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1 – 10 of over 13000This chapter provides a critical examination of the urban renewal process currently taking place in inner-city Johannesburg. It evaluates the effects of an approach to providing…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter provides a critical examination of the urban renewal process currently taking place in inner-city Johannesburg. It evaluates the effects of an approach to providing social housing which blends commercial, market-based practices with state intervention and regulation and discusses the implications these competing imperatives have for the area and academic understandings of urban renewal.
Methodology/approach
Findings are based on a qualitative research process, carried out over 9 months in inner-city Johannesburg. Research involved interviews with property developers, housing providers, government officials, and tenants living in renovated social and affordable housing developments.
Findings
The process is contradictory and overburdened, and attempts to fulfill competing goals and agendas. Some developmental ambitions are being realized as the supply of social and affordable housing is expanding. However, the benefits are limited, as poor communities are being displaced and, in many cases, commercial concerns trump social and developmental considerations.
Social implications
Findings highlight the ways in which a range of political circumstances, policy decisions, and spatial conditions combine to create an approach to renewal which is neither entirely neoliberal nor developmental. The case study complicates narratives which stress the global dominance of neoliberal approaches to urban renewal and demonstrates that alternative developmental ambitions exist alongside commercial practices.
Originality/value
The chapter highlights the ambiguity and hybridity of localized approaches to housing provision. In doing so it adds nuance to debates about urban processes around the globe and draws attention back to the uncertainty, agency, and diversity which are continuously shaping urban societies.
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L. Janelle Dance, Dae Young Kim and Thomas Bern
Urban sociological research posits a strong correlation between social isolation and the growth in illicit activities of street culture, namely the drug trade and violent gang…
Abstract
Urban sociological research posits a strong correlation between social isolation and the growth in illicit activities of street culture, namely the drug trade and violent gang activities. However, in this article we offer an explanation for why, even in the absence of extreme poverty and social isolation from mainstream institutions, youths in Cambridge, Massachusetts feel vulnerable to illicit street cultural activities. We also offer an explanation for why these youths perceive the effects of social dislocation to be similar to that experienced by youths from larger central cities. As we will elaborate below, some students in Cambridge are affected by illicit street cultural activities because: (1) social dislocation is a relative phenomenon and not merely an absolute phenomenon as described by William J. Wilson; (2) there is a social dislocation spill‐over effect from larger central cities that intensifies or amplifies the experiences of youths in the relatively poorer neighborhoods of Cambridge; (3) and some youths, from stable working‐class or wealthier neighborhoods in Cambridge, view involvement in the illicit activities of street culture as a reputable means of gaining peer respect through status group affiliation.
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Ven Sriram, Tigineh Mersha and Lanny Herron
Successful new venture creation may be one solution to many of the economic problems that affect the mostly minority populations that live in US inner cities. This paper sets out…
Abstract
Purpose
Successful new venture creation may be one solution to many of the economic problems that affect the mostly minority populations that live in US inner cities. This paper sets out to develop a model and a set of research questions that may help increase understanding of African‐American entrepreneurship.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper provides an integrated review of the literature from the USA and Europe pertaining to minority entrepreneurial behavior and achievement. It identifies challenges faced by African‐American urban entrepreneurs and suggests a set of interventions that can enhance entrepreneurial success in the inner cities. The paper then poses a set of research questions with a particular focus on African‐Americans and presents an integrative model that can serve as a framework to examine these questions.
Findings
The model posits that motivation and skills drive entrepreneurial behavior and that availability of resources has a moderating effect on both entrepreneurial behavior and achievement. In addition to explaining entrepreneurship in general, the proposed model also suggests that specific variables may work differently for different subcultures.
Practical implications
If this model is supported by empirical evidence, it will have significant implications for formulating appropriate interventions that would enable the successful start‐up and management of new business ventures in different subcultures. It will be of value to cities in the USA, Europe and elsewhere that have large minority populations, and can better inform programs that impart entrepreneurial skills and training.
Originality/value
This paper adds to the growing literature that recognizes that the drivers of entrepreneurial pursuit are frequently embedded in culture. While this has been studied cross‐nationally, few studies examine this aspect within a heterogeneous society.
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The purpose of this paper is to show the changes to date between the apartheid (ideological) and democratic use and management of public space. The abolition of apartheid laws in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show the changes to date between the apartheid (ideological) and democratic use and management of public space. The abolition of apartheid laws in urban areas led to a great deal of contestation for space and also to new forms of management of public space.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper looks briefly at the background which led to public space being “reserved” on a racial basis. It then examines examples of the contestation for space that developed with the relaxation and, finally, abolition of apartheid legislation. It finally provides and discusses some of the solutions that have developed in both the use and management of public space.
Findings
Little has been practically resolved in relation to contestation over various aspects of urban public space. Where public space interventions have been private sector led, such interventions are not without their own difficulties.
Research limitations/implications
Generally the paper confines itself to Johannesburg. The paper relies on the personal experience of the author and research of written material – time constraints have not permitted research through questionnaires.
Practical implications
The practical implications of the results to date are summarised and recommendations made for application to other South African towns and cities.
Originality/value
Relatively little is available on the practical applications of the subject matter in South Africa. The paper could be of value in developing further debates, both in South Africa and in world cities subject to mass immigration.
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Wangjing is a large residential cluster located at the intersection of the Fourth Ring Road and the airport expressway in the northeast part of Beijing. The area is a “suburb”…
Abstract
Wangjing is a large residential cluster located at the intersection of the Fourth Ring Road and the airport expressway in the northeast part of Beijing. The area is a “suburb” according to official statistics and academic accounts, which often classify urban areas beyond the historical old city as suburbs. Due to its proximity to the airport and major expressways, Wangjing has developed quickly since the late 1990s. As more high-rise luxury apartment buildings get built, the area's population has reached 150,000 as of 2010, including more than 30,000 foreign expatriates living here amid Chinese urban professionals. Across the airport expressway from Wangjing is the 798 Factory, a hip arts quarter developed within a former electronics factory built in the 1950s. Looking for large studio space, a few artists moved into the Bauhaus-style workshops here in the late 1990s, and quickly bookstores, coffee shops, and galleries followed suit. By 2005, the 798 Factory had become the center of the contemporary Chinese art scene and home to many prestigious international galleries. Outside the factory compound is a working-class neighborhood developed in the 1950s to house workers at the nearby factories and their families. The living conditions here have not changed much for decades, with some families still sharing common kitchens and bathrooms with their neighbors in dilapidated apartment buildings. To the west side of Wangjing, after about a 15-minute drive along the Fourth Ring Road, one reaches the Olympic Park, a brand-new area of parks, stadiums, five-star hotels, golf courses, and exclusive gated communities of villas – all developed in the short period before the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Beyond the Fifth Ring Road, one can see many “urban villages,” former agricultural villages that have become populated by migrant workers with low-paid jobs – taxi drivers, construction workers, waiters, nannies, security guards, and street vendors. Unable to afford to live in the central city, migrant workers rent rooms from local peasants at the city's edge. Many of these villages are to be demolished soon to make space for commercial property development, and the migrant worker tenants will have to move to another village farther away from the city.
The search for new approaches to inner city problems has been stepped up following the recent disturbances in Brixton, Toxteth and Moss Side, but clearly (here is no simple…
Abstract
The search for new approaches to inner city problems has been stepped up following the recent disturbances in Brixton, Toxteth and Moss Side, but clearly (here is no simple solution. Certainly, the answer does not depend solely on the amount of money ploughed into the areas because, as Mr Heseltine has argued, “very large sums of public money are already being spent, and they do not always appear to have solved the problems of our cities.” Instead, any improvement is likely to come from a variety of sources — political, social and financial. This article examines the contribution that retailers can make.
The Royal Institute of British Architects' Inner Cities Committee was formed in May 1986 at the invitation of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. It had the following terms of…
Abstract
The Royal Institute of British Architects' Inner Cities Committee was formed in May 1986 at the invitation of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. It had the following terms of reference: ‘To promote a report recommending actions that can be taken to assist in alleviating the problems of our inner cities, with particular emphasis on the future form of the cities and on effective means of attracting private investment and the greater participation of people in their own environment.’ The Committee published its report in May 1987 and its appearance coincided with the first days of the general election campaign. All three major parties featured the inner cities as important elements of their manifestos, but none was in any way specific about the mechanisms by which regeneration could be achieved. The report's detailed proposals for a national approach to the organisation and funding of renewal, are in sharp contrast to the generalities of many of the political speech‐writers. This paper briefly summarises the report. Shortly after it was submitted for publication, the newly‐returned Conservative Government announced that its priorities for inner cities would include planning, housing, education, rates and improving derelict environments.
In this paper I will analyse the nature of the relationship between area and health in cities. Although it has long been known that mortality and morbidity are unevenly…
Abstract
In this paper I will analyse the nature of the relationship between area and health in cities. Although it has long been known that mortality and morbidity are unevenly distributed within urban environments (Stamp, 1964; Learmonth, 1988) it remains problematic as to how these differences should be explained. In the present paper I will present detailed information on the spatial distibution of mortality, morbidity, and health services in cities and consider the explanations which have been put forward to account for them. Research which has considered this topic covers various fields; medical geography, medical ecology, epidemiology, and sociology, and has utilised numerous methodological approaches, from straightforward mapping techniques to complex multi‐variate analysis. Research has also been carried out across the world. However, because differences in the political and social organisation of cities can have an effect on health, and these structural differences vary from country to country, I have restricted the current review to work carried out in the cities of the developed world as studies are more comparable.
Fang Wang, Shiting Lin, Xiaoyu Liu, Chunyan Jiang and Jianing Li
The former residences of historical figures are typical landscape elements of historic districts, which are characterised by the styles of these residences and spiritual…
Abstract
Purpose
The former residences of historical figures are typical landscape elements of historic districts, which are characterised by the styles of these residences and spiritual historical figures cultures. The purpose of this paper is to determine how the former residences respond once the historical figures living there have passed.
Design/methodology/approach
The history of human culture and progression of urban construction – which are submerged in societal transformation – is recorded for old Beijing city. Narrative space theory is used and methods such as a content analysis, map overlay and the Geographic Information System are employed to analyse the selected 300 former residences of historical figures in old Beijing city.
Findings
The results are as follows: the political setting played a key role in the evolution process, three political narrative areas in the inner city and one cultural narrative area in the outer city form the narrative spatial structure of the former residences of historical figures, “government construction” and “resident construction” are the main reasons for the loss and destruction of narrative spaces and ordinary life is an important channel for showcasing the history of former residences. The narrative spaces of these residences carry double histories, namely, the development of human history and of city construction.
Originality/value
Different from former studies that focus on the preservation of the single historical building, this study explores the integral logic of historic buildings in the whole city through narrative space theory to get a combination of culture and space.
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