On garden-city lines: looking into social housing estates of interwar Europe

Through the use of oral and documentary sources, this article links post‐war reconstruction and traffic management together, to illustrate how the planning process had an overwhelming effect on a community in Oxford. Three decades of planning blight took its toll on families and business in the area. Paradoxically, the reconstruction plans may have unwittingly shaped a neighbourhood into a thriving, tolerant, multi‐racial community. Post‐war reconstruction of cities was inevitably essential in some cities. As more people depended on cars, creating new municipal buildings and making urban motorways, traffic management was synchronized alongside redevelopment. As post‐war urban redevelopment projects gathered momentum, established communities became at risk of being destroyed. Decisions were taken by professionals and politicians with minimal public participation. Resistance to such schemes required organization and energy in order to take on the establishment. This article examines a redevelopment plan, other plans that affected the scheme, residents’ resistance to the project and the effects this major plan had on a community. A key component of this article focuses on the perspectives of the objectors, as their voice is often missing.     

公众参与城市规划初探:旧城更新中的居民参与

旧城更新已成为中国城市建设的焦点,规划中的居民参与尚在起步阶段。本文认为渐进式更新是我国未来旧城建设的主流,并对居民参与旧城更新进行初步探索,提出应对政府、公众、专业人员等各方的角色和地位进行调整,形成居民参与的普遍观念,并通过社区自治等方式,逐步形成合理的居民参与制度。     

Privatizing public housing redevelopment: Grassroots resistance,co-operation and devastation in three Dublin neighbourhoods

This article examines variations in residents' responses to proposals to redevelop three public housing neighbourhoods in Dublin using Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and the outcomes their resistance achieved. It investigates the important role that structures of participation and representation and local social cohesion play in developing effective resident resistance to displacement and gentrification through regeneration. In two of these neighbourhoods community representative structures were strong and although one community co-operated with the PPP plans and the other opposed them, both were broadly successful in achieving their campaign objectives. Community structures in the third neighbourhood were weak however and the imposition of PPP redevelopment devastated this community which is now almost entirely vacant. This article provides some important insights for the literature on grassroots resistance to urban redevelopment, welfare state restructuring and public housing redevelopment. It reveals that, despite their lack of power, residents' resistance can significantly influence public housing redevelopment strategies particularly where community representative structures are strong. However for vulnerable communities, where representative structures are weak, the over emphasis on poverty de-concentration and refurbishing the built environment in public housing redevelopment policy can have devastating consequences. Thus, it concludes that the rationale for grass roots resistance to redevelopment is centred upon a strong place attachment, but also opposition to the privatization of public housing and the desire for poverty to be addressed in an holistic manner.     

The use of direct democracy to decide housing site allocations in English neighbourhoods

Abstract

The aim of this article is to reclaim the democratic legitimacy of self-selecting and informed publics in citizen engagement in housing development planning. It argues for an approach to public participation in which the issues, and the articulation of conflicting attachments to those issues, are understood as the occasion for democratic politics. The article illustrates this approach in an analysis of the use of direct democracy to decide housing allocations in the policy of neighbourhood planning in England. Drawing on literature from Science and Technology Studies and actor–network theory, it evidences the public articulation of house-building as a matter of concern and identifies the agency of housing in enrolling publics, translating interests and in fostering debate and contention. It concludes that the articulation of conflicting interests can deepen democratic engagement in housing development planning and open up the exclusions through which this issue is currently framed.     

Paradox between neoliberal urban redevelopment,heritage conservation,and community needs: Case study of a historic neighbourhood in Tianjin,China

Today, China's inner-city redevelopment has evolved into the neoliberalism phase, which is characterized by market orientation, privatization, commodification, and short-term returns; this phase generally involves massive demolition and eviction, resulting in serious conflicts between land-based economic growth, heritage conservation, and social justice. The local community is susceptible to social, cultural, and economic impacts of redevelopment, as well as heritage conservation activities. Thereby, the perspectives of residents on these two components of the urban development agenda help to re-examine the demolition–conservation controversy from the perspective of social well-being. Based on an in-progress case in Tianjin, this study clarifies the multi-faceted paradox posed by the demolition–conservation dichotomy at the locality level. Further, the study performs an ex-ante investigation on the needs, concerns, and attitudes of the local community and dissects related contradictions with the local government's rationale for redevelopment, which is a prerequisite for facilitating responsive and democratic urban planning.     

Hoping for more: redeveloping U.S. public housing without marginalizing low-income residents?

Urban restructuring policies have uprooted residents and dismantled communities. Previous studies focus on housing redevelopment that minimizes the fraction of housing units left for poor residents and on interviewing residents only once the redevelopment has been announced. By contrast, this paper examines how residents over time experienced the HOPE VI redevelopment of the Orchard Park public housing project in Boston, which sought to preserve a low-income community. Using official records and a unique set of interviews with residents before and after redevelopment, we find marked declines in crime and increased residential satisfaction, which are attributed to changes in tenant composition. The redevelopment process reduced the total number of public housing units yet maintained the vast majority of housing for poor families while creating a new social mix. The findings suggest that to more fully capture the impacts of restructuring, existing theory must be expanded to consider who is displaced and how poverty is deconcentrated.     

V: News from the Schools of Architecture

Abstract

The entry of Western democracy into Asia represents one of the most significant dimensions of the East-West cultural dialectic. The transformative formal and intellectual influences of Western democratic concepts on Asian urbanity and identity formation therefore remain paramount to the discourse on Asian cities today. This document explores the search for democratic space in Japan—the first non-Western democracy in the world. By tracing the evolution and shifts of Japanese public space over the last six decades, it attempts both a re-reading of the Japanese city as a democratic construct, and of democracy itself as a culturally appropriated model.     

ADVOCACY AND PLURALISM IN PLANNING

City planning is a means for determining policy, appropriate policy in a democracy is determined through political debate. The right course of action is always a matter of choice, never of fact. Planners should engage in the political process as advocates of the interests of government and other groups. Intelligent choice about public policy would be aided if different political, social, and economic interests produced city plans. Plural plans rather than a single agency plan should be presented to the public. Politicizing the planning process requires that the planning function be located in either or both the executive and legislative branches and the scope of planning be broadened to include all areas of interest to the public.     

Learning from St. Thomas: Community,Capital, and the Redevelopment of Public Housing in New Orleans

Current efforts to redevelop public housing in the US create new opportunities and risks for low-income residents. Although cities are able to pursue innovative strategies for combatting troubled public housing, the danger is that the interests of the residents will be subordinated to those of the local power structure—especially where public housing poses an obstacle to revitalization. This article examines the efforts to redevelop the St. Thomas Housing Development in New Orleans in order to discover the impact on residents and to evaluate prevailing theories of urban power. The case involves empowered public housing residents and powerful economic interests. Although residents of St. Thomas gained access to the pro-growth coalition pursuing revitalization of the surrounding Lower Garden District, the outcome for residents is mixed. In order to understand the constraints faced by public housing residents we must recognize how political discourse can enhance the power of the business community in urban regimes.     

Where Should We Have the Meeting?

Abstract

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Scholars and practitioners in the fields of planning, public participation, and consensus building have devised a variety of techniques for participatory decision making. Despite the ever-growing literatures on public participation, consensus building, and deliberative democracy, few scholars have studied perhaps the most elemental consideration in designing participatory processes: how to create physical environments for productive interactions and conversations. In this study, we address that gap in the scholarship on participatory decision making by answering two questions: What are planners are seeking to achieve when creating venues for engagement, participation, or collaboration? What are the tools at their disposal to do so? We interviewed practitioners with significant experience in the facilitation of planning processes, selected at random from the National Roster of Environmental Conflict Resolution Professionals, and developed a set of objectives and considerations for creating effective venues for participation and collaboration in planning. Based on our analysis, we find that venue creation involves three key dimensions: determining the appropriate venue-related process objectives, selecting a location, and arranging the chosen space.

Takeaway for practice: Combining insights from existing guidance in handbooks and reports with the findings from our interviews, we developed the Venue Creation Tool to support more informed discussions and choices related to venues for participation and collaboration in planning.     

The Emergence of the global and social city: Golden Mile and the politics of urban renewal

ABSTRACT

This study discusses the conflicted ideas of urban renewal under the economically progressive but inexperienced leadership of a young Singapore government. As the site of this study, the Golden Mile shares its aspirational name with the first building built on it – the Golden Mile Complex. This district was planned to carry Singapore into the era of the global city. During the period of modernization in the 1960s, influential ideas were propagated through different United Nations experts. Singapore used these recommendations to legitimize an aggressive form of urban renewal, but it also encouraged greater participation by think tanks with greater intellectual and research sophistication. This marked Singapore’s most democratic period of public debate and participation in urban policy-making. The advancements made by the Singapore Planning and Urban Research group, and Lim’s built megastructure and unbuilt linear city came about under these liberal conditions. Consumerist functions and civic-minded forms were combined to produce unprecedented but ultimately incomplete socio-urban effects. This episode revealed that Singapore’s successful legacy of modernization was always exclusively narrated by the state, but there was an under-documented tussle was between the sociopolitical capital of Singapore’s public housing programme, and the economic acceleration of private and global consumerist functions.     

Too Good to be True? The Variable and Contingent Benefits of Displacement and Relocation among Low-Income Public Housing Residents

The forced displacement and relocation of low-income residents resulting from public housing redevelopment has attracted a great deal of research attention. Tracking studies of HOPE VI and similar redevelopment efforts in the US have depicted a record of mixed and inconsistent benefits for the families displaced. Detailed case studies of individual families are used to illustrate the variable and contingent nature of the impacts of displacement and relocation away from public housing. The cases presented here provide examples of how the experience of displaced families can change, sometimes dramatically, over time and how this affects their own assessments of the experience. Residents' perception of relocation is strongly influenced by their overall view of neighborhood restructuring, regardless of whether they themselves directly benefit. The findings suggest that qualitative and or ethnographic research into the experiences of displaced public housing residents can be useful in understanding how relocation affects the lives of very low-income households.     

Development and New Forms of Democracy in eThekwini

Through a case study of development policy making in the eThekwini metro (Durban), South Africa, this paper explores the emergence of new forms of local democracy in post-apartheid South Africa. After a review of the process surrounding the preparation of the Long-term Development Framework and the Integrated Development Plan in the city from the late 1990s through to 2003, the paper outlines the nature of community participation in the creation of these plans. We note the relationship between processes of formal elected representation and strong community participation in the preparation of the Long-term Development Framework. The initially extensive participatory process to some extent evolved into a routinised series of local meetings in each ward where community involvement was better characterised as consultative rather than participatory. The complexities and power relationships internal to participatory or consultative practices are placed alongside the way in which ‘participation’ competes with other forms of representation. Elected representatives were very important for setting the tone and direction for development policy in the city, although some perceived community meetings as threatening to their legitimacy or role. Unelected representatives such as traditional authorities were also relevant in this context. The final section turns to more informal but no less important influences on development policy in the city. In particular, major business actors have had a direct influence on large capital projects within the city. Furthermore, politicians at a provincial and national level participate in many decisions relating to the city through party networks. Officials and council departments played a significant role in determining the policy documents and visions for the future of the city. We conclude that a range of forms of democratic government all played a role in shaping development policy: participatory, electoral, party mechanisms, bureaucratic institutions of government, and informal influence. While all these co-existing aspects of democracy instantiate fields of power relations, the evidence from Durban suggests that local democracy is being forged in distinctive and vibrant ways in post-apartheid South Africa, even if these are necessarily embedded in emergent systems of power relations which frame and limit opportunities for redistributive and developmental outcomes.

---

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.     

Limits and potentials to deliberative engagement in highly regulated planning systems: Norm development within fixed rules

Planning practice requires ongoing interaction between regulatory “facts” and deliberative “norms”. Played out in local and strategic developments, “norms” are the agreed values and positions developed by advancing deliberative engagement of residents; while “facts” are the more rigid statutory procedures through which planning decisions are typically made. However, conflict arises between residents' groups and local government decision-makers when deliberative norms, now a key tenet of strategic planning processes, struggle to gain traction in the factual spaces provided by statutory planning regulations. A contentious planning process in St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia (concerning the redevelopment of a car park into a commercial and public space) highlights the challenges to deliberative engagement in highly-regulatory planning systems. Drawing on this contested case, this paper examines how the broader formal and relatively fixed framework of regulatory-based decision-making fails to support participatory principles, undermining both the desired communicative ethos and enduring collaborative outcomes and norm development. Specifically, the paper problematises tensions between residents' growing expectations for greater transparency and participation in planning, arising from a growing regard for deliberation in strategic planning, and the hegemonic nature of statutory planning that preserves planning control within the formal domain of government and the private sector.     

Public Participation: Technology and Democracy

Abstract

Computerized visualization methods offer planners and architects some new ways to support and facilitate democratic decision-making. However, the uses of this technology in public participation are just beginning to be explored. This paper describes a community planning process in which a combination of high- and low-tech visualization methods—a Geographic Information System (GIS) and a human artist—was used to increase public participation and draw out local knowledge.     

居住环境品质优化下的中国社区规划演变研究 ——以广州市保障房社区为例

社区是社会治理的基石,构筑共建共治共享的社会治理模式是新时代对社区规划的顶层设计指引,也是国外社区规划的魅力所在。国内的社区规划长期聚焦于对物质空间的刻画,但随着政府和公众对居住环境品质关注度的提升,社区规划正逐步转型,但转型程度尚有待探索。以广州市早期及新建成的保障房社区为例,从居住环境品质的角度对规划实施成效及公众参与的影响程度进行比较评价。结果显示,保障房社区规划的制度设计与技术标准均有提升,规划编制与实施也更多地吸纳公众的意见。为社区规划的转型与社区共同缔造提供参考。     

Florida's Planning Requirements and Affordability for Low-Income Households

Growth management states in the USA, such as Florida, Oregon, and Washington, require their local jurisdictions to plan for an adequate supply of housing for all current and future residents, including low-income households. This research uses regression analysis to test the relationship between the strength of local comprehensive plans toward affordable housing and subsequent changes in housing affordability for low-income households. Semi-structured interviews with local planners about their perceptions of the efficacy of local plans provide insight into the quantitative findings. The initial plans passed after Florida's Growth Management Act were not associated with subsequent changes in housing affordability, but more recent plans were. Planners in a number of jurisdictions indicated that Florida's planning mandate increased awareness among public officials of affordable housing issues and the tools available to address them, despite the state's weak oversight.     

Planning a City through ‘Dialogue’: Deliberative Policy-making in Action in Western Australia

Deliberative policy-making is an alternative method of generating new planning strategies based on the public deliberation of citizens and stakeholders. Four ideals of deliberative policy-making espoused by deliberative democracy theorists are identified. Using this framework the ‘Dialogue with the City’ process undertaken by the Western Australian Government to develop the Network City spatial planning strategy for the Perth metropolitan region is examined. While this process went further than most towards realising the ideals of deliberative policy-making, the Government was not able to fully achieve the ideals of inclusive decision-making, equitable decision-making, deliberation toward the common good and consensus decision-making. It is most likely that the deliberative approach to policy-making does not represent a new model for governing; rather, these participation techniques constitute a more sophisticated model for involving citizens and stakeholders in planning.

     

Public housing,home ownership,and community participation in Chicago's inner city

The impact of public housing on the motivation of its tenants to engage in action to prevent its deterioration has been a topic of recent debate. This discussion has led some to advocate the sale of public housing to tenants as a means of giving them a stake in their community, and, thus, the motive to prevent its deterioration. By using the Urban Poverty Family Life Survey, this paper estimates the effects of public housing and home ownership on rates of community participation. The results do not support those who claim that residents of inner‐city public housing are less likely to become involved in community affairs than inner‐city home owners. The results also suggest that factors other than housing tenure status, such as church attendance, family structure, and the number of families known in the neighborhood are responsible for variation in rates of community participation. Taken together, these results stress the need to look beyond the simple causal relationship between community participation and home ownership.