Urban Dynamics 2

Lecture 13 - Urban Stratification and Housing Structures

Methods For Determining Housing Needs

• Population Projections

• Existing Housing Stock

• Comparing Supply and Demand

• Regional Variation

Population Projections

• Looking at demographics, population growth projections, migration, birth and death rates. Household composition projections

Existing Housing Stock

• Existing housing compared to expected additions

Comparing Supply and Demand

• Projected housing need compared to expected housing stock (policies for shortages or surpluses)

Regional Variation

• Variation by region due to several factors.

Challenges in Housing Need Planning

• Age Related Dependence

• Local Differences

• Difference

• Market Instability

Age Related Dependence

• Rapid population ageing affects demand

Local Differences

• Regions differ in needs

Difference

• Often there is a gap between actual housing needs (social necessity) and the economic demand (what the market provides)

Market Instability

• fluctuations in the economy affect housing production

Challenges for Different Regions (Growth vs Shrinking Cities)

Growth Cities

• Estimating future needs

• Building Sites

• different system (west vs east)

Shrinking Cities:

• Preserving neighbourhoods

• Preventing vacancy and decay

• Lower land value can lead to redevelopment and demolition

  • Leads to social disruption and loss of cultural heritage

Professionalisation

Proletarianization

Polarization (Dual City)

Professionalisation

• Increase in highly educated well paid professionals

Proletarianization

• Increase in low skilled low paying jobs

Polarization

• Growth at the top and bottom of the professional class structure, shrinking middle class, leads to Dual City

Lecture 14 - Segregation and Urban Inequalities

Geographical Inequalities

Declining ethnic segregation in Europe, global increase in socio-economic segregation.

Understanding Urban Segregation: Three Theoretical Perspectives

1. Individual Preferences and Behaviour

2. Institutional Context and Welfare State Models

3. Historically Developed Economic/social Structures

1. Individual Preferences and Behaviour

Spatial Sorting

Social Homophilia: seeking interaction with others who are at short social distances (socio-eco status, cultural values, education, ethnicity)

2. Institutional Context and Welfare State Models

3 Types of Welfare States (influence on the urban form)

• Corporatist: employee protection and safety nests

• Liberal: minimum social services, market forces

• Socialist: universal protection, equality

3. Historically Developed Economic/social Structures

Varied by city, economic structuring leading to forms of social inequality and segregation, Sassen polarization from global economy.

Lecture 16 - Urban Mobility

Mobility: Physical movement of people and goods

Urban Mobility: Ability to move people and goods freely

Different types of land use (working, shopping…) create different types of traffic. Good infrastructure makes locations attractive and vice versa. Shift from road capacity (cars) to accessibility and quality of life.

TOD (Transit Oriented Development)

ABC Policy NL:

• A Locations: Accessible by Public Transport

• B Locations: Mixed Transport

• C Locations: Cars

Human Dimension of Mobility (Time Travel Budget, spending same time travelling on average per day, regardless of where they live and how fast they move.)

Economic Dimension of Mobility (Production-Distribution of Things) Cities as part of production chains.

Importance of Mobility (Hypermobile Society)?

Hypermobile Society: Thick and Thin Places (people are traveling more often, faster and further)

Thick Places

• Social significance, history, connection (your neighbourhood)

Thin Places

• Easy use, little meaning (airports, stations)

Theory of Urban Fabrics (Newman)

Walking Fabric

Transit Fabric

Car Fabric

Walking Fabric

• Compact city, narrow streets, historic, high density for walking and cycling, mixed functions

Transit Fabric

• Public transport, built along trains, trams, and metros, medium density, often around nodes

Car Fabric

• Dispersed, low density, car oriented, major roads and parking, dispersion between areas, american suburbs.

Amsterdam Structure Place (1968-1970)

Traffic Circulation Plan (1972 Groningen)

Copenhagen Finger Plan (1947)

Amsterdam Structure Place (1968-1970)

• Automobile city for 2000, adapt the car, protests canceled the plan, car as a symbol of progress and modernity

Traffic Circulation Plan (1972 Groningen)

• Redirecting traffic away from the city center, prioritising saftey

Copenhagen Finger Plan (1947)

• Palm of the hand as the center, finger as outwards development, in between farm and green space. Smart combination insuring accessibility

Lecture 17 - Smart City and Urban Platformization

Smart City?

Smart City: City that uses technology to become more efficient, sustainable, and liveable.

3 Aspects Of A Smart City

1. Based on…

2. Goals/Knowledge

3. Promotion/Marketing

1. Based on digital systems

2. Improving mobility, safety, reducing energy consumption + mobilising knowledge

3. Promotion by large companies and city marketing towards clean, green, efficient…

Richard Sennet Criticism, Reflecting Alexis de Tocqueville: “Cities are physically dense but socially segregated”.

1. Isolating…

2. Fragmentation…

3. Technological…

4. Sennet:

1. Isolating effects of urban life, living close to each other but still socially separated.

2. Fragmentation and weakened communities if people stay in their own small networks.

3. Technological and economic individualisation reinforces fragmentation.

4. Sennet: This makes cities less resilient.

(Own Criticism)

• Friction Free City

• Consequences of Technology

• Importance of Friction

• Friction Free City

Technology makes everything run smoothly, without obstacles, conflict. (utopian) (no room for debate or justice)

• Consequences of Technology

Technology is designed to facilitate interaction between people and the environment, but can also lead to alienation and lacking involvement.

• Importance of Friction

Friction is important for social interaction, arguing for open flexible cities that foster spontaneity and diversity.

Explain the relevance of Richard Sennett’s concepts for smart cities

• Ville & Cité:

• Open Cities

• (Being) Modest

• Ville & Cité:

Ville = physical city, Cité = lived city

Argues that urban technology focuses on the ‘ville’, rather than the cité

• Open

Advocates for ‘open cities’'; flexible, adaptable and incomplete: contrasting technocratic approaches.

• Modest

Argues that planners should acknowledge that, even with the use of technology, they can’t control or predict everything that happens in cities

Sennet: Prescriptive vs Coordination Smart City

Prescriptive Smart City: Top-Down, tight control, technocratic

Coordination Smart City: Cooperation, participation, bottom-up, co-productive

Smart Urbanism: Exploring broader social and political impacts of Smart Cities (lacks in depth analysis)

Three Dimensions:

1. Cities Are More Than Their Administrative Boundaries

2. Local, Economic, Cultural and Political Context is Essential

3. Problems and Solutions are Politically Constructed

Who actually benefits from this, and more emphasis needed on social justice.

1. Cities Are More Than Their Administrative Boundaries

Cities function with wider urban, regional and even global networks, in addition to their administrative boundaries.

2. Local, Economic, Cultural and Political Context is Essential

The success and impact of Smart Cities relies on local context.

3. Problems and Solutions are Politically Constructed

Problems or Solutions are politically charged, determined by economic / power interests

Critical Urbanism: Focusses on negative effects such as social inequality, political exclusion, and ecological damage.

• Looks at cities as relational processes influence by capitalism, power and inequality

• Three Main Points

  • The City as a Process?

  • Ordinary Cities?

  • Knowledge as Politics?

• The City as a Process

Cities are relational concepts, not only within their own administrative boundaries.

• Ordinary Cities

Every city is unique and shaped by complex interactions between local and global processes

• Knowledge as Politics

Urban problems and solutions are politically charged

Planetary Urbanism (Connection to Global Networks)

Even the most remote villages are affected by global urban processes of production, consumption and distribution. Thus connected to global networks.

Panopticon or Panacea?

The phrase “Panopticon or Panacea” questions whether smart cities are oppressive surveillance systems (Panopticons) or transformative solutions to urban problems (Panaceas)

Smart City Platformisation

Smart city platformisation is the process of turning cities into interconnected, data-driven ecosystems by consolidating diverse urban functions onto shared digital platforms.

Lecture 18 - The Urban Economy

(Hall) Innovative Milieu: Environment that stimulates innovation through concentration of knowledge, creativity, networks and so on.

(Weber) Model of Location Theory of Factories: Availability of Labour // Costs of Transporting Raw Materials // Costs of Transporting Products

(Scott) Production Complexes: Production often is split into networks of small specialised companies.

Kondratieff Waves: Generation of technologies (Industrial Revolution, Steam-Steel, Electrics) reaches their max potential and new breakthroughs are needed for economic growth.

Product Life Cycle: Temporary monopoly of profits

3 Types of Innovation

1. Internal Company Innovation

2. Industry Recovery

3. Knowledge Creation

1. Internal Company Innovation

Innovation created by internal company restructuring

2. Industry Recovery

Innovation by combining old activities with new technologies

3. Knowledge Creation

Applied knowledge

Two Competing Theories on Innovation

1. Neo-Schumpeterian Approach

2. Neo-Marxist Approach

1. Neo-Schumpeterian Approach

Innovation itself drives economic growth

2. Neo-Marxist Approach

Decline in profits forces capitalist to innovate

(Couch) Policy Responses on how to Achieve Urban Regeneration

1. Urban Renewal

2. Economic Restructuring

3. PPPs

4. Social Integration and Participation

1. Urban Renewal

Redevelopment and Context Sensitive Strategies

1. Economic Restructuring

Stimulating Creative Industries and Other Services

1. PPPs

Leveraging Expertise

1. Social Integration and Participation

Emphasis on Local Involvement, Social Cohesion and Improving the Lived Environment

Amsterdam:

Amsterdam in Randstad. Randstad is not a real city, explain?

Post Industrialist Economy (new engines of growth) (creative economy, business service, logistics, tourism. 4 Aspects?

Randstad: Little cooperation and too much competition, regionally weak urban planning, Amsterdam dominance.

Post Industrial Economy (Amsterdam)

• New Urban Spaces

• Edge City Concept (office, hotels, logistics…)

• Zuid (functional differentiation)

• Inner Ring (tourism, creative class) vs Outer Ring (businesses)

What is said to determine a city’s success in the post-industrial economy?

its innovative milieu

also: level of creativity

What does the ‘Creative Capital Theory’ (Richard Florida) imply?

Economic growth in cities is driven by the presence and attraction of ‘creative people’:

• those engaged in knowledge-based, innovative and cultural work

In what way does Amsterdam have a unique metropolitan landscape?

• Polycentricity, but the city centre remains important for the city’s economy

• Its unique dutch-style Edge-Cities and suburbanisation

What are mega-projects? pro and cons?

Projects designed to ambitiously change structure of society

• “trait-making’ instead of ‘trait-taking”

pro: development opportunities

cons: high costs, limited public benefits

Lecture 19 - Consumption in the City

Urban Lifestyle Shifted To An Aggressive Search For Cultural Capital. From Production To Consumption.

Urban Consumption Space: Places where economic, social and cultural exchange takes place, such as shopping, museum and stadiums.

(Zukin) Stages of Consumption Development?

1. Modern Cities (1880-1945)

2. Late Modernity (1945-75)

3. Postmodernity (1975'-Present)

1. Modern Cities (1880-1945)

New Urban Space as consumption accessible to middle class, new forms of urban interaction.

2. Late Modernity (1945-75)

Shopping centres, suburban consumption, rise in cars, investment moved away from cities, privatisation of public space

3. Postmodernity (1975'-Present)

Gentrification, diversity, restoration, redevelopment, lower income exclusion.

What is meant with ‘conspicuous consumption’?

the act of spending money on luxury goods and services to publicly display wealth and social status

• aspect of post-modern economy

Symbolic Capital/Class Expression

1. Conspicuous Consumption

2. The City as a Strolling Space

3. Consumption as a Cultural Power

1. Conspicuous Consumption

Display of Wealth

2. The City as a Strolling Space

Experiences of looking and being seen

3. Consumption as a Cultural Power