Urbanism
Stuff about cities
December 25, 2014 — February 17, 2025
1 Scaling laws
The Urban Scaling Value system. (L. M. A. Bettencourt 2013) is a theory of cities that suggests that various qualities of city (energy use, innovation rate…) scale in predictable ways with population. Methodological critique in@Cottineau2017Diverse.
2 Ideas to discuss
3 Urban governance and innovation
Próspera a high-profile front-runner
Critique of some parts of process and founders: Why Is the US Condemning Honduras For Fighting Corruption? – CEPR
Próspera City-Builders’ Network | Dework (intriguing! Get paid for doing units of work towards designing a novel city)
Samuel Hughes, Making architecture easy
Unlike nearly all other arts, architecture is inherently public and shared. That means that buildings should be designed to be agreeable – easy to like – not to be unpopular works of genius.
Sam Bowman on why housing still isn’t fixed and what would actually work
4 To read
Michael Batty’s interesting mathematical models:
- Batty’s review editorials in Environment and Planning B
Adam Greenfield calls out technocapitalist utopians and hence will not get you funded. a piece for the Guardian’s “Resilient Cities” project.
5 American homelessness and drugs
6 Incoming
- Urban vs Rural Sustainability
- City Journal | Urban Affairs Magazine (I’m kinda fascinated that the HTML title brands this a “conservative” magazine)
- Why did Kathy Hochul kill congestion pricing? How a bogus driving myth doomed NYC to more bad traffic
7 References
Abdulharis, Sarah, and Hendriatiningsih. 2007. “The Initial Model of Integration of the Customary Land Tenure System into Indonesian Land Tenure System: The Case of Kasepuhan Ciptagelar, West Java, Indonesia.”
Albalate, Borsati, and Gragera. 2024. “Free Rides to Cleaner Air? Examining the Impact of Massive Public Transport Fare Discounts on Air Quality.” Economics of Transportation.
Balland, Jara-Figueroa, Petralia, et al. 2020. “Complex Economic Activities Concentrate in Large Cities.” Nature Human Behaviour.
Batty. 1971. “Modelling Cities as Dynamic Systems.” Nature.
Bettencourt, Luís M. A. 2013. “The Origins of Scaling in Cities.” Science.
Bettencourt, Luís M. A., Lobo, Strumsky, et al. 2010. “Urban Scaling and Its Deviations: Revealing the Structure of Wealth, Innovation and Crime Across Cities.” PLOS ONE.
Bettencourt, Luís MA, and West. 2010. “A Unified Theory of Urban Living.” Nature.
Castellani, and Rajaram. 2019. “How Large Must a Population Be to Accomplish Great Things?” Sociology and Complexity Science Blog,.
Catanzaro. 2013. “Reclaimed Space: Mapping Urban Assemblages in Sydney.” In Proceedings of Rethinking Urban Inclusion: Spaces, Mobilizations, Interventions International Conference, 28-30 June 2012, Coimbra, Portugal.
———. 2014. “Capturing Disappearance: A Visual–Phenomenological Investigation of Sydney’s Irregular Performance Spaces.”
Cottineau, Hatna, Arcaute, et al. 2017. “Diverse Cities or the Systematic Paradox of Urban Scaling Laws.” Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, Spatial analysis with census data: emerging issues and innovative approaches,.
Gurran, Phibbs, Yates, et al. 2015. “Housing Markets, Economic Productivity, and Risk: International Evidence and Policy Implications for Australia - Volume 2: Supplementary Papers.” AHURI Final Report.
Hill. 2012. “Ravintolapäivä, Restaurant Day, Edible Urbanism and Civic Opportunism.” Cityofsound.
Jacobs. 1992. The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
Kay. n.d. “Enlightened Imagination For Citizens.”
Kitchin, Lauriault, and McArdle. 2015. “Knowing and Governing Cities Through Urban Indicators, City Benchmarking and Real-Time Dashboards.” Regional Studies, Regional Science.
Kühnert, Helbing, and West. 2006. “Scaling Laws in Urban Supply Networks.” Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications, Information and Material Flows in Complex Networks,.
Leishman, Bond-Smith, Liang, et al. 2021. “Relationships Between Metropolitan, Satellite and Regional City Size, Spatial Context and Economic Productivity.” AHURI Final Report.
Louf, and Barthelemy. 2014. “A Typology of Street Patterns.” Journal of The Royal Society Interface.
Masucci, Stanilov, and Batty. 2013. “Limited Urban Growth: London’s Street Network Dynamics Since the 18th Century.” PLoS ONE.
McLaren, and Agyeman. 2015. Sharing Cities: A Case for Truly Smart and Sustainable Cities. Urban and Industrial Environments.
Proust, Dovers, Foran, et al. 2007. “Climate, Energy and Water: Accounting for the Links.”
Rahmawati, and Gentini. 2008. “Pengetahuan Lokal Masyarakat Adat Kasepuhan: Adaptasi, Konflik Dan Dinamika Sosio-Ekologis.” Jurnal Sosiologi Pedesaan.
Ranard, Ha, Meisel, et al. 2014. “Crowdsourcing — harnessing the masses to advance health and medicine, a systematic review.” Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Resnick. 1997. Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams : Explorations in Massively Parallel Microworlds.
Rybski, Arcaute, and Batty. 2019. “Urban Scaling Laws.” Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science.
Serafinelli, and Tabellini. 2017. “Creativity Over Time and Space.” SSRN Electronic Journal.
Silver, Byrne, and Adler. 2021. “Venues and Segregation: A Revised Schelling Model.” PLOS ONE.
Soemardi, and Radjawali. 2004. “Creative Culture and Urban Planning: The Bandung Experience.” In The Eleventh International Planning History Conference.
Verbavatz, and Barthelemy. 2020. “The Growth Equation of Cities.” Nature.
Yglesias. 2012. The Rent Is Too Damn High: What To Do About It, And Why It Matters More Than You Think.