4/1/2019

This paper outlines a project for the reactivation of the peri-urban settlements, known as mahalas, which surround Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina. For historical, social and economic reasons, the growth of the mahalas has been largely informal and uncontrolled by planning regulations with the result that today they exemplify both the dysfunctions and the potentials of spontaneous and uncontrolled urban expansion. The absence of adequate urban planning, both previous to and following a period of armed conflict, together with a failed process of social reconstruction, has left the mahalas in a state of physical abandon and without a shared identity and memory of place. Lacking public infrastructure, they are cut off from the central parts of the city and from the services these provide. In terms of natural conditions, due to the steep slopes and the nature of the bedrock the area is vulnerable to landslides. A failure to address this problem has resulted in the construction of buildings in high-risk locations. This study examines a rethinking of the Širokača mahala. It identifies four strategic objectives: the reduction of landslide risk; the reconnection, both physical and psychological, with the city; the reactivation of the mahala through the provision of public spaces and services; the provision of new homes for the recollocation of the weakest elements of the population as part of the wider national programme for the recollocation of internally displaced people (IDPs). The project finds its guiding principle in a scattered approach consisting of a series of small scale interventions that together create a pathway of facilities which in turn can be reproduced at the macro-level of an urban system. Bottom-up initiatives and practices of urban resilience, latent potential of Sarajevo, are proposed in order to foster a process of physical and social reconciliation within the community.

Professionals and firms of the creative and cultural sector contribute to the creation of business incubators, fablabs and coworking spaces in the historic city, often benefiting from public support. Our paper deals with these creative spaces. It investigates the relationship that architects, as creative professionals and coworking managers, establish with the historic city, the workplace, and the planning and protection rules on buildings. In particular, starting from a research on coworking spaces in the historic District of Villanova, in Cagliari City (Sardinia, IT), this paper critically reflects on the current tools and methods used to map and manage creative spaces in the historic city, making some proposals for their improvement and enforcement in urban regeneration strategies.

The current paper is part of a detailed case study on the methodologies and practical procedures behind the tourism promotion of the Western region of Sălaj County in Romania. The aim of the paper is to offer insights regarding the identification of possible place identity elements in order to develop a future destination branding strategy for the region, opening the door for developing tourism promotion or place branding plans. The first part of the paper gathers data from the region by fieldwork and desktop research, then summarises the most important place identity elements of the region, while the second part lists the possible forms of tourism, applicable to the region and elaborates a real data-based source paper suitable to develop a detailed tourism promotion plan based on this research.

Women’s involvement in politics is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon in Romania, following very contradictory and sinuous trends: starting from a high rate of female participation in the political life during the Communism (only as representatives, but not as decision-makers), to an abrupt drop in the 1990s, when politics was male-dominated, to, finally, a rise of female presence in this field, especially when Romania joined EU. Given these premises, the study aims to offer an overview on women’s representation in politics at local level, for the 2016 elections, and to understand if there is a connection between the local identity of a future female candidate within the community and her success during the electoral campaign; we have tried to identify the key elements, if any, for a greater presence of women in the politics and if any gender stereotypes are manifested in the studied rural communities; estimating the Romania’s probability to have, in the more or less distant future, a greater presence of women in political life, both in urban and rural areas.

Between music geography and iconic music legends, a strong connection has been established in terms of spatial and temporal analysis of popular music and the representation of national identities in the contemporary global cultures of popular music. The existing literature unveils a gap in the analysis of music geography and famous musicians, real global music icons identified with particular cultures. This paper argues that such music legends must be geographically studied to unveil their outstanding contribution to the world music cultures. Against such a background, a geographical approach that takes Canadian singer Céline Dion as a case study is developed. The research aims to analyse Dion’s outstanding contribution to global music culture in both spatial and temporal terms. Based on the music industry emergence, the paper focuses on how and why Céline Dion appeared in global music culture and examines her outstanding contribution with specific reference to music cartographies and statistical research. National identity and related cultural issues beyond the music, lyrics, and performances are also addressed. The empirically led study is based on a multi-method approach and makes use of statistical data analysis, GIS methods, biographical inquiry, the analysis of lyrics and visual methodologies, all suggesting that Dion’s contribution has greatly influenced the global popular music culture of the last few decades. Although the topics in question cannot be fully discussed within the limits of this paper, it highlights the importance of these issues and calls for further in-depth research to provide a new critical understanding of the intimate connections between popular music, legendary music icons and the recent perspectives in music geographies.