De-studentification: emptying housing and neighbourhoods of student populations

This is the accepted version of a paper subsequently published in the journal, Environment and Planning A. The definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0308518X16642446International scholarship on student geographies and urban change continues to advance knowledge of the intense commodification of student lifestyles and student housing. The main aim of this paper is to consider some of the hitherto under-researched wider knock-on effects of more commodified student housing markets. Here we present findings from the first-ever empirical study of de-studentification. Using the case study of Loughborough, we demonstrate how de-studentification is a process of change that has been stimulated by the increased supply of purpose-built student accommodation. We show that de-studentification leads to the depopulation and decline of some classical studentified neighbourhoods. Moreover, these urban transformations have several significant implications for pre-existing conceptualisations of urban change and student geographies. Notably, the impacts of de-studentification pose important questions for the conceptual boundaries of studentification – a prerequisite of de-studentification – and although, to date, dominant conceptualisations of studentification are wedded to upgrading-led representations of urban gentrification, it is shown that de-studentification, conversely, leads to physical downgrading and emptying of neighbourhoods in distinct phases. We therefore argue for a process-led definition of de-studentification, to illustrate how studentified neighbourhoods are gradually ‘emptied’ of student populations and student housing. More broadly, it is asserted that new student geographies are being created by the deepening neoliberalisation and commodification of higher education, which, in turn, will have unintentional consequences for wider social, cultural and economic relations in university towns and cities, such as emergent community cohesion and changing senses of place

Networks or structures? : organizing cultural routes around heritage values : case studies from Poland

The most common way of managing cultural heritage recently takes form of cultural routes as they seem to offer a new model of participation in culture to their recipients; they are often a peculiar anchor point for inhabitants to let them understand their identity and form the future; they offer actual tours to enter into interaction with culture and history, to build together that creation of the heritage, which so is becoming not only a touristic product, but, first of all, the space for cultural, social and civic activity. Yet, so far, according to what we know, the research problem concerning the method of cultural route organization (points on the route) into solid structures or more of the networked nature, has not been deliberated. A question arises, what values are brought by routes and how to organize routes to be the carriers of the values important for communities, where routes are functioning. And, as a consequence, if, from the point of view of the values of local communities, organizing solid route structures or organizing more widely-spaced, network-based routes would bring effects and what those effects would be. Thus, the posed question is of course scientifically imprecise because a network is a type of structure but presents a given direction for the development of cultural route structures. Our objective here is to present a certain solidity and rigidity of structure with dynamic and smooth understanding of the network. The research presented in the article is based on 3 case studies. We have selected for this purpose the three largest cultural routes in Poland, organized to various degrees. The outcome of the research was referred also to other cultural route organization research

Public Built Cultural Heritage Management: The Public-Private Partnership (P3)

The topic of the paper relates to the role of conservation and valorization in the management process of built cultural heritage, more specifically in the case of publicly owned, complex properties. Although well-established opinions state that the conservation of cultural heritage as common goods basically pertains to the purview of the public sector, the par-ticipation of private resources and adoption of new business models may pose an opportunity for the public administration to intercept funds that have originally not been intended for heritage. Partnership is an organizational issue that implies some degree of cooperation be-tween different partners. The interest towards partnership schemes is the product of the multiple interactions they are capable of creating and the variety of opera-tional instruments employed to implement them. The importance lent to the rela-tionships established in public-private partnerships warrants that their theoretical models, their organization, and some considerations concerning normative as-pects undergo careful scrutiny. Since public-private partnership has already been adopted in the past and in diverse contexts, as for instance in infrastructure devel-opment, the paper does not focus on innovating this alternative way of funding, but rather on describing and analyzing this emerging phenomenon of transition between public and private organizations in the cultural heritage field, as it has not been widely adopted

Museums and Technology for Value Creation

Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify the pathway that leads to cities to proceeding towards urban sustainability. Design/methodology/approach This study intends to propose a theoretical analysis on the city as sustainable community that drives urban development adopting a smart vision for urban growth. Findings Cities as sustainable urban communities develop smartness as a vision for change understanding and developing the potential offered by information technology reinforcing the community by shaping collaborative governance. Research limitations/implications Cities using information technology as a source for urban sustainability develop smartness to evolve as smart communities following a managerial and organizational view towards sustainability as a source for continuous innovation and change within urban ecosystem. Originality/value Cities identify a sustainability-oriented and community-driven pathway as a vision for continuous change that helps to improve urban competitiveness, innovation and democracy ensuring high quality of life by strengthening the potential offered by technology-enabled and human-centred smartness

Is social capital useful for explaining economic development in Polish regions?

The concept of social capital is widely perceived as a promising tool for explaining differences in economic development between countries and regions. According to this theory, weak links (bridging social capital) and social trust in an area favour its better access to other forms of capital, that is, economic and human capital. However, strong links (bonding social capital) may stifle creativity and entrepreneurship. Since the vast majority of research on the impact of social capital on economic development focuses on highly developed Western European countries, it seems particularly interesting to evaluate the usefulness of this approach when applied to post-communist countries with their different experiences. The objective of this article is to identify the spatial variation of different forms of social capital in regions of Poland and then to test a hypothesis on the impact of this capital on regional economic development. The results demonstrate that despite the existing differences between regions there are no significant relationships between levels of social capital and economic development. This may be explained either by low social capital levels or by the overall degree of Polish economic development