Neighbourhood Governance Research Articles

Creating active citizens? Emotional geographies of citizenship in a diverse and deprived neighbourhood

National and local governments in Western Europe formulate normative notions of active citizenship to regulate the attitudes and behaviours of their subjects. Focusing in particular on diverse and deprived urban neighbourhoods, local interventions target residents’ presumed lack of attachment to the neighbourhood and their alienation from ‘mainstream’ white middle-class society. This paper argues that – contrary to policy assumptions – residents are emotionally attached to and engaged with their neighbourhood. However, their everyday practices of citizenship fall short of the standards prescribed by policy-makers. These two perspectives intersect and clash in the local neighbourhood centre. Staff members of this semi-governmental intervention mediate different citizenship conceptions by creating personal relations with participants while simultaneously reinforcing dominant norms. The findings highlight the messy and ambiguous reality of neighbourhood governance and underscore that local understandings of citizenship can simultaneously work with and against policy frameworks.

Re-imagining neighbourhood governance: the future of neighbourhood planning in England

Neighbourhood planning is arguably the most radical innovation in UK local governance in a generation, with over 2,200 communities in England now involved in statutory development planning at the neighbourhood level. Following incremental policy reforms, we argue that neighbourhood planning has reached a critical juncture where the future of the initiative is at stake. In this paper we reflect on existing research to assess the policy to date before imagining what an optimised version of the policy might look like. Despite being a state-led initiative, central government has failed to provide an image of success for neighbourhood planning which we argue has held back widespread innovation and progressive participation. We therefore outline a normative guide against which future iterations of neighbourhood planning might be assessed, and employ this in order to imagine a more comprehensive form of neighbourhood governance.

Stakes, stakeholders and urban governance: a theoretical framework for the Chinese city

ABSTRACTA taxonomy of stakes and stakeholders in urban governance is presented in this paper. In addition to property interests, business interests, political interests and the state, special attention is paid to ordinary people’s general interests in the city. It depends on a person’s indigeneity, the degree of his being an indigenous person or insider to the city. General interest is usually not revealed because urban governance is more distant from the person than his daily work and life, but its revelation could be ignited in an explosive way by particular events on some occasions. This is called the flash preference problem, which has important implications to urban governance. Both social control and civil society can be regarded as possible solutions to the problem. Built on the taxonomy of stakes and stakeholders, a theoretical framework for urban governance in China includes growing property interests and business interests that have formed growth coalition with local government. Social control remains important but difficult because street office and residents’ committee are expected to strengthen social control while they are gradually being marginalized in neighborhood governance. The case of grid management not only demonstrates the dilemma of social control in China but also hints at the ultimate importance of democracy and civil society to urban governance.

Place attachment in gated neighbourhoods in China: Evidence from Wenzhou

China’s new residential developments have widely taken the form of privately governed gated communities since the socialist work-unit housing system was terminated towards the end of the 1990s. Although many studies have recognised these emerging gated neighbourhoods as having improved physical conditions, there has also been a decline in neighbouring and thus they have profoundly changed the traditional collectivist regime of living in China. However, there is a lack of research into whether gated neighbourhoods cultivate a positive relationship with residents and how such relationships are shaped. Based on a questionnaire survey of 1034 households conducted in a variety of gated neighbourhoods in Wenzhou, China, this paper intends to fill the gap by using neighbourhood attachment as an indicator, and by examining the impacts of private governance. The results of regression modelling suggest that residents have considerably high place attachment in gated neighbourhoods and that private governance enhances neighbourhood attachment by emphasising market provisions. Through knowing their neighbours, being involved in neighbourhood public events, and being provided with a good neighbourhood image as well as privatised services, residents develop an attachment to the neighbourhood socially, symbolically and functionally. More importantly, by comparing market-led, mixed and state-led neighbourhoods, this research identifies the attachment in gated neighbourhoods as underlining the demand for private governance rather than for safety. Such a new form of neighbourhood governance, as illustrated in urban China, is consumption-oriented and results from the privatisation of public goods and services provision at the neighbourhood level.

Land formalization and local leadership in Moshi, Tanzania

This study focuses on a number of neighborhoods in Moshi, Tanzania that participated in a property formalization program, and examines the relationship between local governance and the implementation of a tenure formalization program. Specifically, we examine how individual household responses to land formalization policies vary in response to neighborhood governance, oversight, and implementation of the land formalization process. We then discuss household differences in a) title deed application rates, b) home improvements and building permit applications, and c) road improvements and local commercial business development based on neighborhood context. We find that the relationship between local governance and tenure formalization is mixed in terms of impacts for both individual properties and neighborhoods. While good governance and implementation of land formalization can increase rates of household title deed application and number of building permits sought, we found no differences between the neighborhoods in terms of the use of title deeds in loan applications. However, we did find that better road improvements and the protection and oversight of the road right of ways did lead to increased commercial business development.

Housing privatization and the return of the state: changing governance in China

ABSTRACT Housing privatization seems to suggest a process of state retreat. However, this is not always the case in China. This paper examines an estate that is mixed with work-unit housing and municipal public housing to understand its changing governance. It is intriguing to observe that the state has had to return to this neighborhood to strengthen its administration following housing privatization, because the attempt to transfer responsibility to commercial property management failed. The neighborhood governance, however, has transformed from one based on work-units to a government-funded administrative agency. The return of the state has been achieved through professional social workers, and it is struggling to operate, leading to the alienation and disempowerment of former state work-unit residents. The side effect of this approach to governance is that, through encouraging market provision and commercial operation which is not fully working, reciprocal activities are restrained. Since housing privatization, the neighborhood has deteriorated from a brand-new estate into an ‘old and dilapidated neighborhood’ in less than 25 years.

Infrastructural Power and Neighbourhood Governance: The 1980s Transformation of Residents' Committees in Shanghai

This article examines the capacity of China to adapt in the face of the political and social challenges brought about by economic reforms, and argues that the regime's resilience lies in the state's capacity to establish infrastructural power at the urban grass-roots level. The 1980s was an invaluable historical period, which witnessed the early stages of the economic reforms and the Chinese state experimenting with ways to adapt to the emerging challenges. As the danwei (work unit) system weakened, the state rebuilt the logistical infrastructure by means of handling burning issues, accumulating resources for expanding welfare coverage, facilitating residential-based grass-roots administrative networks, and consolidating its power through building institutional infrastructure for urban governance.

Residents’ Agency Makes a Difference in Volunteering in an Urban Neighbourhood

In this case study, we aimed to investigate residents’ agency through their participation in the development of their residential area in the city of Espoo, Finland. With the aid of seven themes, we identified by thematic analysis five types of residents in terms of agency: free floaters, home troops and helpers, representative information brokers, informed reviewers, and change agents. Relational agency, rooted from the cultural-historical activity theory, necessitated recognizing the available resources, understanding the motives of others, and collaborating in joint activities. The results of 30 interviews showed that residents are willing to participate, and they need space and structure to exploit their relational agency in order to build common interests in their neighbourhood. The findings are discussed with reference to the potential of residents’ agency while participating in neighbourhood governance and volunteering. Our study contributes to the understanding of residents’ relational agency in community development and in volunteering.

Stakes, Stakeholders, and Urban Governance: A Theoretical Framework for the Chinese City

A taxonomy of stakes and stakeholders in urban governance is presented in this paper. In addition to property interests, business interests, political interests and the state, special attention is paid to ordinary people’s general interests in the city. It depends on a person’s indigeneity, the degree of his being an indigenous person or insider to the city. General interest is usually not revealed because urban governance is more distant from the person than his daily work and life, but its revelation could be ignited in an explosive way by particular events on some occasions. This is called the flash preference problem, which has important implications to urban governance. Both social control and civil society can be regarded as possible solutions to the problem. Built on the taxonomy of stakes and stakeholders, a theoretical framework for urban governance in China includes growing property interests and business interests that have formed growth coalition with local government. Social control remains important but difficult because street office and residents committee are expected to strengthen social control while they are gradually being marginalized in neighborhood governance of gated communities. The dilemma of social control in the Chinese city hints at the ultimate importance of democracy and civil society to urban governance.

Privatization of neighborhood governance in transition economy: a case study of gated community in Phu My Hung new town, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Literature on common-interest development (CID) in housing, most common in the form of gated communities, has been based largely on the US’s experience, where the interpretation has centered on the interaction between three actors (local government, private developer, and homeowner association) and barely focused on the privatization of neighborhood governance in transition economies. This paper, through a case study of gated community in Phu My Hung new town shows that Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam—in the context of transition from centrally-planned to market-based economy—has been witnessing this privatized phenomenon of neighborhood governance. It employs both primary data, collected through observation and key informant interview, and secondary data to explain the contextual factors for the rise of gated communities in the city and find out the mechanism of neighborhood governance. In the city, housing privatization reforms, influx of foreign direct investment, and the formation of urban middle class have constituted the supply- and demand-side factors for the rise of gated communities. In addition, the reforms towards grassroots participation created a favorable environment for a privatization of neighborhood governance in which the private developer plays a dominant role in partnership with local government and homeowner association. To a certain extent, this privatization is similar to the case of US’s gated communities, however, it does not threaten the public authority and instead maintains a good collaboration between these three actors. This is an indigenous innovation of gated communities in Vietnam due to its socio-economic conditions and political context.

臺灣基層治理之制度設計與能力型塑：兼論新住民在村里、社區發展協會與公民審議會議的角色

在英美國家部分地區因為公共服務不足，基層活動瀕臨斷裂，更進而導致治安與犯罪層出不窮。故基層治理（neighborhood governance）在英美一直是一個重要的課題，尤其涉及到社區民眾的基層活動，都可以說是基層治理的核心。在基層治理過程當中，當地居民透過當地參與機制，來實現基層治理的特質。臺灣與英美不同的是，臺灣並沒有像英美有些地區之基層面臨到治安與嚴峻的犯罪問題。本研究使用「基層治理」一詞，主要界定為正式制度--村里、社區發展協會，以及非正式制度－公民審議會議的活動參與，包含目前推動的參與式預算。同時，本研究採納Lowndes and Sullivan（2008）提到基層治理的四種類型做為論述基礎。故臺灣目前基層治理遇到的棘手現狀，就是臺灣新住民人口的增加，以及新住民主要擔任起照顧家庭的責任，參與基層活動並不踴躍。幸運的是，這幾年臺北市推動新住民參加參與式預算提案，正好嘗試彌補新住民參與的不足。但無論如何，本文認為一種新的基層治理之公民參與正在發展，與改變臺灣基層治理樣貌。

The double bind of social innovation: Relational dynamics of change and resistance in neighbourhood governance

While current discourse promotes social innovation as a normative good, in practice it is highly contested by institutionalised ways of thinking, acting and organising. Concurrently stimulating and resisting innovation creates a ‘double bind’ of conflicting communicative signals that weaken capacities for joint sense making and sustainable change. I develop a meta-theoretical framework that explains what is involved in these relational dynamics of change and resistance, how these can be assessed and improved, and why the double bind both necessitates and inhibits substantive change. Analysing relational dynamics in a case of neighbourhood governance in Amsterdam, I argue that social innovators should be prepared to constructively confront rationalistic evaluation, defensiveness, and experiential detachment while institutional actors should welcome fundamental relational transformations of hierarchical and competitive dynamics institutionalised in urban governance.

Neighborhood Hierarchy of Needs

ABSTRACT:Neighborhood and homeowners associations represent two forms of neighborhood governance in the United States, and these residential community associations (RCAs) aid in neighborhood development. In this article, I make the case that RCAs address a hierarchy of needs in the development of the neighborhood. I use a mixed methods approach with surveys and elite interviews of neighborhood and homeowners association presidents in Tallahassee, Florida, to understand what issues and activities are important for their neighborhoods and organizations. With this information, I create a neighborhood hierarchy of needs of issues and organizational needs neighborhoods address in their existence and development. Lower order needs of neighborhoods and neighborhood organizations include addressing crime, engaging in community-building activities, improving aesthetics, and becoming more formally organized. Higher order needs include providing public goods and commons goods, working with local government on planning projects, hiring a professional staff, and enforcing neighborhood rules and regulations. Pursuing these needs leads to the highest order need in the hierarchy—improving property values. I find that homeowners associations operate at higher levels in the hierarchy of needs due to their legally defined structures and responsibilities established at their inception.

Neighborhood Associations and Social Capital

In the United States, the past 50 years have witnessed a remarkable expansion of formal associations in residential neighborhoods, including homeowners associations, condo associations, crime watch groups, tenant associations, and special-interest neighborhood coalitions. Despite their prevalence and growing role in neighborhood governance, the relationship of these associations to interpersonal trust and networks among residents and outsiders remains understudied. Drawing on the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey (SCCBS), we estimate the impact of neighborhood association membership on bonding and bridging social capital in a nationally representative sample of residents. Among non-homeowners, our findings suggest that neighborhood association membership is linked to bonding social capital (such as a propensity to socialize and cooperate with neighbors and a positive perception of impact on community conditions), as well as bridging social capital (such as a greater likelihood of trust in racial out-groups). These benefits from neighborhood association membership are attenuated or reversed among homeowners. The results underscore the need for social scientists to consider the inherent tension in neighborhood associations, as institutions that ensure the protection of property values, on the one hand, and that promote neighborhood cooperation and quality of life, on the other.

Neighbourhood Governance in Urban China, edited by Ngai-Ming Yip. Cheltenham: Elgar, 2014. xii+213 pp. £70.00 (cloth).

<i>Neighbourhood Governance in Urban China</i>, edited by Ngai-Ming Yip. Cheltenham: Elgar, 2014. xii+213 pp. £70.00 (cloth).

Social capital and community representation: How multiform networks promote local democracy in Los Angeles

This paper examines the variant roles that specific forms of networked-based social capital play in supporting the democratic functions of a neighbourhood governance network in Los Angeles. A significant body of empirical work has demonstrated the positive role that social capital plays in the functioning of civil society, but there has been less attention to the manner in which different types of network-based social capital promote support efficacy of multifaceted civic organisations. This paper utilises network measures from a survey of the members of a neighbourhood governance network in Los Angeles to explore the associations between types of network ties – within group; among groups; to different external stakeholders – and perceived self-efficacy of the member associations. We find that internal cohesion, or bonding social capital, promotes both advisement of city officials and promotion of local participation, suggesting that this network-based resource is fungible. Other network structures appear to have value in different contexts, in that stakeholder connections promote participation, while bridging social capital is associated with perceived success in advising city officials. The findings suggest that architects of participatory reform should be attentive to system goals in establishing supports for varying forms of system relationships.

Exploring the Determinants of Network Effectiveness: The Case of Neighborhood Governance Networks in Beijing

Based on the models proposed by Provan and Milward and Provan and Kenis, this article employed a mixed-methods approach to study the determinants of the effectiveness of governance networks. The article is based on 22 neighborhood governance networks in Beijing with each network consisting of public, business, and civic organizations. Linear regression was used to identify independent variables that exert statistically significant influence over network effectiveness, and the fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis was used to investigate the complex interactions between explanatory variables. The analysis revealed different but functionally equivalent configurations of causal conditions that led to network effectiveness and showed that configurations of factors leading to network effectiveness were different from those leading to network ineffectiveness. The results also suggested that network structural characteristics such as network centralization and density are neither sufficient nor necessary conditions for network effectiveness. In contrast to Provan and Milward’s findings, the results suggest that network density is more important than network centralization in affecting effectiveness in small networks. Resource munificence was identified as an “almost always” necessary condition for network effectiveness.

Narratives of neighbourhood change and loss of belonging in an urban garden village

In studies on the ties between residents and their residential surroundings, it is generally assumed that, over time, residents become more attached to their neighbourhood. However, as neighbourhoods change due to economic, political and social processes at higher spatial scales, so may residents’ relationship to them. A qualitative case study in a working-class neighbourhood in Amsterdam explored the circumstances under which residents come to experience a loss of belonging. In-depth interviews provide insight into the way in which residents perceive, experience and make sense of processes of neighbourhood change. Although a particular group of Villagers express a strong sense of belonging to the neighbourhood, they perceive a process of neighbourhood decline, which they attribute to changing housing regimes, retrenchment of the local welfare state and shifting paradigms in neighbourhood governance. Consequently, the experienced disruption of neighbourhood life and local ways of ‘doing’ neighbourhood also result in feelings of discontent with governing institutions and the wider society. The study therefore draws attention to both the salience of the local in, and the relational nature of, neighbourhood belonging.

The Development and Role of Taiwan’s Neighborhood Governance

The Development and Role of Taiwan’s Neighborhood Governance

Takatoshi Muneno, Neighborhood Government and Community Development Corporation

Takatoshi Muneno, Neighborhood Government and Community Development Corporation