I have just seen the section on the Guardian called “The Other China”, dedicated to the “huge but often unreported cities on the frontline of China’s urbanization”. It is a welcome occasion to finish a post that I had in the pipeline since my 4,000-kilometre train journey through China in October 2016.
Category Archives: Academia
On space
As written about several times on this blog, my current doctoral research focuses on Tokyo’s postwar economic history. I want to establish space as an independent variable in understanding economic outcomes.
House in Higashiyamato
Urban triumphs or urban sprawl?
Some reading notes from a recent urban studies classic as well as thoughts on density (again!) and environmental sustainability below the jump!
Shibuya redevelopment model, Hikari Building, Tokyo
Tokyo density revisited
I stumbled upon an interesting blog post on Market Urbanism from a few years ago that talks about Tokyo’s surprising lack of density. I would disagree somewhat with that statement. More below the jump.
Tokyo towards the West as seen from Shinjuku
Memory lane
Normal operations on this blog resume with a report of my recent trip to the UK. Only a month after our Christmas vacation, this time my visit was of an academic nature and took me back to old stomping grounds.
SOAS Library
Global Inequality
Phew. I have successfully “disengaged” from reading the news and logging on to Facebook for what feels like an eternity. Am I denying reality? No, but I want to turn down the volume for the time being, and news has a way of reaching you despite not checking three times a day. All this leaves more space for books, including Branko Milanovic’s “Global Inequality”.
Vintage GIS: urban manufacturing
The treasure trove that is the 1961 TMG urban planning atlas has two fascinating maps on the distribution of factories and their growth. They show that the traditional areas of industrial activity are also attracting most of the growth in new factories.
Vintage GIS: zoning and land use
With two maps in tow, I look at Tokyo’s land use and zoning in the late 1950s. Zoning designations largely reflected then-current land uses, except for some visionary (and eventually never realized) ideas about greenbelts and decongestion.
Postwar Tokyo in maps
As I go through the TMG publication I referred to in this previous post, herewith some links to maps of historical Tokyo for my and everyone else’s reference. Please feel free to supplement this with your own links in the comments, I will add to the post.
1959 railway map, from Flickr user Rob Ketcherside
Vintage GIS: population growth
My supervisor and I dug up a fascinating book in the library a few weeks ago. It is an early 1960s Tokyo Metropolitan Government publication that introduces the main urban planning issues Tokyo was facing ahead of the Olympics via thematic maps. Herewith its take take on population growth and density.
