Satisfaction Levels and the Community’s Attitudes Towards Urban Renewal in Alexandra, Johannesburg

In South Africa, the spatial legacy of Apartheid has resulted in township areas that can be recognised as intense concentrations of poverty. Variations in the types of housing, often dominated by informal structures and overcrowded conditions, are characteristic of these areas. As such, they are generally perceived as areas of limited economic potential. In response to these conditions and in an attempt to alleviate the associated problems, the African National Congress government has initiated an Urban Renewal Programme in eight nodes in six urban areas in the country. Alexandra in Johannesburg is one of these nodes. The programme and service delivery in this township is a controversial issue that reached boiling point during instances of civil unrest in 2011. The renewal programme entails the demolition of housing units, the relocation of the inhabitants, as well as the expropriation of properties for redevelopment by the developers. This perception study on the success rate of the renewal programme was conducted in four sectors of Alexandra, namely East Bank, River Park, Tsutsumani and Tswe??tla, each with its own housing and socio-economic characteristics. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the Urban Renewal Programme as perceived by the inhabitants in the delivery of public services such as sanitation, water supply and electricity, and the provision of housing, health facilities, educational and recreational facilities. On the visual front, the programme appears to be meeting with success, particularly in terms of the provision of housing. The beneficiaries, however, are generally of the opinion that management and/or the government is not making enough of an effort to meet their expectations.     

Moving Beyond ‘Community’ Participation: Perceptions of Renting and the Dynamics of Participation Around Urban Development in Dar es Salaam,Tanzania

This paper employs extensive interviews to examine the ways in which perceptions of renting — on the part of renters, owners and other key actors in the development process — influenced the dynamics of participation around two recent urban development projects in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The study responds to concerns that participatory planning too frequently treats communities as homogenous and overlooks barriers to participation faced by marginalized groups, such as renters. The results show that renters were unwilling and often unable to participate due to perceptions, held by themselves and by others, of renter transience and inconsequentiality. These perceptions led to a cycle of non-participation in which policymakers gave renters' needs little attention in plans and renters were disinclined to participate in mobilization. The results suggest that barriers to renter participation could be reduced if their concerns were proactively given more weight in urban development plans.     

Conceptualizing ‘the Urban’ Through the Lens of Durban,South Africa

Contemporary urban theory raises many questions about how ‘the urban’ is being conceptualized in a fast changing world that is approaching an urban epoch. Evolving debates about what it means to be urban, including the similarities and differences between so-called northern and southern cities, the future of cities, the way to manage and sustain cities, and cities’ relationships to the new Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, reveal the need for urban theory that can explain and provide insights into contemporary urban governance, processes, and outcomes. This special issue uses Durban as a lens to provide insight into the changing nature of cities in the Global South and Africa in particular, which encapsulate and reflect both formality and informality; tradition and modernity; uneven and unequal growth and social transformation; environmental crises and ‘resilience and sustainability’. This paper reflects on the dominant processes shaping the development of the city, revealing the challenges, tensions, and opportunities that emerge as the city assembles new ways of being urban, through the rationalities, knowledge, experiences, practices and actions of the state, citizens, and the private sector.     

‘Urban entrepreneurialism’ in the Post-socialist City: Government-led Urban Development Projects in Kazan,Russia

While the dominance of urban entrepreneurialism, governance and competitiveness in Western cities has been well documented, much less is known about the drivers and mechanisms of urban development in the Russian context. This article examines the role of the local state in urban development under the conditions of post-socialist transition in the Russian Federation. The article focuses on the Special Federal Programme for the Preservation and Development of the Kazan Historic Centre (2001–2005). The study challenges the assumption of a key role of partnership between the public and the private sector. Under conditions of post-socialism, the state may have sufficient economic resources and the capacity to govern which may make the role of public–private partnership less relevant. Other findings are as follows: (i) the local authorities play a leading role in entrepreneurialism; (ii) there is a mismatch between the entrepreneurial rhetoric and reality; (iii) while the authorities in Kazan engage in ‘entrepreneurial urbanism’, the similarities with Western cities are superficial or even deceptive, due to the underlying political and economic conditions of Russian cities.     

Who is the Expert? Integrated Urban Modeling and the Reconfiguration of Expertise

Much has been spoken and written about the rationalization and optimization of services and amenities in urban territories. In this context, there is increasing use of numerical modeling techniques addressing the design, selection and/or calibration of policy instruments. The question of the relations between appraisal tools and policymaking has been widely studied. However, few studies have specifically focused on the role of modeling in policymaking processes. Drawing on two case studies, this paper suggests a change in the nature of multi-expertise: neither conflicting nor cross-sectoral, we observed in both cases an interwoven configuration with a network of experts making use of integrated models. We call this configuration distributed expertise, arguing that it is a novel configuration and that its emergence is closely linked to the development of integrated modeling techniques. Other authors have discussed the idea that the growing need for new appraisal tools is linked with the proliferation of wicked policy problems. From our case studies we would conclude that the emergence of integrated modeling is not a response to complex problems but to complex systems of actors who need to reach a consensus on actions.     

Urban renewal without displacement? Belgium’s ‘housing contract experiment’ and the risks of gentrification

Gentrification has become part and parcel of urban policies throughout the world. Critics have argued against those policies but they have not yet developed concrete and comprehensive alternatives. This paper seeks to remedy this omission by investigating the Belgian ‘housing contract’ experiment (2005–2007). Quite exceptionally, Belgium’s ‘housing contract’ experiment was based on the premise that housing policies should improve the quality of life in deprived urban neighborhoods without displacing the poor. We investigate both the philosophy of the housing contract experiment as well as its effects. On the basis of this evaluation, we sketch the contours of a housing policy that incorporates rent gap theory and counters the negative effects arising from disinvestment and gentrification.     

Sinks of Social Exclusion or Springboards for Social Mobility? Analysing the Roles of Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods in Urban Australia

For two decades analysts have noted significant and growing socio-spatial polarisation in Australia’s cities. Dominating policy discourse has been the hypothesis that residence in “poverty neighbourhoods” can compound individual disadvantage. Prominent here are concerns about social exclusion and spatial entrapment. A contrary perspective is that low income communities often contain substantial social capital and that accessing relatively affordable housing available in such places may provide a basis for subsequent “progression” in the wider urban housing market. Drawing on a household survey in four disadvantaged Sydney neighbourhoods, we confirm that rates of socio-economic deprivation indeed substantially exceed citywide and national norms and that the perceived incidence of neighbourhood problems is substantial. At the same time, results reveal that such places are far from unmitigated spaces of alienation and suggest that they can provide springboards for geographical and social mobility.     

Review of the Research on Urban Social Problems in Recent Years

In the last 10 years, China has madeconsiderable progress in urbanization withincreasing numbers of both city and urbanpopulation. This has played a positive rolein promoting the country's political, eco-nomic and cultural development. However,the process of urbanization has broughtalong new problems and contradictionswhich require theoretical exploration.Against this background, urban sociology, a     

Exploring the ‘middle ground’ between state and market: the example of China

Studies of housing systems lying in the ‘middle ground’ between state and market are subject to three important shortcomings. First, the widely used Esping-Andersen (EA) approach assesses only a subset of the key housing outcomes and may be less helpful for describing changes in housing policy regimes. Second, there is too much emphasis on tenure transitions, and an assumed close correspondence between tenure labels and effective system functioning may not be valid. Third, due attention has not been given to the spatial dimensions in which housing systems operate, in particular when housing policies have a significant devolved or localised emphasis. Updating EA’s framework, we suggest a preliminary list of housing system indicators in order to capture the nature of the housing systems being developed and devolved. We verified the applicability of this indicator system with the case of China. This illustrates clearly the need for a more nuanced and systematic basis for categorising differences and changes in welfare and housing policies.     

Reconsidering the ‘Letsema Principle’ and the Role of Community Gardens in Food Security: Evidence from Gauteng, South Africa

In the face of a dire food security challenge in South Africa, high food price spikes in 2008 revitalised a governmental emphasis on the value of urban agricultural responses, especially at the local and household level. Limited empirical evidence casts doubt on this as a suitable response. This paper fills that gap to some extent and confirms a modest impact of an urban agriculture-based programme implemented by the former Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and Environment, which established community gardens for the poorest of the poor. Prior reviews finding modest impacts elsewhere have lead to a polarised academic literature, criticism of urban agriculture as a response to food insecurity and development at large contrasts widespread advocacy. In this paper, a new insight is gleaned by opening up the implementation of ‘black box’ to reconfigure the polarised debate thus far. In one sense, the findings reiterate the potential but ambiguous and modest benefits of urban agriculture as a response to the complex food-insecurity problem due to government systems and processes. The implementation of community-based programmes, if pursued further, requires far greater institutional integration and contextual backing, especially considering a more sophisticated understanding of urban food systems. For example, the blurring between income-based and subsistence rationales within programme and policy provisions frustrate the overall success of community gardening, with implementation processes failing to achieve either. Gardens therefore fail to find a niche within wider systems of production, marketing and availability, or as safety nets and social protection. In another sense, the discussion suggests a more critical review of the continuing (misplaced) discursive biases of urban agriculture within policy and practice. This means that although there is more to be researched in terms of the ‘practice of urban agriculture’ and its implementation in specific contexts, we cannot forego critical evaluation of (discursive) policy dynamics, their institutional effects and their manifest praxis.     

How feminist is the ‘feminist capital’?

San Jose, in California's Silicon Valley, is the self-proclaimed ‘feminist capital of the United States’ and, along with Santa Clara County, has a female majority on its council. This article describes the rise of San Jose's women to positions of power and their impact on public policy.     

‘Every Tenant Matters’? The New Governance of Social Housing in England

This paper begins by considering the series of reviews of aspects of housing policy carried out by the Westminster government between 2004 and 2007. It then moves on to describe and evaluate the legislative changes derived from those reviews in the form of the Housing and Regeneration Act, 2008. Responsibility for funding social housing was separated from the regulatory role, after more than 30 years during which they had been combined within the Housing Corporation. The changes were intended to introduce and promote a new culture, on the one hand encouraging wider involvement of private, profit-seeking organisations in the production and management of social housing. On the other hand, the expressed intention was to develop a more consumer oriented approach to the regulation of social housing. The paper concludes by asking whether the Act marks a new era for social housing in England.     

What’s in a (Migrant) House? Changing Domestic Spaces,the Negotiation of Belonging and Home-making in Ecuadorian Migration

Migrants’ constructions of their domestic spaces, and their struggle to feel at home in both receiving and sending societies, are an emerging focus of research in migration studies. Housing issues are also a privileged observatory on their transnational social engagement, as well as on the changing boundaries of their membership and belonging. This article addresses the everyday bases of their home-making and house-building practices, drawing on a multi-sited ethnography of Ecuadorian migration to Italy. What can be inferred from the ways in which migrants inhabit their houses “here”, while typically investing in better housing arrangements “there”, as to their alignment towards either society? What do their housing-related practises suggest about the potential to feel locally and transnationally at home, given the structural constraints they are subject to? By tracing the meanings, enactments and locations of migrants’ home, I aim to advance the debate on home and migration in two respects: the persistent materiality which underlies the home experience, and the significance of migrants’ houses, particularly in sending societies, as a window on the mixed social consequences of migration.     

‘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.     

An examination of the ‘rule of law’ and ‘justice’ implications in Online Dispute Resolution in construction projects

This paper examines the ‘rule of law’ and ‘justice’ implications of using Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platforms as technology-mediated interfaces for small claim dispute resolution in construction projects. Data is obtained from a questionnaire survey of construction stakeholders, administered using direct non-random sampling of professional contacts with the authors. Data is analysed using SAS 9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC) on a Windows 7 platform. Surprisingly, study findings do not suggest any ‘rule of law’ and ‘justice’ implications for small claim ODR. Tentatively, this conclusion supports wider use of ODR. The originality of the study is that although there is considerable academic and practitioner interest in various alternative forms of dispute resolution (ADR), both practitioner use and academic study of ODR remain sparse. Thus, this study serves as a foundation for further empirical exploration of ODR as a nascent component of ADR.     

‘This is not the jungle,this is my barbecho’: semantics of ethnoecological landscape categories in the Bolivian Amazon

Through a case study with Spanish-speaking Takana indigenous people in the Bolivian Amazon, we explored ethnoecological landscape categories, including their ecological underpinnings, cultural significance and hierarchical organisation. Using field walks and interviews with consultants, we elicited 156 ethnoecological landscape categories, 60 of which related to vegetation types. However, sorting exercises with landscape photographs revealed that vegetation was not a guiding organisation principle. Takana consultants organised ethnoecological landscape categories into geographical regions that contained different landscape features, including vegetation units, topographical or hydrological features. Comparing the documented ethnoecological landscape categorisation with a published scientific botanical classification of vegetation units, we observed some important conceptual differences, which in turn have implications for the management of such landscapes.