Urban Geography

This paper explores how ecological responsibility becomes distributed across the surfaces and volumes of the city. Our focus is urban mosquito management – specifically, the management of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the vector by which dengue and several other diseases are transmitted to humans – and the governance strategies deployed in Singapore to manage breeding sites and mosquito outbreaks. Whilst the governance of nature in Singapore is usually undertaken by the state, the effective management of mosquitoes requires responsibility for ecological management to become distributed throughout the city. Residents are expected to assume responsibility for surficial cleanliness and the removal of stagnant water in which mosquitoes can breed, whilst pest management companies are contracted to conduct atmospheric fogging to control mosquitoes’ movement throughout volumetric space. Altogether, this distribution demands that residents and the private sector partner with the state to manage urban nature. The relative inefficacy of these efforts reveals a spatial politics of urban mosquito management. These politics raise questions about the relationality of ecological responsibility, and trouble the logic of distributed governance that defines the multispecies city.

With rising concerns about the future of urban living, the smart city is often proposed as a solution to various urban challenges. However, this model has sparked conflicting views with some seeing smart technology as the path to a utopian future, while others fear it will create dystopian realities. This paper moves beyond these polarized perspectives by using the Blochian philosophy of utopianism to explore a more progressive approach to urban development. By examining the single case study of Kilkenny City, the paper highlights the gap between the ideal smart city vision and the realities that arise when technological strategies are implemented, such as unjust practices of surveillance capitalism. It then discusses the potential improvements that technology can bring to urban environments. Following this critical examination of the discrepant and aspirational aspects of utopianism, the study contributes to urban research by presenting critical engagement not as the end of the conversation but as the beginning of a journey toward a better future. While it is crucial to acknowledge the dissatisfaction with current urban living, especially among marginalized communities, it is equally important to keep utopian thought in urban discussions. This approach fosters the possibility of meaningful improvements through technology.

Sport Mega-Events (SMEs) have been widely used as opportunities to promote and (re)brand host cities to domestic and international audiences. Perhaps unsurprisingly, therefore, marginalized or stigmatized urban places do not feature heavily in urban representations during SME opening ceremonies despite the complex relationship between SMEs, redevelopment and urban marginality. However, the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro marked a departure from this trend. While the Brazilian Olympic Committee (BOC) aimed to present the city as vibrant, colorful and safe, they also incorporated marginalized urban spaces-the city's favelas-into event-related promotions. Drawing on an analysis of the Rio 2016 Opening Ceremony, we argue that favela representations represent a process of deactivation. We suggest that the complexity of urban marginality and territorial stigmatization is erased through cultural representations that foreground empowerment and challenges to socio-spatial stigmas. In doing so, the favela is (re)imagined as a romanticized spectacle for external consumption that works to make them legible for capital accumulation, pacification, and the displacement of their inhabitants.

This paper examines how Airbnbification affects the rental market in Istanbul's historic Beyoğlu district using rent gap theory. Given Turkey's recent soaring inflation rates, special emphasis is placed on inflation, aligning with Neil Smith's focus on its impact on rent gap formation. Beyoğlu's history and urban development in the context of neoliberalisation of Istanbul are considered, highlighting why it alone hosts 15.36% of Turkey's Airbnb listings. The analysis proceeds in four stages: first, by comparing long-term rental incomes with Airbnb revenues; second, by assessing inflation and rental growth rates; third, using Pearson correlation to analyse inflation and Airbnbification; and finally, employing the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) to explore both short- and long-term relationships and Granger causality. These findings suggest Airbnb listings, rising rents, and inflation contribute to the ongoing rent gap, positioning Airbnbification as the latest phase of Beyoğlu's gentrification.

Forward-looking urban transformation strategies often overlook the intricate geographical processes through which intermediaries facilitate the growth of emerging industries positioned as urban future paths. This paper reconceptualizes the intermediary space as an analytical framework by integrating assemblage thinking to explore how intermediaries strategically shape Taipei's smart city industry as a future path for urban economic development. Drawing on qualitative research, including twenty-nine in-depth interviews with smart city firms, intermediaries, and field observations at the Smart City Summit Expo (SCSE) in Taipei, this paper argues that smart city firms strategically mobilize SCSE as an intermediary space characterized by performative spatiality to assert their subjectivity as a transformative urban pathway. Three forms of strategic intermediary practices are identified: technological assemblage, curatorial practices, and the creation of spatial atmospheres. These practices critically accelerate the processes of becoming, scaling, and affecting the emergence of Taipei’s smart city industry. Moreover, the SCSE, as a performative intermediary space, bridges the territorial capacities of tech clusters, positioning the smart city industry as a distinctive subjectivity within the latecomer context of global smart city development.