This chapter examines the opportunities and pitfalls of integrating transport planning with urban design and place-making strategies, using design thinking as a way to address many of the ‘intractables’ associated with implementing... more
This chapter examines the opportunities and pitfalls of integrating transport planning with urban design and place-making strategies, using design thinking as a way to address many of the ‘intractables’ associated with implementing transport policy. We argue for a focus on the substance and consistency of macro level strategy alongside the significance of creative and consistent micro level interventions. We position our argument alongside smart city debates, aiming to reinsert into these a more ‘ordinary’ approach that celebrates the significance of intervention in ‘ordinary neighbourhoods’ through the deployment of ‘ordinary technologies’ (benches, quality pavements) to create more livable cities and neighbourhoods. We concur that planning is a form of knowledge in action but choices over what counts as knowledge and how it is used and deployed are highly significant. In doing so, and to better secure citizen buy-in to the transformation of public space, we argue for an approach centred on co-design to counter planning orthodoxy that subverts people’s everyday needs to the paradigms and embedded routines of regulatory systems.
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The current convergence of global challenges, particularly the climate change emergency, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the Black Lives Matter movement, have highlighted the need for a new lens to challenge and interrogate key urban planning... more
The current convergence of global challenges, particularly the climate change emergency, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the Black Lives Matter movement, have highlighted the need for a new lens to challenge and interrogate key urban planning assumptions related to spatial urban inequality. Yet urban inequality is often and invariably described from a limited economic perspective, commonly interpreted and measured as income inequality. This is an overtly statistical measure, or Gini-Type index, often giving limited and unsatisfactory results. Yet, in practice, the spatial distribution and concentration of income inequality is a multi-scalar, multi-variant, and multi-disciplinary issue and has links with other and wider dimensions of inequality and well-being. As such, this article argues for a holistic understanding of urban inequality that goes beyond narrow empirical and quantitative models. It presents collaborative research that aims to impact the actions of urban professionals, to a...
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The concept of ‘inclusive growth’ (IG) is discussed in a political economy framework. The article reports comparative analysis of economic and planning policy documents from Scotland, England and the UK and findings from expert workshops... more
The concept of ‘inclusive growth’ (IG) is discussed in a political economy framework. The article reports comparative analysis of economic and planning policy documents from Scotland, England and the UK and findings from expert workshops held in Scotland, which identify four key policy areas for ‘inclusive growth’: skills, transport and housing for young people; city-regional governance; childcare; and place-making. These policies share with the ‘Foundational Economy’ an emphasis on everyday infrastructure and services, but add an emphasis on inter-generational justice and stress the importance of community empowerment as much as re-municipalisation. Factors enabling IG policy development include: the necessary political powers; a unifying political discourse and civic institutions; and inclusive governance and participatory democracy.
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The research undertaken in this thesis represents an inquiry into the nature of public space. Its scope is threefold, first, to propose a new way of conceptualising the publicness of public space, defined as the sum of characteristics... more
The research undertaken in this thesis represents an inquiry into the nature of public space. Its scope is threefold, first, to propose a new way of conceptualising the publicness of public space, defined as the sum of characteristics that make a public space public; second, to create a new methodology for practically assessing public places and third, to test this on several new public place case studies. The entire thesis is based on a new understanding of publicness as having a dual nature: it can be grasped simultaneously as a cultural reality and as a historical reality. Publicness as a cultural reality means that all public places, created at a certain point in time and in a particular socio-cultural setting, can be understood as reflection of a common held view of what the ideal public space is. In order to grasp this ideal and use it as a standard to measure the publicness of new public places, the researcher gathered and filtered the different conceptions and definitions in...
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networks; some other cases have demonstrated the complex role of protest legacy (showing that the enduring outcome of resisting redevelopment depends heavily on organizational features and varieties of capitalism); moreover, although the... more
networks; some other cases have demonstrated the complex role of protest legacy (showing that the enduring outcome of resisting redevelopment depends heavily on organizational features and varieties of capitalism); moreover, although the cases from Madrid and Los Angeles also shown the important role of judicial tools, expertise is still the key. Therefore, the authors highlighted that experiential tools have essential roles across all the resisting redevelopment cases in the referred global cities, in terms of sustaining resident engagement, publicizing concerns, as well as displaying clout to allies and opponents. Furthermore, it is also found that mobilization based on the experiential strategies are most likely to generate significant impact, and allies in the local council and support from higher tiers of government are also important for the protesters. Part III (Explaining Impact) then focused on addressing how protesters achieve policy impact. Castell’s seminal argument has ...
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Varna and Oswell talks about how many people, trapped for the first time in their own private realms, have found a renewed appreciation of the importance of (high-quality) public spaces The physical and mental therapeutic properties of... more
Varna and Oswell talks about how many people, trapped for the first time in their own private realms, have found a renewed appreciation of the importance of (high-quality) public spaces The physical and mental therapeutic properties of having a pleasant walk or jog, or being able to relax in a natural landscape, have been re-evaluated by people in various forms of lockdown across the globe However, difficult realities have once again resurfaced as a result
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Which public and whose space? The understanding of public space as an arena where individuals can claim full use and access hides a reality of constant negotiation, conflict and surveillance. This collection uses case studies concerning... more
Which public and whose space? The understanding of public space as an arena where individuals can claim full use and access hides a reality of constant negotiation, conflict and surveillance. This collection uses case studies concerning the management, use, and transgression of public space to invite reflection on the way in which everyday social interaction is framed and shaped by the physical environment and vice versa. International experts from fields including geography, criminology, sociology and urban studies come together to debate the concepts of order and conflict in public space.
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Real estate development is an intensely social process dependent on rich networks of relations between public and private sector actors. Previous work has explored how far such relations are formalised in large cities through shared... more
Real estate development is an intensely social process dependent on rich networks of relations between public and private sector actors. Previous work has explored how far such relations are formalised in large cities through shared coalitions of interest intended to promote urban growth. Relatively little attention has been given to networks in smaller cities, which is the concern of this paper. Drawing on detailed research in a small Scottish city, the paper explores how its local network was characterised by strong reliance on network construction and reproduction through trust and reputation. Significantly, within such local networks, competition and collaboration can exist side by side, without subsuming normal tensions into consistent agendas or formally defined ‘partnerships’. Controlling land for urban expansion provides a particular focus for these tensions, since it can allow certain interests to gain network dominance. These findings raise important concerns around whethe...