Showing papers on "Urbanism published in 2002"

New Globalism, New Urbanism: Gentrification as Global Urban Strategy

Abstract: This paper uses several events in New York in the late 1990s to launch two central arguments about the changing relationship between neoliberal urbanism and so–called globalization. First, much as the neoliberal state becomes a consummate agent of—rather than a regulator of—the market, the new revanchist urbanism that replaces liberal urban policy in cities of the advanced capitalist world increasingly expresses the impulses of capitalist production rather than social reproduction. As globalization bespeaks a rescaling of the global, the scale of the urban is recast. The true global cities may be the rapidly growing metropolitan economies of Asia, Latin America, and (to a lesser extent) Africa, as much as the command centers of Europe, North America and Japan. Second, the process of gentrification, which initially emerged as a sporadic, quaint, and local anomaly in the housing markets of some command–center cities, is now thoroughly generalized as an urban strategy that takes over from liberal urban policy. No longer isolated or restricted to Europe, North America, or Oceania, the impulse behind gentrification is now generalized; its incidence is global, and it is densely connected into the circuits of global capital and cultural circulation. What connects these two arguments is the shift from an urban scale defined according to the conditions of social reproduction to one in which the investment of productive capital holds definitive precedence.

Excavating Lefebvre: The right to the city and its urban politics of the inhabitant

Abstract: Much current activism and scholarship has raised concern that the various processes of neoliberal restructuring are threatening democracy More specifically, researchers in geography and other social sciences have stressed that political and economic restructuring in cities is negatively affecting the enfranchisement of urban residents Much recent research and writing has explored progressive responses to this perceived disenfranchisement in cities One popular trend has been a fascination with the idea of the `right to the city' as a way to respond to neoliberal urbanism and better empower urban dwellers I argue that the right to the city holds promise, but that in the literature the idea remains both theoretically and politically underdeveloped It remains unclear (1) what the right to the city entails or (2) how it might address current problems of disenfranchisement This paper examines the right to the city in greater depth It does so by offering a close reading and analysis of the intellectual roots of the idea: the writings of Henri Lefebvre I suggest that Lefebvre's right to the city is more radical, more problematic, and more indeterminate than the current literature makes it seem The paper concludes by suggesting that the right to the city does offer distinct potential for resisting current threats to urban enfranchisement However, the right to the city is not a panacea It must be seen not as a completed solution to current problems, but as an opening to a new urban politics, what I call an urban politics of the inhabitant

Spaces of Neoliberalism: Urban Restructuring in North America and Western Europe

Abstract: Preface:. From the 'New Localisma to the Spaces of Neoliberalism: Neil Brenner (New York University) & Nik Theodore (University of Illinois at Chicago). Part I: The Urbanization of Neoliberalism: Theoretical Foundations:. 1. Cities and the geographies of 'actually existing neoliberalisma : Neil Brenner (New York University) & Nik Theodore (University of Illinois at Chicago). 2. Neoliberalizing space: the free economy and the penal state: Jamie Peck (University of Wisconsin--Madison) & Adam Tickell (University of Bristol). 3. Neoliberalism and socialisation in the contemporary city: opposites, complements and instabilities: Jamie Gough (University of Northumbria). 4. New Globalism, New Urbanism: Gentrification as Global Urban Strategy: Neil Smith (CUNY Graduate Center). Part II: Cities and State Restructuring: Pathways and Contradictions:. 5. Liberalism, Neoliberalism and Urban Governance: A State--Theoretical Pespective: Bob Jessop (Lancaster University). 6. Interpreting Neoliberal Urban Policy: The State, Crisis Management, and the Politics of Scale: Martin Jones (University of Wales) & Kevin Ward (University of Manchester). 7. 'The city is dead, long live the networka : Harnessing networks for the neoliberal urban agenda: Helga Leitner (University of Minnesota) & Eric Sheppard (University of Minnestota). 8. Extracting Value from the City: Neoliberalism and Urban Redevelopment: Rachel Weber (University of Illinois at Chicago). Part III: New Geographies of Power: Exclusion and Injustice:. 9. Neoliberal urbanization in Europe: large scale urban development projects and the new urban policy: Erik Swyngedouw (Oxford University), Frank Moulaert (University of Lille) & Arantxa Rodriguez (University of the Basque Country). 10. Retro--Urbanism: Reliving the Dreams of 1980s Neoliberalism in Toronto, Canada: Roger Keil (York University, Toronto). 11. Spatializing injustice in the late entrepreneurial city: Unraveling the contours of Britaina s revanchist urbanism: Gordon MacLeod (University of Durham).

From Urban Entrepreneurialism to a “Revanchist City”? On the Spatial Injustices of Glasgow’s Renaissance

Abstract: Recent perspectives on the American city have highlighted the extent to which the economic and sociospatial contradictions generated by two decades of "actually existing" neoliberal urbanism appear to demand an increasingly punitive or "revanchist" political response. At the same time, it is increasingly being acknowledged that, after embracing much of the entrepreneurial ethos, European cities are also confronting sharpening inequalities and entrenched social exclusion. Drawing on evidence from Glasgow, the paper assesses the dialectical relations between urban entrepreneurialism, its escalating contradictions, and the growing compulsion to meet these with a selective appropriation of the revanchist political repertoire.

Urban Transformation in China, 1949 – 2000: A Review and Research Agenda:

Abstract: Through a review of the literature, the author identifies the achievements as well as the deficiencies in the study of China's urbanization and urbanism in the second half of the 20th century. A number of issues that merit scholarly research are suggested and the need for theorization is emphasized. During the last half century, Chinese cities underwent dramatic transformations as a consequence of two major systemic changes. During the first three decades after the socialist revolution of 1949, sustained low levels of urbanization and a brief episode of antiurbanism accompanied centralized planning and city-based industrialization. Since the economic reforms of 1978 Chinese cities have witnessed major economic and spatial shifts away from the socialist patterns. Among the many facets of urban transformation since 1978 are a more heterogeneous urban population, rural – urban migration, spatial reorganization through urban land-use change, new housing development, globalization, suburbanization, polycentric...

“Common–Sense” Neoliberalism: Progressive Conservative Urbanism in Toronto, Canada

Abstract: This paper argues that urban neoliberalism can best be understood as a contradictory re–regulation of urban everyday life. Based on an analysis of neoliberalism as a new political economy and as a new set of technologies of power, the paper argues that the urban everyday is the site and product of the neoliberal transformation. Governments and corporations play a key role in redefining the conditions of everyday life through neoliberal policies and business practices. Part of this reorientation of everydayness, however, involves new forms of resistance and opposition, which include the kernel of a possible alternative urbanism. The epochal shift from a Keynesian–Fordist–welfarist to a post–Fordist–workfarist society is reflected in a marked restructuring of everyday life. The shift changes the socioeconomic conditions in cities. It also includes a reorientation of identities, social conflicts, and ideologies towards a more explicitly culturalist differentiation. Social difference does not disappear, but actually becomes more pronounced; however, it gets articulated in or obscured by cultural terms of reference. The paper looks specifically at Toronto, Ontario, as a case study. An analysis of the explicitly neoliberal politics of the province’s Progressive Conservative (Tory) government under Mike Harris, first elected in 1995, demonstrates the pervasive re–regulation of everyday life affecting a wide variety of people in Toronto and elsewhere. Much of this process is directly attributable to provincial policies, a consequence of Canada’s constitutional system, which does not give municipalities autonomy but makes them “creatures of provinces.” However, the paper also argues that Toronto’s elites have aided and abetted the provincial “Common–Sense” Revolution through neoliberal policies and actions on their own. The paper concludes by outlining the emergence of new instances of resistance to the politics of hegemony and catastrophe of urban neoliberalism.

The New Urbanism: Critiques and Rebuttals

Abstract: Over the past two decades, the New Urbanism has emerged as a contro- versial alternative to conventional patterns of urban development. Although growing in popularity, it has received a sceptical reception in journals of planning, architecture and geography. This paper reviews criticisms of the New Urbanism and examines evidence and arguments on both sides of each issue. Critiques may be roughly divided into those involving empirical performance, ideological and cultural afe nities, and aesthetic qual- ity. While insufe cient evidence exists in some cases to make e nal judgments, it is argued that the critical attack on the New Urbanism remains unconvincing. Much of the critical literature is e awed by the use of caricature, inadequate sampling of projects, dee cient understanding of New Urbanist principles and practices, premature judgments, unreal- istic expectations and ideological bias. While New Urbanists can learn from the critiques of their work, and research gaps need to be e lled, the New Urbanism remains a resilient, practical and well-founded alternative to conventional land development practices.

Transnational Urbanism in the Reform-era Chinese City: Landscapes from Shenzhen:

Abstract: While the conventions of area studies scholarship have historically limited landscape analysis in China, the globalisation of scholarship and the new built environments of the reform-era Chinese city invite contemporary assessment. In Shenzhen, China's leading Special Economic Zone, the planning and construction of a new city centre complex are designed to symbolise the city's transformation from a manufacturing zone to a 'world city' and to function as its service-sector core. This landscape analysis applies the perspective of transnational urbanism to assess how the effort to instantiate 'world city' status in the built environment works through plans, ideologies and representations of domestic and transnational elites to establish legitimacy. The continuing strong role of the state in China makes the production of a new city centre a state-dominated enterprise; contesting meanings of these new landscapes takes place indirectly and symbolically in the arena of the state's spiritual civilisation campaign.

Biopolis: Patrick Geddes and the City of Life

Abstract: An examination of the work and influence of Scottish urban planner and theorist Patrick Geddes. The Scottish urbanist and biologist Patrick Geddes (1854-1932) is perhaps best known for introducing the concept of "region" to architecture and planning. At the turn of the twentieth century, he was one of the strongest advocates of town planning and an active participant in debates about the future of the city. He was arguably the first planner to recognize the importance of historic city centers, and his renewal work in Edinburgh's Old Town is visible and impressive to this day. Geddes's famous analytical triad-place, work, and folk, corresponding to the geographical, historical, and spiritual aspects of the city-provides the basic structure of this examination of his urban theory. Volker Welter examines Geddes's ideas in the light of nineteenth-century biology-in which Geddes received his academic training-showing Geddes's use of biological concepts to be far more sophisticated than popular images of the city as an organic entity. His urbanism was informed by his lifelong interest in the theory of evolution and in ecology, cutting-edge areas in the late nineteenth century. Balancing Geddes's biological thought is his interest in the historical Greek concept of polis, usually translated as city-state but implying a view of the city as a cultural and spiritual phenomenon. Although Geddes's work was far-ranging, the city provided the unifying focus of nearly all of his theoretical and practical work. Throughout the book, Welter relates Geddes's theory of the city to contemporary European debates about architecture and urbanism.

In defence of utopian urbanism: imagining cities after the ‘end of utopia’

Abstract: What is the role of utopian visions of the city today? What is their use at a time when, for many people, the very concept of utopia has come to an end? Taking a wide perspective on contemporary de...

Urban task force

Abstract: The Urban Task Force Report has brought to our attention, that English towns and cities today require a new renaissance. The comprehensive planning has retarded urban living (Urban Renaissance, Sharing the Vision 01.99, 1999). Forty percent of inner-urban housing stock is subsidized 'social' housing. A review of the demographic and development trends have lead to the UK Government’s new urban policy that prioritizes the regeneration of towns and cities by building on recycled urban land and protecting the countryside. As result, Urban Task Force (UTF) was founded the with the following aims To identify causes of urban decline in England; To recommend practical solutions how to bring people back into cities; To establish a new vision for urban regeneration based on the principles of design excellence, social well being and environmental responsibility within a viable economic and legislative framework (Urban Task Force, 1999:1). This paper represents the analysis of the economic and political effects of the program and its viability.

From Chicago to L.A. : making sense of urban theory

Abstract: LOS ANGELES AND THE 'LA SCHOOL' The Resistible Rise of the Los Angeles School - Michael J Dear and Steven Flusty Demographic Dynamism in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Washington, DC - Dowell Myers Los Angeles as Postmodern Urbanism - Michael J Dear and Steven Flusty CITY OF INDUSTRY Industry and the Landscapes of Social Reform - Greg Hise Los Angeles as a Developmental City-State - Steven P Erie Industrial Urbanism in Late Twentieth-Cenctury Southern California - Allen J Scott RECONSIDERING COMMUNITY From Immigrants in the City, to Immigrant City - Jerome Straughan and Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo The Globalization of Urban Homelessness - Madeleine R Stoner 'Play Groups' no Longer - Cheryl L Maxson & Malcom W Klein Urban Sreet Gangs in the Los Angeles Region Religion in Los Angeles - Donald E Miller Patterns of Spiritual Practice in a Postmodern City Ecologies of Cyberspace - J Dallas Dishman Gay Communities on the Internet RE-VISIONING URBAN THEORY Representing "Los Angeles" - Darnell M Hunt Media, Space, and Place Returning to Ecology - Ashwani Vasishth and David C Sloane An Ecosystem Approach to Understanding the City Urban Nature and the Nature of Urbanism - Jennifer Wolch, Stephanie Pincetl and Laura Pulido Saber Y Conocer - Phillip J Ethington and Martin Meeker The Metropolis of Urban Inquiry The LA School - Michael J Dear A Personal Introduction

Social Capital and New Urbanism: Leading a Civic Horse to Water?

Abstract: New Urbanism has been ascendant in the last several decades, riding its promise as a strategy to reduce suburban sprawl and automobile dependence, while increasingly fostering stronger communities. The number of neighborhood-scale New Urbanist projects completed or under way rose 37 percent in 2001 to more than two hundred developments in thirty-nine states, up from a 25 percent increase in 1999 and a 28 percent increase in 2000.1 But does New Urbanism work? Does New Urbanist design produce stronger communities, viewed through the lens of social capital? This is not an easy research task, so in this article I discuss research challenges as well as possible approaches. Given the complexity of this issue, it is perhaps best to start with a review of social capital and New Urbanism before considering their interaction.2

Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism: Concepts, Technologies, Examples

Abstract: This volume provides an overview of the various approaches and developments in sustainable architecture, followed by an in-depth section on urbanism looking at several European towns. In the third section, the technologies, materials and methods of ecological architecture are examined. The volume concludes with 23 examples from Europe, which include works of Metron, Behnisch & Partner, Sonia Cortesse, Ian Ritchie and Kauffmann Thelig & Partner, amongst others. The author is an architect and has specialized in energy and environmental issues and ecological architecture for over 15 years. She is the author of a monograph on the firm Behnisch & Partner.

The Castells Reader on Cities and Social Theory

Abstract: List of Figures. List of Tables. Acknowledgments. Manuel Castells: Conceptualizing the City in the Information Age: Ida Susser. Part I: A Theoretical Approach to the City in Advanced Capitalism:. 1. Urbanization (1972):. Epistemological Introduction. The Historical Process of Urbanization. The Urban Phenomenon. 2. The Urban Ideology (1972):. The Myth of Urban Culture. From Urban Society to Urban Revolution. The Urban Sub--cultures. Part II: Social Movements and Urban Culture:. 3. Immigrant Workers and Class Struggles in Advanced Capitalism: The Western European Experience (1975). 4. Collective Consumption and Urban Contradictions in Advanced Capitalism (1978). 5. City and Culture: The San Francisco Experience (1983). San Francisco: The Social Basis of Urban Quality. Urban Poverty, Ethnic Minorities and Community Organization: The Experience of Neighbourhood Mobilization in San Franciscoa s Mission District. Cultural Identity, Sexual Liberation and Urban Structure: The Gay Community in San Francisco. Methodological Appendix. Part III: The City in the Information Age:. 6. The Informational Mode of Development and the Restructuring of Capitalism (1989). 7. Information Technology, the Restructuring of Capital--Labor Relationships and the Rise of the Dual City (1989). 8. The Space of Flows (1996, second edition 2000). 9. The Culture of Cities in the Information Age (new essay ,1999). Conclusion: Urban Sociology in the Twenty--first Century (new essay, 2000). Bibliography of Urban and Regional Studies by Manuel Castells, 1967--2000. Index.

Dialectical urbanism : social struggles in the capitalist city

Abstract: Life in the city can be both liberating and oppressive. The contemporary city is an arena in which new and unexpected personal identities and collective agencies are forged and at the same time the major focus of market forces intent on making all life a commodity. This book explores both sides of the urban experience, developing a perspective from which the contradictory nature of the politics of the city comes more clearly into view. Dialectical Urbanism discusses a range of urban issues, conflicts and struggles through detailed case studies set in Liverpool, Baltimore, New York, and Los Angeles. Issues which affect the quality of everyday life in the citygentrification and development, affordable rents, the accountability of local government, the domination of the urban landscape by new corporate giants, policingare located in the context of larger political and economic forces. At the same time, the narrative constantly returns to those moments in which city dwellers discover and develop their capacity to challenge larger forces and decide their own conditions of life, becoming active citizens rather than the passive consumers. Merrifield draws on a wide range of sourcesfrom interviews with activists and tenants fighting eviction to government and corporate reportsand uncovers surprising connections, for example, between the rise of junk bonds in the 1980s and urban improvement schemes in a working-class neighborhood in Baltimore. This lively and many-sided narrative is constantly informed by broader analyses and reflections on the city and engages with these analyses in turn. It fuses scholarship and political engagement into a powerful defense of the possibilities of life in the metropolis today.

Empire City: The Making and Meaning of the New York City Landscape

Abstract: Acknowledgments Introduction: Can a City Be Planned? Bryant's Questions City Building Urbanism City and Nation 1. Metropolis and Nation Saint Olmsted and Frederick the Great Allegories of the National Cityscape The American Metropolis The Class World of Bourgeois Urbanism The Meanings of Empire Olmsted's Return 2. The Midcentury Boom The American Museum Overview of a Boom Terminals and Tenements The Eternal Building Up and Pulling Down May Day 3. The Rule of Real Estate Myth of Origins The Landscape of Accumulation The Discipline of Land Values The March of Improvement The Logic of the Grid Dreamland 4. The Frictions of Space Uneven Development Arterial Sclerosis Modernization and Its Discontents Boundaries and Boundarilessness The New Urbanism 5. Imagining the Imperial Metropolis Imagined Prospects The Bridge Between Capital and Culture Eros and Civilization Second Empire Disciplining the Streets Urbane Domesticity Melodrama 6. The Politics of City Building The Emperor of New York Best Men, Businessmen, and Boosters City Building and State Building City Blocs The Politics of Stewardship The Modern Prince 7. Uptownutopia Overruling the Grid Inside Out: The Paradoxes of Central Park An Urbanism of the Periphery Cheap Trains and Cottage Suburbs The Uptown Prospect 8. The Failure of Bourgeois Urbanism The Meanings of Reconstmction The Legacies of Bourgeois Urbanism The End of the Boom and the Politics of Retrenchment The Battle for the Annexed District The March of Improvement, 1890 Appendix: Statistical Tables Notes Index

Monumental Europe: The National Years. On the Iconography of European Capital Cities

Abstract: This is a study of the historical processes and the symbolic forms which made Berlin, Brussels, London, Madrid, Paris, Rome, St. Petersburg/Moscow, and Vienna, into national capital cities. The preceding historical background are ecclesiastical sees, trading centres, and dynastic residence cities. Paris of the French Revolution meant the launching of a capital of the nation, a process then gathering momentum in the 19th century, taking different expressions due to different national politics. Public buildings, the layout of public space, the character of monuments, and urban nomenclature are foci of analysis.

The Making of Revolutionary Paris

Abstract: List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction PART I THE SOCIAL ORDER OF CUSTOMARY PARIS 1 The Patterns of Urban Life 2 The Poor You Have with You Always 3 Not Servants but Workers 4 Each According to His Station PART II CITY GOVERNMENT AND POPULAR DISCONTENT 5 Bread, Police, and Protest 6 Wolves in Sheep's Clothing: Religion and Politics PART III MAKING A NEW ROME 7 Affaires du Temps 8 Secularization 9 Urbanism or Despotism? 10 The Integration of the City 11 Plebeian Culture, Metropolitan Culture 12 The City and the Revolution Epilogue The New Paris Notes Selected Reading Index

Planning Latin America's capital cities, 1850-1950

Abstract: Foreword Anthony Sutcliffe 1. Introduction Arturo Almandoz 2. Urbanism and Urbanism in Latin America: from Haussmann to CIAM Arturo Almandoz Part 1: Capitals of the Booming Economies 3. Buenos Aires, A Great European City Ramon Gutierrez 4. The Times of the Capitals. Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo: Words, Actors, and Plans Margareth da Silva Pereira 5. Cities Within the City: Urban and Architectural Transfers - Santiago de Chile 1840-1940 Fernando Perez Oyarzun and Jose Rosas Vera Part 2: Early Viceregal Capitals 6. The Urban Development of Mexico City, 1850-1930 Carol McMichael Reese 7. The Script of Urban Surgery : Lima, 1850-1940 Gabriel Ramon Part 3: The Caribbean Rim and Central America 8. Havana, from Tacon to Forestier Roberto Segre 9. Caracas: Territory, Architecture and Urban Space Lorenzo Gonzalez Casas 10. Urbanism, Architecture, and Cultural Transformations in San Jose, Costa Rica 1850-1930 Florencia Quesada 11. Conclusions Arturo Almandoz

The study of urban form in Italy

Abstract: This paper demonstrates the strong relationship between urban morphology and urban design within the Italian traditions of architecture and urbanism. Attention is focused on the work of architects and urban planners during the twentieth century, the period in which urban morphology and urban design emerged in Italy. A common cultural background shared by all those contributing to the field is the concept of 'type' and the assertion of a close connection between urban morphology and building typology. In contrast, different positions emerge in the interpretation of what the contemporary city should be, and this has, in turn, had an influence on the analysis of urban form. For this reason the typological debate in Italy has always had a strong ideological component. Instead of a common attempt at mutual understanding, urban morphology has been strongly characterized by a systematic, reciprocal misunderstanding among its followers. This paper attempts to define the multiplicity of cultural positions within the field according to the particular design and planning goals of those positions, in the conviction that the complexity of the current urban phenomenon can no longer be confronted from a single point of view.

Urban regeneration experiences in Brazil: Historical preservation, tourism development and gentrification in Salvador da Bahia

Abstract: Brazil has little experience in balanced urban regeneration and historical preservation projects when compared to more mature countries such as the Europeans. However the recent experience of Salvador da Bahia seems to be worth studying. The Pelourinho historic district is a distinguished example of Portuguese Renaissance urban development, hosting colonial architecture typologies from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Since the late 19th century the area has undergone a remarkable decay process being progressively abandoned by economic activities and population. After the area was considered World Heritage by UNESCO in 1985 both municipal and state governments have taken actions to promote its regeneration. This paper analyses this process considering its implications within the urban design framework. The first part analyses the area morphology as a result of Portugal Colonial policies. The second part assesses degradation as a result of the birth and rise of modern urban planning in Brazil and Bahia. In the next parts the actions of municipal and state authorities are considered as well as their implications considering the economic activities and existing population involved. The conclusion remarks the importance of Salvador experience, establishing its pros and cons.

Making the Good Easy: The Smart Code Alternative

Abstract: It is legally difficult to build good urban places in the United States. The vast majority of conventional zoning codes prohibit the replication of our best examples of urbanism--places like Nantucket, Williamsburg, or even "Main Street U.S.A." in Disneyland. This situation has been profoundly damaging. Our current codes are based on a theory of urbanism that is decidedly anti-urban. They separate land uses, decrease densities, and increase the amount of land devoted to car travel, prohibiting the kind of urbanism that typifies our most beloved urban places. Ironically, by being anti-urban, conventional codes are also anti-environment. Through separation, districting, and rigid statistical procedure, zoning has forced us to think in terms of separating the human habitat from the natural one when they are really co-dependent. The natural environment is better protected when cities are viable places for humans to live. Conventional zoning, however fails to recognize this reality by prohibiting true urbanism and substituting it with the "anti-city" (1)--a landscape composed of monofunctional, single-use zones. True urbanism is diverse, compact, pedestrian, and celebratory of the public realm. Conventional zoning gives us only a disaggregated version of urbanism, commonly known as sprawl, which does not constitute a viable human habitat. What is needed is a fundamentally different vision of how cities should be coded. This article lays out an example of a completely new genre of urban planning code--the Smart Code. (2) The Smart Code exemplifies how the principles of urbanism and environmentalism can be mutually protected and enhanced. It is strongly aligned with the notion of "smart growth," a planning and environmentalist movement based on the goals of environmental protection and sustainable development. (3) The Smart Code is based on an explicit, normative theory, known as the Transect, that links human and natural environments in one conceptually continuous system. (4) The Transect concept promotes an urban pattern that is sustainable, coherent in design, and composed of an array of livable, humane environments. (5) Its principles are aligned with those of ecological and regional planners and urban theorists who have called for the need for a more enlightened approach to our current methods of urban expansion and regulation. (6) I. SMART GROWTH CONCEPTS Principles of smart growth, sustainable development, and New Urbanism have dominated discussions about urban form and sprawl in the last decade. (7) In its call for compact development, mixed use, and public transit, smart growth has naturally allied with a number of movements: historic preservation, downtown redevelopment, environmentalism, visual quality, public transit, bicycling, and pedestrianism. (8) The need for smart growth extends beyond the bounds of urban planning practice. The problem of urban deconcentration has been expounded by environmentalists, (9) as well as economists. (10) Both groups are now intimately involved in exposing the liabilities of current urban growth patterns. Environmentalists speak of the need to reduce the ecological footprint of cities, whereas economists speak in terms of rectifying externalities and social costs. In either case, the objectives are fundamentally the same. Many authors have focused on designing specific solutions to these consolidated views. They have addressed the need for compact, walkable urban areas with mixed uses that re-invigorate the public realm; lessen reliance on auto use; enable public transit; and socially, culturally, and economically integrate regions. (11) Smart growth principles address two related problems: spatial separation of land use and lack of mobility. Remedies for the problem of spatial separation include mixing land uses and creating diverse environments similar to traditional, older cities. …

Gated communities in South Africa: building bridges or barriers?

Abstract: This paper describes the manifestation of gated communities in South Africa and its impact on the privatisation of public urban space, services and governance. Following this discussion, the paper contextualises gated communities within the spatial design theories of Post Modern Urbanism and then investigates the relationship between spatial transformation and territorial governance as expressed through gated communities in South Africa. It is clear from previous research that there is a relationship between the reconstruction of space (re-definition of boundaries and realms) and the recent growth of territorial governance in the country, as exemplified by the growth of home-owners associations, bodies-corporate and private firms managing enclosed or demarcated areas. The paper concludes with a discussion around the question of whether gated communities contribute to building bridges or barriers in South Africa.

Sprawl, Politics, and Participation: A Preliminary Analysis

Abstract: Advocates of smart growth and other policies intended to constrain urban sprawl increasingly cite a desire to rebuild community as a primary objective of, and rationale for, reshaping America’s built environment. Authors Kaid Benfield, Jutka Terris, and Nancy Vorsanger write in their fine book Solving Sprawl that “smart growth helps restore a sense of community by building more compact neighborhoods that are walkable, with sidewalks and safe crossings as well as home and shop entrances close enough to the street to be convenient and inviting.”1 Recent publications of the Congress for the New Urbanism stress themes of “building social capital” and “reviving community” in making the case for pedestrian-friendly places modeled on a small town downtown, not on a strip mall. These claims by New Urbanist scholars and their allies have an intrinsic plausibility; a place that looks and feels like a coherent community should help produce citizens who are better able to identify with where they live and are more engaged in civic and political life. New Urbanists can also point to a handful of studies that seem to reinforce these claims. Perhaps most impressively, Robert Putnam’s analysis of national data on civic participation concluded that a ten-minute increase in the average commuting time of a locality is associated with roughly a 10 percent decline in the rate of civic participation in that locale.2

Large Scale Urban Development Projects and Local Governance: from Democratic Urban Planning to Besieged Local Governance

Abstract: This article analyses the interaction between social exclusion in the city, the implementation of large scale development projects and changes in urban governance. The first part of the article analyses the evolution in urban restructuring tendencies and its consequen ces for social exclusion.and integration mechanisms. The relationships between urban restructuring and changes in urban public policy are reflected in the rise of the New Urban Policy* that has provided increasing freedom of action to urban developers and public-private ventures in which the market logic predominates. The remainder of the article focuses on specific features of urban policy and governance as they appear from the case-studies covered in this issue: the physical bias of urban policy, the challenge of mainstream policy by integrated approaches to neighbourhood development, the rise of 'exceptionality' procedures in urban planning, and the threat of New Urban Policy to the good working of local democracy.