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Dissertation

Business Improvement Areas and the Justification of Urban Revitalization: Using the Pragmatic Sociology of Critique to Understand Neoliberal Urban Governance

01 Sep 2019-
About: The article was published on 2019-09-01 and is currently open access. It has received None citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Urban sociology & Social order.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used case studies of business improvement districts in Los Angeles to show that they can be problematic in operation and that BIDs offer a means of delivering limited objectives in relation to city centre renewal.
Abstract: Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) have been widely adopted in the USA as a means of bringing about enhanced service provision and broader regeneration impacts, and interest is now turning to the use of such mechanisms in the UK. However, the fundamental differences between the administrative and social contexts of the USA and the UK mean that BIDs would have to be significantly adapted for application in the UK. Moreover, research conducted by the authors, using case studies of BIDs in Los Angeles, indicates that they can be problematic in operation. Nevertheless, BIDs offer a means of delivering limited objectives in relation to city centre renewal.

84 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jun 1996-Cities
TL;DR: Town centre management in the UK has been extensively studied in the literature as discussed by the authors, with a focus on the role of place marketing and its contribution to urban revitalization, which aims to raise the profile and public awareness of the locality among residents and visitors.

83 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper suggested some alternative theories of local culture, drawing on concepts of cultural politics (from Stuart Hall), structures of feeling (Raymond Williams), cultural capital (Pierre Bourdieu) and local knowledge (Clifford Geertz).
Abstract: Much of the recent ‘locality studies’ literature suffers from a poorly theorised conception of the cultural dimensions of social and economic change. Despite frequent references to political cultures, regional traditions, and local loyalties, the emphasis of most ‘locality studies’ has been on questions of employment, spatial divisions of labour, and the geography of production, specified in terms of local labour markets. There has been some discussion of the social definition of skill, the meaning of ‘work’, and the intersection of class and gender relations in particular places at specific times. But the significance of local cultures has been much less carefully theorised, leading to an unnecessarily truncated analysis of urban and regional change. The author suggests some alternative theorisations of ‘local culture’, drawing on concepts of cultural politics (from Stuart Hall), structures of feeling (Raymond Williams), cultural capital (Pierre Bourdieu) and local knowledge (Clifford Geertz). These noti...

83 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a participatory mapping project and messages on a neighborhood e-mail list were analyzed to compare the visions of place expressed by disempowered community members and by an NBID proposal.
Abstract: While research on business improvement districts (BIDs) has considered the constraints BIDs can place on the negotiation of public space and citizenship, little work has focused on the process of establishing neighborhood BIDs (NBIDs), and few scholars have examined perceptions of public space held by actual neighborhood constituents. This article analyzes a participatory mapping project and messages on a neighborhood e-mail list to compare the visions of place expressed by disempowered community members and by an NBID proposal. Our analysis illuminates how local power relations and inequalities can become inscribed in urban planning projects like NBIDs.

82 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: The authors examines the links between the urban environment, the social structure, and collective psychology and stresses the need for a theoretical and empirical foundation for studying the connections between urban desolation and symbolic denigration of poor neighborhoods.
Abstract: This paper is based on the ethnographic description of a devastated corridor of Chicago’s collapsing black ghetto at the end of the century and examines the links between the urban environment, the social structure, and collective psychology. It stresses the need for a theoretical and empirical foundation for studying the connections between urban desolation and symbolic denigration of poor neighborhoods in the polarized metropolises of advanced societies. It also discusses how the everyday experience of material shortages, ethnoracial seclusion, and socioeconomic marginality corrodes the self, stresses interpersonal ties, and skews public policy driven by the negative perceptions of these infamous places.

82 citations