Abstract
Study of the relation between urban density and social equity has been based mostly upon comparative analysis at the city level. It therefore fails to address variations in intra-urban experience and sheds no light on the process of urban densification. Incremental residential development is particularly poorly recorded and under-researched, yet cumulatively it makes a substantial contribution to the supply of dwellings. The article presents a detailed examination of this form of development in England between 2001 and 2011, and considers its impact on urban spatial justice. We find that the incidence of soft residential densification was very uneven. It had disproportionately large effects on neighbourhoods that were already densely developed and that were characterised by lower income households with access to relatively little residential space. It thus contributed to an increase in the level of inequality in the distribution of residential space, increasing socio-spatial injustice.
Highlights
Urban densification policies have been widely adopted in developed countries (Breheny, 1997; OECD, 2012)
We examine the distribution of soft residential densification across different social groups, the impact that this has on the consumption of residential space and the consequences for spatial justice
The final step in the analysis is to examine the effect of soft densification over the period on changes in the inequality of shares of ‘residential space’ available to residents of single-family residential neighbourhoods’ (SFRNs) in each of these 52 subgroups of
Summary
Urban densification policies have been widely adopted in developed countries (Breheny, 1997; OECD, 2012). We build on our recent work (Bibby et al, 2020) to analyse the pattern of physical change in urban residential areas in England between 2001 and 2011 and to consider the implications for the equity dimension of spatial justice (as defined by Fainstein (2010, 2014) above).
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