Community engagement and community cohesion are both current public policy priorities. But there have been gaps in our understanding about how to promote community representation in ways that take account of diversity and population change. Latest report from Josesph Rowntree Foundation
The Million Vote Mandate: The Challenges facing Boris Johnson
The new Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, was elected a month ago with the votes of over 1 million Londoners. Now, a new pamphlet from the Policy Exchange and Localis think tanks, looks at the big issues the new Mayor will face in his first term as set out by commentators on London politics and Steve Malanga of the Manhattan Institute.
"Boris has not yet articulated a coherent counter-narrative, and he needs to do so. So here is one suggestion: a less divided, less prescriptive city; a more enabling Mayoralty, working not top-down but through free associations of empowered individuals; a closer focus on the dull details of delivery which matter to Londoners' lives. " Andrew Gilligan
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. "
Immigration, faith and cohesion
A report from the Jospeh Rowntree Foundation considers issues of identitry, belonging and integration among British muslims.
‘Evidence suggests that it is discrimination and the perception of being unwelcome, rather than attachment to their country of origin, that reduces migrants’ sense of belonging in Britain.’
Jaime Lerner's 'urban revolution' successfully transformed a congested, grimy, crime-ridden city into a world-renowned model of green living and social innovation.
'Taking care of a city is a process that you start, and then give the population space to respond.'
Exemplar Open City talk at Somerset House Monday 31st March
Neighbourhood identity: people, place and time
Report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation finds: “How communities are planned, then established, sets a physical and social template that has a long and sustained impact on neighbourhood identities. Crucially, this study has shown how place identity can act against the stated ambitions of renewal projects and cause social segregation.”
"Regeneration does not happen overnight..."
A £50m regeneration scheme changed little, say residents of a deprived estate, so this time they want to do things their way. Guardian report on Marsh Farm, Luton.
Richard Best's presentation to the Smith Institute raises critical questions about housing and regeneration policy as he emphasises the importance of an understanding of place as policy makers seek to tackle the giants of Want (or poverty), Disease, Idleness (or worklessness), Squalor and Ignorance.
Leo Zeilig and Claire Ceruti in IJS responding to Mike Davis' Planet of Slums
“Sub-Saharan Africa…is host to many great slum settlements—but is also the site of a series of major mass strikes. This year started with a general strike in Guinea-Conakry…South Africa and Nigeria, have been hit by major strikes…these struggles…confirm that the organised working class is a powerful social and political actor in Africa”.
Richard Best on The Power of Place
A Smith Institute lecture delivered by Lord Richard Best who will draw on his wide experience to debate the key challenges around housing, regeneration, and social exclusion.
Admission free. Limited number of spaces available. To request a place email bestlecture@smith-institute.org.uk
Also available from Smith Institute Real Localism edited by David Walker.
'...the task now for local government is not to talk up the case for localism, but to prove to central government and their local community that they deserve more powers and the resources that go with it.'
22nd January 2008 London
Despite empowerment rising up the political agenda, there remain fundamental tensions at the heart of our political institutions. The lecture will be given by the distinguished author, broadcaster and psychologist Oliver James.
John M. Hagedorn: World of Gangs: Armed Young Men and Gangsta Culture
Looking closely at gang formation in three world cities-Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, and Capetown-he discovers that some gangs have institutionalized as a strategy to confront a hopeless cycle of poverty, racism, and oppression.
Thomas J. Campanella: The Concrete Dragon: China's Urban Revolution and What It Means for the World
The Concrete Dragon provides both a timely and critical overview of China's present as well as a comparison to previous periods of rapid urbanization elsewhere in the world especially that of the U.S., a nation that once itself set global records for the speed and scale of its urban ambitions.
Edgar Pieterse: City Futures: Confronting the Crisis of Urban Development (Global Issues)
This book is a powerful indictment of the current consensus on how to deal with urban challenges. Pieterse argues that the current 'shelter for all' and 'urban good governance' policies treat only the symptoms, not the causes of the problem.
Adrian Favell: Eurostars and Eurocities: Free Movement and Mobility in an Integrating Europe
What does it mean to move to, in and between Europe's changing cities?
Paul Talling: Derelict London
Documenting unregenerate and unregenerated spaces.
: Urbanatomy: Shanghai 2008
More than a guidebook - a riot of pictures, comment and insight.
Catherine E. Wilson: The Politics of Latino Faith: Religion, Identity, and Urban Community
A systematic look at the spiritual, social, and cultural influence Latino faith-based organizations have provided in American life.
Ronald E. Peters: Urban Ministry: An Introduction
Introduction to the particular challenges and opportunities of congregational ministry in urban settings.
Loïc Wacquant: Urban Outcasts: A Comparative Sociology of Advanced Marginality
Urban Outcasts takes the reader inside the black ghetto of Chicago and the deindustrializing banlieue of Paris to discover that urban marginality is not everywhere the same.
Price & Benton-Short: Migrants to the Metropolis: The Rise of Immigrant Gateway Cities
The book focuses not only on cities with long-established diverse populations, such as New York, Toronto, and Sydney, but also on lesser known established gateway cities such as Birmingham (UK) and Amsterdam, and the emerging gateways of Johannesburg, Washington, D.C., Singapore, and Dublin.
Prakash: Spaces of the Modern City Imaginaries, Politics and Everyday Life: Imaginaries, Politics, and Everyday Life
This interdisciplinary collection examines how the city develops in the interactions of space and imagination. The essays focus on issues such as street design in Vienna, the motion picture industry in Los Angeles, architecture in Marseilles and Algiers, and the kaleidoscopic paradox of post-apartheid Johannesburg.
Thierstein & Forster (eds.): The Image and the Region: Making Mega-City Regions Visible!
A great deal is written about the mega-city region yet it is still below the radar for politicians, activists and citizens. What potential is there in making the MCR a normative concept and space for collective action?
Daviel Groody: A Promised Land, a Perilous Journey: Theological Perspectives on Migration
The crossing of geographical borders confronts us with choices: between national security and human insecurity; between sovereign national rights and human rights; between citizenship and discipleship.
Ricky Burdett, Deyan Sudjic: The Endless City
Across the globe there is an unstoppable march to the cities, powered by new economic realities.
Gerald West: Reading Other-wise: Socially Engaged Biblical Scholars Reading with Their Local Communities (Society of Biblical Literature Semeia Studies)
Global perspectives on reading in community. Includes Kari Latvus on the Bible in Bristish urban theology.
Roger Gastman: Street World: Urban Culture from Five Continents (Street Graphics / Street Art)
From juggernauts like hip-hop and punk to much smaller but equally inspiring subcultures endemic to the streets of the Brazilian mega-cities, South African townships and the crowds of Mumbai, "Street World" is the only book to document it all.
Phil Wood: The Intercultural City: Planning for Diversity Advantage
The Intercultural City analyses the relationship of urban policy to policies on cultural diversity, principally in the UK, but also drawing upon original research in North America, Europe and Australasia.
Loretta Lees: Gentrification
The gentrification of urban areas has accelerated across the globe to become a central engine of urban development...
Tom Wright: The Cross and the Colliery
Based on sermons originally delivered by Bishop Tom Wright during Easter 2007, this is a book for Lent that uses the story of a coal-mining town in northern England as a modern parable for loss and rebirth.
Anne Power: City Survivors: Bringing Up Children in Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods
Seen through the eyes of parents, mainly mothers, "City Survivors" tells the eye-opening story of what it is like to bring up children in troubled city neighbourhoods.
Mike Davis & Daneil Monk: Evil Paradises: Dreamworlds of Neoliberalism
Davis and Monk take on thye real and imagined sopaces of the the neoliberal city.
J & K Hammett: The Suburbanization of New York: Is the World's Greatest City Becoming Just Another Town?
The suburbanized frabric of New`York is beginning to fray the once tightly woven and highly diverse urban fabric of the city.
NP Marwell: Bargaining for Brooklyn Community Organizations in the Entrepreneurial City
"Bargaining for Brooklyn" widens the lens, examining the community organizations whose actions and decisions collectively drive urban life.
Jeremy Seabrook: Cities (Small Guides to Big Issues)
Every year tens of millions of people abandon rural areas of the South for life in the city. With education, health care and even safe water in short supply, cities risk becoming sites of violent conflict for future generations. And yet world governments are doing little to address these demographic shifts.
Petrella & Althus-Reid: Another Possible World (Reclaiming Liberation Theology)
"Another Possible World" is the book resulting from the first World Forum on liberation theology that took place in 2005 in Brazil.
Gavin Stamp: Britain's Lost Cities
Reproduced in this haunting volume are hundreds of top-quality photographs of cities from Plymouth to Dundee, all of streets and buildings that are gone for ever. Alternately fascinating, enraging and heartbreaking, this is an extraordinary evocation of Britain's architectural past, and a much-needed reminder of the importance of preserving our heritage.
Paul H. Ballard & Lesley Husselbee : Community and Ministry: An Introduction to Community Work in a Christian Context
a thorough and professional introduction to the subject, and includes: what is community?; community work and mission; models of community work; ethnic, cultural and religious diversity; the local authority and voluntary agencies; working with volunteers; and spirituality in community participation.
Anthony Reddie & Michael N. Jagessar: Black Theology in Britain: A Reader (Cross Cultural Theologies)
This text seeks to outline the development of Black theology in Britain from 18th century through to our contemporary era. By means of re-investigating popular texts and previously unpublished groundbreaking material, the editors offer a comprehensive and challenging interpretation of the development of an eclectic and distinctive voice that is Black theology in Britain.
