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

User participation in urban green commons : exploring the links between access, voluntarism, biodiversity and well being

Polycentric governance and stakeholder participation in natural resource management have potential benefits for both human and environmental well-being. Researchers and decision-makers have attempted to conceptualise the ecological, social and political potential of such semi-formal approaches to urban green space management. However, few studies have quantified the actual benefits in terms of biodiversity and associated ecosystem service provision, or the factors that mediate levels of participation. The links between biodiversity potential, site access and user participation were explored in a case study comprising ten established examples of organised social-ecological initiatives in the inner-city area of Greater Manchester. At the micro-scale, the case study quantified the levels of community involvement (measured in volunteer hours month¯¹) in local green commons and the biodiversity potential (assessed using floristic and structural diversity as a surrogate) of the ten sites. Descriptive analysis identified that site spatial and design characteristics affected all three measures and subsequent correlational analyses revealed a high degree of synergy between site use and biodiversity. The study thereby provides quantitative evidence of the synergistic relationship between green space use and urban biodiversity and, importantly, the positive feedbacks which should result between volunteer input and the local generation of ecosystem services. The study provides support for the promotion of a highly decentralised, stakeholder-led stewardship of green space as a valid consideration in the management of urban ecosystem services

Conceptualising and managing trade-offs in sustainability assessment

One of the defining characteristics of sustainability assessment as a form of impact assessment is that it provides a forum for the explicit consideration of the trade-offs that are inherent in complex decision-making processes. Few sustainability assessments have achieved this goal though, and none has considered trade-offs in a holistic fashion throughout the process. Recent contributions such as the Gibson trade-off rules have significantly progressed thinking in this area by suggesting appropriate acceptability criteria for evaluating substantive trade-offs arising from proposed development, as well as process rules for how evaluations of acceptability should occur. However, there has been negligible uptake of these rules in practice. Overall, we argue that there is inadequate consideration of trade-offs, both process and substantive, throughout the sustainability assessment process, and insufficient considerations of how process decisions and compromises influence substantive outcomes. This paper presents a framework for understanding and managing both process and substantive trade-offs within each step of a typical sustainability assessment process. The framework draws together previously published literature and offers case studies that illustrate aspects of the practical application of the framework. The framing and design of sustainability assessment are vitally important, as process compromises or trade-offs can have substantive consequences in terms of sustainability outcomes delivered, with the choice of alternatives considered being a particularly significant determinant of substantive outcomes. The demarcation of acceptable from unacceptable impacts is a key aspect of managing trade-offs. Offsets can be considered as a form of trade-off within a category of sustainability that are utilised to enhance preferred alternatives once conditions of impact acceptability have been met. In this way they may enable net gains to be delivered; another imperative for progress to sustainability. Understanding the nature and implications of trade-offs within sustainability assessment is essential to improving practice

Fostering sustainability in infrastructure development schemes

This article was published in the journal Proceedings of the ICE: Engineering Sustainability [© Institution of Civil Engineers].In recent years much emphasis has been placed upon meeting the environmental and socioeconomic aims of sustainable development. This is being driven by government policy and industry initiatives, with the main emphasis placed on the building sector, where it is perceived that most benefits can be gained. Although financial incentives and drivers are perhaps more readily quantifiable in this market, the potential to mitigate the negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts associated with the development of infrastructure such as roads, drainage and utilities at a neighbourhood scale may be no less significant, if more difficult to measure. Despite this, relatively little attention has been paid to the sustainable design of infrastructure. In addition, change to the UK planning system has been identified as a key mechanism to deliver sustainability policy, but there appears to be a poor connection between planning policy and infrastructure implementation practices. Sustainable construction, planning policy and the notion of the engineer's role in sustainable infrastructure are explored in this paper, which concludes by presenting four areas where improved dialogue between stakeholders and enhancement of the engineer's role at an early stage could improve sustainability in infrastructure development projects

Moving beyond ethnicity: the socio-economic status and living conditions of immigrant children in the UK

This paper examines the situation of children in immigrant families living in the UK through an analysis of 2001 census data according to the country of birth of children and their parents. The foreign-born population in the United Kingdom reached 4.9 million in 2001, representing 8.3 per cent of the total population. Around 2.1 million children (16.3 per cent of all children in the UK) were living in immigrant families. A fifth of these children were born outside the UK with the remainder being born in the UK with at least one foreign-born parent. More than 40 per cent were in families from Asia, around 20 per cent from Africa and around 20 per cent from countries in Europe. Pakistan, India, the Republic of Ireland, Germany and Bangladesh were the main countries of origin. Although there is significant variation in the socioeconomic status and living conditions of immigrant families from different regions and countries of origin, it is clear that immigrant children are faring less well overall than their native-born counterparts. Levels of employment are higher among the parents of native-born children despite the fact that parents in immigrant families generally exhibit higher educational attainment levels. Immigrant children are more likely to be living in overcrowded housing that is not owned. The analysis presented in this paper suggests that an ethnicityfocused approach alone is inadequate for addressing the present and future needs of immigrants and their children or in understanding the dynamics of immigrant inclusion and exclusion