Ghettoization or gentrification? Post-socialist scenarios for Budapest

During the communist period, the guarantee of cheap housing and job security constituted the cornerstone of the communist welfare state in East European countries. But a decreasing social security and an increasing social polarization were the outcome of the 1989/90 transition. This paper highlights some of the effects of the political and economic transformation on urban societies in Eastern Europe, using Budapest as a case study. The emerging social inequalities are discussed in detail, along with the growing concentration of poverty. These processes have also had direct impacts on the social differentiation of urban neighbourhoods, creating new dimensions of urban segregation. In this respect, Budapest represents a unique case among East European cities, containing a considerable number of people belonging to the Gypsy population. Presently, we can observe very upward and down-ward processes in different inner-city neighbourhoods of Budapest. Some areas show clear signs of ghettoization, while others are clearly moving in an upward direction in terms of income and social status. Zoltán Kovács is a senior research fellow at the Geographical Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and reader in geography at the University of Budapest. He is specialized in urban and political geography. His major field of interest includes the social and political consequences of post-communist transition and the transformation of East European cities with special attention to the transformation of the housing market.     

从北京、上海、广州等大城市的形态改变过程看中国城市形态、结构的转变

城市和经济的快速发展正在改变着中国城市基本的自然形态和结构。在城市发展过程中,能折射出国家动态的经济、社会和政策条件的新的模式正逐渐取代了由浓厚的意识形态所形成的带有鉴别性的模式。这篇论文提供了北京、上海和广州等大城市形态转变的模式和过程的分析。对于快速变化的城市,分析主要集中在两点:城市发展中区域的变化;在发展和形式上出现共同的趋势。文章重点谈了土地使用的专业化、交通循环和建筑的高度、规划的过程、城市的更新及房地产市场的私有化等问题。     

Cosmopolitanism, geographical imaginaries and belonging in North London

Cosmopolitanism has been described as the cultural habitus of globalisation. It is therefore, albeit defined somewhat loosely, often associated with ethnically diverse, global cities. This paper considers the extent to which London engenders cosmopolitan values amongst its residents. It draws on survey data from the LOCAL MULTIDEM study of minorities' political participation to address these themes. The analysis examines perceptions of respect, belonging and geographical imaginaries - amongst established minorities and the ethnic majority - in north London. It is argued that cosmopolitan ethics are transformative and dialectical and, critically, cannot remain the preserve of the privileged in multi-ethnic neighbourhoods. The analysis presented demonstrates that a sense of belonging and cosmopolitan imaginaries are not evenly accessed by different ethnic groups; notably, that Bangladeshi Londoners who are born and bred in the city are less likely to appropriate these discourses than Caribbean, Indian or White residents.     

Perceptions of Neighbourhood Disorder and Reputation: Qualitative Findings from Two Contrasting Areas of an Australian City

Within Australian cities, social and economic inequalities manifest themselves spatially. Perceived neighbourhood disorder and neighbourhood reputation are relevant to considering the ways in which social and economic inequalities translate into place-based inequalities. This article explores the ways in which residents of two socio-economically contrasting urban areas describe and explain neighbourhood disorder and neighbourhood reputation. It draws upon qualitative data from 40 in-depth interviews, in addition to quantitative data from a postal survey. The qualitative findings highlighted how issues of neighbourhood disorder and reputation were intertwined. In both areas, participants sought to portray themselves and their neighbourhoods in positive ways, by attributing responsibility for neighbourhood disorder to people who were unlike themselves, and by highlighting places that were perceived to have worse reputations and higher levels of disorder. The findings are considered in light of Bourdieu's theory of capitals. This article indicates that both neighbourhood disorder and reputation are pathways through which social, economic and health inequities are maintained in urban areas.     

Housing Market Renewal in Liverpool: Locating the Gentrification Debate in History,Context and Evidence

This paper places the Housing Market Renewal programme in Liverpool in its historical context, highlighting a mismatch between the supply and demand for housing which has existed for four decades. This disequilibrium produced an environment where successive waves of neighbourhood abandonment occurred from the late 1970s despite significant public policy interventions. The implementation of the Housing Market Renewal programme has stimulated a debate about the extent to which the public sector interventions are leading to the gentrification of poor neighbourhoods. The paper finds that there is no evidence of gentrification in older neighbourhoods, however, inflows of capital rather than middle-class residents have altered the physical development of the city to an extent that the housing choices of all income groups have been affected. The paper concludes that critical gentrification research should take account of historical development and wider housing market change to remain relevant to the debate about the changing social and economic structure of cities.     

《弹性城市——应对石油紧缺与气候变化》与我国城市发展模式选择

本文介绍了《弹性城市——应对石油紧缺与气候变化》一书中所提出的四种城市模型,并针对城市如何应对能源短缺和全球变暖等危机和问题讨论了弹性城市的要素。与此同时根据本文作者的译后感,对“弹性城市”这一概念作了新的诠释。最后,结合我国国情和中国的城市发展现状与特点,论述了《弹性城市——应对石油紧缺与气候变化》一书对我国城市发展的借鉴意义,并阐述了弹性城市发展战略的必要性和重要性。     

中国城市增长的类型及影响因素:基于人口和经济增长同步性的讨论

人口和经济的增长是城市增长最重要的两个方面。在城市的不同发展阶段,人口和经济的增长并不总是同步的,其增长的相对差异会体现为不同的城市增长型式。以中国地级及地级以上城市为研究对象,基于人口-经济增长的同步性划分中国城市的增长类型,并分析不同类型城市的增长特征及影响因素。研究发现,不同增长类型的城市反映了不同发展阶段的城市发展特征。城市发展初期,以显著的经济增长为特征,工业发展和地方专业化是城市经济增长的核心,而随着城市规模扩大,劳动生产率的提升不断吸引人口迁入和增长,人口和经济增长逐步实现良性互动,城市增长的正反馈机制形成。当城市达到较大规模时,城市经济的驱动逐步由工业转向服务业,城市经济转型,从生产型城市向消费型城市转变,经济的多样化和地方品质的提升成为驱动城市增长的核心。基于人口一经济增长同步性划分的城市增长类型有助于理解我国城市增长的路径,不同增长类型的城市应根据自身所处的发展阶段制定差异化的发展策略。     

城市转型规划与机制：国际经验思考

本文从城市转型的背景出发,将转型城市分为全球城市和工业城市两类。通过梳理作为全球城市代表案例的东京、伦敦和纽约,作为工业城市代表案例的曼彻斯特、匹兹堡、多特蒙德和埃森,文章剖析了两类城市经济结构、社会结构和空间结构的转型特点。文章进而分析了案例城市在转型中的功能定位、空间规划和实施策略,并总结了规划在城市转型中的作用。     

Rethinking cities in the Middle East: political economy, planning, and the lived space

Urbanisation is an economic, political, and socio-cultural complexity, and so is its interaction with cityscapes. However, this truism rarely finds an expression in academic research. It is obvious that economic transitions would determine the quality and volume of the built environment. Municipal and state decision making further shape the nature of urban spaces, and socio-cultural transformations influence perceived notions of the lived space and, in turn, reshape the physical landscape itself. Nevertheless, research on cities in the Middle East and elsewhere remains fairly limited in scope, with little cross-discipline 'conversation' among scholars in different fields which attempts to account for such complexity. This is all the more surprising as life in cities has become, over the past half century or so, the most significant form of human collective dwelling; in the Middle East over half the population currently lives in urban settings and the numbers are forecast to grow in the future.1

This review article is the result of a dialogue between an architect and an economic historian in response to the foregoing. We have united in an attempt to offer a more integrative approach to Middle East urbanism, accounting for the interactions of the political economy of this region, planning, and the lived space. The key questions on which we focus are why and how do state transformation and economic structural change impact upon urban space. In seeking the answers we examine the long-term trajectory of cities as they went through the first period of globalisation under imperial intervention and/or direct colonial rule; gradually came under independent, inward-looking, national regimes; and presently experience the second wave of globalisation and the opening of local economies to international markets. Such a narrative explores common themes in the historical trajectories of cities' lives.

Our long-term, geographically extensive overview (Map 1) is bound to miss some specific developments that have made a significant impact on the transformations of cities in the region; our aim is not to totalise Middle East experiences and reduce a variety of narratives to a simplistic linear model of change. Even more so, our study of the Middle East is mostly focused on Egypt, the Asian Arab countries (the mashraq), Israel/Palestine, and Turkey, the geographical unit which roughly corresponded with the Ottoman Empire, the last state to control the Middle East before the age of nations. We acknowledge that any bird's eye view perspective is bound to do some injustice to historically specific contexts, and city transitions that occurred in such contexts. We would welcome any future work that brings our suggestion here, namely to integrate political economy with the study of urban development and city life, to bear on more specific research on urbanism in the Middle East.     

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.     

广州城中村改造的问题和改造可行性模式研究

分析了“城中村”的浅层涵义及其本质,认为“城中村”已经演化为“为城市流动人口提供廉租房的低收入社区”,仅考虑村民的改造措施是不妥当的。本文对“城中村”改造过程中遇到的政策和现实问题进行了剖析,认为政府主导的“城中村”改造目的应当是不谋“城中村”的区位利益,只为身为弱势群体的低收入流动人口的居住质量谋福利。在此基础上,“自我原位塑造”,即“在原有区位上由村民或村集体改造自身”是可行的模式。     

Argentina: a mature urbanization pattern.

"This article describes the historical development of Argentina's cities, pointing out the traditional dominance of the 'centre-litoral' region and...[of] Buenos Aires. Recent trends such as the population increase in the southern region are described and demographic trends are related to economic developments. The article concludes by examining Argentina's contemporary urban patterns, including the current low rate of urbanization."     

The forest and the city: interpretative mapping as an aid to urban practice in sub-Saharan Africa

Many African cities remain predatory centres of consumption lacking the infrastructure that makes cities work elsewhere. Research in Freetown, Sierra Leone, indicates that latent, local topographical and institutional resources can strengthen civic infrastructure in the process of place-making and thereby build confidence in city scale institutions. The paper asks what part cultural memory, embedded in the forested topography, contributed to the foundation and resilience of three urban settlements and whether this contribution can be sustained in the face of urban infrastructure developments such as rapidly expanding road networks. It describes how place-based resources are used by local residents to mediate the impact of city-scale initiatives. However, they are fragile, hidden from a wider view and often ignored by city-scale practitioners. The paper concludes that in order to provoke a more fine-grained debate about civic infrastructure provision, urban practitioners should employ local survey and interpretive drawing techniques to explore place-based memory in support of a more inclusive and interconnected, non-predatory African city.     

Recent urban development and gentrification in post-Dayton Sarajevo,Bosnia and Herzegovina

It is just over two decades since Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, emerged from a bloody war that included a three-year siege of the city, killing thousands of its citizens, forcing many more to flee the city and inflicted major damage to buildings and infrastructure. This paper focuses on the ongoing redevelopment of the city under the unusual circumstances provided by governance arrangements imposed under the Dayton Peace Agreement of 1995. It builds on earlier overviews of the city's development provided by Gül and Dee (Cities, 43) and Aquilué and Roca (Cities, 58), by focusing on the consequences of the interplay between a weak urban planning system, the post-socialist transition towards a market economy, economic stagnation and globalizing forces. It notes that some broad characteristics of the new developments are shared with other east European cities following the demise of socialism post-1989, but there are also changes reflecting the impact of specific circumstances prevailing since the war. Many of the most recent new developments are the product of foreign investment, in part linked to post-war reconstruction and redevelopment, but also to the growth of international tourism which is increasingly affecting the housing market and ‘gentrifying’ some areas. New hotel and retail complexes around the old city center are increasing housing rentals, driving young people towards outlying suburbs, and contributing to housing shortages. These recent population movements are mapped and further analyzed to reveal the city's distinctive evolving character.     

Comment

Florida has argued that, for innovation to thrive, urban places must stimulate those engaged in creative work. This article reviews the idea of the creative class, what attracts it and responses to Florida's propositions. It places the idea in the context of recent thought on economic development, historically creative and innovative cities, economic and technological history and renaissance ideas of science, civic life and city design. It considers the corporate status of American cities and concludes by proposing that suburban and urban places require stronger interconnection because the management of Coasean transaction costs is shifting from firms to the urban place.     

Bern's positioning strategies: Escaping the fate of a secondary capital city?

Bern is a classic example of a so-called secondary capital city, which is defined as a capital city that is not the primary economic center of its nation. Such capital cities feature a specific political economy characterized by a strong government presence in its regional economy and its local governance arrangements. Bern has been losing importance in the Swiss urban system over the past decades due to a stagnating economy, population decline and missed opportunities for regional cooperation. To re-position itself in the Swiss urban hierarchy, political leaders and policymakers established a non-profit organization called “Capital Region Switzerland” in 2010 arguing that a capital city should not be measured by economic success only, but by its function as a political center where political decisions are negotiated and implemented. This city profile analyses Bern's strategy and discusses its ambitions and limitations in the context of the city's history, socio-economic and political conditions. We conclude that Bern's positioning strategy has so far been a political success, yet that there are severe limitations regarding advancing economic development. As a result, this re-positioning strategy is not able to address the fundamental economic development challenges that Bern faces as a secondary capital city.     

Manufacturing Industrial Decline: The Politics of Economic Change in Chicago, 1955–1998

Contemporary urban political economy emphasizes the role of structural factors in explaining the deindustrialization of cities in the post‐World War II era. Urban economic restructuring, by most accounts, has left city officials with few choices other than to pursue corporate‐centered economic development strategies emphasizing downtown‐area commercial and residential growth. In Chicago, however, a corporate‐center redevelopment strategy advanced by a coalition of downtown business leaders competed with a production‐oriented strategy articulated by a coalition of neighborhood organizations, manufacturers, and labor. Centrally located industrial districts facing gentrification pressures became contested terrain, and manufacturers ultimately benefited from protective measures put in place by a sympathetic administration. This essay argues that urban economic restructuring is open‐ended and politically contested. It concludes that a fuller appreciation of the contingency of urban economic development would help uncover viable regime types featuring governing coalitions that include both community‐based organizations and neighborhood business establishments.     

Facets of housing and housing policies in Belgium

It seems that many Belgian cities are doing well. Their population is increasing, numerous urban projects are under way, and masses of construction sites testify to effective realisations. And the inner cities are swamped with tourists and visitors attracted by the historical monuments and leisure activities. Is the 21st century indeed becoming the era of the city, as a White Book on urban policies predicts? Or is some modification of that prediction necessary? It would seem so, since the population growth is due to people coming from abroad (family reunification or formation; asylum-seekers), while at the same time the natives—as they have done since the 1960s—keep on leaving the city. So sub- and de-urbanisation has not stopped. There are even indications that it is accelerating again. In this contribution we consider why sub- and de-urbanisation, why sprawl is so obstinate, so persistent. We look at the structures behind the Belgian sprawl, seeing them as the consequence of a longstanding dialectical process of political choices and actions, cultural convictions and economic possibilities that reinforced each other in daily practice over and over again in the dominant direction.     

City profile: Guwahati

Guwahati, which enjoyed a strategic position throughout history due to its geographical location along the mighty Brahmaputra River and its defensive topography, has an ancient tradition of urbanisation. The city saw its periods of growth and decline from being an important cultural, religious, economic and political centre to mere a war site. It was rebuilt during the colonial period and within a century, grew from a swampy settlement of 12,000 people (1911) into a vast urban agglomeration of nearly 1.26 million population (2011). Today, while this ancient “City of Eastern Light” has regained its importance as an urban centre, intense growth has led to physical, social and environmental vulnerabilities regardless of numerous planned efforts engaged in city building including adoption of city Master Plans since 1960s. Despite this, Guwahati has been the focus of little research in terms of its morphology depicting both, historic planning paradigms and modern urban visioning to reflect the city's ongoing story. Based on secondary data, this city profile, narrates the growth and morphological evolution of Guwahati from mythology to modern period. It then critically examines the city in its present form and concludes that a convergence between emergence and planning may be a necessary renaissance for Guwahati as it seeks to transform itself into one of the most admired, smart and sustainable cities in India. The theoretical narration is supported with strong visual atlas which provides an empirical strength to this profile.     

Auckland: Rescaled governance and post-suburban politics

The nature and politics of urban development in Auckland have undergone rapid transformation following amalgamation of eight separate authorities in 2010. Institutions governing metropolitan planning and infrastructure provision were rescaled to form the Auckland ‘Super City’ Council in 2010, with an ambitious vision to become the world's most liveable city and ongoing political contestation between the local and central government. Amalgamation of Auckland's governance was conceived and imposed by the central government as part of a broader economic strategy for “competitive cities”. However, Auckland Council's first strategic plan adopted a contrasting agenda, centred around the goal of “liveability”. Auckland's recent developments illustrate the challenges of a distinctly post-suburban polity. The majority of employment is located in suburban areas and the city has variegated and overlapping patterns in spatial form generated through inconsistent infrastructure interventions across local and national authorities. Conflicting urban policy agenda at national and local scales shows a tension between the pursuit of economic development and provision for collective needs. The politics of post-suburban development create specific challenges for Auckland's governance. Liveability and economic competitiveness are treated as complementary terms in political rhetoric, however trade-offs emerge at a smaller spatial scales. Public concern over housing affordability and risks to the financial stability of New Zealand's economy have led to central government intervention and renegotiation of authority between different tiers of government for land use and infrastructure provision. Auckland's position as New Zealand's largest city and economic centre frequently blurs the distinction between issues of local and national significance. Auckland's governance challenges are not unique, however the current tensions are exacerbated by its dominance in a small and geographically-isolated nation.