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1 – 10 of 24Maj Nygaard-Christensen and Bagga Bjerge
The authors investigate two contrasting, yet mutually constitutive strategies for regulating open drug scenes in the city of Aarhus, Denmark: A strategy of dispersing marginalized…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors investigate two contrasting, yet mutually constitutive strategies for regulating open drug scenes in the city of Aarhus, Denmark: A strategy of dispersing marginalized substance users from the inner city, and a simultaneous strategy of inclusion in a new, gentrifying neighbourhood.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors apply a multi-temporal ethnography approach, including data from studies dating back to 2002. This enables us to scrutinize reconfigurations of processes of exclusion and inclusion in urban city life based on studies that in different ways feed into the broader picture of how socially marginalized citizens are included and excluded in urban space.
Findings
The municipality of Aarhus sways between strategies of dispersion and exclusion and those of inclusion of marginalized citizens. Taken together, these strategies constitute a “messy middle ground” (May and Cloke, 2014) in responses to the street people rather than either clear-cut punitive or supportive strategies. Finally, we point to the limit of inclusion in more recent strategies aimed at including marginalized citizens in urban planning of a new, gentrifying neighbourhood.
Originality/value
The article builds on studies that in critical engagement with the dominating focus on punitive or revanchist approaches to regulation of homeless citizens' presence in urban space have shown how such regulating practices are rarely punishing alone. We contribute to this literature by showing how seemingly contradictory attempts to exclude, disperse and include socially marginalized citizens in different urban settings are relational rather than in outright opposition. In continuation of this, we show how dispersal strategies both depend on and are legitimized by the promotion of alternative and more inclusive settings elsewhere.
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In 1993, US Congress launched the Urban Revitalization Demonstration program, later to become known as HOPE VI, a national plan whose declared aim was to transform public housing…
Abstract
In 1993, US Congress launched the Urban Revitalization Demonstration program, later to become known as HOPE VI, a national plan whose declared aim was to transform public housing stock into "bridges of opportunities".
In the following decade, Hope VI has awarded grants to demolish public housing projects and replace them with "attractive developments that not only blend with but enhance the surrounding community while providing housing for families of all incomes" (HUD, 1999). In 1995, Congress repealed the one-for-one replacement requirement and de facto Hope VI was turned primarily into a demolition program.
In 2003, the American Dream Downpayment Act re-authorised the Hope VI program throughout the fiscal year 2006. It now seems that the federal government has no intention to continue its financing.
Despite the extensive debate on the program, a comprehensive analysis of the social, economic and political process underlying the transformation of all the specific sites and a systematic overview of the stories behind these projects, from the first decision to build to the decision to raze are not available.
An atlas with a description of the sites, based on qualitative secondary sources (planning and architecture magazines, urban history and geographic history journals, local authorities reports), and three maps for each of them - before and after the public housing project and after Hope VI, could prove to be very useful. Such a tool would indeed provide the context for an interdisciplinary reflection of how the city affects and is affected by a multitude of variables with particular emphasis on the political controversies on location, and the role of different players - city council, public housing authorities, developers, community residents, unions, the media. At the end, city is "history condensed".
Being impossible for a single researcher to complete such a body of work, this paper intends to make a contribution to the existing literature and focus on the projects built between 1933 and 1949, now demolished or in the way to be demolished in 58 cities, "thanks" to Hope VI (1).
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Mehmet Emin Şalgamcıoğlu and Alper Ünlü
This study compared the gentrification processes in Cihangir and Tarlabasi. The dynamics of the gentrification process in Cihangir is compared with the vastly different…
Abstract
This study compared the gentrification processes in Cihangir and Tarlabasi. The dynamics of the gentrification process in Cihangir is compared with the vastly different gentrification process in Tarlabasi. Interpretations of gentrification are also included in this paper.
The study analyzed the dynamics of the gentrification process in Cihangir, Istanbul (Turkey) to determine the extent of change during the process. Characterization of the Cihangir neighborhood, which distinguishes Cihangir from other gentrified urban areas, is another aspect of this study. The transformation of Cihangir is currently underway; it involves the revolution and renovation of land and buildings, which is known as gentrification. The gentrification process in Cihangir is affected by socio-economic and socio-cultural transformations. This paper examines gentrification in the Cihangir neighborhood, which has occurred spontaneously and supports the perpetuation of social diversity, which occurs in many urban areas. Although Istanbul’s Tarlabasi region exhibits geophysical characteristics that resemble the geophysical characteristics of Cihangir, Tarlabasi is affected by a completely different gentrification process, which is known as planned gentrification.
In the context of this study, scholars question whether gentrification is “erasing the social geography of urban land and unique architectural pattern,” or if gentrification represents “the upgrading and renaissance of the urban land.” (Smith, 1996)
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Homelessness in the public place presents a complex issue to downtown redevelopment and management efforts. Although business communities are commonly perceived to take hostile…
Abstract
Purpose
Homelessness in the public place presents a complex issue to downtown redevelopment and management efforts. Although business communities are commonly perceived to take hostile, often punitive, approaches to deal with homelessness, such perception does not reflect recent alternative approaches. This paper aims to examine versatile approaches that district management organizations take to address homelessness, focusing on the role of business improvement districts (BIDs) in the USA.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper used a mixed method of data collection and analysis that combines a nationwide survey of BIDs and in-depth interviews with people who work at or in collaboration with BIDs in Washington, DC.
Findings
The findings suggest that BIDs, as one of the major organizations that serve the interests of property and business owners in commercial areas, have the potential to balance their traditional roles as a district manager with their alternative roles as advocates, mediators and service providers to address homelessness.
Research limitations/implications
Owing to the small number of BIDs reflected in the survey and interviews, the research results may lack generalizability. Further research on the outcomes of the BID-homeless intervention efforts will benefit the future practice.
Practical implications
The paper suggests that BIDs can implement a more cooperative approach to addressing homelessness in partnership with the public and human service sectors.
Originality/value
This paper discusses the versatile roles of BIDs in dealing with homelessness.
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Tong Wen, Jieyi Li and Zengxian Liang
The purpose of this paper is to explore self-management among informal tourism employees in urban China with the theoretical basis of Jianghu and reveal the forming process and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore self-management among informal tourism employees in urban China with the theoretical basis of Jianghu and reveal the forming process and operation mechanism of China’s urban informal organizations’ self-management.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts process–event analysis of informal tourism photographers surrounding Guangzhou Tower. Conducting field inspection and in-depth interviews, the forming process is analyzed and typical events are captured to unveil this self-management mechanism.
Findings
The self-management of informal tourism employees in China is based on the Jianghu theory, which specifies the role, obligation and responsibility of a member. These above rely on word-of-mouth order or implicit ways to treat newcomers, realize internal communication and deal with public affairs. Brotherhood, benevolence and etiquette make up the core values of the Jianghu theory that advises strategies in dealing with different events. This self-management, based on the Jianghu theory, has not only effectively solved internal conflicts, but has also achieved the goal of social management.
Originality/value
Informal employees’ self-management is extremely important due to the high cost of government intervention. Through China’s urban informal tourism employees’ Jianghu-styled self-management, the paper shows that the government should not crack down on this group indiscriminately. Instead, it should, through the management agent, set up effective Jianghu rules to realize regular control over this group.
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The purpose of this paper is to analyse and reflect on the changing relations of class and power in rural England, with a particular focus on housing.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse and reflect on the changing relations of class and power in rural England, with a particular focus on housing.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews the evidence concerning the changing ownership of housing and land in English rural areas, and the problems relating to this.
Findings
The paper finds that, in spite of huge social changes over the course of the 20th century, relations of class and power in rural England have retained the same basic form, based on landownership. The countryside continues to be dominated by landowners, who now include large numbers of nouveaux riches, while the landless (and carless) find it increasingly difficult to access housing, employment and basic services and amenities in rural areas. Landowner dominance is maintained not only by the rule of private property and property markets, but also by a state planning system that is heavily biased towards landowning classes and against the poor.
Research limitations/implications
The paper recognises that the situation varies from one rural area to another, so that solutions to the rural housing problem need, so far as possible, to be locally negotiated. However, for reasons of space, the paper does not go into detail on this issue, apart from a few references to the situation in Lincolnshire.
Originality/value
The paper is original in the way it shows how “old” and “new” gentry, in spite of their differences in terms of “productivism” and “post‐productivism”, have shared class interests and values based on landownership rights. It is also the first to argue that rural gentrification is a form of revanchism – a thesis that has previously been applied only to urban areas. Data that have been previously argued to show the superiority of rural areas, e.g. fewer homeless, higher incomes, etc. can now be explained as effects of revanchism.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore, through the analysis case, how the revitalization of a historic centre has been carried out and the role of tourism in this process.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore, through the analysis case, how the revitalization of a historic centre has been carried out and the role of tourism in this process.
Design/methodology/approach
This case study area is well-documented as there has been extensive fieldwork on the transformation of the commercial sector in the Monumental Zone of Pontevedra in the last three decades. In order to prepare this paper, a bibliographic review, in-depth interviews, premises registration data and population data have been used.
Findings
The findings show that the processes of change and revitalization do not conform to a single reality common to all historical centres, although similar strategies are developed, the role of the participating actors and, especially, the idiosyncrasy of these spaces change the outcomes. On the one hand, gentrification does not occur and the increase of residential uses is still a goal. On the other hand, the tourism strategy brings more visitors and complements the commerce activity and attraction.
Social implications
The new challenge of these spaces, and the urban contribution from this research, is that in the appropriation of space by citizens, tourism may be a complement for commerce, and shops and hospitality (facilities) make these spaces more livable. Although tourism does not necessarily increase the number of residents, the revenue from tourism may prevent the reoccurrence of abandonment.
Originality/value
The paper focusses on both gentrification and touristification; processes that have led to the substitution of residents and activities and the conflict with the local population and the normalization of urban life. This case has been selected because despite a seemingly successful revitalization process, recently some old threats seem to be returning.
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Raphaël Pieroni and Patrick James Naef
The purpose of this paper is to analyse urban transformation as a tourism resource. Tourism is undeniably a powerful motor for urban transformation but in return, urban…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse urban transformation as a tourism resource. Tourism is undeniably a powerful motor for urban transformation but in return, urban transformation can represent a resource for actors related to tourism. More precisely this paper focuses on one major transformation of modern cities: gentrification.
Design/methodology/approach
The central hypothesis of this paper is that gentrification accompanies tourism, but that gentrification itself may also become an object of the tourist gaze. The paper focuses on local guides and small touristic entrepreneurs in order to identify the tensions that might arise. The presentation of two guided tours – “Subculture Brixton Nightlife Tour” and “Where Brooklyn At?” – will enable us to explore how the gentrification of Brixton (London) and Brooklyn (New York) may be used as a tourism resource for local private entrepreneurs.
Findings
Results presented here are based on ethnographic methods such as observation as well as content analysis and semi-directive interviews. Mobilising the historical concept of “slumming”, this paper proposes an extended conceptual framework, “neo-slumming”, to analyse evolving tourism practices in modern cities, practices that are considered here as tourism’s new frontiers.
Originality/value
However, as tourism transforms cities, the process itself is now of interest to tourists and thus becomes a resource for sector businesses (Naef, 2018). Yet studies about the touristification of urban transformation are still quite rare. This analysis aims to fill this gap by looking at the way a process, such as some spectacular, rapid or radical transformation of the urban fabric, can become a touristic resource associated with specific narratives and representations. In this context, the tourist gaze (Urry, 2002) is directed on a resource characterised by its ongoing change.
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This paper aims to explore how municipal law, in its various guises, serves to police the boundaries of acceptable sexual conduct by considering how Sexual Entertainment Venues…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how municipal law, in its various guises, serves to police the boundaries of acceptable sexual conduct by considering how Sexual Entertainment Venues (SEVs) in British cities are controlled through diverse techniques of licensing and planning control.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper describes the emergence of permissive new licensing controls that provide local authorities considerable control over SEVs. Licensing decisions, judicial review cases and planning inspectorate adjudications since the inception of the new powers are examined to explore the logic of judgements preventing SEVs operating in specific localities.
Findings
Through analysis of case studies, it is shown that local authorities have almost total discretion to prevent SEVs operating in specific localities, particularly those undergoing, or anticipated to be undergoing, redevelopment and regeneration.
Originality/value
This paper offers unique insights on the “scope” of municipal law by highlighting how land uses associated with “sexual minority” interests are regulated in the interests of urban regeneration, redevelopment and restructuring.
Mats Wilhelmsson, Mohammad Ismail and Abukar Warsame
This study aims to measure the occurrence of gentrification and to relate gentrification with housing values.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to measure the occurrence of gentrification and to relate gentrification with housing values.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors have used Getis-Ord statistics to identify and quantify gentrification in different residential areas in a case study of Stockholm, Sweden. Gentrification will be measured in two dimensions, namely, income and population. In step two, this measure is included in a traditional hedonic pricing model where the intention is to explain future housing prices.
Findings
The results indicate that the parameter estimate is statistically significant, suggesting that gentrification contributes to higher housing values in gentrified areas and near gentrified neighbourhoods. This latter possible spillover effect of house prices due to gentrification by income and population was similar in both the hedonic price and treatment effect models. According to the hedonic price model, proximity to the gentrified area increases housing value by around 6%–8%. The spillover effect on price distribution seems to be consistent and stable in gentrified areas.
Originality/value
A few studies estimate the effect of gentrification on property values. Those studies focussed on analysing the impacts of gentrification in higher rents and increasing house prices within the gentrifying areas, not gentrification on property prices in neighbouring areas. Hence, one of the paper’s contributions is to bridge the gap in previous studies by measuring gentrification’s impact on neighbouring housing prices.
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