URBLOG

Octavia Hill revisited

Tristram Hunt considers the legacy of the social reformer

"And as ministers grapple with re-engineering the welfare state, it is not Keynes, Marx or Giddens who provide the inspiration, but Hill, the most versatile of late Victorian social entrepreneurs."

"As the era of Fordist bureaucracies crumbles, the space for pre-statist social enterprise is re-emerging. Yet the problem with this 1900s civic settlement is its dependence on a sense of Christian duty. Hill saw herself as a lonely, Puritan missionary toiling among the fallen. "

Migration and economic segregation reports from ippr

Floodgates or turnstiles? Post-EU enlargement migration flows to (and from) the UK

Fresh evidence on the scale and nature of migration from the eight new Central and Eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004 and, to a lesser extent, from Romania and Bulgaria, which joined in 2007.

A Tale of Two Cities: Neighbourhood segregation by income in two urban case studies

Policy and economic drivers interact with the processes of income segregation at different spatial scales. This research, from ippr, focuses on the processes at the local level. In particular, it explores the relationship between a neighbourhood’s income profile, and the housing market.

The renaissance is over

Dermot Finch of Centre for Cities speculates on a time of recession

"The slowdown will test Ministers' resolve on devolution. The Government will now need to deliver on its empowerment rhetoric, in a much tighter fiscal climate. Will Ministers agree to more financial powers for local government, or use the slowdown as an excuse not to devolve? "

See also 'The credit crunch and implications for the UK housing market'

Pitfalls in paradise

Why Palm Jumeirah is struggling to live up to the hype.

Low-paid workers and villa gripes cast a cloud over 'eighth wonder of the world' in Dubai.

" ...this is no picture-book desert island. Its size is the most arresting characteristic for newcomers. An eight-lane motorway is at the Palm's trunk, and each frond is a mile long. Meanwhile, there is yet more expansion, with 40 hotels being built on the breakwater. [...] A nagging guilt for some is the quality of life of the migrant construction workers who built all this. Most are from India and Bangladesh and they travel in bus convoys from labour camps in the desert each morning. "

America's housing projects 40 years on

Cockburn: 'Rogue Projects' in New Left Review

  "Forty years ago the topic of slums was a lot hotter in the United States than it is now."

"Spiro Agnew, Nixon’s vice president, advised a sense of distance from urban policy: ‘If you’ve seen one city slum you’ve seen them all’, he nonchalantly declared. Enlightened opinion duly looked the other way, and that is how it has been ever since. "

Archbishop leads on debt debate

The Archbishop of Canterbury has  called on the government to do more to protect the poorest and most vulnerable from the likely consequences of an economic downturn. Speaking in the House of Lords the Archbishop highlighted the fact that government targets on alleviating poverty, particularly child poverty, risked not being met and warned that in a period of economic decline the poorest in society, who carry a higher proportion of personal debt, were most at risk.

Church for the city

Jonathan Glancey on the the regenerated St Martin in the Fields

"Contrasts, contradictions and even conundrums are, though, parts and parcels of this extraordinary London foundation. "

27th April -18th Festival in the Fields including Sacred spaces- an exploration with Eric Parry, Philip Sheldrake and Maragaret Barker.  "What constitutes a ‘sacred space’? And how do our buildings – ancient and contemporary – help us to express the concept? Reflecting on our renewed church building, and the new complex of underground spaces, three renowned speakers help us explore the fascinating subject of ‘sacred space’ from a variety of angles – theological, architectural, cultural and sociological."

Even an atheist can marvel at this exquisite refuge for the urban poor. "St Martin's is emphatically a church, and its revival is a salutary tale of our times. It has raised its own money to beautify the city as well as to assist the homeless. We may choose to leave the faith out of it, but we can yet marvel at the mission." Simon Jenkins 2nd May

An elected Mayor for every major English town and city

Mayors rule,   Michael Kenny and Guy Lodge consider the case in  IPPR’s quarterly journal Public Policy Research (ppr).

“Even though mayors have proved a success in places like London, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough, the current system allows councils to block the creation of more mayors. Mayoral campaigns like the current London one help to invigorate local politics by provoking interest and debate on local issues. "

Regeneration in European cities:

Making connections

Research sponsored by the Jospeh Rowntree Foundation has found that  European cities can provide valuable insights into how to tackle deep-seated urban problems, such as the regeneration of run-down industrial areas. This research by the URBED consultancy is based primarily on case studies of major urban regeneration schemes in Gothenburg,  Rotterdam, and Roubaix/Lille  and draws conclusions for UK policy and practice.

Loïc Wacquant in London and Manchester

Loïc Wacquant, author of Urban Outcasts, will be lecturing in London and Manchester at the end of May.

"Drawing on a wealth of original fieldwork, surveys and historical data, Urban Outcasts casts new light on the explosive conjunction of mounting misery and stupendous affluence evident in the cities of advanced and advancing countries throughout the globe."

The lectures will be at the Royal Society of Arts on 28th May and Manchester University on 29th May (details to be posted).

Urban Outcasts was the subject of a special feature of a recent edition of CITY.