Conceptualising sustainability in UK urban Regeneration: a discursive Formation

Despite the wide usage and popular appeal of the concept of sustainability in UK policy, it does not appear to have challenged the status quo in urban regeneration because policy is not leading in its conceptualisation and therefore implementation. This paper investigates how sustainability has been conceptualised in a case-based research study of the regeneration of Eastside in Birmingham, UK, through policy and other documents, and finds that conceptualisations of sustainability are fundamentally limited. The conceptualisation of sustainability operating within urban regeneration schemes should powerfully shape how they make manifest (or do not) the principles of sustainable development. Documents guide, but people implement regeneration—and the disparate conceptualisations of stakeholders demonstrate even less coherence than policy. The actions towards achieving sustainability have become a policy ‘fix’ in Eastside: a necessary feature of urban policy discourse that is limited to solutions within market-based constraints

The planning system and fast food outlets in London: lessons for health promotion practice

This article considers how health promotion can use planning as a tool to enhance healthy eating choices. It draws on research in relation to the availability and concentration of fast food outlets in a London borough. Current public health policy is confining planning to local settings within a narrow framework drawing on discourses from social psychology and libertarian economics. Policy is focusing on behaviour change, voluntary agreements and devolution of the public health function to local authorities. Such a framework presents barriers to effective equity-based health promotion. A social determinant-based health pro-motion strategy would be consistent with a national regulatory infrastructure supporting planning

Waller Creek Update

This presentation provides an overview of the state of Waller Creek and its ongoing renovation projects.Waller Creek Working Grou

Austin City Council June 2013 Agenda: Recommendation for Council Action

These documents are from an Austin City Council meeting that took place on June 20, 2013 regarding the Waller Creek District revitalization.Waller Creek Working Grou

Ordinance No. 99-0225-70

This ordinance details various Austin building regulations, including requirements for ones built near Waller Creek.Waller Creek Working Grou

Birmingham: Whose urban renaissance? Regeneration as a response to economic restructuring

This paper draws together two traditionally distinct discourses that have dominated debates over urban policy responses to economic restructuring, deindustrialisation, major plant closures and the rise of the service and knowledge-based economy over the past 20 years. It investigates the case of Birmingham, where the policy drive of city centre regeneration, flagship development and the re-making of central urban space for new economic activities has been accompanied by much acclaim and 'boosterist' hype. At the same time, the socio-spatial impact of economic restructuring and the resulting policy response has been extremely uneven. The economic difficulties and wider disadvantage experienced by much of the city's population and many of its neighbourhoods, especially those inner city areas with large ethnic minority populations, have endured and even deepened since the early 1990s despite the efforts of numerous area-based regeneration programmes funded by central government. The paper reflects upon this dual narrative by asking the question whose urban renaissance? From this study it clear that the dominance of the 'boosterist' discourse is significantly tempered by the uneven and enduring socio-economic divides within the city and the partial nature of the city's overall recovery, particularly in terms of providing employment for its residents. In this sense, significant policy challenges remain despite the clear achievements of the past 20 years. The paper concludes by considering new spatial policy approaches that could bind together the dual imperatives of creating new economic opportunities, and addressing aspects of acute need among the local population. © 2008 Taylor & Francis