Members News

Dr Mike Aiken
Research Officer, Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR)
www.ivar.org.uk  Email: mike@ivar.org.uk 

Visiting Research Fellow, Co-operatives Research Unit, Open University http://technology.open.ac.uk/cru/ Email: m.aiken@open.ac.uk 
www.emes.net

28/09/07

URBAN REGENERATION IN GLOBALISING CITIES: A TRANSATLANTIC UNDERGRADUATE PLANNING PROGRAMME

We are delighted to announce another success for EURA! The University of the West of England, the Politecnico di Milano and University of Illinois at Chicago have been awarded €408000 and $408000 by the European Commission and the US Department for Education respectively to develop a joint degree in planning entitled “Urban regeneration in globalising cities : a transatlantic undergraduate planning programme”. The very competitive Atlantis programme (only 25% of applications got funding this year) seeks to encourage an innovative and sustainable range of student-centred activities, in both higher education and vocational education and training, and between different regions of the European Union and the United States. In particular, the programme's transatlantic exchanges help students in the USA and the EU acquire the skills they will need to meet the challenges of the global knowledge-based economy.

“Urban regeneration in globalising cities: a transatlantic undergraduate planning programme” is an undergraduate dual degree programme focusing on a course of study that provides students with foundation skills for critical analysis on cross-national urban planning and regeneration. Students will spend one year abroad during the four-year course of study. The exchanges will also develop the programme of research through workshop activities involving faculty staff from the three universities. Graduates of the programme will be able to make effective contributions to the sustainable development of communities and connect global processes to local policy agendas.

For further information on this, contact the EU project coordinator Laurence Carmichael.

28/09/07

INDICATORS OF DECENTRALISATION IN LOCAL LABOUR MARKETS FROM FOUR EUROPEAN STATES

The EMDELA research which was completed in the summer of 2007 examined indicators of decentralisation in policy making around local labour markets - considering the situation in Germany, Italy, Finland and the UK. The project involved qualitative research talking to practitioners and policy makers in 2 cities in each country, typically: from the local authority economic development officer; the Job; a third sector organisation undertaking work and training projects for the disadvantaged; and a community advocacy organisation. The quantative side of the project involved examining and comparing various indicators of social exclusion and poverty including Laeken indicators.

The EMDELA research report is now available. (1) The short version of the UK report is available at:

• http://technology.open.ac.uk/cru/publicatold.htm 

[Aiken, M. (2007) ‘Local decentralisation: the EMDELA research report from the UK case’]

The full, and final, report from the four country European EMDELA research is now available for download in English and German at:

• http://www.prospektive-entwicklungen.de/german/1024/projekte/index_em.html [Zum Projekt EMDELA (VP 2005 009) The emerging design of local labour market integration – elements and performance indicators]

The project EMDELA was funded by the European Community Action Programme to Combat Social Exclusion. It is being co-ordinated by ZOOM e.v. a not-for-profit research and consultancy organisation based in Göttingen, Germany.

Background

The research was lead by Niklas Forreiter, Sandra Kotlenga, Andreas D. Schulz at Zoom (Society for Prospective Developments e.V.) in Göttingen, Germany in association with Professor Adalbert Evers at the University of Giessen, Germany.

Country leads were: Monica Loss (Istituto Studi Sviluppo Aziende Nonprofit ISSAN, Trento – Italy), and Pekka Pättiniemi (Co-operative Idekoop).

Mike Aiken at the Co-operatives Research Unit at the Open University was the UK project lead (m.aiken@open.ac.uk).

28/09/07

ADDRESSING REGIONAL DISPARITIES THROUGH NEW INDICATORS INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS SOUGHT

The Ministry of Regional Development of the Czech Republic supports a new research project focused on Sustainable development indicators as a tool for analysing and decreasing regional disparities in quality of life.

This project is based on thesis that the problematic of sustainable development is in the foreground of the interest of the more educated public. We use various indexes and indicators to measure the drifts of sustainable development. The most usual is the „GDP per capita“ which measures the economic situation, but its use for the local levels is very problematic, if not practically impossible. So, we are trying to look for and develop other indicators for measuring sustainable development. We think that to measure regional disparity, we need to develop a system recording and analysing the development and productivity (not only economic) of each area, both in terms of policies (economic, environment and social), but also in governance terms (from the local to the regional up to state level). This project is a privately led research by NGO Civitas per Populi. Partner institutions are Technical University Brno, Faculty of Architecture and NGO TIMUR (Team Initiative for Local Sustainability). The project duration is 2007 – 2011.

We are looking for colleagues who could co-operate with us on the international level and share with us about information and ideas.

For further details:

Contact the team leader Vladimira Silhankova
Head of NGO Civitas per Populi
Email: vladimira.silhankova@atlas.cz 
Tel: +420 603 554 155
Web: www.civitasperpopuli.org

04/06/2007

Healthy Communities Research Forum - linking health and sustainable development

Wednesday 28th February saw the re-launch of the Healthy Communities Research Forum with an afternoon dedicated to examining mental well-being and design of the urban environment. The new series, opened by Regional Director of Public Health and Visiting Professor Gabriel Scally will focus on linking health and sustainable development through three or four topical fora a year. Funding is being provided by the DoH and HEFCE the sessions are hosted by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Cities and Urban Policy.

The format is to have insightful presentations followed by plenty of time for discussion (and networking!). About 50 people drawn from a wide range of interests attended, development agencies, universities, landscape practices, healthy living centres, health protection, architecture and planning, local authorities, PCTs and other public health bodies.

With evidence mounting that some of the determinants of mental health reside in our living environments, Gabriel Scally gave an overview of the field. He broadened the concept of mental health from a clinical definition to include a wider public health understanding. After examining recent work in this field, he concluded that there was not enough study concentrating on the elements in the built environment that were having a positive impact on mental health and well-being. He also advocated the development of a ‘gold standard’ methodology in the health and built environment field, akin to the status afforded ’randomised control trials’ in the medical model. The call was for more dialogue between designers and planners and those involved in public health.

Next, Sarah Parry-Jones, working for ARUPS as a chartered civil engineer, talked about neighbourhood accessibility, social networks and mental well-being. Sarah presented an analysis of the literature on neighbourhood accessibility, social networks and mental well-being. Based on over 30 relevant international research studies, she gave an overview of research methodologies, identified themes and conclusions in this relatively new area of work. She outlined the complex relationship between accessibility, social networks and well-being.

Following this Andy McGeeney from Thames Chase Community Forest gave a presentation on ‘Eco-therapy’, involving a tour around theory and practice in improving our relationship to Nature to create better well-being. Andy explored the psychological and spiritual relationship we have with Nature and the consequences in light of our current understanding in relation to mental well being. He introduced current concepts, thinking and research evidence in this area and opened up the discussion to consider the implications for education, health care and the design of the urban environment.

The session continued with networking around some magnificent fruit platters provided by UWE catering and ended with a workshop discussing in pairs and then plenary - Where we are heading? People answered in terms of where research was heading, where society was heading and where their own practice was heading.

The built environment, including road networks and where we locate housing, creates the human habitat and modifies the natural habitat and our relationship to it. Are designers and planners building-in triggers for mental illness? How can Public Health practitioners influence development? Can we develop planning processes that will lead to neighbourhoods that support well-being? What do we already know and what further evidence do we need?

The final conclusions supported the view that as we aspire to work in every more complex ways, no single discipline holds the answers. Public health, and those who feel they can represent it, need to be involved in the planning of built environment infrastructure – be it neighbourhoods, estates, town centres. That infrastructure will influence health - for good or for ill - for many generations to come.

Future topics to be considered include: • Breaking down the economic barriers to building healthy sustainable communities • Health inequalities and inclusive neighbourhoods • Collaboration and governance for health and sustainability • Environmental Health or Environment’s for Health • Creativity in Urban Planning for Health

The next session, on the 2nd May, will be: ‘The potential of car-free development – practicalities and the health impacts’.

Marcus Grant
WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Cities and Urban Policy
Faculty of the Built Environment
University of the West of England

E-mail: marcus.grant@uwe.ac.uk

RECENT PUBLICATIONS (this section lists some of our members publications in the past 12 months)

Civitas per Populi have published a new book which focuses on theoretical approaches and experience with European Common Indicator´s set in the Czech Republic and on a key study in the city of Hradec Králové.

Sustainable Development Indicators. Theoretical Approaches and Experience in the Czech Republic. Hradec Králové Key Study

Vladimíra Šilhánková (ed.) Civitas per Populi, 2007

The issue of (permanently) sustainable development has been mentioned and discussed more and more in this decade. An ever growing number of institutions, governmental agencies and local authorities profess these principles. However, not that many of these try to introduce/ implement them into a real life situation. A number of these institutions, namely local authorities would like to implement the principles of sustainable development, but the existing options, methodologies and approaches are often far too theoretical and fragmented thus making the practical implementation very difficult (mainly in smaller municipalities). Therefore our objective and subsequently the objective of this brochure, which was produced within the project of the Sustainable Development Indicators as a Tool for Monitoring and Decreasing Disparities in the Population Level of Individual Regions supported from the programme of the Ministry for Regional Development of the Czech Republic aimed at research and development under the title of “Research for Regional Disparity Solution”, is to support the options of the implementation of the sustainable development principles on a local level. Since there is a quite integrated and stabilised methodology for introducing the sustainable development principles in the planning processes in the form of the Local Agenda 21, we endeavour to create a tool for monitoring the progress of the Local Agenda 21 or more precisely a Tool for Monitoring any Planning Processes on a Local Level. Creating a mutually interconnected system of monitoring the sustainable development indicators, employable at a local, micro-regional and regional level for monitoring disparities in the regional development. The submitted brochure is the first interim result of our efforts where we have tried to map out the “good practice” and demonstrate with a study case both the possibilities of the actual indicator monitoring and mutual indicator co-ordination and interconnection with planning procedures and documents of the municipality. Obviously, even in this described study case everything is not as it ideally could be, but in our opinion it is a very inspirational example and in many aspects “well worth following”.

The publication is available at: www.civitasperpopuli.org and www.timur.cz

or e-mail:: civitasperpopuli@volny.cz 

This publication was produced within the research for the Ministry for Regional Development in relation to the research project WD- 69-07-4 Sustainable Development Indicators as a Tool for Monitoring Disparities and thanks to the financial support of the Municipality of Hradec Králové.

Smith, I., Lepine, E. and Taylor, M. (eds) (2007) Disadvantaged by where you live? Neighbourhood governance in contemporary urban policy

Disadvantaged by where you live? distils lessons from work on neighbourhoods carried out within the Cities Research Centre of the University of the West of England over the past seven years. It offers a major contribution to academic debates on the neighbourhood both as a sphere of governance and as a point of public service delivery under New Labour since 1997.

The book explores:

• How ‘the neighbourhood’ has been used in policy in the UK?
• What is the ‘appropriate contribution’ of neighbourhood governance and how does this relate to concepts of multi-level governance?
• What tensions are visible at the neighbourhood level? And what does this tell us about wider governance issues?

The book explores and reflects on the notion of neighbourhood governance from a variety of perspectives that reflect the unique depth and breadth of the Centre’s research programme. Neighbourhood governance is examined in relation to: multi-level governance and cityregions; local government; mainstreaming; cross-national differences in neighbourhood policy; community and civil society; diversity; different conceptions of democracy; and, evaluation and learning. In doing so, the book identifies useful conceptual tools for analysing the present and future contribution of policy to neighbourhoods.

Policy Press (www.policypress.org.uk)
ISBN: 978 1 86134 894 4 £24.99

For further details or to order a copy:

Marston Book Services
PO Box 269, Abingdon
Oxon OX14 4YN
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1235 465500
Fax: +44 (0)1235 465556
Email: direct.orders@marston.co.uk 

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We are delighted to announce the publication of:

Klausen, J.E. and Swianiewicz, P. (eds) (2007) Cities in City Regions. Governing the Diversity  ISBN: 978-83-89502-62-9

A selection of papers presented at the EURA bi-annual conference 'Cities in City-Regions' on 11-14 May 2006 in Warsaw. Available September 2007 - download order form here.

Contents

Jan Erling Klausen, Pawel Swianiewicz - Cities in City Regions: Governing the Diversity

Part I. The Dynamics of Social Diversity in Metropolitan Areas

Andrzej Lisowski - The Centralisation and Decentralisation Processes in the Warsaw Metropolitan Area in the Years 1950-2002

Zohreh Daneshpour - Spatial Inequality and Dislocation in Tehran’s Urban Region

Zhan McIntyre - Mixing it Up: Social Impacts of Using Gentrification as a Tool for Creating Social Diversity

Part II. Managing the Diversity of Metropolitan Areas

Iradj Asadi - Models of Metropolitan Regionalism: a Comprehensive View

Donald F. Norris, Don Phares, Tonya Zimmerman - Why Metropolitan Government Has Not Been Adopted in the United States and Why It Will Not Be Anytime Soon?

Marta Lackowska - Metropolitan Governance in Poland: Is Voluntary Co-operation Condemned to Failure?

Panos Getimis, Nikos K. Hlepas - From Fragmentation and Sectoralisation to Integration Through Metropolitan Governance? The Athens Olympics As a Catalytic Mega-Event

Richard Morin, Jean-Marc Fontan, Pierre Hamel, Eric Shragge - Community Organisations and Local Development in a Metropolitan Region: Does Local Place Matter?

Alexander Tölle - Major Revitalisation Projects as Catalysts for Metropolitan Governance Structures? Creating Partnerships in Greater Lyon, Hamburg Metropolitan Region, and Gdansk TricityAgglomeration

For further details or to order a copy:

Editorial Office
Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies
University of Warsaw
Krakowskie Przedmiescie 30 00927
Warsaw
POLAND

Email: zako@uw.edu.pl
Fax: +48 22 55 21 521

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Bahn, C. and Loepfe, A. (2007) Urban Management: A Value-Based Approach for Spatial Planning

In the real estate development process are several key actors involved who have different conceptions of how and which kind of value within real estate projects is to be obtained. Architects focus on the aesthetic quality of buildings and define value as contribution to the cultural uniqueness of areas. Urban designer judge real estate projects by their functional contribution to the master plan of urban development. Investors and developers however are particularly interested in a high cash flow over the entire life cycle of properties. The diverse disciplinary backgrounds and objectives of these key actors lead frequently to conflicts in the development process and hinder the public permission of real estate projects. Urban management as a new approach for spatial planning shall contribute to the overcoming of the linguistic confusion which is inherent in the real estate development process. Key idea of the urban management approach is the maximization of the land value of an outlined area as central indicator for the well-being of the inhabitants and other users of space. As e.g. the aesthetic quality of buildings and larger areas as well as the quality of the public infrastructure are reflected in the land value, this indicator allows managing not only the economic but social and aesthetic betterment of a certain area. Therefore, the public welfare could be better served by an urban management approach than by the more traditional, prohibitive approach of spatial planning.

For further details:

Dr Christopher Bahn
Programme Manager
CUREM AG
Schanzeneggstr. 1
8002 Zürich
SWITZERLAND

Tel.: +41 44 208 99 98
Fax: +41 44 208 99 90
Email: c.bahn@curem.ch

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Hambleton, R. and Gross, J. (eds) (2007) Governing cities in a global era. Urban innovation, competition and democratic reform

Palgrave. ISBN 1 4039 7673

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Richards, G. and Wilson, J. (eds) (2007) Tourism, Creativity and Development
Series: Contemporary Geographies of Leisure, Tourism and Mobility
ISBN: 9780415427562; ISBN-10: 0415427568
Publisher: Routledge; Publication Date: 11/12/2007
List Price: £80.00 (hardback, possible paperback version in future)
Now available for Pre-order from http://www.routledge.com/ 

This book analyzes, in critical terms, the impact and effectiveness of creative strategies and charts the emergence of 'creative tourism'. A wide range of examples from Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and Africa explore the interface between tourism and creativity including: creative spaces and places such as cultural and creative clusters and ethnic precincts, the role of the creative industries and entrepreneurs in the creation of experiences, creativity and rural areas, the 'creative class' and tourism, lifestyle, creativity and tourism and marketing creative tourism destinations. The diverse multidisciplinary contributions link theory and practice, and demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of creativity as a tourism development strategy and marketing tool, the relationship between individual and collective forms of creativity and the widely differing forms of modern tourism.

Contact:

Julie Wilson Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona/University of the West of England
E-mail: Julie.wilson@uwe.ac.uk

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Barnes, M., Newman, J. and Sullivan, H. (2007) Power, participation and political renewal: Case studies in public participation

Public participation is central to a wide range of current public policies – not only in the UK, but elsewhere in the developed and the developing world. There are substantial aspirations for what enhanced participation can achieve. This book offers a critical examination of both the discourse and practice of participation in order to understand the significance of this explosion in participatory forums, and the extent to which such practices represent a fundamental change in governance.

Based on 17 case studies across a range of policy areas in two English cities, the authors address key issues such as: the way in which notions of the public are constructed; the motivation of participants; how the interests and identities of officials and citizens are negotiated within forums; and the ways in which institutions enable and constrain the development of participation initiatives.

Much of the literature on public participation is highly normative. This book draws from detailed empirical work, theories of governance, of deliberative democracy and social movements to offer a nuanced account of the dynamics of participation and to suggest why experiences of this can be frustrating as well as transformative.

ISBN 978 1 86134 667 4 (pb) £24.99
ISBN 978 1 86134 668 1 (hb) £65.00

Contact:

Professor Helen Sullivan
University of the West of England
E-mail: Helen.sullivan@uwe.ac.uk

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Sullivan, H. (2007) Interpreting community leadership in English local government, Policy and Politics, 35(1) pp141-162

Contact: helen.sullivan@uwe.ac.uk

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