Planning for decline: the ‘D’‐village policy of County Durham,UK

From the 1930s to the 1970s the contraction of the coal mining industry in County Durham in northern England was followed closely by plans to abolish many of the settlements that had supported the mining population. This article examines the development of the policies that were used to classify villages for demolition, the local resistance that developed in defence of the villages and the justifications provided in support of this policy. The bulk of the research is based on archived contemporary newspaper reporting of the events as they happened. Through this approach it is possible to document the course of popular opposition to planning policies. The policy was wide ranging, with 121 villages designated as category ‘D’, meaning that they were to be demolished. This paper examines the local response in specific case study localities, showing that the main tensions were between the economic concerns and aesthetic appraisal of policy makers and community‐based perceptions of social relations and the environment. The paper suggests that the legacy of the ‘D'‐village policy continued until relatively recently in the minds of planners and residents in Durham's ex‐mining localities.     

Planning for population ageing: Ensuring enabling and supportive physical-social environments – Local infrastructure challenges

Ensuring enabling and supportive environments is a key global priority in planning for population ageing. This paper examines the challenges local governments face in creating age-friendly physical-social environments. Findings from a recent study of local government and ageing in New South Wales, Australia and subsequent research are reported. The analysis reveals that local councils have differing abilities to provide age-friendly local infrastructure. Challenges are greater overall for regional, rural and fringe councils compared to metropolitan. Timely provision is greatly constrained by insufficient resources, the large scale of the task and the low priority accorded, despite the immediate need for action. A pressing requirement is demonstrated for local councils to give primacy to population ageing in their long-term strategic, asset and financial planning, and to engage in reform measures to assist in financing the cost.     

‘The party’s over’: critical junctures,crises and the politics of housing policy

The key argument set out in this article is that historical and comparative forms of investigation are necessary if we are to better understand the ambitions and scope of contemporary housing interventions. To demonstrate the veracity of our claim, we have set out an analysis of the UK housing polices enacted in the mid-1970s as a basis for comparison with those pursued 40 years later. The article begins with a critical summary of some of the methodological approaches adopted by researchers used to interpret housing policy. In the main section, we present our critical analysis of housing policy reforms (implemented by the Labour government between 1974 and 1979) noting both their achievements and limitations. In the concluding section, we use our interpretation of this period as a basis to judge contemporary housing policy and reflect on the methodological issues that arise from our analysis.     

Towards the ‘ubiquitous eco-city’: An analysis of the internationalisation of eco-city policy and practice

European governments are tending to perceive cities as sites of renewed economic dynamism and physical renaissance, and as places that can help to resolve social and environmental challenges. The paper presents three propositions for why the fortunes of cities in advanced economies may have improved. It then offers evidence from across Western Europe to assess whether they have done so, both in comparison with their past trajectories and in relation to smaller urban and rural areas. One finding is that cities in aggregate have experienced continued prosperity rather than decline and revival or accelerated growth. Another is that their overall position relative to smaller settlements does not seem to have changed greatly. Looking in more detail, however, there is more evidence of resurgence, as well as the opposite. National variations seem important and cities in Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Britain and Spain show signs of substantial economic improvement over the last decade. In contrast, cities in Germany have experienced a marked slowdown, albeit from a position of comparative prosperity at the outset.     

Social outcomes in the construction industry: the case of the Western Australian ‘Percent for Art’ policy

Social outcomes, in particular intangible social outcomes, are generally difficult to achieve in the construction industry due to the predominantly episodic, fragmented and heavily regulated nature of construction that presupposes a tendency towards mainstream construction processes and design. The Western Australian ‘Percent for Art’ policy is recognized for stimulating social outcomes, by creating richer and more aesthetically pleasing social environments through the incorporation of artwork into public buildings. A case study of four Percent for Art projects highlights the role of the Artwork Selection Committee in incorporating artwork into construction. A total of 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted with committee members and policy officers. Data analysis involved a combination of pattern coding and matrix categorization, and resulted in the identification of the committee’s three key elements of collaborative communication, democratic decision-making and project champions. The findings suggest these key elements foster the interaction, communication and relationships needed to facilitate feedback, enhance relationships, create cross-functional teams and lower project resistance, which are all necessary to overcome constraints to social outcomes in construction. The findings provide greater insight into the mechanisms for achieving social outcomes and a basis for future discussion about the processes for achieving social outcomes in the construction industry.     

Challenges of governance in two cross-border city regions: ‘CENTROPE’ and the ‘EuRegio Salzburg – Berchtesgadener Land – Traunstein’

Since the 1970s, spatial planning and urban/regional development policies have increasingly paid attention to challenges of city regions. In the Austrian context, two city regions are interesting in this respect: CENTROPE and the EuRegio Salzburg – Berchtesgadener Land – Traunstein. CENTROPE is the largest city region in Austria and is located at the borders to three other European countries. Currently, four European Member States are taking part in this cross-border region (Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, and Czech Republic; in total eight partner regions and nine partner cities). EuRegio Salzburg – Berchtesgadener Land – Traunstein covers parts of Bavaria (two ‘Landkreise’) and parts of the federal provinces of Salzburg and Upper Austria. These are cross-border city regions, which are mainly constructed politically and have to deal with a range of governance challenges. Both city regions have developed a certain set of measures to establish city regional governance, particularly through fostering thematically oriented cooperation between different city regional actors. In this article, CENTROPE and the EuRegio Salzburg – Berchtesgadener Land – Traunstein will be analysed comparatively with regard to their efforts to establish cross-border city regional governance. The yardstick for depicting developments regarding governance is derived from the literature about governance and city regional governance as well as by a certain theoretical understanding of space. Accordingly, the article argues for defining and analysing city regions more as places of social and political conflict, as sites of actors’ interests’ formation, hence as places, which are socially produced and reproduced. Against that background, the article will mainly address the following: (1) the most evident challenges for further developing cross-border city-regional governance in both regions, (2) the differences between the two regions in terms of governance structures and (3) relation between certain spatial and governance theories to understand the making of city regions.     

Virtual enclosure,ecosystem services,landscape’s character and the ‘rewilding’ of the commons: the ‘Lake District’ case

Abstract

It is paradoxical that, while there is a generally increasing recognition of the scientific and cultural importance of conserving ‘semi-natural’ pastoral environments, and the negative effects of their widespread abandonment and overgrowth, British ‘rewilding’ activists and environmental managers are effectively advocating policies that will have a similar negative effect on the character of the semi-natural pastoral commons of places like England’s iconic Lake District. This situation, it will be argued, owes to the mindset of ‘virtual enclosure’ whereby the character of landscape is pre-defined by an assumed, behind-the-scenes, Euclidean/Ptolemaic spatial logic that leads to the comprehension of nature as a bounded scenic property; an (e)state of nature with its own economic system and services. This mindset is antithetical to both the practice of pastoral commoning and much contemporary natural science and conservation policy. It fits well, however, with older teleological ideas of nature, as well as modern ideas of privatisation, private property and management control.     

Down to Earth: Linking Planning Theory and Practice in the ‘Metropole’ and Beyond

The paper explores the issue of the link between planning theory and practice, and achieving what is sometimes termed ‘situated’ planning theory. It argues that mainstream planning theory (i.e. the various strands of communicative planning theory [CPT]) has come closer to this than most previous theorizing, but that there is still a significant gap between theorizing about, and the reality of, practice in particular contexts. While this issue has been a subject of debate within that part of the world where CPT has its origins (the global North), the relevance of mainstream planning theory to practice in other parts of the world has had less attention. This paper asks how well CPT ‘travels’ across the globe, and what might be required to improve its portability.     

Planning for play: seventy years of ineffective public policy? The example of Glasgow,Scotland

This paper looks at the planning and provision of outdoor play spaces for children over a seventy-year period since the Second World War. Using Glasgow as a case study, the paper examines whether and how research on families and children living in flats has been used to inform national and local planning policies in this area, and in turn how well policy is converted into practice and provision on the ground. The paper considers these issues in four time periods: the period of post-war reconstruction from the late 1940s to the early 1970s, when large amounts of social housing was built; the period of decline and residualization of social housing in the 1970s and 1980s; the 1990s and 2000s when several attempts were made to regenerate social housing estates; and the last five years, during which time the Scottish Government has developed a number of policies concerning children’s health and physical activity. Planning policy in Glasgow appears to have been ineffective across several decades. Issues such as a weak link between research and policy recommendations, unresolved tensions between a number of policy options, and a lack of political priority afforded to the needs to children are identified as contributory factors.     

‘Orthodox’ and ‘alternative’ explanations for the reduction of urban violence in Medellín,Colombia

In 2016, 43 of the 50 most dangerous cities in the world were located in Latin America. In reducing levels of urban violence and preventing future outbreaks, approaches developed in Western Europe and North America are the most influential and have been subjected to considerable testing in high-income urban environments.

This article focuses on Medellín, Colombia. By drawing from qualitative data collected in Medellín, the article scrutinises claims that the social urbanism policies caused the significant reduction in homicides. An alternative explanation for the reduction in homicides is then presented, focusing on the methods of the perpetrators of violence.     

South African ‘know-how’ and Israeli ‘facts of life’: the planning of Afridar,Ashkelon, 1949–1956

In 1949, in the newly founded state of Israel, South African architects Norman Hanson and Roy Kantorowich planned the city of Ashkelon and, within it, the exclusive neighbourhood unit Afridar. Managed by the South African Jewish Appeal, which initiated and funded the project, Afridar presented a radical exception to Israel’s centralized planning approach during that period. An early example of a semi-private settlement initiative for an ethnic and class-based enclave reserved for ‘Anglo-Saxon’ Jewish immigrants, it functioned as a ‘model town’ for the immigrant population from the Middle East and North Africa, which was housed by the government in the rest of the city of Ashkelon. Afridar’s enclave reproduced planning practices from South Africa, which had been coloured by race since the 1920s. Despite its exclusive image, it was modelled after progressive experiments in the design of Native Townships. Their main objective of such experiments was to improve the standards of housing of racially discriminated populations yet, in practice, they served as a tool to implement apartheid policies. This paper interrogates this ambivalence of social aspirations and complicity with state segregation practices through examining the translation of apartheid’s planning practices to the Israeli context, and the negotiations and conflicts this translation entailed.     

The Villages,Florida: Small-town Metropolitanism and the ‘Middle of Nowhere’

With over 110,000 inhabitants , The Villages is the world's largest retirement community. Its numerous distinct ‘villages’, surrounded by artificial landscaping and golf courses and served by three ‘downtowns’, cater to those who crave the idealised rural life of times gone by while also offering the convenience and stimulation of the modern metropolis. Deane Simpson , leader of the Master's programme in Urbanism and Societal Change at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, investigates.     

‘London particular’: the city,its atmosphere and the visibility of its objects

Over the course of the nineteenth century, the smoke-filled atmospheres of London and other industrial cities were the subject of aesthetic, scientific and legal inquiry. Reconstructing the conjunction of such inquiries in a pivotal architectural episode—the rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament—reveals an important transformation in the understanding of the relationship between a city and its architectural objects. Where it once seemed possible to regard these objects (and their architects) as independent, discrete participants in the larger material and administrative domains of the city, the expanding knowledge and judgements of the atmosphere and its effects produced an entirely different perception. The city and its architectural objects were co-extensive, involuntary participants in an encompassing process of change registered by two newly recognised categories: decay and maintenance.     

Perspectives in planning history: planning and the dream of a better city in a global world – reflections on Helen Meller’s ‘Imagining Culture and the City in Planning History’

In the last decade of the nineteenth century, Bombay City was rocked by a series of events that undermined the systems of rule patched together over the course of the preceding century and triggered a crisis of the colonial ‘information order’ on which these were based. Saliently, these developments led to significant changes in the modes of colonial urban governance, in which a new planning agency played a key role. Integral to this shift was a reappraisal, on the part of the colonial state, of its mechanisms of information gathering and the growing recognition of the need for more knowledge about the swiftly expanding city and its rapidly diversifying population. The census of 1901 reflected, to a large extent, these new imperatives of colonial governance.     

“Between a Rock and a Hard Place”: Planning Reform,Localism and the Role of the Planning Inspectorate in England

Like many European countries, England saw the establishment in the late 1990s and early twenty-first century of regional-scale spatial planning. Radical reform of English planning following the Localism Act 2011 however saw the whole intermediate tier of regional planning stripped out of the national planning system along with detailed guidance and top-down targets for house-building at a local level. This had a major impact on the Planning Inspectorate, the agency responsible on behalf of government for approving local development plans. Reform left the Inspectorate fully exposed to the tensions and contradictions between top-down policy and local autonomy inherent under the new planning framework. Focussing on future levels of housing development, a key responsibility of local councils under the new framework, we examine the implications of reform for the Planning Inspectorate in practice. We draw on approaches to localism and planning theory, in particular the idea of ‘conditional localism’, in order to situate and understand these changes. The study was based on interviews with elite respondents in or close to the Planning Inspectorate together with documentary sources. Lack of previous work on the Inspectorate, coupled with their key role in the national planning system, reinforced by recent reforms, emphasises the significance of the study. The importance of such ‘land-use tribunals’ internationally, points to the study’s wider relevance. It provides, as well, a study of planning reform with relevance in a wider European context and suggests how recent contributions to the localism debate can help make sense of these changes.     

Life-course Diversity,Housing Choices and Constraints for Women of the ‘Lost’ Generation in Japan

This article explores housing choices and trajectories of women in their 30s during a period of new risks and opportunities in Japan's post-growth urban context. Due to the economic recession and the broader context of neoliberal globalization, there has been an observed delay among post-youth adults in their progression through the life-course. Many of the life-course transitions including leaving parental home, family formation and purchasing home, which used to occur earlier in people's 20s, now often occur in their 30s. Thus the 30-somethings are a transitional cohort and women in particular are more likely to experience a profound impact in the context of economic deflation and deregulation. Drawing on qualitative data obtained through fieldwork, this article examines how women's diversified life-courses are shaping their housing choices; and how their housing opportunities are shaped by the wider structures of housing markets and institutions. It explores such processes of interplay between housing choices, opportunities and constraints of the ‘lost’ generation in Japan.     

‘Race’, Deprivation and the Research Agenda: Revisiting Housing,Ethnicity and Neighbourhoods

Building on a general account of recent changes and on local case study material, this paper develops an overview of contemporary issues in the interconnected research domains of UK ethnic relations, disadvantage and housing neighbourhoods. It aims to contribute to some rethinking of ethnic disadvantage and discrimination within analytical frameworks, while looking towards more defensible research strategies. Matters referred to in our overview of change include regulatory developments, diversities within and between settled minority ethnic groups, changed patterns of in-migration, disadvantage amongst low-income white households and convergence between ethnic groups in internal socio-economic differentiation. A West Midlands case study used to complement this broad coverage provides reminders of shared problems across ethnic boundaries, and of the merits of caution when hypothesising causative links between deprivation and ethnicity in disadvantaged areas. The section ‘Towards Better Research Practice?’ discusses research approaches and priorities, suggesting that it may be useful to revisit the ‘traditional repertoire’ deployed in the UK ethnic relations and housing.     

A damage model to predict the durability of bonded assemblies – Part II: Parameter identification and preliminary results for accelerated ageing tests

A new damage model has been developed in order to predict the durability of adhesively bonded joints. This model, whose theoretical basis is outlined in a previous paper (part I), takes into account both bulk and interfacial damaging behaviours as well as their interactions. The present paper (part II) is dedicated first to describing a parametric study in which we attempted to understand the physical meaning of the model parameters and second to elaborating on an identification procedure for the theoretical parameters. Preliminary results are presented for accelerated ageing tests.