Download or read book Code and Clay Data and Dirt written by Shannon Mattern and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2017-11-01 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For years, pundits have trumpeted the earthshattering changes that big data and smart networks will soon bring to our cities. But what if cities have long been built for intelligence, maybe for millennia? In Code and Clay, Data and Dirt Shannon Mattern advances the provocative argument that our urban spaces have been “smart” and mediated for thousands of years. Offering powerful new ways of thinking about our cities, Code and Clay, Data and Dirt goes far beyond the standard historical concepts of origins, development, revolutions, and the accomplishments of an elite few. Mattern shows that in their architecture, laws, street layouts, and civic knowledge—and through technologies including the telephone, telegraph, radio, printing, writing, and even the human voice—cities have long negotiated a rich exchange between analog and digital, code and clay, data and dirt, ether and ore. Mattern’s vivid prose takes readers through a historically and geographically broad range of stories, scenes, and locations, synthesizing a new narrative for our urban spaces. Taking media archaeology to the city’s streets, Code and Clay, Data and Dirt reveals new ways to write our urban, media, and cultural histories.

Download or read book Seeing the Better City written by Charles R. Wolfe and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cover -- About Island Press -- Subscribe -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Why Urban Observation Matters: Seeing the Better City -- 01. How to See City Basics and Universal Patterns -- 02. Observational Approaches -- 03. Seeing the City through Urban Diaries -- 04. Documenting Our Personal Cities -- 05. From Urban Diaries to Policies, Plans, and Politics -- Conclusion: What the Better City Can Be -- Notes -- Index -- IP Board of Directors

Download or read book Urban Mindfulness written by Jonathan Kaplan and published by New Harbinger Publications. This book was released on 2010-10-01 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discovering an Oasis of Calm in the City The city is an exciting yet demanding place to live. Although you love the tremendous energy and diversity of the urban environment, the day-to-day grind of going to work and navigating crowds, traffic, and lines can leave you feeling weary and disconnected. Respectful of the challenges and advantages that arise when you live or work in the city, Urban Mindfulness provides practical advice for transforming everyday experiences into opportunities for contemplation, stress relief, and fulfillment. Filled with insightful reflections and exercises you can do at work, at home, or even while riding the subway, this guide will help you achieve and maintain the sense of peace and calm that you've been seeking. You'll find yourself returning to this guide again and again for gentle reminders that will help you create stillness within yourself as the outside world rushes crazily by.

Download or read book Mindful Thoughts for City Dwellers written by Lucy Anna Scott and published by Leaping Hare Press. This book was released on 2018-03-01 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This engaging book helps town-bound readers discover the joys of urban living." - DAILY MAIL "A quirky guide to the greener side of the capital, offers stories and advice on how to find nature and comradeship in the sometimes-isolating and always hectic metropolis." - Elle Decoration "Lucy Anna Scott advocates getting out to the nearest available natural feature of the city." - BALANCE "Lucy Anna Scott outlines simple ways to find moments of calm in our often chaotic urban lives." - Square Mile "Have this gem of a book by your bedside for quietening your thoughts and be that better person who takes life at a more considered pace." - Little Bird: An Insider's Guide to London Mindful Thoughts for City Dwellers explores how spiritually nourishing living in a metropolis can be, offering its urban occupants an inspiring energy and a special kind of humanity. Part of the Mindful Thoughts series, this lovingly illustrated little book meditates on all aspects of city life, including: Noticing nature Embracing chaos The joy of small living Resourcefulness Revelling in change Night walks Connecting with community . . . and much more It is often assumed that cities are terrible places for our spiritual and mental health but this could not be further from the truth. Through 25 focused thoughts, Lucy Anna Scott shows how cities are enriching, inventive, ever-evolving and endlessly social; providing a togetherness that is a powerful force for wellbeing. This is an inspiring read for anyone that lives or works in a city, that is moving to one or has fallen out of love with one. If you like this, you might also be interested in Mindful Thoughts for Cyclists . . .

Download or read book The For the War Yet to Come written by Hiba Bou Akar and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-11 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Through elegant ethnography and nuanced theorization . . . gives us a new way of thinking about violence, development, modernity, and ultimately, the city.” —Ananya Roy, University of California, Los Angeles Beirut is a city divided. Following the Green Line of the civil war, dividing the Christian east and the Muslim west, today hundreds of such lines dissect the city. For the residents of Beirut, urban planning could hold promise: a new spatial order could bring a peaceful future. But with unclear state structures and outsourced public processes, urban planning has instead become a contest between religious-political organizations and profit-seeking developers. Neighborhoods reproduce poverty, displacement, and urban violence. For the War Yet to Come examines urban planning in three neighborhoods of Beirut’s southeastern peripheries, revealing how these areas have been developed into frontiers of a continuing sectarian order. Hiba Bou Akar argues these neighborhoods are arranged, not in the expectation of a bright future, but according to the logic of “the war yet to come”: urban planning plays on fears and differences, rumors of war, and paramilitary strategies to organize everyday life. As she shows, war in times of peace is not fought with tanks, artillery, and rifles, but involves a more mundane territorial contest for land and apartment sales, zoning and planning regulations, and infrastructure projects. Winner of the Anthony Leeds Prize “Upends our conventional notions of center and periphery, of local and transnational, even of war and peace.” —AbdouMaliq Simone, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity “Fascinating, theoretically astute, and empirically rich.” —Asef Bayat, University of Illinois — Urbana-Champaign “An important contribution.” —Christine Mady, International Journal of Middle East Studies

Download or read book Imagined Cities written by Robert Alter and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Imagined Cities, Robert Alter traces the arc of literary development triggered by the runaway growth of urban centers from the early nineteenth century through the first two decades of the twentieth. As new technologies and arrangements of public and private space changed the ways people experienced time and space, the urban panorama became less coherent—a metropolis defying traditional representation and definition, a vast jumble of shifting fragments and glimpses—and writers were compelled to create new methods for conveying the experience of the city.In a series of subtle and convincing interpretations of novels by Flaubert, Dickens, Bely, Woolf, Joyce, and Kafka, Alter reveals the ways the city entered the literary imagination. He shows how writers of diverse imaginative temperaments developed innovative techniques to represent shifts in modern consciousness. Writers sought more than a journalistic representation of city living, he argues, and to convey meaningfully the reality of the metropolis, the city had to be re-created or reimagined. His book probes the literary response to changing realities of the period and contributes significantly to our understanding of the history of the Western imagination.

Download or read book Real Happiness at Work written by Sharon Salzberg and published by Workman Publishing Company. This book was released on 2013-12-31 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bring the profound benefits of meditation into the workplace And discover how to improve all the positives of working life—such as accomplishment, creativity, teamwork—and mitigate the negatives, including stress, exhaustion, and the feeling of being overwhelmed and underappreciated. Created by Sharon Salzberg, one of the foremost meditation teachers in the world, here is expert, easy-to-use guidance for cultivating mindfulness, compassion, and awareness at work. Follow her suggestions and discover how to be committed without being consumed; competitive without being cruel; and how to manage time and emotions to counterbalance stress and frustration. Includes specific meditations designed for workplace issues, "steal meditations that take moments to do and are invisible to office mates, and dozens of exercises, plus helpful Q&As. Includes free downloadable guided meditations.

Download or read book My New Roots written by Sarah Britton and published by Appetite by Random House. This book was released on 2015-03-31 with total page 585 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Holistic nutritionist and highly-regarded blogger Sarah Britton presents a refreshing, straight-forward approach to balancing mind, body, and spirit through a diet made up of whole foods. Sarah Britton's approach to plant-based cuisine is about satisfaction--foods that satiate on a physical, emotional, and spiritual level. Based on her knowledge of nutrition and her love of cooking, Sarah Britton crafts recipes made from organic vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, lentils, nuts, and seeds. She explains how a diet based on whole foods allows the body to regulate itself, eliminating the need to count calories. My New Roots draws on the enormous appeal of Sarah Britton's blog, which strikes the perfect balance between healthy and delicious food. She is a "whole food lover," a cook who makes simple accessible plant-based meals that are a pleasure to eat and a joy to make. This book takes its cues from the rhythms of the earth, showcasing 100 seasonal recipes. Sarah simmers thinly sliced celery root until it mimics pasta for Butternut Squash Lasagna, and whips up easy raw chocolate to make homemade chocolate-nut butter candy cups. Her recipes are not about sacrifice, deprivation, or labels--they are about enjoying delicious food that's also good for you.

Download or read book Urban Shadows written by Barrett Williams and published by Barrett Williams. This book was released on 2024-11-02 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: **Discover a Hidden World Urban Shadows** Embark on a journey where cityscapes transform into wild frontiers and skyscrapers loom like ancient mountains. *Urban Shadows* is your guide to the thrilling realm of urban stealth camping—a unique blend of adventure, survival, and community found right in the heart of the world's busiest cities. Dive into the origins of urban camping, exploring why this unconventional lifestyle captivates explorers seeking to harmonize adventure with the practicalities of city living. Navigate the intricate maze of legalities, learning how to camp responsibly while respecting local laws and customs. Discover essential techniques for packing light yet effectively, selecting the perfect gear, and harnessing the power of technology to enhance your urban experience. In chapters dedicated to stealth, learn how to craft makeshift shelters that blend seamlessly into their surroundings, ensuring comfort across changing weather and seasons. Master the art of invisibility with tips on how to dress, act, and move with unparalleled discretion while remaining safe and secure. Uncover the lush opportunities for urban foraging, identifying safe food sources right within city limits, and master cooking methods that are as discreet as they are ingenious. Maintain hygiene without leaving a trace and manage waste responsibly, embodying a respect for both urban and natural environments. Throughout, personal stories and expert interviews provide invaluable insights, and global perspectives broaden your understanding of urban camping practices worldwide. Whether you're planning your own urban adventure or simply curious about this burgeoning lifestyle, *Urban Shadows* equips you with the knowledge and inspiration to navigate and thrive in an urban wilderness of your own making. Prepare to see cities in a whole new light—a hidden world of freedom, opportunity, and discovery awaits. Embrace change, challenge, and the thrill of the unknown. Discover the urban wilderness with *Urban Shadows*.

Download or read book The Noisy Renaissance written by Niall Atkinson and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2016-09-16 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the strictly regimented church bells to the freewheeling chatter of civic life, Renaissance Florence was a city built not just of stone but of sound as well. An evocative alternative to the dominant visual understanding of urban spaces, The Noisy Renaissance examines the premodern city as an acoustic phenomenon in which citizens used sound to navigate space and society. Analyzing a range of documentary and literary evidence, art and architectural historian Niall Atkinson creates an “acoustic topography” of Florence. The dissemination of official messages, the rhythm of prayer, and the murmur of rumor and gossip combined to form a soundscape that became a foundation in the creation and maintenance of the urban community just as much as the city’s physical buildings. Sound in this space triggered a wide variety of social behaviors and spatial relations: hierarchical, personal, communal, political, domestic, sexual, spiritual, and religious. By exploring these rarely studied soundscapes, Atkinson shows Florence to be both an exceptional and an exemplary case study of urban conditions in the early modern period.

Download or read book Urban Rambles written by Nicholas Rudd-Jones and published by Frances Lincoln. This book was released on 2018-07-31 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An illustrated city walking guide like no other. Whether you’re a city-dweller who wants to explore your home turf, or a keen country walker who likes the idea of trying something different, or a discerning weekend breaker who wants to get under the skin of a city in a day or two, Urban Rambles is the book to inspire you to get out and explore your nearest city on foot. Each of these 20 walks includes: a GPS enabled map configured for your mobile device specially commissioned illustrations of the route and walk data inspiring photographs of the things you will see along the way information on green spaces and architectural gems recommended cafes, pubs and independent shops England's cities have become much more walkable places in the last decade, with huge investments in green spaces, redevelopment of old industrial areas and a complete urban planning re-think in favour of pedestrians. Walking in a city is the healthy lifestyle choice, offering you the chance to exercise and the calming powers of green spaces. Choose from cathedral cities like York and Lincoln, seats of learning like Cambridge and Oxford, trading ports like Bristol and Liverpool, cities designed for pleasure like Brighton and Bath. Choose to visit Victorian industrial cities Manchester, Sheffield and Birmingham, and of course the nation’s capital, where a new 25-mile circular route takes you from urban regeneration through the Olympic Park and past rivers, parks and palaces.

Download or read book Willis Wilbur Wows the World written by Lindsey Leavitt and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-03-29 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Willis Wilbur has the entire summer in front of him. So it's time to fulfill his destiny: becoming the neighborhood life coach. Nine-year-old Willis Wilbur had his summer figured out. He and his best friend, Shelley, were going to Band Camp, and he was going to learn how to play the sousaphone. Easy. Simple. A done deal. But when Shelley is whisked off to Hawaii for a summer with her family, Willis is left staring down the long, boring road of an empty summer. Or even worse--eight long weeks of Day Camp. So Willis decides to try something new. He's going to MAKE A DATE WITH DESTINY. And after spotting a flyer for a local business competition, he finds exactly what his true calling really is: becoming the Neighborhood Life Coach. A kid helping other kids with kids' problems. His niche, he discovers. And he was going to be great at it. The best at it. So good, that he was going to become wildly, ridiculously famous. All he needed were some clients... With gumption, tenacity, and many other buzzwords he finds in self-help business magazines, Willis dives bowtie-first into the entrepreneurial waters. But starting a business alone, especially without his best friend by his side, is tough work. And with neighborhood bullies getting in his way, a guinea pig client who's actually a guinea pig, and an annoyingly competent little sister asking for a raise, Willis has his work cut out for him. Funny, heartfelt, and overwhelmingly endearing, Willis Wilbur is here to make all of your (well, his) dreams come true. (For a small fee.)

Download or read book Urban Policy Initiatives written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Walkable City written by Jeff Speck and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-11-12 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a plan for American cities that focuses on making downtowns walkable and less attractive to drivers through smart growth and sustainable design

Download or read book Urban Theory Beyond the West written by Tim Edensor and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-03-12 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the late eighteenth century, academic engagement with political, economic, social, cultural and spatial changes in our cities has been dominated by theoretical frameworks crafted with reference to just a small number of cities. This book offers an important antidote to the continuing focus of urban studies on cities in ‘the Global North’. Urban Theory Beyond the West contains twenty chapters from leading scholars, raising important theoretical issues about cities throughout the world. Past and current conceptual developments are reviewed and organized into four parts: ‘De-centring the City’ offers critical perspectives on re-imagining urban theoretical debates through consideration of the diversity and heterogeneity of city life; ‘Order/Disorder’ focuses on the political, physical and everyday ways in which cities are regulated and used in ways that confound this ordering; ‘Mobilities’ explores the movements of people, ideas and policy in cities and between them and ‘Imaginaries’ investigates how urbanity is differently perceived and experienced. There are three kinds of chapters published in this volume: theories generated about urbanity ‘beyond the West’; critiques, reworking or refining of ‘Western’ urban theory based upon conceptual reflection about cities from around the world and hybrid approaches that develop both of these perspectives. Urban Theory Beyond the West offers a critical and accessible review of theoretical developments, providing an original and groundbreaking contribution to urban theory. It is essential reading for students and practitioners interested in urban studies, development studies and geography.

Download or read book Better Cities Better World written by Catherine Farvacque-Vitkovic and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2019-07-30 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The planet is becoming increasingly urban. In many ways, the urbanization wave and the unprecedented urban growth of the past 20 years have created a sense of urgency and an impetus for change. Some 54 percent of the world population—3.9 billion people—lives in urban areas today; thus, it has become clear that “business as usual†? is no longer possible. This new configuration places great expectations on local governments. While central governments are subject to instability and political changes, local governments are seen as more inclined to stay the course. Because they are closer to the people, the voice of the people is more clearly heard for a truly democratic debate over the choice of neighborhood investments and city-wide policies and programs, as well as the decision process on the use of public funds and taxpayers’ money. In a context of skewed financial resources and complex urban challenges—which range from the provision of basic traditional municipal services to the “newer†? agenda of social inclusion, economic development, city branding, emergency response, smart technologies, and green investment—more cities are searching for more effective and innovative ways to deal with new and old problems. Better Cities, Better World: A Handbook on Local Governments Self-Assessments is at the heart of this debate. It recognizes the complex past, current, and future challenges that cities face and outlines a bottom-line, no-nonsense framework for data-based policy dialogue and action; a common language that, for the first time, helps connect the dots between public investments programming (Urban Audit/Self-Assessment) and financing (Municipal Finances Self-Assessment). It helps address two key questions, too often bypassed when it comes to municipal infrastructure and services financing: Are we doing the right things? Are we doing things right? Better Cities, Better World: A Handbook on Local Governments Self-Assessments offers a bit of everything for everyone. • Central governments will be attracted by the purposefulness and clarity of these tools, their impact on local government capacity and performance building, and how they improve the implementation of transformative actions for policy change. • City leaders and policy makers will find the sections on objectives and content instructive and informative, with each issue placed in its context, and strong connections between data and municipal action. • Municipal staff in charge of day-to-day management will find that the sections on tasks and the detailed step-by-step walk through the process give them the pragmatic knowhow that they need. • Cities’ partners—such as bilateral and multilateral agencies, banks and funds, utility companies, civil society, and private operators—will find the foundations for more effective collaborative partnerships.

Download or read book Soul and the City written by Marcy Heidish and published by WaterBrook. This book was released on 2010-05-05 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Your City Guide to God Beneath the relentless rhythms of city life beats the heart of God, and award-winning author Marcy Heidish takes you into a more intimate relationship with him in the midst of crowds, chaos, and concrete. Her experiences from a curb in Brooklyn, the bay in San Francisco, a rooftop of Chartres Cathedaral in Paris, and the busy halls of Washington, D.C., help you see the city in a new light. She turns common city distractions, annoyances, and challenges into spiritual invitations or “gateways” to a new kind of contemplation where: •screaming sirens become cues to silent intercession, •skyscrapers, like spires, pull your eyes and thoughts heavenward, •and red traffic lights work as “pause” buttons that call for you to stop and pray. “In the city there is grit,” Marcy writes. And grime and garbage. But her practical tools in every chapter for reflection, discussion, and application help you see–whether you’re visiting, working, or dwelling in Philadelphia or Phoenix, New York or Los Angeles, Seattle or Syracuse–that in the city there is also grace.