The breakdown of the municipality as caring platform: lessons for co-design and co-learning in the age of platform capitalism

ABSTRACT

If municipalities were the caring platforms of the 19-20th century sharing economy, how does care manifest in civic structures of the current period? We consider how platforms – from the local initiatives of communities transforming neighbourhoods, to the city, in the form of the local authority – are involved, trusted and/or relied on the design of shared services and amenities for the public good. We use contrasting cases of interaction between local government and civil society organisations in Sweden and the UK to explore trends in public service provision. We look at how care can manifest between state and citizens and at the roles that co-design and co-learning play in developing contextually sensitive opportunities for caring platforms. In this way, we seek to learn from platforms in transition about the importance of co-learning in political and structural contexts and make recommendations for the co-design of (digital) platforms to care with and for civil society.     

SO CLOSE,YET SO FAR AWAY? THE EFFECTS OF CITY SIZE,DENSITY AND GROWTH ON LOCAL CIVIC PARTICIPATION

ABSTRACT: Recent studies in the U.S. context have suggested that political participation is a function of the size and concentration of a city's population. Most of this research focuses on the idea that there is an optimal size and concentration of population that favors active political participation in terms of a higher propensity to vote in local elections, contact local officials, and attend community meetings. The conventional argument suggests a negative relationship between city size and political participation that is mitigated to some extent by the deeper social interactions generated by increased population density. We extend this research by also investigating the influence of population growth on the broader concept of civic participation. Civic participation is a multidimensional concept that requires the use of a broad set of indicators. We expand the number of measures to gauge civic participation at the local level by including data on the formation of volunteer associations, volunteer fire brigades and not‐for‐profit organizations as well as voter turnout. We test the hypotheses derived from extant research using aggregate data collected from Portuguese cities and discuss the implications of our findings for the literature on local civic participation.     

From a/topia to topia: Towards a gendered right to the city for migrant volunteers in London

The paper makes use of an un-orthodox Lefebvrian formulation of the ‘right to the city’ as it adds the gender dimension which was absent from Lefebvre's work. The lens of ‘gendered right to the city’ (Doderer, 2003; Fenster, 2005; Vacchelli, 2014) is used in order to understand the experiences of volunteers working in the women's community and voluntary sector in London. We look specifically at the role of migrant organisations both as places of co-option of migrant labour, as places that enable the integration of migrants and make their participation in the urban fabrics possible, and as places that are appropriated by migrant volunteers in London as a means of enacting active citizenship.London's governance, policy discourses and practices seek to impose a top-down idea of civic participation. In this vision, the role of migrant groups and organisations can only be valued in the context of an active civil society, able to replace the vacuum left by the progressive erosion of the welfare state, leading to a crisis of social reproduction. Lefebvre's theoretical framework of ‘space appropriation’ serves as a way to explore these questions and we propose a further spatial reading which is specific to a gendered right to the city, i.e. the shift from a/topia (not having a space or being denied access to public spaces broadly conceived) to topia. We speculate on what this newly found space looks like and what is its potential for the subversion of top-down policy discourses on civic participation in the neoliberal city.     

COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS' PERCEPTIONS OF CITIZENSHIP ROLES IN AN URBAN COMMUNITY: A CASE STUDY OF ATTITUDES THAT AFFECT COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

ABSTRACT: This article addresses the linkages and barriers between civic participation and political participation in urban communities, through a qualitative case study of the attitudes of community activists in a small urban community. Robert Putnam's theoretical model of civic and political involvement suggests a strong linkage between civic engagement and political engagement, while Nina Eliasoph's model suggests substantial barriers between participation in the local civic realm and participation in the local political realm. These competing models are given a preliminary test utilizing in depth interviews with a cross section of persons who are actively involved in the civic and/or the political realms. The data confirm Putnam's assertion of the strong linkage between the two, but they suggest that the two arenas are viewed as distinct by activists and that the rewards derived from civic engagement are quite different from those of political engagement. The analysis also suggests that community activists have strongly negative views of those who do not participate and that their suggestions for involving others have limited utility. This barrier may be the strongest of all in preventing both civic and political engagement in the urban community.     

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN URBAN NEIGHBORHOODS: DOES THE NETWORK OF CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS INFLUENCE PARTICIPATION IN NEIGHBORHOOD PROJECTS?

ABSTRACT: This article aims to explain variations in the participation of civic organizations in neighborhood projects. In particular, we inquire into the impact of the social networks of more than 400 local civic organizations on their participation in neighborhood projects in two Dutch cities. Two strands of literature constitute the basis for our arguments. First, there is much research on the determinants of individual participation showing that tenure, social‐economic status, and being a member of the majority matter considerably. Second, network studies demonstrate that the structure and content of one's relationships substantially influences successive actions. Our expectations are based on both bodies of knowledge. We survey the civic organizations in eight neighborhoods and analyze the impact of their social networks using multinomial logistic regression models. The results show that the actual number of relations in the network and the density of the networks are positively associated with participation in neighborhood projects. Furthermore, we show that organizations with high proportions of ethnic minorities provide less support, despite their networks. Finally, organizations with many professionals working for them participate more if their networks are taken into consideration.     

VANCOUVER: THE SUSTAINABLE CITY

ABSTRACT: Vancouver exemplifies the richness of the many processes that set the civic culture of large contemporary cities. This paper focuses on what drives the social and economic construction of Vancouver, pointing to the complex linkages that tie agents to their environment. It shows that, in Vancouver, power arises from strong popular control and local democratic and participatory values, where group interactions produce and co‐produce community development. The Vancouver regime is open yet stable, socially progressive yet fiscally conservative and pro‐development. It is a regime that upholds an activist, tolerant and entrepreneurial civic culture. It emerges from an on‐going process where the openness of the regime is re‐negotiated in each neighbourhood and around each policy arena leading to the emergence of a culture of ongoing participation where civic, neighbourhood, ethnic and business groups constantly re‐invent the city.     

Digital neighborhoods

With the advent of ‘big data’ there is an increased interest in using social media to describe city dynamics. This paper employs geo-located social media data to identify ‘digital neighborhoods’ – those areas in the city where social media is used more often. Starting with geo-located Twitter and Foursquare data for the New York City region in 2014, we applied spatial clustering techniques to detect significant groupings or ‘neighborhoods’ where social media use is high or low. The results show that beyond the business districts, digital neighborhoods occur in communities undergoing shifting socio-demographics. Neighborhoods that are not digitally oriented tend to have higher proportion of minorities and lower incomes, highlighting a social–economic divide in how social media is used in the city. Understanding the differences in these neighborhoods can help city planners interested in generating economic development proposals, civic engagement strategies, and urban design ideas that target these areas.     

CIVIC CULTURE AS A POLICY PREMISE: APPRAISING CHARLOTTE'S CIVIC CULTURE

ABSTRACT: The importance of a community's culture—a combination of its political, governmental, economical, and social conditions—is believed important for understanding the power, value, and decision making systems of communities. In this research, using the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County as a case example, the goal is to determine not whether a civic culture exists, but what type of civic culture is present. By speaking to political and civic leaders, examining local strategic documents charting courses for the city, and examining data from the national Social Capital Benchmark Survey, a collective identity of the shared perspective of Charlotte's direction is determined. Based on results from this analysis, Charlotte's civic culture projects as an “active market culture” that is manifest through a civic culture that embraces tradition, supports the private sector, favors orderly, participatory processes, and emphasizes rational decision‐making.     

ESCAPING THE LOCAL TRAP? THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY‐REPRESENTING ORGANIZATIONS IN URBAN GOVERNANCE

ABSTRACT: This article explores the potential dangers of parochialism in using community‐based associations to represent community interests and the role of these organizations in advising on citywide policies in urban governance. Based on recent theoretical debates on citizen participation at the local level, we analyze whether community‐based participation potentially leads to parochial pursuit of community interests at the expense of broader regional goals by investigating the effect of organizational and community characteristics. Using Los Angeles neighborhood councils as an empirical case, this exploratory analysis finds that the nature of neighborhood council members’ civic activities is related to the degree to which they may potentially pursue parochial interests. A similar relationship is found between the geographic location of communities and such pursuits. Lastly, neighborhood council members’ civic activities and other community characteristics also influence their activities concerning advice on citywide policies. These findings suggest ways that neighborhood councils might play a greater role in advising on citywide policies in urban governance.     

NEIGHBORHOOD ATTACHMENT,SOCIAL CAPITAL BUILDING,AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION: A CASE STUDY OF LOW‐ AND MODERATE‐INCOME RESIDENTS OF WATERLOO,IOWA

ABSTRACT: This case study examines the importance of neighborhood identity and engagement in place‐based social networks within the neighborhood in fostering and stimulating neighborhood‐based participation in the urban political process. Scholars concerned with civic engagement have argued that there is a strong link between the informal ties known as “social capital” and citizen engagement in the larger community. If this linkage can be shown to exist in the neighborhood setting, then it can provide guidance to both scholars and practitioners in utilizing informal, place‐based networks to empower disadvantaged neighborhoods. Evidence presented in this essay, based on interviews with a representative sample of neighborhood residents in the small industrial city of Waterloo, Iowa, suggests that strong informal networks of social capital exist within neighborhoods, but that persons who are more strongly engaged in these networks are not necessarily more involved in the efforts of formal neighborhood associations. However, individuals who are involved in these formal associations are much more likely to be connected to the local and national political systems through voting and other forms of participation.     

A TALE OF TWO CITIES: CIVIC CULTURE AND PUBLIC POLICY IN MIAMI

ABSTRACT: In this article, I analyze civic culture in Miami and demonstrate the ways in which this civic culture shapes policy making in two different areas: economic development and public safety. I argue that racial, ethnic, and economic divisions shape conflict in both policy areas, although the divisions play out in different ways in each. At the same time, an elite‐dominated power system and a reactive and fragmented decision‐making system mean that policy outcomes generally reflect the preferences of economic interests in the city, even as demographic shifts have altered the composition of the local elite and the economic health of the city has improved significantly.     

CIVIC CAPACITY AND SCHOOL/COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS IN A FRAGMENTED SUBURBAN SETTING: THE CASE OF 24:1

ABSTRACT: This paper uses the “civic capacity” framework to analyze an emerging school–community reform initiative, called 24:1, focused on an inner‐ring suburban school district. Contrary to the existing literature on civic capacity, we argue that institutions strongly influence civic capacity building. A fragmented public sector and weak institutions of civil society, especially when combined with racial divisions and poverty, restrict the ability of local actors to collaborate among themselves and partner with outside institutions. Despite these daunting challenges, 24:1, led by a local nonprofit with a long history in the area and a school district with dynamic new leadership, has mobilized a diverse coalition of stakeholders and built consensus around a comprehensive plan for revitalization. But stronger indigenous institutions, as well as greater support from the business community, will be needed to sustain the initiative.     

Neighborhood Planning as Collaborative Democratic Design

Problem: Historically, neighborhood participation has lapsed into NIMBYism or has not been especially effective at long-term, inclusive, and integrative planning.

Purpose: I aim to describe and analyze an example of how local governments can function as civic enablers and capacity builders for collaborative and accountable planning among neighborhood stakeholders and city government.

Methods: This is a case study of Seattle's neighborhood planning approach in the 1990s based on semistructured interviews with 33 current and former planners, other officials, and neighborhood activists, and review of a broad selection of neighborhood plans and other planning documents and newspaper coverage of the planning process.

Results and conclusions: The city of Seattle developed a set of tools and resources to empower local citizens in the planning process while also holding them accountable for actions consistent with specified broad values and planning targets. This, together with the city's substantial investment in neighborhood planning staff, who served as relational organizers and intermediaries of trust, was critical to the success of neighborhood planning and to the emergence of a collaborative governance culture among highly diverse and often contentious community associations, business interests, city departments, and the city council.

Takeaway for practice: Diverse neighborhoods can find common ground and make positive progress on planning to address shared citywide concerns. However, they need staff assistance to do this. Neighborhood planners can play this role, but only if cities fund them to do this time-consuming work and provide institutional support and guidance.     

‘Yes we can’: identity politics and project politics for a late-modern world

There is widespread agreement in mainstream participation studies that social capital and civic engagement in Western democracies are in steady and continuous decline. How did it happen, then, that Barack Obama was able to mobilize tens of millions of volunteers and supporters for his spectacularly successful and novelty-creating presidential campaign? Part of the answer is that his campaign was directed to building political capital for solving common policy concerns. This marks a creative shift in political communication from being oriented towards keeping government effective and legitimate to getting people freely and actively to accept and help in executing what has to be done in order to solve common concerns. The paper discusses why this shift has not been detected by mainstream participation studies, following their development in Almond and Verba's civic culture, through Putnam's social capital framework, to Norris's cause-oriented politics. Later, Marsh et al.'s new politics of lived experience is introduced and connected to the project politics model for studying ‘everyday makers and expert citizens’. The conclusion is that Obama's rhetoric in particular appeals to everyday makers and expert citizens, and that their reciprocal resonance opens for a fusion of identity politics and project politics in a new, much more communicative and interactive democratic model for doing what neither neoliberalism nor statism apparently can do: getting things done in prudent manner by establishing more balanced and discursive two-way relations of autonomy and dependence between political authorities and lay people.     

消费视角下的城市历史街区的振兴——以中美联合设计重庆十八梯历史街区改造为例

针对现阶段我国历史文化街区保护面临的困境,本文探索了消费视角下历史街区保护的可能性。以消费视角分析城市历史街区的改造过程,跳出了传统的以物质环境为改造主体的局限性,主张从分析城市历史街区综合价值入手,以旅游业、商业、住宅建设为媒介,依托城市参与城市及区域竞争,充分实现历史街区自身价值,进而实现历史街区的振兴。     

Towers on the steppe: compact city plans and local perceptions of urban densification in Ulaanbaatar,Mongolia

This paper examines how plans for urban densification, particularly those supported by international organisations, intersect with local residents’ perceptions of housing and land use in the developing world. The study focuses on ger districts in Ulaanbaatar, the site of numerous plans for large-scale urban transformation. Ger districts are rapidly growing areas named for the felt tents that are considered their typical housing mode. This study interviewed 120 ger district residents across central, middle and outer areas of the city. The results reveal migration patterns different from those typically reported, with the highest proportions of migrants and renters living in the central district. Interviewees generally held positive views of apartment living, while preferring low-density land use. Residents’ views of density were strongly influenced by Mongolian attitudes to land and open space. The paper concludes by discussing the reasons for, and consequences of, residents’ and international policy-makers’ different framings of urban density.     

The role of ‘race’ in the likelihood of city participation in the United States public and section 8 existing housing programmes

Research on US housing and politics provides evidence for persistent racial discrimination, dual housing markets (one for whites and one for blacks in particular) and racial segregation. Research also shows the relationship between government subsidised low‐income housing programmes and continued segregation. This work focuses on an additional aspect of racial discrimination in housing: local officials, capitulating to the housing industry, consider the possible effect government subsidised housing will have on racially segmented markets before entering some programmes. This paper explores the relationship between the size of the black population, as one indicator of the racial composition of a city, and the likelihood of city participation in public housing and Section 8 Existing housing. The quantitative analyses of US cities shows a negative relationship between the size of the black population and the likelihood of city participation in Section 8 Existing housing, a programme that provides participants the possibility of crossing segmented market boundaries. The results also suggest that the relationship between race and public housing is different than that between race and Section 8 Existing housing. Public housing does not necessarily provide participants the opportunity to cross boundaries. Rather it concentrates people, giving local officials more control over the location of poor racial minorities. Finally, the paper argues that the negative relationship between the size of the black population and the likelihood of city participation constitutes yet another form of racial discrimination in housing.     

快速城市化地区城市总体规划定量目标的引入与应用——以常熟市城市总体规划为例

定量目标是城市总体规划的重要组成部分。在我国苏南快速城市化地区,城乡差别进一步缩小,发展主体呈现均质化趋势,迫切需要协调解决空间拓展与资源约束之间的矛盾。为了更好地适应城市发展的阶段性特征,《常熟市城市总体规划(2010-2030)》尝试在城市总体规划的编制过程中引入并应用定量目标,在对发展主体发展潜力进行综合评价的基础上,通过分解、落实城市总体发展目标,在校核、反馈总体发展目标的同时,针对发展主体提出更为细致、精准的定量目标,并通过目标导向达到优化配置市域空间资源的目的。     

Sustaining platforms as commons: perspectives on participation,infrastructure, and governance

ABSTRACT

This work finds its place within Participatory Design (PD) as a specific approach to co-design that focuses on the politics of technological innovation and socio-technical transformations. In particular, the article contributes to the repositioning of co-design in the age of platform capitalism by engaging with the question: how can participatory designers approach interventions for the long-term sustainability of platforms as commons? As the contradictions and limitations of platform capitalism become increasingly evident, to engage with such a challenge is a way to pursue PD’s renewed political agenda. The article foregrounds the concept of platforms as commons to bring designers’ attention towards those platform arrangements which are antithetical to platform capitalism exploitative ones. By building on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), as a paradigmatic case of platform as commons, the article outlines participation, infrastructure, and governance as relevant perspectives for framing broad areas of sustainability concerns; and it articulates them along four approaches for supporting long-term sustainability in practice: maintaining, scaling, replicating, and evolving. Ultimately, this article provides participatory designers with a map of possible orientations to frame and support their work, research or interventions around the long-term sustainability of platforms as commons.     

The Bristol One City Approach to city governance: New Civic Leadership in action

ABSTRACT

The One City Approach to city governance in Bristol, UK is designed to unify civic purpose in the city: it is ambitious, inclusive and innovative. In 2016 the new, directly elected Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, decided to work with a wide range of civic actors and community leaders to develop this collaborative approach. The New Civic Leadership, a conceptual framework developed by the author, provides the intellectual underpinning for the One City Approach. This article outlines the New Civic Leadership model, summarises the steps taken to deliver it in Bristol and draws out lessons for future practice and scholarship.