How different is different? Measuring diversity

Abstract

Resilience of a city can be defined as the capacity of the system to experience shocks while retaining essentially the same function, structure, feedbacks and identity without shifting into a different regime. One of the factors that enhances resilience is diversity. It is therefore of particular interest to develop a measure that can compare the diversity of a city before and after a natural or man-made shock, or that can be used to indicate the difference in diversities of different cities.The paper suggests a possible approach to the problem by firstly elaborating on the concept of diversity and the use of an entropy-based measure for the diversity of a system and secondly by proposing a measure for the degree of difference between two diversities. The deduction of the entropy-based measure is general, and therefore in principle applicable to the study of the diversity of cities as well.

Privatization of Public Spaces and Its Impact on the Socio-Political and Spatial Landscapes of the Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCCID)

“…In this sense, the planning of the Greek cities was formalized and assumed a pattern where the agora was situated at the centre, and enclosed with private houses, later by temples and sanctuaries as well as stoa, or covered walkways and flanked with porticos (Hölscher 2007 cited in Fleisher, n.d). Cloete (2010) asserts that the agora was enclosed on two or three sides and surrounded with arcades, which accommodated shops and public buildings, statues, altars and trees.…”

“…All blacks were obliged to carry 'pass books' containing fingerprints, photo and personal details before they could access non-black areas (Chokshi et al, n.d). According to Cloete (2010), the discriminatory practices perpetuated in the recent history of South Africa theoretically stigmatize some public spaces.…”