Pub Date : 2022-03-25DOI: 10.1177/09697764221076999
E. Bertacchini, Giangavino Pazzola, Francesco Puletti
From the ashes of the creative city paradigm, there is a growing awareness of the urban creative economy as an adaptive complex system of intertwined actors and institutions. Yet, especially in the European context, little attention has been given to understanding informal and alternative art spaces and venues that contribute to the vibrancy of the urban cultural scene. Drawing on the emerging creative and cultural ecology literature, the article proposes a conceptual and empirical framework to analyze alternative cultural production as an ecological community. After providing a conceptualization of distinct types of alternative cultural organizations, we investigate the economic, spatial, and relational structure of more than 50 art spaces in Turin, Italy, an industrial city that has experienced a radical urban transformation based on culture-led development strategies. Using both a quantitative and qualitative approach, our findings unveil a distinction between centers pursuing artistic specialization and those more oriented toward aggregating diversified cultural activities. The two types of organizations coexist within the community, but the difference in their mission and operation influences the organizational structure, the involvement in neighborhood revitalization, and features of the local network of collaborations. From a spatial perspective, while the centers tend to cluster in the main peripheral areas of social and urban transformation, the analysis points out possible different locational choices and spatial dynamics for the two types of organizations in distinct areas of commercial and real-estate-led transformation.
{"title":"Urban alternative cultural production in Turin: An ecological community approach","authors":"E. Bertacchini, Giangavino Pazzola, Francesco Puletti","doi":"10.1177/09697764221076999","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09697764221076999","url":null,"abstract":"From the ashes of the creative city paradigm, there is a growing awareness of the urban creative economy as an adaptive complex system of intertwined actors and institutions. Yet, especially in the European context, little attention has been given to understanding informal and alternative art spaces and venues that contribute to the vibrancy of the urban cultural scene. Drawing on the emerging creative and cultural ecology literature, the article proposes a conceptual and empirical framework to analyze alternative cultural production as an ecological community. After providing a conceptualization of distinct types of alternative cultural organizations, we investigate the economic, spatial, and relational structure of more than 50 art spaces in Turin, Italy, an industrial city that has experienced a radical urban transformation based on culture-led development strategies. Using both a quantitative and qualitative approach, our findings unveil a distinction between centers pursuing artistic specialization and those more oriented toward aggregating diversified cultural activities. The two types of organizations coexist within the community, but the difference in their mission and operation influences the organizational structure, the involvement in neighborhood revitalization, and features of the local network of collaborations. From a spatial perspective, while the centers tend to cluster in the main peripheral areas of social and urban transformation, the analysis points out possible different locational choices and spatial dynamics for the two types of organizations in distinct areas of commercial and real-estate-led transformation.","PeriodicalId":47746,"journal":{"name":"European Urban and Regional Studies","volume":"29 1","pages":"350 - 368"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2022-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46317418","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-11DOI: 10.1177/09697764221076343
Yinnon Geva, Gillad Rosen
This article examines the roles of municipalities in Israel’s national, state-led urban regeneration program, contributing to the scholarship on the varied agendas of municipal entrepreneurialism. The Israeli urban regeneration program promotes the densification of private residential properties by incentivizing property deals between homeowners and developers. It has been criticized for attracting predatory practices and spurring conflicts between state, market, and community stakeholders. New intermediary bodies—Municipal Regeneration Agencies—were established as an effective policy response to both criticisms. We rely on 36 interviews and extensive document analysis to examine the roles and agendas of Municipal Regeneration Agencies, vis-à-vis the equity concerns associated with state-led urban regeneration. Municipal Regeneration Agencies support homeowners, increase regulation over private deal-making, and in two cases, direct entrepreneurial development of urban regeneration projects. We argue that these roles represent a model of equitable entrepreneurialism that attempts to reconcile the neoliberal logic of urban regeneration with a municipal commitment to social equity. This model allows municipalities to reassert their position in Israel’s centralized housing and planning policy but faces limitations due to municipalities’ varying capacities and continued reliance on market relations.
{"title":"In search of social equity in entrepreneurialism: The case of Israel’s municipal regeneration agencies","authors":"Yinnon Geva, Gillad Rosen","doi":"10.1177/09697764221076343","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09697764221076343","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the roles of municipalities in Israel’s national, state-led urban regeneration program, contributing to the scholarship on the varied agendas of municipal entrepreneurialism. The Israeli urban regeneration program promotes the densification of private residential properties by incentivizing property deals between homeowners and developers. It has been criticized for attracting predatory practices and spurring conflicts between state, market, and community stakeholders. New intermediary bodies—Municipal Regeneration Agencies—were established as an effective policy response to both criticisms. We rely on 36 interviews and extensive document analysis to examine the roles and agendas of Municipal Regeneration Agencies, vis-à-vis the equity concerns associated with state-led urban regeneration. Municipal Regeneration Agencies support homeowners, increase regulation over private deal-making, and in two cases, direct entrepreneurial development of urban regeneration projects. We argue that these roles represent a model of equitable entrepreneurialism that attempts to reconcile the neoliberal logic of urban regeneration with a municipal commitment to social equity. This model allows municipalities to reassert their position in Israel’s centralized housing and planning policy but faces limitations due to municipalities’ varying capacities and continued reliance on market relations.","PeriodicalId":47746,"journal":{"name":"European Urban and Regional Studies","volume":"30 1","pages":"36 - 49"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2022-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42451950","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-05DOI: 10.1177/09697764221078729
Riccardo Valente, A. Russo, Susan Vermeulen, F. Milone
There is a certain agreement in the regional economics literature on tourism development as a lever of territorial cohesion and regional convergence. Yet, evidence about its impact on social inclusion within destination regions is scant. The emerging literature placing tourism development as a driver of inequality relies mostly on qualitative methods and individual case studies, thus overlooking a cross-national perspective. In this article, we address this gap by estimating the impacts of tourism growth between 2013 and 2018 on housing instability through its effects on rents and the perceived financial burden of housing costs. Based on a combination of data sourced from Eurostat and a geo-located dataset of Airbnb listings, a Bayesian path analysis model was specified with a sample of densely populated areas in 85 European regions. Results reveal the controversial influence of tourism on urban destinations, indicating how the increase in the number of visitors may benefit mean incomes and relieve the pressure on housing costs, while at the same time, driving a higher dispersion of income and residential displacement. A clear difference is established between homeowners and tenants to this regard: the former can use the opportunities of rent extraction in the platform economy to withstand the economic pressure of tourism, while the latter are more exposed to the risk of having to leave their homes.
{"title":"Tourism pressure as a driver of social inequalities: a BSEM estimation of housing instability in European urban areas","authors":"Riccardo Valente, A. Russo, Susan Vermeulen, F. Milone","doi":"10.1177/09697764221078729","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09697764221078729","url":null,"abstract":"There is a certain agreement in the regional economics literature on tourism development as a lever of territorial cohesion and regional convergence. Yet, evidence about its impact on social inclusion within destination regions is scant. The emerging literature placing tourism development as a driver of inequality relies mostly on qualitative methods and individual case studies, thus overlooking a cross-national perspective. In this article, we address this gap by estimating the impacts of tourism growth between 2013 and 2018 on housing instability through its effects on rents and the perceived financial burden of housing costs. Based on a combination of data sourced from Eurostat and a geo-located dataset of Airbnb listings, a Bayesian path analysis model was specified with a sample of densely populated areas in 85 European regions. Results reveal the controversial influence of tourism on urban destinations, indicating how the increase in the number of visitors may benefit mean incomes and relieve the pressure on housing costs, while at the same time, driving a higher dispersion of income and residential displacement. A clear difference is established between homeowners and tenants to this regard: the former can use the opportunities of rent extraction in the platform economy to withstand the economic pressure of tourism, while the latter are more exposed to the risk of having to leave their homes.","PeriodicalId":47746,"journal":{"name":"European Urban and Regional Studies","volume":"29 1","pages":"332 - 349"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2022-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47638010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-26DOI: 10.1177/09697764211069837
Frances Brill, M. Raco, Callum Ward
‘Patient capital’ is presented by many policymakers as a panacea to address domestic (and sometimes city-level) gaps in financing urban development, particularly housing, that emerged in the post-2008 credit crunch. In this article, we analyse the complexities of patient investors’ entry into residential markets in London and their response to the first major, and unexpected, crisis of demand: the COVID-19 pandemic and immediate falls in market demand. We focus on how patient capital and the firms invested in the professionalised rental market, build to rent (BTR), have responded. We highlight three main responses: (1) advancing their lobbying efforts to secure a more supportive political environment; (2) protecting their income streams by offering new payment plans and adaptability to prevent void rates; (3) turning to a ‘reserve army’ of renters backed by the state – so-called Key Workers (KWs). We argue these demonstrate a continual and co-evolutionary dimension to policy promoting patient capital and the need for patient planning to govern patient investment in housing systems. Our findings are in ‘real-time’ and highlight the importance of structural uncertainties and the breakdown of long-term assumptions in shaping investment decisions.
{"title":"Anticipating demand shocks: Patient capital and the supply of housing","authors":"Frances Brill, M. Raco, Callum Ward","doi":"10.1177/09697764211069837","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09697764211069837","url":null,"abstract":"‘Patient capital’ is presented by many policymakers as a panacea to address domestic (and sometimes city-level) gaps in financing urban development, particularly housing, that emerged in the post-2008 credit crunch. In this article, we analyse the complexities of patient investors’ entry into residential markets in London and their response to the first major, and unexpected, crisis of demand: the COVID-19 pandemic and immediate falls in market demand. We focus on how patient capital and the firms invested in the professionalised rental market, build to rent (BTR), have responded. We highlight three main responses: (1) advancing their lobbying efforts to secure a more supportive political environment; (2) protecting their income streams by offering new payment plans and adaptability to prevent void rates; (3) turning to a ‘reserve army’ of renters backed by the state – so-called Key Workers (KWs). We argue these demonstrate a continual and co-evolutionary dimension to policy promoting patient capital and the need for patient planning to govern patient investment in housing systems. Our findings are in ‘real-time’ and highlight the importance of structural uncertainties and the breakdown of long-term assumptions in shaping investment decisions.","PeriodicalId":47746,"journal":{"name":"European Urban and Regional Studies","volume":"30 1","pages":"50 - 65"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2022-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46691209","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-21DOI: 10.1177/09697764211066258
M. Rodríguez, J. Molina, J. Camacho
To be effective, territorial development policies must rely on information collected at a proper spatial scale. This commentary compares functional and administrative geographies. We go beyond metropolitan areas and map functional areas across the entire national territory of Spain. These functional areas are delineated using commuting flows based on mobile positioning data. The results obtained revealed the existence of a substantial number of functional areas that do not belong to one sole region. This indicates that there is a discrepancy between the socioeconomic reality and the administrative areas employed for territorial development policy purposes. Functional areas could be particularly useful to address policy challenges in issues like labor market functioning, transport planning, housing, or public service provision.
{"title":"Mapping functional areas in Spain using mobile positioning data","authors":"M. Rodríguez, J. Molina, J. Camacho","doi":"10.1177/09697764211066258","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09697764211066258","url":null,"abstract":"To be effective, territorial development policies must rely on information collected at a proper spatial scale. This commentary compares functional and administrative geographies. We go beyond metropolitan areas and map functional areas across the entire national territory of Spain. These functional areas are delineated using commuting flows based on mobile positioning data. The results obtained revealed the existence of a substantial number of functional areas that do not belong to one sole region. This indicates that there is a discrepancy between the socioeconomic reality and the administrative areas employed for territorial development policy purposes. Functional areas could be particularly useful to address policy challenges in issues like labor market functioning, transport planning, housing, or public service provision.","PeriodicalId":47746,"journal":{"name":"European Urban and Regional Studies","volume":"29 1","pages":"145 - 151"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41670972","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-25DOI: 10.1177/09697764211057490
Lena Hafner
The age of migration finds its physical manifestation in the immigrant neighbourhoods of European cities. These ‘ethnic enclaves’ have received much attention from the public, as well as policy makers. Conventional wisdom holds that policies are required to confront such concentrations. Several European countries have implemented measures to achieve a spatial balance – be it through settlement bans or allocation quotas – in the name of fostering immigrants’ integration. However, the scholarly verdict on the relationship between segregation and integration is still pending. This article aims to contribute a novel approach, namely discourse analysis of immigrants’ Facebook groups. To this end, it first establishes the level of segregation in six cities (three in Germany and three in England) using data held by municipal archives. Second, it scrutinises 119 Facebook groups of Pakistanis and Turks in these cities, with a total of 2665 posts. This exploratory analysis suggests that desegregation might be causative for downwards assimilation and transnationalism, whereas ethnic enclaves might provide the basis for a pluralist mode of integration. Therefore, it argues for a re-evaluation of the suitability of dispersal policies for shaping the transformation of ever more European cities into multi-ethnic metropolises.
{"title":"Springboard, not roadblock: Discourse analysis of Facebook groups suggests that ethnic neighbourhoods in European cities might jump-start immigrants’ integration","authors":"Lena Hafner","doi":"10.1177/09697764211057490","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09697764211057490","url":null,"abstract":"The age of migration finds its physical manifestation in the immigrant neighbourhoods of European cities. These ‘ethnic enclaves’ have received much attention from the public, as well as policy makers. Conventional wisdom holds that policies are required to confront such concentrations. Several European countries have implemented measures to achieve a spatial balance – be it through settlement bans or allocation quotas – in the name of fostering immigrants’ integration. However, the scholarly verdict on the relationship between segregation and integration is still pending. This article aims to contribute a novel approach, namely discourse analysis of immigrants’ Facebook groups. To this end, it first establishes the level of segregation in six cities (three in Germany and three in England) using data held by municipal archives. Second, it scrutinises 119 Facebook groups of Pakistanis and Turks in these cities, with a total of 2665 posts. This exploratory analysis suggests that desegregation might be causative for downwards assimilation and transnationalism, whereas ethnic enclaves might provide the basis for a pluralist mode of integration. Therefore, it argues for a re-evaluation of the suitability of dispersal policies for shaping the transformation of ever more European cities into multi-ethnic metropolises.","PeriodicalId":47746,"journal":{"name":"European Urban and Regional Studies","volume":"29 1","pages":"383 - 407"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2021-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48428323","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-01DOI: 10.1177/09697764211054773
B. Hermelin, Kristina Trygg
This article investigates how the international wave of decentralisation of development policy, promoted through ideals of place-based policy, becomes practice through development interventions made by municipalities in Sweden. Based on an extensive empirical study across Swedish municipalities, the article contributes with knowledge about how the decentralisation of development policies is formed through a combination of shared and relatively heterodox conditions for development interventions across the different categories of municipalities: cities, towns and rural settlements. The results describe the varying scope of local development interventions and how decentralisation involves differentiating the involvement of municipalities into vertical and horizontal relations within the planning sector. The article’s findings about the variations in local development interventions across the different categories of municipalities contribute to the debate within geography on the varying capacities of different geographical formations to mobilise for bottom-up development, leading to the weaker regions remaining weak. The results of this article also illustrate the importance of reflecting upon how particular national planning systems shape the implications of the general international trend towards the decentralisation of local development policy.
{"title":"Decentralised development policy: A comparative study on local development interventions through municipalities in Sweden","authors":"B. Hermelin, Kristina Trygg","doi":"10.1177/09697764211054773","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09697764211054773","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates how the international wave of decentralisation of development policy, promoted through ideals of place-based policy, becomes practice through development interventions made by municipalities in Sweden. Based on an extensive empirical study across Swedish municipalities, the article contributes with knowledge about how the decentralisation of development policies is formed through a combination of shared and relatively heterodox conditions for development interventions across the different categories of municipalities: cities, towns and rural settlements. The results describe the varying scope of local development interventions and how decentralisation involves differentiating the involvement of municipalities into vertical and horizontal relations within the planning sector. The article’s findings about the variations in local development interventions across the different categories of municipalities contribute to the debate within geography on the varying capacities of different geographical formations to mobilise for bottom-up development, leading to the weaker regions remaining weak. The results of this article also illustrate the importance of reflecting upon how particular national planning systems shape the implications of the general international trend towards the decentralisation of local development policy.","PeriodicalId":47746,"journal":{"name":"European Urban and Regional Studies","volume":"29 1","pages":"297 - 311"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47474951","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-05DOI: 10.1177/09697764211049116
S. Jakobsen, E. Uyarra, Rune Njøs, Arnt Fløysand
Combining insights from evolutionary economic geography and socio-technical transition studies, this article provides a conceptual framework and a theory-informed empirical analysis of policy dimensions for regional green restructuring. The combination of these two perspectives allows the application and confrontation of analytical concepts with the particularities of regions, with a specific focus on the role of policy to ensure directionality. Empirically our discussion is illustrated by a case study of Western Norway, a specialized industrial region. We focus on the role of policy for the development of new green technology pathways within this region. We observe that different industry transition pathways within a region are influenced by various combinations of policy action, and that policy for regional green restructuring includes complex policy mixes initiated at different levels of governance. Our framework provides a suitable scheme for assessing the role of policy for green restructuring in regions.
{"title":"Policy action for green restructuring in specialized industrial regions","authors":"S. Jakobsen, E. Uyarra, Rune Njøs, Arnt Fløysand","doi":"10.1177/09697764211049116","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09697764211049116","url":null,"abstract":"Combining insights from evolutionary economic geography and socio-technical transition studies, this article provides a conceptual framework and a theory-informed empirical analysis of policy dimensions for regional green restructuring. The combination of these two perspectives allows the application and confrontation of analytical concepts with the particularities of regions, with a specific focus on the role of policy to ensure directionality. Empirically our discussion is illustrated by a case study of Western Norway, a specialized industrial region. We focus on the role of policy for the development of new green technology pathways within this region. We observe that different industry transition pathways within a region are influenced by various combinations of policy action, and that policy for regional green restructuring includes complex policy mixes initiated at different levels of governance. Our framework provides a suitable scheme for assessing the role of policy for green restructuring in regions.","PeriodicalId":47746,"journal":{"name":"European Urban and Regional Studies","volume":"29 1","pages":"312 - 331"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2021-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43583658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-05DOI: 10.1177/09697764211043448
Clemens de Olde, S. Oosterlynck
Contemporary scholarship has critically interrogated categorical distinctions of urban and rural settlement types, shifting attention to processes of urbanisation instead. Yet, in some cases, the urban-rural dichotomy still proves an indispensable category to understand the governance of urbanisation. In this article, we explore this apparent contradiction: why is it that a distinction which is clearly inadequate in capturing the actual reality of urbanisation in post-urban regions still strongly informs the way a variety of actors involved in spatial planning think and act? This question is explored through an in-depth qualitative study of spatial governance in the fragmented post-urban settlement structure of Flanders, Belgium. Central to the study is the spatial governance instrument of demarcating ‘urban areas’, which is based on a strict urban-rural dichotomy in an attempt to counter sprawl. Through its implementation in the agglomerations of Antwerp and Mechelen, we show how this distinction tends to activate and reproduce a morally charged symbolic urban-rural divide. Combined with anti-urban identities and interests the distinction is instrumentalised in strategic actions of politicians and residents to undermine the instrument’s effectiveness. We conclude that arguments about the need for ‘new epistemologies of the urban’ should take the symbolic power of the urban-rural dichotomy seriously, as declaring these categories obsolete does not in itself lead to their disappearance.
{"title":"‘The countryside starts here’: How the urban-rural divide continues to matter in post-urban Flanders","authors":"Clemens de Olde, S. Oosterlynck","doi":"10.1177/09697764211043448","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09697764211043448","url":null,"abstract":"Contemporary scholarship has critically interrogated categorical distinctions of urban and rural settlement types, shifting attention to processes of urbanisation instead. Yet, in some cases, the urban-rural dichotomy still proves an indispensable category to understand the governance of urbanisation. In this article, we explore this apparent contradiction: why is it that a distinction which is clearly inadequate in capturing the actual reality of urbanisation in post-urban regions still strongly informs the way a variety of actors involved in spatial planning think and act? This question is explored through an in-depth qualitative study of spatial governance in the fragmented post-urban settlement structure of Flanders, Belgium. Central to the study is the spatial governance instrument of demarcating ‘urban areas’, which is based on a strict urban-rural dichotomy in an attempt to counter sprawl. Through its implementation in the agglomerations of Antwerp and Mechelen, we show how this distinction tends to activate and reproduce a morally charged symbolic urban-rural divide. Combined with anti-urban identities and interests the distinction is instrumentalised in strategic actions of politicians and residents to undermine the instrument’s effectiveness. We conclude that arguments about the need for ‘new epistemologies of the urban’ should take the symbolic power of the urban-rural dichotomy seriously, as declaring these categories obsolete does not in itself lead to their disappearance.","PeriodicalId":47746,"journal":{"name":"European Urban and Regional Studies","volume":"29 1","pages":"281 - 296"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2021-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44332155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-01DOI: 10.1177/09697764211043424
C. Delclós, L. Vidal
This commentary reflects on the potential of European Union institutions to address the continent’s crisis of housing affordability, which was well underway before the COVID-19 pandemic and has been exacerbated in its wake. Despite having no direct competencies in housing policy, European Union norms and policies shape housing conditions in significant ways. The greater level of public spending on housing renovation enabled by the 2021–2027 multiannual financial framework and NextGeneration European Union funding signals a welcome shift away from austerity. However, investment alone is not enough to advance the right to housing and may even reinforce existing inequalities. Plans like the Renovation Wave and the Affordable Housing Initiative must strive not only for climate neutrality but also for housing cost and tenure neutrality. Beyond pandemic recovery plans, this commentary argues that a more thorough departure from the market-based approach underlying the European Union’s institutionality is needed to tackle the roots of the current housing problematic.
这篇评论反映了欧盟机构解决欧洲大陆住房负担能力危机的潜力，这一危机在2019冠状病毒病大流行之前就已经存在，并在疫情爆发后加剧。尽管在住房政策方面没有直接的能力，但欧洲联盟的规范和政策在很大程度上塑造了住房条件。2021-2027年多年度财政框架和下一代欧盟(NextGeneration European Union)资金支持的住房翻新公共支出水平提高，标志着摆脱紧缩的可喜转变。然而，仅靠投资不足以促进住房权，甚至可能加剧现有的不平等。像“改造浪潮”和“经济适用房倡议”这样的计划不仅要争取气候中立，还要争取住房成本和使用权中立。除了大流行病恢复计划之外，本评论认为，要解决当前住房问题的根源，需要更彻底地背离欧洲联盟体制基础上的以市场为基础的方法。
{"title":"Beyond renovation: Addressing Europe’s long housing crisis in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic","authors":"C. Delclós, L. Vidal","doi":"10.1177/09697764211043424","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09697764211043424","url":null,"abstract":"This commentary reflects on the potential of European Union institutions to address the continent’s crisis of housing affordability, which was well underway before the COVID-19 pandemic and has been exacerbated in its wake. Despite having no direct competencies in housing policy, European Union norms and policies shape housing conditions in significant ways. The greater level of public spending on housing renovation enabled by the 2021–2027 multiannual financial framework and NextGeneration European Union funding signals a welcome shift away from austerity. However, investment alone is not enough to advance the right to housing and may even reinforce existing inequalities. Plans like the Renovation Wave and the Affordable Housing Initiative must strive not only for climate neutrality but also for housing cost and tenure neutrality. Beyond pandemic recovery plans, this commentary argues that a more thorough departure from the market-based approach underlying the European Union’s institutionality is needed to tackle the roots of the current housing problematic.","PeriodicalId":47746,"journal":{"name":"European Urban and Regional Studies","volume":"28 1","pages":"333 - 337"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47902161","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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