Empowering Local Communities? An International Review of Community Land Trusts

This paper aims to investigate the premise that community land trusts (CLTs) offer a method of delivering affordable housing that empowers local communities and provides democratic management of community assets. The paper provides a comparative analysis of CLT developments in England, Scotland and the USA, reviewing the policy and literature to identify two key approaches that underpin CLTs: an approach to property development that emphasises resale restrictions used to preserve housing use for the CLT's target clientele, and an approach to citizen governance that privileges local communities. The paper identifies a variation of practices that underpin the operation of CLTs in each country and uses the advanced developments in Scotland and the USA to illustrate some of the challenges that remain if the CLT sector in England is to continue its recent growth.     

Neighbourhood participation in super-diverse contexts: comparing Amsterdam and Vienna

Urban policies are increasingly localized, stressing the role of neighbourhood social contacts in generating cohesion and citizen participation. Studies on ‘everyday’ multiculturalism also emphasize the neighbourhood as a meaningful place for encounters. However, there remains a lack of understanding of how specific contexts condition encounters with difference. We compare two European neighbourhoods that provide different contexts for participation: Amsterdam and Vienna. We ask how residents experience local spaces of encounter and how this influences their experience of the neighbourhood. We find a mismatch between the aims of local policies and the experiences of residents, who also value more superficial contacts.     

Social Cohesiveness of Disadvantaged Communities in Urban South Korea: The Impact of the Physical Environment

This paper examines the impact of the physical environment and residents' perception and use of the environment settings on the social cohesiveness of disadvantaged communities in South Korea. Multiple regression and qualitative analysis were applied based on the data collected in four public rental housing estates in Seoul accommodating the lowest income households. This paper argues that social cohesiveness could be operationalised in shared norms and trust, attachment to housing estate and social networking. It was found that the characteristics of social cohesiveness were different across the same type of public rental housing estates, and that this variance was partly due to the different conditions of the physical environment. It was also found that a more positive perception of the physical environment and the more frequent use of facilities generally enhanced community cohesiveness. Desirable land use mix and housing types around the housing estates, preferable community facilities, housing block design and more effective refurbishment programmes within the estates were recommended.     

Archipelago of the Negev Desert A Temporal/Collective Plan for Beer Sheva,Israel

Known locally as the ‘non-city’, Beer Sheva in southern Israel is made up of segregated communities with no central core. Rafi Segal proposes a way of creating connectivity while accepting the city's lack of centre and optimising on its beautiful desert landscape and Bedouin inheritance. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of social sustainability in building assessment

ABSTRACT

Can social sustainability be built? What are the challenges and potential for incorporating the concept of social sustainability into the assessment of building projects? Theoretical approaches to social sustainability are examined for the ways it is applied in practice by building industry stakeholders. A fundamental question is whether and how social sustainability can be measured, assessed and certified in the construction or renewal of housing and neighbourhoods. In addition to physical and functional indicators, it is suggested that certification systems (e.g. the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen – DGNB) should also reward social initiatives. A framework was developed involving 12 indicators grouped three overarching themes: social cohesion; participatory processes; and accessibility to living opportunities. A collaborative case study project involving two Danish social housing neighbourhoods examines how social sustainability indicators could be integrated into the application of certification systems such as the DGNB and whether the certification system can be improved by integrating social and organizational aspects with the existing criteria for physical and functional layout. It is found that certifications must take the housing complex or neighbourhood's relationship with the surrounding city into account, as well as its development over time and flexibility towards future needs.     

Local Social Networks and Social Resources in Two Dutch Neighbourhoods

Much research in neighbour relations is inspired by two research questions. First, it is necessary to know to which degree social contacts are local and in particular whether local social contacts in disadvantaged neighbourhoods bear an instrumental disadvantage. Second, it is necessary to know whether policies aiming at mixing people from different social and ethnic backgrounds result in more diverse networks and therefore in better opportunities for low-income residents. To address these questions, this paper compares the role of local relationships and the social resources they provide in a low-income neighbourhood and a socio-economic mixed neighbourhood in the Netherlands. Contrary to assumptions in the research literature, residents in the low-income neighbourhood do not differ from their counterparts in the mixed neighbourhood in the degree to which they receive social support for dealing with everyday problems. However, networks of low-income residents provided fewer resources in terms of accessed prestige.     

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.     

Homeownership,Asset-based Welfare and the Neighbourhood Segregation of Wealth

The asset-based welfare approach, which has foremost encouraged homeownership, has led to rising homeownership rates, house prices and household debt levels. While this shift has helped raise the net worth of some among the middle and working classes who own property, the implications for the spatial distribution of wealth in cities have not yet been explored. This paper examines the spatial implications of the rise of policies promoting asset-based welfare, by examining statistically how variables related to homeownership rates and housing prices relate to measures of urban wealth segregation among neighbourhoods. Canadian cites are used as the main case study for the empirical analysis. The findings suggest that while homeownership in general has an equalizing effect, rising rates of homeownership (and to some extent, rising house prices) are associated not with greater spatial equalization and dispersal of wealth, but instead with greater spatial segregation and concentration of wealth within cities.     

Arlotti-Beccu-Desideri-Raimondo

Currently one of the most active offices in Rome, Arlotti-Beccu-Desideri-Raimondo (ABDR) has seven major projects under way or at the point of completion. Massimo Locci explains why, despite being theoretically and methodologically rigorous, the practice's work cannot be readily categorised. Unique in its combination of a purist Modernist language with an aptitude for expressive informality, the office is also proactive in its adoption of bioclimatic technologies and its understanding of new communication models. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Impact of Residential Mobility on Measurements of Neighbourhood Effects

Neighbourhoods and cities are dynamic; their characteristics and relative positions change over time due to constant moves in and out. However, neighbourhood effect theory and most attempts to quantitatively estimate neighbourhood effects seem to treat neighbourhoods as if they were static. This paper argues that such a view is not only strange but may also result in biased estimates. Four methodological challenges are highlighted that are directly related to mobility: (1) measures of exposure time; (2) neighbourhood change; (3) selection bias; and (4) endogeneity. These are all topics worthy of scholarly interest in themselves, but also challenges that all neighbourhood effect studies must address to convincingly argue that their results are indicative of causal relationships—results of neighbourhood transmission mechanisms—and not just statistical correlations. The paper discusses how and to what extent these challenges have been met by the quantitative neighbourhood effect literature and gives directions to future research.