Regeneration Initiatives Research Articles

Urban regeneration companies and their institutional setting: Prevailing instabilities within the West Midlands, England

Urban regeneration companies were adopted by the UK government during the 2000s as a property-orientated economic development initiative. Compared to earlier urban development corporations, urban regeneration companies lacked dedicated funding and depended upon the planning and regeneration capabilities of partner agencies. Evaluative perspectives on urban regeneration companies have often been favourable, though the depth and breadth of analysis has been limited, particularly beyond three core city pilots. Outstanding institutionalist questions remain about the diverse settings within which urban regeneration companies operated and their relationship with local authorities. Drawing on interviews this paper investigates the reasons for and operation of three West Midlands-based urban regeneration companies, all within the de-industrialising Black Country sub-region. Rather than early support for government steering towards partnership working, attention is drawn to evidence of pragmatism, resistance and compromise. The potential for local institutional dynamics to influence the stability of regeneration initiatives is then acknowledged as illustrated by officer level tensions associated with existing projects, experiential learning and ground level outcomes. Compared to prevailing urban regeneration company perspectives, the Black Country urban regeneration companies lost momentum prior to national austerity. Future questions remain about appropriate forms of regeneration within smaller settlements with problematic industrial legacies and the capacity of local authorities to advance collaborative forms of regeneration.

Evaluating urban regeneration: An assessment of the effectiveness of physical regeneration initiatives on run-down industrial sites in the Netherlands

Despite the widespread use of physical improvements as a strategy to regenerate deprived and run-down urban areas, there is only limited evidence on the precise impact of these kinds of regeneration activities. A number of conceptual and methodological problems that impinge on all evaluations of regeneration policies have constrained the required evidence base. This paper evaluates the impact of publicly funded physical improvements of run-down industrial sites in the Netherlands and seeks to address several of these challenges; namely, selecting appropriate comparison areas, attributing change to specific interventions, access to small-scale, longitudinal data and selecting outcomes congruent with policy goals and rationales. Pooled data from various sources provide us with information on regeneration initiatives and other site characteristics for more than half of all sites in the country. Propensity score matching enables us to systematically compare economic outcomes related to regeneration policy goals between sites that have been subjected to regeneration and those that have not. The results of this study suggest that physical regeneration of industrial sites has a negligible effect on economic outcomes that are related to the most commonly articulated policy goals: the increase of employment, of firm numbers, of property values and of the intensity of land use on these sites. These findings add to a small but growing body of work that investigates the economic impact of regeneration programmes that fund physical investments on commercial and industrial areas.

도시재생활성화 및 지원에 관한 특별법 제정에 따른 서울시 및 SH공사의 대응방향 : 창신·숭인 도시재생 선도 지역 중심으로

The Spatial Act on the Promotion and Support of Urban Regeneration took effect on Dec. 5, 2013. It is a turning point in the urban regeneration initiatives of Seoul that Changshin and Sungin Newtown Release Area is designated as a flagship project in Seoul. The study examines Seoul Metropolitan Government(SMG)’s capability of dealing with urban regeneration initiatives and the role of SH Corporation in their process. It also aims to propose a model of urban regeneration project in Seoul. SMG and SH Corporation can play a significant role in five major areas including increasing Happyhouse supply by utilizing existing housing stock that both SMG and SH Corporation own, establishing and managing the Urban Regeneration Support Center suited for district’s conditions, establishing public service facilities for connecting adjacent areas, providing cooperative rental housing combined with workplace, and making safe communities and managing the SH Housing Management Center. It is expected the flagship project of Changsin and Sungin becomes a catalyst for carrying out the public sector’s urban regeneration projects more reasonably.

Territorial Milieu as Driver for Sustainability through Urban Regeneration Initiatives: The Case of San Diego, CA

Urban regeneration acquired a powerful role in the shaping of the future role of the cities in the Globalization era. It could be considered a public action in a market governed by different powers introducing a more strategic approach in the contemporary urban planning theory and practice. The main features of urban regeneration regard: area-based approach, strong awareness of what are local needs/urban problems, strategic approach and effects/impacts of initiatives. Since integration can be considered one of the main objective to get through urban regeneration, and the complexity as well as the peculiarity of urban dynamics are very much related to the context they belong to, we might see the community involvement as crucial toward sustainable urban regeneration initiatives. The shift of urban regeneration processes toward an increase of the community importance generates different urban management tools based on the typology of partnership set up. The intent of generating wider effects in terms of economic development at macro-level (regional thereby) trough urban regeneration initiatives has been eluded by the strong local interests even if not homogenous among each others. In order to reach a feasible consensus among all actors involved, the common objective became the job creation to which converge all different urban problems and solutions. Consequently, the sustainability of urban regeneration initiatives is still at the centre of politicians and academic debate. Economic sustainability, environmental sustainability and social sustainability provide criteria for such indicators to measure the urban regeneration performance. The paper reports some interesting findings of the second year of the CLUDs research project, funded by IRSES Marie Curie Actions, illustrating how territorial milieu can reinforce local urban regeneration initiatives by combining the latest urban rural link research with the detailed analysis of 9 urban areas located in San Diego, CA (USA), in which urban regeneration initiatives have been implemented. The CLUDs project has introduced the concept of milieu to offer a different source of sustainability within urban regeneration initiatives that is the connections with the surrounding rural areas to reinforce local economy.

Stuck in the Process, Facilitating Nothing? Justice, Capabilities and Planning for Value-Led Outcomes

The role of a planner as collaborative facilitator has come under renewed criticism, from both planning theory and planning practice. This paper explores how placing values of equity and justice at the centre of planning practice offers practitioners a valuable voice in the debate over urban outcomes. It draws on Nussbaum's capabilities approach to provide a situationally flexible, yet universally grounded, version of the planning profession to judging better or worse outcomes. Case study research from an area-based regeneration initiative in England is used to illustrate how changing planners' views of their aims could provide more socially just outcomes.

Heritage-based regeneration in an age of austerity: Lessons from the Townscape Heritage Initiative

This paper draws on extensive longitudinal empirical research into the effectiveness of heritage-based urban investment in the regeneration of socially deprived communities. The Townscape Heritage Initiative research project, has examined 16 cases across the UK over a 12-year period, monitoring and evaluating the impacts of investment in the built fabric across a range of themes, including quality of life, economic activity, confidence and appearance. The 16 cases were surveyed in 2000, 2006 and 2011, which is to say, prior to any investment activity, at the point of most positive change and three or four years into the current recession. The research has produced some robust findings in relation to the effects of the recession and the resilience of regeneration benefits accruing from the programme. In presenting and discussing these findings, the paper draws some grounded conclusions regarding the capacity of heritage-led regeneration initiatives to withstand the impacts of the economic downturn, and proposes a number of criteria for assessing the likely resilience of regeneration initiatives in deprived communities.

Shock-proof cities? The impact of and responses to the recent financial and economic crisis in older industrial cities

The impact of the recent financial and economic crisis on cities and regions in Europe has been profound. This contribution examines to what extent the crisis has affected the ongoing recovery process in older industrial cities struggling with the consequences of economic restructuring and urban decline. Drawing on a research project, it uses findings from three large German cities (Bremen, Bochum and Leipzig). The authors argue that these cities have been hard hit by the economic downturn, adding a further layer to existing problems. A particular focus is put on whether these cities are still vulnerable or whether they have become more resilient as a result of their longstanding experience with decline, and on whether they have been able to continue their recovery strategies or whether they have had to refocus. Though the overall picture is complex, the findings suggest that the cities have had, at least partially, to reorient their respective recovery strategies. Against a background of limited resources, large-scale urban regeneration initiatives have for the most part been discontinued. Other strategies, such as in the field of economic development or neighbourhood renewal, have been continued, albeit on a smaller scale. Though funding has been severely hit by budget cuts, more recent measures, including those in the areas of sustainability or climate change, suggest a general change in thinking. It appears that the three cities have been able to build up substantial expertise, owing to their longstanding experience in dealing with urban decline, providing them with some resilience. Nevertheless, remaining structural weaknesses and financial constraints continue to be major challenges.

The Limits of Local Redistribution: Neighbourhood Regeneration Initiatives in Toronto and Phoenix

Deteriorating urban neighbourhoods often seem to defy government intervention efforts. Neighbourhood distress rarely tops local political agendas, and local governments find it difficult to muster the resources required to significantly improve distressed neighbourhoods. The few resources that exist are often spread thinly across large areas, making impacts difficult to see. This research looks at two initiatives that aimed to overcome these challenges. Both Toronto, Ontario, and Phoenix, Arizona, targeted regeneration efforts to a few neighbourhoods. Both initiatives have had some success, but have also faced implementation and sustainability challenges. We find that strong local administrative sectors, coupled with political change, present opportunities to redistribute resources to neighbourhoods in need, but that the broader structure and financing of local government significantly limits the scope of redistributive efforts that can be realized.

Habitat, housing social connectivity to promote social well-being

Social connectivity concepts and modelling techniques have informed built environmental design practices for centuries, even if tacitly so. Villages, cities and buildings are habitats housing social networks that confi gure social encounters. Questions on how the city and the building infl uence social and psychological behaviour and vice versa have been the focus of much theoretical discussion in recent years. Increasingly, social network analysis and space syntax analysis are used to explain how the city plan and the building plan confi gure social encounters. These techniques are empirical and can be used predictively for design research and development purposes. However, few have attempted to integrate these modelling techniques. The special focus of this paper is on integrating network modelling techniques to benefi t built environmental design research practices concerned with habitat housing social connectivity to promote social well-being. The positive results of a test comparing space syntax calculation methods and social network analysis calculation methods are presented. A brief discussion of recent habitat regeneration initiatives in Tirana, Albania suggests the vast potential for further research integrating social network analysis concepts and modelling techniques to measure design performance.

Marketing musicscapes, or the political economy of contagious magic

The economic imperatives that have driven, with various shades of success, urban regeneration initiatives in post-industrial towns and cities in the United Kingdom have sought to capitalise on a music and cultural heritage predicated on an intrinsic embeddedness in the place of the local. Building on discussions around popular musicscapes and local distinctiveness, this article explores the contention that the appeal of popular music heritage from a tourism and place-marketing perspective can in part be attributed to the ‘contagious magic’ factor: the tapping of symbolic value associated with well-known musicians and the interweaving of these narratives into the wider place-myths attached to particular locations as part of boosterist and regeneration strategies. Alongside celebrity-oriented ‘contagion’ as an efficacious tool of alchemical place branding, ‘sympathetic magic’, its anthropological twin, is ritually enacted in embodied and performative iterations of music and place, including music tourism and heritage trails, studio tours, and tribute acts. Drawing on research conducted into popular music heritage tourism in the United Kingdom, this article explores links between cultural heritage, consumption and place by examining the extent to which the ‘rubbing off’ of musical cultural capital can be said to have informed the development of a political economy of contagious magic.

Heritage Conservation and Regeneration of Historic Areas in Malaysia

Heritage cities in the developing nations, including Malaysia, currently face intensified urban problems as a result of rapid population growth, economic development and population growth. The introduction of new townships at the edge of many historic cities in Malaysia has exposed them to severe pressure of commercialization, poor design and cultural uniformity that has faded away their place identity. Thus, regeneration initiatives should be introduced to restore the wealth of the prestigious past of the historic cities and to improve the lifestyle of its population, as the vibrancy of a heritage site is only significant when its original community remains.

Hitting the target but missing the point: the case of area-based regeneration

Area-based regeneration projects have captured the imagination of diverse assemblages of community actors, governmental interests, and commercial stakeholders around the world. Their appeal derives from claims that they are exemplary instruments for combating intertwined social, economic, and environmental issues in an integrated manner. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of such initiatives remains contentious and continues to provoke divergent views. In the midst of an era of fiscal austerity, demands for increasing “returns on investments” and maximizing “value for money” have risen to the forefront. This article investigates an area-based regeneration initiative in Europe that has been lauded for successfully achieving its regeneration outputs. The research examines whether hitting narrowly constructed (economic) targets may be missing the point of yielding holistic (community) outcomes. Of broader international and theoretical significance, the merits of output-driven regeneration strategies are questioned.

Examining rainfall and cholera dynamics in Haiti using statistical and dynamic modeling approaches

Haiti has been in the midst of a cholera epidemic since October 2010. Rainfall is thought to be associated with cholera here, but this relationship has only begun to be quantitatively examined. In this paper, we quantitatively examine the link between rainfall and cholera in Haiti for several different settings (including urban, rural, and displaced person camps) and spatial scales, using a combination of statistical and dynamic models.Statistical analysis of the lagged relationship between rainfall and cholera incidence was conducted using case crossover analysis and distributed lag nonlinear models. Dynamic models consisted of compartmental differential equation models including direct (fast) and indirect (delayed) disease transmission, where indirect transmission was forced by empirical rainfall data. Data sources include cholera case and hospitalization time series from the Haitian Ministry of Public Health, the United Nations Water, Sanitation and Health Cluster, International Organization for Migration, and Hôpital Albert Schweitzer. Rainfall data was obtained from rain gauges from the U.S. Geological Survey and Haiti Regeneration Initiative, and remote sensing rainfall data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission.A strong relationship between rainfall and cholera was found for all spatial scales and locations examined. Increased rainfall was significantly correlated with increased cholera incidence 4–7 days later. Forcing the dynamic models with rainfall data resulted in good fits to the cholera case data, and rainfall-based predictions from the dynamic models closely matched observed cholera cases. These models provide a tool for planning and managing the epidemic as it continues.

The role of the public sector in the regeneration of deprived urban areas: Case studies from Krakow in Poland and Kirklees in the UK

Urban regeneration is a complex, long-lasting and continuous process, based on the cooperation of all stakeholders, and includes complementary projects undertaken by the public and private sectors. It covers several types of changes: spatial, economic, social, cultural and ecological. Usually, local authorities are the originators of change, and they prepare a programme of change and provide limited public investment, giving the impetus for further transformation of the area. Urban transformations integrate the commitments of the public and private sectors, residents of the transformed area and other stakeholders. As a result, the area positively influences the sustainable development of the city or town as a whole. This results in increased competitiveness of the city or town compared with other cities or towns. In this paper, urban regeneration activities in Krakow, Poland are discussed to show how projects resulting from public and private sector investment can transform a deprived area into an exciting city centre. The Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in the UK is also put forward as a model regeneration initiative, demonstrating how public consultation for proposed solutions to deprivation strengthens citizens’ involvement with regeneration plans and thereby can ensure that the most important requirements of the residents are met by regeneration projects.

The Transfer of Development Rights for the Regeneration of Brownfield Sites

The redevelopment of brownfield sites requires the involvement of the skills and resources of the private operator for the technical risks associated with the transformation and the high financial commitments. In the current scarcity of public resources, among the most widely used schemes there is one that provides development rights of equivalent value to locate on the areas to recover in order to compensate the amounts incurred by the private investor. The model developed and tested in this paper deals with this theme. It produces a wide range of possible urban parameters to attribute to the regenerated areas, upon which it is possible to develop the negotiation between the public and private sectors in order to define the solution to be implemented. The experimental results of the model highlight the usefulness of activating regeneration initiatives, and in particular of contaminated sites.

‘It’ll get worse before it gets better’: Local experiences of living in a regeneration area

The negative consequences of living in deprived neighbourhoods for residents’ quality of life are well documented. Area-based regeneration initiatives are invariably concerned with improving local quality of life over the long term. The process of regeneration, however, can itself directly result in immediate and potentially lasting negative effects for local communities. This paper discusses some of the ways in which living in an area undergoing regeneration can adversely affect inhabitants’ quality of life, including problems associated with voids, relocation, demolitions, environmental quality, complexity, funding issues, uncertainty, frustration, fear for the future and consultation fatigue. A case study approach draws examples from a deprived neighbourhood in the north-east of England. The conclusion discusses some of the possible implications for future regeneration policy, including: the importance of ongoing communication between professionals and communities; the need to value local people’s experience, judgement and the contribution they can make to local decision-making processes; recognition that successful regeneration can take many years; and the implications of current UK government policy.

Small-area health comparisons using health-adjusted life expectancies: A Bayesian random-effects approach

Health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE) is one of the most attractive summary measures of population health. It provides balanced attention to fatal as well as non-fatal health outcomes, is sensitive to the severity of morbidity within the population, and can be readily compared between areas with very different population age structures. HALE, however, cannot be calculated at the small-area level using traditional life table methodology. Hence we propose a Bayesian random-effects modeling approach that recognizes correlations and pools strength between sexes, age-groups, geographical areas, and health outcomes. This approach allows for the calculation of HALE for areas as small as 2000 person years at risk and with relatively modest health state survey sample sizes. The feasibility of the Bayesian approach is illustrated in a real-life example, which also shows how differences in areas' health performances can be adequately quantified. Such information can be invaluable for the appropriate targetting and subsequent evaluation of urban regeneration, neighborhood renewal, and community-based initiatives aimed at improving health and reducing health inequalities.

Building community capacity under ‘austerity urbanism’: Stimulating, supporting and maintaining resident engagement in neighbourhood regeneration in Manchester

The decline or withdrawal of funding for targeted regeneration initiatives in England, linked to the wider programme of austerity in public finances, presents major challenges for deprived neighbourhoods. Government’s expectation is that the demise of most neighbourhood-focused regeneration initiatives will be offset by the increased involvement of a host of local, voluntary and private-sector actors as part of a wider programme of localism in which civil society assumes responsibility for public policy and service delivery functions previously exercised by the state. This paper assesses the scope for and likelihood of this radical transformation by considering the experience of four neighbourhoods in Manchester. Through a programme of interviews with a range of stakeholders, the paper explores the implications posed by recent policy reforms for levels of resident activism and engagement, and considers the degree to which neighbourhood actors can build capacity in order to contribute meaningfully to future regeneration efforts. The paper concludes that sustained intervention is needed to ensure that raised levels of social capital resulting from past policy initiatives do not dissipate. Developing community capacity in deprived neighbourhoods, the paper concludes, requires concerted and concentrated policy intervention that is at odds with government’s current emphasis on laissez-faire localism.

The Creative City and the Redevelopment of the Toronto Entertainment District: A BIA-Led Regeneration Process

This paper analyses the conceptualization phase of the Toronto Entertainment District regeneration initiative, as a project led by the local Business Improvement Area Association. We study how the creative city concept is applied in the context of regeneration, and why stakeholders use it to legitimate regeneration strategies embodied in a Master Plan. We relate this analysis to the governance arrangements for this case study. Our main conclusion is that the creative city concept translates strongly in the place-making aspect of the project, and serves the objective of a specific set of stakeholders to enhance the identity of the area and foster the attraction of new residents and businesses.

OP08 Evaluating the Health Inequalities Impact of the New Deal for Communities Initiative

BackgroundNew Deal for Communities (NDC), a 10-year area-based regeneration initiative begun in 1999 in 39 disadvantaged neighbourhoods in England, has the potential to reduce health inequalities because it focuses on...