The contribution of community enterprise to British urban regeneration in a period of state retrenchment

This chapter discusses the growth and nature of community enterprise and in particular the sub-set of asset-based community development trusts and reviews their contribution to urban regeneration in Britain. Three models are presented and illustrated with case studies.

Community-led upgrading for self-reliance in informal settlements in South Africa: a review

Around the world, informal and low-income settlements (so-called “slums”) have been a major issue in city management and environmental sustainability in developing countries. Overall, African cities have an agenda for slum management and response. For example, the South African government introduced the Upgrade of Informal Settlements Program (UISP), as a comprehensive plan for upgrading slum settlements. Nevertheless, upgrading informal settlements from the bottom-up is key to inform broad protocols and strategies for sustainable communities and `adaptive cities´. Community-scale schemes can drive sustainability from the bottom-up and offer opportunities to share lessons learnt at the local level. Key success factors in their roll-out are: systems thinking; empowered local authorities that support decentralised solutions and multidisciplinary collaboration between the involved actors, including the affected local population. This research lies under the umbrella of sustainable bottom-up urban regeneration. As part of a larger project of collaboration between UK and SA research institutions, this paper presents an overview of in-situ participatory upgrade as an incremental strategy for upgrading informal settlements in the context of sustainable and resilient city. The motivation for this research is rooted in identifying the underpinning barriers and enabling drivers for up-scaling community-led, participatory upgrading approaches in informal settlements in the metropolitan area. This review paper seeks to provide some preliminary guidelines and recommendations for an integrated collaborative environmental and construction management framework to enhance community self-reliance. A theoretical approach based on the review of previous studies was combined with a pilot study conducted in Durban (South Africa) to investigate the feasibility of community-led upgrading processes.

Picturing Gentrification: Representation of Urban Change, Pendleton Salford

The paper examines how visual representations of urban regeneration contribute to the gentrification process. It asks can alternative photographic and textual strategies provide a meaningful counter narrative to resist persuasive corporate discourses on urban revitalization? Focusing on the gentrification of social housing in Pendleton, Salford (Greater Manchester) the paper debates the role of visual imagery in fostering perceptions about urban change by evaluating fieldwork undertaken by the authors in the site since 2004. The paper will question whether such an in-depth longitudinal project and its consequent archive can be utilized as a political tool to highlight the wider processes involved in such regimes of disinvestment and accumulation. Through the combination of photography and site writing in the environment can certain economic and political processes be made legible if not fully visible to highlight causation and effect?

Revisiting the Land Issue

This paper seeks to review the critical role of land in delivering sustainable development, focusing on the supply of affordable homes. It first presents a historical overview of debates on land reform, including nationalisation of development land and betterment, before reviewing the impact of land costs on housing delivery, using London as a case study. It then considers alternative policy approaches to ensuring the most effective use of land resources and development capacity, and sets out a programme embracing planning reform, public land acquisition, disposal and taxation.

Rise, fragmentation, infringement and fear: emerging urban issues in Chinese clustering in Italy

China is today facing rapid economic development and the long-term implications of China’s rise for European economy, society and culture, are constantly debated but still almost unknown. Moreover, only recently a new volume edited by Kunzmann has clearly pointed out a particular field of research like the EU spatial impact of China’s convergence in the global market. The aim of the present paper is to deal with the spatial issues related to the growing Chinese communities, especially in Italy, that are part of a more general and considerable transformation process of the traditional Chinese enclaves in EU cities: from recognizable “Chinatowns” to new hybrid urban formations where housing, retail, wholesale and even commodity production often tend to match. Key-Concepts like rise, fragmentation, infringement and fear are useful in analysing some of the more controversial socio-economic dynamics of Chinese clusters especially in a traditionally manufactured-based country like Italy, where it’s recognizable a unique paradox of a “double competition” from outside and from inside. This statement poses a serious threat to local economic systems in terms of sustainability and social cohesion, making it necessary to rethink the role and the nature of public action in facing new forms of marginality at urban and regional level.

Clichy-Batignolles, Paris: a case of successful inner-city regeneration

The third issue of the column deals with the regeneration of inner-city rail station areas. The successful case of Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris is analyzed by Giulio Verdini, an architect and urban planner based in China and Paris. The quality of this recent project is evident at different levels: as an innovative experiment of planning with public consultation, as a new mixed-used neighbourhood organized around a beautiful park, as a collection of interesting contemporary buildings promoted through open architecture competitions. The memory of the old rails has been interpreted as an occasion for creating significant urban connections, and the city of Paris demonstrated again and again its rare capacity to regenerate itself. 内城火车站区域的更新历来不是件轻松的工作,这在1990年代以来诸多的欧洲城市中都已经得到印证.伦敦的国王十字车站和柏林的中央火车站区域都是著名的更新案例,此外还有鹿特丹和斯图加特中央火车站这些争议性的案例,它们都表明了这个更新过程有多么复杂而难料.其原因包括众多相互角力的私人及公众影响、改造带来的未知花费及收益,以及市民群体在其中扮演的越来越重要的角色.这个位于巴黎17区的克里希·巴蒂涅奥勒开发区更新项目同样如此.不过,随着项目的建造渐入佳境,我们愈发可以看出,它很可能会成为欧洲内城最成功的更新案例之一.这篇简要介绍的目的就是勾勒出这一成功案例背后的构思和动机,以展现这个理应矛盾重重而得到未充分利用的地段如何成为让巴黎西北区改头换面的良机.

Culture as a tool for harmonious territorial development

Harmonious territorial development and urban-rural linkages have attracted increased policy attention in recent years in the attempt to overcome the predominant discourse of the urban-rural divide. Territorial development refers to a ‘process through which the geographies of territories inhabited by human societies is progressively transformed. It involves physical components (infrastructure, landscapes and townscapes, etc.) but also the territorial structure of settlements pattern, i.e. the geographic distribution of population and human activities’ (Council of Europe, 2007). Urban-rural linkages refer to ‘complementary and synergetic functions and flows of people, natural resources, capital, goods, employment, ecosystem services, information and technology between rural, peri-urban and urban areas’ (UN-HABITAT, 2015). ‘Urban-rural partnership is the mechanism of cooperation that manages linkages to reach common goals and enhance urban-rural linkages’ (OECD, 2013). Therefore, territorial or urban-rural partnerships are increasingly regarded as a desirable policy action, respectful of the particular identities of different territorial components (UCLG, 2016).