Local opposition to town planning applications creates time delays for developers, town planners, and municipal authorities, while also increasing financial costs associated with development. For local communities, opposition means considerable time and financial investment to protect the place they live in from unwanted development. Place attachment, which develops as a result of experiences with or in a place, is one of the reasons why local communities oppose land development – this reaction towards proposed land changes is often considered NIMBYist. Although disciplines such as natural resource management already trained its focus on the influence of place attachment as a motivating factor in participatory planning intentions internationally, it is not clear whether there exists a relationship between place attachment and public participation in South African town planning processes. As such, the aim of this research is to explore the relationship between place attachment and public participation in a South African town planning process. This research focuses on the lived experience of place attachment of residents of the Bult area of the Tlokwe Local Municipality in the North West Province of South Africa, and the role that place attachment experiences played in their participation in a town planning process. The research design is qualitative, using archival data, located participant interviews, and supportive photographic data to explore the lived experiences of 18 participants from three case studies. The data was analysed thematically. The data indicated the link between actual or potential incremental changes through town planning actions in an urban environment and the impact these changes had on the well-being of the residents of that place. The effect of incremental urban changes, actual or potential, motivated participants to participate in the public participation process of rezoning applications in order to oppose the environmental changes. These potential and/or actual environmental changes also led to place protective actions outside the formal participation process. This research indicates that due consideration should be given to opposition to town planning applications, as it can in fact be driven by deeper emotional reasons that cannot be expressed in the legal and technical language associated with the town planning discipline. These reactions should not be considered in a negative light by developers, town planners, and municipal authorities, as they can provide insight on what types of land use changes can implemented successfully in a place. To this effect, a life cycle relationship between place attachment and public participation in a town planning process (as it happened in the three case studies) is proposed as a point of departure for future research. A suggestion is made to incorporate place attachment in urban planning practice. / PhD (Urban and Regional Planning), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Roots: They take hold; they grow, expand and change, creating networks and sub-networks as they start to break above the earth's surface and stretch up higher towards the sky day by day. Roots can be taken out (the stock, stem or trunk removed), but both the memory and the evidence of the roots' existence will continue to remain for a while to come. The idea of "roots" applies to so much: from artists taking inspiration from previous artists, even at times to mirror the change in the world which one artist had previously documented; from the places we establish our families and create our memories, to a good deal more.

Commercial strips are ubiquitous elements of the American landscape. They offer important opportunities for inquiry into the ways in which cities are adapted, preserved, and redeveloped over time. This research examines the dynamics of reinvestment along central city commercial strips in Austin, Texas. Research was aimed at understanding the relationship between reinvestment in existing commercial buildings and larger processes of redevelopment and change along commercial strips undergoing transition. Case study commercial strips were selected that had been established in the early to mid-twentieth century and that had experienced decline and subsequent reinvestment. Historic patterns of land use, transportation, and economic trends are described and related to the relatively recent growth of concentrations of local businesses and reinvestment activity along case study commercial strips. “Core samples” of preservation and adaptive reuse were examined using spatial data, building surveys, historical data, and interviews with associated actors. Additional interviews were conducted with actors who have initiated, influenced, and regulated reinvestment, including business and property owners, developers, neighborhood activists, a media correspondent, city officials, among others. This research details the private, public, and community-based actors who shape the character of reinvestment; the influx of new businesses and retention of iconic businesses; and conflicts and negotiations at the edges of commercial and residential districts and between public and private sectors. The dissertation relates observations along Austin’s commercial strips to four themes identified in the literature and their associated views of improvement: 1. commercial strips as “wicked problems” of land use and transportation; 2. commercial strips as cultural landscapes and roadside heritage; 3. commercial strips as concentrations of commercial properties with opportunities for sustainability and retrofitting of commercial properties; and 4. commercial strips as contested arenas of gentrification. This research highlights the importance of understanding the durability of existing land development patterns and of incorporating an understanding of the continued and adaptive use of buildings and urban fabric in land use planning. It presents emerging opportunities for preservation practice beyond standard practices of survey and landmarking. It illustrates the many ways in which actors have agency, or “choreograph” change individually and collectively, in responding to opportunities and challenges presented in the context of social and economic change. / text

There is a growing interest of flexibility in urban plans, both within the planning profession but also by private investors. The collective idea, both among planners and literature, is that the urban is under a constant transformation. Further, flexibility in planning could be found as key of keeping updated to this constant development. Through the theories of temporary and tactical urbanism the positive and negative aspects of flexibility will be discussed and explored. The combination of literature analysis and interviews has formed the basis for creating an understanding how the practical field and literature interprets flexibility in a transforming era in Sweden. According to literature and interviews, this study has shown that flexibility within the regulations of the detailed development plan is key for cities to adapt to new circumstances.

Montpellier en France et Pereira en Colombie sont deux villes intermédiaires où se sont réalisées depuis la fin du XXe siècle des opérations d’urbanisme d’une grande envergure. À Montpellier, l’opération de développement urbain Port Marianne, et à Pereira, l’opération de rénovation urbaine Ciudad Victoria, se sont construites dans le but de résoudre certains problèmes en matière d’urbanisme mais aussi avec l’espoir de transformer radicalement l’économie des villes. Dans cette thèse, je propose d’analyser la manière dont ces opérations sont présentées comme légitimes par ceux qui construisent la ville matériellement à partir de représentations, les concepteurs de la ville : les élus, les techniciens à l’urbanisme, les architectes, la presse, etc. Or, je ne m’occupe pas des raisons techniques, économiques ou politiques, mais d’analyser certains dispositifs culturels qui sont mobilisés afin de montrer ces opérations comme nécessaires, voire indispensables. Ces dispositifs culturels abordés sont de deux types. D’un côté, apparaissent les discours de nature mythique, idéologique et identitaire qui sont mobilisés pour montrer que les opérations doivent se réaliser. Ainsi, par exemple, une opération peut être conçue comme la source d’une redéfinition de l’identité des villes qui est en accord avec les attentes idéologiques d’attractivité ou de compétitivité entre elles-mêmes. D’un autre côté, j’analyse les conceptions du temps passé, présent et futur, les temporalités, qui sont présentées discursivement comme des sources de légitimité des opérations. Ainsi, certaines notions temporelles comme celles de tradition, de crise de la ville, de développement, de progrès ou de modernité sont mises en récit par les concepteurs des villes afin de montrer que les opérations doivent se réaliser, car elles sont inscrites dans le sens du temps des villes et répondent aux attentes de développement. La comparaison des fictions opératoires, créées par les discours concernant ces dispositifs de légitimation culturelle et temporelle, est réalisée en recourant à une perspective plutôt anthropologique au niveau des outils d’analyse et en incluant une perspective méthodologique éclectique / Montpellier (France) and Pereira (Colombia) are two intermediate cities where large scale urbanism operations have taken place since the mid-twentieth century. In Montpellier, the urban development operation called Port Marianne, and Pereira the urban renewal operation called Ciudad Victoria, were made with the objective of solving certain urban problems, but also with the hope of radically transforming the economy of both cities. In this research, I propose to analyze the way in which these urban operations are presented as legitimate realizations by those who build the cities both materially and through representatives, that is, the city producers: city administrators, urbanists, architects, the press, etc. However, I do not intend to deal with technical, political or economic reasons that might legitimize these operations. I propose to analyze certain cultural devices that are put to work in order to demonstrate that these operations are necessary, or even more, indispensable. The devices analyzed here are two kinds. On one hand are the mythic, ideological, and identity devices that are put to work in order to demonstrate that the operation must take place. For example, an urban operation might be thought of as a source for the redefinition of the city identity that is consistent with the ideological expectations around interurban competitiveness. On the other hand, I propose to analyze the concepts of past, present and future time, the temporalities that are presented throughout the discourse as sources of legitimacy of urban operations. In this way, certain notions relative to time like those related to tradition, city crises, development, progress, or modernity, are used by the city producers to demonstrate that the operations must be done because they are consistent with the historic and temporal sense of the city and because they respond to the expectations of development. The comparison of the fictions created by the legitimation discourse of a cultural or temporal nature is done by using an analysis perspective that is close to Anthropology in conceptual terms, and an eclectic perspective of methodologies

Die dominante These fortschreitender Säkularisierung hat die Rolle religiöser Akteure in gegenwärtigen städtischen Transformationsprozessen nahezu unsichtbar gemacht. Doch wie sehen diese Prozesse aus, wenn sie durch die postsäkulare Brille betrachtet werden? Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit den Folgen von Gentrifizierung in innerstädtischen Nachbarschaften Londons und Berlins. Sie betrachtet diese dominanten urbanen Entwicklungen dabei durch die Perspektive wachsender Kirchengemeinden. Es wird gefragt: warum sind Kirchengemeinden für Zuzügler in Aufwertungsgebieten attraktiv? Wie verändern die Praktiken der Kirchengemeinden und ihrer Mitglieder urbanen Raum? Wie können diese Praktiken dazu beitragen, gegenwärtige Prozesse der fortschreitenden Urbanisierung und Theorien der Gentrification besser zu verstehen? Die empirischen Ergebnisse führen zu zwei theoretischen Schlussfolgerungen im Bereich der Stadtforschung. Erstens sind Kirchengemeinden nicht nur Akteure der Segregation, wie zumeist postuliert. Als sozial diverse ‘reviving communities’ stellen sie vielmehr einen Nukleus zur Revitalisierung gemeinschaftlichen Lebens in innerstädtischen Aufwertungsgebieten dar. Zweitens ermöglichen die in Kirchengemeinden gelebten ‘Theo- ethischen’ Praktiken Räume für alternative Entwicklunsgwege (‘spaces of possibility’) innerhalb dominant neoliberalen urbanen Wandels. Das stellt die dominante Perspektive der Stadtforschung in Frage, nach der Gentrifizierung stets zu unüberwindbaren ‘Grenzen’ (‘frontiers’) zwischen verschiedenen Lebenswelten führt. Stattdessen zeigt die vorliegende Arbeit, dass Gentrifizierung besser als ein umkämpfter Korridor urbanen Wandels zu verstehen ist, in dem Nachbarschaftsorganisationen in der Lage sind, ‘micropublics’ als alternative Räume der Begegnung herzustellen und damit kulturelle und soziale Grenzen auf lokaler Ebene zu überwinden. / The predominant hypothesis about the secularisation of societies in the Global North made religious actors almost invisible to academic and non- academic observers of contemporary dynamics of urban change. How would the urban look different from a postsecular comparative perspective? This thesis studies consequences of gentrification in inner-city areas of London and Berlin through the perspective of church congregations. It asks, why are people who move into gentrifying areas, interested in church congregations? How do the practices of congregations and congregants shape urban spaces? How can contemporary urbanisation and theories of gentrification be better understood through these practices? To answer these questions, this thesis conceptualises church congregations as neighbourhood organisations and discusses their relevance in understanding urban change. Through the comparison of six different cases (growing church congregations) in two urban contexts (London and Berlin), it develops a theoretical understanding of church congregations as fields of boundary work in order to scrutinise spaces where pressures of displacement and church practices collide. The empirical results lead to two further contributions to the literature on gentrification. Firstly, church congregations are not merely a segregating force. As socially diverse ‘reviving communities’ they also provide a nucleus for the revitalisation of mutual living in inner-cities. Secondly, by enabling ‘spaces of possibility’ through ‘theo-ethic’ practices, church congregations create further possibilities for transformation within processes of urban change. This finding from within a particular form of neighbourhood organisation, questions the very core of gentrification creating ‘frontiers’ as boundaries between different lifeworlds.

Au cœur d’une région urbaine de plus de dix millions d’habitants, Hô Chi Minh Ville s’affirme aujourd’hui comme moteur économique du Viet Nam. Les autorités de la ville-province entendent témoigner de ce statut métropolitain par une reprise en main de la planification, après des décennies de développement urbain spontané. La démarche de cette recherche doctorale en géographie urbaine consiste alors à décrypter les mutations contemporaines des dispositifs spatiaux hérités que sont les ruelles (hem) de Hô Chi Minh Ville, à la fois dans leur dimension de composantes de la trame viaire et d’espaces publics. La trajectoire historique contrariée de la ville permet d’éclairer la spécificité de sa morphologie, marquée par une très faible emprise de la trame viaire, dont la hiérarchie demeure incomplète. Près de 85% des rues sont inférieures à douze mètres de large. Les ruelles forment ainsi le cœur de l’armature urbaine, tout autant que le cadre de vie de la grande majorité de la population. A l’interface entre le public et le privé, entre le collectif et l’individuel, la ruelle, envisagée comme forme urbaine dynamique, permet de penser les mécanismes de recomposition urbaine et l’évolution des pratiques citadines qui s’y déploient. En cela, cette recherche souhaite appréhender la réception par les citadins des normes de la « modernité urbaine », telles qu’elles sont aujourd’hui redéfinies par les autorités de la ville-province et qu’elles affectent la conception et le fonctionnement des espaces publics au quotidien. / At the heart of an urban region of more than ten millions inhabitants, Hô Chi Minh City is considered today as the economic engine of Viêt Nam. The authorities of the city-province are seeking to assert its new metropolitan status by regaining control of urban planning after decades of spontaneous development. This thesis proposes to decipher the contemporary mutations of the inherited spatial frame of the Hô Chi Minh City alleyways, taken both as an element of the street network and as ordinary public spaces. The turbulent history of the city contributes to explaining the specificity of its morphology, with very few spaces dedicated to the street network, whose hierarchy remains incomplete. Nearly 85% of the streets are less than twelve meters wide. Thus, the alleyways constitute both the heart of the urban framework and the living environment of the large majority of the population. Poised between public and private spheres, between collective and individual dynamics, the alleyway is an urban form in constant flux. This understanding of streets as an interface makes it possible to rethink the mechanisms of the urban fabric and the evolution of urban practices in the metropolisation of Hô Chi Minh City. In doing so, this research seeks to grasp the way in which urban dwellers are adapting to the norms of “urban modernity” as redefined by the authorities of the city-province today, as well as the way these norms affect the daily functioning of ordinary public places.