Members’ Publication

Public space is usually pursued as open-air living room and reflection of dignity of the community. It is the platform upon which the drama of convivial life discloses. This research has explored the competency of redeveloped Public Spaces in Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC). A project, entitled ‘Jol Sabuje Dhaka’ has been recently inaugurated where several parks and playgrounds have been redeveloped. So, this research has focused on the changes in condition of those redeveloped public spaces. The study has concerned to assess the affects in visiting pattern and accessibility of redeveloped public spaces by the people of the community of DSCC after redevelopment. It’s highly surprising that the result showed that public involvement has been increased, but not ensured the engagement of all social categories. Also, the main territorial playfields have been restricted for certain period of time within a day that restricts the accessibility. The study indicates that the enhancement of the public engagement in the parks and playgrounds of DSCC would increase through the provision of facilities and the access of public to these facilities. In fact, the functionality of public spaces mostly depends on the accessibility and community involvements.

The indigenous or local knowledge acquired over the time by the community/individuals in this particular ecosystem plays an important role in detection and catching of any specific fish abundance in any specific part of rivers and estuaries around the world. The Hilsa supports an estimated 0.45 million full-time and 2.5 million part-time fishers. The project, ‘Investing in Hilsa fishery as an Economic Infrastructure for Bangladesh’ encompassed activities designed to address key areas of work such as improved science based fisheries management decision making, strengthened fisheries adaptive co-management, and enhanced socio-ecological resilience of target communities. Remotely sensed imageries data of both active and passive were used in this study to monitor the Hilsa habitat in the south-central to southwest coastal area of Bangladesh. A radar system operates in a specific wavelength or frequency and records the signal response from the ground or target at single specific wavelength.

Rohingyas are the most persecuted minority in the world. They have been facing systematic discrimination and serious human rights violations since the 1970s when they stopped being recognized as citizens by the Burmese government. Acts committed against this predominantly Muslim minority in the Rakhine State can be classified as ethnic cleansing with the intent of genocide. Myanmar is also facing a case in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) due to violations of the Convention Against Genocide (1948). This paper employs the framework of everyday resistance to highlight Rohingyas’ acts and practices to resist genocidal acts in Myanmar. We analyzed 62, 56, and 145 micronarratives of forcibly displaced adult Rohingyas currently living in India, Malaysia, and Bangladesh, collected between March 2019 and April 2020. We conclude that the Rohingyas adopted various everyday resistance practices involving non-compliance, such as refusing to follow orders, giving money or going to forced labour; and avoiding staying at home and secrecy, including praying, using mobile phones, moving to other areas, studying, and marrying secretly. In addition, everyday resistance strategies connected to gender-focused protection against sexual violence were linked to staying at home, hiding girls and maintaining women pregnant. Finally, Rohingyas adopted resistance strategies to survive the 2017 attacks, including fleeing to Bangladesh in groups and supporting each other. This discussion dialogues with previous work on genocide studies that highlight the agency and resistance of Holocaust and other genocide survivors. It contributes to understanding the everyday resistance of a stateless minority, recognizing its agency against its genocidal state.

In recent years, Bangladesh has started moving its transportation vision towards achieving sustainability goals such as increasing bicycle infrastructure, sidewalks, reducing air pollution, etc. To contribute to the ongoing discussion, we explored factors that influence the use of bicycles for different trip purposes in Rajshahi, a medium-sized city in Bangladesh. A face-to-face household survey was conducted to collect individuals’ socio-demographic characteristics, their travel patterns for different trip purposes, and perceptions of the built environment. We developed four Integrated Choice and Latent Variable (ICLV) models to understand the influence of latent perceptions on bicycling for commuting and non-commuting (i.e., grocery shopping, going for tea, and recreational) trips. The analysis indicates that women are more likely to choose a bike for commuting trips but are less likely to use bikes for recreational trips. The results also show that the choice of commuting by bicycle is positively associated with commuting distance and negatively associated with residential land use. Walkability perception has a significant positive association with the choice of bikes for commuting and non-commuting trips. Road safety perception for active travel is positively associated with bike choice for recreational trips, and crime perception of the neighborhood is negatively associated with bike choice for grocery trips. The results from this study will be helpful for policymakers to understand and improve the built environment to attract individuals towards bike use.

This book critically examines different forms of urban-rural links for sustainable development in different countries. As intertwined processes of globalization, digitalization, environmental challenges and the search for sustainable development continue, rural and urban areas around the world become increasingly interconnected and interdependent. This book contributes to understanding the role of this growing interconnectedness from an economic geographical perspective. It does so by theoretically and empirically addressing the various existing linkages, such as food networks, value chains, and regional governance at local, regional, national and international levels. In doing so, contributions extend and contrast existing approaches dealing with urban and rural areas separately by considering the interplay between these two as well as their consequences for sustainability transition pathways. This edited volume adds to the academic and policy debate by bringing together a variety of concepts and themes in order to shift the research and policy agenda away from simple dichotomy to different notions of rural-urban linkages. Offering multidisciplinary insights into rural-urban linkages, the book will be of interest to decision-makers, practitioners and researchers in the fields of economic geography, regional planning, food studies and economics.

Perceptions of the walking environment can encourage or discourage walking for transport. However, the influence of the built environment (BE) on pedestrians’ perceptions of the walking environment has not been fully understood. To address this gap, the present research investigates how BE characteristics of a suburban walking environment are associated with the perceptions of attractiveness (i.e., pleasantness, friendliness), safety, and security. Using a cross-sectional design, 995 participants reported their perceptions about the attractiveness, safety, and security of different suburban BE scenarios in Brisbane (Australia). Univariate and bivariate random effect ordered probit models were estimated to identify the associations between BE characteristics and perceived attractiveness, safety, and security whilst controlling for psychosocial factors. Results indicated that perceived attractiveness (i.e., pleasantness and friendliness) was higher for recreational areas than residential land use. Women perceived the walking environment as more pleasant with trees. The perception of safety was higher for recreational and vacant land compared to residential areas. Young pedestrians perceived that the likelihood of being assaulted/robbed/harassed at night was lower if they walked through an area with commercial and mixed land use. Women pedestrians perceived that the corresponding risk at night was higher in recreational areas. Overall, the findings suggest that urban design strategies such as increasing land use diversity and providing adequate trees enhance perceived environmental attractiveness, safety, and security, ultimately resulting in more walking for transport.