Including the community in local regeneration? The case of greater pollok social inclusion partnership

This paper seeks to evaluate critically the extent to which there is community involvement in the construction and delivery of urban policy under New Labour, through a case study of the Greater Pollok Social Inclusion Partnership. The paper concentrates on the Scottish experience, but its lessons resonate more widely. Its key finding is that, for all the rhetoric of New Labour and community involvement, the degree to which it has occurred in practice is little different to the level of involvement under Conservative urban policy initiatives. The paper argues that the processes of community consultation and participation during the early stages of the Greater Pollok Social Inclusion Partnership were woefully inadequate. At best it was tokenistic, and at worst, local people were being 'exploited' to legitimise the policy process.     

Watching the degenerate: street camera surveillance and urban regeneration

Government and media rhetoric obscures the entrepreneurial roots of closed circuit television (CCTV) and its position in the regeneration of politically and economically 'viable' city centres. The paper charts this concern with 'viability' and traces the reassertion of class based discourses on crime, fear and insecurity as a component in the regeneration of UK cities and reflected and reinforced by camera networks. The efficacy of CCTV is questionable and its significance may be understood less for its 'crime prevention' potential and more for its success in reinforcing a long established scrutiny and criminalisation of the activities of the least powerful inhabitants of urban areas at the expense of scrutinising other harmful activities in the city.     

The Countryside in the City - Situating a Farmers' Market in Birmingham

The City of Birmingham capitalized on the burgeoning trend in Farmer's Markets by establishing one in the city core. This paper first outlines the growth and origins of Farmer's Markets before offering empirical research on this particular market. The critical questions concern the advisability of putting such a market in a major city and issues surrounding the use made of the market by patrons. Stallholders and others are also interviewed to establish the balance of benefits and costs. The conclusions are that the effects have generally been positive and the initiative a worthwhile one.     

城市经济的空间结构：居住、就业及衍生问题

居住与就业的空间关系是企业和家庭空间选址和竞争的结果,决定了城市内部的空间结构形态。本文从城市土地利用要素的空间分布出发,回顾了城市空间结构的经典理论,探讨了居住与就业空间关系的外在表现和内在经济机制,特别是集聚经济和通勤成本这两个相反经济力量是如何相互作用以决定城市空间结构基本特征的。在此基础上,对当前备受关注的交通拥堵、环境污染、弱势群体就业障碍及住房问题等“城市病”的缘由和改善途径加以讨论。城市政策应对土地利用、交通和环境进行统筹考虑,并设计恰当的制度激励机制,使个体行为的外部性进行正确的“内部化”,这可以提高城市效率和居民生活质量,改善环境影响并促进城市发展的可持续性。     

Property-led regeneration and job creation: The Belfast case

This paper presents the results of a recent evaluation of the Urban Development Grant in Belfast. In contrast to cities in Great Britain, the Urban Development Grant in Belfast has been available not just to property speculators, but also to owner-occupiers of commercial premises. The grant is to facilitate employment growth in assisted businesses by removing constraints on trade and production imposed by unsuitable premises or location. An analysis of employment change in UDG-assisted and non-assisted businesses is undertaken to ascertain whether grant assistance was associated with employment growth.     

Prestige project developments: Economic renaissance or economic myth? A case study of Birmingham

This article examines the City of Birmingham's attempt to generate economic activity through the construction of “prestige projects” and the refurbishment of its Central Business District in the 1980s. Birmingham City Council's claims to have generated thousands of jobs and £2 billion of private sector investment from its prestige developments are examined and the distributional impacts of the “claimed” job creation totals are also detailed. The article concludes that the global investment and employment figures claimed have been exaggerated and many of the jobs directly generated have contributed to the growth of the secondary labour market in Birmingham.     

城市物流:理论与政策若干思考

在我国城市化水平进入快速发展阶段的背景下,本文运用外部性理论和交易成本理论,提出了城市物流是降低物流外部不经济性、降低物流交易成本的有效途径,在此基础上提出了城市物流的概念、结构体系,就建设城市物流体系在战略、规划、运营、资金、制度、技术等方面的保障,提出了政策建议。     

城市管理:数字化和人性化

城市管理应以物件管理为基础,以事件管理为中心。数字化管理不仅仅是一个技术问题,需要计算成本—收益,解决成本的承担和收益的分配。数字化管理是手段,人性化管理才是目的。人性化管理是一个重大制度问题,也是一个思想文化问题。     

Urban Self-organization, Urban Management and Urban Harmony

Making Wuli-Shili-Renli systems methodology as stand, this paper puts forward an integrated framework with methodological significance to meet needs of urban science research, namely Urban Systems Engineering （USE）. USE regards the whole urban as research object, with urban system, regards urban logic and urban institution as research dimensions, and regards evolution, control and game as research techniques. In the framework of USE, three topics including urban self-organization, urban management and urban harmony are in turn probed by adopting methods of multi-agent simulation, system evaluation, and game analysis of institution. The current and anticipative results will contribute to deeper understanding of evolution of urban space, optimization of urban management and betterment of urban institution, and will offer effective decision support to harmonious city construction as well.