URBLOG

Documenting the unrest

A great deal has been published about the events of August. The following are some of the more provocative or informative articles. (Some are reposted following the disruption this site experienced in late August).

Victor Adebowale Poverty isn't an excuse for the riots. It's a reason

Camila Batmanghelidjh: Caring costs – but so do riots

Philip Blond: Britain’s Liberal Riots

Luke Bretherton: Shopping with violence: Riots and the responsible society

Adrian Hamilton: Lets not go the way of LA

Ken Livingtone: These Riots Are Heartbreaking For London But We Must Learn Lessons

Hugh Muir: Tottenham riots: missteps in the dance of police and a frustrated community

Jonathan Rutherford Labour's response to the riots has to be conservative and radical

Archbishop of Canterbury in the House of Lords

Connected Communities

How social networks power and sustain the Big Society

 Traditional approaches to community regeneration which define communities in solely geographic terms have severe limitations. They often failed to deliver on key social capital improvements such as improving trust between residents or fostering a greater sense of belonging.

This RSA report argues for a new approach to community regeneration, based on an understanding of the importance of social networks, such an approach has the potential to bring about significant improvements in efforts to combat isolation and to support the development of resilient and empowered communities.

Guardian Report 'Big society' facilitators are found within communities

 

Picturing Faith in the City

Birmingham Urban Theology Forum

Wednesday 10^th November   1pm-3.30pm 

room 118 of the Muirhead Tower   Edgbaston campus, University of Birmingham.

 Liz Hingley  - a freelance urban photographer who has

recently held a very positive exhibition of pictures of Handsworth.

Mohammed ‘Aerosol’ Ali - a graffiti artist from Birmingham who

works combining Arabic and Islamic calligraphy with graffiti art.

Deatils from: c.j.shannahan@bham.ac.uk

Participation, Community and Cohesion in Bradford

Three reports fom the Joseph Rowntree Foundatioin examine thechalleges of connection and sustainable change across the city.

Participation and community on Bradford’s traditionally white estates examines how residents on two traditionally white estates understand their communities and participate within them, with the emphasis on residents' own views.

Muslims and community cohesion in Bradford examinesfactors that either enhance or undermine community cohesion in areas with established Muslim communities and into which Muslim migrants have recently arrived.

Women, faith and social cohesion  Uses a participatory approach with women from diverse backgrounds in Bradford, to examine the role of women and faith in building cohesive communities.

 

Rebuilding Handsworth

Born in Flames from The Guardian

Twenty-five years after riots erupted in inner-city Birmingham, locals say investment in the area is beginning to pay off. But there are fears that progress could be under threat.....

Think tanks keep busy

The Centre for Cities has published a Cities Manifesto calling for the  government  to take a fresh look at urban economies, their goverance and incentives to economic growth, as well as the support given to struggling cities experiending long term decline.   The manifesto recomends that the governmnet  set up a new Urban Taskforce   to "take a fresh look at the medium-term economic prospects for cities struggling to recover from industrial decline, and to recommend a new approach to urban regeneration".

DEMOS have published Civic Streets a report that looks at the xperience of two eststes two estates, Balsall Heath and Castle Vale, which have engaged in an extraordinary renewal that has involved residents, the third sector and business. The stories of these estates are not without disappointments but they are crucial to understand what success communities can achieve on their own, what help may be needed and where there are barriers to real empowerment and change.  The report raises the question of the impact of super market devlopments.

Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation questions the Demos conclusions on supermarkets: Supermarkets don't regenerate communities – they hoover money out .

'There is a whiff of inverted snobbery in the suggestion that poor neighbourhoods need a big supermarket to feel good about themselves. It also ignores the under-supported capacity of communities to do things for themselves.'

Living in Tescotown?

Anna Minton on supermarket-led development

While the economic downturn has hit many parts of the development industry hard, Tesco recorded profits of nearly £3.4bn last year. Its plans for expansion are reflected by a growing tide of what are described as "supermarket-led mixed-use development proposals" – entire districts of homes, schools and public places built by the company.

 

Broken Places: Are politics or design to blame?

A Demos-RIBA Debate 15th April 7pm BDP Hub, 16 Brewhouse Yard, Clerkenwell, EC1V 4LJ

Are the places we live, and the buildings around us reasons for the social inequalities that blight Britain? Today’s planning system is predicated on short-term political thinking and a reliance on populist agendas to design public spaces and buildings; and the proliferation of Quangos in the past 13 years has both vastly complicated the decision-making in the planning process and obscured accountability within it.

The debate will address views from prominent actors within architecture and urban design, centered around such questions as: how new localist agendas and their advocates will bring more power to the local level, whether this will this bridge social gaps or simply lead to a more centralised Government? How will a new Government impact on the built environment profession’s ability to provide successful places that foster community cohesion?

Phoenix Cities – surviving financial, social and environmental turmoil in Europe and the US

LSE Housing and Communities public discussion

Date: Tuesday 16 March 2010 
Time: 6.00-7.45pm
Venue:  Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building
Speakers: Lord Richard Rogers, Bruce Katz, Professor Anne Power
Chair: Howard Davies

This discussion will debate the issues arising from a new book Phoenix Cities which examines seven cities from very different regions of the EU, comparing them with the US experience.  Their dramatic decline, intense recovery efforts and actual progress on the ground underline the significance of public underpinning in times of crisis.  Innovative enterprises, new-style city leadership, special neighbourhood programme, skills development, environmental reclamation are all explored.  The American experience shows that cities left largely to their own devices deliver a slower, more uncertain recovery.   The discussion will explore where next for Phoenix Cities, given the economic shocks, the pressures of climate change and the social inequalities that sharply divide these recovering cities. 

Gap widens between UK city economies.

Centre for Cities annual index shows recession has widened gap between UK cities

Cities that were already suffering before the recession such as Barnsley and Stoke have been hit hardest, according to Centre for Cities' annual economic index. Over the past two years, the difference between the two cities with the highest and lowest shares of residents claiming Jobseeker's Allowance - Hull and Cambridge - has nearly doubled.

Cities Outlook 2010 finds that, as we move out of recession, the UK will face an uneven recovery.  Already-robust city economies like Brighton are more likely to grow stronger, leaving others like Doncaster further behind.  This raises tough questions about how they can carve out a future that's economically sustainable.

Heather Stewart in The Guardian