An Applied Mereology of the City: Unifying Science and Philosophy for Urban Planning.

Based on their research showing that growing cities follow basic principles, two theoretical physicists, Luis Bettencourt and Geoffrey West, call for researchers and professionals to contribute to a grand theory of urban sustainability. In their research, they develop a 'science of the city' to help urban planners address problems that arise from population increases. Although they provide valuable insights for understanding urban sustainability issues, they do not give planners a manageable way to approach such problems. I argue that developing an applied mereology to understand the concept of 'city identity' gives planners a theoretical device for addressing urban affairs, including ethical concerns. In turn, I devise a model of city identity to show how a 'philosophy of the city' contributes to a grand theory of urban sustainability.

Ethical considerations involved in constructing the built environment to promote health.

The prevalence of chronic diseases has increased in recent decades. Some forms of the built environment adopted during the 20th century-e.g., urban sprawl, car dependency, and dysfunctional streetscapes-have contributed to this. In this article, I summarise ways in which the built environment influences health and how it can be constructed differently to promote health. I argue that urban planning is inevitably a social and political activity with many ethical dimensions, and I illustrate this with two examples: the construction of a hypothetical new suburb and a current review of planning legislation in Australia. I conclude that (1) constructing the built environment in ways that promote health can be ethically justified, (2) urban planners and public health workers should become more skilled in the application of ethical considerations to practical problems, and (3) the public health workforce needs to become more competent at influencing the activities of other sectors.

Por uma bioética urbana: reflexões sobre as transformações e as formas de resistência na cidade do Rio de Janeiro / For an urban bioethics: reflections on the transformations and forms of resistance in the city of Rio de Janeiro

As transformações urbanas vigentes na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, associadas à recepçãodas Olimpíadas e da Copa do Mundo; e indicadas pelo termo revitalização, apresentamconsequências sociais conflituosas decorrentes das remoções de habitantes de favelas eocupações urbanas, e que podem ser questionadas moralmente graças às ferramentaspropiciadas pela bioética. Esta dissertação busca identificar os elementos pertinentes para umaanálise bioética dos conflitos relacionados a tais transformações – ilustradas pela OperaçãoUrbana Porto Maravilha – e inscritos no fenômeno da globalização. Trata-se de apontar osaspectos gerais do fenômeno da globalização e seu pano de fundo – o processo civilizatório –,assim como suas implicações urbanas. Expõe-se que subjacente ao termo revitalização está oprocesso de gentrificação. Propõe-se como foco analítico para as bioéticas produzidas no Brasil– em particular a bioética de proteção e a bioética de intervenção – os processos de resistênciapresentes nos conflitos urbanos...

The current urban transformations taking place in the city of Rio de Janeiro, related to theOlympics and the World Cup and indicated by the term revitalization, present conflictive socialconsequences due to evictions of inhabitants of favelas and squats. These consequences can bemorally questioned through bioethical tools. The aim of this dissertation is to identify theelements for a bioethical analysis of the conflicts correlated to urban transformations –illustrated by the Operação Urbana Porto Maravilha –, and contextualized in the phenomenonof Globalization. We point out the general aspects of the globalization phenomenon and itsbackground – the develop of civilization –, as well as its urban implications. We show thatunderlying the term revitalization is the process of gentrification. We propose as analytic focusto the bioethics produced in Brazil – in particular the bioethics of protection and the bioethics ofintervention – the processes of resistance found in the urban conflicts...

Preferences for lives, injuries, and age: a stated preference survey.

One of the more difficult ethical questions from a public decision-making perspective is whether the estimation of benefits from risk reducing projects should be influenced by factors such as age groups and risk domains. For example, should a project that saves the lives of elderly people be assigned a more different benefit value in cost-benefit analyses than one that saves the same number of children's lives? This paper examines the preferences of the general public in Sweden on these issues. We design a choice experiment in which subjects are required to make six pair-wise choices where the characteristics of each choice are accident type (fire and traffic), number of fatalities and serious injuries avoided, and age of those saved (5-15-, 35-45- and 65-75-year-olds). We find that avoiding the fatality of one 5-15-year-old is equivalent to avoiding 1.4 fatalities of 35-45-year-olds. Likewise, avoiding the fatality of one 5-15-year-old is equivalent to avoiding 3.3 fatalities of 65-75-year-olds. We find no significant differences between the causes of accident. One avoided fatality is found to be equivalent to around 3.5 avoided severe injuries, which is lower than the official value of 6 used by the Swedish Road Administration.