologists were collaborating with the natural helpers of their communities, and expressed willingness to formally train natural helpers to assist in the provision of psychological services. There were several conclusions drawn from this study. The first conclusion was that rural psychologists with urban demographic and training backgrounds are a group that is likely to migrate from rural practice to urban practice, Secondly, training needs to be specialised for rural practice if there is to be an improvement in the number of psychologists practicing in rural settings. Thirdly, rural psychologists were conducting the type of relations with their communities that are important to the requirements of rural practice.

Spaces of empire : culture, discourse, and urban formation with particular reference to British Hong Kong, 1842-1914

Traces the ideological formations of British colonialism using the techniques of modern European cartography to examine the practices of spatial production in Hong Kong's capital city, Victoria. This examination demonstrates how notions of British cultural identity and self-representation were inscribed throughout the colonial urban environment by considering the ways in which the British colonial authorities sought to condition, control, and maintain the organisation of space.

Advancing architecture ecologies : energy principles in nature and urban systems

The search for a coherent approach to optimising the delivery of sustainable development has moved from rhetoric to reality, shaped by international drivers such as the UN Millennium Development Goal and the UN 'Decade of Education for sustainable development 2005- 2014'. Emphasis has been recently placed by Governmental bodies on creativity and innovation as a way to promote and sustain the social, cultural and economic well-being. This has led to, amongst other things, the development of a series of new initiatives to promote sustainable development. There is still a lack of understanding of the impacts of sustainability on architecture and their associated and interrelated ecologies because, at least in part, there is no significant joined up thinking regarding the implications of sustainability across the whole design, implementation and operation processes. There is a considerable challenge to ensure integration, cross-fertilisation and dissemination to provide meaningful outputs from the vast array of ecological systems with their differing structures. This paper explores the processes rather than products of ecological systems and possibilities for a credible integral system that guide sustainable development and advance architecture ecologies. The paper traces back the roots of the divorce between architecture profession and technology and highlights the importance of reaching back to the true meanings of Techne as key to develop integral sustainable systems. The paper underlines the energy principles that construct ecological principles and provide explanation of how such systems can be interpreted in the built environment. Enriching ecological culture is not a physical development or a large expensive projects but rather in a coherent and focused efforts by a group of professionals, academics, and practitioners with multi disciplinary talents to build a complex and multi facets of integral systems and ideas.

Raat Ki Rani : nightclubs, vamps and urban transgressive spaces in Hindi cinema

This paper considers how city spaces in Hindi cinema have repeatedly been viewed as sites of transgressive sexual experience, particularly via representations of female sexuality in nightclubs and the flagrant performances of the women or ‘vamps’ that inhabit them. Emerging in Hindi cinema in the 1950s, and becoming a staple in films of the 1960s and 1970s, the ‘vamp’ became synonymous with unrestrained sexuality and the immorality of the city. The dichotomy between the idealised, bucolic, timeless village and the city as an icon of degenerate modernity was repeatedly seen in Hindi cinema, and the strongest signifier of this urban immorality was the ‘vamp’ who was seen as an outsider, and connoted urban vice, excess and desire. By and large the actresses that played ‘vamps’ (such as the blonde haired and blue eyed Helen) were of ‘Western’ appearance. The cabaret and nightclub were thus seen as being ‘Western’ in origin. This paper discusses how this was perhaps a response to colonial and Orientalist stereotyping, where the ‘Indian’ woman and the ‘Western’ woman operated as binary oppositional structures. Such oppositions were clearly present in nightclub dance performances, which were full of meaning to the cinematic audience, who would be able to ‘read’ the seductive, gyrating and explicit movements. This paper decodes examples of the movements in these ‘decadent’ performances, as it was through these movements and performances that the ‘westernised vamp’ became firmly located in urban transgressive spaces, closely tied with national anxiety about the depravity of city spaces.

Lost in Hanoi : disorientation, travel, and urban space

Using a 2010 trip to Hanoi, Vietnam, this article looks at the ways that disorientation is used as a  trope within the urban environment and to create the traveling subject. Suggesting that travel is a form of deliberate disorientation/ orientation, the article focuses on ideas of disorientation within the urban environment and the ways they have been portrayed in Western cultural forms (the flâneur; the dérive) while suggesting these forms are not sufficient to understand the dynamics of travel. Moreover, the article focuses on two forms of travel as disorientation derived from John Zilcosky—the trope of being “lost and found” and that of  “the return.” Finally, the article suggests that Marcus Auge’s idea of non-place is not only a sufficient way of conceptualizing contemporary notions of travel, but is also an indicator of something beyond its scope—that of globalization.

How different is it really? – rural and urban primary students’ use of ICT in mathematics

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) offers the potential for changing mathematics education for both teachers and students. However, how ICT is used, and by whom, is critical to realizing this potential. This paper reports on an investigation of the use of ICT in the learning and teaching of mathematics in rural and urban primary schools in Victoria, Australia. Thirty-six teachers and almost 700 students were surveyed regarding their use of ICT for mathematics at home and at school, with a small number of selected teachers and students taking part in interviews. This paper focuses on students’ perceptions of ICT use. A comparison of rural and urban students’ responses shows little difference across most aspects of ICT use, and where there was a difference, the frequency of rural use almost always exceeded that in urban schools.