Post-war large housing estates in Norway – Well-kept residential areas still stigmatised?

The large post-war housing estates constitute an important part of the housing resources in the large Norwegian cities, and the estates seem to present fairly satisfactory conditions physically and socially, compared to similar areas in other countries. Even so, Norwegian large housing estates are held in low esteem. Many of them are stigmatised, and there are some examples of areas facing grave problems. There are several reasons why large housing estates are held in low esteem and have a rather low score on socio-economic and social indicators. Low attraction, low preference for high-rise living, a deregulated housing market, the labelling process, spatial inequality and increasing socio-economic inequality have an impact on segregation and deprivation. We identify some additional factors to explain why large housing estates in Norway still seem to offer fairly satisfactory conditions: a mixed housing stock, the small size of Norwegian cities and estates, a growing local housing market, tenure (low proportion of rented dwellings and public housing), the composition of the occupants, low unemployment rate and a highly redistributing welfare system. Still, many estates are stigmatised and to a certain degree deprived. In these areas we see a need for initiatives to improve the situation. The results of most area-based initiatives in Norway have been positive, but it requires a long-term engagement, a broad perspective and variety of actions, close cooperation with the residents and sufficient resources. The housing co-operatives (co-ops) can create a good starting point for such processes of change when most of the population are already organised through co-ops.     

Bogotá and Medellín: Architecture and Politics

In the last 15 years, Bogotá and Medellín, Colombia's two largest cities, have undergone urban renaissances. These are a direct result of a political will to tackle the social, economic and physical segregation caused by the large-scale urban migrations of the 1970s and 1980s, which resulted in informal developments that were often isolated from central urban areas with no infrastructure. Lorenzo Castro and Alejandro Echeverri describe the shared experiences and distinct approaches of each city. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Residential segregation of ethnic groups in West German cities

Research focused on immigrants in German cities has shown that ethnic minorities have a clear tendency towards segregation and spatial concentration in specific urban areas. Unlike the immigrant enclaves in North American cities these neighbourhoods cannot be termed ‘ghettos’. Yet today one of the most controversial political issues in West German cities is the likelihood of ethnic ghetto formation. There is general agreement amongst planners and politicians that such a development should be prevented as it will hinder future integration. This article will: consider the conditions of labour immigrants and their families in West German cities; review the development of these conditions, especially in the last 15 years; and explain, as far as possible, the geographical concentration and segregation of immigrants, examining policies for integration.     

Towards more Social Cohesion in Large Post-Second World War Housing Estates? A Case Study in Utrecht,the Netherlands1

The last few years have seen many studies of large post-Second World War housing estates. At present they are often the most deprived areas of European cities. The turnover of the population on these estates is characteristically rapid, leading to considerable socio-economic and socio-cultural changes and a multi-ethnic neighbourhood. Such areas often have to contend with severe physical, social and economic problems and the consequent dissatisfaction of the residents. This combination of rapid and selective population turnover and increasing numbers of problems may well affect aspects of social cohesion within these neighbourhoods, particularly the social networks. This process is regrettable, because social cohesion is regarded in a positive light, something that enhances the quality of life. Stimulating social cohesion is therefore an important objective of many policies that focus on large post-Second World War housing estates. The authors have found it interesting to discover how important social cohesion is in the opinions and the lives of the inhabitants rather than the policy makers. In their opinion, urban policies focus on social cohesion while the inhabitants' views of its relevance are unknown. On the basis of this paper, certain aspects of social cohesion in large post-Second World War housing estates appear to be valued, but housing market behaviour, such as residential moves, is hardly affected by aspects of social cohesion. Other aspects, such as moving to a better house, are much more relevant. The results may put into doubt the stress placed in urban policies on social cohesion.     

Social exclusion,area effects and metropolitan governance: a comparative analysis of five large Spanish cities

As a first step towards the exploration of the particularities urban social exclusion in Spain, the research presented here evaluates the significance of the urban territorial factor at neighbourhood level in order to develop relevant conclusions for the design of urban policies. After comparing the structure and dynamics of socio-spatial inequalities in five large Spanish cities (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Seville and Murcia), we analyse how different disadvantaged neighbourhoods – inner city districts and peripheral housing estates – affect the life trajectories of different vulnerable social groups: long-term unemployed males, undocumented immigrants, single mothers, old people living alone and young people with a low education level and job problems. We identify the existence of significant differences between inner city districts and peripheral housing estates regarding the way they affect the life chances of their inhabitants. Furthermore, we show how different social groups are unequally affected by the characteristics of the neighbourhood in which they live. This all leads us to stress the importance of urban public policies being sensitive to the diversity of socio-spatial conditions of cities.     

Access to Land for the Urban Poor—Policy Proposals for South African Cities

The issue of land is a critical one in post-Apartheid South Africa. Growing informality and poverty in urban areas, driven to a large extent by urbanisation, necessitates greater concerted action around land use management in urban areas to ensure more equitable, environmentally and socially sustainable use of finite land resources. The operation of the urban land market has been identified as a significant obstacle preventing the urban poor from accessing affordable land. A new approach, advocated by the UK Department for International Development and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation entitled “Making Markets Work for the Poor—M4P” emerged in the 1990s. The M4P approach recognises that even successful market development will not distribute land to the poor and intervention in the land market is therefore required to promote more equitable land distribution patterns. The M4P perspective however has been accused of an obsession with economic solutions to the problem of landlessness and informality to the exclusion of other socio-political and legal remedies. The Brazilian case provides an example of a more progressive approach as it combines social policy and legal reform to regulate the use of urban land to ensure that land fulfils its “social function”. The presence of large tracts of vacant and unused land in cities is an important issue in the context of growing informality and competition for land and therefore requires urgent policy attention. The paper discusses the Brazilian case and the instruments used in that country to deal with vacant/unused land in cities. It argues that the progressive taxation of vacant land in cities could be a potentially valuable policy instrument in South African cities. Land-based fiscal instruments can be utilised by local government to manage the use of land and to access additional revenue which can be redistributed to the poor for the provision of infrastructure and services. Although these tools are not a panacea for challenges of informality and poverty in the developing world, they do have the potential to augment municipal income and to facilitate urban renewal, infill development and a more compact city. The paper argues though that these tools should be applied on a city-wide scale; part and parcel of an overall urban land reform strategy and plan for the city.     

应对人口流失的景观设计改进方法:以美国宾夕法尼亚州约翰斯敦的 城市更新为例

Over the last 50 years, 370 large cities worldwide have severely depopulated, or shrunk, by at least 10%. Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is the third fastest U.S. shrinking city. Primarily a victim of deindustrialization, Johnstown faces severe decline issues related to depopulation, including social disorder and lowered quality of life. This project develops a framework for urban design for shrinking cities, integrating permanent functions into high development potential areas but temporary functions into declining areas. This approach allows for future development to occur through time as the city recovers. Using a GIS-based weighted overlay model to assess the threat level of decline, 4 sites were identified and strategies for each were developed. Master plans to retrofit new functions integrating residents' desire and demands into vacant / abandoned properties were then generated for each site. Rather than chasing hefty attempted quick-hitting developmental incentives, this approach will bring new long-term economic engines and lifestyles to the city due to a diversity in the economic base; it also pays attention to the social dimension of urban regeneration by providing a structured way to promoting social justice and equity in shrinking cities.     

Municipal solid waste management and practices in coastal cities of the Eastern Black Sea: a case study of Trabzon City, NE Turkey

Each day some 400–450 ton solid waste is dumped on land and in the sea and rivers in the coastal cities of the eastern Black Sea, creating serious environmental problems. The paper reports the engineering geological studies of a proposed landfill site for Trabzon, a major city in the region. Fieldwork included scan-line and seismic surveys as well as boreholes and in-situ testing. Water absorption tests indicated permeabilities in the order of 10⁻⁸ m/s.      

Development Pathways of Large Housing Estates in Post-socialist Cities: An International Comparison

Large housing estates in former state-socialist countries had been hardly affected by social erosion before the political changes. However, the emergence of new, capitalist forms of housing after 1990 started to endanger the position of large housing estates on the local housing market. The question was repeatedly raised in the literature about whether large housing estates of post-socialist cities would experience physical decay and social downgrading similar to the West. This paper investigates the socio-economic differentiation of large housing estates in the former state-socialist countries using a case study approach. Housing satisfaction and mobility of residents in four post-socialist housing estates were analysed through a standardised household survey. Empirical data confirm that despite their similar physical appearance, the attitude of people towards large housing estates and their position on the local housing market vary significantly. The authors conclude that even though socialist large housing estates are affected by social downgrading, nevertheless they represent relative social stability and can offer affordable housing to people who are at the start of their housing career.     

Revisiting the cottage council estates: England, 1919–39

The suburban cottage council estates of inter-war England are an example of how hopes for social transformation emerging in a new physical environment produced by planning worked out in practice. Their roots lay in the anti-urbanism of the nineteenth century. To improve the physical and moral health of the population, reformists had rejected the contemporary city in favour of a more rural environment. The adoption of the pre-industrial English village as the model for development appeared to offer harmonious social relations and a sense of community too. Although these sentiments were diminished by the end of World War I, their legacy was still apparent. Under the influence of Raymond Unwin, the promotion by the Tudor Walters Report of picturesque cottages, streets, gardens and greens presupposed an improved way of life for the cottage council estates that drew upon these romanticized images of the past. Rarely has the social life that developed on the estates been associated with such images. Instead, one of the strongest narratives of suburban working-class life is the loneliness and desolation of the cottage council estates. The estates are usually depicted, especially by modern commentators, as bereft of any sense of community. In particular, the layout of the housing, together with the absence of other facilities and amenities are thought to have hindered the development of social life. Rather than engendering a sense of community, the physical environment is held chiefly responsible for its absence. This paper re-examines these assumptions about the relationship between city plan and social relations by detailing the development of social life in the inter-war period upon the Roehampton and Watling estates, two of the London County Council's cottage estates. Community, it is argued, was not absent from either estate. The precise nature of community that emerged on each estate, together with the wider development of social life, is linked not to the estates' physical planning, but instead their social composition.     

大都市核心区的社会空间隔离--以上海市静安区南京西路街道为例

当今,我国城市正经历着重要的社会转型,一方面新的社会阶层的成长使得社会结构更加复杂,另一方面全球化和经济重组则趋于导向增长的社会极化.就空间趋势而言,隔离已在多种尺度上出现.大都市核心区马赛克状的隔离是不平衡开发的直接产物,而一个极化的居住结构是日益锐化的社会经济隔离的自然结果.通过对上海市静安区南京西路街道地区的案例,研究了大都市核心区的社会空间隔离.     

Social Disadvantage,Tenure and Location: An Analysis of Sydney and Melbourne

This article focuses on the role that housing markets play in structuring patterns of social disadvantage in Australian cities, specifically Sydney and Melbourne. It explores the relationship between housing tenure and social disadvantage at the local scale (Census collector districts) for the two cities, following a discussion of the various stands of literature on housing tenure and socio-spatial polarisation in Australian cities. It analyses the relationship between areas of high social disadvantage and housing tenure. The analysis, which uses the ABS Index of Disadvantage, distinguishes locations where comparable levels of social disadvantage are associated with very different housing markets, one where public housing is prominent and others which are primarily areas of private sector housing. The social profiles of both types of area are described, drawing out differences between the two cities, as are changes in the extent of these areas over time. The policy implications for the areas of private sector housing are then discussed.     

Good segregation,bad segregation

Much of the literature on segregation is underlain by an implicit model which argues that groups start highly segregated in inner city locations and disperse over time. Parallel and related to this spatial pattern is the social process of assimilation. Groups start highly segregated and unassimilated and become dispersed and assimilated over time. The paper argues that there is a critical distinction between the black American ghetto and other forms of segregation. The ghetto is not part of a continuum of spatial distributions which begins in the inner city and ends in the suburbs three generations later; it is an end in itself. The black ghetto is different in kind from other forms of segregation. Nearly all of its members are black and nearly all the black population in American cities is in such locations. African American segregation has been almost continuously high during the twentieth century and has not diminished with socio-economic improvement. Ethnic enclaves of the Irish, Poles or other ethnicities in the USA never achieved such homogeneous concentrations. Thus representing European concentrations as having evolved from a past distribution, which was akin to the present black ghetto, falsifies the European past and mistakes the current dilute levels of European concentration as representing the black future. On the other hand, the equation of spatial segregation with levels of social assimilation, is largely supported. The process of assimilation, like the sequence of spatial segregation, is neither inevitable nor unidirectional.     

Social Disadvantage, Tenure and Location: An Analysis of Sydney and Melbourne

This article focuses on the role that housing markets play in structuring patterns of social disadvantage in Australian cities, specifically Sydney and Melbourne. It explores the relationship between housing tenure and social disadvantage at the local scale (Census collector districts) for the two cities, following a discussion of the various stands of literature on housing tenure and socio-spatial polarisation in Australian cities. It analyses the relationship between areas of high social disadvantage and housing tenure. The analysis, which uses the ABS Index of Disadvantage, distinguishes locations where comparable levels of social disadvantage are associated with very different housing markets, one where public housing is prominent and others which are primarily areas of private sector housing. The social profiles of both types of area are described, drawing out differences between the two cities, as are changes in the extent of these areas over time. The policy implications for the areas of private sector housing are then discussed.     

Ethnic Residential Clusters in Nima,Ghana

The global debate on ethnic residential segregation has focused more on the developed world, and little is known about similar patterns and processes in African cities. This is in spite of the fact that many African cities are now ranked among the world’s most rapidly growing and least regulated urban areas. Indeed, the dynamics of ethnic residential segregation have scarcely been studied in African cities. The little literature available has looked at ethnic segregation between the neighbourhoods of major cities. This paper goes beyond current literature by examining the pattern and processes of ethnic clustering within a multi-ethnic community. Our goal in this paper is to answer the question as to whether within a multi-ethnic urban neighbourhood the major ethnic groups are residentially clustered, isolated or dispersed. The focus is on Nima, a major slum community of Accra, Ghana. The findings of the study show that even though Nima is a multi-ethnic community, some level of ethnic clustering can be discerned. These patterns are linked to the history of settlement formation, religious affiliation and ethnic or place of origin of earlier house owners.     

SEX AND THE CITY: FEMALE LEADERS AND SPENDING ON SOCIAL WELFARE PROGRAMS IN U.S. MUNICIPALITIES

Scholars of urban politics often argue that cities will shy away from extensive funding of social welfare programs, as fiscal realities make developmental policies far more attractive. Despite these arguments, cities continue to fund social welfare programs. One possible explanation is that some local officials prefer funding welfare programs. This research demonstrates that the presence of a female mayor has a large, positive influence on the likelihood a city participates in funding social welfare programs and the amount of monetary resources a city dedicates to these programs. High levels of female representation on city councils and a mayor‐council form of government both interact with the presence of a female mayor to increase the provision and size of social welfare programs in cities.     

Residential land use patterns and housing characteristics in Akure,Nigeria

Housing is a status symbol as well as a protection from the environment. This article looks at the pattern of residential land use and different types of housing in Akure, Nigeria. The older, central areas of the city have the worst housing and the poorest indigenous population live there; the housing estates with higher standards of provision on the outskirts of the city attract the professional, higher earning newcomers. The state government needs to devise an appropriate planning strategy for the city which will take account of its new responsibilities as state capital.     

Growth of metro cities in India: trends,patterns and determinants

Using city-level census data this paper examines the trends, patterns and determinants of metro city growth in India and finds that the post-economic reforms period has heralded a rapid pace of metropolitan development, causing a dispersed pattern of metropolitan growth in the last two decades. The empirical results show that metro cities located along a riverbank and situated in the northern, eastern and southern regions of India; cities with better quality public services and those which are state capitals are revealed to grow faster than others. A proximity to a large city also spurs on nearby urban centres to become larger, highlighting agglomeration effects. In contrast, initial city size has a negative impact on metro growth, reflecting some conditional convergence in population growth across cities. It is also found that the older cities have not grown at a rapid pace, with many of them flagging remarkably low demographic growth, suggesting a process of population drift towards the periphery from the core city areas, thereby leading to an ‘agglomerated trend’ of metropolitan development in India. Finally, we argue that diverting investment and development projects towards regressive regions as well as to secondary cities for strengthening their infrastructure and economic bases may herald sustainable and balanced metropolitan development.     

Learning from Southern California: a typology of neighborhood‐scale projects,the emerging metropolitan form and the implications for public policy

This paper presents a typology of neighborhood‐scale projects in Southern California, examines their impact on the emerging metropolitan form and discusses policy implications. This region is growing fast and is facing several problems. It is also the focus of inquiry of municipal control of land use regulations that support Tiebout sorting and contribute to social and spatial segregation. Given this, the paper examines whether certain types of projects are being built in certain types of cities and whether these projects are likely to support Tiebout sorting. A survey of city planners was used to collect data about the attributes of 169 projects. The results suggest that the association between the attributes of projects and characteristics of cities is not strong and reveal how certain types of projects might address some of the region’s problems. The paper concludes with a discussion of opportunities to create a better metropolitan form.     

TRAPPED OR ON THE SPRINGBOARD? HOUSING CAREERS IN LARGE HOUSING ESTATES IN EUROPEAN CITIES

ABSTRACT: In the first three decades after the Second World War in Europe millions of dwellings were built, in most cases on large estates in or near cities. At that time, many people in various kinds of household found these estates attractive and were happy to live on them. But, in the last two decades, in many parts of Europe social, economic, and physical problems have emerged and the reputation of the estates has suffered a deep decline. That is not to say that they have lost their function in the housing market: some groups might still be drawn to them—low‐income households who cannot find a decent, affordable place elsewhere, for example. In this article, we describe the current position of these estates in the housing careers of specific groups. Are there some groups who find them attractive places in which to live? Or do most people want to get away as soon as they can? Are some people “trapped”? We show that the situation differs substantially between parts of Europe, but even per estate and per household category. Our findings imply that intervention strategies with regard to these estates will have to become much more differentiated than they currently are.