Restorative wildscapes at work: an investigation of the wellbeing benefits of greenspace at urban fringe business sites using ‘go-along’ interviews

Abstract

The potential well-being benefits associated with the use of privately owned greenspaces in working environments have received little research attention. Given the growing evidence on the restorative benefits of urban greenspace, and the fact that many people spend most of their daily hours at the workplace, the question of whether physical access to green environments from workplaces can promote well-being is a pertinent one. Person–environment relationships in peri-urban business sites were investigated in a series of semi-structured ‘go-along’ interviews with employees at Scottish science parks. Workers described a range of well-being benefits from outdoor breaks and associated these with qualities of the environment. Semi-natural and informally landscaped areas were most strongly associated with restoration during the working day. The implications of the findings for the planning and design of business sites at the urban fringe are explored.     

Spatial dimensions of the demand for homeownership. A Danish rural–urban perspective

This paper introduces the concept of “spatial location satisfaction” and examines its relation to the individual demand for homeownership. Based on a Danish questionnaire survey carried out in a rural study area (N = 1,000) and in an urban study area (N = 1,015), a tenure choice model was estimated relating spatial location satisfaction to homeownership, while adjusting for control variables. The spatial location satisfaction variable was constructed from two questionnaire items asking respondents to state their actual and preferred place of settlement given five location type options: large city, medium-sized city, small town, village, and “in the countryside”. As hypothesised, the study shows a strong association between spatial location satisfaction and the individual demand for homeownership. This association is robust across study areas. Spatial location satisfaction is highest in the rural study area and explains about 6% of the rural–urban difference in homeownership rates. The identification of a positive association between spatial location satisfaction and homeownership adds credibility to population surveys that measure the correspondence between actual and preferred location type. This, in turn, provides increased impetus to use such survey data as one of the tools in formulating regional planning policies.     

Ambivalent landscapes—wilderness in the urban interstices

This paper explores the origins and development of ambivalent responses to particular contemporary urban landscapes in historical ideas about human relationships with nature and wilderness, and suggests that post-modern wilderness may be found in the urban interstices: in woodland, abandoned allotments, river corridors, derelict or brownfield sites and especially areas in which the spontaneous growth of vegetation through natural succession suggests that nature is in control. We propose that these interstitial wilderness landscapes have numerous important functions as well as being rich repositories of meaning with implications both for theorizing nature–human relationships and for urban landscape planning and design.     

“Glocalising” urban landscapes: Athens and the 2004 olympics

This paper deals with transformations of urban landscape in the era of globalization. First, it attempts to describe and understand how particular aspects of urban morphology, such as built heritage and innovative design of space, have become the competitive edge in terms of landscape. Second, it develops the argument that on the basis of their great potential for (a) promoting economic growth and (b) enhancing place identity of cities, both built heritage and innovative design of space appear to be expansively used as major components of contemporary strategic plans of cities for the transformation and improvement of urban landscape. Combining and promoting built heritage and innovative design of space as two central themes in urban landscape transformations generates, for the 21st century city, a new landscape collage dominated by two extremes: (a) that of tradition with rather local spatial references and (b) that of innovation having more universal or global spatial references. Thus, under the forces of globalization, the new emerging urban landscapes may be termed as “glocalised” ones. As a case study, Athens and the landscape transformations for Olympic Games 2004 are analysed.     

Residential mobility in China: home ownership among rural–urban migrants after reform of the hukou registration system

This paper analyzes the housing tenure of China’s rural–urban migrants in eight destination municipalities in Jiangsu province after the reform of the urban registration system (called hukou in Chinese). The objective is to distill links between home ownership and formal residency status. Using binary logistic models, the paper explores the effects of demographics and institutional factors on home ownership. The analysis is based on the data from a survey conducted in 2009 in eight municipalities, representing the responses to the institutional reforms carried out from the 2000s on. The prevalence of home ownership proves to be affected by age, gender, educational level, household size, personal income, participation in an urban insurance scheme, and a Jiangsu hukou status. However, an inter-municipality comparison reveals divergent effects of a Jiangsu hukou. Registration plays a significant role in relatively more-developed municipalities, where the entitlements are higher but so is the threshold to obtain them. In contrast, its role is not significant in less-developed municipalities, where access to civil amenities is more readily granted.     

Is financial development narrowing the urban–rural income gap? A cross-regional study of China

This paper investigates the causal relationship between financial development and the urban–rural income gap in China. Using a bootstrap Granger panel causality analysis, the result indicates that financial development influences urban–rural income gap mainly in Eastern China. The high level of financial development in this region enables rural areas to increase its income. Our results also confirm the existence of the financial Kuznets curve in Eastern China where urban–rural income gap would be first increased and afterwards decreased by financial development. The financial development itself is not dependent on urban–rural income gap as it largely depends on government policies and economic growth.     

Natural amenities and their effects on migration along the urban–rural continuum

The importance of natural amenities in promoting development and population change has been addressed in a large body of literature with recent studies identifying rather obvious spatial heterogeneity in the effects of natural amenities on migration. This said, the potential variation along the urban–rural continuum has not been addressed empirically. In this study, we examine and compare the migration effects of natural amenities in five specific urban–rural continuum types at the minor civil division level in the US state of Wisconsin. Results of spatial analysis suggest that natural amenities do indeed have differing effects on migration along this urban–rural continuum. Overall, natural amenities have the largest effect on in-migration into rural areas adjacent to metro areas and no effect on in-migration into urban areas. The effects of natural amenities on in-migration into remote rural areas rely more on growth trends within these regions. These findings have important implications for rural development, land use policy, and natural resource management.     

Living condition among China’s rural–urban migrants: recent dynamics and the inland–coastal differential

Using data from the Rural–Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) survey, this paper evaluates the very recent dynamics of living condition among China’s rural–urban migrants during 2008–2014, scrutinizing in particular the differential between the inland region and the coastal region. Along with their improved economic conditions, housing conditions of migrants have in general improved, although compared to urban locals their disadvantages persist over time. The improvement is especially fast among those migrants residing in the inland region. Multivariate regression results indicate that education, income, place of origin and family composition are important determinants of migrants’ housing conditions. Finally, decomposition analysis suggests that even after controlling for those observable factors, there is still a large inland–coastal differential. Over time, China’s rural–urban migrants are becoming more stable and settled in host cities. The temporary nature of China’s migrants, claimed in many previous studies, might be changing. Updated and regional-specific migrant policies are needed.     

The making and remaking of Hackney Wick, 1870–2014: from urban edgeland to Olympic fringe†

This paper is concerned with issues of urban change in areas of London that have become the focus of regeneration strategies predicated on accommodating growth and development within existing city boundaries. Its focus is in the Lower Lea Valley in East London, which developed in the nineteenth century in the context of its peripheral location with respect to central London and which continues to lie at the seam between urban authorities. Today, this whole area is subject to regeneration plans based on addressing the physical and social manifestations of this transforming peripherality – including environmental impacts of industrialization, post-industrial piecemeal development, spatial disconnection, and long-standing patterns of social deprivation – by creating a framework geared towards attracting new investment, population and employment and, in the process, addressing the impediments to change that are seen to have been posed by fractured local policy. Taking one small part of this larger area, Hackney Wick, which is beside the 2012 London Olympic site in the London Borough of Hackney, the paper turns to planning history to explore its development from the nineteenth century in relation to urban boundaries. It uses this exploration as the basis for reflecting on the significance of contemporary boundary adjustments and plans predicated on facilitating the creation of local centrality for the remaking of an urban ‘edgeland’.     

Selecting independent measures to quantify Melbourne's urban–rural gradient

As cities and towns increase in population and size around the world, there is a growing interest in the impact of urbanisation on humans and the environment. The use of urban–rural gradients has proven to be a useful tool for studying changes in ecological patterns and processes across urbanising landscapes. Currently, there are a wide range of measures being used to represent changes in human demographic patterns, physical structures and landscape composition and structure along urban–rural gradients. The aim of this paper was to identify a suite of measures that can be used to define an urban–rural gradient in Melbourne, Australia. Using principal components analysis, we assessed 17 commonly used measures of urbanisation that included demographic variables, physical variables and landscape metrics. Four measures captured most of the variability in the patterns of urbanisation: (1) Index_combined; (2) the ratio of people per unit urban land cover; (3) landscape shape index; (4) dominant land-cover. We used these four measures to quantify Melbourne's urban–rural gradient and then explored their use in representing urbanisation as an environmental space rather than a geographic space. This study provides an example of how to objectively select a subset of measures to quantify urbanisation, and illustrates a novel way of combining the measures to obtain a richer understanding of ecological responses to urbanisation.     

Regional cost-of-living differentials,rural–urban migration,and the contribution to economic growth

Using a multi-region, multi-sector dynamic model of an economy with rural–urban migration fit to Turkish data, this paper explores the evolution of each region's output and factor allocation as well as inter-regional disparities that emerge with migration. Migration or residence decision of households is endogenous with respect to regional cost-of-living differentials. Results show that migration slows down and dampens the shift of labour from urban manufacturing to services, despite the increase in demand for urban services. It is also established that rural–urban migration contributes positively to growth while the reallocation of labour within each region proves to be unfavourable.     

Has highway construction narrowed the urban–rural income gap? Evidence from Chinese cities

Using 2003–2016 panel data of 278 prefecture-level Chinese cities, we analysed the relationship between highway construction, resource flow, and urban–rural income gap using multiple spatial econometric models. Overall highway construction has narrowed the urban–rural income gap owing to better population mobility and goods flow. However, while goods flow has narrowed the gap, population mobility has aggravated it. A regional difference in the impact of highway construction also exists, that is, the effect is negative in central and western cities, but positive for eastern cities. Moreover, China's “4 trillion” fiscal and currency stimulus plan has strengthened highway construction in narrowing the income gap.     

Social networks of rural–urban migrants after residential relocation: evidence from Yangzhou,a medium-sized Chinese city

This paper analyses the effects of residential relocation on China’s rural–urban migrants’ social networks in light of evidence from Yangzhou, Jiangsu province. Our study contrasts voluntary moves with forced moves driven by demolition-led redevelopment of urban villages. Based on data from a survey conducted between 2012 and 2013, the regression analysis shows that voluntarily relocated migrants are more likely than forced movers to use phone/computer to contact their former neighbours, and communication technology allows them to maintain the frequency of their contact. Furthermore, when moving to a gated neighbourhood, voluntary movers are more likely than forced movers to participate in public activities, to have more contact with new neighbours and thereby to get more help from the residents’ committee and new neighbours. The results suggest that forced moves have negative effects on migrants’ social networks in the neighbourhood and that the demolition-led redevelopment programmes do not promote the migrants’ integration in the city.     

Reprint of “The production of segregated urban landscapes: A critical analysis of gated communities in Sofia”

Gated communities represent a rather new trend in housing in Sofia. Besides very few secluded and privately governed neighbourhoods of the nomenclature they were little known in Bulgaria before 1989. This has changed profoundly over the last 15 years. Indeed, similar to other Central and Eastern European cities (CEE) one can speak of a boom in closed-type settlements in Sofia and its outskirts with approximately 50–60 newly constructed gated and guarded housing estates which in some cases accommodate several hundred inhabitants. While this growth of enclosed high-income neighbourhoods has mostly been studied in terms of architectural design, representation, residential structure and behaviour as well as public–private dichotomy little attention has been paid to the politico-economic processes underlying this radical restructuring of urban space in Central and Eastern Europe. Additionally the role of the key stakeholders (local business people, international developers, public authorities) has hardly been questioned. Therefore, this article tries to uncover the interplay of different stakeholders that have shaped this production of space. By applying a relational approach the article attempts to elaborate on why, by whom and by what kind of practices gated communities are produced and how they function. Beyond that the article also takes a closer look at the neo-liberal urban policy environment that has influenced the rise in gated communities. The article aims not only to extend the research by adding just another case study, but rather to provide a critical reading of gated communities in Central and Eastern Europe. Furthermore by discussing three examples of gated communities in Sofia, each representing a specific type with its specific causalities and socio-spatial outcomes, the article will also highlight what we can learn from our post-socialist Bulgarian case regarding gated communities in general.     

Futurescapes of urban regeneration: ten years of design for the unfolding urban legacy of London’s Olympic Games, 2008–2018

ABSTRACT

Much of the literature on the urban legacy of the 2012 Olympics Games emerging in recent years has emphasized the form that development has taken and the ways in which this aligns (or not) with specific promises made in terms of regeneration before the Games. Though plenty of discussion of planning procedure has occurred in this context, less emphasis has been placed on how the process, rather than the products, of urban change has been envisioned through legacy planning and urban design, and the significance of this for regeneration. Given that London’s much-heralded ‘regeneration legacy’ was, from the early days of the Olympic bid, portrayed as a long-term process aimed at addressing historical issues of socio-economic disparity in East London, and that planning and urban design would play key roles in anticipating it, this contribution to the literature is timely. The paper focuses on the period from 2008 to 2018, beginning with the launch of the what was called the Legacy Masterplan Framework. Drawing on empirical analysis of documents describing the main stages of legacy planning and design between these years, it then examines how regeneration as a ‘futurescape’ encompassing numerous aspects of timing and temporality has been anticipated, planned and evolved.     

Reprint of “An ‘unceasing war’ on land development on the urban fringe of Beijing: A case study of gated informal housing communities”

The existing literature about informal development in China's cities is dominated by studies of conventional informal housing in urban villages, while a new type of informal housing, gated informal housing communities, has rarely been studied. The paper aims to contribute to the existing literature by discussing why and how these gated informal housing communities were developed, looking at the case of Beijing. The results of the analysis show that institutional discrimination against rural areas with respect to land use rights, revenue redistribution, policymaking procedures and the hukou-related social welfare system the major drivers of development of informal communities. In particular, informal development is influenced by the ways land value is captured by, compensated for and allocated to the state government rather than rural villagers in the process of its transfer from rural to urban land. For future policy, more institutional innovation or reform is imperative in order to adequately deal with the emergence of gated informal housing communities. Institutionally inclusive land and housing policies, rather than intense top-down control, are needed in China.     

The place of urban conservation in the UK reconstruction plans of 1942–1952

During and immediately after World War II, several hundred reconstruction plans were drawn up for the majority of UK towns and cities. These included both those suffering bomb damage, and those relatively or completely unscathed. At the same time, the bomb damage had given substantial impetus to the concept of urban conservation. The ‘listing’ of buildings of special architectural or historic interest was begun. However, the reconstruction plans have much to say - both explicitly and implicitly - about conservation on a broader scale. Many of the plans suggested comprehensive clearance and redevelopment, creating a tabula rasa even if bomb damage had not, albeit during a period of 30–50 years. Few were sensitive to the context of areas and groups of buildings. Nevertheless, there is clear evidence in some of these plans for the emergence of a broader concept of conservation, two decades before Duncan Sandys' Civic Amenities Act permitted the designation of ‘conservation areas’. This paper reassesses the common interpretation of these plans as largely modernist in outlook.