Behavioural responses to neighbourhood reputations

Most research on the effect of neighbourhood reputations focuses on the influence on attitudes and behaviour of non-residents. Much less attention is paid to the possible effects of a poor neighbourhood reputation on behaviour of residents. In order to get a better understanding of the effect of neighbourhoods on its residents (the so-called neighbourhood effects) and the role of neighbourhoods in the urban housing market, it is necessary to fill this gap. The aim of this paper is to review the literature on the reputation of places and to give an overview of possible behavioural responses of residents to negative neighbourhood reputations. The paper develops a model of behavioural responses of residents based on Hirschman’s ‘Exit, Voice and Loyalty’ framework. Three basic responses are central to the discussion of the literature: leaving the neighbourhood, attempting to improve the neighbourhood through neighbourhood participation, and (dis)investing in social contacts within the neighbourhood.     

On place-making,participation and public art: the Gorbals,Glasgow

Public art has become part of the rhetoric of regeneration and within this participation has come to play an increasingly significant role. Public art, through its aesthetic and process, is perceived as integral to place-making within regeneration practice, affording cohesion to otherwise disaffected and disillusioned communities and distinctiveness to reformed places. Based on the example of a regenerated inner-city neighbourhood in Glasgow, the Gorbals, this paper questions the role of public participation in the installation of public art. How the regeneration of the neighbourhood unfolded was heavily influenced by new urbanist ideals in which place-making techniques were instrumental in repositioning the perception of the neighbourhood for its residents as well as externally. We argue that within a complex process of regeneration there are limits to how public participation can be built into the process of installing public art, reflecting in turn the different routes through which places become meaningful.     

The spatial dimensions of neighbourhood: how older people define it

This paper seeks to develop our understanding of neighbourhood boundaries, as defined by older people. Using interview and mapping methods, research revealed the significance of three factors ? built-form pattern, spatial distribution of the social networks and personal attributes ? as contributing to how older people define their neighbourhood boundaries. Research findings highlighted discrepancies between residents’ perceived neighbourhood boundaries and the statistical unit used as the neighbourhood proxy in most neighbourhood-related research. The findings suggested that the statistical information about the neighbourhood effects on older people does not necessarily reflect the lived experience of older people in their perceived neighbourhood.     

Housing at the neighbourhood level: a review of the initial approaches to neighbourhood development plans under the Localism Act 2011 in England

The Localism Act 2011 created an opportunity for local communities to form neighbourhood forums and to prepare their own neighbourhood development plans in urban and rural areas in England. Initial reactions suggested that, rather than leading to the development of more housing, these initiatives would confirm all the stereotypes of local residents blocking unwanted development in their defined neighbourhoods. However, neighbourhood plans need to be in general conformity with the core strategies of higher-tier plans and often make provision for more new homes than planned before 2011. This article discusses the role and purpose of neighbourhood plans, the evidence base on which they are founded and some of the legal challenges which have helped clarify procedures. It then identifies two types of plan based on the ways housing strategies and evidence of need are reflected in a sample of 10 plans which have been made to date. It concludes that the voluntary nature of localism to date tends to favour more rural and affluent areas and ends with an assessment of the impact of neighbourhood plans on the planning process. It suggests that the implications for spatial planning may be far-reaching.     

GIS in the Urban Landscape: reconfiguring neighbourhood planning and design processes

Landscape architects have been using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) primarily for large-scale applications such as regional, environmental, ecological and natural resources planning and management. GIS applications are explored for the smaller-scale urban landscapes of communities and neighbourhoods. It is described how a community-based GIS was used in a participatory neighbourhood planning process to enhance communication between planners, community groups and local residents. This case study, which reflects on the experience of a design team at the University of Illinois at Chicago, found that a community GIS was highly useful for urban landscape and design, particularly when augmented with a variety of other computerized and non-computerized techniques. In this case free-hand sketching by a trained artist and three-dimensional software that could create representations of the designs as they were in process were incorporated. This combination of tools proved effective for increasing community understanding and participation in the designing and revitalization of their neighbourhoods.     

GIS in the Urban Landscape: Reconfiguring neighbourhood planning and design processes

Landscape architects have been using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) primarily for large-scale applications such as regional, environmental, ecological and natural resources planning and management. GIS applications are explored for the smaller-scale urban landscapes of communities and neighbourhoods. It is described how a community-based GIS was used in a participatory neighbourhood planning process to enhance communication between planners, community groups and local residents. This case study, which reflects on the experience of a design team at the University of Illinois at Chicago, found that a community GIS was highly useful for urban landscape and design, particularly when augmented with a variety of other computerized and non-computerized techniques. In this case free-hand sketching by a trained artist and three-dimensional software that could create representations of the designs as they were in process were incorporated. This combination of tools proved effective for increasing community understanding and participation in the designing and revitalization of their neighbourhoods.     

Living in and leaving poor neighbourhood conditions in England

Current neighbourhood renewal and urban policies in the UK seek to improve neighbourhood conditions in poor areas and achieve greater residential stability. Using one of the few longitudinal housing datasets available in the UK, this paper analyses the influence of residential perceptions on house moving behaviour in poor and other areas. It is found that residential dissatisfaction is notably higher among residents of poor areas, and they respond to poor neighbourhood conditions in the same way as the general population. Dissatisfaction with the home itself, and unhappiness with disorder in the immediate surroundings both significantly increased the odds that someone would move home. Perceived neighbourhood decline was also found to increase the odds that someone wished to move home but to reduce the likelihood that they would actually do so. Residential mobility was found to be a particular problem for owner occupiers in declining neighbourhoods and for residents in deprived parts of inner London.     

Towards the experiential meaning of milieu for neighbourhood regeneration: discussions on the institutional designation of milieu-valued areas in Tallinn, Estonia

This article analyses the constructive and strategic character of the milieu discourse in the planning of urban neighbourhoods in Tallinn, Estonia, that has an influence on neighbourhood regeneration. In the institutional designation of milieu areas, the concept of milieu area means the coherent historical housing environment as assessed by planning experts. The article argues that this milieu discourse has strategic aims in terms of preserving architectural housing heritage and acknowledging the traditional understanding of the heritage value. This has influenced, in the collective knowledge, the specific perception of the term ‘milieu’ that will in turn influence the change of a neighbourhood’s social structure and of its placemaking. For example, the concept of milieu area is used by real estate agents for selling and renting apartments in deprived neighbourhoods that are institutionally acknowledged as the neighbourhoods with the milieu value. The study concludes that the expert-based milieu discourse does not consider the socio-spatial neighbourhoods’ everyday life, which is significant in terms of viable neighbourhood regeneration. The reconstruction of the milieu term towards an experiential milieu approach is suggested, as the involvement of residents in neighbourhood regeneration is especially essential in the neighbourhoods of the dispossessed.     

Voice, exit and efficacy: dealing with perceived neighbourhood decline without moving out

Residents of deprived urban neighbourhoods with a changing population often experience an increase in insecurity. If they judge the change as decline, they are likely to become less satisfied with their residential situation and exhibit coping tactics. This paper combines Hirschman’s Exit, Voice and Loyalty theory with insights on personal and collective efficacy drawn mainly from the work of Bandura and Sampson in order to describe and interpret three coping tactics: (partly) withdraw, accept and adapt, and show voice. Neighbourhood loyalty can partly explain why residents choose a particular tactic. This loyalty relates to residents’ place attachment and local social ties, but can sometimes be more or less forced when it results from of a lack of possibilities to move away. Those who cannot or do not want to move tend to exit by withdrawing from places or people in the neighbourhood. Their coping tactics contribute to feelings of personal efficacy but might harm collective efficacy. Exit-based tactics are often accompanied by a high degree of distrust towards other residents and/or local formal institutions. The more residents deploy exit-based coping tactics and the higher the degree of distrust among residents, the higher the pressure on collective efficacy and social control mechanisms in the neighbourhood.     

Resident Participation in Housing Regeneration in France

The involvement of local residents in housing regeneration policy and practice has become a ‘new orthodoxy’ across Western Europe. This paper considers the experience of France, a country noted for its history of ‘third sector’ activism and innovative practice in, for example, neighbourhood management. It is argued here that—notwithstanding three decades of central government rhetoric and exhortation—there remain few examples of genuine involvement of residents in formal regeneration decision-making processes at a local level in France (especially in respect of strategic issues). There exists a ‘participation deficit’. This paper explores this phenomenon empirically through case studies of housing regeneration in Lyon, Marseille and Mantes la Jolie. It also seeks to explain the ‘participation deficit’, drawing a distinction between those factors that are pan-European and those that are particularly French, not least the apparent resilience of representative democracy.     

Social Capital,Neighbourhood Attachment and Participation in Distressed Urban Areas. A Case Study in The Hague and Utrecht,the Netherlands

During the last decade, academic interest in residents' participation in maintaining the quality of life in distressed urban areas has risen. Many articles seeking to explain why people participate relate the social networks dimension of social capital to participation. However, according to Putnam's definition of social capital, not only social networks, but also norms and trust give people the tools they need for participation. Other authors concentrate on the relationship between neighbourhood attachment and participation. However, an empirical analysis in which both factors are combined is lacking. This paper describes the combined effect of social capital together with neighbourhood attachment in explaining participation. The findings show that participation is greater for residents with social networks in the neighbourhood, who reject deviant behaviour, and have a stronger neighbourhood attachment. Trust in authorities was not found to have any statistically significant impact on participation. The conclusions underline the theoretical assumption that social capital and neighbourhood attachment form a useful pair of concepts in explaining participation, because they focus not only on what people have, but also on their mindsets.     

Does living in a poor neighbourhood result in network poverty? A study on local networks,locality-based relationships and neighbourhood settings

This paper examines whether and how living in a poor neighbourhood results in “network poverty”. Through a detailed analysis of the formation of personal networks of people living in a poor neighbourhood and those living in an affluent neighbourhood in Rotterdam, I examine the role of the neighbourhood in the formation of personal networks. I address three issues. First, whether resource-poor people who live in a poor neighbourhood form relationships with fellow-residents to compensate for their otherwise small network. I find that they do not and that their small network is primarily caused by non-participation in settings such as study, work, leisure and associations. Second, I distinguish locally maintained relationships that have originated in other settings from locality-based relationships that originated in the neighbourhood. The study shows that high network localness is more a matter of maintaining relationships in the neighbourhood than forming many new locality-based relationships with fellow-residents. Third, I examine how the neighbourhood facilitates relationship formation and conclude that this happens not in “the neighbourhood” but in neighbourhood settings, which attract a particular segment of a neighbourhood population. I conclude that the problem of network poverty is not in the first place spatial but rather lies in lack of participation in certain settings. Furthermore, social mixing policies can only be successful if they are accompanied by initiatives to draw a mixed population to neighbourhood settings and facilitate routine encounters between resource-rich and resource-poor people.     

Changing neighbourhood character in Melbourne: point Cook a case study

In the past two decades, Melbourne has been subjected to diverse pressures due to its changing scale and function within the global system of cities. Among many other features of the new phase in Melbourne’s urban transformation are its new suburbs which have proliferated in large numbers at the city’s urban fringe. Characteristic of these suburbs is a new urban character which has evolved as a by-product of a pre-defined and controlled mechanism in planning, design and implementation of housing developments. The objective of this paper is to investigate the process that determines the evolution of this new character; examining the role of local planning authorities and developers in shaping the built environment. Firstly, the paper discusses the definition of neighbourhood character and its interpretation among academics, policy makers, planners, urban designers, developers and real estate agents. Then in a three-step process the nature, quality and style of neighbourhood character in Point Cook are investigated through analysis of Council policies and through review of developer statements on character building and place-making. Lastly to understand how the idea of character is constructed and enacted by local residents of Point Cook, a survey was administered for the residents.     

Full participation,drive and quality in the rebuilding of Roombeek

Inclusive and effective participation is the pipe dream of innumerable regeneration managers. While often seen as a multipurpose tool that can secure support, mobilize efforts and adjust measures to local wants and needs, in practice it is often hard to make residents show up and roll up their sleeves. The rebuilding of the neighbourhood of Roombeek illustrates that the pipe dream may be attainable all the same.     

The temporary permanence of Dominican bodegueros in Philadelphia: neighbourhood development in an era of transnational mobility

The relationship between "neighbourhood" and "community" is contentious: while neighbourhoods are spatially based, communities are more amorphous institutions that are connected to local places through far-flung transnational networks. Dominican corner-store owners (bodegueros) in Philadelphia, USA, understand their role in their local neighbourhood community as a form of "temporary permanence" because their economic development model involves building networks between the US and the Dominican Republic. The mobility practices of grocers and interviews with community leaders in Philadelphia are used to make two propositions about constructions of place-based "neighbourhood communities" in the US: the mobility of the grocers highlights the spatial entrapment experienced by other urban residents and thus their embrace of place-based communities; and, in the mobility of the grocers and conversations with some neighbourhood leaders, we see actualised a more fluid and expansive understanding of the concept of a "neighbourhood community" which is embedded in transnational networks.     

Spatial scale,time and process in mega-events: The complexity of host community perspectives on neighbourhood change

A focus on the ‘mega’ aspect of hallmark events can divert attention from the micro – those local communities who are most impacted by the event. Similarly, attention to the ‘event’ aspect underplays the long process of bidding and preparation before any putative legacy of urban transformation for local people. This paper uses qualitative data to unpack the complex and multi-layered views of local residents, living in a deprived neighbourhood beside the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games site in Scotland. They reflect on five years of intensive urban regeneration, evaluate the experience of ‘lockdown’ at Games time, and consider their hopes and fears for the future of the community. Interviewing a mixture of lifelong, established, new and returning residents, we found considerable common ground across the different groups in terms of hopes for a new, mixed community in the area. However, findings also highlight concerns around urban governance practices and the limitations of a market-led approach to regeneration.     

高层住区邻里空间的社会维度探析

从社会维度这一方面探讨了高层住区邻里空间的设计理论,重点对人对邻里空间的需求、邻里空间中人的行为特征、邻里空间归属感进行了研究,指出维系邻里居民交流与情感的相接,是满足居住于高层住宅的居民人文精神需求最直接、有效的方式。     

Beggar thy neighbour,beggar thy neighbourhood

Neighbourhood effects and the economies of housing consumption are, independently, thoroughly researched topics in the urban economics literature. Little has been said, however, about the effects of housing consumption restrictions on the dispersal of neighbourhood effects to different economic groups. At a time of rising public concern about economic inequality, properly understanding the link between housing market restrictions and neighbourhood effects across the income spectrum is of increasing importance. This paper proposes a model to better assess how labour productivity as influenced by neighbourhood effects changes with restrictions in housing consumption. The results of the model show that except in the case where no labour complementarity exists between the high and low‐skilled population segments, housing restrictions excluding the poor from the better‐off neighbourhoods will lead to welfare losses for both populations.     

Neighbourhood participation in super-diverse contexts: comparing Amsterdam and Vienna

Urban policies are increasingly localized, stressing the role of neighbourhood social contacts in generating cohesion and citizen participation. Studies on ‘everyday’ multiculturalism also emphasize the neighbourhood as a meaningful place for encounters. However, there remains a lack of understanding of how specific contexts condition encounters with difference. We compare two European neighbourhoods that provide different contexts for participation: Amsterdam and Vienna. We ask how residents experience local spaces of encounter and how this influences their experience of the neighbourhood. We find a mismatch between the aims of local policies and the experiences of residents, who also value more superficial contacts.     

Neighbourhood regeneration: facilitating community involvement

In this paper, the courses of action taken to facilitate residents' participation, in developing community action plans, in two Australian public housing estate regeneration projects are examined. The findings are placed within the context of changes, over the past 20 years, to the operation of housing authorities that were antecedents to the newly emerging partnership models of regeneration between the public and private sectors and communities. Three major findings are highlighted. First, the government role, in terms of providing support positions and allowing adequate time for residents to participate is critical to the success of community participation activities. The second finding is that the ever-increasing privatisation of public sector activities and pre-occupation with developing a more efficient, effective and lean public sector, essentially defined in economic terms, is in conflict with meeting government social goals of community participation. Third, much of the rhetoric used in neighbourhood regeneration projects of 'rights and obligations' and 'sustainability' is not well defined and is sometimes implemented in contradictory ways. In applying these terms, the housing authorities and their regeneration partners need to elucidate the principles they are promoting. In light of the findings overall, it is concluded that we should question the capacity of market oriented regeneration policy to lead to resident inclusion.