From Local to Global: One Hundred Years of Neighborhood Planning

Problem: Over the past 100 years, city planners have used neighborhood planning to address a variety of vexing social problems such as community disintegration, economic marginalization, and environmental degradation. To date, there has been no comprehensive review and critique of these planning initiatives and how they have influenced the profession.

Purpose: This article traces the history of neighborhood planning in the United States to learn from past experience and to identify its contributions to the planning profession.

Methods: I review the literature on the various forms of neighborhood planning, which I define as planning initiatives that focus on altering the physical environment of one or more neighborhoods in pursuit of larger social objectives.

Results and conclusions: Each of the six forms of neighborhood planning discussed in this article has made important contributions to the planning profession. Perry's neighborhood unit formula provided planners with a template for good neighborhood design and introduced the idea that neighborhood design could affect the sense of community. Urban renewal taught the profession about the limits of physical solutions to social problems, the precious nature of neighborhood social networks and the importance of involving citizens. The community action programs created a new norm for citizen participation and showed its limits, as well as introducing truly comprehensive redevelopment planning. Community economic development showed that some planning and implementation activities can be successfully delegated to community-based organizations. Municipal neighborhood planning provided a mechanism for ongoing citizen involvement. The most recent forms of neighborhood planning create neighborhoods that encourage walking, use of mass transit, social interaction, and a sense of community.

Takeaway for practice: Neighborhood planning programs have made a number of important contributions to the planning profession, including focusing attention on how neighborhood design influences urban livability and social behaviors, institutionalizing citizen participation in plan making, and going beyond physical development to address social, economic, political, and environmental issues. Neighborhood planning is currently more important than ever, as it now addresses global issues such as energy conservation and greenhouse gas emissions in addition to its historic focus on social equity issues such as poverty and social alienation.

Research support: None.     

Deciphering the meaning and mechanism of migrants' and locals' neighborhood attachment in Chinese cities: Evidence from Guangzhou

The rising fluidity of the society in contemporary China has led to a restructuring of people's cognition and emotion toward their place of residence. Although a growing body of literature has attempted to identify place-based factors that influence residents' attachment to their neighborhoods in Chinese large cities, little effort has been devoted to unraveling the migrant-local distinction regarding the meaning and mechanism of neighborhood attachment. Using both questionnaire survey data and in-depth interview data collected in 23 neighborhoods of Guangzhou, China, this paper aims to explore the meaning and mechanism of neighborhood attachment through the combination of both structure equation modelling and qualitative analysis. The novelties of this study relate to the focus of migrant-local distinction and to the breakdown of place attachment into its social and functional dimensions. Results from structure equation modelling show that local residents have stronger attachment to their neighborhoods than migrants. Migrants' neighborhood attachment is more related to its social dimension, as measured by social contact and social trust, and locals' neighborhood attachment is more linked to its functional dimension, as measured by satisfaction with living environment of the neighborhood. This paper enhances our understanding of the nature of place attachment by taking into account the effects of institutional constraints and migration experiences.     

Use of parks by older persons and perceived health benefits: A developing country context

This paper seeks to contribute to the growing literature on how neighborhood amenities such as parks relate with active ageing. It draws attention to this relationship in the context of developing country - India where with changing demographics, population ageing is emerging as a major challenge. It builds on empirical evidences from a neighborhood park in the city of Pune - a metropolis of 3.5 million people in western India. Employing a mixed research approach, the paper explains how a neighborhood park plays a significant role in promoting healthy living among older persons by offering various perceived health benefits. Although various physical characteristics of park encourage physical activities, it is found that social connections such as groups formed in the park encourage regular participation in physical activities and thereby provide psychological health benefits and social support for older users. The paper argues for considering the important role of parks in fostering social participation critical for active ageing while designing cities that are friendly and supportive to ageing populations.     

Coupling urban regeneration with age-friendliness: Neighborhood regeneration in Jangsu Village,Seoul

This paper examines a neighborhood regeneration effort in Jangsu Village, Seoul, through which residents strived to continue living in the area on the verge of wholesale renewal. In Seoul, a large-scale urban development and/or regeneration has shaped urban fabric since the 1960s, while the recent phenomenon of rapid aging has led to a sudden demographic shift. Jangsu is a low-income, dilapidated neighborhood in the center of Seoul where many inhabitants are aging long-term squatters. Therefore, this research provides a glimpse into how older inhabitants with fewer resources are able to continue living in their neighborhood in a gentrifying city undergoing rapid spatial, socio-economic and population changes. The paper demonstrates how neighborhood social capital has fostered multi-stakeholder collaboration and the participation of older residents in the area's regeneration, enabling residents to continue living there and improving living conditions by repairing and reusing existing buildings. Thereby, this paper highlights: (1) neighborliness as a significant dimension in making age-friendly cities and, (2) the notion that age-friendliness might serve as an urban regeneration framework, emphasizing stable and affordable residency as well as progressive transformation.     

Architectural and personal influences on neighboring behaviors

Architectural and personal influences on neighboring behaviors were studied in a residential neighborhood using both qualitative informal conversations, and systematic recording of activity in the neighborhood's social space. This dual approach produced new insights into neighboring behaviors and social networks. It was discovered that the residents who participated in the social space were only a portion of the resident population. There was an additional neighborhood-based network whose neighboring was not conducted in the social space; instead it was maintained by direct house-to-house contact. It was also found that some individuals chose not to participate in any neighborhood social network. The social space was an effective neighboring venue for those residents who chose to use it, but did not attract commingling of groups. Contrary to an assumption in previous neighboring research, there are social groups which develop and maintain themselves without participation in a social space.     

从环境设计中营造居住区内的邻里关系

阐述了居住环境的社会功能，介绍了从环境设计中营造居住区内的邻里关系的方法，根据邻里关系的产生，提出应通过环境艺术设计去营造居住区内的邻里关系。     

关于保障性住房设计的思考——以上海地区为例

以上海地区为例,分析了目前保障性住房设计中的难点,从选址、小区规划、建筑设计3个层面提出了6点与难点相应的设计策略,分别为:多样化选址、小街坊、小型停车位、一梯多户、半模数、空间复合。     

Information sharing and human capital efficiency in poor neighborhoods: some graph theoretic applications

This paper develops an analysis of human capital development that explores the relationships between information sharing and human capital efficiency in poor neighborhoods. In deriving the results, a relative connectivity (gamma) index, borrowed from the geography literature, is integrated into a model of neighborhood human capital growth. It is argued in this paper that increases in the sharing efficiency of economic information among individuals in a given neighborhood may have positive impacts on neighborhood human capital efficiency rates. These positive impacts on neighborhood human capital efficiency may likewise help to reduce the poverty rate in that neighborhood. The results established in this paper indicate that not only is the sharing of economic information in urban neighborhoods important for neighborhood human capital development but also that neighborhood income sharing, the sharing of neighborhood social capital, and the diversity of neighborhood social capital may all have a beneficial influence on both the human capital efficiency rate and the rates of neighborhood poverty.     

NEIGHBORHOOD‐BASED NETWORKS,SOCIAL RESOURCES,AND LABOR MARKET PARTICIPATION IN TWO DUTCH NEIGHBORHOODS

ABSTRACT: Numerous neighborhood effect studies have reported on the negative consequences of living in disadvantaged neighborhoods for various employment outcomes, such as the duration of welfare dependence and level of income. One hypothesis for explaining this relationship is the social isolation hypothesis, which assumes that low‐income residents in disadvantaged neighborhoods are worse off than their counterparts in mixed neighborhoods because they rely on other disadvantaged neighbors to find work. These ideas are addressed by comparing survey data on social resources in the social networks of residents in a low‐income neighborhood and a socioeconomically mixed neighborhood in the Dutch city of The Hague. Findings show that living in a low‐income neighborhood influences labor market participation indirectly by limiting residents' access to job information. However, differences in access to job information cannot be explained by the high degree of neighborhood orientation in the social networks of residents in the low‐income neighborhood.     

邻里作用对社会机会的影响--西方的研究及对中国的启示

社会空间分异是全球化和政治经济转型背景下城市转型的基本趋势之一.邻里作用对社会机会的影响正在成为中西方关注的热点,在西方存在欧洲和美国两个学术阵地,欧洲的研究结论倾向于"邻里作用对社会机会的影响不大",而美国的研究结论却倾向于"邻里作用对社会机会有一定的影响".在我国,要回答邻里作用的问题就必须结合中国的实际情况,在现阶段在制定住房政策的过程中融入对邻里作用的研究.     

A PLACE FOR AREA‐BASED POLICY? THE SURVIVAL AND GROWTH OF LOCAL FIRMS IN DUTCH RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOODS

ABSTRACT: Although their market scope often exceeds the neighborhood level, for most entrepreneurs of small‐scale firms the neighborhood is the relevant arena for both their professional activities and their personal affairs. Dutch local economic policy aims to stimulate new firm formation and firm survival in (disadvantaged) neighborhoods by conditioning economic, social, and physical aspects of the neighborhood such as economic zoning and clustering, livability, and the quality of the built‐up area. Although substantial differences in firm success exist across neighborhoods, it is not clear whether area‐level factors contribute to these differences, suggesting that area‐level policies are useful, or whether differences are due to either urban effects or to microlevel entrepreneurial and firm composition effects. This article distinguishes neighborhood effects from composition effects on local firm survival and firm growth, thereby also taking into account spatial dependence across neighborhoods. Our results suggest that aspects of the local livability of neighborhoods and of economic agglomeration are significantly related to individual firm survival and firm growth. The models provide proof for spillover effects of livability problems and market potential between adjacent neighborhoods. Neighborhoods and cities are therefore potentially places for area‐based policies, aiming at the survival and growth of local firms.     

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.     

The Comprehensive Plan of Chicago Prepared by the City of Chicago Department of Development and Planning,December 1966

Data are reported from a random sample survey of residents in an average income inner-city black neighborhood. Respondents' moving preferences and moving plans were equally associated with housing and neighborhood dissatisfaction, and weakly related to family composition or demographic characteristics. The physical condition of the neighborhood and respondents' social ties to the area were most important in their moving preferences and plans. It is suggested that both movers and stayers are limited in their ability to materially change their living conditions through mobility, and some proposals for stabilizing this neighborhood are advanced.     

THE ROLE OF MUNICIPAL‐LEVEL FACTORS IN NEIGHBORHOOD ECONOMIC CHANGE

Despite extensive studies on neighborhood change, the role of municipal‐level factors in neighborhood economic change has been underexplored. This article reviews diverse social science literature and makes theoretical connections between city size and homogeneity of city population and municipal performance, which is accordingly associated with neighborhood economic health. Building on the insights from the literature, this study hypothesizes that neighborhoods stay economically healthier in smaller cities and more homogeneous cities. This study presents a multilevel analysis of neighborhood economic change in 35 U.S. metropolitan areas between 1990 and 2000 and finds empirical evidence to support the proposed hypothesis.     

良好住区环境的邻里环境营造

在对失落的邻里环境现状研究的基础上,借鉴国内外的成功案例,从社会角度和设计方案角度入手,探讨了如何营造良好的邻里居住环境,并提出了有针对性的措施,以加强邻里间的交往,使小区的公共空间更具安全性。     

Theoretical underpinnings of regenerative sustainability

Over the past half century, a discourse emphasizing environmental constraints and limits has both informed and provided many valuable ways of responding to complex environmental problems and has strongly shaped green building practices and associated environmental assessment methods. This paper delineates the concept of ‘regenerative sustainability’ – a net-positive approach to sustainability that is rooted in the notion of ‘procedural sustainability’ and a particular stream of constructivist social theory. The paper contrasts this to the concept of ‘regenerative development and design’ which, although having many commonalities, is based on different philosophical underpinnings. Since the origins of regenerative sustainability and regenerative design lie primarily in the social and ecological domains respectively, understanding their relationship is of importance in formulating approaches for the successful co-evolution of human and natural systems. The paper describes this relationship between regenerative sustainability and regenerative design, including a discussion of some of the key points of convergence and divergence between them, and concludes with an exploration of the practical implications of the regenerative sustainability concept.     

FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS: HOMEOWNERSHIP AND SOCIAL CAPITAL AMONG LOW‐ TO MODERATE‐INCOME FAMILIES

ABSTRACT: This research explores whether homeownership leads to increased individual social capital among low‐ to moderate‐income families. Social capital refers to social resources a person can access through contacts with others in his or her social networks. We theorize that homeownership can motivate interactions with others in one's neighborhood and therefore build social capital. Using a sample of low‐ and moderate‐income homeowners and a matched sample of renters, we collect data on overall social resources and neighborhood‐specific social resources. We find that homeowners have more total social capital resources and more neighborhood social capital resources than renters. Neighborhood group involvement has an indirect effect on social capital, but explains only a small amount of the influence of homeownership. These findings hold when controlling for household‐level and neighborhood‐level sociodemographic variables, as well as when using statistical models that account for endogeneity. Based on this evidence, we conclude that homeownership gives people access to social capital via increased social ties to others. We discuss the implications of this finding for housing policy and suggest new directions for research on social capital.     

邻里福祉视角下国外社区公园社会效益的研究进展

除了生态和经济效益外,社区公园的社会效益能推动人们迈向更高质量的邻里生活,一直以来都是国外发达国家风景园林与城乡规划领域关注的重要议题.通过解读国外社区公园的发展历程和功能演绎,提出当前社区公园社会效益的研究热点主要聚焦在对邻里福祉的社会影响.利用Web of Science数据库,对21世纪后社区公园与邻里福祉的相关...     

现代住区邻里关系淡漠现象分析

从住区层面属性的改变、住宅设计、社会生活的变化多方面分析了新形势下影响邻里交往的诸因素，以期对居住区的规划、空间、环境及场地服务设施等设计有所启发。