Communities making social change from below. Social innovation and democratic leadership in two disenfranchised neighbourhoods in Barcelona

Drawing upon 4 initiatives of social innovation embedded in two disenfranchised neighbourhoods: Nou Barris Nord and Sants in Barcelona (Spain), we illustrate different ways in which bottom-up processes can contribute to neighbourhood resilience. The paper explores the nature of social change by bringing together systemic approaches to social innovation and relational theories of collective leadership. In this vein, it is argued that both contextual neighbourhood features and collective leadership practices dialectically explain not only how and why social innovation initiatives emerge but also their social impact in terms of effectiveness and scalability.     

Assembling an innovative social housing project in Melbourne: mapping the potential for social innovation

Abstract

In Australia, echoing trends in the UK, US and Canada, provision of social housing has transitioned from government-led mechanisms to an increasing focus on partnerships between private developers, government and the not-for-profit sector. In this context, social housing is often achieved via the ‘cobbling together’ of necessary resources over time. This article focuses on an innovative social housing project in the inner west of Melbourne, Australia, that involves the modular construction of 57 transportable dwellings located on government-owned land. I apply a theoretical framework that combines insights from social innovation literature and assemblage to understand the process of assembling a pilot project and to chart how the project may be scaled up or scaled out to challenge the system in which homelessness occurs. The research highlights the role of community housing providers as ‘pivot points’ in the social housing sector and acknowledges the importance of credibility, funding, legislative change and construction innovation in scaling housing social innovations.     

Design processes in collective innovation communities: a study of communication

Despite the growing importance of collective intelligence, little is known about the design processes that lead to effective social innovation. A study of communication describes design process visualisations from three sites for collective innovation, in terms of their ability to structure and present design tasks and to situate design communication within the context of these tasks. Empirical data on design communication provide the basis for protocol studies on three project forums from a website for social product design. Mechanisms were identified which describe ways in which collective innovation produces successful solutions shaped by community input: (1) structuring design as a hybrid process, which combines online communities for design development and appointed experts or inbuilt system features for technical and organisational aspects; (2) providing distinct roles for users to assume and manageable tasks for them to perform; (3) clarifying task requirements; and (4) supporting social communication to strengthen the impact of ideas, with particular focus on the social processes of ideation and evaluation. A framework is defined for structuring and understanding the management of collective innovation processes and the roles of participants. These findings have significant practical and theoretical implications for social innovation.     

Hybridity in the housing sector: examining impacts on social and private rented sector tenants in Scotland

Abstract

Housing Associations in many countries exhibit increasing levels of ‘hybridity’, as reductions in state financing for social housing, exacerbated by austerity policies since the 2008 crash, have instigated ‘enterprising’ approaches to maintaining income. Alongside this, hybrid organisations have emerged in the Private Rented Sector (PRS), responding to sectoral growth and consequent increases in vulnerable households entering private renting. These developing hybridities have been considered at a strategic level, but there has been little exploration of the impacts on tenants. This article examines two organisations, operating across the social and private rented sectors, to elucidate potential implications for tenants. The research suggests that different forms of hybridity can affect tenant outcomes and, moreover, that examining such impacts is important in understanding hybridity itself. Furthermore, the study suggests that emerging forms of hybridity, particularly in the PRS, may be blurring the boundaries between housing sectors, with implications for policy and research.     

The Limits of Housing Investment as a Neighborhood Revitalization Tool: Crime in New York City

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Local residents often oppose place-based affordable housing on the grounds that such housing will increase crime and decrease property values. New York City has actually used affordable housing investment as a neighborhood revitalization tool, leading to a positive impact on neighborhood property values. Households in distressed neighborhoods consistently cite crime as a problem, but we know little about the impact of housing investments on crime. Using a unique set of point-specific data on affordable housing and crime locations between 2002 and 2008 in New York City, I estimate a set of regression models to identify the effect that affordable housing investments have on crime on the block where they are situated. I find little evidence that affordable housing investments either reduce or increase crime on New York City blocks, suggesting there are limits to the revitalization effects of these subsidies and that crime fears about subsidized housing are unwarranted.

Takeaway for practice: Cities with tight rental markets such as New York should continue to invest in affordable housing construction. However, these cities need to find ways to expand housing options in higher-income, less-distressed neighborhoods, or they risk exacerbating concentrated poverty and further subjecting low-income households to unsafe living environments.     

Reasoning behind choices: rationality and social norms in the housing market behaviour of first-time buyers in the Czech Republic

The main objective of this paper is to draw attention to the influence of social norms on housing market behaviour. The research is based on an in-depth qualitative study of first-time buyers in the Czech Republic. We found systemic deviations from economically rational behaviour (as defined by mainstream housing economic theory) that stem from the influence of a dominant housing social norm about what constitutes the ‘right’ housing tenure. We show how the influence of a social norm constrains financial, pragmatic, utility- or investment-based considerations of Czech home-buyers. Sociology can thus significantly contribute to recent econometric research about sources of housing market instability.     

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.     

Homo Economicus in a Big Society: Understanding Middle-class Activism and NIMBYism towards New Housing Developments

Abstract

Problems of housing supply and affordability in England have long been recognized by policy-makers. A key barrier to supply is seen to be community activism by so-called not-in-my-back-yard activists (NIMBYs). The localism policy agenda, or devolving decision-making down to the local level, is central to how the UK coalition government seek to overcome this opposition. This conceives NIMBYism as a demonstration of homo economicus – of the rationality of economic beings seeking to maximize their utility. In this view, residents would not accept large urban extensions in suburban areas because they took on localized costs with no obvious benefits, unless incentivised appropriately. In this paper, we use analysis of British Social Attitudes Survey data as well as the results of the first review of middle-class activism in relation to public services to identify the likelihood of residents being incentivized by this version of localism to accept new housing. We conclude that the evidence on the individual and collective attitudes suggests that it is unlikely that localism will deliver new housing. Importantly, the political power of affluent and professional groups means they can ensure that their opposition is heard, particularly in the neighbourhood plans delivered through localism. The paper argues that planning for housing needs to understand communities as homo democraticus – as actively engaged in negotiating between complex interests with respect to support for new housing.     

Affordable Housing Plans in London and New York: Between Marketplace and Social Mix

The article reviews and critically analyzes contemporary housing policies and plans in London and New York in the context of neoliberal urban governance. In both cities, we find severe housing affordability problems, an increasing dependence on market provision of affordable housing, and a gradual shift from supporting low- and moderate-income residents to promoting housing for households around and above the median income. Affordable housing plans in both cities also link their “marketplace” orientation to “social mix” objectives. The article addresses some socio-spatial implications of these plans and raises concerns regarding the implementation and unintended consequences of mixed-income housing. The conclusion discusses ideas and tools for more equitable affordable housing policies. Finally, we suggest that our analysis of the policy trends in London and New York and the implications we draw may be relevant to other global and globalizing cities, which face similar affordability concerns and rely on the marketplace to address housing needs.     

'Changing the mix': contestation surrounding the public housing stock transfer process in Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania

This article presents the findings of a study examining the rationale and practices of stock transfer from state housing authorities to community housing associations in three Australian states--Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania. It begins with an analysis of the policy context that has informed debates about housing management and supply options in Australia. The main section of the article draws on written documentation and interviews with policy actors and tenants in each of the case studies to highlight the conflicts and tensions that surface in moves to reconfigure the management of public housing. Alongside a brief discussion about the policy themes that emerge from the findings, it is suggested in the conclusion that the continuing contestation and uncertainty about the stock transfer process is symptomatic of the national 'policy vacuum' about the future direction of public housing in Australia.     

人文社区绿色之城——济南田园新城规划

济南田园新城是面向普通收入群体开发建设的大型居住社区,文章基于居住群体需求以及大型住区特性,反思传统住区规划建设模式和现实问题,提出居住区规划应融入社区规划理念,充分考虑社会性,强调住区持久发展活力,倡导大型住区的开放性和复合化,创新规划设计手段,创造繁荣、宜居、可持续的人文绿色社区。     

A comparison of tenurial change and privatization in two Garden City communities: Sunnyside Gardens,New York City and Garbatella,Rome

The paper problematizes public housing privatization. It compares the trajectory of tenure change in two garden communities – Garbatella, Rome and Sunnyside Gardens, New York City – which privileged public and private ownership, respectively. The cases are currently dealing with tenure change. Sunnyside experienced the enclosure of gardens and citizens’ attempt to reclaim what was held in common in order to bring back the communal spaces. Garbatella is a place where growth over time of rights, powers, immunities, and privileges is manifested in long-lasting processes of appropriation of public housing goods. Despite their different stories, Sunnyside helps to problematize the process of public housing privatization in Garbatella which is further complicated by tenure complexity, State-induced rent gap and institutional displacement. The analysis of tenure change, done by using the ‘incidents of ownership’ notion developed by Marcuse, contributes to the understanding of what public housing privatization means in social and spatial terms. Housing privatization leads to an erosion of the in-between space where individual and collective aspiration meet as a precondition for the reproduction of what is held in common: spatial goods such as open spaces and housing – a fundamental aspect of our citizenship.     

Congestion pricing: the political viability of a neoliberal spatial mobility proposal in London,Stockholm, and New York City

This article examines the debates and contradictions that surrounded the promotion of congestion pricing proposals in London, Stockholm, and New York City. On the one hand, congestion pricing is a neoliberal urban proposal that seeks to reduce motor traffic in a cordoned area by pricing out certain drivers. On the other hand, the political authorities believe that the success of congestion pricing proposals depends on the degree of redistributive elements regarding spatial mobility that are built into them. Redistribution in the form of improved mass transit provision was proposed in all three cities and was implemented in Stockholm and London. The problem with this political gesture is that neoliberals are lukewarm to redistributive politics and consider spatial mobility to be a matter of capacity and not a right. This means that neoliberal political parties because of their skepticism of redistributive politics, have more difficulties in imposing congestion pricing schemes than Left Parties. The congestion pricing proposal of the New York City failed because it was proposed by a neoliberal city administration without a credible redistributive spatial mobility plan.     

Architecture as Model and Standard: Modern Liberalism and Tenement House Reform in New York City at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

This paper explores the role of architecture as a catalyst for housing policy through analysis of the Tenement House Exhibition held in New York City in 1900. Organized by the progressive Charity Organization Society, this exhibition exposes the terms in which Americans addressed the problem of urban housing at the turn of the twentieth century. According to its organizers, a professionalized state apparatus, including a regulated rental market, would reform the sanitation problems endemic to the tenement typology while allowing it to continue as a profitable entity. This approach to housing reform reflects the “modern” liberal philosophy of the progressive movement and was intended to preserve the existing social and economic order. The paper explores the role of architecture in this reform movement, as both a model and a standard.     

面向绿色基础设施的城市信息学：纽约市行道树数据收集、分析与公众科学的综合研究

越来越多的时空数据使得对复杂的城市系统进行细致深入的调查研究成为可能。尽管已有对城市环境中人居活动的时空特征的充分调查研究,但城市景观的时空复杂性仍未得到充分探索。介绍了纽约市行道树普查项目的起因、经过和其产生的影响,包括数据收集、整合和分析的方法,以及公众科学将城市管理与社区参与联系起来的多种途径。针对当前技术存在的局限,提出一种人工主导、计算机执行的,可应用于城市林业数据收集和信息管理的集成方法。并借鉴美国纽约及其他城市的相关经验,对当前中国城市林业的发展状况进行了研究。这种人机结合的数据采集方法,对实现城市中自然、科技和人的紧密联系具有重要意义和价值。