57 research outputs found
Governing London: challenges for the new economic governance
No full textThis book emerged out of a one day conference at Middlesex University on 4th February 2000
Changing times, changing styles: new forms of economic governance in London
No full textThis book emerged out of a one day conference at Middlesex University on 4th February 2000
Hitting the target but missing the point: The case of area-based regeneration
No full textArea-based regeneration projects have captured the imagination of diverse assemblages of community actors, governmental interests, and commercial stakeholders around the world. Their appeal derives from claims that they are exemplary instruments for combating intertwined social, economic, and environmental issues in an integrated manner. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of such initiatives remains contentious and continues to provoke divergent views. In the midst of an era of fiscal austerity, demands for increasing "returns on investments" and maximizing "value for money" have risen to the forefront. This article investigates an area-based regeneration initiative in Europe that has been lauded for successfully achieving its regeneration outputs. The research examines whether hitting narrowly constructed (economic) targets may be missing the point of yielding holistic (community) outcomes. Of broader international and theoretical significance, the merits of output-driven regeneration strategies are questioned. © 2013 Community Development Society
The Interwar Suburbs of North West London: Planning for regeneration
No full textRecent UK planning policy has concentrated on regenerating inner cities. For the past thirty years, the interwar suburbs of North West London have seen a changing population, rising levels of deprivation and a deteriorating built environment. Exploring these changes and the role of local centres as foci for regeneration and revitalisation, twelve centres are investigated and their suitability for development assessed in the context of the draft Spatial Development Strategy for London. A new approach to suburban planning is proposed linking the changing condition of centres and the character of the surrounding neighbourhoods to develop more effective sub-regional planning policies
The potential of community entrepreneurship for neighbourhood revitalization in the United Kingdom and the United States
No full textPurpose - The global economic crisis has had a major impact on government spending for urban regeneration. In the context of these austerity regimes, in many European countries, community entrepreneurship and active citizenship are increasingly considered as a means to continue small-scale urban revitalisation. This paper investigates recent literature on both British community enterprises (CEs) and American community development corporations (CDCs). The aim is to assess the current potential of community entrepreneurship in neighbourhood revitalization in the United States and the United Kingdom. Design/methodology/approach - Starting from a seminal article, this paper reviews literature focusing on the role of CEs and CDCs in neighbourhood revitalization. Differences and similarities are analysed, taking into account national context differences. Findings - While CDCs have a relatively successful record in affordable housing production in distressed areas, CDCs are fundamentally limited in terms of reversing processes of community decline. CEs in the UK have focused on non-housing issues. Research limitations/implications - This paper asks the question what CEs can learn from CDCs in terms of scope, aims, strategies, accountability, assets and partnerships with public and private actors. However, a systematic literature review has not been conducted. Originality/value - Our comparison reveals similarities but also differences with regard to aims, organizational characteristics, co-operation on multiple scales, and community participation. Apart from lessons that can be learned, we provide recommendations for further research that should cover the lack of empirical evidence in this field.Peer reviewe
Race and Disorder: Addressing Social Disadvantages through State Regeneration in a Multi-Ethnic Community in Leeds
No full textThis thesis critically examines governmental responses to physical and social disorder in inner-city neighbourhoods through urban regeneration policies. Through an exploration of historical, social and political narratives on urban areas, the thesis identifies that the concept of dangerous places and faces has been a dominant discourse and feature in Britain for the past 200 years.
Using Chapeltown, Leeds as a case study, this thesis explores the urban regeneration interventions in this area. Chapeltown is selected because it is, historically, a community with a high population of minority ethnic people and immigrants. Thus, ‘race’ and racism, and a critique of public policies as they affect UK Black and minority ethnic communities are the primary concerns of this thesis.
It is argued that the tools of urban regeneration aimed at tackling physical and social disorder such as partnership, participation and community involvement/engagement are mere ‘rhetorical devices’ that are out of sync with normative standards of citizenship and fairness.
The thesis has adopted a case study research methodology. It argues that for social and physical disorder to be tackled, there is the need to consider how the concept of citizenship should be the central issue in urban regeneration policies. The thesis concludes that the processes that result in some urban neighbourhoods being considered ‘bad’, ‘dangerous’ or ‘criminal’ must be understood as part of a broader set of political-economic forces which shapes the spatial distribution of urban populations and, in particular, the ‘placing’ of the poor in urban space. Hence there is the need to examine the social and physical disorder using the lens of citizenship
Learning from biophysical heterogeneity: inductive use of case studies for maize cropping systems in Central America
No full textGlobal society has become conscious that efforts towards securing food production will only be successful if agricultural production increases are obtained through mechanisms that ensure active regeneration of the natural resource base. Production options should be targeted in the sense of that their suitability to improve agricultural production and maintain natural resources is evaluated prior to their introduction. Biophysical targeting evaluates production options as a function of the spatial and temporal variability of climate conditions, in interaction with soil, crop characteristics and agronomic management strategies. This thesis contributes to the development of a system-based methodology for biophysical targeting. Cropping system simulation and weather generator tools are interfaced to geographical information systems. Inductive use of two case studies - a green manure cover crop and reduced tillage with residue management - helped to develop the methodology. Insight is gained into the regional potential for and the soil and climate conditions under which successful introduction of these production options may be achieved. The resulting information supports regional stakeholders involved in agriculture in their analysis and discussion, negotiation and decision-making concerning where to implement production systems. This process can improve the supply of appropriate agricultural production practices that enhance production and conserve soil and water resources
New manufacturing firms and new firm founders in rural and urban areas in Wales : are they really different?
No full textSchool of Managemen
Affordances of 'unhoming pedagogies': reflecting on two decades of activating learning and teaching for social justice in UK universities
No full textActivating learning and teaching for social justice requires the adoption of pedagogies of discomfort and critical inquiry. Such processes demand emotional and logistical labour in transforming affordances of ‘unhoming pedagogies’ into transformative spaces of belonging in the classroom and the Academy while embracing socio-cultural accounts of differing intersectional identities of learners, emphasising ethical academic citizenship, a dialogic ethos to democratic debates in classrooms that can become the stage for social change and pathways to promote and accelerate new ideas through knowledge co-production and exchange.
Learning through and towards social justice develops critical thinking, collaboration, respect, care, compassion and self-reflection skills necessary to foster better societies. Learning and teaching for social justice perceives students and lecturers as co-learners of themselves, others, institutions, practices, etc. and enables empowering for all to voice concerns and question unjust situations in their individual and collective lives and the lives of those on a regional, national and global scale. In this extended abstract I aim to share key reflections on that two decade journey while pedagogically engaging with cultural politics, intersectional and feminist approaches, decolonial and post-colonial epistemologies, narrative analytics and the critical sociologies of public scholarship, and, while embracing a feminist ethics of care and a social justice for community development activist and anti-racist academic agenda.
Such an agenda requires a difficult plunge into reflexivities that contextualise the public and edagogic sphere as spaces of what I term ‘unhoming’ and can yield experiences of displacement through processes of rupture, exclusion, racialisation and by extension as a form of gendered violence which is psychosocially and emotionally saturated in the toxicity of how individuals and groups in pedagogic spaces are othered through everyday sexisms, ageisms and racisms. My critical intervention draws from a threefold theorisation of a discomforting of politics (cf. ‘politics of discomfort’, Chadwick 2021), through bridging liminal affectivity (cf. ‘affective liminality’, Waerniers and Hustinx 2020) while interrogating radical praxis of the ‘human condition’ (Arendt 1958). As a form of feminist affective radical praxis, engaging with discomforting politics in teaching and learning is integral to the development of inclusive, emancipatory and alternative feminist knowledges. Along the line as theorised by Chadwick (2021) in exploring ‘discomfort’ as ‘sweaty concept’, transformative as an epistemic and interpretive resource with intensity and resistance, I push for ‘discomforting’ feminist knowledge politics to engage with an Arendtian political participation in society as the exemplification of action in becoming ‘human’. Negotiating feminist ethics also involves immersing reflexively into intersectional affect (Christou and Bloor, 2021) that can become a window to understanding ourselves, others and how the co-creation of knowledge and co-production of learning can shape ethically the journeys of youth and their pedagogic aspirations (Christou and Michail, 2021). Post-pandemic pedagogies will require a more inclusive shift in re-imagining active learning to more dialogical and relational ways to encourage conversations with ourselves and others.
Such conversations can become feminisms of resistance and activism through connected, compassionate and caring mentoring initiatives (Christou, 2016) and through combining solidarity, emotions and championing the gender discourse in academia to include intersectionalities across all aspects of academic employment, curricular and research practice (Christou and Janta, 2019). As a result, classrooms can continue to be interactive stages for social change and productive pathways to learning, so as to conceptualise new ideas which can be promoted in an accelerated mode to turn theory and practice into societal action. In that vein, critical thinking skills, self-reflective opportunities and collaboration become transferable skills in fostering regeneration contexts to make societies better, delivering more equity, humanity, and justice. Thus, teaching social justice in theory and practice should translate into empowering students to identify and rectify inequalities and injustice, to strive to contribute to an ethical social and environmental citizenship while identifying solutions to world problems.
Including diverse experiences, connected histories, alternative backgrounds and stories of multiple identities can strengthen classroom community through learning variable perspectives that resonate with student experiences. This approach has to also apply to curricular materials to ensure that diverse voices and cultures are visible in the learning that takes place. All these elements allow for educators to foster learning communities of practice, dissent, and inclusion, while enabling thoughtful debates and global discussions to critically engage with any issue. Finally, social justice learning should be transformed into community service and community action, both formative and summative assessments can become the vehicle to enable such practice to materialise. Following the interactive learning and classroom discussions, assignments can connect this learning to their local communities through both short and long-term projects. These can embed activist strategies, including social media campaigns, social enterprise awareness raising activities, internships, and other types of engagement, that link such activities to writing assignments, enabling students to reflect on their positionality, ethics, and actions, invoking societal change and social justice transformation.
Yet, social justice learning cannot be contained in one lesson, one module, one dissertation project, rather, it requires continued institutional commitment of the kind that sees University strategic visions accountable for each programme, department, school, and faculty toward the social justice contributions they make to students and society
Shaping the space of flows: Local economies and information and communication technologies
No full textTechnological and economic development have long since been associated. From the archaeological discoveries of urban living to the cities of the future; from Babylon to places such as Singapore, technology and life are entwined. Much preoccupation today is with information and communications technologies (ICTs) and misguided notions of 'cyberspace' and 'information superhighways' and of course, life in the informational age. The hype that goes with this often conjures up images of endless potential for marginalised groups, or in turn, reinforces the powers of dominant groups during a most challenging period for capitalism. Yet there is a need for research into the way technology, and in particular ICTs, interacts with the social, political, cultural and economic complexity that forms the basis of place. This thesis attempts to address that need by focusing on the role of ICTs in local economies. Based on an extensive overview of the North East, and followed by an intensive approach of investigation into a small number of case studies, this work looks at the political processes that go hand-in-hand with technology and place. Specifically, the thesis pays attention to locally based partnerships that have taken form to build up the ICTs potential of local economies, and it seeks to understand the reasons why these have occurred at this particular moment in time. The research has identified a number of points in the local economy that appear to be emerging as areas for ICTs application. In effect, these are the key points from which the local economy is connected to the global economy. It is argued that local economies are falling in line behind a more global shift towards what Manuel Castells refers to as the informational mode of development. The role of local ICTs partnerships is crucial in enabling such development and the mechanics behind this are investigated. Again, by drawing on the work of Castells, it is contended that these groups are trying to condition the dynamics of the informational age and the logics of that age. That is, local ICTs partnerships, at the level of place, are attempting to shape the space of flows. Four cases are considered in detail. There is the work of the Sunderland Telematics Working Group who have developed a strategic path for the application of ICTs in the city. There is the work of the Wansbeck Initiative, focused on an emerging set of methods to deal with local economic decline and peripheralisation. There is the work of the County Durham Informatics Partnership, led by the county-wide Training and Enterprise Council and supported by the local University, the County Council and a number of local district authorities. And then there is Teesside, a place that has had a number of false starts in commencing on the road to informationalism, due in part to a lack of cohesion in the partnership building process. There is also the work of Northern Informatics who act as part of the bigger regional picture, perhaps suggesting that as these groups take form there may be an ICTs 'turf-war' to consider. This work shows that there is indeed some level of contestation as local ICTs partnerships are formed. Fundamentally, we are at the beginning of something new here, and there can be no predetermined outcome of how local groups attempt to shape the space of flows
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