REIMAGINING FUTURES- THREATS AND CHALLENGES FOR URBAN PUBLIC SPACE

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Katherine Park
5 years ago
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1 REIMAGINING FUTURES- THREATS AND CHALLENGES FOR URBAN PUBLIC SPACE Key themes in pubic space debate Growing diversity of cities particularly as a result of processes of globalisation- the making of everyday multiculturalism. Gentrification, regeneration and redevelopment policies Commercialisation, privatisation and securitisation of public spaces. Maintaining and making flexible and open public spaces

2 SOME THOUGHTS Cities are always and inevitably spaces that are made and unmade, shifting across time and space, produced in the interstices and textures of everyday socio-cultural, political, economic, and material life. There is no one narrative othat can ever make sense of cities, which are instead heterogeneous, shifting and unsettled terrains embedded in ever changing contested socio- political landscapes and routines Therefore policy planning and design initiatives have to be flexible and responsive to different contexts

3 CITIES ARE UNSETTLED PLACES. One such landscape of the unsettled spaces of the city is the multi-cultural variously understood and conceived by urban theorists, and frequently mobilized as a strategy by urban policy makers or politicians either in negative or inclusive terms. Successful multiculturalism is made and is a precarious and often unstable settlement.

4 My Research looks at one area in London to consider: First, to what extent did the locality follow the perceived trend in many globalized cities towards the acquisition of habits or capacity for diverse individuals to share space with relative harmony and tolerance variously termed conviviality, cosmopolitanism and/or everyday multiculturalism. Second, what constitutes the elements of these terms and how is everyday multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism or conviviality assembled and what are its components? Third, what is the assemblage of forces fracturing these achievements in living across differences in the city that many of us want to celebrate, defend and

5 FINDINGS Explorations of this rapidly changing space which shifted from white working class to a very diverse population a decade ago revealed : Resentment and nostalgia Recent research revealed: Successful everyday multiculturalism.

7 MARKET DAY

8 MOROCCAN CAFE

9 EVERYDAY LIFE

10 CLOTH STALL IN THE MARKET

13 FRANK S

14 SPICES SHELF IN FRANK S GROCERY

15 EXTENDED SHOP

16 SHAPING URBAN SPACE Informal initiatives- in Queens Crescent shop owners let street traders attach stalls to the shop New community associations- youth projects, community gardens etc Mosques in old shops or private houses Interstitial places for informal meeting and work- Chris the tailor. Strong Community policing Key Local figures- Frank the grocer

17 INVOLVEMENT OF MIGRANTS IN KEY ORGANISATIONS Important to involve new migrant communities in local organisations Public libraries Language classes Consultation New projects- eg the community garden, the youth project, the City Farm

18 STRATEGIES to involve new migrant communities in local organisations Public libraries Language classes Consultation New projects- eg the community garden, the youth project, the City Farm Important

19 LOCAL MOSQUE

20 COMMUNITY GARDEN

22 VIBRANT STREET CULTURE

23 INSTITUTIONAL PRACTICES OF REGENERATION Government regeneration policy frequently led by private developers- land and housing seen as profit. In capital cities this has negative consequences for migrants- where predominance of informal sector employment Queens Crescent example- small businesses eg car repairs, clothing workshops etc sold for redevelopment.

24 MAKING AND PROTECTING FLEXIBLE OPEN SPACES FOR SOCIAL INTERACTION Water (Blue ) Spaces Fountains Ponds Pools Beaches

25 BRADFORD POOL

26 BRADFORD MIRROR POOL AT SUNSET

27 A SUNNY WEEKEND

28 BRADFORD POOL AT NIGHT

29 KIDS PLAYING AT NIGHT

30 THE MENS POND

31 THE MIXED POND

32 THE WOMEN S POND

33 THE WOMEN S POND

34 ANGLERS

35 CONSTRUCTION ON THE DAMS

36 SITE WALK FOR THE ANTI POND GROUP

4 Sustainability and Growth Management

4 Sustainability and Growth Management Introduction Traditionally, has assumed growth and development with limited consideration for the long-term negative social, environmental or economic impacts on