Houseboaters being ‘socially cleansed’ from Olympics area
River Lea residents fear licence could rise from £600 to £7,000, but British Waterways says increase only option. Houseboat residents near the Olympic development site in east London are accusing British Waterways of an attempt at “social cleansing”. They say proposed changes to rules for living on the canals before the 2012 Games could force hundreds of people from their water-based homes.
FutureStory: how people and businesses in towns and cities across the UK are adapting to – and succeeding in – the new global economy. Wherever you live, you can build your own FutureStory and upload and share it here.
*a symposium, University of Manchester, **September 24-25, 2010* **
*The event is hosted by the University of Manchester and supported by the
Hallsworth Fund, the Institute for Political and Economic Governance (IPEG),
and the ESRC Centre for Economic and Social Change (CRESC).***
The financial crisis of 2007-2009 is the biggest shock to have hit the
global economy since the Great Depression.
The collapse and government takeover or rescue of leading international
financial institutions in the US and Europe pointed to a systemic failure of
‘sophisticated self-regulating markets’ which was an essential component of
the Greenspan doctrine of fiscal laissez-faire that underpinned not only US
economic policy but that of the international financial community as whole.
But if the events of recent years point to a global crisis in the operation
of the international finance system, the crisis has a much longer history
and much wider implications than the investment-banking sector.
At the heart of this broader crisis of global capitalism are cities, and the
billions of people who now live and work in them.
Nearly all US sub-prime mortgage loans were sold to low-income urban and
suburban householders. High levels of business failures and unemployment are
compounding an already difficult situation for city administrations that
face record levels of debt and heavily reduced tax revenues. Federal and
national governments appear to lack the will or the resources to ‘bail out
the cities’ in the way they have the banks and ‘strategically important’
corporations.
As national governments gear up for a sustained period of major retrenchment
which will impact heavily on public services and those dependent on public
sector jobs and contracts in the world’s towns and cities, this symposium
will explore whether we are entering a new phase in the governance and
political life of cities in which both state-centric and market-centric
models are seen as inadequate to the challenges that cities and their
populations face in the decades ahead.
The symposium will therefore focus on three key themes:
· What impact has the global financial crisis had particularly on
‘second tier’ cities and urban regions such as Manchester and the North-West
of England?
· How is the crisis of private capital investment and public sector
spending cuts affecting the governance and economic viability of cities?
· What are the actually existing alternatives to market-based urban
governance in different national contexts and what are the prospects for a
wider diffusion of alternative models in the core economies of the United
Kingdom and the United States?
This event will take place at the Chancellors Hotel and Conference centre on
the 24th and 25th September. If you would like to attend this conference
there are a limited number of places and these will be allocated on a first
come, first served basis, so please complete the attached registration form
and forward back to stacey.vigars@manchester.ac.uk If you require
accommodation then please let me know and I will be happy to make some
suggestions.
Best wishes
Stacey Vigars
Centre Secretary
Centre for Research in Socio-Cultural Change
University of Manchester
178 Waterloo Place
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PL
Tel: 0161 275 8985
Fax: 0161 275 8986
Urban Affaires Anual Conference
41st Conference
Reclaiming the City: Building a Just and Sustainable Future
New Orleans, Louisiana
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel
March 16-19, 2011
Rebuilding efforts–in New Orleans, Port au Prince and other parts of the world– provide an opportunity to examine the paths selected for public policy and private investment, and how these decisions shape the future of urban places. Six years after the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is in the midst of a large-scale rebuilding effort and redefinition of place. Powerful dynamics at the local, regional, national and international levels filter various values and interests to yield a powerful development logic. This logic determines the nature of change, its impacts, and most importantly, who benefits and who ultimately pays. New Orleans provides a dramatic and significant context to examine the processes and outcomes of change. However, developmental change in New Orleans has much in common with transformative processes that occur in other urban places. Critical perspectives suggest that change and transformation of cities across the globe, increasingly favors private capital, large institutions, and visitors. This bias poses certain challenges to the possibility of building a just and sustainable future for cities. The conference is an invitation to consider a broad range of concepts and strategies for rebuilding that can yield urban futures that are both equitable and sustainable. The challenges embedded in seeking such futures are significant. The conference will seek to identify ways to overcome those barriers while reclaiming the city.
In keeping with the tradition of UAA Annual Meetings, we encourage proposals that focus on the conference theme as well as submissions on the array of research topics typically found at UAA conferences:
Proposal Deadline—October 1, 2010
This call for abstracts may interest the IAPS communities, and others active in people and environment research.
Please kindly circulate widely to colleagues.
Associate Editors, Ombretta Romice, and Sergio Porta
Publisher: Bentham Science Publishers
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
Bentham Science Publishers plans to publish a new e-book titled: “The Role of Place Identity in the Perception, Understanding, and Design of the Built Environment” to be edited by Dr. Hernan Casakin, Dr. Ombretta Romice, and Dr. Sergio Porta.
Background
In the era of globalization, where the progressive deterioration of local values is a dominating characteristic, identity is seen as a fundamental need that encompasses all aspects of human life. Identity in relation to places and the physical environment is one of those. To these regards, identity is the basis of perception, experience, and appreciation of the built form. It allows people to develop a sense of belonging and attachment in relation to a place and its spatial features, and brings together people around shared values, issues and localities.
While place identity constitutes a significant theme for debate, the relationship between identity, place, architecture, and urbanism still deserves more attention. The book aims at developing knowledge in relation to place identity, focusing both on people’s identity, and related factors which play a part in this process, and most of all on a science of identity in the built environment, across a multifaceted and multicultural society.
Researchers from a variety of disciplines including environmental psychology, semiotics, urban sociology/ecological sociology, geography, urban planning, urban design, architecture, or landscape architecture are invited to contribute.
Send an abstract (about 800 words) as a Word attachment, a brief list of references, and a short biography (about 100-150 words) to Dr. Hernan Casakin (email: casakin@bezeqint.net) with “submission Place Identity and Perception of Built Environment” in the subject line.
Deadline: June 20, 2010
Selected candidates will be contacted with a request for full articles and additional information will be provided at that time.
Due date for full articles will be e/o October 2010.
Sincerely,
Hernan, Ombretta, and Sergio
Dr. Hernan Casakin, architect.
Ariel University Center of Samaria
Department of Architecture
P.O. Box 3, 44837 Ariel, Israel.
Telephone/Fax: +972-9-7660756
Email. casakin@bezeqint.net
We spend an interesting day in Liverpool on Wednesday the 10th of February 2010.
We started with
a friendly reception in Liverpool’s Town Hall where Neil
Peterson, from the Liverpool City
Coucil/Liverpool Culture Company gave us
an informative and detailed account of Liverpool’s recent
transformation and
the role of Liverpool Culture 2008, the European Capital of Culture
scheme,
for the city’s urban regeneration.
After Neil’s presentation, we had the pleasure to explore Liverpool’s past
and present
architecture. Robert Burns, one of the city’s leading urban
planners, guided us through
Liverpool’s commercial district and the
transformed waterfront area which has been the central
feature of
Liverpool’s cultural regeneration. Passing the recently completed Liverpool
Museum and the Albert Docks the guided tour concluded with a walk through
Liverpool One the city’s
new retail quarter. Robert’s explanations of the
contemporary and historic
built environment were most valuable and helped us to understand the
relationship between
architecture, design and context as well as the
importance of architectural spectacle (or theatre
as he called it) to create
interesting, inviting and changing experiences of urban landscapes.
In the afternoon, Claire Bullen, a researcher from the University of
Manchester, took us to areas
on the outskirts of the city centre. After
walking through the Ropewalks, the recently designated
creative quarter of
the city, passing China Town, the city’s cathedrals and university
district
we took the bus to Edge Hill, a deprived neighbourhood of Liverpool and
which has
been undergoing housing renewal and regeneration initiatives for a
number of years. Here we were
hosted by Vinny Lawrenson Woods from
Culturepool and Jenny Porter from Metal at the newly restored arts space at
Edge Hill Station. We finished our
day discussing the innovative role played
by grass roots cultural organisations in engaging people
from across the
city in cultural activities and the difficulties faced by smaller
organisations in securing funding they need to achieve their goals.
Many thanks to Claire Bullen, Neil Peterson, Robert Burns as well as Jenny
Porter and Vinny
Lawrenson Woods.
A £10.8m grant will kickstart the £650m redevelopment of the historic heart of Salford, the North West Development Agency (NWDA) has said.
Crime and Social Justice research group seminar
Manchester Metropolitan University
All Saints Campus
Dr Joe Yates and Dr Janet Jamieson, Liverpool John Moores University
‘Section 30 Dispersal Powers: Youth, Ethnicity and the Policing of Social Space in a Northern
City’
Wedesday 24 February at 2pm in GM223
Yet another urban hirarchy table
Vancouver (Canada) continues to top the Economist Intelligence Unit’s global liveability survey. A score of 98% bodes well for visitors during the Winter Olympics this year. Conversely, as security concerns abound in Sub-Saharan Africa following the Africa Cup of Nations, Football World Cup host Johannesburg (South Africa) comes in joint 92nd place with a score of 69.1%. Nonetheless, this is still the highest score in Sub-Saharan Africa.
lunchtime talk by Professor Ida Susser, Ph.D., Anthropology Department, Graduate Center, CUNY
2 March 2010, 12-2pm, CRESC Seminar Room, 178 Waterloo Place.
You are welcome to bring your lunch and we will provide tea, coffee and biscuits.
For further details including abstract, please see our website
http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/ricc/events/index.html
Please RSVP to caitriona.devery@manchester.ac.uk to help us with numbers for catering.
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