195 research outputs found
The suburbs remain a poorly understood part of London
For many, the word âurbanâ is synonymous with high-rise buildings, financial and cultural centres and inner-city life. But this ignores the existence of the suburbs. In his new book City Suburbs, Alan Mace explores how suburbanites interact with the city and calls for the suburbs to be better integrated into studies of the city
The suburbs as sites of 'within-planning' power relations
Despite a longstanding and varied body of literature on suburban difference, a simplified narrative of the suburbs persists that is represented by a cityâsuburb binary. This is damaging as it undermines our understanding of the social dynamics of the places in which, in the United Kingdom, the majority of the population live. This article looks at the reasons for the persistence of a cityâsuburb binary. It engages with suburban housing as a Bourdieuian field in order to show how simplified characterisations of the suburban serve the interest of particular groups, including within planning. Bourdieuâs field theory offers a powerful means to understand how judgements of the suburbs are naturalised and so become common-sense truths. As field theory indicates âwithin-planningâ power relations that support particular truths, it offers the possibility of challenging these by exposing the taken-for-granted norms of the city-suburb binary
The suburbs as sites of 'within-planning' power relations
Despite a longstanding and varied body of literature on suburban difference, a simplified narrative of the suburbs persists that is represented by a cityâsuburb binary. This is damaging as it undermines our understanding of the social dynamics of the places in which, in the United Kingdom, the majority of the population live. This article looks at the reasons for the persistence of a cityâsuburb binary. It engages with suburban housing as a Bourdieuian field in order to show how simplified characterisations of the suburban serve the interest of particular groups, including within planning. Bourdieuâs field theory offers a powerful means to understand how judgements of the suburbs are naturalised and so become common-sense truths. As field theory indicates âwithin-planningâ power relations that support particular truths, it offers the possibility of challenging these by exposing the taken-for-granted norms of the city-suburb binary
The governmentâs immigration policy is anything but coherent and designed to achieve its stated aims
Immigration policy seems driven not so much by commitment to some vision, but instead policy management through tinkering and tampering. What we require is not only leadership, but a clarity and evidence-informed policy on public attitudes about migration and effective policies designed around clear principles, writes Thom Brooks
Book Review: John Friedmann 2011: Insurgencies: essays in planning theory. Abingdon: Routledge
Planning at the interface of localism and mayoral priorities: Londonâs ungovernable boroughs
In this article we address scalar issues of power in planning. In the context of the reengineering of governance, including the promotion of localism in England, we focus on local actorsâ beliefs in the extent of their power (de facto and de jure) over development decisions pertaining to their jurisdiction, on how misreadings arise and the consequences thereof. Our intervention highlights the extent and cost of ambiguity in Englandâs discretionary planning system and asks whether and how this should be moderated
Tenure change in Londonâs suburbs: spreading gentrification or suburban upscaling?
This article looks at the distribution of social upscaling across London linked to changes in tenure between 2001 and 2011. Against a background of discussions of suburban decline, it shows that there are a number of Outer London areas which have seen upscaling trajectories linked to the Private Rented Sector. The analysis reveals that this particular type of upscaling was made possible by the variegation in the Outer London landscape: within a space dominated by early to mid-20th century semi-detached and terraced (row) housing, areas of distinctive architecture and excellent accessibility offer a diluted version of the metropolitan milieu gentrifiers seek in the inner city. Buy To Let gentrification in Outer London can thus be understood as an overspill by those uninterested in, or unable to access, ownership and priced out of high house price Inner London
Neighborhood planning, participation, and rational choice
The focus of this article is the development of neighborhood planning in England, in particular its guiding principle of local people as rational actors. The article looks at neighborhood planning in its own terms; that is, it looks at the rationality of engagement in a new system that seeks to tip the balance of rationality in favor of communities following the UK governmentâs aims of overcoming local resistance to the development of new housing. While there is evidence that neighborhood planning is enjoying some success, this is a delicate settlement
The role of ethnic change in the closing of rent gaps through buy-to-let gentrification
This article analyses the interrelation of ethnicity, class and tenure in the gentrification trajectories that have taken place in England in the most recent intercensal period (2001â2011). It argues that the return of the Private Rented Sector has made possible the extension of social change to areas not favored by White British (majority ethnic) middle-class owner-occupiers. This has seen the inflow of White British private renters into White British working-class areas and the arrival of private renting Not White British middle classesâprimarily migrantsâin working-class areas with a significant proportion of Not White British individuals. There is thus an ethnic dimension to the geographical spread of buy-to-let gentrification and the movement toward property wealth re-concentration it feeds. The middle-class individuals entering gentrifying areas as private renters are however not classical gentrifiers as the closing of rent gaps starts with the supply of private rented units by property investors
Book review: Second homes and leisure: new perspectives on a forgotten relationship, edited by Trudie Walters and Tara Duncan, London, Routledge, 2016, 117 + x pp., ÂŁ95.00 (hardback), ISBN 9781138928954
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