Examples of recent research and publications
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Global Urban Research Unit The Global Urban Research Unit (GURU) aims to provide a strategic focus on globally relevant urban research at Newcastle University. Founded under a different name in 1993, we are internationally recognised for our theoretical contributions to planning, governance and urban studies and for our engagement with public policy, community development and professional practices. We promote academic excellence and creativity to enable progressive urban policy and practice. Our research falls under five distinct but interrelated themes: People, Place & Politics; Infrastructure & Digital Technologies; Identity, Culture & Heritage; Urban Design & Human Flourishing; and Environmental Planning & Management. GURU has a track record of research excellence and creativity related to all these themes. Our research is funded by a range of local, national and international organisations. Research outputs are disseminated through numerous high quality publications. Our international outlook is evident in the quality and quantity of our international visiting scholars, and from the visiting scholarships held by our members in numerous universities around the world. We are committed to helping tackle societal challenges – both global and local – through our active engagement with policy, practice and community activities, and we strive to generate lasting and visible impacts through our research. Professor Simin Davoudi Director of GURU
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People, Place & Politics This interdisciplinary theme draws upon traditions found in urban sociology and anthropology, social and cultural geography, urban planning and urban data analysis to develop critical perspectives on people, places and politics. Through this, we examine concepts and meanings of place and locality, the production and reproduction of space, spatial imaginaries, situated power relations between people and institutions, and the politics/governance of placemaking.
GURU Theme Lead Dr Georgiana Varna
Social Renewal in the North East
Professor Simin Davoudi, Professor Derek Bell, Dr Mel Steer, Professor Mark Shucksmith & Professor Liz Todd
This book project, facilitated through funding by the Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal, aims to explore alternatives to neoliberalism in the North East of England. The North East is a vibrant and diverse region, made up of a rich landscape of urban, rural and coastal areas that have all witnessed the decline of many of its former traditional industries through processes of de-industrialisation and globalisation. Government policies of privatisation, deregulation, individualism and a smaller state, combined with austerity policies following the financial crisis almost ten years ago, led to severe cuts being made to public expenditure. This austerity, along with unemployment, low pay, insecurity and welfare reform, have all increased divisions in society. Working with several partners, we will identify regional case studies and explore approaches to social renewal in the North East that promote social justice.
Towards a Critical Politics of Translation
Drawing from Laclau and Mouffe’s theoretical work on articulation, the research draws attention to the politics of environmental knowledge-making. More specifically, it suggests we should pay greater critical attention the hegemonic politics involved in mobilising discourses of translation within science-policy debates. Key outputs: Journal Publication: Machen, Ruth (in review), ‘Towards A Critical Politics Of Translation: Equivalence, Boundary Work And Hegemony’; Convened session at the Royal Geographical Society Conference 2016 (London): ‘Translation and the geographies of similarity and difference’; Practitioner Presentation and discussion of research findings at ClimateXChange 2015 AGM (Edinburgh)
Image: Creative Commons
Ruth Machen Key collaborators: ClimateXChange The language of translation is increasingly used to describe the process of shaping scientific knowledge for policy audiences. But what does the process of translation describe? This research examined the emphasis on translation within ClimateXChange, a Scottish ‘boundary organisation’ funded to provide scientific knowledge on climate change to the Scottish Government. Here, translation was seen to play an instrumental role in shaping a policy-led, or ‘demand-led’, science-policy relationship. The circulation of particular forms of scientific knowledge, specifically those amenable to neoliberal forms of policy delivery, was also observed.
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Vertical: The City from Satellites to Bunkers (Verso, 2016) Author: Professor Stephen Graham
Vertical: The City from Satellites to Bunkers is a revolutionary re-imagining of the cities we live in, the air above us and what goes on in the earth beneath our feet. We live in a world that can no longer be read as a two-dimensional map, and must now be understood as a series of vertical strata that reach from the satellites that encircle our planet to the tunnels deep within the ground. In Vertical, Stephen Graham rewrites the city at every level: how the geography of inequality, politics, and identity is determined, both above and below. Starting at the edge of Earth’s atmosphere and descending through each layer, Graham explores the world of drones, the city from the viewpoint of an aerial bomber, the design of sidewalks and the hidden depths of underground bunkers. Through a series of riveting case studies, he asks: Why was Dubai built to be seen from Google Earth? How do the super-rich in São Paulo live in their penthouses far above the street? Why do London billionaires build vast subterranean basements? And how do the technology of elevators and subversive urban explorers shape life on the surface – and subsurface – of the earth? Vertical will make you look at the world around you anew: this is a revolution in understanding your place in the world. See: http://www.versobooks.com/books/2237-vertical
Justice and Fairness in the City: A Multi-disciplinary Approach to ‘ordinary’ Cities (Policy Press, 2016) Editors: Professor Simin Davoudi & Professor Derek Bell
With more than half the world’s population now living in urban areas, ‘fairness’ and ‘justice’ within the city are key concepts in contemporary political debate. Justice and Fairness in the City examines the theory and practice of justice in and of the city through a multi-disciplinary collaboration. The book brings diverse disciplinary and theoretical perspectives into conversation with each other, to explore the (in)justices in urban environments, education, mobility and participation. In doing so, the book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the concepts of justice and fairness in relation to the city. It is a valuable resource for academic researchers and students across a range of disciplines including urban and environmental studies, geography, planning, education, ethics and politics. For more information, please visit: http://www. policypress.co.uk/justice-and-fairness-in-the-city
Reconsidering Localism (Routledge, 2015)
Editors: Professor Simin Davoudi & Professor Ali Madanipour Contributors: Elizabeth Brooks, Susan E. Clarke, Richard Cowell, Paul Cowie, Frank Gaffikin, Susannah Gunn, Patsy Healey, Andrew Hoolachan, William Rees, Mark Shucksmith, Hilary Talbot, Mark Tewdwr-Jones, Jurgen van der Heijden, Geoff Vigar & Hendrik Wagenaar
The concept of ‘localism’ has been deployed in recent debates over planning law as an anodyne and more grass-roots way to shape communities into sustainable, human-scale neighbourhoods. But what we think of as ‘local’ is not static, and it can take on several contradictory, nuanced dimensions. Reconsidering Localism brings together new scholarship from leading academics to develop a theoretically-grounded critique and definition of the new localism, and how it has come to shape urban governance and urban planning. Moving beyond the UK, this book examines localism throughout Europe, and features essays on localism and placemaking, sustainability, social cohesion, and citizen participation in community institutions. It explores how debates over localism and citizen control play out at the levels of the neighbourhood, the institution and the city, and how localism has influenced urban landscapes throughout Europe.
The Predictive Postcode? Geodemographics and British Society (Sage, 2018) Authors: Professor Richard Webber & Professor Roger Burrows
Geodemographic classification systems are one of the exemplar technologies of “commercial sociology”. This book is a detailed, empirical investigation into the question of whether academic social research can compete with the commercial sector, with its new technologies and big data in order to classify, profile, and understand us. Richard Webber, the originator and developer of widely used commercial geodemographic classification tools (such as Acorn and Mosaic), and Roger Burrows, a critical interdisciplinary social scientist, have come together to produce a joint inquiry that aims to compare and contrast both a geodemographic vision of contemporary British society, and one produced by the academic social sciences. Students and researchers interested in social change in the context of British society will find much to interest them within this book. The book explores questions of population profiling, classifying, and their consequences in the brave new world of big data.
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Dramatising Austerity: On Holding Things Together - and Why They Fell Apart... Dr Ruth Raynor
Austerity is not a passing moment, but an age of deficit panic that allows for the dismantling of social protection. Whilst austerity is a phenomenon across Western Europe and North America, it has been particularly central to the politics of the UK in the years that followed the financial crisis. This project gives focus to the complex, multiple and networked relations of austerity as they are experienced in everyday life. In particular, it engages with a group of women in the North East of England who are unemployed or in precarious employment. Through theatre practice, we explored and (re) presented everyday experiences from the onset of austerity, and developed a fictional play that was staged to members of the public throughout the region. This revealed women’s fragmented encounters with austerity, that played out through a diverse series of affects and effects in a supposedly shared demographic. This disrupted possibilities of a collective encounter with, and resistance to, an ideological politics of austerity. The project underlines a need for holistic exploration and (re)presentation of the lived effects of austerity as they intersect with broader social, cultural and political mediations. Key outputs: Raynor, R. (2016), ‘Dramatising austerity: holding a story together (and why it falls apart...)’, Cultural geographies 24(2), 193 - 212; Raynor, R. (forthcoming), ‘(De)composing Habit in Theatre-asMethod’, GeoHumanities.
Great Planning Successes: Innovative Transformation in Place Governance Professor Geoff Vigar, Dr Paul Cowie & Emeritus Professor Patsy Healey Sponsor: Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI)
The project will define innovative transformation in the planning field and highlight case studies of where planning innovation has made a transformative difference to environments and livelihoods. It will develop a framework and criteria upon which planning innovation and success could be judged. In doing this, we will look for enduring transformative effects in institutional practices, legacies, built environment outcomes and/or physical linkages arising from innovation of some kind. Fieldwork will centre on case studies in three categories: development management, projects and strategy-making. We will interrogate examples of place governance with a planning orientation that may lead to formal planning activity where this is applicable.
Ways of Neighbourhood Working & Knowing
Professor Simin Davoudi & Dr Paul Cowie Key collaborators: University of Bristol (lead), Oxford Brooks University, University of Sheffield, University of Leeds and the Department of Communities and Local Government
This ESRC-funded seminar series explored the diversities associated with working at a neighbourhood level. It brought academics and practitioners together to explore how practices of engagement could be usefully developed. In particular, it focused on methods of ‘translation’, and asked how we might draw on the resources of the academy to inform neighbourhood policymaking. Our networks not only provide a means of dissemination, but can also serve as a sounding board for asking how we might bring academic findings to everyday policy-making practice. The series aimed to fill several gaps identified between disciplines, including economics, law, planning, and the arts and humanities. It also involved engaging directly with user groups in six seminars were held between 2015 and 2017 in Sheffield, Bristol and Newcastle, as well as with the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Somers Town Community Association, both in London. Key outputs: Davoudi, S. and Cowie, P. (2013), ‘Are English Neighbourhood Forums democratically legitimate?’ Planning Theory and Practice 14(4), 562-566. Also see: https://neighbourhoodworking.wordpress.com/
The Resilience Machine (Routledge, in press)
Editors: Professor Simin Davoudi and Professor James Bohland & Dr Jennifer Lawrence at the Global Forum on Urban and Regional Resilience at Virginia Tech, USA
This book project is the result of contributions from several international scholars. It provides a critique of the instrumentalist modes of resilience that have colonized multiple areas of public policy. Although resilience may be considered as a new way of conceptualising and governing risk and uncertainty, this research argues that it is also becoming another carrier of neoliberal ideologies, policies and practices with negative implications for social justice and democracy. In other words, there is a ‘resilience machine’ in the making. Drawing on the idea of machine as assemblage, this research tries to understand the rationalities, imaginaries, technologies and materialities of resilience. Other outputs: Davoudi, S. (2016), ‘Resilience and Governmentality of Unknowns’, in M. Bevir (ed.) Governmentality after neoliberalism, Routledge, 152-171; Davoudi, S. (2012) ‘Resilience, a bridging concept or a dead end?’, Planning Theory & Practice 13(2)
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There is an increasing need for the development of European Union Cohesion Policy that demonstrates greater sensitivity towards territorial specificities, is more supportive of community-based development and helps facilitate greater civic participation. This need also stems from a seemingly diminshing resonance with the European project. Place-based development, endogenous regional development and territorial capital are some of the policy approaches that have been invoked to facilitate a reorientation of Cohesion Policy and territorial development policy. However, these need to be connected more specifically to notions of the local and localism. RELOCAL will target this objective by exploring two dimensions in depth. The project will be based on case studies of local contexts (cities and their regions) that exemplify development challenges in terms of spatial justice. Whilst social protections are targeted at individuals and structural policies, regional and cohesion policies operate at more spatially generalised levels. Place, as lived space, is an important element in the achievement of overall cohesion. The project applies a bottom-up approach by starting from the local – neighbourhood, urban, functional urban-regional – and then expanding analysis to incorporate the respective multiple territorial and governance levels within which selected case study locales are embedded. For practical purposes, the empirical focus of the proposed research is not on individuals per se, but on groups with specific needs and actors that represent them. RELOCAL departs from the premise that localities and their functional spaces represent the contextual nexus where the relationship between individuals and spatial justice unfolds. Socioeconomic wellbeing is about much more than just jobs. It is also influenced by factors that both condition social mobility and opportunity, and that make communities robust and inclusive places. Consequently, the local plays an important role in the promotion of fairness, spatial justice and wellbeing in Europe. In turn, it also functions as an important laboratory for the elaboration of European, national and sub-national policies addressing cohesion and spatial justice.
1.. Contribute to new conceptual frameworks of territorial cohesion that focus on the role of locale and place as vital socio-spatial settings for development and the achievement of spatial justice. This also includes methodologies that facilitate longitudinal multi-scale measurement, mapping and a mix of qualitative and quantitative modes of analysis. The objective of this is to develop more effective indicators of socio-spatial inequality, equality demands and policy impacts. 2. Develop working and practicable definitions of spatial justice, based on the local quality and availability of social opportunities and the bundles of services that promote individual development and are integral to community stability. 3. Provide critical evaluations of the substantive adequacy, local accessibility and development impacts of existing cohesion policies. This will enable the assessment of the role of policy in achieving the European Social Model and promoting greater spatial justice.. 4. Consider new policy and development models that bridge conflicts and trade-offs between regional development and governance models that address territorial cohesion and spatial justice across Europe. 5. Develop a new, empirically testable theoretical framework that considers the interplay between regional autonomy, decentralisation and local participation on the one hand, and greater economic, political and social justice on the other. Project team Professor Ali Madanipour, Professor Mark Shucksmith & Dr Elizabeth Brooks Key collaborators University of Eastern Finland; Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development (ILS) Dortmund; Stockholm University’ Nordregio; James Hutton Institute; Hungarian Academy of Sciences; Delft University of Technology; MCRIT Barcelona; Luxembourg University; Lodz University; Desire Foundation; Thessaly University. Key outputs Ali Madanipour, Mark Shucksmith and Hilary Talbot, April 2017, Deliverable 1.1. - Conceptual Framework for the Project.
Pictured: intu MetroCentre, Gateshead. Image: Creative Commons
RELOCAL
Based on the challenges and tasks outlined in the Call, the main objectives of RELOCAL are as follows:
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Infrastructure & Digital Technologies Research in this theme unites a diverse range of work, centring on a concern with the politics of infrastructure supply/demand, and how infrastructures can help shape societies that are more just - whether these infrastructures have transport, digital, food or other critical dimensions. In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of a huge body of literature concerned with the ‘smart city’, ‘digital civics’, ‘big data’, ‘social urbanism’, the ‘sharing economy’ and ‘urban science’. Much of this suggests that the seemingly intractable problems of urban living across the globe can be solved by recourse to various technological fixes. Through this theme, we intend to produce a programme of conceptual and empirical research that will provide a robust and critical corrective to some of the powerful claims made in such discourses.
GURU Theme Leads Dr Harrison Smith Dr Moozhan Shakeri
Future Homes
Professor Rose Gilroy, Dr Dominic Aitken & Professor Mark Tewdwr-Jones Key collaborators: Karbon Homes; Ryder Architects; Zero Carbon Futures; Newcastle City Council; Science Central; National Innovation Centre for Ageing; Innovation Super Network; Elders Council; Sustainable Communities Initiative
The Future Homes project, on site in 2018, will deliver new housing exemplars that show people the future. Collectivelt, they will combine innovations in flexible living, materials, digital technology and zero/low energy systems, to provide supportive homes for everyone at any life-stage. In this first phase, Future Homes fuses a programme of public conversations and citizen-centred codesign. The intention is to come up with ways of challenging the industry and enabling entrepreneurs, established businesses and new entrants to the market to develop potential solutions that are a step-change in urban responses to the biggest global challenges. Key outputs: Four demonstrator units on site in 2018, with the help of £1.12M of Homes and Communities Agency funding; an extension development of a further 35 units in 2019-2021.
Mythoclast: Game Design with Children
Children’s perceptions and experiences of their surrounding built environment have been studied to a great extent in planning literature. However, ‘civil’ concepts such as democracy, participation and the roles that technologies can play in these are often considered unrealistic and irrelevant to these perceptions and experiences. This project proposes taking school children step-by-step through game design process and enabling them to create their own game-worlds. In doing so, we aim to extend capacities to connect social and political forces to material outcomes and increase our understanding how children conceptualise and construct the basic civil concepts using the game’s narrative and world design. Key outputs: A game design toolkit for school kids that can be used as part of the school curriculum; a framework using game analytics for analysing the construct of the game worlds designed by school children.
Image credit: Sean Peacock
Moozhan Shakeri & Sean Peacock Key collaborators: Digital Economy Research Centre; Open Lab at Newcastle University
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From Ideas to Action: The Role of Mapping for Recognising & Enabling Data Publics Dr Sebastian Weise Key collaborator: Phil James at Geoinformatics, Newcastle University
This project comprises a sequence of research activities, practical explorations and tools to generate discussions about the future forms of planning and politics of place. An example of one of these tools is “OpinionExplorer”, a simple web-based application. This can be used both to explore the networked ‘publics’ that constitute planning consultations and to have discussions with planners and representatives of various publics about future forms of civic engagement. It is complemented by practice-led experiments of publics carried out through design interventions. This project seeks to examine how publics form in planning, how they may be activated online, and how might the constraints set by the procedure-orientated work of local government be overcome. Key outputs: The “OpinionExplorer” tool, and a symposium on publics of place and publics of interest at the Royal Geographic Society Conference 2017 (London).
Climate Science, Algorithmic Knowledge & Discursive Politics
Dr Ruth Machen Key collaborator: Dr Oliver Belchar, Durham University
This is an emerging project that focuses on knowing climate change through algorithms. It seeks to engage critically with the knowledge politics involved in producing knowledge on climate change through algorithmic registers. Whilst algorithms have long been central to the production of climate change knowledge, from sensing to modelling, little attention has been paid to the social and political implications of algorithmic thinking within environmental governance. In the context of wider debates around governance by algorithms, this research draws from critical studies of algorithms found within the securities literature to explore the political effects of thinking through algorithms. In doing so, it investigates how we know climate change, the types of discourses that come into circulation, and the kinds of policy interventions that become possible. Key outputs: Conference presentation at Association of American Geographers 2017 (Boston): ‘Climate Science, Algorithmic Knowledge and Discursive Politics’, as part of a session on Robotic Futures: Nature and Technology; Machen, K.R.M and Belchar, O. (in progress), ‘Computer Says Yes: Politics and Possibilities in Climate Change Futures’.
Digital Civics: Digital Local Democracy
Professor Geoff Vigar & Professor Mark Tewdwr-Jones Key collaborators: Dr Sebastian Weise, Dr Moozhan Shakeri, Dr Sara Heitlinger & Dr Jane Midgley (Architecture, Planning and Landscape); Professor Patrick Olivier, Professor Peter Wright and Dr Clara Crivellaro (Computing Science)
Digital Civics is a long-term research initiative funded by EPSRC to explore how digital technologies can empower citizens and communities. It is led by Open Lab, a world-leading research centre at Newcastle University that brings together academics from the fields of computer science, design, engineering, social and health sciences. GURU colleagues are mobilising this agenda through a range of both technological deployments and theoretical and conceptual work, using the substantive concerns of neighbourhood planning, youth participation, community transport, food and the work of Sebastian Weise and Moozhan Shakeri outlined in more detail in this section. Also attached to the Digital Civics research initiative are several fully funded studentships that involve investigations into emerging digital technologies in the context of urban planning issues. Alexander Wilson is investigating using bespoke technologies to create spaces for dialogue and place-meaning. Jennifer Manuel is exploring how digital technology can support neighbourhood planning. Sebastian Prost is investigating how digital technologies can support alternative food initiatives with socioeconomically deprived communities. Sean Peacock is looking into ways to support young people’s participation in placemaking through the design of digital technology. To find out more about this work, please visit: https://digitalcivics.io/?category=local-democracy
Location Analytics and Platform Urbanism
Dr Harrison Smith, Professor Roger Burrows & Professor Steve Graham
This research programme examines the relationship between location data and platform urbanism. It focuses on the economic and cultural impact of location data on emerging markets. It also examines the ways that location data is collected and analysed by platforms, marketers, and third party analytics companies to produce geodemographic knowledge and evaluate the economic performance of key markets for platform economies. This project focuses on empirical studies of platforms in mobile digital culture, and is particularly interested in the kinds of implications that location data and analytics hold for governing smart city economies.. Key outputs: Publications for peer-reviewed journals and conference presentations in preparation.
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Identity, Culture & Heritage This theme considers the concepts and issues surrounding notions of identity, culture, and heritage. This theme understands these categories as socially constructed, ever changing processual entities that are subject to broad social, cultural, political and economic forces; and spatially mobile, leaky, messy and excessive. We maintain an interest in the identities, cultures and heritage of countries in the global north and south. We are also interested in a wide range of different agents in these processes, including government and non-government actors, urban elites and local activists, and built environment practitioners – conservationists, architects, urban planners and urban designers. We are concerned with a host of empirical issues, including urban responses to environmental issues, historical imaginaries and collective memory-making, the management of heritage and the built environment, cultures of heritage and informal/selfmade settlements, economies and enterprises.
GURU Theme Lead Dr Andrew Law
Alternative Visions of Post-War Reconstruction: Creating the modern townscape (Routledge, 2015) Editors: Professor John Pendlebury, Erdem Erten & Professor Peter J Larkham
The history of post Second World War reconstruction has recently become an important field of research around the world. Alternative Visions of Post-War Reconstruction attempts to be provocative in questioning the orthodoxies of twentieth-century design history. This book provides a key critical statement on mid-twentieth century urban design and city planning, focused principally upon the period between the start of the Second World War to the mid-sixties. Whilst certain modernist practices assumed an institutional role for post-war reconstruction during this period, flourishing in the mainstream, such practices also faced opposition and criticism, leading to the production of alternative visions and strategies. Spanning from a historically informed modernism to the increasing presence of urban conservation, the contributors examine these alternative approaches to the city and its architecture.
Spatial Imaginaries
In planning, spatial imaginaries are often used as taken-for-granted representations of past, present and future places. Their role in the power struggle over places and spaces is masked by the processes of de-politicisation, through which dominant spatial imaginaries are essentialised and naturalised as true representations of ‘reality’. In this ongoing project, we explore spatial imaginaries as performative practices engaged in the dialectical process of asserting place identity and organising spatial relations. We explore how spatial imaginaries are constructed, performed and mobilised and through what means - texts, maps, diagrams, images, stories and algorithms. We also explore how imaginaries are constructed and mobilised, identify the dominant spatial imaginaries in planning, and query how these have come about, for what purpose and for whom. Finally, we ask what the role of planning is in uncovering, enacting or resisting imaginaries. Key outputs: Davoudi, S. et al. (2018), Policy and Practice Spatial imaginaries: tyrannies or transformations?, Town Planning Review, 89 (2), 97-124.
Image credit: Loes Veldpaus
Professor Simin Davoudi, Dr Ruth Raynor, Dr Ruth Machen & Dr Elizabeth Brooks Key collaborator: Dr Jenny Crawford, Queens University Belfast
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Cities in Time: Temporary Urbanism and the Future of the City (Bloomsbury, 2017)
Heritage and Brexit
From street-markets and pop-up shops to art installations and Olympic parks, the temporary use of urban space is a growing international trend in architecture and urban design. Partly a response to economic and ecological crisis, it also claims to offer a critique of the status quo and an innovative way forward for the urban future. Cities in Time aims to explore and understand the phenomenon, offering a first critical and theoretical evaluation of temporary urbanism and its implications for the present and future of our cities. The book argues that temporary urbanism needs to be understood within the broader context of how different concepts of time are embedded in the city. In any urban place, multiple, discordant and diverse timeframes are at play – and the chapters here explore these different conceptions of temporality, their causes and their effects. Themes explored include how institutionalised time regulates everyday urban life, how technological and economic changes have accelerated the city’s rhythms, our existential and personal senses of time, concepts of memory and identity, virtual spaces, ephemerality and permanence.
In the aftermath of the UK’s referendum decision to leave the European Union, there has been a maelstrom of commentary on its likely implications. Like most policy sectors, there will be implications to heritage policy as the UK seeks to disentangle itself from European law and regulation. In our project, we adopt a focus on the deeper cultural schisms that the referendum highlighted. Those link in part to ideas of heritage and have implications for what heritage ‘is’ and what it does post-Brexit. We argue such schisms are derived from where one sees the world, and are rooted in very different imaginaries of the past and their use in the present. Brexit is thus very much a heritage project, as the past is constantly mobilised for contemporary purposes and as a future-making practice. The heritage sector has the challenge of facilitating such debate and questioning itself about the role of currently designated and displayed heritages, along with the pasts, nostalgia and convenient amnesia they display. For more information on this project’s progress and outputs, please visit: https://heritagevalue.wordpress.com
OpenHeritage: Organizing, Promoting and Enabling Heritage Re-use through Inclusion, Technology, Access, Governance and Empowerment
Dr Andrew Law Key collaborators: Ms Qianqian Qin (an independent scholar associated with Newcastle University)
Author: Professor Ali Madanipour
Professor John Pendlebury & Dr Loes Veldpaus Sponsor: European Commission (Horizon 2020 fund)
Researchers in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape are part of a European Consortium that has been awarded funding for an EU Horizon 2020 project, called OpenHeritage, on the theme of innovative, inclusive governance model of adaptive heritage re-use. We work in a consortium from across Europe to create and test inclusive and innovative models of adaptive reuse of historic buildings. OpenHeritage connects 16 Observatory Cases – adaptive reuse projects that are studied and compared in-depth – and 6 Cooperative Heritage Labs in which it will co-create and test its inclusive model. One of these Cooperative Heritage Labs centres on historic buildings in the Sunderland Heritage Action Zone. The Tyne and Wear Building Preservation Trust, which helps look after these buildings, is also a full partner on the project.
Top Left to Bottom Right - Postcard: Hanfu Movement in China,; Spatial Imaginaries, Cities in Time, Cities
Professor John Pendlebury & Dr Loes Veldpaus Sponsors: ESRC and Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal
Hanfu Movement in China
In August, 2014, Dr Andrew Law was awarded just under £10,000 from the BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (SRG 2014 Round) and the SinoBritish Fellowship Trust to conduct research on the Hanfu Movement in Contemporary China. The Hanfu movement is a social association of mainly young people who wear traditional Chinese clothes reminiscent of outfits worn before the Qing dynasty in 1644. Drawing upon fieldwork contacts made by the researchers in between 2013 and 2015, Dr Law and Ms Qianqian Qin conducted extensive interviews and some brief ethnographic research into a series of Hanfu groups in Beijing, Chengdu, Wuhan and Xi’an.
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PICH is a Cultural Heritage Joint Programming Initiative (jpiculturalheritage.eu) project. It is led by Delft University of Technology and partnered by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and University IUAV of Venice. Local partners include Newcastle City Council and the Ouseburn Trust. PICH looks at how recent reforms in urban governance and planning across the project’s partner countries are affecting the management of cultural heritage. It also identifies the consequences for place identity in this process and explore how practice can respond effectively to promote more sustainable management of cultural heritage. These are the central objectives of the project. The PICH project will provide a platform where academic, government and civil society partners can explore and share knowledge about these processes, learn from positive and negatives experiences across different contexts, and better understand the potential for transferability of solutions. The project seeks to answer the following research questions: 1. How is the governance and planning of the historic built environment changing in response to external forces? 2. How are relationships between physical built heritage and intangible cultural heritage – particularly place identity – considered in the governance of the urban heritage? 3. What are the consequences of governance reform for the historic urban environment and intangible cultural heritage, and in particular collective place identity? 4. How can policymakers and other stakeholders best take account of place identity when planning the physical transformation of cities, and with what tools?
The research uses a combination of quantitative methods – for example, the mapping of uses, changes, and permits – and qualitative methods, including comparative and critical policy analysis, interviews and observations. The cases are both territorial and problem-oriented, in that they will concentrate on a specified location and on the particular governance policies and actions concerned with managing urban heritage. The case studies also describe the nature of various factors, such as changes in policies and interventions in the heritage field, and attempt to explain causal relations and the consequences of various governance approaches for place identity. With this research, the PICH project seeks to examine the impact of wider forces on the management of urban cultural heritage in four different countries, all of which have different models of urban planning. In particular, the project traces changes in the management of urban heritage and their relationship with urban governance and planning. Alongside reporting on these case studies and drawing thematic comparisons, PICH will develop an educational module and deliver policy briefs on how practice can respond effectively to promote more sustainable management of cultural heritage. The project involves associate local and international partners to discuss and extend these findings. This research has been generously funded through the Joint Programming Initiative in Cultural Heritage and The Research Council of Norway. Project team Professor John Pendlebury, Professor Geoff Vigar & Dr Loes Veldpaus Key outputs See:http://planningandheritage.wordpress.com/ You can also follow this work on Facebook (search PICHJPI) and Twitter (@PICHJPI). Further details can be found on the Joint Programming Initiative website: http://www.jpi-culturalheritage.eu/
Pictured: PICH Case Study II, Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle upon Tyne
PICH: Planning & Heritage
Each of the partners is researching three case study settings, the result of which will be 12 case studies across different social, economic and cultural contexts. The case studies adopt a focus on historic urban cores, industrial areas facing transformation; and landscape heritage. Based on these cases, the project will provide both country and thematic comparisons.
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Urban Design & Human Flourishing This theme addresses the transactional relationship between people and their environment. We explore how people’s lives are influenced (positively and negatively) by the built environment, and how individually and collectively we can create, adapt and maintain places which allow people to live rich, fulfilling lives. We are interested in people’s homes, schools and places of work, as well as the public buildings and spaces, streets, squares, parks that make up the neighbourhoods and communities in which we live. We are interested in all life stages, but have a particular focus on concepts of age-friendly cities and ensuring that people can flourish in later life.
GURU Theme Lead Professor Tim Townshend
Home & Healthy Ageing, Seminar Series
Dr Dominic Aitken & Professor Rose Gilroy Key collaborators: Project led by Phil Hodgson, Natalie Forster and Monique L’hussier at Northumbria University, and Peter van der Graaf at Teesside University – The Home and Health Research Group. FUSE, the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health, provided pump-prime funding for the project.
Key outputs: A wide-ranging literature search has been completed, creating a library of over 400 journal article abstracts for the working group. The first two seminars have also been held, which have included presentations from professionals working in both policy and practice. A blog is available on the FUSE website.
Toxic High Streets
Professor Tim G Townshend
In recent decades, many traditional shopping streets in poorer areas of cities have seen a significant increase in shops and services with characteristics that are, essentially, ‘unhealthy’: betting shops, ‘payday’ loan lenders, fast food outlets and so on. At the same time, health inequalities between poorer and wealthier neighbourhoods are widening. This project explores evidence concerning exposure to unhealthy shops and services and how this impacts upon the communities that live within them. It underlines the need to examine these areas holistically, and concludes we need to fundamentally rethink them and what they offer to the people they serve. Key output: Townshend, T.G. (2016), Toxic High Streets, Journal of Urban Design 22(2) 167-186.
Pictured: Toxic High Streets project. Image credit: Sean Peacock
This project brings together researchers, practitioners and policymakers from a variety of disciplines including architecture, public health and homelessness. All of these share an interest in exploring the relationship between home and health, with a focus on ageing. The four seminars that were held during 2017 explored the existing evidence on how housing environments can promote or impede healthy ageing, and identifed gaps for further research to address. Both a research agenda and a core working group are currently being established, which will culminate in concrete plans for future collaboration. The project is run by the ‘Home and Health Research Group’ of academics working across three universities.
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Facework & Trust in Facilitating HealthFocused Housing Interventions: Safe & Healthy Homes Dr Dominic Aitken Key collaborators: Dr Phil Hodgson, Professor Glenda Cook & Allison Lawson (Northumbria University)
This project involved the exploration of service users’ experiences of, and outcomes from, North Tyneside Council’s Safe and Healthy Homes (SHH) team, which provides an information, advice, support and guidance service to facilitate home improvements for residents of any tenure with housing issues exacerbating or causing health problems. Interviews with members of 15 households living in private sector accommodation who received the service were completed. As well as finding positive health and wellbeing outcomes, the study also highlights the importance of Giddens’ concept of facework at “access points” to develop trust in wider systems of housing and support services. Key outputs: The SHH team were a finalist in the UK Housing Awards in the category of ‘Outstanding Innovation (small)’; research findings presented to North Tyneside Council and at a Housing LIN event in December 2016; a paper entitled, ‘Advice Services to Facilitate Healthy Ageing in Place: Developing System Trust’ presented at the 2017 Housing Studies Association Conference; academic paper currently under review.
Towards Hydrocitizenship: Connecting Communities and Nature Through Interdependent Multiple Water Issues
Maggie Roe Key collaborators: Owain Jones (Bath Spa University), Peter Coates (University of Bristol), Lindsey McEwen and Michael Buser (University of the West of England), Andrew Church (University of Brighton), Graeme Evans (Middlesex University), Sara Penrhyn Jones (Aberystwyth University), Alexandra Plows (Bangor University) and Stephen Bottoms (The University of Manchester).
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), this three year project has been investigating the ways in which citizens and communities live with each other and their environment in relation to water. The project has explored four case study areas in the UK: Shipley and Leeds in Yorkshire; Bristol; Borth and Tal-y-bont in Wales; and the Lee Valley in London. Methods are exploratory, transdisciplinary and aim to connect with communities through innovative arts and humanities research. Multidisciplinary teams of academics and community partners generated important outputs rom practical interventions in local landscapes to new community-environment orientated art works, and critical reflections on the nature of citizenship from ecological perspectives. Key outputs: Performances, artworks, conference & research papers, film, images and web-based information.
Voice for Young People Teresa Strachan
This series of research and engagement projects began in 2011 with the ‘NE6 Voice’ project. In this project, young people from a Newcastle secondary school were invited to take photographs of their neighbourhood, reflecting upon how the places that they use on a daily basis were being planned. Since then, the research has included final year town planning students devising a Toolkit for engaging young people in town planning, which was Shortlisted for the RTPI’s North East Excellence in Planning awards in 2015. The ongoing research has also received funding from the Catherine Cookson Foundation in 2016 to look at young people’s visions for Tyneside in 2030. The theme currently continues with funding from Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal for a project that investigates the links between neighbourhood and young people’s aspirations, focussing on Peterlee new town in County Durham. All of these projects are supported by the ‘YES Planning’ voluntary body of planning students. Key outputs: ‘NE6 Voice’ exhibition, Great North Museum, April 2012; Strachan, T. (2016), ‘Never work with Children and young people’, Town and Country Planning September 2016, 372–374; Strachan, T. (2016) ‘Tyneside 2030: A Young People’s Plan’, Newcastle University, unpublished; Strachan, T. (2017), ‘Undercover place makers: Transforming the roles of Young People in Planning’, Urban Design and Planning, accepted 15.2.17 (forthcoming); Strachan, T. and Lopez-Capel, E. (2016), ‘Young people and their experience of place in the city’, in Davoudi, S. and Bell, D. (eds.), Justice and Fairness in the City, 149–166, Policy Press; Strachan, T., Peacock, S., Gibson, N. and Nugent, M. (2015), ‘Planning the Future: A toolkit for engaging young people in town planning’, available to download at: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/media/wwwnclacuk/globalurban researchunit/files/electronicworking papers/ewp51.pdf.
Obesogenic Environments & Adolescence
Professor Tim G Townshend Key collaborators: Amelia Lake (HNRC, Clinical Medical Sciences) & Seraphim Alvanides (Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University)
This research comprises a series of pilot studies for a future definitive study that will explore the relationships between urban form, diet, food choice and physical activity in adolescents. In particular, the studies will focus on understanding the ways in which the built environment – specifically urban form and urban planning – affects food choice and physical activity, and thus energy balance and body weight.
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MyPlace is funded by a joint Research Councils (ESRC, EPSRC and AHRC) call under the banner of ‘Design for Wellbeing: Ageing and Mobility in the Built Environment’. The World Health Organisation’s Global Age Friendly City Initiative has emphasised the need to improve access for individuals, families, communities and publics to create places where they can comfortably live, grow up and grow old. Hearing what people have to say about the diversity of ageing experiences is an important starting point towards improving the urban realm and supporting better ageing in place. Using eight case studies, MyPlace – a threeyear inter-disciplinary and collaborative research project – consulted with statutory and non-statutory partners, as well as members of the public, in researching, planning and designing an Age Friendly City in Newcastle. The aims of the research are to: 1. Develop a scalable sensor toolkit, participatory platform and methodology for citizen-led design of the urban realm; 2. Build an evidence base of older and disabled people’s mobility within, and their changing experiences of, the urban realm of Newcastle; 3. Utilise this evidence to drive a process of citizenled, user-centred urban re-design, in collaboration with Newcastle’s Age Friendly City Initiative; 4. Promote an understanding of design issues around the built environment; 5. Support communities to develop research and to involve people in design workshops; 6. Document and analyse experiences of access and mobility through people’s journeys in the city and their relationship to place;
A range of human-centred research and design methods were used to connect the physical mobility of older and disabled people to their experiences and understandings of the value of the age-friendly city, as well as the barriers to realising its creation. Members of the host communities guided the selection and deployment of these methods. In particular, GURU worked with Henshaws’ Community Services Team to identify the mobility needs of two blind and nine visually impaired users through a range of in-depth, qualitative and participatory workshops. Voluntary staff and service users engaged with activities ‘in place’ and ‘on the move’. These included bodymapping (an arts in health method), facilitating conversations, initiating a user-led guided walk, oneto-one interviews, and accompanying users on the bus and on walks. Project team Dr Jayne Jeffries, Professor Rose Gilroy & Professor Tim Townshend Key collaborators Professor Peter Wright, Dr Jayne Jeffries, Professor Rose Gilroy, Professor Tim Townshend, Professor Patrick Olivier, Helen Jarvis, Lynne Corner, Dr Catherine Degnan and Katie Brittain (all Newcastle University); Professor John Vines (now Northumbria University), Dr Thomas Ploetz (now Georgia Institute of Technology) and Dr Rob Comber (now RISE SICS, Sweden). Partners University of Northumbria, Newcastle City Council and Newcastle’s Age Friendly City Initiative. Case studies Ageing and Migration; Dementia Friendly Places; Grainger Market; Henshaws; Let’s Talk Parks; Lifelong Cycling (Rotterdam and Newcastle); Metro Futures. Key outputs Jeffries, J.M. and Wright, P.C. (2017), ‘Border Crossings: Exploring artefacts of mobility with blind and visually impaired users’. In: Spinney et al., Mobilising Design.
7. Communicate findings and ideas through visualisations and stories; 8. Design new products or services to promote an Age Friendly City.
Pictured: ‘On the Move’: Wall climbing with Henshaws service users, June 2015
MyPLACE: Mobility & Place for the Agefriendly City Environment
In GURU, researchers focused on the social science context to investigate how people use and move around the urban realm. Here, the focus was on the lived experiences of blind and visually impaired people engaging with Henshaws, a local charity supporting those with sight loss. This work complements the digital interactions being carried out by researchers in Open Lab.
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Environmental Planning & Management This theme considers the issues arising from human interactions with natural processes. Whilst relevant to the environmental sciences, the emphasis in GURU is on the social science themes and perspectives emerging from these interactions. These include policy and politics, social constructions, economics, risks and hazards, environmental ethics and the planning and design of landscapes and green infrastructure. In terms of environmental governance, our work relates to spatial planning as well as environmental quality and resource management. In addition, we are interested in assessment methods such as Environmental Assessment and environmental valuation.
GURU Theme Lead Dr Neil Powe
A New Deal for the North: A Briefing Paper for the British Academy Professor Simin Davoudi Key collaborators: Dr Guy Garrod and Roger Turner
This 2017 paper presents the case for a balanced, spatially inclusive approach to the UK Government’s Northern Powerhouse vision: one which acknowledges and supports the economic, social and environmental contributions of its small towns and rural communities. To date, the extensive rural areas of Northern England have been presented as a footnote of this vision. The paper aims to redress the balance by presenting evidence of the contribution and qualities of the North’s non-metropolitan areas and proposing recommendations to harness, strengthen and embed these across the North. It also provides a challenge to the argument that the only viable approach to raising productivity is to focus on agglomeration effects brought about by concentrating economic activity in larger urban centres. You can read this paper, and find out more information about the research behind it, by visiting: https://www.britac.ac.uk/briefing-paper-northern-powerhousenew-deal-north
Helping Businesses Thrive in Peripheral Rural Areas Following structural change, the revival of rural Victorian growth towns has often been slow. Whilst frequently turning to tourism as a saviour, this research found there to be at least as much potential encouraging other local businesses to grow. Their success often goes unobserved but is significant to the revival of peripheral rural towns. The growth of indigenous business can provide hope for such places and mean that peripheral rural towns become more than cheap housing locations for low income groups. In short, these businesses can be a key catalyst in finding a new future for these towns. Policy needs to focus on helping such places help themselves in this way. To find out more about this research, please visit: http://www.civitas.org.uk/publications/helping-businesses-thrive-in-peripheralrural-towns/ Key outputs: See http://www.ncl.ac.uk/apl/staff/profile/napowe.html#research.
Image credit: Dr Neil Powe
Dr Neil Powe Key collaborators: Rhona Pringle
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ARCH – Architecture & Roadmap to Manage Multiple Pressures on Lagoons Professor Simin Davoudi, Dr Elizabeth Brooks & Dr Paul Cowie Key collaborators: Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (Coordinator); Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research; Hamburg University of Applied Sciences; Swedish Environmental Research Institute; National Institute of Biological Resources (Portugal); National Institute for Research and Development of Marine Geology and Geoecology (Romania); Maritime Institute (Gdańsk, Poland); Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (Greece); University of East Anglia (Norwich, UK); Christian Albrechts University (Kiel, Germany).
ARCH is an interdisciplinary collaborative research project (2011-2015) funded by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme. The project developed participative methodologies, in collaboration with stakeholders, to provide roadmaps for the management of multiple pressures affecting lagoons (estuarine coastal areas) in Europe. ARCH examined the socio-ecological relationships and tensions in ten lagoon case studies. These were located in the Baltic Sea, Norwegian Sea, North Sea, Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea. An evidence-informed, participatory process was used in the case study areas to develop joint management solutions with key stakeholders. ARCH focused on bridging the gap between the science and policy communities involved in the management of lagoons in Europe. Key outputs: Davoudi, S., Zaucha, J. and Brooks, E. (2016), ‘Evolutionary resilience and management of lagoons’ socio-ecological systems’, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, 12(4) 711-718; Zaucha, J., Davoudi, S., Slob, A., Bouma G., van Meerkerk I., Oen, A, and Breedveld, G. (2016), ‘State-of-the-Lagoon Reports as Vehicles of Cross-Disciplinary Integration’, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, 12(4) 690-700.
Landscape Impact Assessment in Planning Processes
Dr Paola Gazzola Key collaborators: Ingrid Belčáková and Eva Pauditšová
This book explores the principles, methods and techniques for landscape impact assessment in planning, within the European context and EU framework for environmental and landscape protection and management. It looks at landscape impact assessment as both a standalone process and as part of more established environmental assessment practices, such as Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). Key outputs: Forthcoming book, to be published by De Gruyter Open in 2018.
Making Provisions
Dr Andrew Donaldson Key collaborators: Dr Jane Midgley & Dr Jeremy Brice Sponsor: ESRC
The global food system and its complex infrastructures are key constitutive elements of urban securities and insecurities. This project examines the ways in which those involved in the production, processing, retail, management and governance of food anticipate future problems and develop plans to avoid or deal with them, through forms of precaution, preparedness and pre-emptive action. This research explores how the increasing amount of information generated about food during its production, and the increasingly sophisticated technologies for generating and managing that information, helps or hinders the anticipation and management of food emergencies. It also looks at how those involved in all aspects of food production, from large commercial operations to local, alternative modes, as well as retail and regulation, form communities and networks to plan for problems and help make a more resilient food system. Finally, it queries whether certain ways of thinking and acting, and the bodies associated with them, come to dominate efforts to stave off future problems.
New Cultural Landscapes (Routledge, 2014) Editors: Maggie Roe and Professor Ken Taylor
Whilst historical and protected landscapes have been well-studied for years, the cultural significance of ordinary landscapes are also now increasingly recognised. This book discusses how contemporary cultural landscapes are currently being, and can be, created and recognised. It also challenges notions of protection in relation to cultural landscapes and the significant buildings and features that make up ‘special’ landscapes. Using global case studies, it questions the usual measures of judgement related to cultural landscapes and shifts the focus to landscapes that are created, planned or simply evolve as a result of changing human cultures, management policy and practice. Each contribution analyses the geographical and human background of the landscape and the policies and management strategies that impact upon it to define new meanings of ‘cultural landscape’ in their particular context. Taken together, they establish a new paradigm in the study of landscapes in all forms.
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Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group The Journal of Environmental Planning and Management (JEPM) is an international, ranked, peer-reviewed journal that publishes original research contributions to scientific knowledge and critical review papers. JEPM focuses on research findings, policy analyses and practical management experiences, and represents essential reading for researchers and specialists confronted with practical, technical, social and political problems in the planning and management of the environment. JEPM has established itself as a leading international forum for accessible scholarly papers on all aspects of environmental planning and management. Specific topics we have published on include: urban form and sustainability; environmental friendly design and renewable energy; environmental assessment; environmental governance; social learning; public participation; human–environment interactions; flooding; risk and vulnerability assessment; ecosystem services; recycling and waste; and scenario planning. JEPM receives contributions from leading international authors and publishes influential, high-quality papers. It is a truly international journal, with papers from the UK only accounting for about 6% of all submissions. Leading papers have been published in recent years on topics ranging from renewable energy, climate change and food security to land conservation, agrienvironmental schemes and public participation GIS. Occasional Special Issues provide in-depth treatment of contemporary issues or research, such as human-nature relationships and their implications for environmental management, and a Special Issue on Institutional work in Environmental Governance is imminent. Review papers also highlight areas where existing knowledge is inadequate, build bridges between related fields and provide insights into current controversies and debates. JEPM is owned by the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape and has a long history within the School. It has been running since 1948, changing its name from Planning Outlook in 1992 and simultaneously shifting focus towards
Editor-in-Chief Dr Neil Powe Newcastle University, UK Managing Editor Sarah Cherrill Newcastle University, UK Other Editors Professor Kenneth G. Willis Newcastle University, UK Professor Simin Davoudi Newcastle University, UK Associate Editor (Asia-Pacific) Professor Lex Brown School of Environmental Planning, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia Associate Editor (North America) Professor Hilda Blanco Sol Price School of Policy, University of Southern California, USA International Editorial Advisory Board Dr Raoul Beunen Wageningen,The Netherlands Professor J. Peter Clinch Dublin, Ireland Professor Neil Ericksen Hamilton, New Zealand Professor Nancy Frank Milwaukee, WI, USA Professor Margot W Garcia Richmond, USA Professor David Gibbs Hull, UK Professor Alistair J Gilmour Sydney, Australia Professor Nick Hanley Glasgow, UK
Professor Peter Hills Hong Kong Professor Wendy Kellogg Cleveland, OH, USA Dr Lucie Laurian Iowa City, IA, USA Professor Greg Lindsey Indianapolis, IN, USA Professor Philip Lowe Newcastle, UK Professor Massimiliano Mazzanti Ferrara, Italy Professor Donald Miller Seattle, WA, USA Professor Mark Morrison Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia Professor G. William Page Dept. of Urban and Regional Planning, State University of New York at Buffalo, USA Professor Judith Petts Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Southampton, UK Dr Clive Potter London, UK Dr Barry Sadler Lincoln, UK and Victoria, Canada Professor Charlie Shackleton Grahamstown, South Africa Dr Kris Wernstedt Alexandria, VA, USA Dr Stacey Swearingen White Lawrence, KS, USA Professor Ming Zhang Austin TX, USA Professor Pengjun Zhao Peking University, China
Image credit: Jennie Webb
Journal of Environmental Planning and Management
emerging environmental issues. Published by Taylor and Francis, the year 2018 marks 25 years of the journal in its current form. The journal continues to go from strength to strength, and in 2018 its output will expand to 14 issues a year (compared with just two issues in 1992). In addition, the journal continues to recieve papers of very high quality: in 2011 the Journal received its first two year impact factor of 1.12. In 2017, this rose to 1.56 (figure courtesy of Thomson Reuters). The five year impact factor is 1.87.
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Scholarships Routledge Handbook of Planning Theory (2018)
Editors: Professor Michael Gunder, Professor Ali Madanipour & Professor Vanessa Watson
The Routledge Handbook of Planning Theory explores key contemporary themes in planning theory, presented by some of the most innovative thinkers in planning. Addressing their own specialised areas of planning theory, they conceptualise their contemporary positions and speculate how these positions are likely to evolve and change as new challenges emerge. In a changing and unpredictable globalised world, planning theory is core to understanding how planning and its practices function and evolve. As illustrated in this book, planning and its many roles have changed profoundly over recent decades. So, too, have the critical and explanatory theories about its practices, values and knowledges. Contributing to the development of planning research, this handbook discusses the ‘cutting edge’ in the context of these changes and explores new emerging trajectories of contemporary planning theory. The aim is to provide the reader with key insights into contemporary planning thought as well as potential future directions of planning theory and planning as a whole. This book is written for an international readership and includes planning theories that address, or have emerged from, both the global North and parts of the world beyond.
Routledge International Handbook of Rural Studies (2016) Editors: Professor Mark Shucksmith & Professor David L. Brown
Rural societies around the world are changing in fundamental ways, both as a result of their own initiative and in response to external forces. The Routledge International Handbook of Rural Studies adopts an interdisciplinary and problem-focused approach to examining the organisation and transformation of rural society in developed regions of the world. Written by leading social scientists from many countries, it addresses emerging issues and challenges in innovative and provocative ways to inform future policy. This volume is organised around eight emerging social, economic and environmental challenges. These are: - Demographic change. - Economic transformations. - Food systems and land. - Environment and resources. - Changing configurations of gender and rural society. - Social and economic equality. - Social dynamics and institutional capacity. - Power and governance. Cutting across these challenges is the growing interdependence of rural and urban; the rise in inequality within and between places; the impact of fiscal crisis on rural societies; neoliberalism, power and agency; and rural areas as potential sites of resistance. The Routledge International Handbook of Rural Studies is required reading for anyone concerned with the future of rural areas.
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Town & Country Planning in the UK, 15th Edition (Routledge, 2015)
Authors: Professor Barry Cullingworth, Professor Vincent Nadin, Trevor Hart, Professor Simin Davoudi, Professor John Pendlebury, Professor Geoff Vigar, Dr David Webb & Professor Tim Townshend
Town and country planning has never been more important to the UK, nor more prominent in national debate. Planning generates great controversy: whether it is spending £80m to hold a four year inquiry into Heathrow’s Terminal 5, or the 200 proposed wind turbines in the Shetland Isles. On a smaller scale telecoms masts, takeaways, house extensions and even fences can often cause local conflict. Town and Country Planning in the UK has been extensively revised by a new group of authors. This 15th edition incorporates the major changes to planning introduced by the coalition government elected in 2010, particularly through the National Planning Policy Framework and associated practice guidance and the Localism Act. It provides a critical discussion of the systems of planning, the procedures for managing development and land use change, and the mechanisms for implementing policy and proposals. It reviews current policy for sustainable development and the associated economic, social and environmental themes relevant to planning in urban and rural contexts. The book also explains contemporary arrangements and their historical development, the influence of the European Union, the roles of central and local government, and emerging social and economic demands for land use change. The book gives detailed consideration to topics including: - The nature of planning and its historical evolution - The role of the EU, central, regional and local government - Mechanisms for developing policy and managing these changes - Policies for guiding and delivering housing and economic development - Sustainable development principles for planning, including pollution control - Design and community engagement in planning The many recent changes to the system are explained in detail, including the new National Planning Policy Framework, the replacement of regional planning with neighbourhood planning, the transition from development control to development management, the continued and growing importance of environmental matters in planning, community engagement, partnership working, changes to planning gain and the introduction of the Community Infrastructure Levy, and new initiatives across a number of other themes.
Editors: Dr Elisabete Silva, Professor Patsy Healey, Dr Neil Harris and Professor Pieter Van den Broeck The Routledge Handbook of Planning Research Methods is an expansive look at the traditions, methods, and challenges of research design and research projects in contemporary urban planning. An international group of researchers, planning practitioners, academics and educators – all recognised authorities in the field – provide case study accounts of designing and implementing research projects from different approaches and venues. This book shows how to apply quantitative and qualitative methods to projects, and how to take your research from the classroom to the real world. The book is structured into sections that focus on: - Beginning your research - Research design and development - Rediscovering qualitative methods - New advances in quantitative methods - Turning research into action Written by leading scholars and practitioners in spatial planning, The Routledge Handbook of Planning Research Methods is the most authoritative and comprehensive handbook on the topic in providing established, ground breaking coverage of spatial planning research methods. The book is an invaluable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students and practitioners in urban, regional, and spatial planning alike.
Image credit: Brandon Few Photography
Routledge Handbook of Planning Research Methods (2015)
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GURU Staff
Dr Jane Midgley Senior Lecturer and Degree Programme Director
Dr Paola Gazzola Senior Lecturer in Planning and Degree Programme Director
Dr Dominic Aitken Research Associate
Dr Peter Kellet Senior Lecturer in Architecture
Professor Mark Shucksmith Director of Newcastle University Institute for Social Renewal Professor John Pendlebury Professor of Urban Conservation
Professor Rose Gilroy Professor of Ageing, Policy & Planning Dr Elizabeth Brooks Research Associate
Dr Andrew Law Senior Lecturer in Town Planning and Degree Programme Director
Dr Harrison Smith Research Associate
Teresa Strachan Lecturer in Planning Dr Ruth Machen Postdoctoral Fellow in Spatial Planning
Armelle Tardiveau Lecturer in Architecture Professor Ali Madanipour Professor of Urban Design
Emeritus Professor Patsy Healey Emeritus Professor of Town & Country Planning Professor Simin Davoudi Professor of Environmental Policy & Planning, Director of GURU
Professor Tim Townshend Deputy Head of School Dr Diego Garcia Mejuto Teaching Fellow
Dr Sebastian Weise Lecturer in Digital Civics
Dr Abigail Schoneboom Research Associate
Dr Jayne Jeffries Research Associate
Dr Andrew Donaldson Senior Lecturer and Director of Postgraduate Research
Dr David Webb Lecturer in Town Planning
Maggie Roe Reader in Landscape Planning Research & Policy Engagement Professor Mark Tewdwr-Jones Professor of Town Planning and Director of Newcastle City Futures
Daniel Mallo Lecturer in Architecture
Professor Geoff Vigar Professor of Urban Planning
Dr Ruth Raynor Postdoctoral Fellow in Spatial Planning
Dr Susannah Gunn Director of Planning Dr Cat Button Lecturer and Degree Programme Director
Dr Loes Veldpaus Research Associate
Dr Neil Powe Senior Lecturer in Planning
Professor Stephen Graham Professor of Cities and Society Professor Roger Burrows Professor of Cities
Dr Georgiana Varna Lecturer in Planning and Urbanism
Dr Moozhan Shakeri Research Associate
Emeritus Professor Ken Willis Emeritus Professor of Economics of the Environment
Global Urban Research Unit School of Architecture Planning and Landscape Newcastle University Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU UK Tel: 0191 208 5900 Email: kim.mccartney@ncl.ac.uk