This research was initially concerned with the delivery of balanced development to localities from central development planning and strategies. The scope of the study targeted the regional level as a medium that may facilitate the delivery of development, and as an instrument for national development planning to reach localities. The aim of the research was to make recommendations on optimizing regional instruments for the spatial allocation of development resources in Saudi Arabia. The research is centred on Saudi Arabia. The critical studies of spatial development in this country have revealed the current situation, of a central planning system that is organized in a governance structure that assigns to regional bodies the basic role of progressing socioeconomic development. The studies are in almost complete agreement regarding the absence of an active role for regional planning, which is supposed to complement national policies and allow them to be delivered to localities. This has confirmed the need for in-depth investigation into the role of regional level intervention in facilitating local development. Intellectual studies undertaken have been based on regional development theories as well as regional development planning and policy. These studies formulated a conceptual framework for the research, which has emphasized the necessity of detailing the enquiry on regional development to be inclusive and to reflect actual local conditions. This includes the setting of factors for local economic production and the platform upon which the processes of development take place. They should be arranged to allow for the outcomes of economic development to reach all spaces and utilising all sectors, which takes place through the governance system. Accordingly this research has included an empirical enquiry, with interviews to gather detailed information regarding the practice of development in the field and to uncover the difficulties and deficiencies as perceived by the practitioners. The interviewees comprised key officials of the main governance and development institutions on national, regional and local levels. Arriyadh region was selected for this mission, including the Almajmaah County as representative of its localities. The study has produced results around two major foci: the first studying and analysing the current establishment and instruments for delivering regional development policies, the second exploring the institutional structures through which the available development resources are utilised in the planning system and activities: currently and prospectively. The results have revealed a lack of coherence in the governance system which has led to the disintegration of the institutional network in the country. The governance structure appears to lack the balanced distribution of devolution, administratively and financially. It also ignores the development of human resources in a way that reflects real needs and intended outcomes. Thus, the research confirms the need for a more coherent institutional arrangement at each spatial level and on the governance structure existing between the various spatial levels, while remaining consistent with the political system. The end result should be more autonomy for regional authorities, while maintaining national consistency.

This thesis deals with the development of an area of central Manchester, called Hulme. It examines both the development of the reputation and the housing problems as they affected local people. The key note of the thesis is the way that people learned to adapt, cope and (eventually) change their environment, either as individuals or in groups. I examine the types of adaptation, resistance and political development that occurred when large groups of people lived together on a council estate under very difficult circumstances. I examine both the positive and negative effects of these adaptations, as well as the way that the city councils housing system colluded with the media to create a mystified impression of an area as "wild" or dangerous. Using both words and photographs from the "inside", I hope to show that Hulme was actually both ordinary and orderly. The day-to-day interactions were intelligent ways of coping with an impossible set of problems: reputation, poverty, bad housing, unemployment and chaotic housing management. I show that areas like Hulme are allocated a role within society as the "deviants" and as such are used as examples and scapegoats for the tenants of other areas. Looking at some of the positive adaptations, I hope to show that the people of the the, "inner city" could help to create a worth while dynamic of social organisation.

New Information and Communication Technologies (NICTs) are potentially useful tools in strengthening local initiatives towards sustainability. The Science & Technology (S&T) Framework for Sustainable Development provides a context for such development. This thesis describes a study aimed at examining how existing mobile technologies can be used to support the activities of an environmental grassroots organisation, using the London 21 Sustainability Network as an extended case study. Consistent with the S&T Framework, it is clear that to realise the potential of these technologies a new mobile service should be effectively embedded into the structure and activity of the network. Using a participatory research approach, an extensive user requirements study was carried out to ensure that the development of the mobile service for London 21 fulfils the purposes, goals and expectations of the organisation. The findings from the survey suggested that the level of interest in a mobile information service, combined with the current lack of service provision, would sustain a mobile information service. The suggestion id that this would be in the form of a Targeted Standard Messaging Service (SMS), from which individuals would receive information about environmental events local to where they live. This led to the development of a Mobile Spatial Messaging Service, called EcoTEXT for London 21. This service allows individuals to receive geographically targeted, action-orientated, time-relevant information via text-messages on their mobile phones. The content of the service is information about upcoming events and activities, which match the interests of the user, when these events occur in close spatial proximity to the user’s residence. This type of service represents a powerful new dimension for the provision of data-driven services in comparison to current text-based services. Location gives the services additional meaning and value. The results of this research advocate more than simply placing technological devices into a local network. Rather, the introduction of such a service into an organisation’s communication toolkit is shown to create, supplement and strengthen social ties and interactions within the community. These findings are consistent with London 21’s long term goals and aspirations. Furthermore, EcoTEXT is an example of a technology that may be completely owned, managed, financed and maintained within the community. The service therefore offers London 21 a more sustainable model for local NICT provision and, potentially, other similar organisations might wish to integrate it within their organisational infrastructures.

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This research examines participants’ perspectives on opportunities, barriers and new spaces for community power. It explores original evidence on how they perceive the conditions that enable or inhibit community empowerment to occur, and the factors that influence this process. The investigation references different schools of thought concerning power in relation to local actors’ perceptions. I focus upon the theories of Foucault, Freire and Taylor in particular, exploring perspectives of power as fluid, dynamic and pervasive. These approaches provide the framework for the exploration of the relevance of theory to practice. These debates have relevance to current public policies especially that promoting citizen engagement as part of public service modernisation and civic renewal. The research examines the inherent tensions between policy aims and practical experiences. Theoretical and policy questions are explored through a case study based in Ealing, West London, looking at local issues for a range of experienced activists in the global city. The research timeframe covers five years and includes the use of participatory research methods. The focus is on actors’ understanding, how motivations impact on the strategies employed across the sectors, and the ways those ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ the system adjust to changes. An analysis of participants’ testimonies reveals the contemporary peopled cityscape, and the routes to gaining greater control over the personal, community and political worlds. My thesis points to a shifting terrain within which community professionals and activists navigate, and reveals evidence of considerably more common ground between public policy professionals and community activists than has previously been suggested in the existing literature and current policy frameworks. The ability to adapt to changes in context is exposed as critical, whilst balancing core principles with new priorities. The strategic role of bridging individuals and organisations is identified as an important function providing a crucial and challenging link.

The aim of this research is to unravel and interrogate critically the recent histories of the production and reproduction of Castlefield, Manchester. This unravelling is accomplished theoretically through the historicised application of Lefebvre‘s spatial triad. Production of space histories and Castlefield‘s 'regeneration‘ are revisited principally through archival and interview evacuations of the neglected years of the 1970s. Urban public space is seen as the key city synecdoche. The thesis argues against what is called the 'dominant academic narrative‘: challenging the narrative where it ignores or downplays the role of counter-representations and counter-projects in the production of urban public space. The empirical research is based mainly on archival data and complimentary interview and visual data; the analyses are qualitative. Visual representations of space largely neglected in the literature are foregrounded throughout the empirical research. Spaces of representation and spatial practice are interrogated from the perspective of public space analysis which emphasises the importance of the contested nature of representations of space within the public sector and the vulnerable and unstable character of some official representations of space. The thesis therefore does not seek to reproduce what might be called a 'traditional‘ Lefebvrian analysis which counter-poses repressive official representations of space against quotidian heroic, poetic spaces of representation. The research challenges oversimplified characterisations of Castlefield as a space simply of heritage, leisure and exclusive residential enclaves. A dynamic, complex spatial portrait is revealed whereby ludic, 'natural‘ and abstract space rise and fall though intricate spatial layering as time unfolds. Urban differential space and ludic space are found to emerge through the interstices of abstract space as key outcomes of the contestation of space. The thesis concludes that the potential for differential urban public space exists through the production of new spaces and their diverse politicised appropriation.

Using field observations, interview narratives, and lyrical analysis, this thesis argues that the increasing presence of hip hop arts in social spheres not popularly associated with hip hop such as community activism, school-based education and theatre is traceable to an intra cultural political struggle I term ‘hip hop versus rap’. Hip hop versus rap opposes the notion of a temporally prior, authentic hip hop culture to its degeneration into commercial and ‘anti-social’ rap music. As a redemptive discourse hip hop versus rap seeks to annex a socially responsible hip hop culture from its popular caricature by culturally exogenous interests. As part of a progressive grassroots, hip hop’s extension into new educational and artistic domains thus marks, at one level, a continuation of longstanding black diaspora struggles around race and cultural cooptation. Correspondingly, a hallmark of its pedagogic practices on the ground is a continuous reflexive commentary on the progressive uses to which hip hop can and should be put. These new hip hop practices, moreover, are philosophically and politically heterogeneous with respect to their sources, motives, and output. Hip hop versus rap can equally serve racial absolutism and mysticism, on the one hand, and, on the other, an avowed commitment to artistic and pedagogic innovation troubling fixed cultural and ethnic borders. Of equal significance, however, hip hop’s ‘communitarian’ ‘grassroots’ turn is also related to emerging forms of municipal and state sponsorship. In conditions of social risk and individualisation youth and educational services are seen as needing as far as possible to be fashioned around the cultural dispositions and preferences of their ‘at-risk’ users - or consumers. This means that another signal feature of hip hop versus rap – particularly as an educational project – is the way in which it marks a convergent point of vernacular cultural politics and histories and historically novel approaches by the state to the support, control and regulation of problem youth.

This thesis examines how policy practitioners negotiate difficult subjects, specifically the difficult subjects entailed in negotiations around community cohesion policy. The research applies a governmentality perspective to consider how people working within government (using techniques of governmentality to govern populations) are subject to regimes of governmentality themselves. A substantial body of the research is based on detailed ethnographic work (both participant observation and extensive semi-structured, reflexive qualitative interviews with policy practitioners) in Hackney, an inner London borough with a very diverse population (in terms of ethnicity, economic status, migration histories, beliefs and experiences). Hackney rarely appears in narratives of community cohesion policy, and local practitioners have framed it as a place that is comfortable with diversity – a success story of twenty-first century multiculturalism. Often this story is told (in everyday talk and in official documents) by reference to places which have come to epitomise 'community cohesion problems', specifically Oldham (representing segregation between white and Asian communities, the potential for explosive violence), Barking and Dagenham (standing for problems with a disenfranchised 'white working class' turning to racist extremism) and Peterborough (as a place coping with sudden large-scale new immigration). The thesis follows these narratives, interviewing policy practitioners in each of these places to understand how they negotiate community cohesion policy from within the narrative, as well as policy practitioners working with local government at the national level who shed light on how places, communities and the practice of policy are understood from this location. The thesis raises questions of how to understand practices of government, and the uncomfortable and ambiguous ethical negotiations such practices sometimes entail; the importance of place and place-branding in governing; the relationship of narrative, place and governing to questions of material power inequalities; and the potential for understanding government through a 'sociological imagination'.

No description available.