More Like this

1. Speculating on land, property and peri/urban futures: A conjunctural approach to intra-metropolitan comparison

   https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980221081642  

   Leitner, Helga; Sheppard, Eric (April 2022, Urban Studies)

   This article explores a conjunctural approach to comparison as a means to capture the complexity of the processes shaping metropolitan land transformations in a city of the global South, comparing the co-implicated actions of developers and local residents across central and peri-urban Jabodetabek. A conjunctural approach shares with some other forms of comparison the ambition to build new theories and challenge existing knowledge. Rather than controlling for the characteristics of units of analysis as in conventional comparison, a conjunctural approach attends to the broader spatio-temporal conjuncture. It involves highlighting unexpected or overlooked starting points for comparison, attending to inter-place, inter-scalar and inter-temporal relationalities in order to identify shared general tendencies as well as particularities and to chart their mutual constitution. Grounding this comparison iteratively puts local knowledge and observations in conversation with already existing theories. Deploying these principles in a socio-spatial intra-metropolitan comparison, we show that economic speculation on land and property is complexly entangled with actors’ socio-cultural speculations, as they seek also to realise aspirations for distinct peri/urban futures. Economic speculation deepens already existing inequalities in wealth and power differentials between and among developers and kampung residents. The erasure of informal settlements and displacement of their residents is supplemented by the ability of other kampungs and select residents to take advantage of spillover opportunities from the formal developments built on former kampung land. Distinct central city and peri-urban landscapes are emerging, shaped by differences in the social ecology of land and local governance and planning regimes. 

   more » « less
2. Speculative urbanism and the urban-financial conjuncture: Interrogating the afterlives of the financial crisis

   https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X211016003  

   Goldman, Michael (April 2021, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space)

   This article proposes an analytical–methodological approach to understand this historical conjuncture of speculative urbanism in which global finance capital plays an increasingly important role in urban transformation. Whereas the scholarship on urban financialization makes sharp distinctions between what occurs in the global North and the South, portraying the process in the South as one of subordination or peripheralization and in the North as mature and stable (although volatile), this article seeks to demonstrate that the North–South divide is less effective as an explanatory power. Instead, it presents an analytical approach that is attuned to the relentless dynamism and inter-scalar hyper-mobility of finance capital working across the postcolonial map—in other words, a relational–conjunctural approach. The article suggests the method of “following the financial strategy” by analyzing urban forms and projects as processes constituted by the nexus of practices in finance and city planning. It looks closely at finance’s use of inter-scalar financial tools (such as arbitrage, interest rate swaps, collateralized debt obligations, and currency hedges) across borders, sectors, infrastructures, and conditions, as mediated by national and international state actors. The value of this analytical–methodological approach will be illustrated through notable financial transactions occurring in and across cities to emphasize their speculative and financial characteristics—specifically highlighting investments traversing cities of Spain, the USA, and India. The focus here is on financial strategies emerging from the detritus of the 2008 global financial crisis and shaped by the expanding discursive-material formation of speculative urbanism. 

   more » « less
3. THROUGH THE OPTICS OF FINANCE : Speculative Urbanism and the Transformation of Markets

   https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13012  

   Goldman, Michael; Narayan, Devika (April 2021, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research)

   null (Ed.)

   This article contributes to debates on the financialization of global South economies by looking closely at how India’s real estate markets became entwined with global financial networks. We offer an analytical frame that centers on the strategies of global finance and its ability to transform its form and mode of operation when faced with a supposed ‘limit’, both spatially and temporally. Finance capital, we argue, derives its power from working with state actors and ambitious borrowers––across borders, sectors and conditions–– to spawn new investment opportunities and, over time, a financialized type of urban transformation. In 2005, India deregulated foreign investment into land and real estate, a watershed moment that radically altered the financial and urban speculative logics of the sector. Private equity firms made vast investments into urban projects, anticipating massive returns, and even though the bubble quickly burst, India continues to attract finance capital. We explain this conundrum by tracking the new techniques and investment tools of private equity (‘following the financial strategy’), arguing for an analytical approach attuned to the relentless dynamism and hyper-mobility of finance capital (an ‘inter-scalar and conjunctural dynamics approach’). 

   more » « less
4. What about Females? Urban Female Song Sparrows Elevate Aggressive Signaling Compared to Rural

   https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icac106  

   Lane, Samuel J.; Sewall, Kendra B. (July 2022, Integrative And Comparative Biology)

   Abstract The costs and benefits of breeding behaviors are influenced by environmental conditions, and habitat variation can shift the degree to which behaviors are expressed. Novel urban habitats have been shown to differ significantly in disturbances such as noise, light at night, and human presence, as well as resource availability, compared to rural habitats. Perhaps because of these environmental differences, urban males of several species are consistently more aggressive than rural males, raising the hypothesis that greater territorial aggression is beneficial in urban habitats. Though often ignored, female songbirds of many species also perform aggressive territorial behaviors toward conspecifics during the breeding season. For socially monogamous songbirds, this aggression functions to ensure partner fidelity and secure resources for reproduction. Studies of the effects of urbanization on songbird behavior have yet to determine if urban females also express greater territorial aggression. Importantly, energetically demanding behaviors such as territoriality and parental care should constrain one another, leading to behavioral trade-offs during the breeding season. Though territorial aggression and parental care are inversely related in males of several species of songbird, this relationship is understudied in female songbirds, particularly those facing environmental change, such as urbanization. In this study, we compared aggressive signaling and a measure of parental care (maternal nest visitation rates) between female song sparrows (Melospiza melodia), living in urban and rural habitats. We hypothesized that female aggressive signaling would be higher in urban environments compared to rural, and negatively correlated with maternal visitation rates. We found that urban females, like males, expressed increased aggressive signaling compared to rural. However, female aggressive signaling was not related to our measure of maternal care, suggesting females aren't facing a trade-off between these two behaviors. Collectively, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that urban habitats promote territorial aggression in female song sparrows. As urbanization continues to spread, understanding the behavioral changes animals employ in urban environments requires studying individuals of different sexes and age classes, and will help us understand how some species are able to cope with human-induced rapid environmental change. 

   more » « less
5. Accurate and fast modeling of scattering from random arrays of nanoparticles using the discrete dipole approximation and angular spectrum method

   https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.431754  

   Baker, Maryam; Liu, Weilin; McLeod, Euan (July 2021, Optics Express)

   Lens-free microscopes can utilize holographic reconstruction techniques to recover the image of an object from the digitally recorded superposition of an unperturbed plane wave and a wave scattered by the object. Image reconstruction most commonly relies on the scalar angular spectrum method (ASM). While fast, the scalar ASM can be inaccurate for nanoscale objects, either because of the scalar approximation, or more generally, because it only models field propagation and not light-matter interaction, including inter-particle coupling. Here we evaluate the accuracy of the scalar ASM when combined with three different light-matter interaction models for computing the far-field light scattered by random arrays of gold and polystyrene nanoparticles. Among the three models—a dipole-matched transmission model, an optical path length model, and a binary amplitude model—we find that which model is most accurate depends on the nanoparticle material and packing density. For polystyrene particles at any packing density, there is always at least one model with error below 20%, while for gold nanoparticles with 40% or 50% surface coverage, there are no models that can provide errors better than 30%. The ASM error is determined in comparison to a discrete dipole approximation model, which is more computationally efficient than other full-wave modeling techniques. The knowledge of when and how the ASM fails can serve as a first step toward improved resolution in lens-free reconstruction and can also be applied to other random nanoparticle array applications such as lens-based super-resolution imaging, sub-diffraction beam focusing, and biomolecular sensing. 

   more » « less