Putting identity into the community: Exploring the social dynamics of urban regeneration

Abstract

The present paper adopts a social identity perspective to examine the relationship between community‐based identification and well‐being, resilience and willingness to pay back in the context of urban regeneration. A sample of 104 residents across five deprived urban areas in the southwest of England that have recently undergone or are about to undergo regeneration projects completed a survey. The results demonstrate that areas where a more community‐centred, bottom‐up, approach to regeneration was taken (i.e., ‘culture‐led’) showed higher levels of community cohesion than areas where the community dynamics were ignored (i.e., a ‘top‐down’ approach to regeneration). Increased community identification was linked to greater perceived social support, community‐esteem, personal self‐esteem and self‐efficacy. These psychological processes were, in turn, linked to increased resilience and well‐being, as well as a stronger willingness to pay back to the community. The results are consistent with the social identity approach. Implications for urban regeneration strategies are discussed.

Soil erosion in East Africa: an interdisciplinary approach to realising pastoral land management change

“…Stakeholder views imply that this is compounded by weak economic and institutional resilience through a lack of alternative livelihood opportunities and little enforcement of environmental protection legislation. Significant barriers to sustainable change are rooted in cultural identity content and lack of community cohesion and cooperation around shared resources (see [38]). Socio-economic processes operating at regional and higher spatial levels (population growth, urban expansion, and land tenure change) have constrained opportunities for change and locked Maasai communities in the study area into narrow decision-making pathways which have led to further exacerbation of environmental impacts, and further declining ecological resilience [64,65].…”

“…The work described below primarily addresses steps 1 and 2 of the PATH model and commenced with an evaluation of the spatial and temporal extent of soil erosion and its impacts on landscape and community resilience in the study area. Consequently, barriers and opportunities for sustainable behaviour change were explored within the framework of group processes with a focus on the concepts of community cohesion [38] social and cultural identity [39,40], and social norms [41]. The evidence bases were integrated using a resilience approach which, in turn, supported participatory engagement [32,42] within an applied design-thinking [43] framework to evaluate potential for codesigned solutions [44] and create a transferable framework for wider application.…”

The Role of Placemaking as a Tool for Resilience: Case Studies from Post-Earthquake Christchurch, New Zealand

“…As Jacobs ([26], p. 448) famously notes, 'lively, diverse, intense cities contain the seeds of their own regeneration, with energy enough to carry over for problems and needs outside themselves'. The process of placemaking seeks to reinvigorate the vibrancy of the public realm and restore the pride and connection of communities to the places they live [27,28]. Coaffee [19] discusses that the notion of placemaking has arisen to become a central signifier in planning discourse, particularly as discussions surrounding resilience narrow to focus on smaller spatial scales.…”

“…Coaffee [19] discusses that the notion of placemaking has arisen to become a central signifier in planning discourse, particularly as discussions surrounding resilience narrow to focus on smaller spatial scales. Heath, Rabinovich and Barreto [27] add that when placemaking is successful, placemaking experiments can cement development outcomes in the regeneration of disaster-struck cities. With temporary urbanism and placemaking providing a grassroots testing ground for future initiatives, instead of an imposed top-down response, community support and ultimately a successful recovery are much more likely [17,27].…”

Los procesos de regeneración urbana basados en la cultura en el centro de Monterrey, México

“…Si bien, en un inicio buscan generar inversiones para mejorar y afianzar el crecimiento económico del área a regenerar (Jones y Evans, 2008;Pastak y Kährik, 2016), hoy en día sus objetivos van más allá de este aspecto, promoviendo a través de nuevas estrategias y enfoques -como la cultura (Blessi et al, 2012)-ciudades inclusivas y sostenibles. El reto urbano actual es crear ciudades compactas, saludables, equitativas, eficientes, creativas y cohesionadas (Evans, 2005;Florida, 2005); factores cualitativos y de bienestar que se ha demostrado, influyen de manera directa en la calidad de vida y resiliencia urbana (Heath et al, 2017). En las últimas décadas, la cultura se ha utilizado como instrumento, herramienta y proceso de regeneración urbana (Zukin, 1995;Bayliss, 2004;UN-Habitat, 2004;Miles, 2005: Pratt, 2009, aplicando estrategias ligadas a la creatividad, a medios de expresión artística, al desarrollo de identidad colectiva (Landry, 2003), a la implementación de políticas públicas culturales (Bianchini y Parkinson, 1993;Landry y Bianchini, 1995) y de gobernanza urbana (Degen y García, 2012).…”