Book review #6 Summary of Book Review by Kota Takahashi
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Today’s contents
①[Review Parts3 and Part4]
②[Discussion]
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①[Review Parts3 and Part4]
Part3 Urban Infrastructure
＜3 case studies＞
Puebla, Mexico (Plague, 1737) 🇲🇽
Hanoi , Vietnam (Plague, 1885-1910) 🇻🇳
Culion Island , The Philippines (Leoprosy, 1898-1941) 🇵🇭
PART 4 Urban Design And Planning
＜3 case studies＞
Tokyo, Japan (Cholera, 1877-95) 🇯🇵
Shanghai and Tianjin, China (Plague, 1894）🇨🇳
Lagos, Nigeria (Influenza, 1918) 🇳🇬
②[Discussion]
- What are the most important commonalities for urban infrastructure? (🇲🇽🇻🇳🇵🇭)
Physical, political, community
- What are the important commonalities for urban design and planning? (🇯🇵🇨🇳🇳🇬)
Environment, accessibility, population density
- After we read this book, how do you apply what you learned in this book to your research topic or interested in the future?
(1) Major: Tourism
I have studied chemistry and physics before, so It’s first time I study about urban infrastructure or urban planning in detail. I found that activating tourism has something with urban planning because some images of attractions like heritage sites we travel change by urban planning deeply. I got to be interested in urban planning more in the process of researching tourism.
(2) Since I am conducting research on multicultural communities, understanding the transformation of urban areas following infectious diseases may provide insights into the cultural shifts that have occurred and the reasons behind the concentration of foreigners in those areas. Additionally, knowledge of government policies implemented in response to the spread of infectious diseases can assist me in developing more effective strategies and policies to promote environmental behavior in multicultural communities.
(3) I think its not directly related to my research about awareness of athletes, but I think the closest it relates to is about the previous chapters we discussed, about governance and society. We learned about how good governance tackled pandemics and it can be related to sports organizations making good guidelines and plans to make sports events more sustainable. Additionally, since the society impacted the government also, it can be related to the environmental awareness of athletes to impact sports organizations and maybe even the fans of sports。
(4) Major: urban development and solid waste management
It is related especially in the aspect of history and multiperspective approach. The historical approach used on the book helped us understand things happened in the past and how we can learn from that. As for the multiperspective approach, it is related to research I’m doing right now where I try to understand how different types of urban issues affect solid waste management, so multiperspective and different point of view are needed.
(5) This book provides valuable perspectives on historical pandemics and illuminates the neglect of infrastructure and vulnerable communities. Additionally, it delves into the fascinating history of plagues and cities, which assists us in understanding the challenges we face in the present and future. Notably, the recent covid-19 pandemic exemplifies how we have applied the knowledge gained from past experiences to adapt to the current circumstances, such as quarantine and blocking areas at risk of an outbreak.
(6) Major: Disaster risk management
I believe that this book is directly related to my field of interest. Throughout reading about different aspects of epidemic urbanism, I think that it has widened my perspective on looking at issues in disaster management. In this book, we have learned from case studies that epidemics can affect a region in terms of governance, urban infrastructure, culture, urban planning, and etc. Therefore, I think that it was interesting that I can reflect these ideas to disaster risk management and have a better grasp on the disaster issues happening around the world.