Conceptualising the use of digital technologies in spatial planning a progress report on innovation in Britain.

This article is about how best to frame the use of digital technology in spatial planning and how best to frame the evaluation of impact. The different sections argue the following points. First, the conceptualisation of digital technologies in spatial planning should pay less attention to the discourse of smart cities and more to pragmatic approaches that can cope with the Janus-faced character of technology and provide a bridge to planning theory. Then, as revealed by the assumptions of actor network theory, there are three main innovation paths—Prop-Tech, Civic-Tech, and Project-Tech—all of which have a different pattern of beneficiaries. Then, as revealed by structuration theory and unless moderated by professional ethics and explicit policy commitments, technology is likely to be concerned with the cost effectiveness of working practices. Finally, taking the various approaches together, spatial planning may be conceptualised as a field of heterogeneous elements (stakeholders and citizens, technology, place) with non-local governance and markets as external structuring forces

Professions, Occupational Roles and Skills in Urban Policy : A Reworking of the debate in England and France

International audienceThe past few years have seen a proliferation of skills analysis in urban regeneration in England. In France, in contrast, researchers have linked questions of skills to the styles and form of public-sector work. This paper reworks the debates in the two countries to provide a comparative analysis of neighbourhood management. There are three main sections and themes: the implications of a bottom-up perspective in the study of policy implementation; the emergence in France of the chef de projet as an ideal type figure of transversal working; and finally, in relation to England, the fragmentation and diversity of policy initiatives, agencies and funding streams. This fragmentation and diversity have implied, in turn, an emphasis on flexibility and generic rather than specialist skills in urban regeneration

Understanding the user in low energy housing: a comparison of positivist and phenomenological approaches

This paper, based on UK practice, sets out a series of examples of previous studies of low energy housing and housing modernisation which illustrate the main approaches to studying housing and energy issues. The four approaches exemplified are technical assessments, building oriented research, people oriented research and in-depth qualitative studies, each of which sit at different points along a spectrum running from positivism to phenomenology, with the former two examples sitting further towards the positivist end and the latter two further towards phenomenology. Through an assessment of examples of each approach, we explore the argument that qualitative and discursive research methodologies have a useful role to play, complementing more quantitative approaches in the field of domestic energy. The paper supports this view, underlines the importance of triangulation and recognises the continuing relevance of studies of building performance. It goes further, however, by questioning which of these approaches should take priority. It is concluded that open-ended qualitative research, exemplified by phenomenological and hermeneutic traditions, are better equipped to investigate the home, as experienced and, in doing so, to identify the range of factors that influence domestic energy consumption

User perspectives in low energy housing

During the past few years, an enormous amount of research has been undertaken on the design and use of the home in relation to energy consumption, especially in relation to low energy homes. The aim of this paper is partly to call for more qualitative, in-depth research in this field and, in addition, for a more explicit and conscious consideration of the methodologies of user research in housing and the built environment, including in this context, those approaches that are based on or influenced by phenomenology. In pursuit of these aims three separate studies are discussed to illustrate the main approaches. The first example is a national survey of house condition, an example that served to reveal the significance of the subjective perspective of users in determining investment decisions. The second provides a rare example of a study which is rooted in the tradition of phenomenology and therefore entailed detailed qualitative exploration of the relationship between occupant and dwelling. The third represents a more conventional approach to the study of this relationship, taking a more positivistic approach allied to the tradition of environmental psychology. It is acknowledged that different approaches have different strengths and weaknesses and the demands of methodological pluralism require that these be mixed together. However, a full understanding is only likely to arise if priority is given to qualitative understandings, at the very least as a framing device for subsequent quantitative studies

Between resistance and resilience: a study of flood risk management in the Don catchment area (UK)

The river Don catchment area in Sheffield and Rotherham offers a good place for a case study of flood risk management, given the impact of a flooding event in 2007 and the way in which local events have become entwined with national and international policy shifts. To interpret local policy, a combination of systems-based and socio-cultural theory is used. Both the theories and the case study serve to disentangle the multiple meanings of resilience. Understood in opposition to flood resistance, resilience has only limited applicability in an area such as the case study where engineering works protect employment and infrastructure. Resilience as a policy discourse also lacks political transparency and a recognition of socio-cultural influences. Underlying the shift towards resilient styles of management is an appreciation of the importance of capacity, to learn and to act. The case study identifies blockages to the realisation of that capacity

Replanning the central area of Wakefield, West Yorkshire: culture and regeneration, 1990–2021

Towns and cities in the industrial and former coal mining areas of England haveoften struggled to cope with economic restructuring. This article offers a nearcontemporary history of the central area of one such city, where culture hasbecome a key device for promoting development and regeneration. Threeepisodes of policy are distinguished: from 1990 to about 2011, theemergence of a twin-track economic strategy that combined out-of-townbusiness parks with the remodelling of the central area partly on‘UrbanRenaissance’principles: from 2011 onwards, continued city centre declinewhen previous investments had little economic impact; and after about2020, a process of re-orientation; and as part of this, a reinvigorated attemptto rebrand the city, albeit within the continuing framework of the twin-trackstrategy. A reflexive methodology is used to construct the narrative. Thatmethodology enables a joint consideration of discourse and economicrealities, showing how place, branding, and planning come together inrepresentational logics that generate both supportive and counter narratives

Storytelling as oral history: revealing the changing experience of home heating in England

Oral history provides a means of understanding heating behaviour through encouraging respondents to articulate the past in terms of stories. Unlike other qualitative methods, oral history foregrounds the ontology of personal experiences in a way that is well suited to revealing previously undocumented phenomena in the private world of the home. Three types of change may be distinguished: long term historical change, change associated with the life-cycle stage of the individual and sudden change. A sample of eight in-depth interviews is used to demonstrate the potential of oral history in the study of home heating. The themes to emerge from the interviews include early memories of the home, the financial struggle to heat the home, the influence of childhood experiences in adulthood and the association between warmth and comfort. For the future, domestic comfort, energy conservation and carbon reduction need to be reconciled with one another

Le déploiement des « nouveaux métiers » de la politique de la ville, comparaison franco-britannique

Rapport final LATTS/CRESR (Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research)La présente recherche a pour objet de mieux comprendre le phénomène des « nouveaux métiers » de la ville, avec en particulier diverses atypies sur les formes professionnelles que l'on a pu observer dans le cas français, en déplaçant le regard vers le cas de la Grande Bretagne. Elle repose sur l'analyse approfondie des formes organisationnelles et professionnelles dans le domaine équivalent à la « politique de la ville » française dans deux villes britanniques. Elle a été menée par une équipe binationale. Cette enquête britannique a été complétée de manière plus légère par une enquête française. L'enjeu est de tester si, dans un contexte institutionnel différent, on observe des phénomènes professionnels comparables pour valider la thèse d'une corrélation entre les modalités de l'intervention publique et les formes professionnelles. Si c'est le cas, cela permettra d'approfondir la compréhension de ces mécanismes de corrélation

Looking for the Green in the Green Paper: working towards an urban industrial strategy

The UK government’s ‘Industrial Strategy’ is a product of a Conservative party in power, coming to terms with a particular set of economic and political circumstances. In contrast, international bodies have commended long-term concepts of ‘green growth’ rather than conventional industrial development, whilst individual local authorities in the UK and elsewhere have been working towards economic regeneration policies that are both environmentally aware and also related directly to local communities. Taken together, the UK industrial strategy, the reports of international agencies and the efforts of individual local authorities raise the question as to the possible shape of a national strategy that reflects ideas of green growth and applies these ideas to processes of urban regeneration, urban development and planning. This paper gives a brief outline of such a strategy, suggesting that green growth must deal with towns and cities, both as causes of pollution, carbon emissions and resource consumption and as places where people should be able to enjoy a good quality of life