The thesis analyses power relations between local government, CSOs and communities in partnerships for service production. It studies community members’ agency in a temporal dimension and identifies those structures that constrain their interaction. It focuses on community members’ own interpretations of the impact of those structures with the intention of informing development practice on how potential changes in partnership relationships can influence sustainability, expressed through community members’ sense of ownership. The thesis surveys analytical factors influencing partnership dynamics applying a conceptual model. The model helps to understand the interface between partners as well as the character and transformation of the interventions over time. Second, it studies individual community members’ agency: their capacity to exercise power through participation and the manner in which marginalizing structures prevailing in the community enable and constrain residents’ agency. The consequent implications of the transformation of their agency on the outcome are analysed by employing the theory ‘dialectic of control’ from Anthony Giddens’ ‘Structuration Theory’ and tested by field research carried out in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The research was grounded on qualitative methodology. The empirical research revealed that partnerships were successful in improving living conditions. However, accountability and power relations tended to transform and social, political and financial constraints circumscribed community members’ agency. Their narratives provided evidence that confining their agency during implementation reduces their social distance to the outcome perceived as a sense of ownership, even though they had fully participated during planning. Partnership itself was governed by the conflicting underpinnings of neo-liberal costsharing and neo-populist participation. In addition, the field research suggested that community members disassociated themselves from CBOs, questioning the assumed geographically-based definition of communities, CBO’s legitimacy and imposed representative role that they saw as part of an external hegemonic structure. This led to the division of communities and reduction of social capital.

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Responding to modern urban challenges will require a fundamental re-envisioning of urban engineering, management and leadership. Some technologists now argue that the 'smart city' could provide a transformative panacea for urban development. They argue that ubiquitous urban sensing, big data and analytics will help us to better understand the real time functioning of our cities, as well as inform longer term planning and policy decisions. They claim that smart grids will enable efficiency within our energy infrastructure and that intelligent transport systems will encourage multi-modal low carbon urban mobility. They say anywhere access to information through smartphones and mobile infrastructure will transform the way people use the city and will support the development of new products and services. However, the technological solutions are only one part of the answer and are interwoven within a complex investment environment. While technology companies are bombarding cities with opportunities to invest in state of the art technology, city councils are left wondering how and why they should invest. They are left to explore the economic return, the business models, the value that it brings to citizens and the role that they should play within an ecosystem of delivery partners and stake holders. They are left to decipher funding models, measurement and reporting regimes and the implications for their organisational structure, operational requirements and responsibilities. On top of this, they must understand how these investments align to existing local and national political priorities and strategies. This gap between technological solutions and investment models is perhaps not surprising. Leveraging state of the art technology to serve political, economic, social and environmental challenges is not straightforward in practice. But the urgency of the challenge requires city authorities to actively increase the pace of innovation. Drawing on the experience of cities in Britain and overseas, this thesis explores the challenges faced by city councils trying to implement smart city solutions. It devises a 'governance map' to illustrate the governance context within which investment decisions are made, and develops a practical framework to support city councils in addressing smart city challenges.

Recent changes in UK urban policy are important contributors in shifting the way the built environment in the UK is produced. The thesis examines the effect this policy push has on the housebuilding sector, on the types of dwellings and developments produced and the efforts of two major London housebuilders to adapt. Since the mid 1990s, UK governments have emphasised the need to accommodate new housing provision on previously developed land, predominantly in urban areas. This changing business environment forces housebuilders to adapt. Opportunities open up as new inner city markets emerge, whereas obtaining planning permission for sites on previously undeveloped land is becoming increasingly difficult. These new markets and new types of land input require housebuilders to re organise their development practices. New types of dwellings and developments have to be designed, financed, produced and sold. Aggregate statistics for the housebuilding sector reveal that housing development is transforming: dwelling production in metropolitan areas is increasing, the proportion of flats is rising and densities are increasing. The examination of two firms and two of their projects also shows that both firms are responding to their new business environment. The first response puts emphasis on flexibility and has led to sustained growth whereas the other response, focused on spreading development risks geographically and amongst different markets, is proving to be less successful at the moment. Although this transformation is still unfolding, the insights from the research can already prove useful to policy makers and housebuilders. An examination of housebuilding based on ideas deriving from a combination of institutionalist and evolutionary approaches can open new pathways in the way we understand the housebuilding industry and therefore in the way we understand processes of production and consumption of the built environment and the significance of planning policy as an instigator of change.

The main aim of this thesis is to investigate how Sustainability Appraisal performed in Neighbourhood Planning in England. Neighbourhood Planning emerged in 2012 as a non-mandatory planning form, aiming to encourage communities to decide neighbourhood issues by themselves. Sustainability Appraisal of Neighbourhood Planning is not required if no significant impacts identified, but it still can be carried out to benefit the performance of Neighbourhood Planning. In carrying out the study, 15 progressed Neighbourhood Plans that prepared Sustainability Appraisal have been investigated with an evaluation framework based on previous experience and characteristics of Neighbourhood Planning. For each case, the Sustainability Appraisal Report and Examiner's Report have been analysed. Moreover, 12 semi-structured interviews have been undertaken, including nine interviews of members of Neighbourhood Planning Steering Groups, and three interviews of relevant experts and scholars. The thesis discussed how to systematically establish an evaluation framework for Sustainability Appraisal. Based on the evaluation framework established in this research, the results showed that the performance of Sustainability Appraisal in Neighbourhood Planning is uneven in different cases. There are many factors could influence the result and they generally follow an influence chain. Planning skill capacity and neighbourhood context both could influence the quality of Sustainability Appraisal. The quality of Sustainability Appraisal was proved have close linkages with the effectiveness aspects which can directly influence the performance of Neighbourhood Planning. Three prominent dilemmas about the implementation of Sustainability Appraisal in Neighbourhood Planning and possible recommendations were also discussed in this thesis, suggesting that voluntary Sustainability Appraisal might be better than compulsory; the Sustainability Appraisal could be simply or comprehensive depending on different contexts and needs; and if financial support is sufficient, to commission a consultant can be benefit, but Neighbourhood Planning Steering Groups should hold the leading position and positively participant in the planning process.

Development Control in England is an important element of the Town and Country Planning process and the economic structure of the country: it is the process which approves or prevents development. Despite this, there is comparatively little research into the processes involved in, and the management of, the decision making process, and there are difficulties effectively researching the process. The Development Control process lies within a changing environment, both with regards to its political and economic influences, but it is vital that it remains effective and efficient throughout changes in its situation. Historically, it has struggled to adapt to these changes, such as the increased demand on its services throughout the 2000’s when it was subject to criticism in particular in relation to housing supply. This study presents a unique examination of Development Control services in England. It examines the barriers which present themselves in the research of its processes, developing a methodology based on the Viable Systems Model of Stafford Beer to overcome these barriers and, most significantly, it successfully applies this methodology, providing a structured examination of the ability of the system to adapt to changes in its environment. This examination is highly original in both its subject matter and its methodology and is, as such, a significant contribution to both the fields of Development Control and the Viable Systems Model. It contributes to the limited research within Development Control, extends the fields to which the Viable Systems Model has been applied and demonstrates the presence of features of the Viable Systems Model in an existing high performing authority. The analysis identified important areas of both good and bad practice and led to recommendations which can assist Development Control services strengthen their ability to recognise and adapt to change. Furthermore, the methodology and recommendations have potential to be applied throughout local authority services, and in other Government provision, to enable services to be effective throughout future changes in their political and economic environments.

The focus of this research is the morphology of the urban form of Erbil city. The research is conducted through three essential stages in six chapters. In the first stage, the factors that could influence the formation and the transformation of urban form are outlined and put together. These include the main focus, the legal factors (in the form of building and planning regulations), and other determinants which include political, social, cultural, economic, and environmental. In other words, the research looks at the formation and transformation of urban form through the frame of building and planning legislation which is supposed to meet inhabitants’ needs in an urban settlement in different periods. This establishes the theoretical frame encompassing the influence and the correlation between the sets of factors on the one hand and the urban form as a variable object on the other. Meanwhile, the many aspects and various understandings of urban form as an accumulative product in cities are outlined. The literature surrounding all these issues is covered in the first and the second chapters. In the second stage, which is covered in the third, the fourth, and the fifth chapters, the established theoretical frame will be examined through the case of the study Erbil city, because this approach to the study of Erbil has not been undertaken previously and is consequently poorly understood. Although Erbil city is thousands of years old and passed through many different eras, the study’s focus will be on the period starting in 1920 (when the Iraqi State was established) until the present day, because in this period, the city has witnessed its largest growth and expansion and different building and planning legislation has been issued and amended. Different samples from nine different periods of the growth of the city from different quarters (neighbourhoods) will be selected and analysed. A descriptive and interpretative method will be adopted to deal with the data collected on these samples. Maps, photographs, and legislative texts are the main source of the data. The elements of the analysis include street, block plot, and building. Mapping by the use of AutoCAD and ArcGIS software is the essential tool and method adopted. In the fifth chapter the analysed samples will be compared to explore the nature of the change and the transformation of the urban form of the city over time through which those samples could represent the overall image. The findings and the implications of the research are outlined in the last stage and the last chapter. The research provides significant documentation on the urban form of Erbil, the important area and subject which has been paid little attention. Therefore, the outcomes could inform responsible authorities, designers, and planners working in Kurdistan. In turn, it would have a significant influence on regulations shaping the city’s future urban form. Selecting Erbil city as the case study has a considerable rationale that is incorporated within the research implications. Erbil city provides a typical case for other similar cities in the region. Therefore, there would be a possibility of generalising the methods and the outcomes of this research on many other cases.

Gated communities are becoming an increasingly distinctive feature in contemporary cities worldwide. Their growth and multiplication has provoked serious concerns about their argued role in encouraging urban social segregation. This thesis sustains that this is an area of contention characterised by contradictory empirical descriptions. It also sustains that the absence of a conceptual framework constitutes a major obstacle for the understanding of the social consequences of gated communities. The purpose of the thesis is therefore to provide a conceptual framework and to answer two main questions: Is there a relationship between living in gated communities and urban social segregation? And if there is, how can this be explained? The thesis develops a conceptual framework drawing upon concepts from structuration theory to address these questions. This framework defines and establishes relationships between four key concepts: gated communities, urban social group segregation, social practices and viewpoints. The latter two are proposed as instruments for the analysis of urban social group segregation carried out by gated communities' residents. The thesis identifies and examines social practices and viewpoints of particular urban social groups living inside and in the surrounding areas of a gated community, in terms of their influences on urban social group segregation. The fieldwork of the research was carried out in a gated community called "Conjunto Urbano Palmares" in Mendoza, an intermediate city in Argentina. The research used a qualitative methodology with in-depth interviews as the main research tool. The findings of the research indicate that living in gated communities favours urban social group segregation. There is a relationship between living in gated communities and urban social group segregation that can be explained through the social practices and viewpoints of their residents. The particular attributes of the gated communities also contribute to the segregation of their residents from the outside local communities.

The beginning of the 1960s saw the evolution of some of the pioneers of urban planning who sought to preserve the image of the city in a time of globalization and modernization, such as Kevin Lynch, Gordon Cullen and Jane Jacob. Lynch contributed through theory and ideas about the city's image and how to enhance the clarity of such an image, as well as to identify the obstacles or problems facing the image and identity of the city. Lynch applied his concept to various U.S. cities and its success contributed to the spread and validation of this work in other global cities. Each region has a distinctive image and identity which distinguishes it from other cities. The form of any city includes the physical features that define the city's image and identity. However, there are several additional factors affecting the composition of the general appearance of the city, the formation of its character and urban fabric, such as environmental, social, cultural and economic factors. The rapid economic progress and development in the Middle East has led to changes in the image of most of their cities, as well as their spatial identity and general appearance. Therefore, the main aim of this thesis is “to develop the urban image in the Middle East and Arab World by building a conceptual framework based on Kevin Lynch’s methodology and his associated concepts, to assess the urban image of the city and enhance its identity”. A case study approach was adopted to examine whether the formulated conceptual framework could be applied in practice. Evidence from the case studies was drawn from a critical documentary review of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as the main case, combined with field observation, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The main factors that affect the perception of the urban image, as well as the barriers which hinder the efficiency of the urban image, were identified from this evaluation. The final part of this thesis attempted to provide a number of recommendations to address these factors and mitigate the barriers. The most important contribution was that of developing a conceptual framework which can help to assess the urban image of the city and enhance its identity. This framework attempted to provide a methodology and guidelines to improve the urban image in developing countries in general, and in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in particular.

Welcome to Harmonistan! Over the last two decades, the term “participation” has become increasingly overused. When everyone has been turned into a participant, the often uncritical, innocent, and romantic use of the term has become frightening. Supported by a repeatedly nostalgic veneer of worthiness, phony solidarity, and political correctness, “participation” has become the default of protagonists withdrawing from responsibility. Similar to the notion of an independent politician dissociated from a specific party, this research work encourages the role of the “crossbench practitioner,” an “uninterested outsider” and “uncalled participator” who is not limited by existing protocols, and who enters the arena with nothing but creative intellect and the will to generate change. As a practiced-based research and working methodology, a publishing and exhibition regime was established in order to constantly test ideas and concepts against reality, while installing a continuous feedback loop. Arguing for an urgent inversion of participation—a model beyond modes of consensus—the work candidly reflects on the limits and traps of its real motivations, instead of reading participation as the charitable saviour of political struggle. Rather than breading the next generation of consensual facilitators and mediators, this work argues for conflict as an enabling, instead of disabling, force. “Crossbenching” calls for a format of conflictual participation—no longer a process by which others are invited “in,” but a means of acting without mandate, as uninvited irritant: a forced entry into fields of knowledge that arguably benefit from exterior thinking. Sometimes, democracy has to be avoided at all costs.