No abstract

This article is on imaginaries of the urban. Here, we develop a critical view on urban and regional developments in capitalist countries and scrutinize explanation patterns anchored in a rigid urban–suburban dichotomy that tend to disregard the complex processuality of current urbanization forms. This contribution focusses on the impact societal change has on spatial and societal structures as well as on forms of socialization in urban regional contexts. As a starting point, we deliberately address current debates on suburbanization from which we first derive research desiderata and then conceptually position the debate. The main aim of the paper is to underscore the importance of the conceptual debate on postmodern urban development which is inextricably linked with the so-called LA school of urbanism and in particular with Edward Soja. In the conceptual part of the paper, we start from Edward Soja’s concept (Postmetropolis, 2000) on postmodern urban development in which overarching urbanization processes materialize on a continuum from center to periphery. His theoretical positionings offer a number of possibilities for analyzing and interpreting socio-economic, socio-structural, and socio-cultural urbanization processes. Essentially, we are offering a conceptual discussion of current urban regional processes based on Edward Soja’s theorizations (Soja, 2011) that take the socio-structural, socio-economic, and socio-cultural pluralities and complexity of Regional Urbanization into account. We contend that the seminal contribution of Edward Soja lends itself to a comprehensive and up-to-date understanding of processes of urbanization, including suburban developments.

KurzfassungMit dem Begriff „temporäre lokale Ökonomien“ lässt sich die Gesamtheit aller auf die Entwicklung eines Quartieres und einer Region bezogenen wirtschaftlichen Aktivitäten in einem temporären Arrangement zusammenfassen. Diese kennzeichnet die spannungsreiche Kombination von ökonomischem Handeln und Alltagsleben in einem stadtregionalen Kontext. Ziel dieses Beitrags ist es, die temporären lokalen Ökonomien in ihren fachlichen Diskursen überblicksartig darzustellen und anhand einer beispielhaften Kurzdarstellung (Bikini Berlin) Einblicke in stadtregionale Entwicklungslinien zu geben.

As an essential urban matter, food has always been highly relevant in issues of social and environmental justice. Current debates around food call for a better understanding of the relationship between global and local food production and social and environmental justice. Specifically, discussions on urban greening concepts are considering whether and how social justice and sustainability goals can be achieved. This has become a pressing issue due to a growing awareness of negative effects and social imbalances in the production, consumption, and disposal of food. The article explores the normative foundations and constructions of “good and just food” that are considered appropriate to a sustainable food system and the power techniques related to personal and environmental responsibility that feature in the work of the German food policy councils seeking to initiate a transformation process. Using a governmentality approach based on Foucault, this article seeks to fill gaps in the literature regarding food policy councils and, thereby, contribute to our understanding of the local manifestations of global policy projects that address environmental and social justice in green cities.

For this paper, the perception of the integration of refugees in the community of Everswinkel (North Rhine-Westphalia) was traced from a post-migrant perspective. For this purpose, representatives of the community, volunteers and residents of suburban neighbourhoods were asked about the changed situation of refugee migration since 2015. In order to arrive at a broader perspective on migration, which no longer sees immigration as a downstream problem affecting only migrants, but rather as a condition to be negotiated for the entire host society, the conceptual triad of alliances, antagonists and ambivalences of Naika Foroutan was operationalized. The results of the surveys turned out to be very heterogeneous and some contradicting views of integration were observed. On the one hand, diverse pro-plural alliances have emerged in Everswinkel, which materialize in particular in the offers and institutions of the community. On the other hand, these are accompanied by anti-plural antagonists who are, for example, strongly conveyed through topics such as neighbourhood coexistence or the topic of living. In addition, a third perspective, that of the ambivalence and contradictions in the perception of the integration of refugees, comes into focus.