Urban Design And The British Urban Renaissance

An insightful exploration of the strengths, weaknesses and implications of New Labour's urban renaissance agenda, experts in urban design and planning critically review the development and application of the strategy in Britain's largest cities.

This book is an academic essay about the urban regeneration policies which have been changing the physical - and partly social - outlook of many English cities during the last 10-15 years, eventually giving birth to a process which is also known as ‘Urban Renaissance’. The main focus is on urban design: the way it has been promoted by the government as an important means for delivering attractive places in more sustainable and competitive cities. The research describes the support given to local authorities for this purpose through new laws and powers, the publishing of planning and design manuals and the delivery of especially dedicated funds, bodies and programmes. It also explores the character and purpose of new developments such as scientific parks, creative/cultural quarters, retail and commercial dis-tricts, public realm works, describing recurring design rules and features. Readers interested in urban policies, architecture and the built environment will find a concise yet comprehensive explanation, enriched by more than a hundred pictures, on why and how many towns and cities like Birmingham, Nottingham, Leicester or Sheffield have been changing during the last decade.

This collection adds weight to an emerging argument that policies to make cities better are inextricably linked to an attempt to pacify and regulate crime and disorder. It provides discussions from a range of scholars examining policy connections that can be traced between social, urban and crime policy and the wider processes of regeneration.

Horizons and barriers in British urban policy / Craig Johnstone and Mark Whitehead -- Promoting the "urban idyll" : policies for city centre living / Gareth Hoskins and Andrew Tallon -- Urban regeneration in a growing region : the renaissance of England's average town / Mike Raco -- The urban neighbourhood and the new moral geographies of British urban policy / Mark Whitehead -- Crime, disorder and the urban renaissance / Craig Johnstone -- Urban policy integration in London : the impact of the elected mayor / Andy Thornley and Karen West -- Scottish urban policy : continuity, change and uncertainty post-devolution / Ivan Turok -- Governing the cities and the urban renaissance / Rob Imrie -- Neo-liberalism, crisis, and the city : the political economy of New Labour's urban policy / Martin Jones and Kevin Ward -- Towards a "social democratic" policy agenda for cities / Patsy Healey -- The scaling of "urban" policy : neighbourhood, city or region? / Mark Goodwin -- Knowing the city? : 21st century urban policy and the introduction of local strategic partnerships / Michael Keith -- Gender, place and renaissance / Sue Brownill -- The cultural impacts of globalization and the future of urban cultural politics / Franco Bianchini

The publication of the Green Paper on Planning has magnified the significance of urban design frameworks, development briefs and master plans. Despite general recognition that making places socially, economically and environmentally successful depends on high standards of urban design, there is less understanding of how good design can be delivered. The challenge is to influence the development process, not only on high profile sites, but wherever urban change is reshaping places.

Striking transformations are taking place in the urban landscape. The regeneration of urban areas in the UK and around the world has become an increasingly important issue amongst governments and populations since the global economic downturn. This textbook provides an accessible and critical synthesis of urban regeneration in the UK, analyzing key policies, approaches, issues and debates. It places the historical and contemporary regeneration agenda in context. The second edition has been extensively revised and updated to incorporate advances in literature, policy and case study examples, as well as giving greater discussion to the New Labour period of urban policy, and the urban agenda and regeneration policies of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government elected in 2010. The book is divided into five sections, with Section I establishing the conceptual and political framework for urban regeneration in the UK. Section II traces policies that have been adopted by central government to influence the social, economic and physical development of cities, including early town and country and housing initiatives, community-focused urban policies of the late 1960s, entrepreneurial property-led regeneration of the 1980s, competition for urban funds in the 1990s, urban renaissance and neighborhood renewal policies of the late 1990s and early 2000s, and new approaches since 2010 which have sought to stimulate enterprise and embrace localism in an age of austerity resulting from the global economic downturn. Section III illustrates the key thematic policies and strategies that have been pursued by cities themselves, focusing particularly on improving economic competitiveness, tackling social disadvantage and promoting sustainable urban regeneration. Section IV summarizes key issues and debates facing urban regeneration in the early 2010s, and speculates upon future directions in an era of economic and political uncertainty. Urban Regeneration in the UK combines the approaches taken by central government and cities themselves to regenerate urban areas, providing a comprehensive and up-to-date synthesis of the field. Each chapter also contains case studies, study questions, suggested further reading and websites, making this an essential resource for undergraduate students interested in Urban Studies, Geography, Planning and the Built Environment.

A quarter of a century ago, Professor Peter Borsay identified a specifically urban phenomenon of cultural revival that took root in the late seventeenth century, leading to the flowering of a wide range of cultural forms and the extensive remodelling of the townscape along classically inspired lines. Borsay called this the ‘English Urban Renaissance’. These essays, including Borsay’s reflective and thought-provoking revisiting of his concept, offer a wide-ranging exploration of the continuing and still developing impact of the ‘English Urban Renaissance’ and investigate the wider impact of the concept beyond England. The essays reiterate the importance of provincial towns as hubs of economic, cultural and political activity and the strength and vitality of urban culture beyond the metropolis. They trace the development of urban culture over time in the light of the concept of ‘urban renaissance’, showing how urban townscapes and cultural life were transformed throughout the long eighteenth century. Together, they establish the continuing impact and importance of Borsay’s concept, demonstrate the breadth of its influence in the UK and beyond, and point to possible areas of research for the future.

An acclaimed history of Harlem’s journey from urban crisis to urban renaissance With its gleaming shopping centers and refurbished row houses, today’s Harlem bears little resemblance to the neighborhood of the midcentury urban crisis. Brian Goldstein traces Harlem’s Second Renaissance to a surprising source: the radical social movements of the 1960s that resisted city officials and fought to give Harlemites control of their own destiny. Young Harlem activists, inspired by the civil rights movement, envisioned a Harlem built by and for its low-income, predominantly African American population. In the succeeding decades, however, the community-based organizations they founded came to pursue a very different goal: a neighborhood with national retailers and increasingly affluent residents. The Roots of Urban Renaissance demonstrates that gentrification was not imposed on an unwitting community by unscrupulous developers or opportunistic outsiders. Rather, it grew from the neighborhood’s grassroots, producing a legacy that benefited some longtime residents and threatened others.