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1202 | 766 | Apocalyptic prophecies and places of faith. | Gianfranco Battisti

Apart from the notable differences between them, all religions maintain that the material universe had a beginning and will have an end. So much so that powerful brains like Alfred Newton have made an effort to calculate the date of the final event. In the 1800s, the more realistic assessments of the antiquity of the celestial bodies and the growing confidence in scientific discoveries will push this awareness back. Cosmological theories thus tend to postulate a stable and eternal universe, a conception that will be overcome with the modern theory of the Big Bang. If the beginning is a well-established fact, then the end is easily deducible, e.g. based on the second law of thermodynamics. These are very long-term processes, but it is important to note that even in this case science is converging towards some assumptions of a religious nature. _x000D_
In the Catholic sphere attention is kept alive by the mystics, men and women who claim to converse with the saints, the blessed, the divinity and bear witness to this in their writings. Although never validated by the competent ecclesiastical authority, these messages sound like moral appeals to humanity and often evoke the advent of catastrophic times. Think of Fatima (1917). These are phenomena of a spiritual, social and physical nature. The latter have some similarities with what is predicted by today’s catastrophic ecologism, with respect to which they differ not only in the modalities, but above all in the motivation, which is identified within a spiritual economy rather than contemporary scientific speculation. _x000D_
For the scholar of the territory this assumes great importance, because very often in these cases “Marian sanctuaries” are born, generally on the private initiative of lay groups – “sanctuaries” in all respects, despite the traditional reluctance of religious authorities to get officially involved.

Gianfranco Battisti
University of Trieste

 
ID Abstract: 766

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1202 | | Millenarism, past and present | Christian Sellar (1); Gianfranco Battisti (2)

In the history of literature, religion, and philosophy, apocalyptic texts have always been present, so much so that they constitute a genre in their own right, albeit a niche one. In Western culture, the origin of such genre, also called ‘messianism’ is firmly rooted in the Judeo-Christian religious tradition, which links the end of the world to the coming of the Messiah.
 
The belief in Christ’s return (Parousia), expected as imminent at the beginning of Christianity, led in medieval times to the aspiration for an eschatological transformation of the cosmos, ‘millenarism,’ which was spread by religious movements (such as the one led by Joachim of Fiore). Today such an instance characterizes various religious groups (Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses), and is also present beyond Christianity, in Islamic messianism.
 
Since the onset of modernity and Enlightenment, the progressive secularization of society seemed to cast aside the theme of the end, preceded by an era of social disorder and abandonment of faith. However, already in the mid-1800s, Karl Marx recovered a secular form of messianism in a political key by predicting the collapse of an unsustainable society and the birth of a new human condition. Even before Marx, the biologist Cuvier proposed a specific kind of apocalyptic notion – catastrophism – as an explanation for the repeated disappearance of many living species. Albeit eclipsed by Darwin’s success, catastrophism re-emerged in the 20th and early 21st Century era on two levels: political-economic with the world wars, and naturalistic with the ecological-environmental crisis.
 
The re-emergence of catastrophism has revitalized apocalyptic and millenarian narratives in the religious, military, political, social, cultural, and ecological spheres. Finally, the Covid19 pandemic has accelerated plans for a global reset of the economy, which is also rooted in apocalyptic fears.
 
This session invites contributions concerning the reinterpretation of modern and postmodern phenomena and discourses concerning the apocalyptic “signs” present in all religious texts, through the rereading of millenarisms of a materialistic nature in the light of the philosophical-religious matrix, and of the latter regarding phenomena that recall the “signs” of apocalyptic prophecies. The exploration of the links between modernity, postmodernity, and apocalyptic religious views opens up new areas of inquiry for the geographer interested in how such discourses and events are embedded in territorial transformations at multiple scales. These include, but are not limited to, the elaboration of scenarios for the future. The session includes coordinated presentations, to be delivered in English

Christian Sellar (1); Gianfranco Battisti (2)
(1) University of Mississippi, (2) University of Trieste

 
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1153 | 134 | Urban geographical patterns of the relationship between mobile communication, social networks and economic development in Hungary | Tamás Egedy

Nowadays the engines of national economies are urban economies whose development is increasingly determined by creative economy, digital solutions, and innovation. In the development of cities (especially of smart cities), digital information and communication technologies have a decisive role. The basic question of the presentation to be answered is to what extent do digitalization and smart solutions contribute to increasing the competitiveness of Hungarian cities and what geographical patterns can be drawn up? Using these big data sets, we will explore the geographical characteristics and the territorial patterns of digitalization, including cell phone usage, and explore the characteristics of mobile usage flow. In so doing, we determine digital nodes (key mobility patterns and flows) based on mobile cell information and we explore the spatial and social characteristics of mobile phone usage. We will attempt to highlight the city network nodes and will provide a ranking list for cities. Using geocoded inbound and outbound call records we outline the connectedness of geographical units. Using the large scale telecommunication data we will define the innovation and knowledge transfer network position of Hungarian towns based on their centrality/periphery. In addition, the database will allow us to explore the demographic and technological conditions of mobile usage, whereby we will draw the social and territorial characteristics of mobile usage of the X, Y and Z generations.

Tamás Egedy
Budapest Business School – University of Applied Sciences; Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences

 
ID Abstract: 134

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1153 | 517 | The potential of the creative sector and its relation to the cities’ resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic | Sylwia Dudek-Mańkowska PhD, Mirosław Grochowski PhD, Maciej Misztal MSc, Karolina Sitnik MSc

Creative cities appeared to be more resilient to economic crises in the late 2000s thanks to the ability of the creative class to adapt to unexpected and unforeseen situations and shocks. However, the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic had a unique character. This pandemic was unprecedented in its scale and impact. In order to assess whether creative cities turned out to be more resistant to the effects of the pandemic and whether they emerged victorious from this confrontation, the condition of the creative class and the creative sector as well as the economic condition of the city before 2020 should be identified and compared with the economic condition of the city after the pandemic. The study covered Polish cities with the greatest creative potential. This potential turned out to be crucial for many cities to survive the pandemic. However, the policy of public support offered by the central government and city governments as well as the functions performed by these cities also played a role. _x000D_
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We are a team of researchers from the UrbanLab at the University of Warsaw. The laboratory is headed by dr Sylwia Dudek-Mańkowska, whose field of interest is city branding and marketing. Dr. Mirosław Grochowski is an expert in spatial planning and urban development management. Maciej Misztal (MSc) is a PhD student. His research is focused on implementation of a 15-minute city concept. Karolina Sitnik (MSc) recently graduated from an interdisciplinary major in urban studies and deals with GIS solutions in urban geography. Our team has experience in working in national and international research and applied projects. We are also a partner in projects implemented jointly with the Warsaw City Hall. _x000D_

Sylwia Dudek-Mańkowska PhD, Mirosław Grochowski PhD, Maciej Misztal MSc, Karolina Sitnik MSc
University of Warsaw

 
ID Abstract: 517

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1153 | 694 | The drunkard’s intention lies not on the wine: Reinterpreting culture-led urban redevelopment in China amidst profound regime changes | Ronghao JIANG; George C.S. Lin

Competing interpretations of the global proliferation of culture-led urban redevelopments have been made by some who pinpoint the economic and social value of cultural resources in the cities and others who see culture presence as catalyst for facilitating land revalorization. Attention is drawn primarily to the presumed relationship between the promotion of cultural activities and urban change. A systematic analysis of the data for the China’s 324 municipalities has identified an intriguing pattern contrary to normal expectation. The extent of culture-led urban redevelopment has little to do with land commodification, market openness, level of urban economic growth, or concentration of creative human capital but is closely related to the pressure of central regulatory control over local urban expansion. Municipal governments with less quota for newly added urban land are found to be more motivated to leverage on the rhetoric of developing a culture economy through the regeneration of old industrial land in the name of culture-led redevelopment for the hidden agenda of lucrative commercial developments. The extent of culture-led urban redevelopment tends to be higher in the cities where greater local administrative supports are made available for culture-led redevelopment projects to circumvent central regulations on the redevelopment of administratively allocated industrial land. Our study of the city of Guangzhou at a finer scale has shown that the bulk of culture-led redevelopment projects are masked superficially in the name of culture to serve the real interest in profitable commercial activities. These research findings challenge the popular perception of culture-led urban redevelopment as a reasonable and legitimate strategy of place making/promotion and bring to the fore regulatory changes in the state-economy-politics arena as an important source of insights into the sophisticated dynamics of urban transformation not just in China but beyond China as well.

Ronghao JIANG; George C.S. Lin
Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong

 
ID Abstract: 694

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1153 | | Creativity rulez! | Tamas Egedy (1)

As neoliberal economic policies have faltered in recent years, the issue of the creative economy and creative cities seems to be taking a back seat in academic debates. It is undeniable, however, that the economic development of cities and countries continues to depend on creativity, knowledge and innovation. In urban development culture-based urban regeneration plays a growing role. All the signs are that the creative economy is still with us. But what happened to creative cities and where did they go? How about the actual role of creative and cultural industries in the current urban development? What can we expect in the future in terms of creative, knowledge-intensive and smart development?
In this session presentations focusing on the following topics are welcome:
–    Current development trends in the creative economy of European countries and metropolitan regions; 
–    Characteristics of creative, cultural and knowledge-intensive city development in Europe; 
–    Creative and cultural solutions in the development of metropolitan regions; 
–    Theory and practice: experiences in developing creative and smart cities; 
–    The role of knowledge-intensive industries, digitalisation and smart technologies in urban development.

Tamas Egedy (1)
(1) Budapest Business School, University of Applied Sciences, Budapest, (2) Geographical Institute, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences

 
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1152 | 936 | Different types of movement in context of sustainable development | Peter Simonyi

Mobility became a growing and important factor of today. Different types of mobility have different effects to society, economy and environment. The global problems, originated after the II. World War, are grown-up to the UN level in 70’s. The SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) are in implementation since 2016. Role of mobility processes cannot be neglect3ed._x000D_
Migration, circulation causes positive and negative consequences to many fields in effected countries. These could be explored in demography, employment structure, national budget, many areas of economy, consumption, culture, etc. We can find many relations between mobility types and sustainable development, its implementation. Relations can found not only point of causes but of consequences also. E.g. migration is a very important movement between undeveloped an developed countries. One of reasons is climate change that his homeland becomes uninhabitable or income cannot be enough to live. The outward country loose part of his manpower and inward country get it. However these migrants have other culture, behaviour. If we take into focus SDGs we could find that many aspects are contrary to some of them. Circulation, especially if it is very frequent, does not match the principle of sustainable development. _x000D_
To explore many of such relationships could be not only task for geography but could be useful for policy makers. _x000D_

Peter Simonyi
independent researher, retired, Hungary

 
ID Abstract: 936

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1152 | 968 | citizen participation as a means of governance in the urban public transportation system. case city of encarnación – paraguay. | “-Fátima Centurión Irigoitia; -Dolores Sánchez-Aguilera; -Ever Lezcano González; “

The problem of public transport in the city of Encarnación dates back several years, despite constant attempts to improve the service, currently there is no progress in this regard. The constant complaints from the users refer to the infrequency, lateness and poor condition of the buses. Due to the problems that the public transport system of the city currently has, citizen participation becomes totally necessary and of great importance as a means of governance aimed at improving the public transport system of the city. For all of the above, this research focused on analyzing the importance of citizen participation as a means of governance for the quality of the public transport service in the city of Encarnación, as well as specific objectives: Define the concept of citizen participation from the public management perspective; Describe the operation and organizational composition of the public transport system of the city of Encarnación; Identify the mechanisms and spaces for citizen participation in the public transport system of the city of Encarnación. Regarding the methodology used, it was a mixed or qualitative-quantitative investigation. For this, the survey was used, based on a non-probabilistic sample of 100 public transport users, as well as the interview, already with 2 public transport businessmen in the city of Encarnación, being a non-probabilistic sample for convenience. The result of this investigation was that citizen participation is a means of direct involvement aimed at generating quality public services, since it involves and commits the population in planning, decision-making, cost control and prevention of the corruption.

“-Fátima Centurión Irigoitia; -Dolores Sánchez-Aguilera; -Ever Lezcano González; “
“-Fátima Centurión Irigoitia; Universidad Nacional de Itapúa. -Dolores Sánchez-Aguilera; Universidad de Barcelona. -Ever Lezcano González; Universidad de Barcelona.”

 
ID Abstract: 968

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1152 | 977 | Where is the real core? Population and spatial manifestation of daily urban subsystems | Marko Filipović1, Dragana Miljanović1 & Nikola Krunić2

Spatial mobility of the population represents an important demographic and geographical phenomenon of particular importance for science and various areas of social practice. In studies of the relations between the city and surroundings commuters and daily urban systems play an important role. Existence of larger settlements, centers of such systems, with significant variations in the internal spatial-functional organization, raises the question: where do these commuters actually go? In such cases, it is necessary to distinguish parts of the settlement that have a primary function of work center and others that have a dominant residential function. The process of settlement parts differentiation requires the use of not only commuting flows data, but also data on intra-settlement daily population mobility. The model of the spatial manifestation of the labor force daily mobility is a proven starting point for the research of daily urban systems. It contains the most important components for the population daily mobility analysis: demographic, functional and spatial. In this research, an adapted model was used for extracting and planning subsystems, where the core of the daily urban subsystem is only one part of the settlement. As a case study, the settlement of Belgrade (the capital and the most important settlement in the geosystem of Serbia) was taken, whose territory is administratively divided between ten city municipalities, which statistically can be viewed as separate entities. The model was tested on the basis of data from two consecutive Censuses, between which significant functional and demographic changes occurred in the observed territory. Accordingly, the spatial coverage of each of the ten daily urban subsystems, their hierarchy, the volume of daily labor mobility, as well as changes in the inter-census period, were analyzed.

Marko Filipović1, Dragana Miljanović1 & Nikola Krunić2
1Geographical Institute “Jovan Cvijić” of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, Serbia; 2Institute of Architecture and Urban & Spatial Planning of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia

 
ID Abstract: 977

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1152 | 415 | Discussing local forms of migratory governance: the role of solidarity cities in the recent crisis context of Covid-19 | Line Crettex (Ph. D.)

We pretend that discussing governance of territorial mobilities needs to highlight the local forms of governance. Even if the national states still claim authority over the immigration issues through visas and citizenship policies, cities are mostly the places where migrants and refugees live and develop a sense of belonging. Consequently we consider that in terms of migrant inclusion, we need to give a special focus on local forms of governance of mobilities such as these solidarity cities called in the US and Canada “sanctuary cities” and in Europe “cities of refuge”. A common urban approach describes them as local initiatives, policies and practices towards accommodating and protecting undocumented migrants and refugees. Also, what commonly highlights and regroups solidarity cities are their same discourses and practices to response to national immigration exclusive policies and consequently their same fight for “elevating the urban as the scale at which membership is enacted” (Bauder, 2017). Precisely, the recent crisis context of Covid-19 reflected the paper of these local governance of territorial mobilities that worked on facilitating the access to basic necessities such as sanitarian protection, healthcare services and economical support that other policy-makers might have left aside towards undocumented migrants. In brief, this presentation provides a comprehensive understanding of the role of local governance in the recent pandemic and the importance of discussing urban scale jurisdiction when we think about migratory policies and especially for the case of undocumented immigration.

Line Crettex (Ph. D.)
“- (Graduated recently from El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Tijuana, Mexico).”

 
ID Abstract: 415

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