Urban regeneration is the result of opportunities presented from urban degeneration and the responses from society at that certain time to improve the image and socio-economic circumstances. (Roberts et.al 2017) Each town and city has different needs which makes all urban regeneration movements unique. This essay aims to look at Manchester’s urban regeneration and its transformation into the 3rd largest city in England and the implications brought to the community; more specifically how the economic growth has led to groups being excluded both physically and emotionally. The main themes in this essay will be firstly to discuss the background and context of Manchester before its regeneration into a cosmopolitan city which is the next main theme …show more content…
The latest regeneration projects took place following the 1996 bombings by the IRA. Over 1200 buildings were damaged past repair and many businesses saw huge losses not only from the primary effects but in months to follow. This re invented a new image of Manchester as a dangerous place and would obviously not attract any new businesses to the area. As we know, bombings are unsettling to a community and not only damages the physical image of an area but the way the area is portrayed and understood to others. The urban regeneration of Manchester therefore, was fundamental in order to upmarket the area to become more attractive to successful businesses and those of higher classes to give it the economic boost and growth it had long …show more content…
These ideas of policing in urban regeneration is a central idea in that if people’s attitudes and behaviours change to fit the new “norms” that are created from the new idea of the cosmopolitan city. This idea theoretically works as people will change their own attitudes and beliefs about their own community so will become proud of the area they live in and this cascade of pride will shine through and the image of Manchester will change for the better. This wasn’t however a soundproof method and led to many feelings of exclusion. The expected change of behaviour was found to be difficult for many Mancunians in East Manchester. People who didn’t fit the new “norms” of Manchester, the new cosmopolitan city, felt like they no longer were valued within the community which is a huge social issue. This leads into another issue with urban regeneration in Manchester which involves a social aspect of people’s sense of belonging within an area which is discussed later in the
Peckham has been dubbed as London’s buzzing up and coming new hotspot, with “galleries, rooftop bars and foodie night markets that make East London look positively parochial” according to an article by Chris Martin in 2013, a stark contrast to Olsen (1997) labelling it “an inner city area which is among the poorest and most deprived in the country... Blighted by ills such as drugs, crime, unemployment, low educational achievement, a deteriorating infrastructure; life lived at the margins.” In this literature review I am going to review the main issues surrounding how the area has changed, discuss the new demographics coming into the area, issues such as gentrification in the area and also the increasing cultural segregation that is becoming evident in the area, both spatially and temporally.
Another noteworthy urban sociologist that’s invested significant research and time into gentrification is Saskia Sassen, among other topical analysis including globalization. “Gentrification was initially understood as the rehabilitation of decaying and low-income housing by middle-class outsiders in central cities. In the late 1970s a broader conceptualization of the process began to emerge, and by the early 1980s new scholarship had developed a far broader meaning of gentrification, linking it with processes of spatial, economic and social restructuring.” (Sassen 1991: 255). This account is an extract from an influential book that extended beyond the field of gentrification and summarizes its basis proficiently. In more recent and localized media, the release the documentary-film ‘In Jackson Heights’ portrayed the devastation that gentrification is causing as it plagues through Jackson Heights, Queens. One of the local businessmen interviewed is shop owner Don Tobon, stating "We live in a
Urban Regeneration in the London Docklands The London Docklands Development Corporation is located along the River Thames Estuary 2.a) The London Docklands had to close for many reasons. The main reason was the Second World War. The area suffered substantial bomb damage in the Second World War, which lead to the need for a substantial rebuilding programme. In the first 20 years after the Second World War, many buildings came to the end of their usefulness.
“gentrification as an ugly product of greed”. Yet these perspectives miss the point. Gentrification is a byproduct of mankind's continuing interest in advancing the notion that one group is more superior to another and worthy of capitalistic consumption with little regard to social consciousness. It is elitism with the utmost and exclusionary politics to the core. This has been a constant theme of mankind taking or depleting space for personal gain.
In conclusion, this essay has outlined an example range of ‘making and remaking’ on City Road in relation to ‘connections and disconnections’. It outlined how differences and inequalities are produced, how a person’s identity is attributed to them by other people and it is not always chosen and finally, the relationship between; society, making and remaking and connection and disconnection.
“One by one, many of the working class quarters of London have been invaded by the middle-classes—upper and lower. Shabby, modest mews and cottages—two rooms up and two down—have been taken over, when their leases have expired, and have become elegant, expensive residences .... Once this process of ‘gentrification’ starts in a district it goes on rapidly until all or most of the original working-class occupiers are displaced and the whole social character of the district is changed.”
In the 1950s Newcastle was known as a sleep city, Dan described it as “moribund” (1) decades had past and very little economic development had taken place between that time frame and families were left to suffer. In 1959, T. Dan Smith became Leader of Newcastle City Council, he set up his own independent planning department in the council and appointed Wilfred Burns as chief officer in 1960. They both wanted to re-modernise Newcastle for the better by undertaking new road plans to resolve the traffic congestion that plagued the city and breath new life into the city by clearing out the slum areas and rebuilding new homes to help improve peoples living conditions. One way Smith helped promote his grand scheme was through a series of models and held public gatherings to help fuel his passion to help change Newcastle, a method used by Richard Grainger who greatly strengthened Newcastle’s status as a regional capital. In order to achieve Grainger’s equivalent he set out to get renowned architects to develop the city, like Le Corbusier , Basil Spence, Leslie Martin, Robert Matthew and even Picasso to help reinforce his vision for the future “Brasilia of the North” (2). In this essay I will closely examine T. Dan Smith’s proposed plans for the new urban motorway system, that would help solve the traffic problem. Also the redevelopment of Eldon Sqaure that would come under scrutiny, but would later become a commercial success. I will also investigate the new Civic Centre that replaced the Old Town Hall and the intention from the local authorities to demolish the Royal Arcade and replace it with a roundabout.
Most study of gentrification thus far seems to focus upon the racial aspects of segregation in relation to gentrification apart from work such as that of Douglas Massey who has been a prominent writer in ethnic relations and segregation he conceives of residential segregation as a multidimensional phenomenon that is varying along five distinct axes of measurement the need for comparative analysis of the nature and consequences of inner-city transformation. (Wyly Hammel
For example, new buildings may be established while old ones are either rehabilitated or brought down. Additionally, public pressure may force the city authorities to make the much needed investment in the cities infrastructure. Thus, investments may go into construction and rehabilitation of parks, roads, health facilities, schools and streets. Writers with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) show that changes may also occur in terms of the codification of new standards related to historic preservation, nuisance laws, and aesthetic nature of the districts (Pbs.org).
Of the many problems affecting urban communities, both locally and abroad, there is one issue in particular, that has been victimizing the impoverished within urban communities for nearly a century; that would be the problem of gentrification. Gentrification is a word used to describe the process by which urban communities are coerced into adopting improvements respective to housing, businesses, and general presentation. Usually hidden behind less abrasive, or less stigmatized terms such as; “urban renewal” or “community revitalization” what the process of gentrification attempts to do, is remove all undesirable elements from a particular community or neighborhood, in favor of commercial and residential enhancements designed to improve both the function and aesthetic appeal of that particular community. The purpose of this paper is to make the reader aware about the significance of process of gentrification and its underlying impact over the community and the community participation.
Beginning in the 1960s, middle and upper class populations began moving out of the suburbs and back into urban areas. At first, this revitalization of urban areas was 'treated as a 'back to the city' movement of suburbanites, but recent research has shown it to be a much more complicated phenomenon' (Schwirian 96). This phenomenon was coined 'gentrification' by researcher Ruth Glass in 1964 to describe the residential movement of middle-class people into low-income areas of London (Zukin 131). More specifically, gentrification is the renovation of previously poor urban dwellings, typically into condominiums, aimed at upper and middle class professionals. Since the 1960s, gentrification has appeared in large cities such as Washington D.C., San Francisco, and New York. This trend among typically young, white, upper-middle class working professionals back into the city has caused much controversy (Schwirian 96). The arguments for and against gentrification will be examined in this paper.
Although the inner city areas have been identified as having problems for many years, it was not until 1988 that Margaret Thatcher put forward the “Action for Cities'; campaign. She realised that something had to be done to improve the conditions, and took the problems found in the inner cities as the reasons why the re-development schemes were necessary. When launching the scheme Thatcher said “In partnership with the people and the private sector, we intend to step up the pace of renewal and regeneration to make our inner cities much better places to live, work, and invest';. The inner city programme specified 6 aims:
According Bissett (2008, P.10) regeneration involves building and rebuilding to ‘dissolve and recreate different areas as sites of activity and reuse’. There have been a lot of changes in the history of Ireland’s economy and society as a whole. Bissett, J (2008, p.12) stated that ‘Urban regeneration in Ireland has therefore taken place within the changed context of the developing ‘tiger’ economy, and the modernisation of Irish society’. A large percentage of the Irish population lives in Dublin as it is a capital city. Urban regeneration strategies went through a different ‘reorientation’ in Dublin in the mid1980s by the city trying to transpose itself (Bissett, J 2008, p.11). The inner city had been left suburbanisation and the city had been at a crucial stage for many years. Important policies influenced the development and regeneration of Dublin City Centre. The ‘Myles Wright’ development policy that was adopted in 1960s seems to notice some new towns built on the margin of some area in Dublin, (Bissett, J 2008, p.12). Urban project undertook a thoughtful reorientation, and the Urban Renewal and Finance Act 1986 provided a legislative outline the new ideal of urban regeneration would happen, developers were further organised through the provision of important tax incentives for development. Department of Environment and Department of Finance coordinated ...
Sociologist … explained that open pattern of suburb is because of seeking environment free noise, dirt and overcrowding that are in the centre of cities. He gave examples of these cities as St. John’s wood, Richmond, Hampstead in London. Chestnut Hill and Germantown in Philadelphia. He added that suburban are only for the rich and high class. This plays into the hands of the critical perspectives that, “Cities are not so much the product of a quasi-natural “ecological” unfolding of social differentiation and succession, but of a dynamic of capital investment and disinvestment. City space is acted on primarily as a commodity that is bought and sold for profit, “(Little & McGivern, 2013, p.616).
Susan S. Fainstein, Scott Campbell. 2003. Readings in Urban Theory. Second Edition. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.