Urban Studies
Volume 54, Issue 2, February 2017
1. Title: Governing urbanism: Urban governance studies 1.0, 2.0 and beyond
Authors:McCann, Eugene.
Abstract:Governance has been a key concept in urban studies since the late 1980s. This paper reflects on its use and development over the past 25 years and identifies contemporary innovations and concerns that will likely define the future of urban governance studies. The paper argues that to fully understand the impacts of governance approaches on our understanding of cities, urban regions and global urbanism, we must address how urbanism, rather than urbanisation, is governed. An attention to urbanism highlights a wider range of scholarly work on how the mutually constitutive relationships between the development of built environments and the identities, practices, struggles and opportunities of everyday social life are governed. In introducing 15 contributions from the archives of Urban Studies, the paper employs a heuristic framing - urban governance studies (UGS) 1.0, 2.0, and beyond - to show that, while governance as a contemporary critical concept gained prominence through the work of Marxian political economists concerned largely with urbanisation (UGS 1.0), other work, analysing the governance of other aspects of urbanism, including identity and citizenship (UGS 2.0), also has a significant history. The paper then points to ways in which urban governance studies grapple with future-defining challenges, such as climate change, and new framings, such as the 'smart city', while extending the scope of their analyses both temporally and spatially. The paper concludes by pointing to gaps and potential topics for ongoing attention.
2. Title:Transatlantic city, part 2: Late entrepreneurialism
Authors:Peck, Jamie.
Abstract:The first installment of this two-part paper made a case for a conjunctural approach to urban studies, reserving a special place for the provisional formulation and ongoing revision of midlevel theories - from the entrepreneurial city to austerity urbanism and financialised urban governance - while positioning abstraction and contextualisation as simultaneous, dialogic practices. It follows that such arguments can be developed only so far in the absence of concrete cases, where conjunctural accounts actually gain traction, direction and purpose. Seeking to operationalise some of these methodological principles by way of a situated, single-city case study, this part of the paper returns to the financially challenged casino capital of Atlantic City, tracing its long (and notorious) history of entrepreneurial dealings, from Republican machine control to the 'experiment' with legalised gambling that was launched in the mid-1970s, and positioning the structural crisis that preceded the casino pact with the existential crisis that has been generated in the wake of the failure of this distinctive local growth machine. Atlantic City made a very large wager that did not pay off, the unravelling of its much-emulated model of entrepreneurial urbanism dramatising a distinctly 'late-entrepreneurial' moment of fiscally mandated governance and political crisis.
3.Title:Accessibility dynamics and location premia: Do land values follow accessibility changes?
Authors:Iacono, Michael; Levinson, David.
Abstract:The structure of transportation networks and the patterns of accessibility they give rise to are an important determinant of land prices, and hence urban spatial structure. While there is ample evidence on the cross-sectional relationship between location and land value (usually measured from the value of improved property), there is much less evidence available on the changes in this relationship over time, especially where location is represented using a disaggregate measure of urban accessibility. This paper provides evidence of this dynamic relationship using data on home sales in the Minneapolis-St Paul, MN, USA metropolitan area, coupled with disaggregate measures of urban accessibility for multiple modes, for the period from 2000 to 2005. Our investigation tracks the effects of marginal changes in accessibility over time, as opposed to static, cross-sectional relationships, by using an approach in which the unit of observation is a 'representative house' for each transportation analysis zone in the region. This approach allows us to control for changes in structural attributes of houses over time, while also isolating the effect of changes in accessibility levels. Results of this approach are compared with a cross-sectional model using the same variables for a single year to illustrate important differences. Empirical estimates indicate that while most of the models estimated using a cross-sectional specification yield positive and significant effects of accessibility on sale prices, these effects disappear when the models are transformed into first-difference form. We explain these findings in light of the state of maturity of urban transportation networks.
4. Title:Disruption, resilience, and vernacular heritage in an Indian city: Pune after the 1961 floods
Authors:Shinde, Kiran A.
Abstract:This paper offers insights into production of vernacular architectural heritage that result from disruption caused by disaster such as a flood in a city. To understand the complexities surrounding vernacular heritage, this paper proposes a conceptual approach derived from Lefebvre's theory of production of space constituting the triad of spatial practice, representation of spaces and representational space. The strength of this approach in explaining resilience and vernacular architectural heritage is illustrated by examining rehabilitation settlements that evolved after the devastating floods of 1961 in Pune (a city with a population of 4.5 million). The paper focuses on the rehabilitation process that was undertaken in response to the floods and relies on secondary data and primary field observations in the rehabilitated settlements. It was found that these settlements had twofold characteristics; externally, they directed the trajectory of growth and expansion of the city owing to their strategic location in the periphery around the old core, and internally within, they contributed to reshaping of urban form and vernacular architecture as the affected people reconstructed their houses and everyday lives. A significant contribution to the making of these rehabilitation spaces was the state's provision of land for rehabilitation and encouragement to the mechanism of Cooperative Housing as a representation of space incorporating contemporary planning ideologies. These settlements comprised the 'architecture of the dispossessed' where material culture and imagery informed different and hybrid forms of houses but these were a departure from the past as they needed to accommodate rebuilding and expansion while serving aspirations of those affected.
5. Title:Intergenerational support shaping residential trajectories: Young people leaving home in a gentrifying city
Authors:Hochstenbach, Cody; Boterman, Willem R.
Abstract:Parental support, in both financial and non-financial ways, is important in explaining the residential trajectories of young people leaving home. For instance, the influence of parental support on the ability to leave home or enter homeownership is well established. This study adds a dimension by investigating how inequalities in terms of parental background - particularly assets - are spatially articulated. More specifically, we study whether parental background influences the types of neighbourhoods young people leaving home move to. Drawing on the case of Amsterdam, we show that these 'fledglings', despite their generally very modest income, disproportionally move to gentrification neighbourhoods. Moreover, fledglings with wealthy parents are even more likely to move to both early gentrifying and expensive mature-gentrification neighbourhoods. Gentrification research should therefore also take into account the importance of middle class social reproduction strategies as well as the potential intergenerational transfer of (financial) resources - rather than merely personal financial situation - in shaping housing outcomes and spatial inequalities of young people leaving home. Drawing on parental support, young people may be able to outbid other households and hence exclude them from gentrifying neighbourhoods. Consequently, parental wealth and other resources can thus contribute to gentrification and exclusion.
6. Title:Blind spots and pop-up spots: A feminist exploration into the discourses of do-it-yourself (DIY) urbanism
Authors:Heim LaFrombois, Megan.
Abstract:This paper is a theoretical exploration of dominant conceptualisations of do-it-yourself urbanism, which draws from and contributes to feminist inquiries into urban planning and policies. Do-it-yourself urbanism is defined as unauthorised, grassroots, and citizen-led urban planning interventions that are small scale, functional, temporary, creative, and place specific; are focused on reclaiming and re-purposing urban spaces; and take place outside formal urban planning structures and systems. This paper questions and complicates the dominant discourses surrounding do-it-yourself urbanism by highlighting the racialised, classed, gendered, and sexualised 'blind spots' and biases found within conceptualisations of the topic, its activities, actors, and spaces. It also investigates how do-it-yourself urbanism activities and actors are connected to and embedded in larger urban systems and policies. I argue that the dominant discourses of do-it-yourself urbanism focus on a narrow set of urban planning interventions, which may have major implications for cities and their residents. However, the terrain of do-it-yourself urbanism is diverse, fluid, paradoxical, and at times subversive, revealing bright spots for more inclusive and reflexive practice.
7. Title:Revealing centrality in the spatial structure of cities from human activity patterns
Authors:Zhong, Chen; Schläpfer, Markus; Müller Arisona, Stefan; Batty, Michael; Ratti, Carlo; et al.
Abstract:Identifying changes in the spatial structure of cities is a prerequisite for the development and validation of adequate planning strategies. Nevertheless, current methods of measurement are becoming ever more challenged by the highly diverse and intertwined ways of how people actually make use of urban space. Here, we propose a new quantitative measure for the centrality of locations, taking into account not only the numbers of people attracted to different locations, but also the diversity of the activities they are engaged in. This 'centrality index' allows for the identification of functional urban centres and for a systematic tracking of their relative importance over time, thus contributing to our understanding of polycentricity. We demonstrate the proposed index using travel survey data in Singapore for different years between 1997 and 2012. It is shown that, on the one hand, the city-state has been developing rapidly towards a polycentric urban form that compares rather closely with the official urban development plan. On the other hand, however, the downtown core has strongly gained in its importance, and this can be partly attributed to the recent extension of the public transit system.
8. Title:The law is not enough: Seeking the theoretical 'frontier of urban justice' via legal tools
Authors:Pierce, Joseph; Martin, Deborah.
Abstract:This commentary examines the conceptual limits of urban justice through the use of legal tools, both generally and in actually existing neoliberal urban contexts. Our interest emerges from previous research on social service siting in a region with legal tools that seem exceptionally friendly to spatial justice due to limits on exclusionary zoning. Conceptually, such powerful legal levers might be expected to mitigate the generally observed tendency towards revanchism in contexts of urban government devolution. However, even given exceptional legal accommodations, we found a spatially concentrated service landscape, mirroring neoliberal market-led framings of 'highest and best use'. Using this prior research as a point of departure, we highlight related findings in the broader literature on the use of the law by urban social justice activists. We argue that even maximally powerful legal protections for justice-oriented actors cannot blunt systematic spatio-political dynamics that lead marketised states towards revanchist outcomes. We call for future research which more explicitly charts the specific frontiers of the potential of the law as a tool for social justice.
9. Title:The spatial dimension of US house prices
Authors:Pijnenburg, Katharina.
Abstract:Spatial heterogeneity and spatial dependence are two well established aspects of house price developments. However, the analysis of differences in spatial dependence across time and space has not gained much attention yet. This paper jointly analyses these three aspects of spatial data. A panel smooth transition regression model is applied that allows for heterogeneity across time and space in spatial house price spillovers and for heterogeneity in the effect of the fundamentals on house price dynamics. Evidence is found for heterogeneity in spatial spillovers of house prices across space and time: house prices in neighbouring regions spill over more in times of increasing neighbouring house prices then when neighbouring house prices are declining. This is interpreted as evidence for the disposition effect. Moreover, heterogeneity in the effect of the fundamentals on house price dynamics could not be detected for all variables; real per capita disposable income and the unemployment rate have a homogeneous effect across time and space.
10. Title:Neighbourhood ethnic composition and outcomes for low-income Latino and African American children
Authors: Galster, George; Santiago, Anna.
Abstract:The paper investigates the impact of ethnic segregation on the life chances of low-income African American and Latino children, focusing on whether it is the ethnic composition of the neighbourhood per se that matters or other, correlated aspects of the residential environment. The approach links the consequences of segregation and neighbourhood effects literatures by arguing that metropolitan segregation forces directly shape children's intra-neighbourhood ethnic exposure and indirectly shape their exposure to non-ethnic aspects of neighbourhood. Associations between a wide range of neighbourhood characteristics and children's health, exposure to and engaging in violence, educational and fertility outcomes are quantified using a natural experiment, thereby permitting valid causal inferences. Data analysed come from a retrospective survey of Denver (CO) Housing Authority (DHA) residents. The analysis avoids parental geographic selection bias because DHA's assignment of households to neighbourhoods mimics a random process. Logit models stratified by ethnicity show that growing up amid concentrations of African American residents is associated with a variety of adverse outcomes for low-income Latino and (especially) African American children, though outcomes associated with concentrations of Latino residents are more mixed. Virtually all of the negative associations disappear, however, when other aspects of the residential context are controlled, and several positive ones persist. The adverse developmental consequences of ethnic segregation appear to be generated primarily in Denver by concentrating minority children in neighbourhoods with higher rates of property crime and lower occupational prestige.
11. Title:Competitive urbanism and the limits to smart city innovation: The UK Future Cities initiative
Authors:Taylor Buck, Nick; While, Aidan.
Abstract:The technological vision of smart urbanism has been promoted as a silver bullet for urban problems and a major market opportunity. The search is on for firms and governments to find effective and transferable demonstrations of advanced urban technology. This paper examines initiatives by the UK national government to facilitate urban technological innovation through a range of strategies, particularly the TSB Future Cities Demonstrator Competition. This case study is used to explore opportunities and tensions in the practical realisation of the smart city imaginary. Tensions are shown to be partly about the conjectural nature of the smart city debate. Attention is also drawn to weakened capacity of urban governments to control their infrastructural destiny and also constraints on the ability of the public and private sectors to innovate. The paper contributes to smart city debates by providing further evidence of the difficulties in substantiating the smart city imaginary.
12. Title:Waiting for the R train: Public transportation and employment
Authors:Tyndall, Justin.
Abstract:Expanding employment opportunities for citizens has become an increasingly central goal of public policy in the United States. Prior work has considered that the inability of households to spatially access jobs may be a driver of unemployment. The provision of public transportation provides a viable policy lever to increase the number of job opportunities available to households. Previous research has yielded mixed results regarding whether household location is an important factor in determining employment status. Several papers have identified mobility as a limiting factor for obtaining a job, particularly in regards to private vehicle ownership. The location of economically developed neighbourhoods and the citing of public transportation are conceivably codetermined, presenting an endogenous relationship. It is therefore unclear if public transportation access is actually contributing to neighbourhood job market outcomes. This paper will use the incidence of Hurricane Sandy striking New York City on 29 October 2012 and the resulting exogenous reduction in public transit access to particular neighbourhoods as a natural experiment to test for the effect of public transportation on employment outcomes. This study identifies a significant causal effect linking public transportation access to neighbourhood unemployment rates, particularly amongst subgroups dependent on public transit.
13. Title:A stop too far: How does public transportation concentration influence neighbourhood median household income?
Authors: Barton, Michael S; Gibbons, Joseph.
Abstract:Research on US cities has connected the concentration of public transit with various neighbourhood outcomes, but it remains unclear whether public transit was more attractive to lower or higher income households. Some research found neighbourhoods with public transportation were more attractive to lower income households, likely because such households could not afford private transportation. Closer examination suggested that the type of transit was important, as lower income households were more likely to use buses while higher income households were more likely to use rapid transit. A key limitation of existing research on transit and neighbourhood household income was that it did not adequately control for variation over time. The current study addresses this limitation by assessing how the concentration of subway and bus stops predicted variation in median household income in New York City during the 2000s. Results of cross-sectional regressions partially confirm the findings of previous research that lower income households corresponded to areas characterised by higher concentrations of bus stops. Longitudinal results, however, indicate that the concentration of different forms of transit was uniquely associated with changes in neighbourhood median household income, independent of other neighbourhood changes.