Inclusive Urbanization Research Articles

Envisioning a Post-Conflict Tripoli: The Inclusive Urban Strategy and Action Plan for Bab Al-Tabbaneh and Jebel Mohsen

The Inclusive Urban Strategy and Action Plan is a study conducted by a multi-disciplinary international team focused on the post-conflict area of Tripoli, the second largest city of Lebanon. The project includes the neighbourhoods of Bab Al-Tabbaneh and Jebel Mohsen and the conflict zone in between where hostilities ended thanks to the implementation of a security plan in 2014. The aim of the proposal is to initiate and foster peace and reconciliation between the conflicting communities, while addressing spatial, social and economic segregations by a holistic and tactical urban approach. The strategy results from a deep study and understanding of the actual fragile conditions in Tripoli, and derives its guidelines from the fractures and the intrinsic resources of the place. It is structured in three main layers (urban armature, functional injections and placemaking) and envisions the possibility to establish new relations and synergies inside the hugely fragmented environment. Instead of proposing concrete solutions, the strategy aims at initially generating the necessary conditions to trigger processes of recovery and therefore development, encountering positive outcomes and opportunities as well as possible threats. Adaptability and retrofitting thus became keywords in developing a realistic strategy that can take into consideration the difficulty of programming and making decisions in the context of post-conflict reconstruction.

Segregated Data of Urban Poor for Inclusive Urban Planning in India

The population of urban poor in India is posing enormous challenges to urban planning as there is a huge scarcity of segregated data. The five-year plans give an overview of how urban poor population has been estimated for planning and how the data deficiency in planning for them has been realized. Areas populated by the urban poor have a constellation of issues, but without data a comprehensive understanding of their vulnerabilities is lacking. Segregated data are needed for evidence-based planning. Undoubtedly, there are challenges in collecting these data. However, these challenges need to be addressed as planning so far is based on an average situation of the urban poor population, while all urban poor and the slums cannot be said equally vulnerable. Segregated data of urban poor are essential for inclusive planning and to build sustainable cities.

Engendering Budgeting and Gender Inclusive Urban Governance in India

Gender budgeting has been internationally recognized as a key tool for empowering women by incorporating gender perspective and concerns at all levels and stages of development planning, policy, programmes and delivery mechanism. Government of India has adopted budgeting for gender equity as a mission statement and is widely disseminating tools and strategies across ministries and departments. The importance of gender budgeting has been stressed time and again in different forums. Gender Budgeting refers to a method of looking at the budget formulation process, budgetary policies and budget outlays from the gender lens. In 1984, Austria introduced the first gender budget. Taking budgets as essential instruments for promoting gender equality, pioneering analysis of the impact of public budgets on gender relations was carried out. Since then, more than 90 countries have adopted gender budgeting as a tool for women empowerment and engendering development. In India too, many states, local governments, corporate houses and private agencies have initiated gender budgeting and have introduced specific policies, programmes and schemes for gender mainstreaming. Gender perspective in urban governance in India was initiated in 1992 when 74 th Constitutional Amendment Act made provision for one third reservation in the seats of municipal elections which was extended up to 50 percent in some of the states. International agencies such as World Bank, ADB and DFID also emphasized on gender mainstreaming in planning and implementation of urban development policy, programmes and schemes. Against this view point, present paper purports to examine the engendering budgeting and gender inclusive urban development in India.

Who Creates the City? How the “Long Live Southbank” Campaign Championed Inclusive Urban Creativity

Who Creates the City? How the “Long Live Southbank” Campaign Championed Inclusive Urban Creativity

The redevelopment of peri-urban villages in the context of path-dependent land institution change and its impact on Chinese inclusive urbanization: The case of Nanhai, China

Following nearly three decades of urban sprawl, China's urbanization has entered a new era of land redevelopment that encompasses built-up land in villages in a manner that is unprecedented. Village redevelopment involves both dramatic institutional change and governance restructuring. The extant literature on this redevelopment focuses primarily on top-down initiatives launched by urban governments, paying little attention to villages' responses as actual landholders. Through a case study of village redevelopment in Nanhai, this paper examines villages' behaviour during periods of institutional change and their interactions with urban governments to shape final outcomes. Institutional uncertainty emerges during path-dependent institutional change, as revealed through the absence of effectively executed planning control and unclearly defined profit sharing. As a result, villages and urban governments sign incomplete contracts for entire redevelopment plans. Such agreements result in disordered competition for land rents that take the form of villages ‘holding up’ the government that has previously made a commitment to the village pursuant to the contracts. Villages maximize their profits and attenuate the government's role in ensuring public revenue, whereas government compromises related to development control challenge the capacity of limited public governance. The government's concessions related to profit distribution result in increased inequality between more prosperous villages and other groups, such as migrant populations and remote rural villages. Research findings contribute to a comprehensive understanding of newly created governance in redevelopment and call for a critical evaluation of existing urban renewal policies to ensure that urbanization is an inclusive process.

The role of higher education in China's inclusive urbanization

One momentum of rural–urban transition in China is for university graduates to work and live in the city where they pursued tertiary education. Against this background, we investigate the role of higher education for urban growth in China. A panel data analysis reveals that an increase of share in the population with at least a bachelor's degree induces regional population to grow. Nevertheless, contrary to other developed countries, inflow of high caliber immigrants from the countryside or cities of lower tiers in China in fact brings down real wages. We hypothesize that in China where education resources are limited, higher education attainment induces faster urban growth through breaking the barriers to rural–urban transition for new job market entrants, but at the cost of lower real wages due to affluent labor supply. However, the increase of population share with high education has insignificant direct impact on housing price, indicating that new talented migrants may not be the major home buyers. Yet, through the trigger of a faster urbanization process, housing prices are jetted up indirectly in provinces with higher proportions of degree holders. It poses pressing challenges to China where the country is advocating the idea of inclusive urbanization. This paper will discuss some of the key issues in relation to the provisions of education and housing services in China such that local governments can be more embracing to rural degree holder migrants, who will play a contributing role in urban growth.

Supporting a More Inclusive and Responsive Urban India

India’s urbanization story is both massive and complex, as 300 million people will move to its urban spaces by 2030, creating significant challenges. In this brief, we argue that India’s cities would be better served in the long-term by supporting the inclusive urban policies over those that carry exclusionary aftereffects, by limiting the use of the city as a promotional tool for actors that gain from forwarding divisive identity politics, and by creating more robust city-level political structures in order to improve municipal accountability to urban citizens. We conclude with suggestions for how to further encourage inclusive urban planning and political processes.

Inclusive urbanization: Can the 2030 Agenda be delivered without it?

Governments are wary of rapid urbanization, yet eager for the economic benefits that cities bring. The resulting tension is reflected in exclusionary cities created through strategies that privilege economic growth and result in many people being left behind. There is both exclusion from the city and exclusion and segregation in the city. This paper’s redefinition of inclusion moves beyond a focus on identity-based disadvantage, to frame inclusion as a counter to both overt discrimination and structurally created disadvantage. It explores three levels of inclusive urbanization: eliminating discriminatory exclusion, giving the disadvantaged a bigger voice in existing institutions, and guaranteeing human rights. Drawing on examples of emerging economies, the paper points to the dangers of pursuing a growth-first strategy for urbanization, as exclusion can become entrenched and difficult to reverse, even with increased prosperity. It then examines how more inclusive urbanization can be achieved and how this relates to the Sustainable Development Goals (part of the 2030 Agenda). The world’s governments have committed themselves to balanced development that integrates economic, social and environmental goals, and have pledged that “no one will be left behind”. Inclusive urbanization is needed to achieve this balance, and to move the world towards the progressive realization of human rights for all.

The Possibilities of an Inclusive Urban Waterfront: The Adjacent Areas of Buriganga Bridge 1

The Possibilities of an Inclusive Urban Waterfront: The Adjacent Areas of Buriganga Bridge 1

Inclusive Urban Employment: How Does City Scale Affect Job Opportunities for Different People?

This paper investigates the influence of city scale on employment using data from China. Probit models of employment determination are estimated. The historical population growth during China's planned economy, when migration was directed by the government and voluntary location choice was prohibited, is used as the instrumental variable of current population size. Instrumental variables estimates show that it is more likely for individuals to gain employment in big cities. A 1 percent increase in city scale increases one's employment probability by between 0.044 and 0.050 percentage points. Moreover, the scale advantage of big cities is heterogeneous among individuals with different levels of human capital, with the least-skilled workers benefiting the most.

Comments by Bhanupong Nidhipraba, on Inclusive Urban Employment: How Does City Scale Affect Job Opportunities for Different People?

Comments by Bhanupong Nidhipraba, on Inclusive Urban Employment: How Does City Scale Affect Job Opportunities for Different People?

Summary of General Discussion on “Inclusive Urban Employment: How Does City Scale Affect Job Opportunities for Different People?”

Summary of General Discussion on “Inclusive Urban Employment: How Does City Scale Affect Job Opportunities for Different People?”

Comments by Iris Claus, on Inclusive Urban Employment: How Does City Scale Affect Job Opportunities for Different People?

Iris Claus: In this paper, Hong Gao, Ming Lu, and Hiroshi Sato quantify the impact of city scale, which is measured by cities’ population size, on employment in China using probit model estimations and individual level survey data from 2002 and 2007. To control for a potential endogeneity bias in the estimations, cities’ population growth rates between 1953 and 1982 are used as instrumental variables. The potential endogeneity bias arises from two main sources. First, employment could affect city scale because individuals may locate where they are more likely to find work. Second, unobservable shocks may simultaneously affect city scale and employment. Using cities’ population growth rates between 1953 and 1982 overcomes the endogeneity problem because voluntary relocations were prohibited during this period because in China’s planned economy the government strictly controlled migration.

Does Antwerp Belong to Everyone? Unveiling the Conditional Limits to Inclusive Urban Citizenship

Recent theoretical discussions have indicated that citizenship is not only a way of being, but also a way of behaving. This article aims to show how attempts to regulate the behaviour of the citizenry can introduce a new topography of inclusion and exclusion, thereby exercising a direct effect on particular ethnic minorities. We investigate the issue in Antwerp, the largest city of the Flemish Region in Belgium. With his slogan ‘Antwerp belongs to everyone’ former mayor Patrick Janssens gained significant international attention for Antwerp’s supposedly inclusive conception of urban citizenship. In this article, we argue that the universality of Antwerp’s city slogan has nevertheless veiled the introduction of new exclusionary prescriptions centred around citizens’ conduct. Drawing on a Foucauldian account of power, three different modes of policing are discussed that have rearticulated the boundaries of urban citizenship in Antwerp. The disciplinary, bio-political and etho-political techniques of power each show in a different way attempts by the state to steer and effectively regulate what counts as appropriate conduct. As a corollary of governmental power, particular ways of behaving have been labelled as deviant and abnormal, thus rendering full citizenship conditional on a set of substantial expectations on how to perform as a citizen. As these expectations are only apparently neutral with respect to ethnic identities, a tension arose between the city’s universal and inclusive rhetoric and its particular and exclusionary policies.

UNDP outlines strategy for “sustainable, inclusive urbanization in Asia-Pacific”

UNDP outlines strategy for “sustainable, inclusive urbanization in Asia-Pacific”

Contesting inclusive urbanism in a divided city: The limits to the neoliberalisation of Cape Town’s energy system

The struggles to define and implement an inclusive non-racial urbanism in South Africa after democratisation in 1994 occurred during the heyday of world-wide diffusion of unevenly developed neoliberalisation processes. This case study of the complexities of transforming Cape Town’s energy sector analyses the consequences of these contradictory trajectories by tracking the dynamics of four urbanism typologies: inclusive, splintered, green and slum urbanism. It is argued that, while the imperatives of deracialisation reinforced inclusive trends, neoliberalisation processes reinforced splintered urbanism and its consequences, namely slum urbanism. These dynamics were then overdetermined by environmental changes that have introduced green urbanism as a new arena of contestation.

Inclusive Urban Planning and Development Through the Earmarking of Land and Housing for the Urban Poor

Inclusive urban planning and development is becoming the necessity of the day in Indian cities given the vast proportion of urban population already living in the slums and also a large number of people still looking at cities as the places of livelihoods, thereby the places for living. Given the scale of issue and its importance, preparedness towards accommodating such large low-income and immigrant population would require both policy and implementation efforts at all the levels of government – Central, State and Local. The current paper reviews such attempts towards it first - both International (USA, UK, South Africa, Latin America and Asia Pacific) and Indian experiences (States and Cities); it then suggests the major requirements of such an action. The implementation process of earmarking land/housing for urban poor as JNNURM reform is also discussed.

The Field of Struggle, the Office, and the Flat: Protest and Aspiration in a Mumbai Slum

This essay examines the relationship between the changing organization of urban space and the evolving political culture of a Mumbai slum. Recent work emphasizes that the contemporary city is highly fragmented and poor people are incapable of realizing a fully civil society. The essay uses the case of struggles over the redevelopment of Golibar to critically interrogate these arguments. The essay finds that the city’s poor are the social location that continues to sustain the aspiration for an inclusive urbanism and a more civil society.

Elderly-Friendly Inclusive Urban Environments: Learning From Ankara

The aging population and their expectations have become a growing concern in Turkey as in other countries. This study aims to investigate interactions/relationships between the needs, demands and expectations of Turkish elderly and inclusive urban design principles. It tries to answer the research question: how the inclusive urban life could improve elderly life and contribute to achieve an active aging process. An exploratory study was conducted with a total of 100 randomly selected elderly between the ages 65-95 (45 female and 55 male) from the City Centre of Ankara. A survey instrument based on the ‘streets for life’ concept (Burton & Mitchell 2006) was developed to gather data. The participants were asked to identify how important inclusive urban design features were in understanding, using and navigating within an urban environment. The findings of the study suggest that an inclusive open environment allows elderly people to feel safer, and thus encourage more regular use of urban space. Overall the results highlight two important insights, first that accessibility is inevitable for increasing the chance of the aging population to participate in the mainstream of community life and second, plain and simple signage is necessary to achieve more liveable urban environments. The study concludes the most important physical requirements and social requirements for elderly people.

Towards Equality, Social Inclusion and Human Development in Design Education: The Case of Global Studio 2005–2008

This paper explores the theory and practice of the evolving project Global Studio, and contributes to a relatively untheorized area of engaged design education for inclusive and sustainable urbanization. Drawing on the capability approach and ideas about agency, Global Studio's programmes in Istanbul, Vancouver and Johannesburg have engaged the redistributive social policy objectives of the poverty alleviating Millennium Development Goals (MDG), with the aim of enabling the design and planning of equitable, sustainable and inclusive cities that support human development and help alleviate poverty. The paper raises questions about design education in an international context, the potential for social entrepreneurship, and the challenges of pursuing a social inclusion agenda.