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"Cities and towns across the United States are making efforts to restore nature and increase green space as a means of public renewal and downtown revitalization. For local government the goals are to provide an enhanced cityscape that brings residents back to the downtown to live, work and play; and to bring in tourists and further private investment"--Provided by publisher.

The functions of cities in societies are discussed in this essay, the specialized functions performed and the integration of functions. The cities are seen as marketplaces of ideas, attitudes, artifacts, and consequently, innovation; they are driving wheels of great cultures. Then the modem city is considered—as it emerges as a vast collection of "small towns" around a small urban center deserted by night with various islands of intense cultural activity. The question is raised: What will be the consequence of the loss of the city as it has developed during the 200 years of modern civilization in the West? Some speculations suggest an isolation of functions and elites, a growing social distance among them, and a situation conducive to fragmentation of culture.

This paper explores the constellation of fear and the social forces, assumptions and images that construct it. The paper's underlying presupposition is that there are many locations for fear that run parallel to one another in modernity, one of which will be discussed here – the city. It begins by exploring two images and ideas of the city, around which the social theoretical tradition has revolved, both of which are linked in some way to the ideal of the metropolis and the counter-ideal of the stranger. The stranger invariably accompanies the image of the city, as someone who comes to it from the outside. This co-existence between integration and the experience of being outside generates the inner tension or unease of city life, especially when we are all strangers.

The globalisation phenomenon led to the relaxation of borders all over the world. But, at the same time it generated the appearance of invisible frontiers which may create deeper fragmentations inside the society. Apart from the national states, the cities are also markers of identity and places where the ethnic, religious, social, economic differences are more sensible. The present article tackles the issue of frontier / border cities in order to highlight the differences between them and to analyse how the border / frontier affect their development. (author's abstract)

Selbst in der Stadt wird heute in den meisten afrikanischen Ländern noch mit Holz oder Holzkohle anstelle von Petroleum, Elektrizität oder Gas gekocht. Aufgezeigt werden die Hintergründe hierfür und die Folgen hieraus. Auf der Grundlage eines Kostenvergleichs zwischen den unterschiedlichen Energiequellen nach Ländern werden die möglichen Alternativen diskutiert. (HWWA)

The last 20 years have witnessed an impressive outpouring of comparative politics research examining urban politics in the developing world. This research advances our understanding of phenomena such as clientelism, law and order, and local public goods provision. Scholarship could be strengthened, however, through more careful attention to how the urban setting of this research affects the politics examined. This article proposes two distinct ways in which urban politics can be conceptualized: politics taking place in urban agglomerations, characterized by large, diverse populations settled at high densities; or politics taking place within the boundaries of city jurisdictions, possessing legal powers and responsibilities distinct from those at other tiers of government or in rural areas. Adopting either of these conceptualizations illuminates new avenues for empirical work, theoretical innovation, and improved measurement. This article also shows that recent scholarship has neglected important, and fundamentally political, topics such as urban political economy, land markets, and environmental harms. Engaging with these areas would allow political scientists to revisit classic questions regarding the institutional influences on economic growth, the politics of redistribution, and the determinants of collective action.

Foodstuffs comprise the largest single category of urban supply in China, and food accounts for over half the expenditures of the average urban household. Grain and other starchy staples constitute the major component of urban food supply, followed by vegetables and meat. In terms of weight or volume, far more vegetables than meat are consumed by city dwellers, though in terms of value meat may have the edge. The focus here is on vegetables, in particular the ecology of production, the organization of procurement and the structure of the marketing system. The logistics of feeding urban populations is critical in any complex society, indicative inter alia of priorities and procedural preferences in the social system. To examine the organization of urban vegetable supply therefore offers clues to these social priorities as well as to prevailing levels of organizational sophistication.