Externalities of Urban Renewal: A Real Option Perspective

If carefully planned, urban renewal may play an important role in regenerating a decaying neighborhood and mitigating the negative externality generated by dilapidated buildings in densely populated areas. Despite its potential benefits, in urban areas dominated by high-rise developments, urban renewal has an unintended negative impact on nearby properties since it reduces their redevelopment option values. In this study, we develop a number of hypotheses on how an urban renewal project, once made known to the public, affects neighborhood housing prices and test them with data in Hong Kong. Our empirical findings suggest that the degree of positive externalities brought by urban renewal depends on the scale of an urban renewal project, as well as the amount of commercial areas included in the project. Most importantly, through examining changes in the age coefficient, we found that an urban renewal project reduces the value of nearby buildings beyond the boundaries of the project. The negative effect was stronger for older buildings and for those buildings located closer to the project’s boundaries. These unintended consequences of urban renewal have not been analyzed or tested in previous studies.     

Confronting macrosocial worries: Worry about environmental problems and proactive coping among a group of young volunteers

Studies indicate that young people's interest in and worries about global issues, including environmental problems, often are connected with pessimism and inactivity. The purpose of this interview study, therefore, is to explore whether we can learn how to cope proactively with environmental worries from young people who are already actively engaged in environmental and global justice organizations. How do these young volunteers experience and reflect upon their worry? Which individual and collective coping strategies are used? The results are analyzed in relation to existential and emotion theories, and it is concluded that if we want to promote both an active stance towards the global future and psychological well-being among young people, it is not the ability to get rid of worry that should be sought after but rather the capacity to face worry, to learn from it, and to use it for constructive actions. In this regard, cognitive strategies for activating positive emotions and positive aspects of being actively engaged are important to acknowledge, since they could help the young to take on this difficult task.     

Dreams and expectations: Young people''s expected and preferred futures and their significance for education

A recent Australian study sought to obtain a better understanding of what young people expect and want of their country in 2010, and to assess the value of scenarios as an investigative tool. The study had two components: a series of eight scenario-development workshops involving a total of 150 young people, most aged between 15 and 24 and from a variety of backgrounds; and a national opinion poll of 800 Australians in this age group. The study suggests there is a wide gap between young Australians' expected and preferred futures. Most do not expect life to be better in 2010, either nationally or globally, but foresee a continuation, and even worsening, of today's problems. Their dreams for Australia are of a society that places less emphasis on the individual, material wealth and competition, and more on community and family, the environment and cooperation.     

An exploration of alcohol-related fire incidences

In this paper we examine an operational research project concerning the analysis of the characteristics of alcohol-related fire instances attended by a UK Fire and Rescue Service in the North West region of England and the development of a geographical information system for fire prevention support. The research project examined the circumstances of alcohol-related fires, their geographical distribution and the socio-economic characteristics of such fire incidences within the region studied, and also involved the design and implementation of a geographical information system for supporting prevention of such fires. Overall, it was found that cooking fires involving ‘harmful’ or ‘hazardous’ levels of alcohol consumption were most likely to be found amongst younger urban residents living in high levels of deprivation, students living in city centre locations and young families with high benefit need within the region studied.     

Why General Mills mixes in health care.

When it comes to social responsibility, most companies are content to write out checks--often in large numbers--and let it go at that. General Mills is one company that likes to establish operating ventures that involve corporate officers and champion a cause. Such a venture is Altcare, a nonprofit organization designed to find more effective and less expensive ways of caring for elderly people who are getting frail but do not require acute care. In 1983, when the company chose this area as its next project, it realized it needed help from an organization with vast experience in the geriatric field. So it enlisted a nearby organization, the Wilder Foundation, and went into partnership as Altcare. The partnership has launched a service network for victims of Alzheimer's disease, a program with three other institutions to meet the myriad needs of chronically impaired people, and an unusual residence for physically impaired people, among other ventures. Altcare looks for advances and ideas that can be replicated, and the partnership often lends money to entrepreneurs who want to launch pioneering efforts or replicate Altcare initiatives. The cost to General Mills: about $80,000 a year after taxes, plus its share of any losses in project investments incurred by Altcare.     

Cities of the imagination: Science fiction, urban space, and community engagement in urban planning

Stories, dreams, histories and myths, Michel de Certeau argues, connect people to particular places and makes place concrete and inhabitable. These narratives generate an imaginary, poetic geography that haunts the abstract city of street maps and development plans, and makes it socially meaningful. This paper is concerned with one particular kind of story-telling - science fiction - and its relationship with the city, urban planning, and questions of community engagement. The paper argues that the ‘cities of the imagination’ generated by science fiction and other forms of narrative provide a powerful means of understanding, communicating and enriching the connections to place in urban communities. Moreover, science fiction is often characterised by its ability to explore the future of cities. This gives the genre a fascinating and potentially useful resonance with urban planning as a discourse and set of practices; and, in particular, strategies for engaging communities in the design process and, thus, designing for future social sustainability. These ideas will be tested through a reading of near-future urban spatiality in the cyberpunk stories of William Gibson. The theorisation of the relationship between urban space and narrative in the work of de Certeau and other theorists will be used to help frame this discussion.     

Rethinking tomorrow's cities: Emerging issues on city foresight

Rethinking tomorrow's cities now, builds our capacity to act with foresight and create resilient and liveable places. I use methods from the futures studies field, particularly macrohistory, to provoke our current patterns of city making. From macrohistory, the grand patterns of social change reveal some of the key systems dynamics influencing the rise and fall of cities in civilisation. The key urban system dynamics in the broadest sense provide a meta-framework of emerging issues shaping new urban challenges or opportunities for our towns and cities. The hope drawn from the past and present is to focus our urban interventions in the key areas to create future cities of wonder and purpose. The implications of the emerging issues (critical focus areas of city foresight) that arise from the macrohistorical analysis are discussed using the case study of the Maroochy 2025 community visioning project.2025 is a community driven project to develop shared visions and action plans for the Maroochy Shire¹ towards the year 2025, for the purpose of creating an empowering and community owned response to the challenges facing them locally and globally.     

社会养老保险制度城乡统筹之路探索

从实现社会养老保险制度城乡统筹的发展路径来说,第一步是实现城乡两类制度之间有效衔接,第二步是通过城乡两类制度合并实现社会养老保险制度城乡统筹。在实现城乡两类制度有效衔接方面,一是进一步完善城镇基本养老保险制度和创建新型农村社会养老保险制度,二是建立城乡两类制度的有效衔接机制;在整合两类制度建立覆盖城乡居民的社会养老保险制度的过程中,应坚持四项原则：保持基本模式一致,分别保持财务可持续性,合理划分国家、集体与个人三方的责任,科学规划城乡统筹的推进策略。     

Hope and anticipation in education for a sustainable future

Global sustainability problems pose serious challenges for humanity. In handling these problems education for sustainable development (ESD) is seen as important. Different key competences that ESD should focus on have been introduced, such as the ability to deal with future dimensions. Still, studies indicate that future dimensions are not always included in ESD and that many young people are pessimistic concerning the global future. Therefore, one could argue that a focus on anticipatory emotions, especially hope, should be included in ESD. There is a worry, however, that hope will lead to unrealistic optimism and/or less engagement. The aim of this paper is to problematize the discussion about hope in relation to ESD and the global future by grounding it in theories from different disciplines and in empirical research about young people, hope, and climate change. The review shows that hope is a complex, multifaceted, and sometimes contested concept. Hope can be related to denial, but in other cases it can help people face and do something constructive with their worries about the global future. The close relation between hope and trust is emphasized and a need for critical emotional awareness in ESD is argued for.     

Urban futures in the age of unsettlement

Rather than appealing to the agency of community and the received discourse of sustainability, this paper offers a critical perspective on both concepts. It puts forward a contextually dynamic view of urban futures - presented at a moment when the continuity of human settlement in its current forms appears as increasingly problematic. Against this backdrop, both community and urban futures are rethought and brought into relation with (i) the emergent discourse of ‘sustainment’ (named as a moment, project and process) and (ii) the rise of ‘redirective practice’. Overall, the argument and ideas presented seek to reframe how the fate of the city, its social fabric, economy and political structures are viewed and engaged.     

Futures studies’ backcasting method used for strategic sustainable city planning

Achieving a sustainable city requires long-term visions, integration and a system-oriented approach to addressing economic, environmental and social issues. This paper case studies a sustainable city planning project, Göteborg 2050, that uses the backcasting method. Visionary images of a long-term sustainable future can stimulate an accelerated movement towards sustainability. The paper describes a special kind of scenario methodology to build a future model for city development as a planning tool in facilitating a sustainable society. Backcasting in futures studies is widely discussed together with the comparison of three selected backcasting approaches, including Robinson's approach, The Natural Step Framework, and the Sustainable Technology Development approach. The purposes of this paper are to examine and discuss the use of the backcasting method within the Project Göteborg 2050, lessons learned and findings drawn from the experience. The case study shows that backcasting is an appropriate method in developing action plans for achieving urban sustainability. This work can be served as a model for sustainable city planning in Thailand as well as other countries.     

Reducing microbiological risk in the kitchen: piloting consensus conference methodology as a communication strategy

Foodborne diseases are a major public health problem. Improper storage and food preparation at home can favour microbial contamination of food. Consumers play a crucial role in controlling this risk. To reduce exposure to risk, it is essential to provide information and guidance on contamination management in the home. The aim of this study was to pilot a method of participatory communication addressed to young consumers and designed to reduce the microbiological risks associated with the consumption of meat products. The methodology was based on application of the ‘consensus conference’ model on food safety issues. The consensus conference served not only as a participatory strategy to share knowledge but also as a method for sharing in the development of risk communication content (guidelines) to be disseminated to the reference target. Young people’s perceptions, habits and behaviour in the kitchen were explored in the preparatory stage of the consensus conference by means of a survey and a focus group. Three consensus conferences were held in Italy attended by 60 university students (19 and 22 years old). Application of the consensus conference model as a communication process proved to be an effective opportunity to engage young consumers and experts on the topic of food safety. This discursive participation approach was broadly welcomed by the participants. Specifically, direct interaction with the experts was considered to be an important part of the communication process. The findings of the project were used to select concise communication content based on the perceptions, behaviours and fact-finding needs of the selected target. Publication of this content in the form of guidelines on microbiological risk management at home has enabled the results of the consensus conferences to be extended and the targeted communication material on risk reduction in daily food handling practices to be disseminated.     

Urban planning: an ‘undisciplined’ discipline?

The need for cross disciplinary boundaries appeared in scientific research at least twenty years ago. Since its foundation, at the beginning of the 20th Century, urban planning has been claiming the assets of multidisciplinarity. It is particularly concerned with transgressing disciplinary boundaries. However, multidisciplinarity may weaken urban planning as a discipline, because it is a recent knowledge domain that has borrowed without questioning from the knowledge acquired in both the social and engineering sciences. Urban planning may forget to formulate an inventory and to build its own theoretical and practical assets. This article argues that it is only when a dsicipline has acquired its own identity that it can implement a fertile transdisciplinarity contribution.     

Locating community-led housing within neighbourhood plans as a response to England’s housing needs

Neighbourhood planning has revealed a real demand for connecting local planning with new ways of producing much-needed housing in England. Analysis of the first adopted neighbourhood plans illustrates the desire for connecting housing to local needs, providing affordable accommodation as well as housing for older people, young families and households with disabled residents. This paper explores the potential of linking neighbourhood planning and community housing development and suggests how such models can co-exist with contemporary housing markets.     

Sense-making of risk and role-taking emotions: how young Swedes construe road traffic risk

The aim of this study is to improve our understanding of how young people make sense of traffic risk. The study also aims to contribute to current theory by refining the concept of ‘sense-making of risk’. The focus is to explore, empirically as well as theoretically, how role-taking emotions can contribute to this particular area of research. In order to chart both the sense-making of social interaction and the respondents’ subjective sense of traffic risk, the present study used both in-depth interviews and focus group interviews: the in-depth interviews comprised a total of 11 interviews with as many interviewees, while a total of 36 people were included in the eight focus group interviews. All interviewees were Swedish residents aged between 16 and 20. It is found that by adopting the perspective afforded by theory of emotion, it is possible to deepen our knowledge of individual sense-making of risk. Both primary emotions and role-taking emotions seem to be central to how young Swedes form their understanding of traffic risk. A focus on role-taking emotions reveals the value of indirect social interaction for the individual’s sense-making of risk in general, and adds to our knowledge of the individual’s sense-making of traffic risk in particular.     

Community in the new epoch: the social ergonomics of community design

‘Community’ as both location and structure of relationships is undergoing change. In the Western world the rate of changes will inevitably accelerate in this new century. Our predictions include: the vast growth of cyber communities, and an increasing bandwidth, immersivity and interactivity in such communities; the expansion of the surveillance age in urban and rural communities, as rampant public crime works against community safety; an increased emphasis on social control in highly conservative communities that foster conformity; the development of Smart Towns with every service, facility and communication accessed by fibre-optic cable technology. Style will become a major priority in the 2025 community. The gurus of the age will be the Community Designers. At first these will be multi-disciplinary visionaries, who will be accorded the fame and celebrity of late-twentieth-century film stars. Their ideas for planned communities will take into account the above, but also offer grand schemes for the development of theme towns.Our scenarios indicate the continuing need by many citizens for ideals and ideology of traditional community life, but encased in new guises, with individual well-being and entertainment as priority. In general, current trends of disenfranchisement through globalization, multinationals and non-consultative government act to increase the chances of our scenarios coming about. A major social change through political awakening of the young, global neo-environmental movements and other massive global paradigm shifts would mitigate against our scenarios. We see the latter as unlikely.     

Evaluating a Long-Term Livable Communities Strategy in the U.S.

What are the requirements for successful, long-term, livable community strategies in the US? In early 2007, the Institute for Alternative Futures (IAF) was commissioned to offer a forward-looking review of the Livable Communities strategy of AARP, originally, the American Association of Retired Persons (with 37 million members, AARP is the largest non-profit organization in the US) [1]. This article summarizes the process and results of that project. It constitutes a case study in the evaluation of a large organization's plans from a strategic foresight perspective. Findings from this investigation suggest that many large-scale trends in the U.S., including urban sprawl, rising energy costs, climate change, and fiscal challenges are likely to work against efforts to make communities more livable. On the basis of these findings, IAF recommended that the association take a broad approach to livability, developing strategies that counter these negative trends while also improving the lives of older people. AARP is one of the best suited organizations to make such a long-term commitment.     

Young peoples’ involvement in global water issues

The world faces severe and growing challenges in maintaining water quality and in meeting the rapidly growing demand for water resources. As the present young people will be playing central roles in the future, the importance of understanding their views and paving way for their participation is of utmost importance. The involvement of young people in the “think globally, act locally” vision is illustrated here with the case of an international youth movement, the Young Water Action Team (YWAT¹).     

Profits with a purpose: an interview with Tom Chapman. Interview by Nancy A. Nichols

Greater Southeast Community Hospital is located in the center of one of Washington, D.C.'s most troubled and isolated neighborhoods. Like so many inner-city hospitals, it serves a population struggling with high rates of poverty, crime, and illiteracy. As a result, the area suffers from the highest rates of infant mortality, cancer, and coronary disease in the D.C. area. When Tom Chapman joined the hospital in 1984, it was giving away roughly 11% of its care-or about $11.5 million worth of medical services to indigent residents. If things continued at that rate, the hospital would soon go out of business. His challenge: to keep Greater Southeast solvent while shoring up the community that surrounds it. Chapman, who grew up in a housing project himself, understands the problems of inner cities innately. Working in tandem with community residents, Greater Southeast has developed a broad range of preventive and supportive programs, such as housing, day care for children and the elderly, nursing home services, and literacy training. Last year, Chapman was promoted to CEO of Greater Southeast Health Care, a broad network comprising two hospitals, three nursing homes, a physician care network, and over 50 community programs. He remains true to his original mission: "I want to create a network of participants, stringing together various organizations and players, each of whom have something special to contribute to urban problems.... What we are really doing is creating a community."     

Communities as a risk in mining: managing community legitimacy

Abstract

Using three cases from mining multinational enterprises (MNEs) in Armenia, this article conceptualises community risk, providing an alternative framework to conventional risk management approaches when managing local community relations. These approaches have been struggling to capture the increasingly complex risks originating from communities – both those who are directly affected by mining activities and the ones who have a vested interest in mining. The article defines two types of community relations which mining companies manage: communities of place (CofP), who live near the mine and are directly affected by its operations, and communities of interest (CofI), who are outside interest groups either opposing or supporting a given project. Community risks arise when CofPs create meaning about the legitimacy of the changes introduced into their physical and social environment, leading them to take action that affects the MNEs’ risk exposure to political, cultural or financial risks. The CofP can present these types of risks by acting alone or in cooperation with the CofI, who often have the resources and knowhow to affect corporate decision-making. The article contributes by defining community risk as an increasingly salient source of uncertainty for mining companies and MNEs in particular. Conceptualising community risk as the lack of legitimacy with these important stakeholder groups enables MNEs to strategise and adopt practices which are adapted to the local context. At the same time it assures investors, political and cultural stakeholders that the communities who have a specific interest in the project accept its impact.