A key aim underpinning the regeneration of the Thames Gateway in the 1990s and 2000s was to ensure that the region’s existing ex-industrial communities were able to derive tangible social, economic and infrastructural benefits from the new development taking place on brownfield sites. A more inclusive and socially aware form of regeneration that learned the lessons from the property led regeneration that took place in the London Docklands in the early 1980s was promised. This study examines the extent to which this ambition has been achieved in Kent Thameside, one of the key ‘growth areas’ identified by the Government in the Thames Gateway. Using evidence from extended interviews with residents living in three existing Kent Thameside communities and key regeneration officials, as well as detailed observation of events and developments in Kent Thameside, this study examines the impact of the principal regeneration objectives relating to the area’s existing communities. It looks first at the extent to which new developments and existing communities have been integrated both physically and socially. It then considers the impact of policies which were designed to empower existing residents by enabling them to participate in the design and delivery of programmes relating to the area’s physical and economic regeneration. This study uses this analysis to examine whether the Kent Thameside regeneration model, which is predicated on the private sector led redevelopment of large, brownfield sites outside the existing residential footprint, is best placed to achieve to the regeneration objectives relating to existing communities. This study also considers what lessons can be drawn from the case study of Kent Thameside to inform our understanding of the policy and practice of regeneration in the wider Thames Gateway and the UK.

The focus of my PhD is to examine the role of cultural regeneration through arts and architecture using Tate Modern as the principal case study. My analysis questions the role of culture in acting as an urban regeneration tool in north Southwark and in London more widely and how cultural output connects with those who influence the urban environment of Tate Modern. I begin by examining the ways in which the establishment of Tate Modern as an internationally acclaimed gallery of art has influenced the cultural regeneration of Bankside and London more broadly. I discuss local planning policy in which the former Power Station was situated, in order to understand the impact of the subsequent gallery of art socially and economically. I then discuss the wider ramifications of the establishment of Tate Modern by examining the recent history of developments around Tate Modern, in relation to the changing urban environment, as well as the jostling for urban ʻimaginariesʼ that potentially prioritises one direction of urban growth over another. In discussing how the regeneration affected the social conditions and concepts of community I consider how the institution adopted and implemented a strategy of inclusion towards the local community prior to its opening in 2000. Through my research I embedded myself within key grass roots organisations working directly or alongside Tate Modern (Better Bankside and Bankside Open Space Trust) and the local community in order to gain close access and observation of and into the field. Key to this project is identifying how the public interact with the gallery, and the ability of the building to act as a key urban element by knitting the hitherto underused North Southwark site into the surrounding urban fabric, whilst at the same time enabling key connections through and across the site. The focus of my research narrows from a micro to the macro-analysis in which, central to resolving the debate about the unique urban potential of the site and the building and institutionʼs ability to extend a definition of public within the urban environment, I focus on the spatial condition of the Turbine Hall. My analysis of the Turbine Hall as a public space, mediated through a major arts institution, enables me to arrive at a definition of public, which transgresses the urban and art sphere. This research is supported by an architectural theoretical analysis combined with art theory, and examines primary research material made up of photographic images posted on the social networking site Flickr as well as my own photographic images of the area.

Housing in Britain, and public housing in particular, has undergone a decade of turbulent flux. This thesis analyses the developments which have resulted in a changed emphasis and attitude towards council housing, investment patterns and systems, management organisations and forms of ownership. These changes mean that local housing authorities must adapt their policies and seize the new opportunities which present themselves. The discussion in chapter 2 provides the context for the main contribution of the thesis, which is an assessment of the Department of Environment's Estate Action (EA) initiative. The thesis argues that EA springs from this new housing context and, therefore, provides a useful framework with which to examine trends in English public housing, since it enables the changes and frictions between central and local government to be analysed, as well as indicating the potential consequences and outcomes of adaptation to the new housing setting. A series of issues are examined which form the focus of the empirical analysis. Particular attention is placed on the following aspects: the structure of central/local relations arising from implementing the EA initiative, the effects of EA on financial and management effectiveness and EA's housing policy consequences. Chapter 3 discusses the policy context and outlines the methodology to be employed. The main empirical analysis is presented in five chapters. In chapter 4, interviews with the EA Central team are reported as well as an analysis of documentary material on the background to EA. This discussion allows the origins and objectives of EA to be established from both the government's and the Department of Environment's viewpoints. In chapter 5, the results of a postal survey of all local authorities involved in EA are analysed in detail. This enables chapter 6 to develop a general assessment of the local authority response to the EA initiative. Chapter 7 presents the responses of EA Central and Department of Environment Regional Offices to the survey findings. Finally, chapter 8 reports on four case-studies which assess EA in the context of specific localities. The analysis attempts to establish EA's success in implementing schemes via a discussion of managerial data, tenant opinions and staff assessments. EA's wider impact on local housing authorities' policies towards public housing is also evaluated and found to be influential. Chapter 9 synthesizes the main empirical and theoretical findings and assesses the implications of the research for an understanding of the council housing system in general and EA in particular. Issues worth further investigation are also discussed.

Using a relational state-society framework, this research examines the relationship between land use violations and the urban planning process. This thesis seeks to answer how and why land use violations in the non-poor neighbourhoods of Bangalore are produced, sustained and contested in spite of the elaborate planning, implementation and enforcement mechanisms present in Bangalore. Land use violations are identified as a key geographic site to empirically examine power and politics in urban planning practice in Bangalore. Critiquing the simplified representations often used to explain informality and illegality in the cities of the developing south as deviation, implementation failure and corruption; I propose that violations in Bangalore are an outcome of the planning practice rather than a deviation. In the process, I highlight how particular planning institutional systems operate when located in specific socio-political and governance contexts where vernacular networks of association transform the ‘governmentalised’ state into one that is amenable to specific interests through forging various forms of alliances. Providing evidence from ethnography of planning and violation networks in operation, this thesis argues that planning practice in Bangalore is inhabited by a variety of public and private interest networks. These associational networks, I argue, capture planning power, and prevent the possibility of a planning authority. Various case studies of plan violation, planning for violation, neighbourhood activism along with planning practice narratives, documents, and court cases form the extensive data set analysed in this thesis.

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

This thesis develops a public interest methodology for assessing the impact of regulatory reforms in microfinance, applies this methodology to the case study of Uganda and explains the results by analysing the political economy of policy change. It thus combines public and private interest approaches in assessing microfinance regulation. Firstly, the study develops a methodology for regulatory impact assessment based on the public interest theory of regulation. The first step is an analysis of market failures as the main rationale for regulation. Regulatory objectives are then defined with reference to these market failures. Finally, a variety of quantitative and qualitative impact indicators are identified to measure the benefits of regulation with reference to the achievement of the regulatory objectives while also considering the costs. Secondly, the thesis applies this rationale-objectives-indicators approach to the new legal framework for microfinance deposit-taking institutions (MDIs) in Uganda using similar, but unregulated microfinance institutions as a control group. The results show that the MDI regime‘s generally positive impact was only achieved at substantial cost to the regulator and regulated institutions and is skewed towards safety and soundness and systemic stability without adequate consideration of other objectives such as consumer protection and access. Thirdly, the thesis explains the degree to which public interest objectives were achieved by analysing the political economy of regulatory change. It shows that the three stakeholder groups with the best knowledge of microfinance regulation and whose interests were most closely aligned with the public interest objectives - the Central Bank (Bank of Uganda), the MDI candidates, and donor agencies - were also those who had the strongest influence on the policy change process. The thesis concludes that its unique contribution is to develop a thorough methodology for assessing regulatory impact in microfinance. The methodology is used to measure the strengths and weaknesses of the MDI regime in Uganda, while the political economy analysis explains why these strengths and weaknesses arose.

The removal of indigenous forest and associated fragmentation of habitats has probably had significant impacts on the diversity of stream communities in New Zealand. In this study I investigated the effects of forest fragmentation on stream invertebrate communities on Banks Peninsula. Six catchments were investigated, three with continuous indigenous forest in the riparian zone and three with fragmented indigenous riparian forest. An extensive benthic survey was conducted at three sites in each river catchment, one downstream on the mainstem of the river and two sites in different headwater tributaries. Adult sampling, consisting of malaise and sticky trapping, was also conducted at a sub-set of sites. Taxonomic richness of both the benthic and adult communities was significantly higher in continuous forest than in fragmented forest, and the composition of benthic communities also differed between continuous and forest fragments. Furthermore, benthic invertebrate densities were higher in fragments than continuous forest sites. The fragments in the headwaters were more likely to support forest specialist taxa (e.g. the stonefly Zelandobius wardi, and the caddisfly Costachorema peninsulae), than the downstream fragments. My results indicate that forest fragmentation has resulted in marked changes in benthic communities on Banks Peninsula, and that location of the fragment within the catchment also is important in influencing the diversity and composition of benthic communities. The maintenance of indigenous forest in the headwaters of streams may be essential for the persistence of endemic and forest specialist taxa on Banks Peninsula.

Using an anthropological perspective and referring primarily to work by Sidney Mintz, Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu this dissertation focuses on the cultural importance of sugar in rural Berber communities within the Rif region of North Africa. In particular, Mintz is referred to with regard to slavery, Bourdieu in relation to habitus and Foucault in relation to normalization of mass beliefs as well as to events occurring in Morocco which relate directly to power structures within society. As well as providing information about the cultural importance of sugar, an historical account of the development of the sugar industry in Morocco is provided. This includes subsequent economic effects both in Morocco and Europe, with details in relation to the development and decline of the sugar industry, the introduction of slavery to Morocco as well as worldwide economic influences. The latter also demonstrates that sugar has been attributed power which is exerted not only within Berber culture from birth to death, but has had an influence throughout social and economic history since the introduction of the Qu’ran to the present day. An argument is developed which suggests that the presence of apparent discrimination and inequalities have arisen partly from a pure desire for sugar. Some long lasting health and environmental effects of processing sugar are outlined and discussed in relation to the health of Rif Berber. This includes a general outline of societal inequalities between genders in health care, including diseases such as diabetes. Tuberculosis along with diabetes, are discussed in order to show that they are social markers which reinforce various power structures within Moroccan communities. The emergence of slavery, land use, and the effects of the rise and subsequent decline of the sugar industry in Morocco are covered. Examples are given of how power shifted from those initially in authority to individuals at local level who complied with certain social norms and beliefs. This closely relates to the importance of sugar in Morocco, its relevance as an introduced crop along with the subsequent social, national and international changes which occurred and to a large extent remain firmly in place today. The long-lasting environmental impacts of the sugar industry represent both direct and indirect power struggles which are unlikely to be remedied without international intervention.

No description available.

No description available.